Tag: Forces

ABIDJAN - Forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in Ivory Coast's main city, have retaken ground and are edging closer to where rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara is holed up, the United Nations said.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told reporters on Friday that Gbagbo's forces had used a lull in fighting for peace talks as a ruse to reinforce their positions. "We understand that since that time, the forces of Mr. Gbagbo ... have regained terrain and they have

AMMAN - Syrian security forces killed at least three pro-democracy demonstrators in the southern city of Deraa as protests against the rule of Bashar al-Assad flared in a number of towns after Friday prayers, witnesses said. In the east, thousands of ethnic Kurds demonstrated for reform despite the president's offer this week to ease rules which bar many Kurds from citizenship, activists said.
Security men opened fire on thousands of protesters in Deraa, where protests first

BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces clashed with residents of an Iranian dissident camp north of Baghdad overnight, the Iraqi government said on Friday, and an Iranian opposition group said residents were attacked and killed.
The government spokesman said five members of the Iraqi security forces were wounded in the incident at Camp Ashraf. Representatives of the camp called the incident a "criminal attack" and said 25 residents were killed and 320 wounded. An Iraqi medical source at

ABIDJAN - Forces loyal to Ivory Coast's internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara attacked Laurent Gbagbo's residence Wednesday, determined to remove him from his bunker and end his hold on power.
Gunfire erupted near Gbagbo's home and the presidential palace, witnesses said, amid a fresh assault to force him to end his decade-long rule of the world's number one cocoa producer after losing November elections. "We are going to take Laurent Gbagbo out of his hole and

SANAA - Security forces and armed men in civilian clothes opened fire during protests in the Yemeni city of Taiz, south of the capital, on Tuesday, a day after clashes there killed 15 people, witnesses said.
Witnesses told that several people had been hurt, but there was no word yet from medical sources on casualties.
They said hundreds of security troops attacked tens of thousands of protesters, and said men they believed were plainclothes police were wielding bats and

LANDIKOTAL - The security forces along with Khyber Agency's political administration, in a raid on two godowns in the Gagra area of Landikotal, seized four cars, charas and wood and arrested two people allegedly involved in damping NATO's stolen items on Sunday.
Reportedly, the security forces and the political administration raided two godowns and recovered four parked motorcars, a huge quantity of charas and wood stolen from NATO containers.

ABU DHABI - United Arab Emirates' special forces on Saturday freed an Abu Dhabi-owned ship seized by pirates east of Oman in the Arabian Sea, a military official told state news agency WAM. "A special counter-terrorism unit, backed by air force units and in coordination with the (Bahrain-based) US Fifth Fleet, stormed the ship. The hijackers subsequently surrendered," the official said. The UAE had said earlier that the special forces had moved to free the MV Arrilah-I which was

HANGU - At least 8 militants were killed and 3 of their hideouts destroyed in the shelling of security forces in the Central Kurram Agency whereas 5 persons were injured in the fresh missile attack by American spy planes hereon Thursday. Security Forces attacked at the hideouts of militants with heavy artillery fire in Ali Sher Zai, Chinarak and Sparkut areas. Resultantly, 8 militants were killed, several injured and 3 of their hideouts destroyed.
In addition, American spy planes

ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast's Alassane Ouattara said forces under his command were "at the gates" of Abidjan on Thursday and called on the remaining loyalists of his rival Laurent Gbagbo to switch sides to prevent further suffering.
"I call on you to serve your country ... It is time to join your brothers in the Republican Forces," Ouattara said in a statement on his television station, soon after South Africa said Gbagbo's army chief had sought refuge in its embassy in the

PESHAWAR - At least nine militants were killed as security forces targeted their hideouts in central Kurram Agency on Thursday.
According to a private TV, forces have been conducting operations in Kurram Agency for the past ten years and have been able to re-establish their presence in major areas. However, security forces are facing tough resistance in some areas of lower and central Kurram.

WASHINGTON - The international coalition's strikes on forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have enabled Libyan rebels to regroup and attempt an advance west, but US officials maintain Washington will not take decisive sides in the conflict.
President Barack Obama sought in his speech Monday to reconcile the fact that he wants Gaddafi gone with the view that pursuing a policy of regime change through military means could spell disaster.
"If we tried to overthrow Gaddafi by force,

DAMASCUS - Syrian forces opened fire to disperse hundreds of protesters in Deraa calling for an end to emergency laws on Monday, but demonstrators regrouped despite a heavy troop deployment, a witness said. At least 61 people have been killed in 10 days of anti-government protests in the southern city, posing the most serious challenge to President Bashar al-Assad's rule. Assad has yet to respond to the demonstrations, which have spread to the port city of Latakia and Hama, but Vice

DERAA - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made an unprecedented pledge of greater freedom and more prosperity to Syrians on Thursday as anger mounted following a crackdown on protesters that left at least 37 dead.
As an aide to Assad in Damascus read out a list of decrees, which included a possible end to 48 years of emergency rule, a human rights group said a leading pro-democracy activist, Mazen Darwish, had been arrested. In the southern city of Deraa, a hospital official said

PARIS - French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Thursday that coalition airstrikes against Libya had been a "success" and would continue.
France's defence minister, meanwhile, said intercepted communications showed that some forces under Muammar Gaddafi are wavering in their support of the Libyan leader.
"We will continue with the airstrikes," Juppe told RTL radio, adding that the strikes were "only targeting military sites and nothing else." He said the air campaign was a

DAMASCUS/SANAA - Syrian forces killed at least 16 people on Wednesday, including six in an attack on a mosque in the southern city of Deraa, site of unprecedented protests challenging President Bashar al-Assad's Baathist rule, residents said.
Assad, a close ally of Iran, key player in neighbouring Lebanon and supporter of militant groups opposed to Israel, has dismissed rising demands for fundamental reforms in Syria where his Baath Party has held a monopoly on power for 48

AJDABIYA/TRIPOLI/PARIS - The Libyan government forces pulled back 100 kilometres from rebel-held Benghazi but showed they still had plenty of fight on Monday as they easily beat off a rebel advance. The forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi had retreated overnight to the key town of Ajdabiya, south of the city of Benghazi, after Western-led airstrikes destroyed much of their armour, leaving dozens of wrecked tanks along the road.
But as rebels who massed in their hundreds

Continued from page 1 - The volleys erupted at around 1900 GMT near the Bab el-Aziziya barracks in the south of Tripoli, the correspondent said.
Meanwhile, while the US-French-British core stayed solid, cracks started to show in the military coalition hastily assembled to take action on Libya as the Arab League and some EU countries wavered. Criticism of the operation came swiftly after French jets took to the skies.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa caused concerns on