Tag Archives: Islamic State

Arrested militants planned attack on Paris railway station, France says

French police investigate

By Gérard Bon

PARIS (Reuters) – Three women arrested in connection with a car loaded with gas cylinders found in a side road near Notre Dame cathedral had been planning an attack on a Paris railway station, the French interior ministry said.

“An alert has been issued to all stations but they had planned to attack the Gare de Lyon on Thursday,” a ministry official said on Friday after the arrests overnight.

The Gare de Lyon station is in the southeast of the capital, less than 3 kilometers from the cathedral which marks the center.

The official also said the youngest of the three women, a 19 year-old whose father was the owner of the car and who was already suspected by police of wanting to go and fight for Islamic State in Syria, had written a letter pledging allegiance to the militant Islamist group.

The discovery on Saturday night of the Peugeot 607 laden with seven gas cylinders, six of them full, triggered a terrorism investigation and revived fears about further attacks in a country where Islamist militants have killed more than 230 people since January, 2015.

Scores of religiously radicalize people of French and other nationalities are in Syria and Iraq fighting for Islamic State. Many of those involved in recent attacks in France have either taken part in the fighting or had plans to.

France is among the countries bombing Islamic State strongholds, and the group has urged supporters to launch more attacks on French soil.

One of the women stabbed a police officer during her arrest before being shot and wounded, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said late on Thursday. Other officials said it was the teenager who attacked the officer.

TV footage showed a policeman leaving the scene of the arrests on the outskirst of Paris carrying a large knife.

Police sources said no detonator had been found in the car, though the vehicle also contained three jerry cans of diesel fuel.

When it was found in the early hours of Sunday morning the car had no registration plates and was left with its hazard lights flashing.

“These three women aged 39, 23 and 19 had been radicalize, were fanatics and were in all likelihood preparing an imminent, violent act,” Cazeneuve said in a televised statement. They bring to seven the number of people detained since Tuesday.

The arrests took place in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, some 30 km (20 miles) south-east of Paris.

The car’s owner was taken into custody earlier this week but later released. He had gone to police on Sunday to report that his daughter had disappeared with his car, officials said.

(Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier; Writing by Andrew Callus; Editing by Richard Lough and Toby Chopra)

Mosul battle plans ready, could be concluded by year-end – Kurdish leader

US soldiers walking in Middle East

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Military plans to retake Mosul from Islamic State are ready and the northern Iraqi city might be recaptured before the end of the year, the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Friday.

The army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, will conduct the offensive but the role of pro-government militias has not been determined, Massoud Barzani said in an interview with France 24.

“There have been multiple meetings between leaders of the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army. They have finally agreed on the military plan and the role of each side,” Barzani said, without providing details.

Barzani said the timing for launching the push on Mosul, 360 km(240 miles) north of Baghdad, had not been determined, though Iraqi commanders have said it could begin as soon as late October.

Mosul, the largest city in Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate, was taken by the jihadists in 2014 when Iraqi security forces dropped their weapons and fled.

Since then, peshmerga have entrenched in its eastern and northern outskirts while retrained Iraqi forces have advanced to Qayyara, 60 km south of the city, last month.

Mosul, a mosaic of diverse ethnic and sectarian communities, poses challenges to war-planners, including which forces will participate in the battle and how the city will be governed after.

Barzani said Shi’ite Muslim militias and a Sunni militia run by former Mosul governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, which have pledged to take part in the offensive, had not yet been given a role.

“Regarding the Hashid Shaabi or the Hashid Watani, there must be an understanding between these forces and the residents of the Mosul area. Until now that does not exist,” he said.

The Hashid Shaabi is an government umbrella for mostly Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias, and the Hashid Watani is made up mainly of former local police and volunteers from Mosul who have been trained by Turkey.

Asked if the city could be retaken by the end of 2016, Barzani said: “It is possible, but the post-liberation period must be prepared for.”

“It is very important for us to have certain guarantees that this tragedy will not be repeated in the future,” he said. “So we must agree with Baghdad and with the local people as well, how can we ensure that what happened will not be repeated?”

(Reporting by Saif Hameed; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Syrians begin returning home, two weeks into Turkish offensive

A member of Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) is seen with local people in the border town of Jarablus, Syria,

By Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A group of 292 Syrians went back to the Syrian town of Jarablus from Turkey on Wednesday, marking the first formal return of civilians since Ankara launched a military incursion two weeks ago to try to secure the border region, a Turkish official said.

Jarablus, which had been held by Islamic State, was the first town captured by Turkey’s army and its Syrian rebel allies in an offensive launched on Aug. 24 that aims to sweep away jihadists and Syrian Kurdish militias from the frontier.

Turkey has said it cleared militants from a 90-km (56-mile) stretch of Syrian territory and has pushed south. It has also said it would support any U.S. initiative to strike Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa, further to the southeast.

But Turkey’s tactics have drawn criticism from its NATO ally the United States and also from Russia, with which it recently patched up ties.

Washington says Turkish attacks on Kurdish-aligned militias damage a U.S.-backed coalition that is fighting Islamic State. Russia, which backs the government in Damascus, said on Wednesday Ankara’s push south threatened Syria’s sovereignty.

“We call on Ankara to refrain from any steps which can further destabilize the situation in Syria,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Turkey, which hosts 3 million Syrian refugees, has urged world powers to back plans for a “safe zone” in north Syria to stem the flow of migrants and to allow Syrians to return home.

Although it has failed to win support for the idea, Ankara has pressed on with its offensive to carve out a swathe of territory under the control of the Turkish army and its allies, the Free Syrian Army, allowing some civilians to return home.

“The formal returns have begun today,” said a spokesman at the governor’s office for the southern Turkish province of Gaziantep, which lies across the border from Jarablus.

He said there were 292 people in the first group of registered returnees, including women, children and the elderly. More would be allowed to return but only gradually, he added.

To encourage returnees, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Turkey would supply mains power to Jarablus on Saturday, followed by water supplies two days later. Power supplies across Syria have been severely disrupted by the war.

“TOO INSECURE”

“Turkey has supported us in every way until now, and has now saved our homeland,” said Fatima Mahmud, a mother who was among the group, told the Turkish newspaper Milliyet.

The United Nations has said an area can only be declared a “safe zone” if the protection of civilians can be guaranteed. It has previously cautioned against encouraging returns too soon.

“Currently, conflict lines are too insecure for many of the town’s displaced to return safely,” the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report last week, referring to Jarablus which had a pre-war population of about 27,500 people.

South and west of Jarablus, Turkish forces have continued fighting. The deputy prime minister said four Turkish soldiers had been killed and 19 wounded in the two-week offensive.

Turkey has repeatedly demanded that the Kurdish YPG militia withdraw to the eastern side of the Euphrates, where there is a Kurdish-controlled canton. Ankara sees the YPG as an extension of the PKK which is fighting an insurgency on Turkish soil.

The YPG says its troops have long since withdrawn from areas being targeted by Turkish-backed forces. Canikli told a news conference on Wednesday that the YPG had not yet completely pulled back east.

The army said Turkey’s rebel allies had taken six more villages, located in Islamic State-held areas, adding to dozens of settlements now under the control of Turkish-backed forces.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had told U.S. President Barack Obama that Turkey would support a joint operation to capture Raqqa, the Syrian city that is Islamic State’s de facto capital, Canikli said.

Erdogan earlier said Obama had floated the idea of such cooperation during meetings at a summit of G20 leaders in China this week, the daily Hurriyet reported. The president had said a specific Turkish role would depend on further talks.

U.S. officials have welcomed Turkish efforts to dislodge Islamic State but voiced concern when Turkish troops engaged fighters aligned with the Kurdish YPG militia, a force Washington sees as a valuable ally in battling jihadists.

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Lidia Kelly in Moscow,; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Alison Williams)

U.S. Russia work on Syria truce as Islamic State blasts kill dozens

Syrian army soldiers and civilians inspect the site of two explosions that hit the Arzouna bridge area at the entrance to Tartous

By Lisa Barrington and Roberta Rampton

BEIRUT/HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – The United States and Russia will work in the next few days on a deal to curb fighting in Syria and build cooperation in the fight against terrorism, their leaders said on Monday, as blasts claimed by Islamic State killed dozens across the Arab nation.

The former Cold War enemies have been trying to broker a new truce after a ceasefire agreed in February unravelled in weeks, with Washington accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces – which are backed by Russia – of violating the pact.

U.S. President Barack Obama described talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as tough but productive after their meeting at the G20 summit in China. Putin said the two men had understood each other and an agreement on ways to significantly reduce the violence in Syria could be reached in days.

“We have had some productive conversations about what a real cessation of hostilities would look like, that would allow us both, the United States and Russia, to focus our attention on common enemies, like ISIL and Nusra,” Obama said, referring to Islamic State and the hardline Nusra Front.

“We haven’t yet closed the gaps in a way where we think it would actually work,” he said, but added that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov would “keep working at it over the next several days”.

Putin told journalists there was a convergence of views between Russia and the United States. He said it was premature to give details about the terms of an agreement, but that the two nations would strengthen cooperation on fighting terrorism.

Truce talks were complicated on Sunday as government forces and their allies laid siege to the rebel-held eastern side of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war which Assad is determined to fully recapture. His gains have relied heavily on Russian air support since September last year.

Adding to the carnage, six blasts on Monday hit west of Damascus and the government-held cities of Homs and Tartous, as well as the Kurdish-controlled northeastern province of Hasaka, state media and a monitoring group said.

Islamic State fighters carried the out suicide attacks, its Amaq news agency said on Monday.

CONFLICTING AGENDAS

More than five years of civil war have cut Syria into a patchwork of territories held by the government and an often competing array of armed factions, including Kurdish militia fighters, a loose coalition of rebels groups, and Islamic State.

Obama and Putin discussed getting humanitarian aid into the country, reducing violence, and cooperating on combating militant groups, the U.S. administration official said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he was working with the U.S.-led coalition and Russia to try to establish a ceasefire in Aleppo before the Eid al-Adha religious holiday expected to start around Sept. 11.

But in talks earlier on Monday, Kerry and Lavrov were unable to come to terms on a truce for the second time in two weeks, with U.S. officials stressing they would walk away if a pact could not be reached soon.

Russia says it cannot agree to a deal unless opposition fighters, backed by the United States and Middle East allies, are separated from al Qaeda-linked militants they overlap with in some areas. For Washington, the priority is stabilising Syria so as to destroy Islamic State.

NATO Turkey ally on Sunday said rebels it was backing had gained control of all areas on its border that had been held by the jihadists, depriving the ultra-hardline Islamist group of its main route to the outside world.

The announcement came some 10 days after Turkey launched its first major military incursion into Syria since the start of the war in 2011, an operation aimed as much at preventing further Kurdish territorial gains as at driving back Islamic State.

“Syrian citizens in our country and those would want to migrate from Syria can now live more peacefully in their own land,” Erdogan said, adding the Turkish incursion posed no threat to Syria’s territorial integrity.

He renewed calls for an internationally-policed “no-fly zone” to protect displaced civilians and help stem refugee flows. But the idea, which he also raised at a G20 summit in Turkey a year ago, has failed to gain traction with Western allies who fear it would mean a deeper military commitment.

DOZENS KILLED

Two of the explosions on Monday hit the Arzouna bridge area at the entrance to the Mediterranean city of Tartous, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state news agency SANA said. The Observatory and a city hospital put the death toll at 35.

Syrian state television said the first explosion was a car bomb and the second a suicide belt detonated as rescue workers arrived. The blasts hit during a summer festival at Tartous, whose beaches recently featured in a government tourism video.

A car bomb meanwhile struck the city of Homs, around 80 km (50 miles) east of Tartous. The Observatory said the explosion hit an army checkpoint and four officers were killed.

West of Damascus, there was an explosion near the town of al Saboura, killing one person and injuring three, according to a police commander quoted by state media.

A motorbike also exploded in the centre of the northeastern city of Hasaka, which is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia. The Observatory said the blast killed three members of a YPG-affiliated security force and that a percussion bomb also went off in the province’s Qamishli city.

The Kurdish YPG militia, a critical part of the U.S.-backed campaign against Islamic State, took almost complete control of Hasaka city in late August after a week of fighting with the government.

The YPG controls swathes of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syrian war, much to the alarm of neighbouring Turkey, which fears the creation of a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria would fuel Kurdish separatist ambitions at home.

Ankara has demanded that Kurdish militia fighters remain east of the Euphrates river, something Washington has promised they will do. Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition, visited Syria last week and emphasised “the need for strict adherence to prior commitments, a State Department spokeswoman said.

(Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Lesley Wroughton and Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Vladimir Soldatkin in Hangzhou, Humeyra Pamuk and Edmund Blair in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Giles Elgood and Anna Willard)

Pakistan says it foiled Islamic State expansion into country

Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, the military's top spokesman speaks during a news conference in Rawalpindi, Pakistan,

By Kay Johnson and Asad Hashim

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan’s military on Thursday said it has crushed Islamic State’s attempt to expand there, dismissing as propaganda claims by the Middle East-based Islamist militants that they had carried out a major bombing last month.

The comments were, however, a rare acknowledgment by a senior Pakistani official that Islamic State, mainly based in Syria and Iraq, has had any active presence in a country that is home to myriad militant groups including the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban, al Qaeda and the Haqqani network.

Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, the military’s top spokesman, also rejected U.S. complaints that it was not acting against the Haqqani network, suspected of carrying out suicide bomb attacks in Kabul, saying Pakistan was pursuing an “indiscriminate operation” against all militants.

Pakistani authorities have so far arrested 309 people associated with Islamic State (IS) on its territory, he said. They were involved in attacks on media and security personnel, and were planning attacks on government, diplomatic and civilian targets, he added.

“They tried to make an ingress, and they failed and they have been apprehended so far,” Bajwa said.

Most of those captured by Pakistan were established Pakistani jihadists who had switched loyalties to Islamic State’s self-proclaimed worldwide caliphate, but about 25 were foreigners including Afghans and some Syrians, he said.

Bajwa said that of a core group of 20 organizers, “we have captured all of them, except for one who I am sure is not in Pakistan”.

He said IS fighters were still present in the Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Khost and Kunar, which lie along the border with Pakistan.

The movement’s leader for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed Khan, was killed last month by a U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan.

International concern that Islamic State was establishing an operational presence in Pakistan increased after the group said it carried out a suicide bombing at a hospital in the city of Quetta that killed more than 70 people.

However, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban also claimed the hospital bombing and Bajwa said he believed the Islamic State statement was false.

“We haven’t got any evidence of involvement by Daesh. I think this was just an attempt to glorify themselves,” he said, using the name by which IS is also known.

“NO GOOD OR BAD TALIBAN”

The military spokesman also dismissed U.S. concerns that Pakistan has been selectively targeting militant groups on its soil.

“There is no concept of good or bad Taliban,” he said.

“Terrorists of all organizations, including Haqqanis, including Afghan Taliban, have been killed and some apprehended … so if you say that you know actions have not been taken or (are) not being taken, that is wrong.”

He spoke a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Islamabad to push harder against militants hiding within its borders.

The United States has criticized Pakistan in the past for not acting against those groups, and last month it refused to release $300 million in military disbursements for that reason.

Critics say Pakistan has targeted only militants who attack its own state, not those active in neighboring Afghanistan and India.

Pakistan has been fighting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of militants fighting to impose strict Islamic law in Pakistan, since 2007.

It is also home to other armed groups, such as the Haqqani network and Afghan Taliban, who fight international forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Bajwa criticized international and local security forces in Afghanistan for not sealing the border when the Pakistan army began the latest phase of its military offensive against Pakistan-based militants in July 2014.

“Before the operation started, Pakistan had informed all stakeholders at all levels, political, diplomatic, military … We told them that you will have to take action … and that did not happen unfortunately,” he said.

He also released rare figures on progress in its anti-militant operation, saying more than 3,500 had been killed. He added that 516 soldiers had also been killed and 2,272 wounded.

It is difficult to verify those figures independently, as access to the conflict zone is heavily restricted.

“We have paid $106.9 billion (on) this war … If anyone points a finger at Pakistan or casts an eye of suspicion on Pakistan, they need to know this cost,” said Bajwa.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Orlando 911 calls tell of fear inside and outside of Pulse club

The Pulse night club sign is pictured through a fence following the mass shooting there last week in Orlando, Florida, U.S., June 21,

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – Panicked callers to 911 during June’s mass shooting in Orlando told police of buildings hit by stray bullets and wounded friends stuck inside the gay nightclub where a gunman pledging allegiance to Islamic State killed 49 people.

“Gun shots were just like crazy,” one caller outside the club told 911 operators, according to partial transcripts of the calls that were released on Tuesday.

Shooter Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 at the Pulse nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

One neighbor near Pulse told 911 operators people were banging on his door to escape the shooting and others were seeking cover behind parked cars.

People reported on the carnage inside the club.

“One of our friends sent us a text and he said that he’s been shot and he’s in the bathroom and no one sees him,” one caller told 911.

A woman told an operator her husband was in the club and he reported shooting.

“He told me he cannot get out. He’s over there (and) he said he cannot get out,” the woman said.

A man said: “I just got home from the Pulse club … My friends texted me (to) tell me there is a shooting going (on) A lot of my friends got shot.”

The operator responds by saying not to text or call the friend.

Authorities did not release the names of those who called 911 or those who were mentioned as being inside the club.

Mateen, 29, was killed by police inside the nightclub.

He pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State militant group during the rampage in which he used an assault rifle and pistol that had been legally purchased although he had twice been investigated by the FBI for possible connections with militant Islamist groups.

U.S. authorities believe that Mateen, who lived in Fort Pierce, Florida, with his wife and young child, was self-radicalized and acted alone without assistance or orders from abroad.

(Reporting by Barbara Liston; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Alistair Bell)

U.S. sets up ‘communications channels’ for crowded Syria war

A general view shows a damaged street with sandbags used as barriers in Aleppo's Saif al-Dawla

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State, eager to avoid more clashes between Turkey and U.S.-backed Syrian fighters, is establishing communications channels to better coordinate in a “crowded battlespace,” the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

“The improved coordination of armed activities in Northern Syria will seek to assure the safety of all forces,” said Pentagon spokesman Matthew Allen. “We will not discuss coordination and de-confliction procedures in detail in the interest of preserving operational security.”

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Turkey signals no let up in Syria campaign despite concerns

Turkish army tanks make their way towards the Syrian border town of Jarablus

By Edmund Blair and Asli Kandemir

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s army chief signaled no let up in a Syria offensive Washington has criticized for targeting U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters as well as jihadists, and said its successes showed last month’s failed coup had not dented the military’s power.

Turkish-backed forces began the offensive last week by capturing the Syrian frontier town of Jarablus from Islamic State; they then advanced on areas controlled by Kurdish-aligned militias which have U.S. support in battling jihadists.

Turkey, which is fighting a Kurdish insurgency at home, has openly said the operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield” has a dual goal of driving away Islamic State and preventing Kurdish forces extending their areas of control along the Turkish border.

Washington said the offensive by its NATO ally risked undermining the fight against Islamic State because it was focusing on Kurdish-aligned militias. Ankara says it will not take orders from anyone on how to protect the nation.

“By pursuing the Euphrates Shield operation, which is crucial for our national security and for our neighbors’ security, the Turkish Armed Forces are showing they have lost none of their strength,” Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar said in a statement on Tuesday to mark a national holiday.

On the eve of the Victory Day holiday, President Tayyip Erdogan said the operation would continue until all threats, including that of Kurdish militia fighters, were removed from the border area.

Turkey is still reeling from an attempted coup in July in which rogue military commanders used warplanes and tanks to try to oust Erdogan and the government, exposing splits in the ranks of NATO’s second biggest military.

In a subsequent purge of suspected coup sympathizers, 80,000 people have been removed from both civilian and military duties, including many generals, officers and rank-and-file soldiers.

FLARE-UP

Echoing U.S. concerns about the Turkish offensive in Syria, French President Francois Hollande said he understood Turkey’s need to defend itself from Islamic State but that targeting Kurdish forces which were battling jihadists could further inflame the five-year-old Syrian conflict.

“Those multiple, contradictory interventions carry risks of a general flare-up,” he told a meeting of French ambassadors.

Criticism by any Western powers will add to tensions with Ankara, which has accused the United States and Europe of proving poor allies by calling for restraint as the government rounded up coup sympathizers, and failing to appreciate the depth of the threat the coup presented to Turkey’s democracy.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Ankara last week to try to patch up ties and voice support for the government. But this week, U.S. officials described the current direction of the offensive as “unacceptable”.

In its northern Syria offensive, Turkish forces and their rebel allies have taken a string of villages in areas controlled by the Kurdish-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and advanced toward Manbij, a city the SDF seized from Islamic State this month in a U.S.-backed campaign.

Turkey says its forces have struck multiple positions held by the Kurdish YPG militia, part of the SDF coalition.

The YPG says its forces withdrew from the region before the Turkish assault and have already crossed the Euphrates, in line with a demand from the United States to withdraw to the eastern side of the river that flows through Syria or lose U.S. support.

Turkey wants to stop Kurdish forces taking control of territory that lies between cantons to the east and west that they already hold, and so creating an unbroken Kurdish- controlled corridor on Turkey’s southern border.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Callus and John Irish in Paris, David Dolan and Nick Tattersall in Istanbul; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton)

Islamic State Car bomb kills 10 in Somalia

A Somali policeman looks at the wreckage of a vehicle destroyed by a car bomb at the Banadir beach restaurant at Lido beach in Somalia's capital Mogadishu,

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The death toll from an attack late on Thursday by Islamic militants on a seaside restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu has risen to 10, police said.

The attackers set off a car bomb at the Banadir restaurant at the city’s Lido beach before engaging security forces in a fight for several hours.

The casualties comprised six civilians, two members of the security forces and two of the attackers, Ali Abdullahi, a police officer, said on Friday.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab claimed the attack, which ended at around 3:00 a.m. local time, police said.

The group has carried out a series of deadly attacks in Somalia to try to topple the Western-backed government.

In a separate incident in southern Somalia, a roadside bomb planted by al Shabaab militants injured 10 people, police said on Friday, raising the number of wounded from three initially.

One of those wounded in the explosion in Baardhere town in Gedo region was the local district commissioner, police said.

(Reporting by Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Duncan Miriri)

Gunmen attack American university in Kabul, students flee

A wounded man lies inside an ambulance following an attack at American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, Afghanistan

By Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) – Suspected militants stormed the Kabul campus of the American University of Afghanistan on Wednesday with some students jumping from second floor windows to escape the gunfire and explosions, witnesses and officials said.

Foreign staff and dozens of pupils were trapped in the compound hours after the attack began at about 6:30 p.m. (10 a.m. ET).

News of casualties was sketchy, but the head of hospitals in the Afghan capital said at least one person had been killed and 14 students wounded in the assault.

“Many students jumped from the second floor, some broke their legs and some hurt their head trying to escape,” Abdullah Fahimi, a student who escaped, told Reuters. He injured his ankle making the leap.

“We were in the class when we heard a loud explosion followed by gunfire. It was very close. Some students were crying, others were screaming.”

A senior interior ministry official said that elite Afghan forces had surrounded the university and witnesses at the scene said special forces had entered the walled compound where gunfire that had lasted for more than an hour had since stopped.

“There are two gunmen hiding inside the building and a clearing operation is ongoing to eliminate them,” interior ministry spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, said.

CAR BOMB

Ahmad Mukhtar, another student who fled the scene, said the gunmen had got into the university buildings despite security measures including three or four armed guards and watchtowers.

He added that he believed the attack had started at the main gate into the compound.

“I finished my class and was about to leave when I heard a few gunshots and a huge explosion, followed by more gunfire,” he said. “I ran toward the emergency exit with other students, climbed the wall and jumped outside.”

Kabul police chief, Abdul Rahman Rahimi, told Reuters that the attack began with a car bomb and several attackers had entered the campus.

Islamist militant groups, mainly the Afghan Taliban and a local offshoot of Islamic State, have claimed a string of recent atrocities aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani.

No one has claimed the university attack.

It is the second time this month that the university or its staff have been targeted.

Two teachers, an American and an Australian, remain missing after being abducted at gunpoint from a road nearby on Aug. 7.

Taliban insurgents control large swathes of Afghanistan, and local armed forces are struggling to contain them, especially in the provinces of Helmand to the south and Kunduz to the north.

NATO ended its combat mission in December 2014, but thousands of troops remain to train and assist Afghan forces, while several thousand more U.S. soldiers are engaged in a separate mission focusing on al Qaeda and Islamic State.

(Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Louise Ireland)