Author: Himalaya Post

PULE ALAM, Afghanistan – NATO is investigating reports that at least nine Afghan police officers were killed in a US air strike during heavy fighting with the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, its mission said Tuesday. Afghan officials have confirmed the deaths, with interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi saying nine police were killed and 14 wounded in the aerial bombardment in Azra district of Logar province. During the hours-long battle with insurgents overnight, police “called in air support but unfortunately foreign forces mistakenly bombed their positions”, Rahimi said. The Taliban also suffered heavy losses, he added. Provincial council chief Hamidullah Hamid told AFP “foreign forces” had mistakenly bombed two police checkpoints and killed “about 15 police”. Resolute Support, NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, confirmed US forces had conducted an air strike “in defense of Afghan forces” in Azra district but did not mention casualties. “We are looking into the matter further,” spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Martin O’Donnell told AFP. The US is the only international force known to be carrying out air strikes in Afghanistan. The Afghan air force also carries out some attacks. There are about 14,000 US ground troops in Afghanistan, making up the bulk of NATO’s mission to support and train local forces. Some of the US forces are involved in counter-terrorism operations, particularly against the Islamic State jihadist...

KANO, Nigeria – Boko Haram jihadists have killed seven villagers in a dawn raid in Nigeria’s restive northeast, local militia and a resident said Tuesday. Gunmen in trucks and on motorcycles late Monday attacked Munduri, a village 13 kilometres (eight miles) north of Borno state capital Maiduguri, firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades, according to resident Abdullahi Bunu. “The attackers seized seven people and beheaded them before setting fire to the entire village,” militia leader Umar Ari told AFP by telephone from Maiduguri. Those who were decapitated were the village chief and his wife, Bunu said. “We returned this morning and found the entire village burnt along with all our food supplies and livestock”. Boko Haram has intensified its armed campaign in recent weeks, including against military targets in which dozens of troops are believed to have been either killed or missing. The rebels have split into two groups, and it was not immediately clear which was behind the latest attack. A faction loyal to Abubakar Shekau is notorious for indiscriminate killings of civilians while the Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi faction — which is affiliated to the so-called Islamic State — largely focuses on attacking the military. Five people were killed in a similar raid last week in Gasarwa village, near the garrison town of Monguno. The attacks contrast with repeated claims by the military and the government that Boko Haram...

KABUL, Aug – Over 20,000 Afghan refugees had returned or been deported from neighboring Pakistan and Iran during the period of July 29-Aug. 4, the UN Migration Agency IOM reported Tuesday. A total of 19.513 Afghans have reportedly arrived in their homeland over the period from Iran, 5 percent less than the previous week, said IOM in a statement. Meanwhile, 954 Afghans have returned from Pakistan back home over the period. “This number marks a 700-percent increase compared to the previous week (137),” the statement noted. The IOM has provided post-arrival humanitarian assistance, including food and non-food items to the returnees. More than 463,000 Afghan refugees have returned to the poverty-stricken country from the two neighboring states since Jan. 1 this year, the statement said.  ...

WASHINGTON – The United States re-imposed a wave of tough, unilateral sanctions against Iran on Tuesday, bringing back into effect harsh penalties that had been lifted under a historic, multi-party nuclear agreement that President Donald Trump abandoned in May. The first of two rounds of US sanctions kicked in at 12:01 am (0431 GMT), targeting Iran’s access to US banknotes and key industries, including cars and carpets. Iranians are already seeing the effects of the sanctions, with Iran’s rial currency losing around half its value since Trump announced the US would withdraw from the 2015 nuclear accord. Trump’s contempt for the nuclear deal dates back to his time as presidential candidate and on May 8, he made good on a pledge to pull America out of the international agreement. He blasted the agreement yet again Monday, calling it a “horrible, one-sided deal (that) failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb.” The unilateral withdrawal came despite other parties to the agreement — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the EU — pleading with Trump not to abandon the pact aimed at blocking Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and highlights the US leader’s go-it-alone style and his distaste for multilateral agreements. In an executive order Monday, Trump said the sanctions seek to pile financial pressure on Tehran to force a “comprehensive and...

CLEARLAKE OAKS, United States – Two blazes mercilessly charring northern California have grown so rapidly that they became the US state’s largest in recorded history Monday, authorities said. Collectively dubbed the Mendocino Complex, the wildfires have burned through 283,800 acres (114,850 hectares) — an area nearly the size of the sprawling city of Los Angeles — and are just 30 percent contained, according to state fire authority CalFire. Two people have died in the inferno. “Today a higher pressure system brought warmer weather, drying, and strong winds to the region,” CalFire said in an evening update. “Tonight fire crews will try to take advantage of the lower temperatures to increase suppression and hold current containment lines.” It was the second fire to break records in the fire-prone, most populous US state in as many years, following the Thomas Fire in December 2017, which stood at 281,893 acres. Further north in the state, the deadly Carr Fire has scorched more than 164,400 acres of land since July 23, and killed another seven people along the way. Its intensity was so great at one point, that it generated a tornado-like whirl of fire — as well as its own weather system. Authorities say it was triggered by the “mechanical failure of a vehicle” that caused sparks to fly in tinderbox-dry conditions. The fire has razed more than 1,600 buildings, including some...