Page 833 - War Conflict
Videos show Egyptian church gunman confidently walking away
Video clips circulating on social media today show the gunman who opened fire outside an Egyptian church and a nearby store owned by a Copt in an attack that killed at least nine people as he leisurely walked unchallenged on a residential street unchallenged for nearly 10 minutes. The gunman, the videos show, stops only occasionally to shoot at his pursuers before he is shot himself. The sight of the gunman showing an assassin's calm just minutes after Friday's attack contrasted with the self- congratulatory mood in which the pro-government media basked today, with their coverage focused on how police "successfully" prevented the Islamic State gunman from breaking into the church and using an explosive device said to have been found on him. The videos, making the rounds today, drew a flood of critical comments about the police's handling of the shooting, with many of them ridiculing authorities for heaping lavish praise on police. The Interior Ministry, which oversees ..
Three Naxals held in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district
Three lower rung Naxals were today arrested from Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, police said. While the ultras identified as Madvi Deva (30) and Hemla Joga (25) were arrested from Chintalnar police station limits, another Muchaki Munna (28) was apprehended from Chintagufa police station area, Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Jitendra Shukla told PTI. Separate joint teams of District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were involved in these operations, he added. The arrested cadres were active as militia members of Maoists, he said. Deva and Joga were allegedly involved in the incident of firing on a police party in the forest of Chinnabodkel villages last month. Similarly, Munna was wanted in connection with a blast to harm police team on Burkapal road in October this year, Shukla said. The three were produced in a local court in Dantewada, which remanded them into judicial custody, he added.
Miscreants loot Rs 12 lakh from bank in Gopalganj
Armed miscreants looted around Rs 12 lakh from a bank in Bihar's Gopalganj district today, police said. Station house officer (SHO) of Kuchaikot police station, Awadhesh Kumar said eight armed miscreants barged into Sasamusa bazar branch of Punjab National Bank and looted around Rs 12 lakh kept in bank's chest at gun point and decamped with the money. Prima facie, it seems that miscreants have looted around Rs 12 lakh from bank's chest but the exact amount of loot could be known only after the proper counting of currency is completed, he said. On the basis of CCTV footage, police have identified the involvement of three persons in the loot incident and efforts are on to nab them, police sources said.
Rawalpindi man arrested over holding own family as hostage
A Pakistani man, who had taken at least 20 members of his own family hostage in Rawalpindi, has been arrested by the authorities on Saturday.According to the police, 35-year-old Abdul Rahim, who shot dead his father-in-law after he returned from the mosque on Saturday morning, had taken his family members hostage at gunpoint late last night, the Dawn reported.Rahim opened fire as the police stormed the house, but was injured as police retaliated."Other members of the family are safe, although one elderly woman had lost consciousness because of the tear gas. She has been shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital," the report said, quoting DSP Cantt Raja Taifoor Khan, as saying.The police has discovered that Rahim was an addict, contrary to the preliminary reports which suggested that the suspect was of unstable mind.
Ten Taliban militants killed in clash with Afghan forces
At least 10 militants, belonging to the Taliban insurgent group, were killed and eight others injured in a clash with the security forces in Uruzgan province of Afghanistan.The Tolo News quoted the district police chief for Khas Uruzgan district, Mullah Abdul Samad, as saying on Saturday, that the security forces thwarted a Taliban attack on security check posts in the district.He further said dozens of Taliban militants attacked security check posts in the Shikha area of the district.One Afghan soldier was also killed and several others injured during the attack.The insurgent group has not commented on the incident so far.
Drunken man kills father-in-law, holds family hostage in Pak
A Pakistani drunken man allegedly shot dead his father-in-law and held 20 members of his family hostage at gunpoint after they stopped him from committing suicide, according to media reports. Abdul Rahim, 35, held his family members hostage at gun point late last night in Morgah area of Rawalpindi, Dawn News said. Rahim shot and injured his father-in-law - aged around 50 - and held the rest of his family hostage before the police succeeded in arresting the suspect, police said. "When the situation occurred we contacted his uncles and other male members of the family, who suggested that Rahim is mentally unstable and often does these things. They said that they would want to solve the matter themselves," police officer Raja Taifoor Khan said. The hostages included his wife, children and in-laws. He had killed his father-in-law by opening fire and injured two others, the report said. "His uncles went to speak to him, and Rahim who had said that he would not hurt them ...
Gazan dies after border clash with Israel forces
A Gazan died today after being wounded by Israeli fire during a protest on the border over US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a Palestinian health official said. Jamal Muslih, 20, of Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, had been seriously wounded by live fire yesterday, health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. His death brings to 13 the number of Palestinians killed since US President Donald Trump announced on December 6 that he would recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Eleven protesters died after clashes with Israeli troops, and two others were killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza earlier in the month. More than 50 Palestinians were wounded in yesterday clashes on the Gaza-Israel border as part of a "day of rage" over the US declaration, called for by both Gaza rulers Hamas and fellow militant group Islamic Jihad. In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said at least 16 ...
'Denial of treatment to martyr's wife a blow to morale of armed forces'
The father of Kargil martyr Vijayant Thapar, VN Thapar, on Sunday condemned the denial of treatment to another Kargil martyr's wife by a private hospital in Haryana, and said incidents like these were a blow to the morale of the armed forces."These are the kind of things that hit the morale of the armed forces. I hope the Haryana Government and the Defence Ministry take note of this and take an action against this erring hospital," Thapar told ANI, adding that a soldier dies in a battle for the security of the people and "he knows that his wife and children will be taken care of."Expressing shock over the news, Thapar remarked, "Leave aside the Kargil martyr or a martyr's wife but even from the humanitarian angle, if a person requires treatment, can't we give it? We've become so indifferent to human life!"Yesterday, a wife of a Kargil braveheart died at a private hospital in Haryana's Sonipat after allegedly being denied treatment due to non-availability of Aadhaar Card.However, the ..
France beefs up security amid year-end festivities
France has tightened security and deployed additional security forces across the country to ensure safety at the peak of holiday season, the Interior Ministry said.
Scores of Palestinians hurt in protests over Jerusalem
Scores of Palestinians were hurt in confrontations with Israeli troops in Gaza and the West Bank amid another round of mass protests against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Indonesia to strengthen its personnel for curbing IS-linked attacks
Indonesia on Friday announced that its counter-terrorism police force will deploy 600 extra personnel next year to monitor Islamic State (IS) networks and to curb such attacks.According to ChannelNewsAsia, hundreds of investigators and surveillance personnel will join an existing force of about 500 officers at Detachment 88, a police unit tasked with uprooting militant networks and foiling attacks.National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said, "We will do this to monitor terrorist networks more closely since ISIS networks remain in Indonesia and South-East Asia. It's more due to increasing 'lone wolf' activity and the dynamics of ISIS networks around the world."Indonesia has seen a resurgence in homegrown militancy in recent years, largely inspired by the dreaded terrorist group. Hundreds of Indonesians are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join IS, but many have returned, as it has lost huge swathes of its territories.Detachment 88 was set up in 2003, after bomb attacks in .
IS claims responsibility for Egypt church attack
Terrorist group Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack outside an Egyptian church that left at least 10 people dead.
ISIS outsourcing terror attacks to outfits in Pakistan, says expert
Unless Pakistan increases its efforts to outlaw, eliminate and foil Islamist terrorism on its soil, and also takes appropriate steps to protect the minority Christian community from attacks by fundamental elements such as the ISIS, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and the Taliban, such elements will continue to gain a menacing foothold across the country, an expert based in Islamabad has said.In an article published by the website of the New York-based Gatestone Institute, an international policy council and think tank, Kaswar Klasra, a journalist based in Islamabad, Pakistan, has said that Christians, who make up just two percent of Pakistan's population, are the most vulnerable victims of this threat posed by the ISIS with the help of existing terror outfits.In the article, Klasra reveals that over the past year-and-a-half, the ISIS has coordinated and claimed responsibility for six attacks, the latest taking place on December 17, when a suicide-bombing at a church in Quetta left
IS claims responsibility for Cairo church attack
The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for an attack on a Coptic Egyptian church in Cairo that left nine people dead.According to France 24, the IS confirmed the attack through the group's Amaq news agency.The Egyptian Interior Ministry on Friday confirmed the death of nine people after a gunman opened fire outside a Coptic Christian church in Southern Cairo on Friday.According to local media reports, the exchange of fire between the security forces and the attacker ended with the latter shooting himself.United States (US) President Donald Trump spoke by phone on Friday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and condemned the attack.The IS affiliate in Egypt has targeted minority Egyptian Christians in church bombings and shootings during the past year. It has also threatened further attacks against them.
UN chief congratulates Liberia's next president
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today congratulated George Weah on his victory in Liberia's presidential election and praised the peaceful conduct of the vote. Guterres "applauds all Liberians for the successful completion of the elections process, which was conducted in a peaceful environment," a statement from the UN chief's spokesman said. Liberia's election board certified Weah as the winner of the election on Friday, marking the country's first peaceful transfer of power after two civil wars. Weah, a former international football star, defeated Vice President Joseph Boakai in the run-off vote. Weah is due to be sworn in on January 22, following Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who in 2006 took over the country founded by freed US slaves. Boakai conceded defeat on Friday and said he had called Weah to congratulate him.
UN chief congratulates Liberia's next president
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today congratulated George Weah on his victory in Liberia's presidential election and praised the peaceful conduct of the vote. Guterres "applauds all Liberians for the successful completion of the elections process, which was conducted in a peaceful environment," a statement from the UN chief's spokesman said. Liberia's election board certified Weah as the winner of the election on Friday, marking the country's first peaceful transfer of power after two civil wars. Weah, a former international football star, defeated Vice President Joseph Boakai in the run-off vote. Weah is due to be sworn in on January 22, following Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who in 2006 took over the country founded by freed US slaves. Boakai conceded defeat on Friday and said he had called Weah to congratulate him.
Israel confirms withdrawal from UN cultural body
Israel has formally notified the UN's culture and education body of its withdrawal from the organisation, two months after it announced it would follow the US by walking out over resolutions critical of the Jewish state. In a statement UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay said she had been officially notified on Friday that Israel would leave on December 31, 2018. "I regret this deeply, as it is my conviction that it is inside UNESCO and not outside it that states can best seek to overcome differences in the organization's fields of competence," she said. The October 12 announcement by the United States that it was pulling out of the organisation underlined Washington's drift away from multilateral institutions under nationalist President Donald Trump. The US at the time accused UNESCO of having an "anti- Israel bias" -- a sentiment echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who accused UNESCO of becoming "the theatre of the absurd". Their pullout followed two ...
Syria: Hundreds left behind in evacuations near Damascus
More than 400 patients on a UN list waiting for evacuations from a siege in Syria were left behind on Friday as the Red Cross said it had finished transferring just 29 people and their families to Damascus for medical care. It took the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent three days to evacuate the patients and their family members from the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus to hospitals just minutes away, underscoring the degree to which authorities have obstructed basic relief work in the war-torn country. The UN submitted a list of names to the government six months ago of patients requiring evacuation from the government's siege of the suburbs of its own capital because they were suffering from war wounds, kidney failure, and malnutrition. In November, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said the list had reached 494 names, and 12 patients had died waiting for care. The U.N.'s children's agency said more than 100 children ...
Mattis nixes holiday tradition of seeing troops in war zones
For only the second time since 9/11, America's defence secretary didn't visit US troops in a war zone during December, breaking a long-standing tradition of personally and publicly thanking service members in combat who are separated from their families during the holiday season. boss Jim Mattis, who spent more than four decades in the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, made a five-day trip through the Middle East in early December. He stopped in Kuwait and Pakistan -- countries adjacent to Iraq and Afghanistan -- but didn't cross the borders to see troops at war in either country. Last week, he visited troops in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at military bases in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, wishing them holiday cheer. It has been 15 years since a US defense chief didn't travel to a war zone during the festive season. And the only time a holiday visit was skipped since Americans began fighting in Afghanistan was in December 2002. That year, ...
Israeli army intercepts two rockets fired from Gaza
Israeli army on Friday intercepted two rockets fired from the Gaza strip, while the third rocket fell near the Gaza border.The Anadolu Agency quoted an Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth as saying that air-raid sirens were sounded in the border communities of Sdot Negev and Shaar Hanegev."The Iron Dome air-defense system intercepted two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip," the newspaper reported."A third rocket landed on a structure in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council in southern Israel," it added.No casualties or material damage was reported.United States President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital has prompted international criticism and sparked protests across the world.Jerusalem is considered a sacred place, which is home to Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites.However, it is also a disputed territory, contested by both Israel and Palestine, which sees it as a capital of its future state.