Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 1 augusT 2017
IS targets Iraq Embassy in Kabul; all 4 attackers killed

said. and several rooms badly
As the attack unfolded burned.
there were conflicting re- It wasn’t until the attack
ports of casualties, with ended that both the em-
a witness saying he saw bassy and the interior min-
bodies of at least two po- istry realized two of their Af-
licemen lying on the road ghan staff had died in the
outside the embassy soon daring assault.
after the attack began. Afghan President Ashraf
In its claim of responsibility, Ghani condemned the at-
the Islamic State group said tack and said it was the
its fighters had killed seven government’s responsibility
guards but the militant to provide protection to in-
group often exaggerates ternational missions.
its claims on the number of In Baghdad, Foreign Min-
casualties inflicted. The IS istry spokesman Ahmad
attack likely meant to dis- Jamal condemned the as-
tract attention from the mil- sault as a “terrorist attack”.
itants’ massive losses in Iraq The attack began with a
and Syria in recent weeks. big explosion that rocked
Also, IS said only two of its central Kabul shortly be-
followers were involved in fore noon, followed by
the attack, not four as Ka- gunfire that lasted for sev-
Security forces respond at the site of a suicide attack followed by a clash between Afghanistan’s bul officials said, adding to eral hours, and two or three
forces and IS fighters during an attack on Iraq embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, July 31, the conflicting reports. more subsequent large ex-
2017. A media outlet linked to the Islamic State group says two IS militants were behind the attack
on the Iraqi Embassy in the Afghan capital. Earlier Danish said only one plosions.
(AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini) policeman was wounded Police quickly cordoned off
and that there were no fa- the area, barring reporters
talities among the security from coming too close to
By AMIR SHAH ing himself up outside the had killed all the attackers. forces or civilians. Danish the scene.
Associated Press gates, followed by three Interior Ministry spokesman told The Associated Press The Afghan Interior Ministry
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) gunmen who stormed into Najib Danish told reporters over the phone that all the said a suicide bomber first
— The Islamic State group the building. The assault set that two Afghan employ- embassy staffers were safe started the attack, blowing
targeted the Iraqi Embassy off a four-hour firefight that ees of the Iraq Embassy but that the building had himself up at the embassy
in Kabul on Monday, with ended only after Afghan died in the attack. Three suffered extensive dam- gate, after which three at-
a suicide bomber blow- security forces said they police were injured, he age with windows broken tackers stormed inside.q

Thousands to be evacuated from Lebanon-Syria border

will go ahead Monday as about 9,000 Syrians, includ-
scheduled, or will be de- ing hundreds of al-Qaida
layed, because the reg- fighters, are to return to
istration of thousands of Syria. In exchange, eight
Syrians who want to return Hezbollah fighters held by
home is taking longer than al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate,
expected. Fatah al-Sham Front, will be
The evacuation deal fol- returned home.
lowed a military offensive Also to be evacuated are
by Hezbollah fighters and members of the Levant
Syrian troops during which People’s Brigades rebel
they captured border ar- group whose members did
eas between the two coun- not take part in last week’s
tries and left hundreds of battles. Those fighters will
al-Qaida fighters besieged head to the government-
in a small rugged moun- held town of Ruhaiba,
tainous area. The fighting about 50 kilometers (31
ended with a cease-fire miles) northeast of the
Thursday for negotiations Syrian capital Damascus
to allow refugees, fighters, where they will benefit from
and family members to an amnesty by the state
This photo shows ambulances of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent gathering in the Syrian border leave to Syria’s northwest and return to normal life,
village of Fleeta. The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media released videos and Idlib province and the cen- according to Hezbollah’s
photos of buses and ambulances near the Lebanese border town of Arsal and the Syrian village
of Fleeta preparing for the evacuations. The second round of an exchange between Lebanon’s tral Qalamoun region. Al-Manar TV.
militant Hezbollah group and Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate that would lead to thousands of refugees As part of the deal, the The government-controlled
resettled in Syria. two groups on Sunday ex- Syrian Central Military Me-
(Syrian Central Military Media, via AP) changed the bodies of dia released video and
their dead fighters. Hezbol- photos of the buses and
By BASSEM MROUE border Monday for the sec- that would lead to the re- lah handed over the bod- ambulances near the Leb-
Associated Press ond phase of an exchange settlement of thousands of ies of nine al-Qaida fighters anese border town of Ar-
BEIRUT (AP) — Scores of between Lebanon’s mili- refugees in Syria. in exchange for the bodies sal and the Syrian village
buses and ambulances ar- tant Hezbollah group and It was not immediately of five of its own. of Fleeta preparing for the
rived at the Lebanon-Syria Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate clear if the evacuation Under the second phase, evacuations. q