Archive for month: October, 2014

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says more than 800 people have been killed during ongoing clashes between Kurdish fighters and Takfiri ISIL militants in the Syrian border town of Kobani.

The Britain-based monitoring group said on Sunday that 481 ISIL terrorists have been killed in exchange of fire with Kurdish forces, while 313 Kurds have lost their lives fighting to defend Kobani, known in Arabic as Ain al-Arab.

The figures do not include ISIL losses to US-led airstrikes, which the Pentagon alleges to stand at “several hundred.”

Also 21 civilians have been killed in Kobani ground fighting.

Meanwhile, the first contingent of forces from Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), known as Peshmerga, will head for Kobani on Sunday.

According to Kurdish media, 150 Peshmerga soldiers – led by Sihad Barzani, the brother of the KRG President Massoud Barzani and the commander of the region’s artillery brigade, will operate heavy weapons to provide cover for Syrian Kurdish fighters defending Kobani.

Kobani and its surroundings have been under attack since mid-September, with the ISIL militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages.

The ISIL advance in the region has forced tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds to flee into Turkey, which is a stone’s throw from Kobani.

MP/HJL/SS

QUETTA: Security forces foiled a major terrorism plot on Saturday when they seized a huge cache of arms and explosives from Balochistan’s Mastung district, a security official said.

The official, requesting anonymity, told Dawn.com that intelligence agencies acting on a tip-off conducted a raid at a house in Kanak area of Mastung district, some 50 kilometres southwest of Quetta.

He said a suspect was arrested during the raid and was shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

“One of the rooms was filled with explosive material,” he said, adding that forces also recovered arms and ammunition from the house.

“Forces did not face any resistance during the operation,” he said.

He said the intelligence suggested that the explosive material and weapons were being brought to Quetta to carry out terrorism activities during the holy month of Muharram.

Quetta, the capital of insurgency-hit Balochistan province, has been plagued by rising sectarian violence in recent years.

The raid by security forces follows major acts of terrorism in the city earlier this week, which included a suicide bombing on Maulana Fazlur Rehman – the leader of the largest religious political party in Pakistan’s parliament – who escaped unhurt in the attack.

Terror stalked the provincial capital on Thursday when three separate gun-and-bomb attacks claimed at least 13 lives.

A deadly gun attack on a bus killed eight members of the ethnic Hazara Shia community, which has been a constant target of sectarian militants. A planted bomb attack on security forces later on Thursday claimed the lives of three more civilians.

Banned militant group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attempt on the JUI-F chief’s life, while sectarian militants Lashkar-i-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Hazara community and security forces.

Earlier today, the Balochistan police department constituted three teams headed by two senior officers to probe the recent acts of terrorism in the capital.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta, Razzaq Cheema formed investigation teams headed by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Asad Raza and SSP Operations Aitzaz Goraya, to probe the recent incidents in Quetta.

According to a senior police officer, the CCPO entrusted the task of investigation to both officers and directed them to submit reports as early as possible.

“Investigation teams have collected body parts of the suicide-bomber from the spot and has sent them for DNA testing to Lahore,” he said.

Members of the investigative teams also visited the spot of the suicide bombing on the Jamit Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) rally to collect clues regarding the attack.

Chief Minister Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch had taken serious notice of the terrorism incidents and had ordered police to catch the culprits.

“We have got leads in one case,” said Quetta Police chief Razzaq Cheema.

He said that police had detained around 30 suspects, who were currently under interrogation.

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Iran’s Majlis (parliament) will hold a vote of confidence on President Hassan Rouhani’s nominee for minister of science, research and technology on October 29.

Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday that lawmakers will examine the qualifications for Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabadi, who was proposed by President Rouhani.

In a letter to Larijani, Rouhani nominated Nili Ahmadabadi as his proposed minister according to Article 133 of Iran’s Constitution.

Nili Ahmadabadi is a professor of metallurgy at the University of Tehran, and the current chancellor of the prestigious institution.

Iran’s parliament impeached the former minister, Reza Faraji-Dana, in August.

Faraji-Dana failed to obtain a vote of confidence as 145 lawmakers voted in favor of his dismissal, while 110 were against and 15 abstained. Faraji-Dana needed half plus one of the votes to remain in his post.

Faraji-Dana was accused of politicizing the academic environment. He was also criticized for appointing some political figures as his advisors and deputies, and following policies that ran counter to the country’s interests and impeded science production.

DB/HSN/KA

A senior Iranian oil official says the country plans to increase its crude oil production to 4.3 million barrels per day (bpd) soon, amid hopes for the removal of anti-Iran sanctions.

“In the near future, Iran’s oil production capacity will reach 4.3 million barrels,” Mansour Moazzami, the Iranian deputy oil minister for planning and supervision on hydrocarbon resources, said at a Sunday conference in Tehran.

The official also pointed to Iran’s current refining capacity of 1.8 million bpd and noted that the figure will rise to three million in the next few years.

Meanwhile, Iran has increased its natural gas production by 100 million cubic meters and, apart from exports to Iraq, Oman and Turkey, the country has no problem meeting its domestic needs during the cold season, Moazzami pointed out.

In May, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said oil production capacity of the Islamic Republic would reach four million bpd by the end of the current Persian calendar year in March 2015.

Iran will be capable of extracting from its oil reservoirs for the next six decades as the country’s proven oil reserves are estimated at 157 billion barrels, the NIOC says.

Tehran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, Russia, Britain, France, and the United States – plus Germany are drafting a final deal on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program with a view to removing sanctions against Iran, notably its oil sector.

The two sides clinched a landmark interim deal in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24, 2013.

ASH/MKA/KA