Ahad, 22 Mei 2011

The Star Online: World Updates


Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: World Updates


Eight more blasts rock naval base in Karachi

Posted: 22 May 2011 08:36 PM PDT

KARACHI (Reuters) - Eight more blasts rocked the PNS Mehran naval base in Karachi as 30 more troops reinforced more than 100 commandos battling a group of militants who attacked the base on Sunday night, a Reuters witness said.

"Our estimate is 10-15 terrorists are inside the base," said Naval spokesman Muhammad Yasir. "They have been confined to a building. Fighting is still going on."

Pakistani troops appeared to be engaged in a full-on assault of a building where militants have holed up after assaulting the base and destroying military aircraft.

Yasir said the explosions were likely hand grenades thrown by commandos.

(Reporting by Faisal Aziz and Kamran Haider; Editing by Chris Allbritton)

Copyright © 2011 Reuters

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Battle with militants rages on at Pakistan's naval base

Posted: 22 May 2011 08:36 PM PDT

KARACHI(Reuters) - An overnight battle with militants at Pakistan's naval aviation base erupted again after dawn on Monday, with blasts ringing out and choppers hovering overhead as security forces launched a counter-offensive.

"The operation still continues. It is not over yet," said one security official, eight hours after a group of up to 15 militants stormed the installation with guns and grenades, killing at least five people and blowing up a military aircraft.

More than 30 troops entered the PNS Mehran base in the southern city of Karachi as the battle resumed and eight blasts were heard in the space of 30 minutes.

Eleven people were wounded in the attack on one of the country's most heavily guarded military installations, where jet fuel tanks appeared to have caught fire and exploded.

"They were carrying guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and hand grenades. They hit the aircraft with an RPG," Navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali said earlier.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the raid. But Taliban militants, who have vowed to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces, have carried out several attacks since the al Qaeda leaders' death on May 2.

The assault started at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The dead included one sailor, three firefighters and an Army ranger, Yasir said.

The Karachi attack evoked memories of an assault on Pakistan's army headquarters in the town of Rawalpindi in 2009, and revived concerns that even the most well-guarded installations in the country remain vulnerable to militants.

A spokesman said one P-3C Orion, a maritime patrol aircraft, had been destroyed and that intermittent gunfire was continuing.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said earlier the militants had attacked from the rear of the base. "We have been able to confine them to one building and an operation is underway either to kill or capture them."

Media reports said the attackers had made their way in through a sewer line, but that was not confirmed. The military's goal is to capture as many of the attackers alive as possible, Pakistan television reported.

Pakistani military and paramilitary reinforcements poured in after the attack began, with four vehicles carrying about 10 troops each moving into the base.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack.

"Such a cowardly act of terror could not deter the commitment of the government and people of Pakistan to fight terrorism," Gilani said in statement.

WAVE OF BOMBINGS

Pakistan has faced a wave of bombings and gun assaults over the last few years, some of them claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban.

Others have been blamed on al Qaeda-linked militant groups once nurtured by the Pakistani military which have since slipped out of control.

The discovery that bin Laden was living in the garrison town of Abbottabad, not far from the Pakistan Military Academy, has revived suspicions that militants may be receiving help from some people within the security establishment.

Pakistan and the United States say the senior leadership in the country did not know bin Laden was in Abbottabad.

Washington sees nuclear-armed Pakistan as a key, if troubled, ally in the region essential to its attempts to root out militant forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

"We condemn the attack and our sympathies are with the families of those injured or killed," the White House in Washington said in a statement.

On April 28, suspected militants detonated a roadside bomb in Karachi, killing four members of the navy, the third attack on the navy in a week.

The attack came two days after two bombs hit buses carrying navy personnel, killing four people and wounding 56. Taliban insurgents took responsibility for the twin attacks.

(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider, Kamran Haider and Imtiaz Shah; Writing by Chris Allbritton; Editing by John Chalmers)

(For more Reuters coverage of Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/places/pakistan)

Copyright © 2011 Reuters

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Ivory Coast ex-rebel leader to remain PM - Ouattara

Posted: 22 May 2011 11:55 AM PDT

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara confirmed on Sunday he plans to keep former rebel leader Guillaume Soro as his prime minister and defence minister.

Ouattara was inaugurated as president on Saturday in a ceremony most Ivorians hope will end a decade of conflict and put the formerly prosperous West African nation, the world's No. 1 cocoa producer, back on the path to development.

Guillaume Soro addresses troops in the provincial capital Yamoussoukro, March 31, 2011. (REUTERS/Emmanuel Braun/Files)

He is expected to name his government and top military commanders in the coming few days.

"Guillaume Soro has done an excellent job and he will be reconstituted in his post," Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund deputy director, said in an interview on Radio France International (RFI).

Ouattara won the second round of the November presidential election against incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, U.N. certified results showed, largely because he formed a coalition with third place contestant Henri Konan Bedie -- whose party had therefore been expected to name a prime minister.

But Gbagbo refused to step down, sparking a violent power struggle that only ended when rebels allied to Ouattara -- but under the command of Soro -- ousted him in April, with French military backing.

While Bedie helped Ouattara win the vote, it was Soro's military muscle that was decisive in enabling him to take power.

Ouattara said he had consulted Bedie before the decision.

"(Former) president Bedie and I agreed to do it," he said.

At least 3,000 people were killed and more than a million displaced in the crisis, in which cocoa exports ground to a halt, banks shut and shops were ransacked.

Ouattara is widely expected to give top military posts to former rebel leaders who helped him remove Gbagbo. But analysts say his government will need to be inclusive and reach across the political spectrum to former enemies if he is to heal the bitter divisions left over from the crisis.

Ouattara wants to put Gbagbo on trial and has asked the International Criminal Court to probe allegations of serious human rights crimes, but his debt to Soro may make it difficult for him to investigate alleged abuses on the side of the rebels.

(Reporting by Tim Cocks in Abidjan, additional reporting by Daniel Flynn and Alexandria Sage in Paris, editing by Mark Heinrich)

Copyright © 2011 Reuters

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.
Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

0 ulasan:

Catat Ulasan

 

The Star Online

Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved