Egypt Police Clash With Islamist Backers, 2 Killed
An Egyptian security official says riot police and local residents have clashed with supporters of the ousted Islamist president holding weekly demonstrations denouncing the military, killing two.
The official says that a 38-year-old man was shot dead in the Nile Delta city of Damietta when supporters of former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi clashed with residents.
A second 12-year-old child was killed when he was standing in his balcony in the southern city of Minya, where security forces fired tear gas and pellets to disperse protesters, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.
Car bomb outside mosque in Syria kills dozens
By DIAA HADID and BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press | February 14, 2014 | Updated: February 14, 2014 8:22pm
BEIRUT (AP) — A car bomb blew up outside a mosque in a rebel-held village in southern Syria as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers, killing dozens of people and filling clinics and hospitals with the wounded, anti-government activists said.
The explosion in Yadouda charred vehicles parked nearby and damaged the mosque, which has a white dome, according to video images posted by activists who are fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.
Yadouda is in the southern province of Daraa, the birthplace of the uprising against Assad that began with peaceful protests in March 2011 and morphed into a civil war that has killed more than 130,000 people.
The motive for Friday’s blast could not immediately be determined and activists provided varying death tolls ranging from 29 to 43. State-run TV confirmed the bombing but said only 3 people were killed.
Car bombs have frequently been used by Islamic extremists both against the government and against moderate rivals in the Sunni-led opposition movement. Government forces also have been known to use explosive-packed vehicles and the two sides frequently trade blame in attacks targeting mosques.
BEIRUT (AP) — A car bomb blew up outside a mosque in a rebel-held village in southern Syria as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers, killing dozens of people and filling clinics and hospitals with the wounded, anti-government activists said.
The explosion in Yadouda charred vehicles parked nearby and damaged the mosque, which has a white dome, according to video images posted by activists who are fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.
(More videos in comments)
10 Killed in bombing in western Iraq
At least 10 members of Iraqi security forces died Friday when a suicide attacker drove a truck filled with explosives into a barracks in Ramadi, capital of the conflictive western province of Anbar.
Among the victims were soldiers and members of the pro-government Sunni militias known as Salvation Councils, a security official in Anbar told Efe.
The powerful explosion also laid waste to the building and the vehicles parked around it, the official said.
The incident came after seven soldiers died Friday morning in a car-bomb attack against a checkpoint in Fallujah, Anbar’s second city.
Taliban commander killed in Afghanistan
February 14, 2014 · 0 Comments · 58 Total Views · http://www.canindia.com/424kz
Kabul, Feb 14 (IANS) A Taliban commander named Mullah Zahid was killed Friday in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, police said.
“A group of Taliban rebels under Mullah Zahid raided a police checkpoint in Noorgul district in the early hours of Friday and police returned fire, killing Zahid on the spot and leading other militants to flee,” provincial police chief Habib Sayedkhili told Xinhua.
Yemen: 7 Killed in Attack on Prison, 29 Escape
Heavily armed militants attacked Yemen’s main prison in central Sanaa on Thursday, killing seven people and helping 29 inmates escape, many of them convicts in terrorism-related charges, the country’s state news agency reported.
The attack started with a car bomb explosion, then militants exchanged heavy gunfire with the guards at the Sanaa Central Prison, and a number of prisoners fled amid the chaos, according to SABA. A security official said authorities suspect it was an inside job.
Among the 29 who fled, 19 are convicted al-Qiada prisoners including those plotting the assassinations of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and western diplomats, the official said. He said those killed in the exchange of gunfire were mostly security forces.
Witnesses said earlier that explosions rocked the capital and smoke billowed into the sky. Security forces and army troops have been deployed to the site of the attack and sealed off the whole area. The prison, housing thousands of inmates, is on the main road leading to the airport, which was closed.
9 anti-Taliban fighters killed execution-style in Pakistan
The violence in Peshawar targets a family that has helped fight the Taliban in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Nine members of an anti-Taliban militia were killed execution-style at a house on the outskirts of this troubled provincial capital, in the latest violence to mar the Pakistani government’s effort to open peace talks with outlawed Islamist militants.
Police said most of the victims were members of the same family, which had belonged to a local committee that helped law enforcement agencies track and thwart the movements of militant groups in the area.
The militias were established in 2008 after a surge in militant activity in Peshawar and other parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, with authorities providing guns and ammunition to volunteers who conducted patrols in their areas. Committee members, however, said the police and government had withdrawn their support in recent years, allowing militants to retaliate against them.
The attack Wednesday was one of the deadliest in a week that has seen some of the worst violence in Peshawar in months. A day earlier, grenades exploded in a movie theater known for showing pornographic films, killing 11 people and wounding 17.
Though no group immediately claimed responsibility for either attack, analysts said the violence indicated that some elements of the Pakistani Taliban — the federation of Islamist groups whose central leadership has agreed to begin peace talks with the government — were trying to spoil negotiations.
