Three Georgian soldiers serving with the Nato-led force in Afghanistan have been killed in an insurgent attack on a base in the south of the country.
Defence Minister Irakli Alasania told Georgian TV the servicemen had been killed when a suicide bomber drove a lorry carrying explosives into their base in Helmand province.
In all, 22 Georgian troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2009.
Although not a member of Nato, Georgia has taken part in several missions.
With 1,570 soldiers serving in Helmand province, it has the biggest non-Nato contingent in Afghanistan.
In his televised statement, Mr Alasania said the militants who had broken into the base had all been killed.
In southern Afghanistan aroadside bomb has killed at least 10 civilians, including women and children, according to police reports. The vehicle the victims were traveling in hit an improvised explosive device in Kandahar province. About 12 other people were wounded in the explosion.
Kandahar provincial police chief Abdul Raziq has said, "The blast hit a pick-up truck in the Arghistan district," adding that four women and three children were among the dead.
[Al Ahram] Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday announced that the Taliban have freed four of eight Turkish engineers taken hostage last month in Afghanistan.
"Eight Turkish engineers were kidnapped recently in Afghanistan when their helicopter crash landed. Thanks to the efforts of MIT (Turkish intelligence), four of them were handed over to us and are safe," Erdogan told a rally in Istanbul.
A Russian, a Kyrgyz and an Afghan were kidnapped along with the eight Turks on 21 April after the crash landing of their helicopter in Pashtun-infested Logar, a Taliban stronghold south of the capital Kabul.
Tribal chiefs helped to negotiate the release of the four Turks.
NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... member Turkey has around 1,850 non-combat soldiers in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul.
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[An Nahar] A police officer was killed and four were maimed when armed gunnies attacked a cop shoppe in the northeastern Kenyan town of Mandera on the border with war-torn Somalia, police said Sunday.
"There was an attack with one fatality and injuries," regional police chief Charlton Mureithi said, without elaborating.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Mandera police officer said that gunnies stormed the cop shoppe and "opened fire indiscriminately".
"We have lost one of our colleagues," the source said, adding that "about four" others suffered serious injuries.
No one has yet grabbed credit for the attack overnight Saturday.
Kenya has seen a series of kabooms and shootings since sending soldiers into Somalia to fight Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab Death Eaters in October 2011.
The latest attack came just hours after the Kenyan government said it planned to deploy troops to the Mandera region following recent deadly festivities between rival clans in the region.
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[Shabelle] AMISOM troops removed some of the illegal road blocks that operated at the lower Shabelle region of Somalia.
The residents of Shabelle region complained of rising insecurity and increased number of illegal road blocks that terrorized motorists who operated along the region.
The AMISOM troops accompanied by officials from the lower Shabelle region today managed to remove road blocks along the road that connects Marka and Afgoye town.
Officials from AMISOM, the administration of the region and federal government troops are currently holding a meeting to discuss the tackling of insecurity in the region. The AMISOM troops have secured some of the roads in the region and motorists have welcomed the operation.
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[BBC] A car bomb explosion near a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi has killed several people, officials say.
Defence ministry official in Benghazi Saleh al-Bargathi said nine people died, including two children. However, other sources spoke of three deaths. Mr Bargathi told the BBC that nine people had been killed and another 17 wounded in the Benghazi blast.
Explosives were placed in a grey Toyota car, he said.
However, in Tripoli, Interior Minister Ashour Shwayel told a Libyan TV channel that the number of fatalities was two or three.
The explosion happened in the Jalaa hospital car park, according to AFP news agency. It quoted Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Abdullah Massoud as saying that the bomb had "totally destroyed a restaurant and seriously damaged nearby buildings".
So far no group has claimed responsibility for Monday's attack in Benghazi, which is regarded as the cradle of the revolution that ousted Gaddafi in 2011.
[Al Ahram] Two more cop shoppes were attacked in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi in the early hours of Sunday morning, the local council said, after two others were bombed on Friday.
The attacks are the latest signs of insecurity in Libya's second city, birthplace of the uprising that toppled Muammar Qadaffy ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... in 2011. The recent violence against diplomats, military and police includes an attack in September that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
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[An Nahar] Tunisian forces prevented on Sunday Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... in two cities in the southeast from pitching tents to preach in, the private Shems FM radio reported, a day after police fired tear gas at the radical Islamists in the capital Tunis.
Police dispersed "without violence" Salafists trying to set up a tent in front of the headquarters of the governorate in Tataouine, 550 kilometers (around 365 miles) south of Tunis, the radio's correspondent said from the site.
They also prevented residents who wanted to demonstrate against unemployment from pitching a protest tent also in Tataouine.
And in Medenine, 480 kilometers south of Tunis, security forces dispersed another group of Salafists who had gathered in the center of the city to protest against "police harassment" and who shouted slogans against the interior ministry.
The radio said no violent incidents were reported in the two cities.
Sunday's police intervention comes a day after police fired tear gas to disperse Salafists in a residential area in southwest Tunis, after they tried to set up tents to preach in.
"Police fired tear gas to disperse them as they were throwing rocks and petrol bombs," on Saturday, interior ministry front man Mohamed Ali Aroui said, adding that calm had been restored later.
Tunisian news agency TAP, however, reported "violent festivities" between police and 1,000 Salafists who had come to set up large tents in the Tunis residential area.
TAP said the festivities erupted after prayers in the afternoon around the Bilal mosque in the Sidi Hassine Sijoumi area, where the Salafists used knives and Molotov cocktails.
On Sunday the interior ministry said three Salafists were tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in Sidi Hassine Sijoumi and warned of tough action against anyone who attacks the security forces.
Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou had warned on Wednesday he will bring to justice "anyone inciting to murder or hatred... or who pitch tents to preach in," a clear reference to the Salafists.
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ADEN - Yemeni police on Sunday raided a house in the southern city of Aden, killing one suspected Al Qaeda terrorist militant and arresting three, an official said, adding that the cell was plotting attacks on vital installations.
We have dismembered dismantled a terror cell in one of the houses near Mansura district in Aden, the security official said. Security forces managed to kill one of its members who tried to blow himself up using two explosive-laden belts.
Splodydope got only himself and not any of the security officers? Well done!
Three other suspected terroristmembers of the cell were arrested and police seized dozens of explosive belts, he said, adding that the terroristcell had been planning attacks on strategic installations in Aden.
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Shibir cadre was killed in a "shootout" between activists of the pro-Jamaat student body and Rapid Action Battalion in Rajshahi city early yesterday.
Woo hoo! It's been a while since we've had the real thing!
The dear departed, Shahadat Hossain, 30,
... a middle class two-namer...
...with no alias, alas...
was wanted in a number of cases
...wanted on twelve systems...
filed for attacking police, said Ashit Kumar Ghosh, officer-in-charge of Motihar Police Station.
Wait -- if it was a police case, now did the Rab get involved?
He was accused in five cases of attempted murder of cops
...as a matter of principle alway a bad idea...
and other acts of violence, said the OC, adding that two of the cases have now come to trial.
To be dismissed due to the lack of an accused?
Shahadat was involved in almost all the attacks on police that had taken place since February at Binodpur, Kajla, Talaimari and Panchabati in the city, said the OC.
Clearly a busy and ambitious man, our Shahadat.
Too ambitious for his own good...
Acting on a tip-off,
*ring, ring* "Mahmoud the Weasel III here. I'm calling you instead of the police because I can only remember one phone number."
a Rab team went to Amjad intersection at Binodpur around 3:30am to break up a gathering of Shibir activists,
Three-thirty a.m.? Mahmoud's grandson ain't as punctual with his reports as the old man was.
said Shampa Yasmin, additional superintendent of police and media wing officer of Rab-5.
Ummmm... isn't that double dipping or something? Historically the Rab and the police were very, very separate.
He may be moonlighting...
Sensing their presence, My spider sense! It's tingling again! To arms! Aux barricades! the Shibir men shot at the Rab members, forcing them to return fire.
It's a matter of honour and good manners, donchaknow.
At one stage, with Shahadat's body lying on the ground, the other Shibir activists took to their heels, she added.
"Where's Shabir?
"He's on the ground."
"That's our cue to leave, boys!"
The team sent the body to a morgue.
"Here's another for you Dr. Quincy!"
"Great, Sam, stack him in the back with the others."
The Rab members found a 9mm pistol, a magazine with five bullets, six crude bombs and three bottles of petrol near the body, the Rab official added.
The Rab deserves additional accolades for preventing immolation of the evidence.
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#1
six crude bombs and three bottles of petrol
That suggests intent above and beyond the usual banditry and mischief. Student 'activists', me arse.
[Dawn] At least 10 people were killed and 15 others were maimed in a myrmidon attack on a convoy of supporters of an election candidate in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's Naseerabad district on Saturday night.
Police told Dawn.com that a bus carrying supporters of an independent candidate for PB-28, Syed Khadim Hussain Shah, was targeted by hard boyz in Chattar area of Naseerabad district in Balochistan.
The bus was targeted through a remote-controlled bomb.
Police said the blast was followed by a rocket attack and firing.The blast destroyed the bus whereas the injured were shifted to Dera Murad Jamali civil hospital for medical treatment.
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[Dawn] Taliban-dominated peace committee hijacked the election show in NA-41, South Wazoo Agency, on Saturday after expelling polling agents of 33 candidates, including that of Awami National Party, from polling stations.
The polling, however, remained peaceful in all the seven tribal agencies and six Frontier Regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and the turnout was impressive in the region except troubled Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... .
Taliban made announcements in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... and other parts of North Waziristan Agency on Friday night, asking people not to allow women to cast their votes. Women were also not allowed to exercise their right to vote in Orakzai.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... a large number of women polled votes in South Waziristan, Khyber, Kurram, Bajaur, Mohmand and Frontier Regions. Elections have been postponed in NA-38, Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... , due to disturbance in central sub-division of the area.
Reports said that Taliban allowed polling agents of Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... , Pakistain Musselmen League-Nawaz, Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... (JUI-F), two independent candidates; Mohammad Ali and Naseerullah Khan, to stay at the polling stations in NA-41. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... polling agents of some candidates, including ANP's Ayaz Wazir, were asked to leave polling stations.
Ayaz Wazir told Dawn that security forces and officials of the political administration were absent and left polling stations at the mercy of Taliban and Khasadars. "My agents were forced to leave polling stations in the morning," he alleged. A resident of Wana said that Taliban had expelled polling agents of some candidates from polling stations because they did not pay Rs70,000 security fee. He said that armed volunteers of the Taliban-led Shura were providing security at polling stations in Wana and other areas.
"In fact candidates were short-listed in NA-41," complained another resident of Wana while requesting not to be named. Women polled their votes in South Waziristan. Rush was witnessed at polling stations.
Details about polling in Spinkai Raghzai, Chegmalai and Sararogha of NA-42, the Mehsud tribe-dominated constituency of South Waziristan, could not be obtained because of unavailability of telecommunication facilities in the area.
Polling remained peaceful in NA-40, North Waziristan Agency, and voters cast their vote. Taliban barred women from polling in North Waziristan and polling stations set up for them were seen deserted. Even female polling staff did not reach polling stations.
Reports said that turnout remained very impressive in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... where a female candidate Badam Zarai was contesting elections.
Voters, particularly youngsters, made long queues at the polling stations waiting for their turn. Extensive security arrangements were made at both constituencies in Bajaur and people ignored threats. Women also polled votes.
Polling was held in peaceful atmosphere in Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... and both men and women cast their votes. Remarkable rush of voters was witnessed at polling stations at Ghalanai and other areas of Mohmand. Situation in NA-37, Kurram Agency, remained peaceful and moderate rush of voters was observed there. Army, Frontier Corps and Levies personnel were deployed heavily in the area and voters cast their vote in safe atmosphere.
Polling for NA-45 in Khyber Agency remained peaceful as thousands of voters, including women, turned up at the polling stations both in Landi Kotal and Jamrud.
Elderly and handicapped men and women were seen on wheelchairs coming to the polling stations while young voters also showed enthusiasm in casting vote. Overall situation at Landi Kotal and Jamrud remained under control as security forces conducted regular patrolling of over one hundred polling stations in NA-45.
Arrangements inside polling stations were also to the satisfaction of most of the voters and contesting candidates and voters faced no obstruction in casting their votes.
In Jamrud, some candidates accused their opponents of obstructing female voting, but the issue was resolved after the intervention of local authorities. Polling at Jalozai and Shah Kas was suspended for about two hours after some candidates raised objections over anomalies in the voters list. Supporters of some candidates in Shah Kas ransacked some polling stations after they found their names missing from the voters list.
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QUETTA, Pakistan - The police chief of Pakistans restive southwestern province of Baluchistan narrowly escaped a suicide attack Sunday that killed at least six people and wounded 46 others, officials said.
Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera had just entered his residence in the provincial capital Quetta when a suicide bomber in a vehicle laden with explosives blew themselves up outside.
At least two policemen, three paramilitary soldiers and one passer by were killed outside the inspector generals residence and 46 others were wounded, Home Secretary Akbar Durrani told AFP.
A huge amount of explosives were packed into the vehicle and the blast left a deep crater, with the explosion shattering nearby windows and sending debris flying, he said.
Senior police official Mobin Ahmed told AFP the police chief was safe, while another police official said the blast was so loud it was heard all over the city.
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BAGHDAD - Gunmen shot dead four women in Baghdad and killed three men north of the capital on Sunday, security and medical officials said. The women were killed in a house in the Karrada area of central Baghdad, while the men were shot dead while walking on the main road in the Mishahada area, they said.
It was not immediately clear why the victims were attacked. Shootings in Iraq often target security forces or government employees.
Violence in Iraq has fallen from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common, killing more than 200 people in each of the first four months of this year. With the latest attacks, 109 people have been killed in violence so far this month, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.
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A trainer of terrorists militants in southern Thailand was killed in a clash with soldiers in Narathiwat province district early yesterday morning.
The soldiers raided a house in Rueso district at about 3:30 a.m. after receiving information that about seven armed men were hiding there.Upon seeing the soldiers, the men in the house shot at them. The two sides exchanged gunfire for about 10 minutes, after which the terrorists militants retreated, leaving one body behind.
The body was identified as that of Yamadee Hayibaka, 45, a resident of Yala's Raman district. Soldiers also found a .38mm handgun beside him.
Officials said Yamadee was a trainer of young Runda Kampulan Kecil terrorists members. He was wanted under several warrants for violation of the emergency decree. He was arrested in February 2010 but was later released due to lack of evidence.
In Pattani province at about 6 p.m. yesterday a bus from Chulabhorn naval camp ran over a roadside bombin Yaring district. The 30kg bomb killed the driver, CPO 1st Class Chirawong Naowamuta, and wounded 10 others, including three officers' wives.
[An Nahar] Four rockets fired from Syrian territory hit the outskirts of the Bekaa town of Hermel and the neighboring town of al-Qasr on Sunday, as a media report said the Bekaa border area of Masharii al-Qaa could be source of rocket fire.
Leb's National News Agency said two rockets landed near the Imam Sadr Educational Foundation as the Beirut-based, pan-Arab television al-Mayadeen said the salvo was fired from the positions of Syrian rebels in the Homs area of Qusayr.
Later on Sunday, NNA said a Lebanese man from the al-Jamal family and a Syrian woman were maimed when two rockets fired from Syria hit the outskirts of the town of al-Qasr in Hermel.
Five Grad 107-mm rockets landed on the southern entrance of Hermel on Saturday, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.
Information obtained by the daily said that the some reports have alleged that these rockets may have been fired from the border area of Masharii al-Qaa in Leb.
It said that official security authorities are investigating these claims.
An Nahar reported that some youths "transported the rockets to Masharii al-Qaa where they fired them at Hermel because of the Syrian rebels' limited mobility in the area due to Hizbullah's success in seizing control of the majority of Qusayr's countryside in Syria."
The daily added that the party has been increasing its inspection of individuals in Masharii al-Qaa "out of fears that rockets may indeed be fired from the area towards Hermel."
It is aided in its mission by Syrian regime forces that have taken control of the main hills in the region and border-crossings that were being used by the rebels.
The pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Sunday that rebel shelling of Hermel is aimed at pressuring Hizbullah to end its fighting in Syria and withdraw its fighters from Qusayr.
Leb has suffered a spillover of Syria's raging conflict, with frequent cross-border shelling targeting the north and the east of the country.
On Thursday, three shells hit Hermel and two others hit Masharii al-Qaa nearby, said Agence La Belle France Presse.
Qusayr has been a strategic boon to the rebels, who used it as a base from which to block the main road from Damascus to the coast, impeding military movement and supply chains, but Hizbullah and regime forces have made advances in the area, which was captured by the opposition over a year ago.
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[Pak Daily Times] Syrian rebels Sunday freed four Filipino peacekeepers five days after seizing them at an observation post in the Golan Heights, the Philippine military's chief front man said.
"They have been released. They are now in the custody of the commander of the Philippine battalion in the Golan Heights," Brigadier General Domingo Tutaan told AFP.
The Filipino members of a United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... peacekeeping force were taken by Syrian rebels on Tuesday in the tense ceasefire zone between Syria and Israel.
Manila had called on the Security Council to exert all efforts to ensure their safe release, and warned it may withdraw its contingent of 340 troops permanently if the UN could not adequately protect them.
In March, 21 Filipino soldiers were kidnapped by the same group and held for four days.
"They are fine, but as a matter of procedure they will have to undergo stress debriefing and a medical check-up," Tutaan said of the four soldiers.
"We are happy that this has been resolved and the soldiers have been released and seemingly unharmed," he added.
The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has been monitoring a ceasefire in the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria since 1974.
The ceasefire zone has become increasingly dangerous because of the two-year-old Syrian civil war, which has cost more than 70,000 lives.
Syrian government forces and rebels are fighting inside the area. Shells from the Syrian side have been hitting Israeli-held territory and Israel's military has been firing back.
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario on Friday told news hounds the Philippines may soon pull out of UNDOF entirely because of the mounting security concerns.
"The people that kidnapped our peacekeepers were actually under siege and they are using our people to get themselves out of the situation they find themselves in. That thing is not for us," del Rosario said.
"We don't want to expose our people any further, any more than we need to," he said.
The Syrian rebel group, which calls itself the "Yarmuk Martyrs' Brigade", had said it was holding the four peacekeepers "for their own safety". afp
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#1
"The people that kidnapped our peacekeepers were actually under siege and they are using our people to get themselves out of the situation they find themselves in. That thing is not for us," del Rosario said.
Rebel scum using UN troops as human shields. Nice.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.