Jets pound militants in NWA, kill 13

 

MIRANSHAH: After a few days of lull, the Pakistan Air Force fighter jets on Tuesday again pounded seven suspected hideouts of militants in North Waziristan and reportedly killed 13 terrorists.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a brief statement to the media about the latest air strikes in the Degan village, which had been attacked earlier as well.The press release didn’t provide further details about the air strikes and the identity of the slain militants.

Degan is located in the Dattakhel Tehsil, near the Afghan border, and is considered a stronghold of the North Waziristan-based Taliban headed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur.Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s group isn’t part of the mainstream Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), led by the Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Fazlullah.

It was the second time that jet fighters carried out bombing in Dattakhel after the launch of the military operation in North Waziristan on June 15. Hafiz Gul Bahadur has until now remained neutral and has announced a ceasefire due to Ramazan till the 10th day of Eidul Fitr and directed his fighters not to attack the security forces.

Taliban sources said some of Gul Bahadur’s fighters had attacked a security checkpoint called Tipo in the Spinwam Tehsil a few days ago, killing two soldiers and causing injuries to a few others. The military authorities, however, didn’t confirm this report and said the soldiers died in a blast caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Also, despite repeated warnings by the military authorities and local political administration, the majority of the residents are said to be still residing in Dattakhel and its adjoining villages.

Miranshah and Mir Ali, which are the two major residential and commercial towns in North Waziristan, were largely in control of the militants from the TTP, Uzbeks, Arabs, Chechens and Punjabi Taliban while Gul Bahadur and his fighters dominated Dattakhel when the military launched the operation on June 15.

The militants and residents have vacated both Miranshah and Mir Ali and the adjoining villages but Dattakhel is still said to be in control of Gul Bahadur and his men. Also, residents haven’t vacated Razmak, Dossali and Garyoom tehsils as well as Shawa and Spinwam under arrangements with the army and the administration in return for guarantees that they won’t allow the militants to hide in their areas.

Clashes kill 20 Iraqi security personnel

HILLA: Clashes between security forces and militants near the Iraqi capital killed 20 security personnel on Saturday, an army officer and doctors said.

The fighting in three areas southwest of Baghdad also wounded 22 members of the security forces.

Clashes kill 20 Iraqi security personnel

HILLA: Clashes between security forces and militants near the Iraqi capital killed 20 security personnel on Saturday, an army officer and doctors said.

The fighting in three areas southwest of Baghdad also wounded 22 members of the security forces.

Google, Microsoft to add smartphone ‘kill’ switches

WASHINGTON: Google and Microsoft plan to join Apple in introducing theft-deterring "kill switches" in their smartphone operating systems, as part of an agreement with mayors and police agencies.

The announcement came in a report by the "Secure Our Smartphones Initiative" led by the New York state attorney general with officials from San Francisco and London.

The coalition of more than 100 elected leaders and law enforcement officials from major cities said the agreement means the three main smartphone platforms would soon add the feature as part of an effort to curb an epidemic of thefts.

The report said Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone would add the feature -- enabling a user to deactivate a stolen handset -- after Apple included this last year.

Google and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"The commitments of Google and Microsoft are giant steps toward consumer safety and the statistics released today illustrate the stunning effectiveness of kill switches," said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

"In just one year, the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative has made tremendous strides towards curtailing the alarming trend of violent smartphone theft. We will continue the fight to ensure that companies put consumers´ safety first and work toward ending the epidemic of smartphone theft. "The report noted that preliminary data following Apple´s adoption of its "activation lock" feature found that in the first five months of 2014, theft of Apple devices fell by 17 percent in New York, while thefts of Samsung products increased by 51 percent from the same period in the previous year.

In the six months after Apple introduced the feature, iPhone thefts fell 24 percent in London and robberies fell 38 percent in San Francisco, while thefts of other popular mobile devices increased, the report said.

The report cited studies that showed 3.1 million mobile devices were stolen in 2013 -- nearly double the levels of 2012, and one in three Europeans experienced the theft or loss of a mobile device last year.

In 2013, a mobile device played a role in roughly half of all robberies in New York City, San Francisco and London, the report said.

"We can make the violent epidemic of smartphone theft a thing of the past, and these numbers prove that," said San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon.

"It was evident from day one that a technological solution was not only possible, but that it would serve as an effective deterrent to this growing threat. This past year we successfully held the wireless industry´s feet to the fire and it´s already having an impact for consumers." (AFP)

Gunmen kill at least 26 in Kenya attack: official

MOMBASA: At least 26 people were killed when some 50 insurgents flying black flags swept into a Kenyan coastal town firing guns in an unprecedented attack, a local government official said Monday.

"So far we have collected over 26 bodies and taken them to the mortuary, but we are still looking for more," Benson Maisori, deputy commissioner for the district told.

Gun battles began Sunday evening and continued into the early hours of Monday morning, but by dawn, the town of Mpeketoni was reported calm.

The insurgents were reported to have been from Somalia´s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab.

"There were around 50 attackers, heavily armed in three vehicles, and they were flying the Shebab flag," Maisori added, speaking from the town, where several buildings including hotels, restaurants, banks and government offices were razed to the ground.

"They were shouting in Somali and shouting ´Allahu Akbar´", he added, meaning "God is great", in Arabic.

Cafes and bars were reportedly packed with people watching the World Cup on television when the gunmen attacked.

The town of Mpeketoni, a trading centre on the main coastal road, lies on the mainland some 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of Lamu island, a popular tourist destination whose ancient architecture is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Kenyan army spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir described how the gunmen had stormed the town, overwhelming local police officers, and firing from vehicles "shooting people around in town".

Chirchir also said the attackers were "likely to be Al-Shebab," although there was no immediate claim of responsiblity from the Islamists themselves.

Attackers tried to storm a police post including an armoury, but Maisori said officers had defended the building and fought the gunmen off.

It was the latest in a series of attacks or bombings to hit Kenya -- most usually blamed on the Shebab or their supporters -- but the reported scale and nature of this attack is rare.

Kenyan troops crossed into southern Somalia in 2011 to fight the Shebab, later joining the now 22,000-strong African Union force battling the insurgents.

The Shebab vowed revenge, carrying out attacks, including one on Nairobi´s Westgate mall in September 2013 in which at least 67 people were killed.

 

Bombings in Iraq kill 37

BAGHDAD: Bombings that included a suicide attack on tribal leaders in Baghdad hit central and southern Iraq Wednesday, killing at least 37 people, officials said.

They targeted three Baghdad neighbourhoods as well as Karbala and Basra provinces, south of the capital, the officials said.

In the Sadr City area of northern Baghdad, at least 15 people died and 34 were hurt when a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a tent where local tribal leaders were meeting.

A car bomb struck another northern area of Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding at least 24, while a roadside bomb in the capital´s east killed two people and wounded three.

North of Karbala city, a car bomb killed four people and wounded 13, while another one hit a market west of the southern port city of Basra, leaving at least three dead and seven wounded. (AFP)

Drone strikes kill 16 in N Waziristan in 24 hours

MIRANSHAH: At least 10 people were killed in a second drone strike in North Waziristan during last 24 hours that has increased the toll to 16, Geo News reported on Thursday.

Sources said the drone targeted a house and fired 8 missiles near Miranshah, headquarters of the restive agency. As a result, 10 people were killed.

Earlier, in the first attack by the predator in Tibbi, Ghulam Khan Goth in Miranshah six suspected militants were killed.

According to sources, a US drone fired two missiles at the house killing four Uzbek militants and two Punjabi-Taliban militants.

Checkpoint blasts kill 15 in northern Iraq: official

KIRKUK: A roadside bomb followed by a suicide bomber detonating an explosives-rigged truck at a police checkpoint in northern Iraq killed 15 people on Monday, a local official said.

The official, Shallal Abdul Baban, told the blasts in Tuz Khurmatu also wounded 115 people and caused "great destruction".

The police checkpoint that was targeted was near an office of President Jalal Talabani´s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.

The blasts came a day after a car bomb followed by a suicide bombing near a PUK office and a Kurdish intelligence building in Jalawla, another northern town, killed 18 people.

Powerful extremists group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed the Jalawla attack in a statement posted on Twitter, and said it was carried out by two suicide bombers, one Egyptian and an Iraqi Kurd.

 

Bombs against Kurds, other attacks in Iraq kill 33

BAGHDAD: A double bombing tore through Kurdish political party offices in northern Iraq in the deadliest of a series of attacks nationwide that killed at least 33 people, officials said.

It was the second such assault in as many days. Nobody claimed responsibility for Monday´s attack.

But an al-Qaida splinter group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the previous double bombing Sunday against Kurdish offices in Jalula, northwest of Baghdad, killing 19 people.

The group said in an online statement that the bombings in Jalula were in response to the detention of Muslim women by authorities in the self-rule Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Iraq is grappling with its worst surge in violence since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006 and 2007, when the country was pushed to the brink of civil war despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. troops.

The Americans withdrew at the end of 2011.Monday´s attack took place in the town of Tuz Khormato, about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden truck into a checkpoint leading up to the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the nearby Kurdistan Communist Party.

Bombs against Kurds, other attacks in Iraq kill 33

BAGHDAD: A double bombing tore through Kurdish political party offices in northern Iraq in the deadliest of a series of attacks nationwide that killed at least 33 people, officials said.

It was the second such assault in as many days. Nobody claimed responsibility for Monday´s attack.

But an al-Qaida splinter group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the previous double bombing Sunday against Kurdish offices in Jalula, northwest of Baghdad, killing 19 people.

The group said in an online statement that the bombings in Jalula were in response to the detention of Muslim women by authorities in the self-rule Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Iraq is grappling with its worst surge in violence since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006 and 2007, when the country was pushed to the brink of civil war despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. troops.

The Americans withdrew at the end of 2011.Monday´s attack took place in the town of Tuz Khormato, about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden truck into a checkpoint leading up to the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the nearby Kurdistan Communist Party.

Afghanistan flash floods kill more than 70

KUNDUZ: Flash floods have killed more than 70 people in northern Afghanistan, washing away hundreds of homes and forcing thousands to flee, officials said Saturday warning that the death toll was expected to rise.

The floods in a remote mountainous district of Baghlan province come a month after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village and killed 300 people in a nearby region.

The twin disasters highlight the challenges facing underdeveloped Afghanistan´s next leader as the country heads into the second round of the presidential election on June 14.

"People have lost everything they had -- houses, property, villages, agricultural fields, cattle," Baghlan police spokesman Jawed Basharat said about the floods.

"There´s nothing left for them to survive. People don´t even having drinking water," he added.

"They urgently need water, food items, blankets and tents."Afghan disaster management officials said they were scrambling to get food and medical aid to the area after torrential rains unleashed the floods, which forced thousands of people to flee their houses.

The governor of the province, Sultan Mohammad Ebadi, said the death toll stood at 74, warning that the extent of the disaster was "massive" and that the toll was expected to rise further.

Bodies of women and children were among those recovered from the inundated areas, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said, adding that scores of people were missing.

"There is a lot of stagnant water, and there are more bodies under the rubble and mud," Mohammad Nasim Kohzad, head of NDMA in Baghlan, told AFP. "We are still looking for other victims of this flood."

Twin blasts in Bajaur Agency kill two soldiers

RAWALPINDI: Twin blasts caused by roadside bombs killed two soldiers of Pakistan Army in Bajaur Agency on Saturday, Geo News reported.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), two soldiers lost their lives when improvised explosive devices fixed at two different locations went off with a blast in Bajaur Agency.

Terrorists had planted one of the bombs near a Pakistani check post at Pakistan-Afghanistan border area while the other was fixed in Kamrang area of Bara.

The security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

Afghanistan flash floods kill more than 70

KUNDUZ: Flash floods have killed more than 70 people in northern Afghanistan, washing away hundreds of homes and forcing thousands to flee, officials said Saturday warning that the death toll was expected to rise.

The floods in a remote mountainous district of Baghlan province come a month after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village and killed 300 people in a nearby region.

The twin disasters highlight the challenges facing underdeveloped Afghanistan´s next leader as the country heads into the second round of the presidential election on June 14.

"People have lost everything they had -- houses, property, villages, agricultural fields, cattle," Baghlan police spokesman Jawed Basharat said about the floods.

"There´s nothing left for them to survive. People don´t even having drinking water," he added.

"They urgently need water, food items, blankets and tents."Afghan disaster management officials said they were scrambling to get food and medical aid to the area after torrential rains unleashed the floods, which forced thousands of people to flee their houses.

The governor of the province, Sultan Mohammad Ebadi, said the death toll stood at 74, warning that the extent of the disaster was "massive" and that the toll was expected to rise further.

Bodies of women and children were among those recovered from the inundated areas, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said, adding that scores of people were missing.

"There is a lot of stagnant water, and there are more bodies under the rubble and mud," Mohammad Nasim Kohzad, head of NDMA in Baghlan, told AFP. "We are still looking for other victims of this flood."

‘Qaeda’ gunmen kill 12 Yemen soldiers, civilian: security

ADEN: Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed 12 Yemeni soldiers and a civilian on Thursday in a southern province where troops have been battling the militants since late April, a security official said.

The militants attacked a checkpoint near the Shabwa province village of Bayhan with automatic rifles, also wounding a number of soldiers, the official said.

The army has been engaged in a major ground offensive against Al-Qaeda in Shabwa and neighbouring Abyan province in a bid to expel it from smaller towns and villages that escaped a previous sweep in 2012.

Iraq attacks kill 20

BAGHDAD: A wave of attacks across Iraq, including twin car bombs in an ethnically mixed tinderbox city, killed 20 people Wednesday as a year-long surge of violence showed no signs of let-up.

Nearly 50 people were also wounded in the violence, which struck in and around Baghdad, as well as in Salaheddin and Kirkuk provinces to its north, all areas afflicted by near-daily bloodshed.

In the deadliest attack, two vehicles rigged with explosives went off in the centre of Kirkuk, killing eight people and leaving nine wounded, said provincial health chief Sabah Mohammed.

Kirkuk, an oil-rich ethnically diverse city, lies at the centre of a swathe of territory that Iraqi Kurdistan wants to incorporate into its three-province autonomous region over the objections of the central government in Baghdad.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Elsewhere in north Iraq, two people were killed when a suicide attacker set off a truck bomb in Suleiman Bek, while a corpse booby-trapped with explosives killed a policeman in nearby Tuz Khurmatu.

In the adjoining province of Salaheddin, two separate bombings left a policeman and a soldier dead.

In the capital, meanwhile, a car bomb killed four people in a shopping area of Saba Abkar, while a policeman was shot dead in district in the south.

On Baghdad´s northern outskirts, two policemen were killed by a roadside bomb. (AFP)

Iraq attacks kill 33 as 2014 death toll tops 4,000

BAGHDAD: Attacks across Iraq killed 33 people on Wednesday, the latest in a months-long surge in violence that has left more than 4,000 people dead this year.

The shootings and bombings struck in Baghdad and restive parts of the north and west, leaving dozens more wounded, security and medical officials said.

The protracted spike in bloodletting has fuelled fears that Iraq is slipping back into the all-out conflict that plagued it in 2006 and 2007, when a brutal sectarian war left tens of thousands dead.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomb exploded in north Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding 50 others, security and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Elsewhere in and around the capital, six people were killed in multiple attacks, while three others died in the northern provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh.

Also in north Iraq, a series of 11 bombings in the ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu killed five people, four of them members of the same family, and wounded 11.The blasts targeted homes belonging to ethnic Turkmen.

The town, which is also populated by Arabs and Kurds, lies in a stretch of territory that Kurdish leaders want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of the central government.

Insurgents often exploit poor communication between Arab and Kurdish security forces to carry out attacks in the area.

Syria clashes kill 21 rebels in Aleppo province

BEIRUT: Fierce fighting around Syria´s contested northern province of Aleppo killed at least 21 rebels on Monday as rockets slammed into a government-held district in the provincial capital, killing nine people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that along with the 21 rebels, at least 30 soldiers were killed or wounded in Monday´s clashes in the province.

President Bashar Assad´s forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah and pro-government militias, have been trying to wrest as much territory in Aleppo from the opposition ahead of the June 3 presidential elections.

In the city of Aleppo, Syria´s largest and the provincial capital, government forces have been relentlessly shelling opposition districts with aircraft and artillery in recent months.

Aleppo has been divided between government- and opposition-held areas since rebels launched an offensive there in mid-2012, capturing whole neighborhoods and large sections of territory outside the city and along the border with Turkey. (AP)

US shootings kill gunman, 3 others

JONESBORO: A gunman shot six people at a U.S. home Saturday, killing a man and a teenager and critically wounding two boys, before fatally shooting a worker at a nearby business, police said.

The suspected gunman was later found dead of a gunshot wound in the driver´s seat of a stopped car, Jonesboro police Sgt. Doug Formon said at a news conference. It was not immediately clear if the gunshot was self-inflicted.

Formon said a man and a 13-year-old girl were killed Saturday afternoon inside the home in Arkansas, where it appeared a family was having a party or gathering. Four other people were injured and were taken to hospitals. Formon said the children, ages 8 and 10, were transported in critical condition.

Police received a call about the shooting at the home and later responded to a report of a second shooting at a business, where Forman said the worker was found shot to death. Formon said a farmer or passing motorist later called to report a car parked in the middle of a county road. A deputy responded and found the stopped car with the suspected gunman inside.

Forman said that police did not know of a motive and that the investigation is ongoing. He declined to identify the victims or the suspect, saying officials wanted to be sure all family members had been notified. He said it was not known if the suspect and victims were related.

Bombers kill soldier, policeman ahead of Egypt vote campaign

CAIRO: Bombers killed a policeman and a soldier in Egypt Friday, hours before campaigning starts in presidential polls which the former army chief who deposed the elected Islamist leader is expected to win.

Militants have unleashed a wave of attacks targeting security forces since presidential frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Mohamed Morsi in July.

The army led by the now retired field marshall also installed an interim government that has waged a deadly crackdown on Morsi´s supporters and his Muslim Brotherhood movement.

A bomb struck a traffic police kiosk near a courthouse in the north Cairo district of Heliopolis, killing one policeman and wounding four others, interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told.

The interior ministry later said the bomb had been concealed in a traffic light.

The attack came just hours after two suicide bombers attacked a checkpoint and a nearby bus outside the South Sinai provincial capital Al-Tur, security officials said.A soldier was killed and six policemen wounded by the first bomber, and five civilians wounded by the second, the officials said.

Security forces have deployed in strength to protect the resorts along the South Sinai coast that are a major plank of the country´s battered tourism sector.

Friday´s bombings came a day before the start of official campaigning in the May 26-27 presidential election which will see leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi as Sisi´s sole rival.

Sabbahi came third in the 2012 election which Morsi won, and is seen by supporters as the only leader representing the aspirations of those who revolted against longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.A statement from the prime minister´s officer said, meanwhile, that Friday´s violence would not undermine Egypt´s determination to hold "fair presidential and parliamentary polls".

Morsi´s Brotherhood, which swept all elections since Mubarak´s fall, is blacklisted as a "terrorist" organisation and said it will boycott the polls.

Iraq attacks kill 20 as security forces cast ballots

BAGHDAD: Deadly attacks on Monday, including a spate of suicide bombings, killed 20 soldiers and policemen as they cast their ballots ahead of Iraq´s first election since US troops withdrew.

The bombings in Baghdad and north and west Iraq raise serious concerns about the ability of the country´s security forces to protect voters during Wednesday´s general election, when more than 20 million Iraqis are eligible to vote.

They come amid a protracted surge in violence and fears the country is edging towards all-out conflict. Attackers wearing suicide belts hit polling centres in Baghdad and cities north of the capital, while roadside bombs struck military convoys and targeted journalists covering the polling.

At a voting centre in western Baghdad where six security members were killed, ambulances rushed to and fro, collecting the wounded, as soldiers cordoned off the street and ushered passersby away, an AFP journalist said.

Attacks elsewhere left 14 dead overall -- all members of the security forces -- officials said.In the main northern city of Mosul, meanwhile, six journalists were wounded as a bomb went off while they were travelling in a military vehicle to cover police and troops voting.

The blasts shattered an early morning calm, when soldiers and policemen had queued outside voting centres amid tight security across Baghdad and around the country as polls opened, leaving with the traditional purple ink-stained finger indicating they had voted.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, lambasted by critics for allegedly consolidating power and targeting minority groups amid a deterioration of security, is bidding for a third term in the polls with Iraqis frustrated over poor basic services, rampant corruption and high unemployment.

The month-long campaign has seen Baghdad and other cities plastered with posters and decked out in bunting, as candidates have taken to the streets, staged loud rallies and challenged each other in angry debates.