Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Friday 16 June 2017
Probes launched amid search for London fire victims Philippine official:
100 bodies may still
plained for years about the be in combat areas
risk of a fire in the building,
owned by the local gov- MARAWI, Philippines (AP)
ernment in the borough of — About 100 bodies of
Kensington and Chelsea. civilians and Islamic mili-
Fire safety engineers were tants remain uncollected
stunned at how rapidly the in the rubble of a southern
fire spread, engulfing the Philippine city because
building in less than an hour of continuing fighting be-
in the middle of the night tween troops and gunmen
and preventing firefighters aligned with the Islamic
from reaching many peo- State group, an official
ple inside. Some jumped said Thursday.
to their deaths rather than Provincial government cri-
face the flames, and wit- sis committee spokesman
nesses reported seeing Zia Alonto Adiong said the
small children thrown from estimate was based on
the tower by their families accounts by residents who
in a desperate bid to sur- have escaped from areas
vive.Firefighters trying to of Marawi city that are still
race into the building were mired in clashes, and aid
protected from the falling volunteers who entered
debris by police officers
People form a human chain as they sort out articles of food, clothing and household who placed riot shields a combat zone during a
items that were donated for those made homeless by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower, over their heads.Queen four-day lull in the fighting
in London, Thursday, June 15, 2017. A massive fire raced through the 24-story high-rise Elizabeth II praised the fire- last week.
apartment building in west London early Wednesday. fighters’ bravery, and their Retrieval teams have
(AP Photo/Alastair Grant) commissioner noted the been organized, although
By DANICA KIRKA exactly how many were blaze. trauma they had seen. it remains unclear when
the siege by the remain-
Associated Press missing. But they expected An angry crowd confronted One officer was in tears ing militants, estimated to
LONDON (AP) — Lon- the death toll to rise sig- Khan as he visited the high- after seeing someone number more than 100,
don firefighters combed nificantly.London Police rise.“How many children plunge out a window, Fire can be quelled by troops,
through a burned-out pub- said an investigation had died? What are you go- Commissioner Dany Cot- Adiong said. The stench of
lic housing tower Thursday been launched to deter- ing to do about it?” asked ton told Sky News. death has been reported
in a grim search for missing mine whether the blaze 7-year-old Kai Ramos. As “We like to think of ourselves by witnesses in still-inacces-
people as police and the involved any crimes and the boy pressed, the La- as ‘roughty, toughty’ and sible areas since militants
prime minister launched in- Prime Minister Theresa May bour politician pledged to heroes — they are heroes launched their attack on
vestigations into the deadly announced a public inqui- get answers. — but they have feelings. May 23.
inferno, with pressure build- ry, a type of probe that’s The tower is in the North People were absolutely “We need to expect the
ing on officials to explain used to investigate issues Kensington neighborhood, devastated by yesterday’s worst and to be ready to
the disaster and assure that of major public concern. a working-class, multi-eth- events,” Cotton said.Some transition from a crisis mode
similar buildings around the In addition, London Mayor nic area next to some of parts of the tower were to a recovery mode,” Adi-
country are safe. Sadiq Khan called for an the richest neighborhoods unsafe for firefighters to ong told The Associated
At least 17 people were interim report on the fire to in Britain. Some observers enter Thursday, so the fire Press by telephone.
killed as flames raced be published this summer. asked whether hazards department worked with The violence in the lakeside
through the 24-story Gren- “People deserve answers. in the Grenfell complex, structural engineers to city has left 202 gunmen,
fell Tower early Wednes- The inquiry will give them which had 120 apartments shore it up so crews could 58 soldiers and policemen
day, trapping people that,” said May, the Con- that housed as many as conduct thorough search- and 26 civilians dead, of-
inside their apartments. servative leader who set 600 people, were ignored es for victims, Cotton said. ficials say. The most serious
Many people remained aside her efforts to form a because its residents are Specially trained dogs attack in Southeast Asia so
unaccounted for Thursday, new government Thursday mainly poor. were being brought in to far by IS-aligned militants
and officials weren’t sure to visit the scene of the A tenant group had com- aid the search. q has displaced most of the
Syrian troops advance against Islamic State more than 200,000 resi-
dents of Marawi, the bas-
tion of Islamic faith in the
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian gov- city for nearly three years. ernment forces’ capture of since May 2015. south of the predominantly
ernment forces are march- Syrian troops have also ad- about 20,000 square kilo- Syria’s state news agency, Roman Catholic nation.
ing toward the last town vanced against IS in the meters (7,700 square miles) SANA, said troops are ad- Many of the militants re-
held by the Islamic State north, evicting the extrem- from the extremists since vancing deep into the des- portedly killed in the clash-
group in the central prov- ists from Aleppo province. the beginning of the year. ert area near the historic es have not been recov-
ince of Homs in the latest The extremists are mean- Last week, Syrian troops central town of Palmyra. ered.While the remaining
push by President Bashar while fighting to defend reached the Iraqi border The agency said govern- gunmen have been isolat-
Assad’s troops against the their de fact capital, for the first time in years and ment forces captured the ed in four areas, sporadic
extremists, state media and Raqqa, from U.S.-backed are now waiting for pro-Ira- so-called “Arak Triangle,” gunfire has been reported
opposition activists said and Kurdish led forces, nian forces to link up with which links the town of in other places.An Austra-
Thursday. which have captured them on the other side. Sukhna and Arak to a ma- lian journalist was hit by a
The capture of Sukhna four neighborhoods since The Britain-based Syr- jor oil pumping station. bullet in his neck on Thurs-
would pave the way for launching an offensive in ian Observatory for Human “All fields from T4 to Arak day while covering the
government forces to the northern Syrian city last Rights said government have been liberated,” a Marawi crisis. ABC journal-
march toward the eastern week. forces and their allies are Syrian army office told state ist Adam Harvey, who was
city of Deir el-Zour, where IS “Continuous achievements within 25 kilometers (16 TV, referring to an army wearing a neck brace, told
has been besieging a gov- to defeat terrorism,” state miles) of Sukhna, which has air base in Homs province reporters he was fine as he
ernment-held part of the TV said, referring to gov- been held by the extremists known as T4. q walked out of a hospital. q