A rocket and car bomb attack left one UN peacekeeper dead, a dozen wounded and another dozen French soldiers hurt at Timbuktu’s airport area, Mali’s security ministry said Saturday. “A terrorist attack targeted” France’s Barkhan camp as well as UN troops stationed outside the northern Mali city during the afternoon, the ministry said on Facebook.

A dozen rockets were fired at the two camps with gunmen dressed as UN blue helmets riding two vehicles rigged with bombs. “One of the vehicles exploded, while the second bearing the UN sign was halted,” the statement said.

The ministry said the latest casualty toll was one UN soldier dead, a dozen wounded, five of them seriously, and a dozen French soldiers also hurt. “The fighting ended towards 18h30. The sector is being searched. The situation is under control,” it added.

A foreign security source told AFP that the assault was “unprecedented” in Timbuktu. The United Nations had earlier released the same toll for its troops. In a tweet, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali announced, “One blue helmet was killed in gunfire exchanges with the assailants, a dozen wounded.”

MINUSMA had earlier “confirmed a major and complex attack on the camp at Timbuktu this afternoon (mortars + exchanges of fire + suicide attack vehicle)”. “It’s the first time there has been an attack on this scale against the MINUSMA in Timbuktu,” the security source said.

“We’ve never seen an attack like this,” an official from the Timbuktu governorate told AFP. “Shell fire, rockets, explosions and perhaps even suicide bombers.” Unrest in Mali stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state, which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north.

More than a dozen of Timbuktu’s holy shrines, built in the 15th and 16th centuries when the city was revered as a centre of Islamic learning, were razed in a campaign against idolatry by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012. The United Nations has nearly 13,000 troops and police in Mali, many of whom are deployed in the country’s lawless north.

Seven UN peacekeepers have been killed in attacks in Mali this year alone, serving in a mission that has been described as the UN’s most dangerous. A total of 102 have been killed since MINUSMA’s deployment began in 2013.

Islamist extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013. Insurgents remain active, linked to drug, arms and migrant trafficking in the vast Sahel region.

(AFP)

A storm system stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes has buffeted the central US with heavy snow, tornadoes, rain and hail, forcing flight cancellations, creating treacherous road conditions and killing at least three people, including a sleeping 2-year-old Louisiana girl.

In the Upper Midwest, all flights were grounded most of Saturday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as heavy snow made it difficult to keep runways clear and planes deiced. Nearly 470 flights were canceled before crews were able to open one runway shortly after 10 p.m., according to a spokesman. Blizzard conditions also forced the airport in South Dakota’s biggest city, Sioux Falls, to remain closed for a second straight day.

The Minnesota Twins home game against the Chicago White Sox was snowed out Saturday, marking the first back-to-back postponements of baseball games in the stadium’s nine seasons. Sunday’s game was also called off because of the storm, which by Saturday night had buried Minneapolis under more than 13 inches of snow (33 centimeters). The Yankees and Tigers were rained out Saturday in Detroit.

Authorities closed several highways in southwestern Minnesota, where no travel was advised, and driving conditions were difficult across the southern half of the state. The National Weather Service predicted that a large swath of southern Minnesota, including Minneapolis and St. Paul, could get up to 20 inches of snow (51 centimeters) by the time the storm blows through on Sunday.

“It’s a cool experience for me, the best Minneapolis experience,” Niko Heiligman, of Aachen, Germany, said as he braved the snow Saturday to take a walk along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. “I’m only here for the weekend, so I guess that’s how it goes. There’s snow and it’s cold. So it’s good.”

The storm is expected to persist through Sunday in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan before moving into New York state and New England.

Up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of snow had fallen by early Saturday in parts of northern Wisconsin, with another 14 inches (36 centimeters) expected by Sunday evening. Winds of up to 55 mph (88.5 kph) caused blowing and drifting snow, along with ice shoves in Green Bay.

The National Weather Service also warned of potential coastal flooding along Lake Michigan in Wisconsin and Illinois, where Chicago residents were warned that waves could reach as high as 18 feet (5.5 meters).

Snow and wind gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) were whipping through parts of South Dakota for a second straight day Saturday, causing blizzard conditions that made travel all but impossible. While the blizzard warning was lifted in the western part of the state, it remained in effect for much of southern and eastern South Dakota.

No travel was advised in Sioux Falls, where police said the blowing snow made it hard to see anything. Several inches of snow fell in various parts of the state, including 18 inches (46 centimeters) in the eastern South Dakota city of Huron.

The storm and powerful winds knocked out power to thousands of customers in Michigan, which was expected to get more snow and ice through the weekend.

Two storm-related deaths occurred early Saturday. In Louisiana, winds downed a tree onto a mobile home in Haughton, killing a sleeping 2-year-old girl inside, according to the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office. In Wisconsin, a woman was killed when she lost control of the minivan she was driving on a slippery highway and struck an oncoming SUV near Lewiston. Three passengers in the minvan and the SUV driver were hospitalized.

On Friday, a truck driver from Idaho lost control of his rig on snow-covered Interstate 80 near Chappell in western Nebraska and slammed into a semi that had become stranded, according to the Nebraska State Patrol. He died at the scene.

In Arkansas, a tornado ripped through the tiny Ozark Mountain town of Mountainburg on Friday, injuring at least four people and causing widespread damage. Video showed uprooted trees, overturned cars, damaged buildings and downed power lines. Powerful winds also damaged several buildings at the University of Central Arkansas, though no injuries were reported there.

The storm made its mark in Texas, too, where hail the size of hen eggs fell on areas south of Dallas and Fort Worth, according to meteorologist Patricia Sanchez. In Austin, fire officials said strong winds helped spread the flames after lightning struck two houses that suffered heavy damage.

(Source: AP)

Multiple places in Syria have come under attack by US, British and French military forces after President Donald Trump ordered a military strike against the country despite international warnings against further escalation of the situation.

“A short time ago, I ordered the United States Armed Forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of” Syria, Trump said in a televised address from the White House on Friday evening.

He also warned Russia and Iran, which have been assisting Syria in its counter-terrorism campaign, to end their support for the Damascus government, but said, “hopefully, someday we’ll get along with Russia, and maybe even Iran, but maybe not.”

US officials said that Tomahawk cruise missiles and other types of bombs were used in the attack.

British Prime Minister Theresa May also said she authorized the British armed forces to conduct coordinated and targeted strikes, noting, “I have done so because I judge this action to be in Britain’s national interest.”

Britain’s Defense Ministry said that four RAF tornado jets took part in the attacks, striking a Syrian military facility near the Syrian province of Homs.

Likewise, French President Emanuel Macron also claimed the strikes target Syria’s capability to launch chemical attacks.

“We cannot tolerate the normalization of the use of chemical weapons,” he said in a statement issued shortly after huge explosions were heard in Damascus early Saturday followed by the sound of airplanes overhead.

The three countries used an alleged chemical attack in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus last week as a pretext for their military action. They blame the Syrian government for the attack, without offering any evidence.

Syria has strongly rejected any role in the suspected attack, which came just as the Syrian army was about to declare full victory against the militants operating in the region.

Russia said the chemical attack was staged by desperate militants to provoke further intervention in the conflict by the West.

The NATO military alliance also voiced support for the military action.

“I support the actions taken by the United States, the United Kingdom and France,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement, claiming … the campaign will reduce the ability of Syria to launch chemical attacks.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit bases and chemical research centers around the capital Damascus.

Syrian state TV said the attack hit the country’s army depots in the area of Homs, adding that Syrian air defense systems shot down 13 missiles.

A Reuters witness said that at least six loud explosions were heard in Damascus with smoke rising over the Syrian capital where a second witness said the Barzah district, the location of a major Syrian scientific research center, was also hit in the strikes.

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said in a press briefing that the air strikes on targets in Syria were a “one time shot,” noting that future strikes will depend on whether the Syrian government uses chemical weapons.

The Pentagon chief added that the US and its allies struck Syria harder than they did last year.

General Joseph Dunford, the highest-ranking officer in the US military, said Russia’s forces in Syria had been warned through existing “deconfliction” channels that Western planes would be in Syrian air space.

There have been contradictory reports on the number of missiles fired on Syria. A pro-Syrian government official said 30 missiles were fired, but the Pentagon put the number at 100.

Source: Presstv

Cameroonians swept up in a conflict between anglophone separatists and the government are facing a humanitarian crisis, aid groups say as they struggle to reach people in remote areas that have become virtually off-limits.

They have “numerous humanitarian needs”, said Allegra Maria Del Pilar Baiocchi, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Cameroon. “Beyond the violence, (the crisis) has an impact on health, on employment,” she told AFP.

Separatist ambitions have long simmered in two minority anglophone regions in the west of the country, where people complain of being marginalised by the French-speaking elite. The push for separation was galvanised by a heavy deployment of government troops last August, spurring a low-intensity conflict with sporadic attacks on symbols of the state.

“As with any armed conflict, civilians suffer the consequences of the violence, insecurity and fear,” said Alberto Jodra Marcos, who heads the Swiss branch of the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Cameroon.

According to UN estimates, tens of thousands of people are internally displaced in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon, a one-time German colony that was divided between France and Britain after World War I.

In the worst-hit areas of Mamfe and Kumba in the southwest, some 40,000 people are estimated to have fled their homes.

But some fear the numbers affected could be much greater, with one humanitarian worker saying it was impossible to quantify the displacement given the limited access. The government has imposed curfews on civilians in both regions, and aid groups are rarely allowed in.

‘War situation’          

“It’s difficult for organisations like ours to carry out missions on the ground,” said Agbor Bala Nkongho, director of the NGO Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. “We are in a war situation. We can’t send people everywhere.”

As well as those who are internally displaced, many Cameroonians have fled the violence to neighbouring Nigeria. SEMA, a Nigerian relief agency, said some 34,000 have taken refuge in Nigeria’s Cross River State.

The state has said it will set up and fund a refugee camp with UN backing, but for now local communities are sheltering the majority of the Cameroonian refugees, according to SEMA chief John Inaku. “The situation is very difficult for us,” said Peter Kechi, the village chief of Bashu, which is some five kilometres (three miles) from the border and whose population has ballooned from 1,500 to 4,000 in a few months.

“We are taking refugees into our homes and our bedrooms, with sometimes 20 people sleeping in the same room,” Kechi said.

Locals say the refugees cross the border on foot through heavily forested mountainous areas, making it difficult to record their arrival. The UN has registered 20,485 Cameroonians in Nigeria, according to Baiocchi, who added that “the arrivals are continuing”.

Following a fact-finding mission in Cameroon’s anglophone regions, “we know more or less where the needs are… the next step is how to respond to them,” she said, reached by telephone from the Gabonese capital Libreville. Jodra Marcos of MSF said its workers had carried out training on how to care for the “wounded and traumatised” and donated medicines and equipment in anglophone areas.

However, “many communities (are) in a precarious situation” after staff have fled and some clinics have closed, he noted. Separatists have been blamed for the torching of schools in the areas, while aid groups and residents also regularly accuse the army of carrying out abuses against civilians.

Early this month a human rights activist charged that soldiers killed several civilians by setting fire to their homes. A security source, for his part, accused “some aid groups” of spreading disinformation. The government in Yaounde has repeatedly denied accusations of excessive violence and extortion.

Source: France 24

US Defense Secretary James Mattis has warned that a military strike on Syria carried the risk of spiraling out of control, cautioning the White House as it weighs how to respond to a suspected chemical attack outside Damascus last weekend.

Speaking before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, Mattis said his primary concern in planning military action was avoiding anything that would trigger a wider war.

“On a strategic level, it’s how do we keep this from escalating out of control,” he said.

President Donald Trump initially threatened this week that he was committed to attacking the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which he accused of using chemical weapons in Douma.

However, Trump later softened his rhetoric, suggesting he was awaiting further advice and assessment before a final decision was made.

“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place,” he tweeted. “Could be very soon or not so soon at all!”

Mattis insisted the US policy in Syria still remained the same, which was the total defeat of the Daesh terrorist group without getting directly involved in the conflict.

“Our strategy remains the same as a year ago,” he said. “It is to drive this to a U.N.-brokered peace but, at the same time, keep our foot on the neck of ISIS until we suffocate it,” referring to Daesh.

The terror organization has been driven from most of the territory it held in Iraq and Syria, but pockets of militants remain.

On Thursday, Russia announced that the Syrian army had liberated Douma less than two months into its counter-terrorism operation in Eastern Ghouta.

“With every victory achieved on the field, the voices of some Western states are raised and actions are intensified in an attempt by them to change the course of events,” President Assad said after the announcement.

“These voices and any possible action will contribute nothing but an increase in instability in the region, threatening international peace and security,” he was quoted by Syrian state TV as saying.

The US has been in close consultations with Britain and France about launching a military operation in Syria as early as the end of this week, officials said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday France had proof the Assad government launched chlorine gas attacks, and that it would not tolerate “regimes that think everything is permitted.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May met with her cabinet, agreeing that it was “highly likely” President Assad was responsible for Saturday’s alleged chemical attack in Douma.

May’s cabinet agreed on the need to “take action” against the Syrian government, but added that the prime minister would continue to coordinate with allies.

Mattis, however, told lawmakers that the United States still had no hard proof, but he believed the Syrian government was responsible for Saturday’s attack.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in the Netherlands, announced it was deploying a fact-finding team to Douma, which was expected to arrive Saturday.

US officials have not said whether the presence of the international investigators could affect the timing of a potential military strike.

The plans for military action have especially been complicated because of the presence of roughly 2,000 Russian troops, who have been stationed in the country since 2015.

Russia has raised the possibility of a military confrontation with the United States if Syria is attacked. Russia also has sophisticated air defense systems in Syria and has threatened to shoot down American missiles.

Source: Presstv