Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 8
A8
WORLD NEWSSaturday 6 June 2015
Islamic State fighters at the
gates of northern Syria city
BASSEM MROUE largest city, and other ar- Islamic State militants pass by a convoy in Tel Abyad town, northeast Syria. In contrast to the fail-
Associated Press eas in recent days, leaving ures of the Iraqi army, in Syria Kurdish fighters are on the march against the Islamic State group,
BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State many civilians dead. capturing towns and villages in an oil-rich swath of the country’s northeast in recent days, under
militants fighting in Syria on The Islamic State group has the cover of U.S.-led airstrikes.
Friday reached the south- been attacking Hassakeh
ern gates of the predomi- city since May 30, facing (Militant website via AP)
nantly Kurdish northeastern stiff resistance from govern-
city of Hassakeh amid in- ment forces. The city has
tense air raids and shelling, been split between gov-
Syrian activists and the ex- ernment forces and Kurd-
tremist group’s radio sta- ish fighters who have been
tion said. attacking IS positions else-
The push came as the U.N. where in the province.
Security Council expressed The Britain-based Syr-
“outrage” at all the attacks ian Observatory for Human
against civilians in Syria, rights said that IS fighters
including those involving captured a power station
shelling and barrel bombs and an unfinished juvenile
— bombings that have prison building just south of
reportedly been used ex- Hassakeh.
tensively in Aleppo, Syria’s IS radio station Al-Bayan
said the militants were mittees say government
about one kilometer (mile) warplanes repeatedly at-
from the southern entrance tacked IS forces near Has-
in the city, claiming they sakeh on Friday. The Obser-
have killed dozens of sol- vatory said 71 government
diers. troops as well as 48 IS fight-
The Observatory and the ers were killed in Hassakeh
Local Coordination Com- over the past week.q
2 killed in explosions at
Kurdish rally in Turkey
SUZAN FRASER the main city in Turkey’s
Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — predominantly Kurdish
Two people died and more
than 100 were injured after southeast.
two explosions rocked a
large Kurdish party election It wasn’t immediately clear
rally in southeast Turkey on
Friday, the country’s Agri- how many of the injured
culture Minister Mehdi Eker
said. were seriously hurt. Health
The blasts occurred five
minutes apart at the rally Minister Mehmet Muezzino-
of the pro-Kurdish People’s
Democratic Party, or HDP, glu had earlier said around
as party leader Selahattin
Demirtas was preparing to 50 people were injured in
address the crowd of tens
of thousands in Diyarbakir, the incident and 20 to 24 of
them were being treated in
hospitals.
An Associated Press jour-
nalist at the scene said the
first blast occurred inside a
garbage container while
the second, more powerful
one was inside a power dis-
tribution unit.q
