Gunmen disguised as medical personnel stormed a military hospital near the US Embassy in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people in a six-hour siege before Afghan security forces killed the attackers, authorities said.
The ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq said the terror group claimed responsibility for the attack near Kabul's heavily fortified diplomatic quarter.
First, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the south gate to the Sardar Mohammed Daud Khan hospital, said Sediq Sediqqi, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman. Known as "the 400-bed hospital," it's the country's biggest and best-equipped medical facility.
Three gunmen then invaded the hospital, made their way to the second and third floors and opened fire, Sediqqi said. Among those killed were Afghan military personnel recovering from battle wounds, doctors and hospital employees.
Security forces and police mounted a counteroffensive. Heavily armed soldiers and armored vehicles surrounded the facility, a helicopter landed on the roof and a few patients climbed out of windows and stood on a ledge to escape the violence, video shows.
Soldiers killed the attackers about 3:30 p.m. local time (6 a.m. Wednesday ET) after six hours of fighting.
As soldiers cleared the building, they discovered bodies and the number of casualties quickly grew.
More than 50 people were wounded and taken to the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, said Smael Kawosi, media relation officer for the Ministry of Health. It's not known whether any security personnel or police officers were killed.
The Taliban has claimed credit for other recent attacks. But a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mojahid, denied responsibility for this rampage in a tweet, saying: "Today's attack on hospital in Kabul has nothing to do with the Mujahidin of Islamic Emirate," using the group's formal name.
In the vacuum of a Taliban claim, Amaq said ISIS claimed responsibility. Though it is credible that ISIS planned and carried out the attack, CNN has not independently verified the claim.
This is not the first attack at the hospital named after Afghanistan's first president. In May 2011, suicide bombers got inside, and killed six people and injured 26 others. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Witnesses told CNN an explosion was first heard at 9 a.m. local time (11.30 p.m. Tuesday ET).
Afghan National Police special forces rushed in. "At first there was a firing followed by a huge blast," an employee at a nearby hospital said.
An employee at an Italian restaurant nearby said she heard one explosion, then heard gunfire about 25 minutes later.
The attackers were not immediately killed because security forces were busy evacuating patients, the defense ministry statement said.
US Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of Resolute Support and US Forces in Afghanistan, said the attack "is an unspeakable crime." He praised security forces for the swift response, saying the forces deserve "our highest praise and respect."
Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said the attack shows terrorists "don't follow rules and laws."
"According to international humanitarian laws, hospitals are immune from attacks," he said.
Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah tweeted: "I condemn the terrorist attacked on hospital in Kabul. While we work for peace, we'll avenge the blood of our people."
The US Embassy in Kabul said, "Targeting a medical facility providing care for the brave Afghans working to protect their fellow citizens has no possible justification in any religion or creed."
NATO forces in Afghanistan indicated that the organization was standing by to assist Afghan security forces, according to tweets from Operation Resolute Support.
"Once again insurgents show complete disrespect for humanity by attacking a hospital. We stand with Afghan people against terrorism."
Somalia's prime minister announced Saturday that 110 people have died from hunger in the past 48 hours in a single region as a severe drought threatens millions of people across the country.
It was the first death toll announced by Somalia's government since it declared the drought a national disaster on Tuesday. The United Nations estimates that 5 million people in this Horn of Africa nation need aid, amid warnings of a full-blown famine.
Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire spoke during a meeting with the Somali National Drought Committee. The death toll he announced is from the Bay region in the southwest part of the country alone.
Somalia was one of four regions singled out by the U.N. secretary-general last month in a $4.4 billion aid appeal to avert catastrophic hunger and famine, along with northeast Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. All are connected by a thread of violent conflict, the U.N. chief said.
The U.N. humanitarian coordinator, Stephen O'Brien, was expected to visit Somalia in the next few days.
Thousands have been streaming into Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in search of food aid, overwhelming local and international aid agencies. Over 7,000 internally displaced people checked into one feeding center recently.
The drought is the first crisis for Somalia's newly elected Somali-American leader, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Previous droughts and a quarter-century of conflict, including ongoing attacks by extremist group al-Shabab, have left the country fragile. Mohamed has appealed to the international community and Somalia's diaspora of 2 million people for help.
About 363,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia "need urgent treatment and nutrition support, including 71,000 who are severely malnourished," the U.S. Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning Systems Network has warned.
Because of a lack of clean water in many areas, there is the additional threat of cholera and other diseases, U.N. experts say. Some deaths from cholera already have been reported.
The government has said the widespread hunger "makes people vulnerable to exploitation, human rights abuses and to criminal and terrorist networks."
The U.N. humanitarian appeal for 2017 for Somalia is $864 million to provide assistance to 3.9 million people. But the U.N. World Food Program recently requested an additional $26 million plan to respond to the drought.
The US today said it is temporarily suspending the 'premium processing' of H-1B visas from April 3, eliminating the option of shorter wait times for the programme that helps highly skilled foreigners work at American firms. Under the current system, companies submitting applications for H-1B visas for potential employees can pay extra for expedited processing, which is known as premium processing.
The suspension is effective April 3, and could last up to six months, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The H-1B visas are widely used by Indian IT majors. Premium processing costs an additional USD 1,225 and ensures a response from the USCIS in 15 days or the fee is refunded. Processing of standard H-1B applications -- those that are not premium -- takes between three to six months. "This temporary suspension will help us to reduce overall H-1B processing time," the USCIS said.
The change comes as President Donald Trump is said to be drafting a new version of his court-halted executive order that banned travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. By temporarily suspending premium processing, the USCIS said it will be able to process long-pending petitions, which they have currently been unable to process due to the high volume of incoming petitions and the significant surge in premium processing requests over the past few years, and prioritise adjudication of H-1B extension of status cases that are nearing the 240-day mark.
For Silicon Valley companies, many of which employ large number of H-1B holders, this move could signal that waiting time for approval may get much longer. Under the current system, a company that is sponsoring a potential employee or current employee's H-1B petition may fill out a form to expedite the processing of that petition, the Verge reported. Meanwhile, the USCIS also announced that it would start accepting the H-1B visa applications for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, 2017, from April 3.
At least eight Afghan civilians, including four children, were killed in a blast as they tried to escape fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban, officials said Saturday.
Some 22 others were injured in the explosion in the Bala Buluk district of Farah province Friday, the latest carnage as the resurgence of the Taliban brings rising insecurity.
"Their vehicle hit a roadside bomb as they were fleeing the scene of fighting," provincial spokesman Nasir Mehri told AFP.
But Wakil Ahmad, a resident of the district, said the deaths were caused by an Afghan army air strike, during bombing of Taliban positions.
Afghan defense ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said they were "investigating the allegations".
Afghan civilians are paying a high price for the escalating conflict. Civilian casualties in 2016 were the highest recorded by the UN since 2009, with nearly 11,500 non-combatants killed or wounded.
The United Nations warned that the alleged use of chemical weapons in Mosul, if confirmed, would be a war crime and a serious violation of international humanitarian law, according to a statement released Saturday.
"This is horrible," Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator in Iraq said in the statement, "there is never justification -- none whatsoever -- for the use of chemical weapons."
The alleged attack occurred this week in eastern Mosul, an area declared fully liberated by Iraqi forces in January. The attack hit a neighborhood along the Tigris River -- which roughly divides the city in two.
Doctors in an urgent care hospital in the nearby city of Irbil say they began receiving patients showing symptoms of chemical weapons exposure on Thursday.
"The mortar hit our house, right inside the living room where we were sitting," said Nazim Hamid, whose children had burns to their faces, arms and legs. The family was being treated in the Irbil hospital.
"There was a very bad smell, it was some kind of gas," he said. "My kids were affected, some of them were burned and some of them had difficulty breathing."
Hussein Qader, the deputy director of the hospital, said all 10 patients admitted for exposure are in stable condition and will be discharged in the coming days.
Most of western Mosul is still under Islamic State group control despite a handful of recent gains on the city's southwestern edge by Iraqi forces over the past two weeks.
IS has used chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria at least 52 times according to a report published late last year by IHS conflict monitor, a London-based research and intelligence gathering group. The report said that at least 19 of the 52 attacks took place in and around Mosul.
Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition officials have repeatedly expressed concern regarding IS chemical weapons attacks. However IS-claimed insurgent attacks in Iraq and attacks targeting civilians attempting to flee Mosul cause far greater numbers of injuries and deaths to civilians.
Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul in October and began a push to retake the city's western half last month.
After more than two years of slow territorial victories against IS by Iraqi ground forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air power, western Mosul is the last significant urban area IS controls in Iraq.
The Russian leader said Moscow and Bishkek agreed to step up military and technical cooperation and added that Russia is ready to close its military base in Kyrgyzstan should Biskek ask for it.
Russia and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to strengthen military and technical cooperation to face terrorist and criminal threats, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after talks with his Kyrgyz counterpart.
"We agreed to actively strengthen bilateral, military and military-technical cooperation. We confirmed a common understanding that the Russian military base's presence is an important factor in ensuring stability and security in the Central Asian region," Putin said.
He noted that talks with Almazbek Atambayev centered on threats facing the Central Asian region, including anti-terrorism, drug trafficking and cross-border organized crime.
"If Kyrgyzstan ever says that we have strengthened our armed forces so much that this base is not necessary, we will leave that same day," Putin said. "We have no need to deploy a military contingent, it is associated only with ensuring the security of Kyrgyzstan itself."
He echoed Atambayev's statement earlier that their high-level talks did not focus on the expansion of the existing Russian base in the Central Asian republic.
"If Kyrgyzstan finds it necessary to do so, then we will have discussions, but bear in mind that this is also an additional cost to us," Putin stressed.
The top official of France's Charente region says a police sharpshooter has accidentally fired his weapon during a speech by President Francois Hollande and two people were slightly injured.
Pierre N'Gahane said the incident occurred Tuesday while Hollande was inaugurating a new fast train line in the western town of Villognon.
Myanmar's military, under international pressure over alleged abuse against members of the country's Muslim Rohingya minority, said Tuesday that official investigations failed to substantiate most allegations.
The military's Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Mya Tun Oo, said a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw that the increasing population of Rohingya in Rakhine state in western Myanmar, along with an increase in the number of religious leaders and mosques, disproved general charges of genocide and religious persecution.
He said official investigations failed to find convincing evidence that widespread rape or other atrocities directed against civilians had taken place, but allegations that the army burned down thousands of homes were still under investigation.
The two-and-a-half hour briefing, including PowerPoint presentations and use of video clips, was an unusually extensive event for the military, which is seeking to counter a wave of accusations against it. Mya Tun Oo discussed specific cases raised by human rights investigators, saying the government was unable to find firsthand or verifiable accounts that could confirm them. However, critics have said the government cannot expect to conduct a credible investigation by itself and should allow an independent international investigation.
The government has barred independent media access to the Rohingya area of Rakhine since an army crackdown began in October after insurgents killed nine police guards along the border with Bangladesh. Human rights groups have said that satellite photos support their allegations of the mass burning of houses, which the government had earlier dismissed as the work of insurgents.
The U.N.'s human rights agency in early February issued a detailed report based on interviews with Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh alleging widespread rapes of Rohingya women by Myanmar government security forces, as well as other atrocities against civilians.
On Monday, after a visit with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the U.N's special envoy for human rights in Myanmar called for Myanmar's government "to immediately cease the discrimination that the (Rohingya) community continues to face, to act now to prevent any further serious rights violations and to conduct prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into those already alleged to have occurred."
"The magnitude of violence that these families have witnessed and experienced is far more extensive than I had originally speculated," said Yanghee Lee.
Western governments have also expressed their concern about treatment off the Rohingya.
The estimated 1 million Rohingya in Buddhist-majority Myanmar face official and social discrimination. Most are regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Many fled home during communal violence in 2012 and over 100,000 live in refugee camps.
At least seven persons, including an underworld don, were killed when a prison bus was attacked by unidentified men in southwestern Sri Lanka today, police said.
The attackers opened fire on the bus transporting prisoners from Kalutara prison to a magistrate court, police media spokesman Priyantha Jayakody said.
He said seven persons were killed and four injured.
The bus was attacked at Nagaha junction in Kalutara, ColomboPage reported.
Among the dead was notorious underworld figure Aruna Damith Udayanga alias 'Samayan' and two prison officials.
Donald Trump's job approval rating stands at just 44 per cent, a record low for a newly inaugurated President, according to a new joint NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll.
In the poll, conducted between February 18-22, 48 per cent of Americans said they disapprove of Trump's performance as President and 32 per cent said that his first month in office demonstrated that he is not up to the job.
Asked about early challenges in the first month of his presidency, 52 per cent called the issues "real problems" that are specific to his administration, while 43 per cent of Americans attributed them to typical "growing pains" for any new President.
The new rating comes two days before Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress, a State of the Union-style speech in which new presidents typically lay out their vision for the country, NBC News reported.
According to the poll, he is the only President in the history of modern polling to begin his first term with a net negative approval rating. Compared to Trump's net negative rating of -4 per cent, former Barack Obama began his presidency with a net positive of 34 per cent.
Trump also continues to register particularly dismal ratings when it comes to his temperament, with just 18 per cent giving his demeanour a thumbs up compared to 55 per cent who rank it as poor.
His personal favourability rating -- 43 per cent positive and 47 per cent negative -- was stable compared to previous polls, and a majority of Americans -- 57 per cent -- said that he was performing about how they expected him to in the White House.
Six-in-10 Americans said they were hopeful and optimistic about the future of the country, including an overwhelming 87 per cent of Republicans (but just 37 per cent of Democrats), the poll showed.
And a majority of respondents to the poll -- 57 per cent - also said that Trump was likely to "bring real change in the direction of the country".
