Middle East Brutality

OUR DAILY MIDDLE EAST VIOLENCE 21.03.2014…….

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Journalist Among 9 Killed in Afghan Attack

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and AZAM AHMED

KABUL, Afghanistan — Handguns tucked into their socks, four gunmen slipped inside the luxurious Serena Hotel in Kabul on Thursday night and launched an attack that killed at least nine people, including four foreigners. Among the dead were an Afghan journalist and four members of his family who were celebrating the Persian New Year and a former Paraguayan diplomat who had come to Afghanistan to observe next month’s elections.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, reinforcing fears that the election to replace President Hamid Karzai will be accompanied by widening bloodshed. A series of attacks have made it apparent that Afghan and foreign civilians are likely to bear the brunt of the violence, which in the past two weeks has ranged from a suicide bombing at a bazaar in northern Afghanistan to an assassination of a Swedish journalist on a crowded Kabul street.

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Two army officers, teenager killed in violence in Egypt

BY MICHAEL GEORGY AND YASMINE SALEH

CAIRO Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:19pm EDT

Riot police throw stones at the entrance of the al-Azhar University Campus during clashes with female university students, who are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, in Cairo's Nasr City district, March 19, 2014. REUTERS-Amr Abdallah Dalsh
1 OF 4. Riot police attempt to break open the entrance of the al-Azhar University Campus during clashes with female university students, who are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, in Cairo’s Nasr City district, March 19, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/AMR ABDALLAH DALSH

(Reuters) – Ten people were killed in violence across Egypt on Wednesday, months ahead of a presidential vote meant to put Egypt back on a democratic path after last July’s army takeover.

In Qalubiya province, north of Cairo, two soldiers were killed in a shootout with Islamist militants, the Interior Ministry said, adding that six militants were killed and eight arrested in a raid on a weapons storage facility.

A 13-year-old boy was shot dead in southern Egypt and one man was killed in Cairo, both in clashes between police and supporters of deposed elected President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, the health ministry said.

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Five killed in north Lebanon in spillover from Syria war

TRIPOLI, Lebanon Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:01am EDT

Lebanese army soldiers inspect a site of a roadside bomb, that exploded when the army was patrolling overnight the area in Tripoli, northern Lebanon March 21, 2014. REUTERS-Stringer

1 OF 3. Civilians inspect a site of a roadside bomb, that exploded when the army was patrolling overnight the area in Tripoli, northern Lebanon March 21, 2014.

(Reuters) – Five people were killed in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday in fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, security and medical sources said.

Tripoli, like much of Lebanon, is divided along sectarian lines and is only 30 miles from the Syrian border. Its majority Sunni Muslims, who back the Syrian rebels, often clash with the minority from Assad’s Alawite sect.

Two gunmen were wounded in overnight clashes between fighters from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite neighborhood of Jebel Mohsen and died of their wounds, the sources said. Three civilians, including an elderly man, were shot dead by snipers on Friday, they said. Eleven others were wounded.

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27 killed across Iraq as militants seize village

March 21, 2014 12:37 PM (Last updated: March 21, 2014 04:02 PM)

By Marwan Ibrahim

Al Qaeda fighters celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces on a main street in Fallujah, 70 km (43 miles) west of Baghdad, March 20, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer

Al Qaeda fighters celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces on a main street in Fallujah, 70 km (43 miles) west of Baghdad, March 20, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer

KIRKUK, Iraq: Militants seized a village in north Iraq on Friday as attacks nationwide killed 27 people, including at least 10 policemen, amid a surge in bloodshed ahead of parliamentary elections.

The latest unrest comes barely a week before campaigning begins for the April 30 election due to take place as Iraq grapples with its worst protracted bloodletting since a brutal 2006-07 Sunni-Shiite sectarian war in which tens of thousands of people were killed.

The unrest has been primarily driven by anger among the minority Sunni Arab community, which alleges discrimination at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces, as well as by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Shootings and bombings on Friday mostly took place in Sunni-majority parts of northern and western Iraq, killing 27 people and wounding more than 50, security and medical officials said.

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South Sudan: Lakes – 15 People Killed in Rumbek East Revenge Attacks

Rumbek — Inter-clan clashes intensified in Lakes state’s Rumbek East county on Thursday, leaving more than 10 people dead and dozens with gunshot wounds in the remote area of Malual-acuooth.

The clashes erupted between the Kook-awach and Kook-ker Pacuar sections of the Dinka tribe, according to the South Sudanese police, and are part of a cycle of revenge attacks dating back to August last year when two teachers were killed at Mathiang primary school.

On Tuesday, Manier Mapuor Agok, who some people believed to have been a suspect in the murders, was shot and killed in the Ayen-mayar area.

A senior police officer in Rumbek East county told Sudan Tribune on the condition of anonymity that 15 people were killed, with both sides suffering casualties. Dozens of people who sustained gunshot wounds undergoing treatment in separate hospitals, he added.

A local, who also did not want to be named, told Sudan Tribune that the Lakes state government had not been able to separate the armed civilians.

More here.

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