No: 17264 Friday, June 23, 2017

16

I n t e r n a t i o n a l

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

YANGON: Myanmar security forces have

killed three people in raids on “terrorist”

training camps run by Rohingya Muslim mil-

itants in the north of Rakhine state, state

media reported yesterday. Guns, ammuni-

tion and gunpowder were found at the

camps in the Mayu Mountains, part of a

remote strip of land on the northwest bor-

der that is mainly home to the persecuted

Rohingya Muslim minority. More than

70,000 Rohingya have fled the area to near-

by Bangladesh since October, when

Myanmar security forces launched a brutal

crackdown in response to militant attacks

on police posts. 

Rohingya escapees have told harrowing

accounts of security officers slaughtering

babies, burning people alive and staging

gang rapes-abuses UN investigators said

may amount to crimes against humanity.

Myanmar denies the claims and says troops

were conducting valid clearance operations

to crush a Rohingya insurgency. The govern-

ment has refused to allow in a UN fact-find-

ing mission to investigate. The training

camps found this week were allegedly run

by the same group that carried out the

October raids that killed nine policemen,

according to state media.

The report said security forces killed

three “armed attackers in self-defense”

during the two day clearance operation,

which was launched after they received a

tip off the militants were training inside a

secret tunnel at night. The militants, now

called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation

Army (ARSA), were subsidized by “foreign

monetary aids” and spent months train-

ing recruits in martial arts and the use of

light weapons, according to the govern-

ment report. The report also blamed the

“terrorists” for a recent spate of murders

of villagers and local community leaders

that has seen 34 people killed and 22

abducted. 

The ARSA has denied killing any civil-

ians, saying it is fighting for the political

rights of the oppressed Rohingya. The one

million strong minority live mostly in

Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, where

they are denied citizenship, access to basic

services and live in apartheid-like condi-

tions-many in squalid displacement

camps. Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,

whose civilian government ended

decades of military rule last year, has faced

global criticism for not defending the

Rohingya-who are maligned by the

Buddhist majority-or condemning the

army’s brutal crackdown. —AFP

Myanmar forces kill three in raid on terrorist camps

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan: At least

29 people were killed yesterday when a

powerful car bomb struck a bank in

Afghanistan’s Lashkar Gah city as people

were queuing to withdraw salaries, the

latest bloody attack during the holy

month of Ramadan. Sixty wounded peo-

ple were rushed to hospital after the

bombing at New Kabul Bank which

upturned vehicles, left the area littered

with charred debris, and sent a plume of

smoke into the sky.

No group has claimed responsibility

for the brazen attack, but it comes as the

Taliban ramp up their nationwide spring

offensive despite government calls for a

ceasefire during Ramadan. The bomb

tore through a queue of civilians and

government employees who had lined

up outside the bank to collect their

salaries ahead of the Eid holidays mark-

ing the end of Ramadan. “At least 29

people were killed and 60 others

wounded in today’s bombing,” Mullah

Dad Tabidar, head of Bost government

hospital, said as bloodied victims were

rushed in on makeshift stretchers.

Tabidar said civilians and policemen

were among the fatalities, warning that

the toll could rise further. In a similar

attack in February, at least six people

were killed when a Taliban bomber

rammed an explosives-laden car into

Afghan soldiers who had queued out-

side a bank in Lashkar Gah to collect

their salaries. For years Helmand

province, of which Lashkar Gah is the

capital, was the centerpiece of the

Western military intervention in

Afghanistan, but it has recently slipped

deeper into a quagmire of instability.

The Taliban effectively control or con-

test 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand,

blighted by a huge opium harvest that

helps fund the insurgency, and have

repeatedly threatened to seize Lashkar

Gah. Intensified fighting last year forced

thousands of people to flee to Lashkar

Gah from neighboring districts. Since

they launched their spring offensive in

late April, the Taliban have been mount-

ing lethal assaults on the Afghan army

and police outposts in Helmand.

Washington is soon expected to

announce an increase in the US military

deployment to bolster Afghan forces as

they struggle to contain the insurgency. 

American military commanders in

Afghanistan have requested thousands

of extra boots on the ground. US troops

in Afghanistan now number about

8,400, and there are another 5,000 from

NATO allies, a far cry from the US pres-

ence of more than 100,000 six years ago.

They mainly serve as trainers and advis-

ers. Pentagon chief Jim Mattis this

month acknowledged that America still

is “not winning” in Afghanistan nearly

16 years after the US-led invasion top-

pled the Taliban regime.

Mattis said he will present a new US

military strategy for Afghanistan, along

with adjusted troop numbers, in the

coming weeks to US President Donald

Trump. The Afghan conflict is the

longest in American history, with US-led

forces at war since the Taliban regime

was ousted in 2001.—AFP

LASHKAR GAH: Afghan security forces inspect the site of a powerful car bomb in Lashkar Gah, the capital of

Helmand province yesterday. —AFP

Civilian killed at funeral 

for slain Kashmir rebels

SRINAGAR: A civilian was killed and several wounded

yesterday in Indian-administered Kashmir when security

forces opened fire on a crowd gathered for the funeral of

three rebels slain overnight in clashes with soldiers,

police said. Thousands of villagers poured onto the

streets for the funeral, chanting slogans against Indian

rule and pelting stones at soldiers who responded with

bullets and pellet fire, a police officer said. S P Vaid, direc-

tor general of police for the territory, confirmed a protest-

er was killed in the exchange.

Another police officer, speaking on condition of

anonymity, said at least a dozen others were injured by

pellets fired by government forces to disperse the angry

crowd.  On Wednesday night soldiers and counter-insur-

gency police surrounded a residential area where they

suspected armed militants were hiding out, triggering a

fierce exchange of fire. Scores of residents then emerged

from their homes to pelt stones at the soldiers in a bid to

help the militants escape, a police officer said.

“Three terrorists were killed and three weapons recov-

ered from the site,” army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia

said earlier yesterday. Witnesses said the army blew up

the house where the militants were hiding in Kakapora,

around 30 kilometers south of the main city of Srinagar.

One soldier was also injured in the gun battle, police said.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan

since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 and both

claim the territory in its entirety.

Rebel groups have for decades fought the roughly

500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demand-

ing independence or a merger with Pakistan. Officials say

dozens of young people have joined the rebels since last

July, when the killing of a popular rebel commander by

security forces sparked months of deadly anti-India

protests. Rebel attacks on government forces have

increased since then while the army has also intensified

counter-insurgency operations.—AFP

At least 29 killed, 60 injured

Car bomb hits southern Afghanistan bank

SRINAGAR: Indian Kashmiri villagers carry the

body of Kashmiri protester Tawseef Ahmed dur-

ing his funeral procession at Pulwama, south of

Srinagar, following clashes after a funeral for

three rebels. —AFP

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