Archive for month: October, 2014

A bomb attack targeting a bus station in Nigeria’s northern state of Bauchi has killed at least five people and injured a dozen others.

Bauchi police sources said the deadly bombing was carried out in the town of Azare at 9:45 p.m. local time (2045 GMT) on Wednesday.

“Five persons burned beyond recognition were certified dead, while 12 others sustained various degrees of injuries,” Bauchi police spokesman Haruna Mohammed said.

The site of the attack has been sealed off and an investigation has been launched into the bombing, Mohammed stated, adding, “No arrest has yet been made.”

Several witnesses, meanwhile, said they believed the bomb had been placed in a parked car and was set off remotely.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the fatal attack, but the Boko Haram Takfiri group could be a culprit since it has carried out deadly attacks in Nigeria with the aim of overthrowing the government in Abuja.

Recently, the Nigerian government announced that it has reached a temporary truce with the group in an effort to secure the release of over 200 school girls they have been holding hostage.

Boko Haram kidnapped some 276 girls from their dormitories at the Government Girls Secondary School in the remote town of Chibok in the volatile Borno State in northeastern Nigeria in April.

Fifty-seven of the girls managed to escape, while Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau later threatened to sell the others into slavery.

Negotiations over the release of the school girls are under way between representatives of the government and Boko Haram in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena.

MR/HSN/KA

Angry Kashmir residents have shut down businesses and shops in protest against a visit by India’s prime minister to the flood-stricken region.

Pro-independence activists took part in the protest on Thursday by closing their shops and businesses in the city of Srinagar, where police and paramilitary soldiers have been stationed to prevent demonstrations.

Security forces erected steel barricades along main roads. Separatist leaders were under house arrest in order to prevent any further protest activities.

On Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with aid groups and political parties to find ways to bring help to thousands of Kashmiris left homeless by a recent devastating flood.

Kashmiri residents, however, say the Indian government has failed to adequately address the natural disaster.

Over 280 people have lost their lives in the recent floods, which caused an estimated USD 17 billion in damage to homes and businesses.

Earlier in September, over 270 people died in Indian-administered Kashmir when monsoon floods inundated the Himalayan region, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan in full.

GMA/HSN/KA

A senior Iranian commander says the power of the United States in the Middle East has diminished while the Islamic Republic has turned into the region’s main player.

“The US has become marginalized from a major player in the region and instead the Islamic [Republic of] Iran has become this sensitive region’s most important administrator…,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said in the central city of Isfahan on Thursday.

Elsewhere in his comments, Salami highlighted Iran’s power in the region, saying, “Today our first strongholds have been located in Eastern Mediterranean and Iran has turned into a global hub in politics.”

Arrogant powers used all their capacities to prevent the formation of new powers that went against their interests throughout history and they applied “the most severe type of these measures” in the case of the Islamic Republic throughout the past three decades and more, the commander added.

“Today we have no fear of international powers and we have lined up our might in the face of their excessive demands,” he further pointed out.

In recent years, Iran has made major breakthroughs in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing important military equipment and systems.

The Islamic Republic has also conducted military drills to enhance the defense capabilities of its military and to test modern military tactics and equipment.

Iran has repeatedly said that its military might poses no threat to other countries, reiterating that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.

SSM/HMV/KA

At least four people have lost their lives after clashes erupted between the Lebanese army and Syrian militants in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

The deadly Thursday clashes took place after the Lebanese military forces attacked an apartment in the village of Aasun in the Dinniyeh region of Tripoli, said the country’s security sources.

The operation was reportedly launched to capture a fugitive Lebanese soldier who has recently announced his defection from the army.

The Lebanese army also arrested two Takfiri militants accused of beheading captive Lebanese soldiers, the security sources added.

The al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and the ISIL Takfiri militants overran the city of Arsal, situated 124 kilometers (77 miles) northeast of the capital, Beirut, in August, abducting more than three dozen soldiers and security forces. They have executed at least three of the hostages.

The Takfiri terrorists demand the release of a number of militants in Lebanese jails in exchange for the captive Lebanese soldiers and policemen.

Over the past months, Lebanon has been suffering from terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda-affiliated militants as well as random rocket attacks, which are viewed as a spillover of the conflict in Syria.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011 with ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently controlling parts of it mostly in the east and north.

FNR/HMV/SS

The US-led coalition has reportedly launched four airstrikes on an oil field in eastern Syria.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the airstrikes targeted oil wells in Syria’s eastern province of Deir ez-Zor near the Iraqi border on Wednesday.

The United States and its allies claim the airstrikes on oil facilities aim to take out ISIL Takfiri militants’ main source of income. However, the attacks have largely destroyed the Syrian infrastructure so far.

US-led airstrikes have so far claimed the lives of 553 people, said the UK-based observatory, which is affiliated to the adversaries of the Syrian government.

According to reports, over 50 Syrian civilians are also among the fatalities.

Since September 22, the US and its allies have been conducting airstrikes against the ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. The airstrikes are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against ISIL positions in Iraq.

Washington has been supporting the militants operating against the government in Syria since March 2011. Many ISIL terrorists have reportedly received training by the CIA in Jordan and Turkey. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been also staunch supporters of militants fighting the Syrian government.

The ISIL militants have seized large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, terrorizing all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians, in the areas they are controlling.

FNR/HMV/SS