Page 70 - KPA 2 MARCH 2016
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WORLD NEWSWednesday 2 March 2016
Shelling near reporters in Syria shows limits of truce
V. ISACHENKOV A Russian soldier keeps watch as local residents receive humanitarian aid in the Syrian village of reasons. Staffan de Mistura
Associated Press Ghunaymiyah, about 15 kilometers from Turkish border, Tuesday, March 1, 2016. Residents who had earlier said the talks --
KINSIBBA, Syria (AP) — Ar- recently returned to their homes after the government last month captured the village from Nusra which last broke down in
tillery shells struck near the Front fighters. early February after just a
main street of a Syrian vil- few days -- would resume
lage controlled by the gov- (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) March 7. Syrian President
ernment on Tuesday, send- Bashar Assad meanwhile
ing international reporters in violence seen in Syria’s the cease-fire can be at- population. told Germany’s ARD televi-
diving for cover and high- five-year civil war, but has tacked. The cease-fire is in- The office of the U.N. envoy sion that moderate rebels
lighting the fragility of a been rattled by alleged tended to pave the way for for Syria said he has pushed who lay down their arms
partial cease-fire that both violations. Russian Foreign the resumption of peace back the planned resump- can expect “full amnesty.”
sides in the civil war say has Minister Sergey Lavrov told talks to end the conflict, tion of talks between the But it was unclear whether
been repeatedly violated. reporters in Geneva on which has killed more than government and the op- any rebels would take him
The blasts that shook Kin- Tuesday that any faction 250,000 people and dis- position to March 9 for up on such an offer after
sibba, near the Turkish bor- that repeatedly violates placed half the country’s “logistical and practical” years of civil war, mass de-
der, came as the journalists tentions and widespread
were touring the village un- allegations of severe hu-
der Russian military escort. man rights violations by his
No one was wounded by government.
the artillery, but some suf- Assad also said convoys
fered minor cuts as they from Turkey have been
ran for cover or threw supplying weapons to the
themselves to the ground. insurgents. Turkey is one
Russian Defense Ministry of the leading backers
spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor of those fighting to end
Konashenkov, who was the Assad family’s four-
on the trip, said the shells decade rule. The Syrian
came from positions held government has received
by the al-Qaida-affiliated crucial support from both
Nusra Front, which along Russia and Iran.
with the Islamic State In Kinsibba, which was
group is excluded from the seized in a recent govern-
cease-fire that began Sat- ment offensive, the report-
urday. ers were talking to local
The U.S. and Russian-bro- residents when the first shell
kered “cessation of hos- struck a hillside a few hun-
tilities” has brought the dred meters (yards) away.
first wide-scale reduction Russian officers yelled at
the journalists to lie down,
IS bombers hit Iraqi military compound, killing 8 and they ducked as the
shelling drew closer with a
Associated Press compound and the others issued by the group. Ha- one of Shiite Islam’s holiest series of loud thuds. A Rus-
BAGHDAD (AP) — Four sui- struck after soldiers gath- ditha is some 240 kilome- shrines, officials said. sian armored personnel
cide bombers disguised ered to help the victims. ters (150 miles) northwest They hope to cut IS supply carrier rushed forward to
as soldiers struck an Iraqi He said eight soldiers were of Baghdad, near a key lines and tighten the noose screen the reporters from
military headquarters in wounded in the attack. IS dam on the Euphrates. IS around the IS-held northern direct hits. The head of
the western town of Ha- claimed the assault in on- has attacked the town on city of Mosul -- Iraq’s sec- Russia’s coordination cen-
ditha on Tuesday, killing line statements issued on a number of occasions, ond largest -- according ter for the Syrian crisis, Lt.
eight army officers, includ- jihadi websites, saying it but has never been able to to a statement by the Joint Gen. Sergei Kuralenko, was
ing a local commander, in was carried out by two Syr- seize it. Iraqi forces, primar- Operations Command. The quoted by Russian news
an attack claimed by the ian suicide bombers. The ily Shiite militias, meanwhile statement said Iraqi war- agencies as saying eight
Islamic State group. Local AP could not confirm the launched a new push to planes were supporting the shells hit and that four jour-
councilman Khalid Salman authenticity of the state- retake a sprawling desert mission. It did not say if the nalists, from Russia, Can-
said one of the bombers ments, but they resembled area outside the central U.S.-led international coali- ada, China and Bulgaria,
attacked the gate of the previous announcements city of Samarra, home to tion was involved.q sustained light injuries. q
