Death toll rises to 32 in religious violence in India's capital

NEW DELHI - At least 32 people have been killed in the deadliest violence to engulf India's capital New Delhi for decades as heavy deployment of security forces brought an uneasy calm on Thursday, a police official said.

The violence began over a disputed new citizenship law on Monday but led to clashes between Muslims and Hindus in which hundreds were injured. Many suffered gunshot wounds, while arson, looting and stone-throwing have also taken place.

"The death count is now at 32," Delhi police spokesman Anil Mittal said, adding the "entire area is peaceful now."

At the heart of the unrest is a citizenship law that makes it easier for non-Muslims from some neighboring Muslim-dominated countries to gain Indian citizenship.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the new law adopted last December is of "great concern" and she was worried by reports of police inaction in the face of assaults against Muslims by other groups.

"I appeal to all political leaders to prevent violence," Bachelet said in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Critics say the law is biased against Muslims and undermines India's secular constitution.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has denied having any prejudice against India's 180 million Muslims, saying that law is required to help persecuted minorities.

New Delhi has been the epicenter for protests against the new law, with students and large sections of the Muslim community leading the protests.

As the wounded were brought to hospitals on Thursday, the focus shifted on the overnight transfer of Justice S. Muralidhar, a Delhi High Court judge who was hearing a petition into the riots and had criticized government and police inaction on Wednesday.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the transfer was routine and had been recommended by the Supreme Court collegium earlier this month.

Opposition Congress party leader Manish Tiwari said every lawyer and judge in India should strongly protest what he called a crude attempt to intimidate the judiciary.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said inflammatory speeches at the protests over the new citizenship law in the last few months and the tacit support of some opposition leaders was behind the violence.

"The investigation is on," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who romped to re-election last May, also withdrew Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy in August with the objective of tightening New Delhi's grip on the restive region, which is also claimed by full by Pakistan.

For months the government imposed severe restrictions in Kashmir including cutting telephone and internet lines, while keeping hundreds of people, including mainstream political leaders, in custody for fear that they could whip up mass protests. Some restrictions have since been eased.

Bachelet said the Indian government continued to impose excessive restrictions on the use of social media in the region, even though some political leaders have been released, and ordinary life may be returning to normal in some respects.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

21 killed, dozens missing after attack in central Mali

BAMAKO, Mali - Twenty-one people were killed in an attack overnight on a village in central Mali, the government said Friday, in an apparent spate of ethnic violence in the deeply troubled region.

The attack occurred in Ogossagou, a village mainly inhabited by Fulani people where 160 died last March 23 in a massacre blamed on Dogon militiamen. 

About 30 gunmen carried out the new attack, village chief Aly Ousmane Barry told AFP. 

Malian government spokesman Yaya Sangare said that 21 people had been killed in the attack, according to a provisional tally, and that others were missing. 

"Huts and crops were set alight, livestock was burned or taken away," he added, vowing that the government would find the perpetrators.

A local government official, who requested anonymity, said that 28 people were missing.

He blamed the attack on a traditional Dogon hunters' group -- an assertion that could be not be verified independently.

The official and village chief Aly Ousmane Barry both said the attackers moved in several hours after government troops had pulled out of the area. 

Central Mali became gripped by ethnic violence after a jihadist revolt broke out in the north of the country in 2012.

The insurgency has claimed thousands of lives and spread to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso. 

Tit-for-tat attacks in central Mali flared after Fulani people, also called Peul, became associated with jihadists. 

Led by a firebrand Islamic preacher Amadou Koufa, a militia called the Katiba Macina recruited members from among the Fulani and became accused of ethnically-motivated attacks.

Other ethnic groups such as the Bambara or the Dogon began to form self-defense groups that in turn became accused of reprisal massacres. 

In addition to the latest attack at Ogossagou, 14 Fulani were killed in central Mali in January.

Around 75 Dogons were killed in the villages of Sobane Da, Gangafani and Yoro in June last year, in an attack blamed on Fulani militants.

"EPICENTER" OF VIOLENCE

Human Rights Watch this month pointed to the ethnic patchwork of central Mali as the country's "epicenter" of violence. 

It said over 450 civilians had been killed in the region in 2019, "the deadliest year for civilians" since the jihadist insurgency began.

Reflecting the chronic instability in the centre, Malian soldiers are themselves frequently targeted.

On Friday, one soldier was killed in an attack on a military camp in Mondoro, security officials said. 

It had already been hit before -- as part of a joint raid by militants that also targeted the military camp of Boulkessy near the border with Burkina Faso, killing at least 25 soldiers. 

On January 26, Al-Qaeda-linked militants attacked a military camp in Sokolo, central Mali, killing 20 gendarmes and wounding five more. 

The violence in central Mali coincides with renewed hopes that the fragile government can reassert control over the widely lawless north. 

Troops returned on Thursday to Kidal, a northern town that had been a bastion of Tuareg rebels, after a six-year absence. 

Regular forces returned to the town accompanied by former rebels who have been integrated into the army under a regional peace agreement. 

The deal, reached in Algiers in 2015, is considered one of the few avenues Mali has for escaping the cycle of violence.

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34 Palestinians dead as Islamic Jihad, Israel stop hostilities across Gaza Strip

GAZA/JERUSALEM - Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and Israel halted hostilities across the Gaza Strip border on Thursday following efforts mediated by Egypt and the United Nations to end the worst surge in fighting in months.

Islamic Jihad said a truce went into effect at 0330 GMT, about 48 hours after Israel triggered the exchange of fire by killing the Iranian-backed faction's top Gaza commander in an airstrike, deeming him an imminent threat.

Gaza medical officials put the total death toll at 34 Palestinians, almost half of them civilians and including eight children and three women.

On the other side of the Gaza border, hundreds of rocket launches by militants paralyzed much of southern Israel, injuring dozens of people.

Hamas, Gaza's dominant faction, appeared to have stayed out of this round of fighting. That may have helped stem escalation.

An Egyptian official contacted by Reuters confirmed a truce had been reached. The Israeli military eased emergency regulations imposed on areas within range of Gaza rockets.

Islamic Jihad said Israel had accepted its demand to stop both the targeted killing of militants and sometimes lethal army gunfire at weekly Palestinian protests on the Gaza border.

"The ceasefire began under Egyptian sponsorship after the Occupation (Israel) submitted to the conditions set by Islamic Jihad on behalf of Palestinian resistance factions," Islamic Jihad spokesman Musab Al-Braim said.

But Israel said it would observe a more limited quid-pro-quo. "Quiet will be answered with quiet," Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel's Army Radio.

MISSILE STRIKE

In the deadliest incident of the two-day hostilities, eight members of a Gaza family were killed by an Israeli missile strike shortly before the truce took hold, said medical officials and residents.

They said all were civilians. But Israeli military spokesman Major Avichay Adraee said the head of the family, Rasmi Abu Malhous, who was among the dead, was the commander of Islamic Jihad rocket crews in the central Gaza Strip.

Neighbors left their homes to help rescue workers pull out the bodies of the family, some of which were completely buried in sandy earth. Civilians tried to test the pulse of one body before pulling it out.

Israel's allegation about Rasmi Abu Malhous could not be immediately confirmed by Reuters. Islamic Jihad did not claim him as a member.

Neither the two days of hostilities nor the sudden cessation shifted the dynamics of the underlying core conflict.

While Hamas has been open to long-term ceasefires, like Islamic Jihad it refuses to accept permanent coexistence with Israel.

Gazans are seeking to end years of an Israeli-led blockade. Refugees from the 1948 war of Israel's founding and their descendents make up most of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza and are seeking the right to return to their former lands.

Israel rejects this as demographic suicide and sees no means of making peace as long as Hamas and Islamic Jihad are armed.

Katz said there would be no change to Israeli military policy in Gaza, contradicting the assertion of Islamic Jihad.

Targeted killings "will not cease," he said, and "the open-fire policy for which the Israel Defence Forces is responsible (at the Gaza border) will not change."

Gaza was mostly quiet at daybreak, with the exception of a lone rocket launch witnessed by a Reuters correspondent and the sounding of sirens in some outlying Israeli towns.

Markets in Gaza reopened as life returned to normal, though people expressed mixed feelings about the truce.

"We responded and made clear our blood was not shed in vain. Also a truce is good because we don't want our people to suffer more under the blockade," said one resident, Mohammad Al-Smairi.

UN mediator Nickolay Mladenov said the Gaza situation remained fragile, tweeting: "All must show maximum restraint and do their part to prevent bloodshed. The Middle East does not need more wars."

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Erdogan says Turkey will not leave Syria until other countries pull out

ANKARA - Turkey will not leave Syria until other countries pull out, President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Friday, and Ankara will continue its cross-border offensive against Kurdish fighters until every one of them has left the region.

Turkey launched its third military incursion into northeast Syria last month to drive Kurdish YPG fighters from its border and establish a "safe zone" where it aims to settle up to 2 million Syrian refugees.

After seizing a 120-km (75-mile) swathe of land along the border, Turkey struck deals with the United States and Russia to keep the Kurdish militia out of that area.

Speaking to reporters on his flight home from a trip to Hungary, Erdogan said Turkey would only leave Syria once other countries have left as well, adding that the Turkish offensive would continue until all militants leave the area.

"We will not let up until every last terrorist leaves the region," Erdogan said, referring to the YPG, the main component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that Ankara views as a terrorist organization.

"We will not leave here until the other countries get out," he was cited as saying by broadcaster NTV.

Ankara began its offensive after Trump announced an abrupt withdrawal of 1,000 US troops from northern Syria last month. The US President has since said that some troops will continue to operate there.

Under its deals with Washington and Moscow, Ankara paused its offensive in return for the withdrawal of the YPG fighters. While US and Russian officials have said the Kurdish fighters have left the region, Erdogan on Thursday accused Russia and the United States of not fulfilling their part.

With the deal Ankara struck with Moscow, Turkish and Russian troops have been holding joint patrols along the Turkish border with Syria. On Friday, the troops completed a third patrol, but a spokesman for the SDF said Turkish troops had used tear gas against some civilians protesting against the patrols.

"Turkish troops targeted civilians peacefully protesting against the patrols...with tear gas and injured 10 people," said SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali on Twitter.

Turkey's defense ministry said in a statement that the third patrol was completed as planned along an 88-km route along the most easterly section of the border at a depth of 10 km.

US VISIT

Turkey's European allies have said the offensive will hinder the battle against Islamic State. Ankara has rejected the accusation, saying its allies should back its plans to resettle the majority of the 3.5 million Syrian migrants Turkey hosts.

Ibrahim Kalin, a top aide to Erdogan, said on Friday that the leaders of Germany, France, Britain and Turkey would meet on the sidelines of a NATO summit in London on Dec. 3-4 to discuss the situation in Syria.

The talks in London will follow Erdogan's Nov. 13 visit to Washington, where he will meet Trump to discuss Syria, as well as repercussions of Ankara's purchase of Russian S-400 defense systems, the threat of US sanctions, and the case of Turkish state lender Halkbank, which has been charged by US prosecutors with being part of a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade US sanctions on Iran.

Washington says the S-400s threaten its F-35 fighters jets and has suspended Turkey from the F-35 program.

"We believe it will be beneficial to discuss certain issues that we tackled before and some that we did not during face-to-face talks on Nov. 13," Erdogan told reporters on his return flight from Hungary, according to NTV.

"Of course, we will discuss the safe zone in Syria and the return of refugees. We will discuss the S-400s, F-35s, our $100 billion trade volume issue. We will also discuss the battle with FETO and the Halkbank issue," he said, referring to the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Ankara blames Gulen for orchestrating a 2016 failed coup, a charge he has denied and has repeatedly demanded that Washington extradite him.

Turkish officials said earlier this week that Erdogan might call off the US visit in protest at votes by US lawmakers to seek sanctions on Turkey over its offensive into northeast Syria, and recognize mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide. The visit was later confirmed after a phone call between Erdogan and Trump on Wednesday.

Erdogan told reporters on Friday that he would hold a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday to "form the basis" of his talks in Washington, according to NTV.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump lifts Turkey sanctions, quits 'blood-stained' Syria

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ended sanctions against Turkey on Wednesday, drawing a line under American involvement in "blood-stained" Syria, as Turkish and Russian troops seized territory previously held by US troops and their beleaguered Kurdish allies.

"Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand," Trump said in a White House speech that formalized the ceding of power in northern Syria to Ankara and increasingly influential Moscow.

Trump said he was lifting the sanctions because a ceasefire was holding in the area, which Turkey invaded to drive Kurdish military groups from their strongholds.

Trump called the ceasefire, which allowed the Turkish takeover to proceed largely unopposed, a "major breakthrough."

Rejecting accusations that he betrayed the Syrian Kurds -- who suffered thousands of casualties fighting alongside US troops against the Islamic State jihadist group -- Trump said they were happy.

The president said the Kurdish commander in the country, Mazloum Abdi, had just told him he was "extremely thankful."

Ankara ordered a cross-border operation into Syria on October 9 because it said it wanted to create a security cordon free of Kurdish armed groups that it considers to be terrorists, linked to Kurdish rebels inside Turkey.

The long-planned operation started after Trump announced the exit of the small, but politically significant US military force which had until then been closely allied with the Kurds.

Trump said he didn't want the US troops caught in the middle of a Turkish-Kurdish war.

Accused both by Republicans and Democrats of abandoning the Kurds, Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey on October 14 and sent a delegation to persuade Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to order a brief ceasefire.

In a tweet from a spokesman on Wednesday, Mazloum thanked Trump "for his tireless efforts that stopped the brutal Turkish attack and jihadist groups on our people."

RUSSIANS MOVE IN 

As US soldiers and the Kurds exited areas near Turkey's border, Turkish troops and Russian troops, who have propped up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad through his country's multi-sided civil war, moved in.

The first Russian patrol in northern Syria got underway on Wednesday, the defense ministry in Moscow announced.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu talked with Mazloum and reassured him that civilians would not have to leave their homes, a spokesman said -- apparently addressing allegations that Turkey will seek ethnic cleansing in the region.

Critics of Trump say he has caved in to Turkey and been outplayed by Russia.

"It is unthinkable that Turkey would not suffer consequences for malevolent behavior which was contrary to the interests of the United States and our friends," tweeted Republican Senator Mitt Romney.

But Trump insisted that the power shift is a win for Washington, because he is fulfilling a campaign promise to step away from "ancient sectarian and tribal conflicts."

ISLAMIC STATE ESCAPEES 

Trump said there was no risk that the turmoil in the area could lead to a reconstitution of the Islamic State, which has lost its once sizable territories and has thousands of members and their relatives kept in camps controlled by the Kurds.

With concerns that the Kurds may no longer be able to monitor Islamic State prisoners, Trump said he expects Turkey to "abide by its commitment" to act as a "back-up to the Kurds."

"Should something happen, Turkey is there to grab them," he said.

He was speaking shortly after a US State Department official, James Jeffrey, testified in Congress that "over 100" Islamic State prisoners had escaped so far and "we do not know where they are."

Trump said that a "small number" of US soldiers would remain nearby, but purely to guard oil facilities.

His central message was clear: that the United States has no business in Syria and that there was never any question of trying to stop NATO member Turkey from carrying out its invasion.

"We have spent $8 trillion on wars in the Middle East, never really wanting to win those wars," Trump said.

However, the isolationist policy grates on many Republicans, whom he is depending upon to save him from a Democratic push to impeach and remove him from office over allegations that he abused his office.

Immediately after the speech, powerful Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the United States had to stay engaged.

The US air power must "continue to control the skies over Syria" he said, adding that the military should "have a small –- but capable –- military partnership" with the Kurds to prevent Islamic State from reemerging.

'KILL, DISPLACE AND OCCUPY' 

The Turkish-occupied area was calm, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said on Wednesday.

However, explosions hit various parts of Syria's northeast, including the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli and the town of Suluk in the Tal Abyad region near Turkey's border.

The car bomb in Qamishli did not cause casualties, according to the Observatory. But the blast in Suluk, controlled by Ankara's rebel proxies, killed three fighters, a rebel commander there told AFP.

It was unclear who was responsible for the blasts.

Kurds staged angry demonstrations Wednesday in their de facto capital Qamishli.

"This deal serves the interests of foreign powers and not the interests of the people," said official Talaat Youndes.

"Turkey's objective is to kill, displace and occupy the Kurds."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

At least 28 killed in mosque blast in Afghanistan

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - At least 28 worshippers were killed and dozens wounded by a blast inside an Afghan mosque during Friday prayers, officials said, a day after the United Nations said violence in the country had reached "unacceptable" levels.

The explosion, which witnesses said collapsed the mosque's roof, took place in eastern Nangarhar province and wounded at least 55 people, provincial governor spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP.

He said the dead were "all worshippers" in the blast in Haska Mina district, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the provincial capital Jalalabad.

A doctor at a hospital in Haska Mina gave a slightly higher toll, telling AFP that "around" 32 bodies had been brought in, along with 50 wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in Nangarhar province.

Witnesses said the roof of the mosque had fallen through after the "loud" explosion, the nature of which was not immediately clear.

"Dozens of people were killed and wounded and were taken in several ambulances," Haji Amanat Khan, a 65-year-old local resident, told AFP.

The blast came after the UN released a new report on Thursday saying an "unprecedented" number of civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July to September.

The report, which also charts violence throughout 2019 so far, underscores how "Afghans have been exposed to extreme levels of violence for many years" despite promises by all sides to "prevent and mitigate harm to civilians."

It also noted the absurdity of the ever-increasing price paid by civilians given the widespread belief that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won by either side.

"Civilian casualties are totally unacceptable," said the UN's special representative in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, adding they demonstrate the importance of talks leading to a ceasefire and a permanent political settlement.

The figures - 1,174 deaths and 3,139 injured from July 1 until September 30 - represent a 42-percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The UN laid most of the blame for the spike at the feet of "anti-government elements" such as the Taliban, who have been carrying out a bloody insurgency in Afghanistan for more than 18 years.

July alone saw more casualties than in any other month on record since the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) began documenting the violence in 2009.

The first six months of 2019 had seen casualties drop slightly compared to previous years.

But the violence has surged so far in the third quarter that it yanked the overall total for the year back on par with the bloodiest since NATO withdrew its combat forces at the end of 2014.

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Trump, Pelosi clash in heated White House meeting on Syria

WASHINGTON — Top congressional Democrats walked out of a fractious White House meeting on Syria policy Wednesday when US President Donald Trump attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a "third-rate politician."

One of the Democrats attending the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said Trump launched into a "nasty diatribe" against them, while Pelosi said the president experienced a "meltdown." 

The toxic exchange was the latest sign of the dramatically deteriorating relations between Trump and Pelosi since she launched an impeachment investigation against him last month.

"He was insulting, particularly to the Speaker.... He called her a third-rate politician," said Schumer after they abruptly left the White House meeting on Trump's controversial troop pullout from northern Syria.

Other lawmakers from both parties remained inside, he noted.

Pelosi said Trump appeared "very shaken up" by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the House earlier Wednesday condemning his troop pullback, which critics say effectively gave Turkey a green light to invade northern Syria and attack Kurdish militia.

"What we witnessed on the part of the president was a meltdown. Sad to say," Pelosi added.

House veteran Steny Hoyer, the number 2 Democrat, said he and others were "offended deeply" by Trump's treatment of Pelosi.

Trump has repeatedly disparaged Pelosi on Twitter in the weeks since the probe began.

Hoyer sounded alarmed at the intensity of the White House confrontation.

"I've been in many, many, many meetings like this," he said. "Never have I seen a president treat so disrespectfully a co-equal branch of the government of the United States."

Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham rejected the Democratic version of events, saying the president had been "measured and decisive," and that Pelosi walking out was "baffling but not surprising."

"Dem 'leadership' chose to storm out & whine to camera," Grisham tweeted. "Everyone else stayed to work on behalf of our country."

Addressing reporters after the talks, top House Republican Kevin McCarthy likewise accused Pelosi of "storming out" and exhibiting behavior "unbecoming of a speaker."

The meeting was the first face-to-face encounter between Trump and Pelosi since her explosive September 24 statement announcing a formal impeachment inquiry.

Pelosi said the investigation did not come up during the meeting.

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Iran's oil sector on 'full alert' against attacks

TEHRAN - Iran's oil minister on Sunday ordered his country's energy sector to be on high alert to the threat of "physical and cyber" attacks.

Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said "it is necessary for all companies and installations of the oil industry to be on full alert against physical and cyber threats," in a statement published on the oil ministry's Shana website.

Zanganeh said precautions were needed due to American sanctions and the "full-scale economic war" that the Islamic republic accuses the United States of waging against it.

Washington, Riyadh, Berlin, London and Paris blame Iran for attacks that damaged the Saudi oil sector on September 14 and forced the world's largest crude exporter to sharply reduce production.

Tehran denied any link to the strikes, which were claimed by Huthi rebels in Yemen. Iran supports the rebels against a Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Huthis since 2015.

Following the attacks, US President Donald Trump said he was preparing a response. Several days later he endorsed military restraint, signalling his preference for intensifying a "maximum pressure" campaign through economic sanctions.

Iran denied press reports on September 21 that its oil installations were disrupted by a cyber attack.

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2 million children out of school in war-torn Yemen: UN

SANAA, Yemen - Two million children are out of school in war-torn Yemen, a fourth of whom have dropped out since the conflict escalated in March 2015, the United Nations children's agency said Wednesday.

The education of a further 3.7 million children is at risk as teachers' salaries have not been paid in more than two years, UNICEF said in a statement.

"Violence, displacement and attacks on schools are preventing many children from accessing school," said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF representative in Yemen.

One in five schools in the country can no longer be used as a direct result of the conflict that has devastated Yemen's already fragile education system, the UN agency says.

"Children out of school face increased risks of all forms of exploitation including being forced to join the fighting, child labor and early marriage," Nyanti said.

"They lose the opportunity to develop and grow in a caring and stimulating environment, ultimately becoming trapped in a life of poverty and hardship."

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in March 2015 in support of the beleaguered government after the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels captured the capital Sanaa.

The fighting has displaced millions and left 24.1 million -- more than two-thirds of the population -- in need of aid.

According to UNICEF, 1.8 million children under the age of five are suffering from severe malnutrition.

The United Nations has described Yemen as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

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US military likely to ramp up operations against Taliban: US general

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- The US military is likely to accelerate the pace of its operations in Afghanistan to counter an increase in Taliban attacks, a senior US general said following Washington's suspension of peace talks with the insurgents.

US Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, said during a visit to Afghanistan that the Taliban overplayed its hand in peace negotiations by carrying out a spate of high-profile attacks, including one that killed a US soldier last week.

The Taliban, which controls more territory than at any time since 2001 when it governed the country, said on Sunday that more American lives would be lost.

McKenzie declined to comment on the Taliban statement. But he noted that US troops in Afghanistan were hardly "defenseless."

"We're certainly not going to sit still and let them carry out some self-described race to victory. That's not going to happen," McKenzie told a group of reporters traveling with him during a stop at Bagram Airfield in northeastern Afghanistan.

Airstrikes by US-led international forces and Afghanistan’s small air force already are at a high level - a Sept. 3 United Nations report said there had been 506 between May 10 and Aug. 8, a 57 percent increase from the same period in 2018.

Asked whether increasing operations against the Taliban could include airstrikes and raids by US and Afghan commandos, McKenzie responded: "I think we're talking a total spectrum."

"And, again, whatever targets are available, whatever targets can be lawfully and ethically struck, I think we're going to pursue those targets," he said.

Any increase in US military action would correspond to an acceleration of Taliban attacks, McKenzie said.

The insurgents' determination to step up both attacks on provincial centers and suicide bombings even as discussions were taking place was a major factor in pushing US President Donald Trump to announce on Saturday that he was canceling peace talks aimed at ending America's longest war of 18 years.

The halt to the negotiations has fueled fears of even more violence across Afghanistan, with heightened security warnings in the capital Kabul and other centers ahead of a presidential election scheduled for Sept. 28.

TALIBAN MISCALCULATION

Trump, a longtime critic of the Afghan war, and the billions of dollars it costs, had been preparing an unprecedented meeting with the insurgency's leaders at the presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland.

But he called off the event after the latest violence.

Trump on Monday said talks with Taliban leaders are "dead" but that he was still considering a US troop drawdown.

Reuters has reported on growing misgivings that had been building within Trump's administration about the peace deal negotiated by a special US envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad.

McKenzie said he believed the Taliban underestimated the delicate nature of the talks with Washington, even in their later stages.

"I think they overplayed their hand," McKenzie said. "They misjudged the character of the American people. I think they misjudged the character of the president of the United States."

The growing tension on the ground in Afghanistan adds to the uncertainty about the future course for American forces, many of whom must now simultaneously brace for an increase in fighting while also awaiting potential orders to withdraw.

The United States has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, a figure that Trump has said he would like to reduce to about 8,600.

A further intensification in airstrikes poses a grave risk of increasing civilian casualties - and fueling support for the Taliban - which were 39 percent higher for the first half of 2019 from the same period in 2018, a July UN report said.

A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan disputed the methods and findings but declined to provide civilian casualty figures.

Asked what his message was in his talks on Monday with US special operations forces, medical teams and other personnel he visited at bases in Afghanistan, McKenzie told reporters that they would need to keep fighting the "hard fight" for now.

"We just have to hold the line right now," McKenzie said.

"We're going to make some decisions, I think, back in our nation's capital over the next few days and that will give us increased guidance going ahead," he added, without elaborating.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Taliban kill at least 10 in 'horrifying' attack in Afghan capital

KABUL - The Taliban killed at least 10 people, including a Romanian soldier, in a fresh bombing in Kabul on Thursday -- yet another horrific attack on the Afghan capital as the US and the insurgents negotiate a deal to see American troops leave the country.

The car bomb blast shook Shash Darak, a heavily fortified area adjacent to the Green Zone and home to several important complexes including the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence service.

Apparent surveillance footage of the attack, which occurred at about 10:10 a.m. (0540 GMT), showed a grey minivan explode just after it had cut in front of a line of white SUVs waiting to make a right turn right onto a street.

One nearby pedestrian can be seen turning and trying to run away as the minivan crashed through a barrier just before the blast.

Romania's defense ministry said in a statement that a Romanian soldier "lost his life today while executing a mixed patrol mission near (the) Green Zone in Kabul". 

His death comes after a Romanian employee of the European nation's embassy was killed in a separate Taliban attack in east Kabul on Monday.

According to interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, at least 10 civilians were killed and 42 more wounded. 

But Farid Ahmad Karimi, general manager at the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital close to the bomb site, told AFP that both civilians and security personnel were among the dead and wounded.

On Twitter, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a "martyrdom seeker" -- or suicide bomber -- had triggered the car bomb and that 12 "foreign invaders" were killed.

Massoud Zazai, who owns a photo studio across the street from the blast site, said he was in his shop when the explosion happened.

"I fell off my chair and it got dark inside the shop because of smoke and dust," Zazai told AFP.

"I went out to the scene moments after the attack, the side of the road was littered with debris and bodies."

Through the smoke, Zazai said he could hear injured people crying and calling for their mothers and brothers.

"I saw at least five very badly injured, one was covered in blood and not moving. It was horrifying."

The attack was close to where the Islamic State group killed 9 journalists in a blast in April last year, including AFP Kabul's chief photographer Shah Marai.


'Bitten by the snake'

On Monday, a Romanian was among at least 16 people who were killed in a Taliban attack on a residential area in east Kabul. 

Currently, Romania contributes about 760 military personnel to the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, which has a total force size of about 17,000 troops from 39 countries.

The capital has been gripped by a surge in deadly violence even after the US and the insurgents reached an agreement "in principle" that would see the Pentagon pull thousands of troops from Afghanistan in return for various Taliban security promises.


But there is increasing unease about the deal, with Afghans fearing it will lead to a return of the Taliban to power, and a growing chorus of US lawmakers and officials expressing doubts.

According to parts of the deal made public so far, the Pentagon would pull about 5,000 of its 13,000 or so troops from five bases across Afghanistan by early next year, provided the Taliban hews to its security pledges.

The insurgents have said they will renounce Al-Qaeda, fight the Islamic State group and stop jihadists using Afghanistan as a safe haven.

On Wednesday, the Afghan government expressed doubts about the prospective deal, saying officials need more information about the risks it poses.

"There is too much concern about it, and we are still not assured of what consequences this agreement could have for Afghanistan's future," presidential advisor Waheed Omar told journalists Thursday.

"The people of Afghanistan have been bitten by the snake before, and have been witness to the consequences of hasty deals".

Even as negotiations for an accord have entered what are widely considered to be the final stages, violence has surged across Afghanistan.

On Saturday, the Taliban attempted to seize the provincial capital of Kunduz in the north and sporadic fighting has continued on the outskirts all week. 

Insurgents launched an operation in the city of Pul-e Khumri, the capital of neighboring Baghlan province on Sunday.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UAE airstrikes raise tensions with Yemen gov't

DUBAI - The United Arab Emirates has confirmed it launched airstrikes on Yemen's interim capital Aden, after furious accusations from the internationally recognized government which has lost control of the city to UAE-backed separatists.

In the face of charges it targeted Yemeni government troops, Abu Dhabi said it acted in self-defense against "terrorist militias" threatening the Saudi-led military coalition against Huthi rebels in which the UAE is a key partner.

The UAE's foreign ministry issued a statement late Thursday, hours after the separatists regained control of Aden, forcing government troops who had entered the southern port city a day earlier to withdraw.

Airstrikes on Wednesday and Thursday that reportedly left dozens dead hit "armed groups affiliated with terrorist organizations", Abu Dhabi said, in a reference to Islamists it believes makeup part of Yemeni government forces.

The operation "was based on confirmed field intelligence that the militias prepared to target the coalition forces -- a development which required a preemptive operation to avert any military threat", it added.

The accusations risk straining an already complex conflict in Yemen, which is being fought on two main fronts -- a battle for control of Aden and the south, and the Saudi-led coalition's campaign against the Huthis in the north.

In further violence in the port city on Friday, a suicide bombing killed three separatist fighters, while a separatist military chief survived a roadside bomb that killed five of his guards, security sources said.

Blaming the attacks on Al-Qaeda, the security sources said separatist forces made several arrests, adding that they aimed to dismantle jihadist "sleeper cells".

But residents have reported arrests of soldiers loyal to the internationally recognized government. 

On August 1, separate attacks in Aden by jihadists and Huthi rebels killed 49 people, mostly separatist fighters from the Southern Transitional Council.

The STC accused the government of complicity in the attacks, sparking a showdown between the two sides.

The intensifying conflict between Abu Dhabi and the government undermines the coalition and poses a headache for regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which is focused on fighting the Huthis who are aligned with Riyadh's arch-foe Iran.

The airstrikes came in a see-sawing battle between the government and southern separatists who have tussled for control of Aden and the neighboring provinces Abyan and Shabwa over the past three weeks.

Saudis as peacemakers?

Yemen's government on Thursday accused the UAE of mounting the airstrikes in support of the separatists, in an assault it said killed 40 combatants and wounded 70 civilians. 

The UAE, which has a zero-tolerance policy towards Islamists, believes that part of Yemen's army is made up of militants from Al-Islah, a party considered close to the Islamic Brotherhood.

The allegation was backed by its Yemeni ally, the head of the STC, Aidarus al-Zubaidi, who aims to regain independence for South Yemen, which was forcibly unified with the north in 1990. 

At a press conference in Aden on Thursday, he said that among fighters captured during the retaking of the city were "internationally wanted terrorists".

However, Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi redoubled his allegations against the UAE, accusing it late Thursday of having planned, financed and coordinated attacks on state institutions and military positions in Aden.

The Yemeni head of state, who is in exile in the Saudi capital, called on Riyadh to "intervene to halt the blatant interference of the United Arab Emirates, in support of the militias, and air raids against the armed forces of Yemen".

The UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, on Friday urged all sides to go back to the negotiating table under a Saudi proposal for talks in Jeddah.

Yemen's government has said the STC must first withdraw from its positions.

"The Saudi initiative is the way out of this crisis," Gargash said on Twitter.

The coalition intervened in Yemen's war in 2015 in support of the government after the Huthis swept south from their northern stronghold to seize the capital Sanaa and much of Yemen -- the Arab world's poorest nation.

The strategic port city of Aden has since then served as the government's interim capital. 

Fighting over the past four years has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and sparked what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"The situation is very fragile. Families are again trapped in their homes by fighting, unable to secure food and reach medical care," the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, said of the recent battle for the south.

The UN Security Council on Thursday voiced concern over the clashes, including what it called a "violent attempt to take over state institutions".

It urged all parties to "show restraint and to preserve Yemen's territorial integrity".

source: news.abs-cbn.com

At least 20 wounded, many feared dead in Kabul wedding blast

KABUL - At least 20 people were wounded in a blast at a Kabul wedding late Saturday, a local hospital said, while a witness told AFP he had seen many dead bodies at the scene.

The explosion came just as the US and the Taliban are widely expected to sign off on a deal that would see American troops begin to depart Afghanistan in return for various security assurances from the insurgents.

"#Kabul #Afghanistan explosion in a hotel during a wedding party, about 20 patients arrived up to now at our hospital #masscasualty," the Italian-run Emergency hospital of Kabul said on Twitter. 

Interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the blast occurred in a west Kabul wedding hall around 10:40 pm (1810 GMT).

He shared on Facebook photos showing several apparent bodies inside a dining area.

Afghan weddings are epic and vibrant affairs, with hundreds or often thousands of guests celebrating inside industrial-scale wedding halls where the men are usually segregated from the women and children.

Mohammad Farhag, who had been at the wedding, said he had been in the women's section when he heard a huge blast in the men's area. 

"Everyone ran outside shouting and crying," he said.

"For about 20 minutes the hall was full of smoke. Almost everyone in the men's section is either dead or wounded. Now, two hours after the blast, they are still taking bodies out of the hall."

No group immediately claimed responsibility.

LITTLE SECURITY 

Government spokesman Feroz Bashari said the blast was "a clear sign that terrorists can't see Afghans express happiness."

"You can't make them bow by killing them. The perpetrators of tonight's attack shall be held responsible," he wrote on Twitter.

Insurgents have periodically struck Afghan weddings, which are seen as easy targets because they frequently lack rigorous security precautions.

On July 12, at least 6 eople were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a wedding ceremony in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. The Islamic State group, which has a growing footprint in the region, claimed the blast.

Expectations are rising for a deal in which the US would start withdrawing its approximately 14,000 soldiers from Afghanistan after a two-decade war that has turned into a stalemate.

US President Donald Trump has said since the start of his presidency that he wants troops out of the country where Washington has spent more than $1 trillion on military operations and reconstruction since 2001.

In return for the US departure, the Taliban would commit to various security guarantees, including that the Islamist hardliners who long harbored Al-Qaeda would not allow Afghanistan to once again become a jihadist safe haven.

On Friday, Ahmadullah Azkhundzada, brother of Afghan Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, was among 4 people killed in a blast at a mosque in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan, a senior official with the provincial government said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

A month after IS 'caliphate' defeated, challenges aplenty

BEIRUT -- Sleeper cells, prisons teeming with jihadists, camps crammed with their wives and children -- perils abound in Syria, nearly a month after the Islamic State group's "caliphate" was declared defeated.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced victory over the IS proto-state on March 23, after a nearly 5-year battle against the militant group.

The elimination of the physical "caliphate" closed a long chapter in the Syrian conflict, but the SDF and the US-led military coalition have warned the fight is far from over.

IS is still able "to carry out regular attacks on a weekly basis", said Tore Hamming, an expert on jihadist movements at the European University Institute.

Even after losing their last scrap of territory in the eastern village of Baghuz, the jihadists retain a presence in Syria's vast desert and hideouts elsewhere in the country.

This week alone, IS militants killed 35 fighters loyal to Syria's government in 48 hours -- feeding into a regime death toll over 2 days in excess of 60 at the hands of all jihadist factions -- the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Before that, on April 9, IS claimed a double bombing that killed 13 people in the SDF-held city of Raqa.

The White House has said that it would keep 400 US troops in Syria "for a period of time", after initially shocking allies in December by announcing a full withdrawal of 2,000 soldiers.

But Hamming said this diminished contingent would struggle to deal with the lingering jihadist threat.

"IS is still very active and will remain so. The small number of US forces will not solve that entirely," he said.

'BREEDING GROUNDS'

Nicholas Heras, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, warns that IS still holds sizable sway over "networks of local support".

"A big part of the ISIS strategy to regrow is that it continues to have strong ties into some of the local tribes in eastern Syria and western Iraq," he said, using an alternative acronym for the jihadist group.

As both regime and US-backed forces seek to hunt down IS sleeper cells on the run, the Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria face another major challenge.

Thousands of alleged jihadist fighters -- including hundreds of foreigners -- are now being held in Kurdish-run jails, while their relatives languish in overcrowded camps for the displaced.

Their numbers have created a major headache for the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration, which now wants to put suspected jihadists on trial.

"We have called for an international tribunal to be formed to try these terrorists," top foreign affairs official Abdel Karim Omar told AFP.

"Our priority is to try the criminals," he said.

Since 2014, IS fighters have been accused of carrying out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions, and ethnic cleansing.

They stand accused of stoning to death women suspected of adultery, and forcing homosexuals off the top of high buildings.

While many jihadists are now detained, they still pose a threat, according to experts.

"These detention centers are becoming breeding grounds for radicalization," the Soufan Center said in a report published on April 12.

"There is also a major risk of IS-engineered prison break attempts," said the organisation, which specializes in security analysis.

Hamming said "neither Syria nor Iraq have the resources or the political stability to properly handle such a large number of prisoners".

'FUTURE TERRORISTS'

Kurdish authorities are calling on the international community to help set up and guard new high-security detention facilities, after many Western states refused to take back their nationals.

In a rare exception on Saturday, Kosovo repatriated 4 men suspected of having fought for IS in Syria, among 110 of its citizens.

Syria's Kurds are also calling for much more support for displacement camps, where tens of thousands of people have amassed after fleeing battles against IS.

The camps host 12,000 foreigners -- 4,000 women and 8,000 children -- who are kept under surveillance, according to Omar.

The largest of these camps, Al-Hol, has seen its population swell to more than 73,000 people, with conditions deteriorating as a result of the mass influx.

The International Rescue Committee has reported severe acute malnutrition, pneumonia, and dehydration among children in the camp.

The United Nations says 211 children under the age of 5 have died on their way to Al-Hol or shortly after arrival since December.

The Soufan Center warned the humanitarian crisis could be used as a recruitment tool.

IS "fighters are seeking ways to capitalize on the suffering in these camps to rejuvenate their organization", it said.

As for the offspring of alleged foreign jihadists, said Omar, "if these children are not sent home, re-educated and re-integrated into society, they will become future terrorists."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Wall St futures rise, shrug off allied missile attack on Syria

NEW YORK - US equity index futures rose on Sunday as financial market trading resumed for the first time since the United States, Britain and France hit Syria with missile strikes in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack.

The move suggested Wall Street was set to shrug off the attack and Russian President Vladimir Putin's warning on Sunday that further Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs.

In the first few minutes of trading on Sunday evening, S&P 500 e-mini futures were up by about 0.6 percent. Futures tracking the Nasdaq Composite Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up by comparable amounts.

Futures tracking safe-haven US Treasury securities were slightly lower.

US stocks fell on Friday as results from big banks failed to enthuse and worries over the Syria situation, but major market benchmarks gained ground on the week.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump prepares for visit by Saudi prince who has rocked the kingdom

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump will host Saudi Arabia's crown prince in Washington Tuesday, giving the president a receptive audience to denounce rival Iran and a chance to take stock of significant changes the prince is engineering in the kingdom.

Ten months after the last face-to-face meeting between Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh, the 71-year-old president and the 32-year-old strongman prince are expected to deepen an already warm and congenial relationship.


But they are also expected to take up major developments for Saudi Arabia, both internally and externally: the end of a ban on Saudi women driving, the unprecedented detention of dozens of people that was billed as a high-level anti-corruption purge, Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen, and the crisis with the Gulf state of Qatar.

"It's jaw-dropping how many policy changes the Saudis have pursued at home and in the region since that last meeting," said Lori Plotkin Boghardt, a former CIA analyst now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Many of these changes have touched US security interests."

One example is the summit that the administration had hoped to host this year with the 6 countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which could be difficult to arrange given the continuing crisis with Qatar.

In June, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) began an air and sea boycott against Qatar, which they accuse of financing terrorism and being overly friendly with Iran.

Prince Mohammed, known by his initials MBS, was named crown prince that month by his father, King Salman.

Early on, the prince announced an ambitious "Vision 2030" initiative to build an economy less dependent on oil, while luring more foreign investment.

Toward that end, Riyadh wants to greatly accelerate the pace of its civilian nuclear energy program. The goal: to build 16 reactors over the next 20 years, at a cost of some 80 billion euros ($98 billion), according to officials and analysts.

As the Saudis pursue the technology needed to undertake the ambitious project, they are expected to play potential rivals against one another, reminding their American counterparts that China, Russia and France are also capable of filling their needs.

"It would be virtually impossible for the Saudi government to accept terms that are less than what Obama gave the Iranians -- the possibility of future enrichment,” a source close to the Saudi government told AFP, referring to the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that was completed when Barack Obama was still president.

BLOODY WAR IN YEMEN

The United States and Saudi Arabia are historic allies. Ever since Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud on a US naval ship in the Suez Canal in 1945, every American president has carefully nurtured relations with the Saudi royal family.

But the unstinting support Trump offered when he chose Riyadh as the destination of his first overseas trip as president brought the relationship to a new level.

While Barack Obama said in 2015 that it was important "not to perpetuate any long-term confrontation with Iran, or to even marginalize Iran," Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the nuclear deal reached that year with Tehran, has chosen a very different path.

"Everywhere we go in the Middle East it's Iran, Iran, Iran," he said a few days ago. "Every problem is Iran."

Even before setting foot on American soil, Prince Mohammed struck a scathing tone toward Iran in an interview with CBS, comparing the territorial ambitions of that country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to those of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

And he warned that if Iran were to develop a nuclear bomb, Saudi Arabia would do the same "as soon as possible."

But critics are cautioning the White House not to blindly embrace every stance taken by the Saudi prince, particularly as concerns its role in the bloody civil war in Yemen.

Fighting between the Huthi movement, supported by Iran, and Yemeni government forces, backed by the Saudis and the UAE, has claimed nearly 10,000 lives and left the country on the verge of a disastrous famine.

In an opinion column early this month in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman, writing in the form of an open letter to Trump, urged the president not to give in to Prince Mohammed's "bad impulses" as he seeks to modernize Saudi Arabia's "economy and religious/social structure."

He then adds: "If you think you can just applaud his anti-Iran stance and religious reforms and all will work out fine, you're wrong."

source: news.abs-cbn.com