In the rugged mountains of southwest Pakistan lies the country’s largest province of Balochistan. Far from the bustling cities of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, this remote region has been the battleground for a 60-year-long insurgency by the Baloch ethnic minority. The ongoing conflict is often called Pakistan’s dirty war, because of the rising numbers of people who have disappeared or have been killed on both sides.
In the summer of 2012, the leading commanders of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were confident that momentum was with them. A bomb blast deep inside central Damascus had just taken out four senior commanders of the Syrian army, including the country’s defence minister, Dawoud Rajiha, and his deputy, Assef Shawkat, who was also President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the Trump administration’s case for isolating and containing Iran in the Middle East and beyond to Saudi Arabia and Iraq on Sunday, pushing for them to unite against growing Iranian assertiveness. He also called for a quick resolution to the ongoing crisis between Qatar and its Arab neighbors, which he said was unintentionally bolstering Iran.
A suicide bomber targeted a Shiite mosque in a western Kabul neighborhood during evening prayers on Friday, killing at least 39 people, Afghan officials. Meanwhile in western Ghor province, a suicide blast struck a Sunni mosque, also during Friday prayers, killing at least 33 people. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, the latest in what has been a particularly devastating… Read more »
(Al Jazeera)-The Taj Mahal is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, attracting more than six million tourists a year. Although the monument attracts more tourists than any other site in India, it seems it is out of favour with the government of Uttar Pradesh (UP), where it is located. The iconic monument, a UNESCO world heritage site… Read more »
Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir(Al Jazeera) – Two Indian Air Force commandos and two separatists have been killed in a gun battle in Bandipora district of Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said. “The two commandos succumbed to their injuries,” Director General of the State Police Shesh Paul Vaid told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
BERLIN (Reuters) – German intelligence agencies have warned German companies that Iran is still trying to circumvent restrictions on the sale of dual-use items for its rocket and missile technology program, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The BfV domestic intelligence agency reminded German firms in the document that sales of certain technologies remained illegal despite sanctions… Read more »
(Times of India)ISLAMABAD: Despite public humiliation and periods of house arrest, the former leader of Pakistan’s notorious Red Mosque+ is inspiring a new generation of extremists with his old rhetoric — highlighting Islamabad’s ambivalent attempts to bring religious hardliners to heel. Ten years after the military raid on his mosque made international headlines and shocked his country, Abdul Aziz remains influential, overseeing a network… Read more »
LONDON (Reuters) – Tehran vowed on Tuesday to stand alongside Baghdad and Ankara against the outcome of an independence referendum staged by Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq, a day after thousands of Iranian Kurds marched in support of the vote. State media also quoted an army commander as saying that new missile systems were installed on Tuesday, a day after… Read more »
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s lower house of parliament has unanimously passed a resolution calling on the government to consider suspending supply lines to the US-led NATO mission in neighboring Afghanistan in response to recent US accusations that the country is harboring armed groups. “The National Assembly regards President [Donald] Trump’s and General [John] Nicholson’s [the top US military commander in Afghanistan] statements on… Read more »