Page 10 - aruba today 12aug2017

A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 12 auguSt 2017

Train collision in northern Egypt kills 43; 122 injured

thority said earlier that a crushed train carriages or
train coming from Cairo, offer first aid to the injured.
Egypt’s capital, crashed An eyewitness who lives
into the back of a train that close to the crash site said
was waiting at a small sta- he and others ran toward
tion in the district of Khor- the site when they heard
shid, just east of Alexandria. the sound of the impact.
The stationary train had “We ran to the scene and
just arrived from Port Said, we found people jumping
a Mediterranean city on from the train and lots of
the northern tip of the Suez dead,” said Abdel-Bari Ab-
Canal, when it was hit, ac- del-Hamid.
cording to the statement. By nightfall, cranes aided
The statement did not say by floodlights began to re-
what caused the accident, move the wreckage off the
only that the authority’s ex- tracks to allow rail traffic to
perts would investigate. resume.
Associated Press footage Rescue teams, meanwhile,
from the scene showed continued to look for more
mangled train coaches on bodies and injured passen-
the tracks and several oth- gers inside the carriages.
ers derailed as hundreds of Egypt’s railway system has
Two trains are seen after they collided just outside Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, onlookers and victims’ rela- a poor safety record, most-
Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, killing at least 43 people and injuring over 100 in the country’s deadliest rail tives gathered around on ly blamed on decades of
accident in more than a decade. both sides of the tracks. badly maintained equip-
(AP Photo/Ravy Shaker) Ambulances were stand- ment and poor manage-
ing by and riot police and ment.
By MOHAMMED WAGDY side Egypt’s Mediterranean Magdy Hegazy, a top soldiers were deployed to Friday’s crash was the lat-
MENNA ZAKI port city of Alexandria, kill- health official in Alexandria, keep the onlookers away est in a series of deadly ac-
Associated Press ing 43 people, according said that along with the 43 from the scene of the disas- cidents that have claimed
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) to authorities, the country’s killed, the crash also injured ter. Residents from nearby hundreds of lives over the
— Two passenger trains deadliest rail accident in 122 people. homes rushed to the scene years.q
collided on Friday just out- more than a decade. The Egyptian Railways Au- to look for survivors inside

US-backed Syrian fighters link up from east, west in Raqqa

By BASSEM MROUE ahead before Raqqa is rounded. forces. The U.S. spokesman by IS as human shields.
Associated Press completely taken from the U.S. Army Col. Ryan Dil- said this shows the steady The top U.S. envoy for the
BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed militants. lon said there remains still progress the SDF fighters international coalition
Syrian fighters advancing The Kurdish-led Syrian Dem- tough fighting ahead and are making against IS in against the Islamic State,
on the Islamic State group ocratic Forces, under the that although the linkup the militants’ self-declared Brett McGurk, tweeted
from the eastern and west- cover of U.S.-backed co- of the Syrian opposition capital. “The fighting is on- about the linkup of the two
ern parts of the northern alition airstrikes, launched fighters’ east and west axis going from room to room fronts, describing it as a
city of Raqqa have linked a wide offensive to cap- on the southern edge of and from house to house,” “milestone” that is tighten-
up for the first time since ture the city on June 6 and Raqqa was significant, this said Mustafa Bali, head of ing the noose around IS.
launching their offensive on have managed so far to does not in fact cut the city the SDF media center. Bali Also Friday, neighboring
IS’ de facto capital, officials take about half the city. in two. also confirmed that SDF Turkey introduced new reg-
said Friday. The linkup of the eastern Dillon told The Associated fighters pushing from op- ulations at a border cross-
Though the development and western fronts deprives Press in an email that the posite sides of the city have ing with northwestern Syria,
marked a significant mile- IS from access to the Eu- significance is that the met up. Bali said by tele- allowing only the transport
stone in the battle for the phrates River — and effec- SDF, despite IS’ best efforts, phone from northern Syria of humanitarian aid, after
IS stronghold, a U.S. military tively leaves the remain- have successfully battled that the key difficulty facing an al-Qaida-linked group
spokesman cautioned that ing militants in Raqqa and across the entire city from advancing SDF fighters is to took control of the Syrian
there is still tough fighting thousands of civilians sur- both sides and have joined avoid striking civilians used post.q