Foreign News
Gunmen kill at least 11 in two attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan
Gunmen have killed 11 people in two separate attacks in the Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, officials have said.
Police on Saturday were searching for the assailants who killed nine people after abducting them from a bus on a highway on Friday. The same attackers also killed two people in another car they forced to stop.
Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhel said the armed men had set up a blockade, then stopped the bus and went through the passengers’ ID cards. They took nine people with them, all from the eastern Punjab province, and fled into the mountains. Police later recovered nine bodies under a bridge about five kilometres (three miles) from the highway.
The attack took place on the Quetta-Taftan Highway N-40 in the vicinity of Sultan Charhai near Noshki, and 10 to 12 armed men were involved, Musakhel also told Pakistan daily, Dawn.
Earlier on Friday, the same gunmen had opened fire on a vehicle that tried to stop for their blockade, killing two and wounding six. A search for the perpetrators was under way, Musakhel said.
Passenger Sajjad Ahmed said there were 70 people on the bus. Masked men stopped the bus near the city of Nushki, took away nine people and told the driver to continue the journey, he told The Associated Press.
“We heard the armed men open fire on those people as we drove away,” he said. “We heard the sounds of firing. The driver took the bus to the closest police station. We didn’t know if those people were alive or not.”
Witness Zahid Imran, 46, told the AFP news agency that when the attackers boarded the bus they berated the abducted travellers, saying, “You Punjabis kill our children, get up and come with us.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, expressing his “deep sorrow and regret over this shocking incident”. He offered his condolences to the families of the victims and said he stood by them in their hour of grief, according to a statement from his office. “The perpetrators of this incident of terrorism and their facilitators will be punished,” Sharif said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack which occurred about 8:00pm (15:00 GMT) on Friday.
Abductions are rare in Balochistan, where armed groups usually target police forces and soldiers or infrastructure. Separatist ethnic Baloch groups in the mineral-rich region have been fighting for decades against the state, saying it denies them their share of regional resources.
Punjabis are the largest ethnic group in Pakistan and are perceived to dominate the ranks of the military locked in a battle to quash Balochistan’s armed factions.
Baloch civil leaders claim their communities are subject to a state-sanctioned regime of extrajudicial killings and disappearances, punishing them for political dissent.
(Aljazeera)
A drone attack on the town of Kalogi, in Sudan’s South Kordofan region, is said to have hit a kindergarten and killed at least 50 people, including 33 children.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group battling the army in Sudan’s civil war, was accused of Thursday’s attack by a medical organisation, the Sudan Doctors’ Network, and the army.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
The RSF in turn accused the army of hitting a market on Friday in a drone attack in the Darfur region, on a fuel depot at the Adre border crossing with Chad.
Sudan has been ravaged by war since April 2023 when a power struggle broke out between the RSF and the army, who were formerly allies.
The reports could not be verified independently.
According to the army-aligned foreign ministry, the kindergarten was struck twice with missiles from drones.
Civilians and medics who rushed to the school were also attacked, it added.
Responding to reports of the attack in Kalogi, a spokesman for the UN children’s agency Unicef said: “Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights.”
“Children should never pay the price of conflict,” Sheldon Yett added.
The agency, he said, urged “all parties to stop these attacks immediately and allow safe, unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to reach those in desperate need”.
The RSF accused the army of attacking the Adre crossing because it was used for the “delivery of aid and commercial supplies”.
According to the Sudan War Monitor, a group of researchers tracking the conflict, the attack caused civilian casualties and significant damage to a market.
The military did not immediately comment on the reports from Darfur.
Wedged between Sudan’s capital Khartoum and Darfur, the region made up of North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan has been a frontline in the civil war.
The battle for the Kordofans – which have a population of almost eight million – has intensified as the army pushes towards Darfur.
[BBC]
Border clashes have erupted again between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban forces, with each sides accusing the other of breaking a fragile ceasefire.
Residents fled the Afghan city of Spin Boldak overnight, which lies along the 1,600-mile (2,600 km) border between the two countries.
A medical worker in the nearby city of Kandahar told BBC Pashto that four bodies had been brought to a local hospital. Four other people were wounded. Three were reportedly wounded in Pakistan.
There has been sporadic fighting between the two countries in recent months, while Afghanistan’s Taliban government has also accused Pakistan of carrying out air strikes inside the country.
Both sides have confirmed they exchanged fire overnight but each blamed the other for initiating the four hours of fighting.
Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, accused the Taliban of “unprovoked firing”.
The statement continued: “An immediate, befitting & intense response has been given by our armed forces. Pakistan remains fully alert & committed to ensuring its territorial integrity & the safety our citizens.”
Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesperson said Pakistan had “once again initiated attacks” and said it was “forced to respond”.
Residents on the Afghan side of the border said the exchange of fire started at around 22:30 (18:00 GMT) on Friday.
Footage from the area showed a large number of Afghans fleeing on foot and in vehicles.
Ali Mohammed Haqmal, head of Kandahar’s information department, said Pakistan’s forces had attacked with “light and heavy artillery” and civilian homes had been hit by mortar fire.
The latest clashes came less than two months after both sides agreed to a ceasefire mediated by Qatar and Turkey.
It ended more than a week of fighting in which dozens were killed – the worst clashes between Pakistan and the Taliban since the group returned to power in 2021 – though tensions have remained high.
The government in Islamabad has long accused Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban of giving shelter to armed groups which carry out attacks in Pakistan.
The Taliban government denies the accusation and has accused Pakistan of blaming others for their “own security failures”.
The Pakistan Taliban have carried out at least 600 attacks on Pakistani forces over the past year, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Last week delegations from both sides met in Saudi Arabia for a fourth round of negotiations on a wider peace settlement, but did not reach an agreement.
Sources familiar with the talks told BBC News that both sides had agreed to continue with the ceasefire.
[BBC]
Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete.
They were among a number of countries who had called for Israel to be excluded over the war in Gaza, as well as accusations of unfair voting practices.
Spanish broadcaster RTVE led calls for a secret ballot on the issue at a meeting in Geneva. It said organisers denied that request – a decision that “increased [our] distrust of the festival’s organisation”.
Ireland’s RTÉ said it felt that its “participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk.”
Spain is one of Eurovision’s “Big Five” countries along with France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
Their artists are allowed straight into the final, as their broadcasters provide the largest financial contribution to the EBU.
Approximately 50 broadcasters, including the BBC, attended a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on Thursday to discuss the future of the contest, which is watched by more than 150 million people each year.
They were asked to back new rules intended to discourage governments and third parties from organising voting campaigns for their acts, after allegations that Israel unfairly boosted its entrant, Yuval Raphael, this year.
BBC News understands that voting to accept those measures was tied to a clause whereby members agreed not to proceed with a vote on Israel’s participation.
“This vote means that all EBU Members who wish to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 and agree to comply with the new rules are eligible to take part,” the EBU said.
[BBC]
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