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Bomb blast kills 1 person in Syrian border city, wounds several

A car bomb in the rebel-held city of Azaz in northwest Syria killed one civilian on Thursday and wounded several bystanders, witnesses said, in the first act of its kind this year.

A rescue worker said an improvised explosive device in a vehicle had been planted near a local transport office in the city, which lies near the Turkish border.

The city has been the site of several bombings in recent years.

Turkish-backed Arab rebels in Azaz and other parts of the enclave have blamed previous blasts on the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia that controls areas in nearby Tel Rifat and holds sway over swathes of Syria’s northeast.

Rebels say the blasts in markets and other public places killed scores of civilians last year, aiming to destabilise an area populated by more than 3 million Syrians who have fled government-controlled areas during Syria’s decades-long conflict.

Also read;Kazakhstan unrest destroys 50 administrative, 1,300 commercial

The YPG has accused Turkey of killing civilians in drone strikes during a war of attrition waged by Ankara over YPG-held territory in north Syria.

Turkey considers the YPG an extension of its Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Ankara designates as a terrorist group.

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NEWS & LIFE

Ugandan President speaks after Saturday bomb blast

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday said the perpetrators of the bomb attack in the capital Kampala on Saturday night will be arrested.

“It seems to be a terrorist act but we shall get the perpetrators.

The public should not fear, we shall defeat this criminality like we have defeated all the other criminality,’’ Museveni tweeted.

The president said the Police were at the scene in Komamboga, a Kampala suburb, and will provide more information later as well as release guidelines to the public on dealing with possible terrorist threats.

Museveni said available information shows that three people dropped off a polythene bag, which later exploded, killing one person and injuring five others.

The blast came days after the British and French embassies here issued a security alert to their citizens, warning of a terror attack

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS & LIFE

7 wounded as car explodes in Afghanistan

At least six members of the Afghan security forces and one civilian were wounded in an explosion in Kabul, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the blast, which struck on Tuesday night was caused by a car bomb.

A security official told dpa that a convoy belonging to the country’s intelligence agency was targeted in the attack.

The overnight bombing was so powerful that it was heard in most parts of the city.

In the morning, local media footage showed windows of nearby shops and houses damaged as a result of the explosion.

No group has, however, claimed responsibility for the incident.

Insurgent attacks, particularly by Taliban militants are a frequent occurrence in many parts of the country amid a slow-moving peace process.

U.S. President Joe Biden has announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept.11, several months after the May 1, deadline previously agreed with the Taliban.

In response, the militants announced they would not participate in a high-level Afghan peace conference in Turkey that had been set down to start on Saturday.

Amid the uncertainty swirling around those talks, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said late Tuesday the conference would be postponed until the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is mid-May.

Experts predict a devastating civil war if the warring sides fail to reach a political agreement before the complete withdrawal of international forces.

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INTERNATIONAL

Bomb blast kills Afghan female doctor

A bomb blast claimed the life of a female doctor in Jalalabad city, capital of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday, provincial government spokesman Ataullah Khogiani said.

The explosive device, planted in the cavities of a rickshaw, went off in Police District 3 in the morning rush hour.

The female gynaecologist was killed on the spot, the official said without providing more details.

It was the second attack in the past three days on female employees who work outside home in Jalalabad city.

Unknown armed men in the city gunned down three female employees of a local TV channel Enikas on Tuesday evening.

The hardliner Islamic State (IS) group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Nangarhar province with Jalalabad as its capital 120 km east of Kabul has been the scene of Taliban and the IS-led militancy over the past few years.

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INTERNATIONAL

Kabul bombing kills spokesman for state-sponsored security firm

A spokesman for an Afghan state-sponsored security firm and two of his colleagues were killed when a bomb went off as they were driving to work, the country’s interior ministry said on Sunday.

Zia Wadan, the spokesman for the National Public Protection Force (NPPF), and his colleagues were on their way to the office when the bomb went off, Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Ministry said.

It was not yet clear whether it was a magnetic bomb stuck to the car or a roadside bomb that was used in the attack and investigations were ongoing, Arian said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Arian blamed the Taliban for the incident.

NPPF is a semi-autonomous state security firm that provides services for national and international organisations as well as state and non-state economic projects throughout the country.

Kabul has seen a wave of targeted killings in recent weeks, with many of the victims’ journalists, civil society activists or media figures.

Afghan security forces have had little success in preventing such attacks.

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INTERNATIONAL

22 killed in Aden airport blast as Yemen’s unity gov’t arrives

A huge explosion at a main airport in Yemen’s southern city of Aden killed 22 people on Wednesday, shortly after a new unity government arrived at the facility from Saudi Arabia, the Interior Ministry said.

Fifty others were injured in the blast, the ministry added.

The injury included airport workers and people who were there to welcome members of the new government, the ministry said.

The Red Cross said three of its employees, two Yemeni and a Rwandan national, were killed in the blast and three more injured.

Two of the employees killed had originally been reported as unaccounted for.

“Our staff were transiting through the airport with other civilians. This is a tragic day for us and the people of #Yemen,” the humanitarian organisation tweeted.

In the wake of the blast, the members of government of the war-torn country were safely transferred to a presidential palace in Aden, a government official earlier told dpa.

So far, there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

However, Minister of Information Moammar al-Eryani blamed the explosion on Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthi rebels.

“We assure our [people] that all cabinet members (are) safe, & cowardly terrorist attack by Iran-backed Houthi militia on Aden airport will not deter us (from) our duty,” he tweeted in English.

The United Nations’ envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, condemned the attack.

“This unacceptable act of violence is a tragic reminder of the importance of bringing Yemen urgently back on the path towards peace,” he wrote on Twitter.

“The attacks were timed with the arrival of new Yemeni government officials and once again demonstrate the malicious intent of those trying to destabilize Yemen,” U.S. Department of State spokesperson Cale Brown said in a statement.

“Such attacks will not stop or undermine efforts to bring a lasting peace that the Yemeni people deserve,” he added.

Aden has been Yemen’s temporary capital since the Houthis overran the capital Sana’a in late 2014 in a devastating power struggle.

On Saturday, President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi swore in the new government that was formed under a power-sharing deal brokered by Saudi Arabia last year.

Reacting to the blast, Hadi, who is living in Saudi Arabia, called on the government to do its job from Aden.

“The terrorist acts carried out by the Houthi militias supported by Iran, and their militant terrorist groups will not discourage the legitimate government from undertaking its tasks from the temporary capital, Aden,” he said, according to Yemen’s official news agency Saba.

Hadi ordered a government probe, in coordination with a Saudi-led military coalition, Saba reported.

The 24-strong government includes members of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) as part of a bid to end a power struggle between the secessionists and loyalists to Hadi.

The new government represents Yemen’s northern and southern areas with an equal number of members from each region.

The STC, formed in 2017, is backed by the United Arab Emirates, while Hadi’s government is backed by Saudi Arabia.

Both are part of the Saudi-led coalition formed in 2015 to fight the Houthi rebels.

Yemen’s conflict has pushed the Arab country to the brink of famine and devastated its health facilities.

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INTERNATIONAL

Suicide bomber kills 2 Afghan security personnel

A suicide bomber has killed at least two Afghanistan security personnel and wounded three others, the Afghan Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday

The attack, it said, was carried out by a lone Taliban at a military base in Andar district of Ghazni.

“The Taliban attack was repelled and they suffered casualties too,“ the ministry said.

It added that the suicide bomber was, however, neutralised during the attack.

The Taliban suicide bomber had driven toward the base but was eliminated before he could reach his target, the ministry further added.

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INTERNATIONAL

Bomb blast in southern Afghanistan kills Journalist

Officials on Thursday confirmed that one local journalist Ilyas Dayee was killed by a bomb explosion in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province.

Dayee was killed after a small bomb attached to his vehicle went off in the provincial capital Lashkargah city, the provincial governor’s spokesman and a local politician told dpa.

His brother and two civilians including a child were injured in the incident.

Dayee worked as a reporter for “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty” in the volatile Helmand province for about 10 years, the station’s Kabul office manager, Rateb Noori, told dpa.

“He was one our best ones in the Radio. The pain is unbearable.’’

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion.

Since October, fierce fighting has surged in the province following a major Taliban offensive to overrun the provincial capital. Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.

On Saturday, a former and well-known TV presenter was killed in the capital in a similar attack.

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INTERNATIONAL

6 dead after suicide bombing at Somali mosque

At least six people were killed in a suicide bombing outside a mosque in Somalia’s port city of Kismayo on Friday, a regional official said.

“A suicide bomber wearing a heavy vest of explosives targeted the congregation at the Qaadim mosque in the centre of the town as people were leaving the mosque after performing Friday prayers,” said Abdinasir Gulled.

Another 20 people were injured in the attack, which may have been aimed at a provincial politician, Gulled said.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack on their Radio Andulus.

Al-Shabaab, which has ties to al-Qaeda, regularly launches attacks on government officials, journalists, prominent businessmen as well as civilians in the volatile nation in the Horn of Africa.

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INTERNATIONAL

3 killed, 41 wounded in Taliban truck bomb in Afghanistan

Taliban insurgents set off a truck bomb, on Tuesday, in an attack on Afghan army commandos, killing three people and wounding 41, the Defence Ministry said.

This is despite steps towards peace talks with the U.S.-backed government.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast in the northern province of Balkh, saying on Twitter they had attacked the commandos.

The defence ministry said two members of the commando force were killed and six wounded, while the rest of the casualties were civilians.

The blast came as a Taliban delegation visited the Pakistani capital to discuss a peace process underpinned by an agreement between the Taliban and the United States on the withdrawal of U.S. forces in exchange for Taliban security guarantees and a promise to open power-sharing talks with the government.

But despite what many Afghans see as the best hope for peace since the latest phase of Afghanistan’s war began in 2001, the level of violence has remained high.

Diplomats and officials say the violence is sapping the trust needed for talks.

The government has asked repeatedly for a ceasefire before negotiations start in Qatar’s capital of Doha, a request the Taliban have refused.

Diplomats say Pakistan, which has long had influence over different Afghan factions, including the Taliban, has in recent months been pushing for a reduction in violence.

It was not immediately clear what issues would be discussed in the talks between the Taliban and the Pakistanis in Islamabad.