Page 6 - aruba-today DEC 14 2020

A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 14 deceMber 2020
Officials: Bomb and gun attacks in Afghan capital kill 3

By RAHIM FAIEZ seven civilians were killed
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — when Taliban fighters acci-
Separate bomb and gun dentally let a bomb go off
attacks on Sunday left at in the area Saturday night.
least three dead in Afghan- The area of the explo-
istan’s capital, local police sion in Kandahar is remote
said, a day after a barrage and difficult to reach, and
of mortar shells shook the Taliban and government
city. accounts of the civilian
A sticky bomb attached deaths couldn’t be imme-
to an armored vehicle in diately confirmed.
northern Kabul killed two, A U.S.-based institute
and wounded at least two warned last week that
others, according to Fer- there has been a dramatic
daws Faramarz, a spokes- increase in airstrikes con-
man for the Kabul police ducted by Afghan gov-
chief. No further details ernment forces from July
were immediately avail- to September this year,
able. attacks that have led to a
Faramarz also said that an sharp rise in civilian casual-
Afghan government pros- ties.
ecutor was shot dead in The Watson Institute of In-
eastern Kabul. The pros- ternational and Public Af-
ecutor was on his way to Afghan security personnel inspect a damaged vehicle after a bomb blast in Kabul, Afghanistan, fairs, a research center at
his office when he was Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020. Associated Press Brown University, said in its
attacked in Kart-e Now report that 70 Afghan civil-
neighborhood, the police the IS militants hit the capi- landed in residential areas strongholds in eastern Af- ians have been killed in the
spokesman said. tal with a barrage of mortar of the city, according to ghanistan, while continuing third quarter of this year,
No one immediately shells, killing at least one ci- the Afghan Interior Ministry. their insurgency against Af- compared to 86 killed in
claimed responsibility for vilian and wounding a sec- Violence in Afghanistan ghan government forces. the first six months of 2020.
the attacks in Kabul. The ond, amid a countrywide has spiked in recent months In southern Kandahar prov- In its report, the institute also
Islamic Sate group has spike in violence. even as the Taliban and Af- ince on Sunday, the Tal- said that from 2017 through
claimed responsibility for The extremist group ghan government negotia- iban claimed that govern- 2019, civilian deaths due
multiple attacks on the claimed responsibility on its tors meet in the Gulf Arab ment forces in an airstrike to U.S. and allied forces’
capital in recent months, affiliated Amaq News site, state of Qatar to hammer killed at least 13 civilians airstrikes in Afghanistan
including horrific attacks saying it fired 10 Katyusha out a peace deal that in the Arghandab district. dramatically increased. In
on educational institutions rockets toward the capi- could put an end to de- A spokesman for the pro- 2019, airstrikes killed 700 ci-
that killed as many as 50 tal’s Hamid Karzai Interna- cades of war. vincial governor, Bahir Ah- vilians – more civilians than
people, most of them stu- tional Airport. The Taliban have waged madi, denied government in any other year since the
dents. The Sunday attacks Three shells hit the airport, bitter battles against IS forces were behind the ex- beginning of the war in
happened as a day earlier while the other rounds fighters, particularly in IS plosion, but claimed that 2001 and 2002.q
Hundreds of Nigerian students missing after attack on school

Secondary School in Kan- or rescue the missing stu- been carried out by one of
kara was attacked Friday dents.” several groups of bandits
night by a large group of A resident of the town, active in northwestern Ni-
bandits who shot “with Mansur Bello, told The As- geria. The groups are noto-
AK-47 rifles,” Katsina State sociated Press that the at- rious for kidnapping people
police spokesman Gambo tackers took some of the for ransom.
Isah said in a statement. students away. The most serious school at-
Police engaged the attack- The military, supported by tack occurred in April 2014,
ers “in a gunfight that gave airpower, has located the when members of the ji-
(some of) the students the bandits’ enclave in Zango/ hadist group Boko Haram
opportunity to scale the Paula forest in the Kankara kidnapped 276 girls from
fence of the school and run area, and there have been their school dormitory in
for safety,” Isah said. exchanges of gunfire in an Chibok in northeastern Bor-
About 400 students are ongoing operation, said no State. About 100 of the
missing, while 200 are ac- President Muhammadu Bu- girls are still missing.q
counted for, Isah said. The hari, according to a state-
school is believed to have ment issued by his spokes-
People gather inside the Government Science Secondary had more than 600 stu- man, Garba Shehu.
School in Kankara, Nigeria, Saturday Dec. 12, 2020. dents. “Our prayers are with the
Associated Press “The police, Nigerian Army families of the students,
and Nigerian Air Force are the school authorities and
By SAM OLUKOYA northwestern Katsina state, working closely with the the injured,” said the presi-
Associated Press police said, while the presi- school authorities to as- dent’s statement. It did not
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — dent said the military was in certain the actual num- say if any students have
Hundreds of Nigerian stu- gunfights with bandits in a ber of the missing and/or been rescued.
dents are missing after gun- forest as it tried to find the kidnapped students,” said This attack, the latest on
men attacked a second- students. Isah. “Search parties are a school by gunmen in Ni-
ary school in the country’s The Government Science working with a view to find geria, is believed to have