Roadside bomb kills four civilians in Afghanistan

KABUL: A roadside bomb killed four civilians in Afghanistan’s southern province of Uruzgan on Friday, the provincial head of the crime investigation unit said. “Four civilians were killed and one injured when their vehicle hit a Taliban-planted mine in Trinkot city this morning,” said Gulab Khan. All the victims were male and the civilian who was injured was in a critical condition, he added. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but roadside bombs are frequently planted by Taliban-led insurgents fighting a decade-long war against Nato-led foreign troops and Afghan government forces. There are around 130,000 international troops, mainly from the United States, in Afghanistan helping government forces...

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Afghan-Nato raids kill, capture Taliban commanders

KABUL: Nato says joint raids with Afghan forces have killed at least three and captured 11 Taliban commanders and facilitators who provided logistical support and weapons to insurgents. Friday’s statement from the coalition says an operation earlier this week in Bakwah district in Farah province resulted in the killing of a senior insurgent leader and two of his commanders, as well as a ”number of additional insurgents.” Early on Friday, Nato and Afghan troops captured 11 Taliban fighters or sympathizers in five separate operations across the country. Nighttime kill-and-capture raids, in which a number of civilians have died, have become a flashpoint for anger over foreign meddling in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai...

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Israeli Gaza air strike kills one, injures one: Palestinians

GAZA CITY: An Israeli air strike east of Gaza City on Friday killed one man and injured at least another, Palestinian medical officials told AFP. The Israeli military said that the target was a group of men preparing to fire a rocket into Israel. “Aircraft targeted a terrorist squad that was identified moments before firing rockets at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. A hit was confirmed, thwarting the rocket fire attempt,” a military statement said. “The aforementioned squad is responsible for the firing of rockets at Israel in the past number of days,” it added. Palestinians named the dead man as Moamen abu-Daff, but did not immediately link him to a specific militant group. Palestinian militants fired two rockets at southern...

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Iran-US brinkmanship over oil strait worsens

TEHRAN: A showdown between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers worsened on Thursday with warships from each side giving weight to an increasingly bellicose exchange of words. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards rejected a warning that the US military would “not tolerate” such a closure, saying they would act decisively “to protect our vital interests.” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday that Iran had exhibited “irrational behavior” by threatening to close the strait. “One can only guess that the international sanctions are beginning to feel the pinch, and that the ratcheting up of pressure, particularly on their oil sector, is pinching...

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL