You are here

Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says

Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says
Militants opened fire on a security post in northwest Pakistan late on Thursday, killing at least six personnel, the military said in a statement on Friday, saying it had foiled an attempt by the attackers to storm the premises. (AFP/File)
Short Url

https://arab.news/yseuk

Updated 20 September 2024
Reuters
Follow

Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says

Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says
  • The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamist militant group
  • Five assailants were killed in the encounter, which took place in the restive tribal district of South Wazirstan
Updated 20 September 2024
Reuters
Follow

ISLAMABAD: Militants opened fire on a security post in northwest Pakistan late on Thursday, killing at least six personnel, the military said in a statement on Friday, saying it had foiled an attempt by the attackers to storm the premises.
The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamist militant group, and was one of two fierce encounters along the border with Afghanistan between Thursday and Friday.
The South Asian nation is faced with a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants in the northwest as well as an intensifying ethnic separatist insurgency in the South.
“Troops fought bravely, foiling the attempts of intrusion,” the military’s information wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement, adding that six security personnel were killed in an intense exchange of fire.
Five assailants were killed in the encounter, which took place in the restive tribal district of South Wazirstan, the statement added.
In a separate incident in the neighboring district of North Waziristan, the military said it had killed a group of seven militants attempting to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan, and recovered a large quantity of ammunition and explosives.
Islamabad says TTP uses Afghanistan as a base and says the ruling Taliban administration has provided safe havens to the group close to the border. The Taliban deny this.
The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban movement, but pledges loyalty to the Islamist group that now rules Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US led international forces from the country in 2021.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram warned the Security Council this week that the TTP, while currently perceived as a threat only to his country, could soon become the “spearhead of global terrorist goals” including of groups such as Al-Qaeda.

Topics: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group

Related

Pakistan demands UN probe into how TTP militants acquired advanced military equipment video
Pakistan
Pakistan demands UN probe into how TTP militants acquired advanced military equipment
Special Pakistan calls on Afghanistan to handover TTP militants in its custody
Pakistan
Pakistan calls on Afghanistan to handover TTP militants in its custody

Russian strikes kill 12 in eastern Ukraine

Updated 18 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Russian strikes kill 12 in eastern Ukraine

Russian strikes kill 12 in eastern Ukraine
  • A Russian assault hit the center of Dobropillia in Ukraine’s Donetsk region late Friday, killing 11 people and wounding 30
  • Russia’s defense ministry confirmed earlier Friday it had carried out “precision” strikes on energy facilities
Updated 18 sec ago
AFP
KYIV: Russian strikes overnight had killed at least 12 people in eastern Ukraine as of Saturday morning, the country’s emergency service said, days ahead of talks in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian negotiators aimed at a truce.
A Russian assault hit the center of Dobropillia in Ukraine’s Donetsk region late Friday, killing 11 people and wounding 30, according to the emergency service.
Separately, one person was killed in a drone attack and seven others wounded early Saturday in the city of Bogodukhiv, said Kharkiv region military head Oleg Synegubov.
The overnight air raids come after US President Donald Trump threatened new sanctions and tariffs on Russia but said it may be “easier” to work with Moscow than Kyiv on efforts to end the three-year war.
After Trump publicly berated Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky during a White House meeting and suspended US aid to Kyiv in a stated bid to encourage diplomacy, the US president told reporters Friday that he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’m finding it more difficult frankly to deal with Ukraine and they don’t have the cards,” Trump said. “It may be easier dealing with Russia.”
The remarks followed Trump earlier Friday threatening new sanctions and tariffs on Russia over its bombardments of Ukraine — his warning coming just hours after Moscow launched a “massive” drone and missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities.
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” he added.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, on the phone Friday.
On the call, Rubio underscored Trump’s goal of ending the three-year war quickly, and emphasized that “all sides must take steps to secure a sustainable peace,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

’Interested in peace’
Zelensky is due to land in Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The meeting is a day before Ukrainian officials are expected to hold fresh talks with their US counterparts on Tuesday in the kingdom.
After his meeting with Prince Mohammed, Zelensky said his team “will remain in Saudi Arabia to work with our American partners.”
“Ukraine is most interested in peace,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, he renewed calls for a mutual halt to aerial attacks on critical infrastructure following the recent Russian barrage.
The Ukrainian leader said the first steps to establishing real peace should be stopping both Russian and Ukrainian aerial and naval attacks.
This latest proposal builds on growing rhetoric from Kyiv, Washington and Moscow on halting the war.
The Kremlin has previously ruled out a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine.
Moscow’s defense ministry said Saturday its air defense systems destroyed 31 Ukrainian drones over the past night, with most over the territory of Krasnodar Krai.
A Ukrainian drone attack also targeted Russia’s Kirishi oil refinery, with air defense forces shooting down one drone on approach and another over the territory of the facility, Leningrad governor Aleksandr Drozdenko wrote in a post, adding that the “external structure of one of the reservoirs was damaged by falling debris.”
A civilian was wounded by a drone attack in Belgorod district near the border, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
Talks on track
Russia’s defense ministry confirmed earlier Friday it had carried out “precision” strikes on energy facilities.
The Ukrainian air force said it had deployed French Mirage fighter jets — delivered to Ukraine last month — for the first time to repel the aerial onslaught.
DTEK, the largest private energy supplier in Ukraine, said its facilities in the Black Sea region of Odesa had been targeted for a fourth night.
Its gas facilities in the central Poltava region had “ceased operations” after being struck in the overnight attack, it added.
State gas company Naftogaz said its production facilities had been damaged.
Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko said Russia was trying to “hurt ordinary Ukrainians by shelling energy and gas production facilities.”
The latest air raids came after EU leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, agreed to boost the bloc’s defenses.
Washington, however, has said talks with Kyiv were back on track to secure a ceasefire with Moscow — after the public falling out between Trump and Zelensky.
US envoy Steve Witkoff said he would speak to Ukrainian negotiators about an “initial ceasefire” with Russia and a “framework” for a longer agreement at the talks in Saudi Arabia.

A resort entirely staffed and run by women in Sri Lanka seeks to break gender barriers

A resort entirely staffed and run by women in Sri Lanka seeks to break gender barriers
Updated 36 min 37 sec ago
AP
Follow

A resort entirely staffed and run by women in Sri Lanka seeks to break gender barriers

A resort entirely staffed and run by women in Sri Lanka seeks to break gender barriers
  • The resort opened in January and has been seen as a move unlocking women’s potential and driving the tourism economy in the debt-stricken nation
Updated 36 min 37 sec ago
AP

DAMBULLA: After leaving school, Jeewanthi Adikari was determined to pursue her studies in accounting. But her life took a different path when she began a three-month training program in hospitality.
She has since worked in different hotels in a career spanning over two decades. Now 42, she is in charge of Sri Lanka’s first resort fully operated and managed by women. It’s an attempt to address gender disparities in a male-dominated tourism sector crucial for the country’s economic recovery after a major crisis.
“This is a place where women can realize their potential. They will not be inside the shell. Instead, they will come out and try to perform better,” said Adikari, who oversees the daily operations of Amba Yaalu, a resort located in Dambulla city that serves as a gateway to most of Sri Lanka’s tourist attractions.
Most Sri Lankan women don’t get a chance to work in the tourism industry, earn money and own a career. In a country where 52 percent of the 22 million people are women, they account for only about 10 percent of the 200,000-strong workforce in the hospitality sector.
Amba Yaalu wants to be the driver of change
Some 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Colombo, the resort is nestled in a mango plantation and all work is managed by 75 women staff who garden, work in the kitchens, clean the facility, address the guests and provide security in form of seven ex-military members. The resort’s facilities also include training programs for women to develop their skills in different areas of hospitality.
The resort opened in January and has been seen as a move unlocking women’s potential and driving the tourism economy in the debt-stricken nation.
The idea was conceived by seasoned hotelier Chandra Wickramasinghe, who said he was “inspired by the power of women,” especially that of his mother who raised him and and his seven siblings as a single parent.
“I knew what these ladies can do. I got the idea and put my team to work on it. We got a strong team to run it and it worked very well,” said Wickramasinghe, adding that the resort would enable women to thrive as leaders.
Social stigma, language barrier, work-life balance, lack of training facilities and low salaries have long kept majority of Sri Lankan women away from the hospitality industry, especially those in the rural areas, said Suranga Silva, professor of tourism economics in the University of Colombo.
Much of this stems from a patriarchal structure and traditional gender roles deeply embedded in Sri Lanka’s society, even though many women have made their mark in the country’s politics and have held key positions in the government. The island nation’s current prime minister, Harini Amarasuriya, is a woman.
“Tourism industry can’t be isolated from women,” said Silva, adding that women employment in Sri Lanka’s tourism is very low compared to the global and regional levels.
Lack of women professionals
Sri Lanka’s tourism and hospitality sector contributed 2.3 percent to the country’s economy in 2023 — down from 5 percent in 2018 — and the industry has traditionally been the country’s third largest foreign exchange earner. But the shortage of skilled women and some of them leaving jobs after getting married have challenges faced by the industry since the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and the coronavirus pandemic.
Kaushalya Batagoda, the executive chef at the resort, said the industry faces a shortage of female professionals to serve in the kitchen and as a result, most the staff recruited to the resort’s kitchen were freshers who are still in training.
“But, the new generation has a passion for working in the kitchen,” she said, adding that she gets a lot of applications from women seeking jobs in the kitchen.
The resort has been lauded by women rights activists who have long been concerned about limited career choices of women and their mobility in Sri Lanka.
Women rights activist Sepali Kottegoda said such business enterprises can “open up more safe employment opportunities for women.”
Silva, the professor, said that “a dramatic change” is taking place as more young women are eager to join the industry, but suggested that the government and the sector must jointly provide training programs for women to improve their skills and employability.
At Amba Yaalu resort, some of these concerns are already being tackled.
“This is purely to empower women,” Adikari said. “We invite women to come and join us, see whether they can perform better in the career, sharpen their capacities and skills and contribute to the industry.”

Topics: Sri Lanka women

Related

Brazil’s first woman general offers advice to Pakistani women video
Pakistan
Brazil’s first woman general offers advice to Pakistani women
Riyadh Air’s all-female engineering program propels Saudi women to new heights
Saudi Arabia
Riyadh Air’s all-female engineering program propels Saudi women to new heights

At least 12 injured in shooting at pub in Toronto, police says

At least 12 injured in shooting at pub in Toronto, police says
Updated 38 min 54 sec ago
Reuters
Follow

At least 12 injured in shooting at pub in Toronto, police says

At least 12 injured in shooting at pub in Toronto, police says
  • Suspect remained at large and police said they did not have a description shortly after the shooting
Updated 38 min 54 sec ago
Reuters

TORONTO: At least 12 people were injured in a shooting at a pub in Toronto and the suspect remained at large, police said early on Saturday.
Four victims had non-life-threatening injuries and the extent of injuries to the rest was not known, the police said in a post on X that did not describe the suspect.
“I am deeply troubled to hear reports of a shooting at a pub in Scarborough,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow posted on X, adding that the police chief had assured her “all necessary resources have been deployed.”
Toronto paramedics told Canada’s CP24 Media the injuries ranged from minor to critical.

Topics: Canada TORONTO

Congo refugees pour into Burundi, conditions dire, says UN

Congo refugees pour into Burundi, conditions dire, says UN
Updated 08 March 2025
Reuters
Follow

Congo refugees pour into Burundi, conditions dire, says UN

Congo refugees pour into Burundi, conditions dire, says UN
  • Conditions extremely harsh at Rugombo stadium, UN says
  • Pro-government fighters in Congo Pro-govt fighters kill 35 civilians
Updated 08 March 2025
Reuters

GENEVA: Conflict in Congo has sent 63,000 refugees fleeing to neighboring Burundi in its largest such influx in decades, with conditions dire at a crammed stadium camp and many stuck in fields outside, the UN said on Friday.
About 45,000 displaced people are sheltering in a crowded open-air stadium in Rugombo, a few km (miles) from the border with Democratic Republic of Congo where the Congolese army and M23 rebel group are fighting.
“The situation is absolutely dire. Conditions are extremely harsh,” Faith Kasina, the regional spokesperson for East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes, told reporters in Geneva.
“The stadium is literally bursting at its seams and there is no additional space for shelter.”
Sanitary conditions inside the stadium are said to be poor with only 10 to 15 stalls of latrines for tens of thousands of people. Many families are being forced to camp in open fields nearby, according to the agency.
“Numbers keep swelling, it’s a race against time to try and save lives,” said Kasina, adding that the needs are fast outpacing the aid being provided.
The refugees include a large number of unaccompanied children separated from their families, the agency says.
On 21 February, UNHCR told a press briefing in Geneva that it would seek to move people from the stadium. However logistical challenges mean it takes six to eight hours to move large numbers of people to the Musenyi refugee site in southern Burundi. That site, which can host 10,000 people, is now 60 percent full, according to the agency.
The agency has urged countries to contribute to its emergency appeal for $40.4 million for lifesaving help to support the potential influx of 258,000 refugees into Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia.
The M23 advance is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in eastern Congo, rooted in the spillover of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide into Congo and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources.
Rwanda rejects allegations by Congo, the United Nations and Western powers that it supports M23 with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.
Burundi has had its own soldiers in eastern Congo for years, initially to hunt down Burundian rebels there, but more recently, to aid in the fight against M23.

Pro-govt fighters kill 35 civilians

Meanwhile, at least 35 people were killed when pro-government militia attacked a village in the restive eastern DRC, local and security sources said on Friday.
The attack happened at about 3:00 am (0100 GMT) Thursday in the village of Tambi, in the Masisi area of North Kivu province controlled by the M23 armed group.
A security source told AFP that at least 35 people were killed in the attack, while local sources and an eyewitness put the death toll at more than 40.
A community leader and a medical source said villagers had recently returned to the area after having fled fighting between the M23 and the Congolese army and local militia.
“The ‘wazalendo’ (patriots in Swahili) militia went to attack Tambi where residents had started to return... they opened fire and civilians were killed,” said one community leader, who said 43 people died.
“They put some victims in a church and then shot them. Those who were in the fields were killed there.”
The community leader, a local health worker and a local resident said another group of civilians sought refuge in a house and died when the militia set it on fire.
“We counted 47 bodies in the morning,” the resident said, adding that they were buried in a communal grave.
Some of the victims were unable to be identified because of their burns, he added.
Different groups make up the militia, which has fought alongside the Congolese army against the M23. Their fighters are often accused of attacking civilians.
The M23, which according to UN experts is backed by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, is also accused of abuses.
The armed group resumed its fight against the government in Kinshasa in 2021 and has since seized swathes of territory in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda.
A lightning offensive in recent weeks has seen it capture the provincial capital, Goma, and Bukavu, the main city in the neighboring province of South Kivu.
The DRC’s mineral-rich east has been ravaged for three decades by conflict and atrocities.

Topics: BURUNDI DR Congo

Related

Kabila holds talks on political outlook amid Congo rebellion
World
Kabila holds talks on political outlook amid Congo rebellion
Ugandan army deploys to town in northeast Congo
World
Ugandan army deploys to town in northeast Congo

Scientists rally in US cities to protest Trump cuts and attack on science

Scientists rally in US cities to protest Trump cuts and attack on science
Updated 08 March 2025
AFP
Follow

Scientists rally in US cities to protest Trump cuts and attack on science

Scientists rally in US cities to protest Trump cuts and attack on science
Updated 08 March 2025
AFP

WASHINGTON: Scientists rallied in cities across the United States on Friday to denounce efforts by the administration of US President Donald Trump to eliminate key staff across multiple agencies and curb life-saving research.
Since Trump returned to the White House, his government has cut federal research funding, withdrawn from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, and sought to dismiss hundreds of federal workers working on health and climate research.
In response, researchers, doctors, students, engineers and elected officials took to the streets in New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin to vent their fury at what they see as an unprecedented attack on science.
“I have never been so angry,” said Jesse Heitner, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who joined more than 1,000 people demonstrating in the US capital.
“They’re lighting everything on fire,” Heitner told AFP at the Lincoln Memorial.
He felt particularly incensed about the appointment of noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“If you put someone in charge of NASA who’s a ‘Flat Earther,’ that’s not okay,” he said.

“Fund science, not billionaires” and “America was built on science,” read some of the signs brandished at the Washington protest.
“What’s happening now is unprecedented,” said Grover, a university researcher in his 50s who declined to provide further personal details due to professional constraints.
Dressed in a white lab coat and wielding a pink sign that read “Stand Up for Science,” he told AFP his employer had urged staff to keep a low profile, fearing financial retribution in the form of suspended or canceled federal grants.
“I’ve been around research over 30 years, and what’s going on has never happened,” he said, adding that the “inexcusable” actions by the federal government would have “long-term repercussions.”

Many researchers told AFP about their fears about the future of their grants and other funding.
The suspension of some grants has already led some universities to reduce the number of students accepted into doctoral programs or research positions.
For those just getting started in their careers, the concern is palpable.
“I should be at home studying, instead of having to be here defending my right to have a job,” said Rebecca Glisson, a 28-year-old doctoral student in neuroscience.
Glisson is due to defend her thesis at her program in Maryland next week, but feels apprehensive about her future beyond that, as funding for the laboratory she had planned to work for has been cut.
Chelsea Gray, a 34-year-old environmental scientist working on shark preservation, had dreamed of working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the federal agencies under particular threat over its climate research.
Instead, she has begun the process of obtaining an Irish passport.
“I did everything right and set myself up for success, and I’ve watched my entire career path crumble before my eyes,” Gray told AFP.
“I want to stay and serve the United States as a United States citizen,” she said.
“But if that option is not available to me, I need to keep all doors open.”

Topics: Trump Returns Elon Musk

Related

Judge orders Trump administration to speed payment of USAID and State Dept. debts
World
Judge orders Trump administration to speed payment of USAID and State Dept. debts
Trump casts doubt on NATO solidarity, despite it aiding the US after Sept. 11
World
Trump casts doubt on NATO solidarity, despite it aiding the US after Sept. 11

Latest updates

Russian strikes kill 12 in eastern Ukraine
Russian strikes kill 12 in eastern Ukraine
A resort entirely staffed and run by women in Sri Lanka seeks to break gender barriers
A resort entirely staffed and run by women in Sri Lanka seeks to break gender barriers
At least 12 injured in shooting at pub in Toronto, police says
At least 12 injured in shooting at pub in Toronto, police says
Congo refugees pour into Burundi, conditions dire, says UN
Congo refugees pour into Burundi, conditions dire, says UN
Al-Hilal return to winning ways, Al-Nassr stumble
Al-Hilal return to winning ways, Al-Nassr stumble

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.