Eight Uzbeks among 23 militants killed in NWA

 

MIRANSHAH: Military authorities on Thursday said that helicopter gunships destroyed militants’ communication centres established on hilltops towards the east of North Waziristan’s headquarters Miranshah.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement said 23 militants, eight of them Uzbeks, were killed when the Pakistan Army helicopter gunships pounded their positions on Zartatangi hilltops east of Miranshah.

Tribal sources in Miranshah said they had seen the helicopters targeting the mountains at some distance from the residential area but were unable to confirm the name of the hilltop ‘Zartatangi’ where the ISPR claimed the militants had established communication centres.

Also, the ISPR statement said snipers of the Pakistan Army killed eight Uzbek militants when they were planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on the Miranshah-Mir Ali Road on Wednesday night.There was no further detail in the ISPR statement whether the bodies of the slain Uzbek militants were taken away by the militants or were in the possession of security forces.

After the government launched a major military operation codenamed “Zarb-e-Azb” against the local and foreign militants in North Waziristan last Sunday, the Pakistan Air Force fighter aircraft and army’s helicopter gunships began pounding the suspected positions of the militants in the tribal region.

It is expected that an extensive ground offensive will be launched in North Waziristan once evacuation of the civilian population is completed. Almost 140,000 persons are reported to have fled North Waziristan and entered Bannu since the launching of the operation.

APP adds from Islamabad: Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif visited the Air Headquarters here on Thursday and called on Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt.According to the ISPR, progress of the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb was reviewed and matters of mutual interest were discussed.NNI adds: Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt welcomed General Raheel Sharif to the Air Headquarters. Both chiefs also agreed on strategies to make the operation more effective.

23 pilgrims killed in Taftan terrorist attack

 

QUETTA: As many as 23 Shia pilgrims were killed and many injured in bomb explosions and firing incidents in Taftan tehsil, some 932 kilometers from Quetta, on Sunday night.
“The attackers barged into the Al-Murtaza hotel and Hashmi hotel located in Taftan minutes after the pilgrims arrived at the hotels. Independent sources from Taftan said that the attackers hurled hand grenades and opened indiscriminate fire with modern weapons killing 23 people on the spot.

Confirming the incident, officials of the levies, a sort of tribal police, told The News that as the pilgrims, who were on their way from Iran to Quetta reached Taftan — a Pakistani town located at the Pak-Iran border — they were housed in the hotels. As they entered the hotels, some armed men who were chasing them attacked them with hand grenades and opened fire.

The reports said that the firing was so sudden and intense that the victims could not resist and over 30 people sustained bullets injuries. Of them, 23 people breathed their last on the spot and many others sustained injuries, some of them serious.

Officials of the levies force said that soon after the incident, a heavy contingents of the levies force and other law enforcement agencies rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. The officials of the levies added that an exchange of firing took place between the levies and the unknown gunmen. Later, the armed men fled from the scene leaving behind the deceased in a pool of blood.

Some reports said there was a suicide attack at the Hashmi hotel during the firing incident. However, there was no official confirmation till our going to the press.Meanwhile, Shia leader Allama Sajid Ali Naqvi in a statement strongly condemned the attack while the Majlise Wahdate Muslimeen (MWM) censured the government for failing to provide security to the Zaireen.

One dead, 23 injured in Thai quake: official

BANGKOK: An elderly woman died and 23 other people were injured after a strong earthquake shook northern Thailand, an official said Tuesday, as aftershocks continued to rattle the mountainous region popular with tourists.

The 83-year-old woman died when a wall in her house collapsed after the 6.0-magnitude struck quake on Monday afternoon, according to an official at the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department in Bangkok. "Twenty-three people were also injured in separate incidents caused by the quake," the official told AFP, without giving further details.

The quake, which struck at a shallow depth of just 7.4 kilometres (4.5 miles), had its epicentre in the remote Phan district of Chiang Rai province, geologists said, and was felt hundreds of miles to the south in Bangkok and even in Myanmar´s commercial capital Yangon.

"Since last evening (Monday) there were six large aftershocks with a magnitude between 5.0 to 5.9 and the last was this morning," Burin Wechbunthung, of the Meteorological Department told, adding there were a dozen smaller tremors.

Residents on Monday said they had seen cracked building facades, broken shop windows and damage to roads, while power was cut for several hours in Phan.

The area is a remote mountain retreat near the border with Myanmar and Laos and popular with foreign visitors. The quake was felt in the tourist hub city of Chiang Mai 160 kilometres (100 miles) southwest of Chiang Rai and as far away as Bangkok, 800 kilometres to the south, where tall buildings shook for several seconds.

Major earthquakes are rare in Thailand, although tremors often strike the north of the country.

 

23 killed in Congo concert stampede

More than 20 people were killed on Friday in south western Congo when generators failed during a festival honouring a popular singer, plunging the stadium into darkness and causing a stampede, officials and witnesses said.

The power failure at the stadium in the town of Kikwit occurred at around 2 a.m. local time on Friday, said witness Papa Mukalay who attended the concert.

“Everyone wanted to be the first to get out. It was total confusion,” he said.

The provisional death toll by mid-Friday was 23 and injuries were also reported, said government spokesman Lambert Mende. He said investigations into the cause of the power outage had been launched.

Kikwit is the hometown of Jean Baptiste Emeneya, best known as King Kester Emeneya, a singer whose career spanned decades and who died in Paris in February at 57. A massive funeral ceremony for Emeneya was held in Kinshasa in March.

The festival was scheduled to last through Sunday, but the Bandundu provincial government said today the rest of the program would be cancelled.

“This morning activities have restarted quietly but people are in a state of shock,” Mr. Mukalay said.

23 killed as jets pound militant hideouts in Khyber Agency

PESHAWAR: Pakistani fighter jets pounded suspected militant hideouts in Khyber Agency near the Afghan border on Thursday killing twenty-three extremists and injuring several others, Geo News reported on Thursday.

The operation comes despite efforts by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to engage the Taliban in talks to end years of fighting with an insurgency seeking to topple the democratically elected government in the capital Islamabad.

"Terrorist hideouts were engaged by fighter jets in Khyber agency early (in the) morning today," the army's press wing said in a text message sent to media.

Nine militants’ compounds were also destroyed during bombing by the fighter jets.

It said it was a response to a number of recent attacks against police and civilians in Islamabad and Peshawar.

A senior military official in Peshawar said the operation, which started early on Thursday, was still under way.

"After the jets, Pakistan army ground forces also launched operations in the area," he said.

Last week the Pakistani Taliban - a loose alliance of militant groups separate from but allied to the Afghan Taliban - formally ended a 40-day ceasefire but attempts to resume talks have continued nonetheless.

Representatives of both sides met in Islamabad on Wednesday, agreeing to pave the way for the next round of negotiations aimed at finding a compromise that would convince the Taliban to lay down their weapons.