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2 gunmen, 2 security officers killed in gunbattle in Russia


Russia's counterterrorism agency says two suspected militants and two special forces officers have been killed in a gunbattle in the nation's volatile North Caucasus.

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that security services acting on a tip surrounded a house in Nazran in the province of Ingushetia where the two suspects were hiding. They refused to surrender and opened fire on security forces.

Both suspects were killed in Thursday's firefight, and two officers of the Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency, also died.

An Islamist insurgency has spread across the North Caucasus after two separatist wars in Chechnya. While Chechnya has become more stable under the watch of a Kremlin-backed strongman, violence has spilled into neighboring provinces where security forces clash frequently with gunmen.

Turkey: 3 Turkish troops in Syria die in government strike


The Turkish Armed Forces says three Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded in Syria by an airstrike allegedly fired by government forces.

A statement from the Armed Forces posted on its website says the attack took place at before dawn on Thursday.

One of the wounded soldiers was said to be in critical condition.

The casualties are likely to ratchet up tensions between Ankara and Damascus. In August, Ankara sent ground troops into northern Syria to support Syrian opposition forces in the fight against Islamic State militants and to curb Syrian Kurdish territorial gains

Ankara views Syrian Kurdish forces as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

IS claims coalition airstrike disables fourth Mosul bridge


The Islamic State group's media arm says an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition has "disabled" the fourth bridge on the Tigris River in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The Aamaq news agency says the strike happened on Wednesday but gave no details.

It's the second airstrike to target Mosul bridges this week and if the bridge is confirmed disabled, it would mean that there is only one bridge left functioning over the Tigris in Mosul.

There was no immediate confirmation available on the airstrike from the U.S.-led coalition.

Mosul had five bridges until shortly before the start last month of the Iraqi campaign to retake the city from IS.

Targeting the bridges appears designed to disrupt IS supply lines in Mosul, which is sliced in half by the Tigris.

Bomb kills 3 paramilitary officers in northwestern Pakistan


A Pakistani police official says a bomb blast has killed three paramilitary officers in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Wajid Khan says the bomb, which was apparently detonated by remote control, exploded when a patrol of paramilitary police was passing by on Tuesday.

Khan says eight other people, including civilians, were wounded in the bombing.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Peshawar is a city sitting along the edge of Pakistan's tribal regions that have long been home to local and al-Qaida-linked militants and foreign Islamic fighters. For years, the city has been the scene of attacks by Islamic militants.

Pakistan has been fighting Islamic militancy for over a decade.

Turkey detains another 2 pro-Kurdish mayors


Turkey's state-run news agency says authorities have detained another two mayors belonging to the pro-Kurdish party on terrorism-related charges.

Anadolu Agency says Ahmet Turk, the mayor of the southeastern city of Mardin, and Emin Irmak, mayor of the nearby town of Artkulu, were both detained Monday.

The detention of Turk, who was a former head of a pro-Kurdish party that was shut down on terrorism-related charges in 2009, comes after he was dismissed from his post by the Interior Ministry last Thursday and his replacement by a government-appointed trustee.

The ministry also sacked and replaced the mayors of the southeastern provinces of Van, Siirt and Tunceli, all of whom were later arrested.

Several pro-Kurdish politicians have been arrested during the state of emergency declared after July's failed coup.

France: 7 arrested in anti-terror raids, attack thwarted


French anti-terrorism police have arrested seven people in Strasbourg and Marseille and thwarted what the interior minister called a new potential attack.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, announcing the arrests Monday, said six of the suspects arrested hadn't been known to intelligence services. Cazeneuve said that Sunday's arrests prevented "a terrorist act that had been envisaged for a long time."

Cazeneuve didn't identify the target of the planned attack.

The arrests came five days before the opening of the famed Christmas market in Strasbourg, which attracts tourists from across Europe and was the target of a failed extremist plot in 2000.

Cazeneuve said 43 people have been arrested in November alone as part of anti-terror operations following deadly Islamic State attacks on France over the past two years.

Afghan official: suicide bomber kills 27 in a Shiite mosque


An Afghan official says that at least 27 civilians have been killed after a suicide bomber attacked a Shiite mosque in the capital, Kabul.

Faredoon Obiadi, head of the criminal investigation department for the Kabul police, said Monday that at least 35 others were wounded in the attack.

The Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement that a suicide attack had taken place inside the Baqir-ul Ulom mosque in western Kabul.

Obiadi added that the attacker was on foot and detonated his suicide vest among the crowds inside the mosque.

Rescuers finish search of Indian train wreck, 133 dead


Rescuers finished searching the last of 14 mangled train carriages that derailed in northern India, killing at least 133 people and leaving more than 200 injured, officials said Monday.

The passenger train was about midway through a 27-hour journey between the cities of Indore and Patna when it slid off the tracks at 3:10 a.m. Sunday, jolting awake passengers.

The impact was so strong that one of the coaches landed on top of another, crushing the one below. Passengers said they heard the crash as they were flung from their beds.

"There was a loud sound like an earthquake. I fell from my berth and a lot of luggage fell over me," Ramchandra Tewari, who suffered a head injury, said from his hospital bed in the city of Kanpur. "I thought I was dead, and then I passed out."

Rescue workers, soldiers and members of India's disaster management force worked through the night to pull out people trapped amid the twisted metal and overturned coaches near Pukhrayan, a village outside the industrial city of Kanpur about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of New Delhi.

Rescuers used cutting torches to pry open cars and cranes to lift coaches from the tracks, moving carefully to prevent any cars from toppling over and injuring those trapped inside.

By Monday morning, they had searched the last of the 14 wrecked cars, finding several more bodies that took the death toll to at least 133, according to local police Inspector General Zaki Ahmad.

Roughly 226 others were hurt, including 76 with serious injuries, Ahmad said. Medical teams provided first aid near the site, while those in more serious condition were moved to hospitals in Kanpur.

Anxious relatives searched for their family members among the injured and the dead at hospitals in Kanpur.

Rail authorities ordered an investigation into what caused the derailment. Some told local media they suspected faulty tracks.

"We haven't seen an incident like this in Indian Railways for a long time," said the state's railways minister, Rajen Gohain, according to the Indian Express newspaper. "There must be a fault in the track as 14 bogeys have derailed, and this happened despite regular checking of the tracks."

Accidents are relatively common on India's sprawling rail network, which is the world's third largest but lacks modern signaling and communication systems. Most accidents are blamed on poor maintenance, outdated equipment and human error.

The nation's railway minister, Suresh Prabhu, said a special train was taking uninjured passengers from the derailed train to Patna, according to the PTI news agency. He said thousands of food packets, water bottles and cups of tea were being provided to the stranded passengers.

The Patna-Indore Express Train derailing was one of India's deadliest train accidents in at least five years.

According to an Indian government report in 2012, about 15,000 people are killed every year in train accidents. The worst occurred in 1981, when a passenger train fell into the Baghmati River in northern India, killing nearly 800 people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who said in a Twitter post that he was "anguished beyond words" by Sunday's accident — had pledged last year to invest $137 billion over the next five years to modernize India's railway network, which is used by about 23 million passengers a day.

Airstrikes in Syria's Aleppo province kill family of 7


Syrian activists and rescue workers say airstrikes on a village in Syria's Aleppo province have killed seven members of the same family, including four children.

Friday's strike comes as neighborhoods in the besieged rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo are facing the fourth day of renewed attacks by government warplanes.

This week's onslaught on the rebel-held enclave of 275,000 people began with a Russian announcement of its own offensive on the northern rebel-controlled Idlib province and the central Homs province.

So far, more than 100 people have been killed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the strike that killed the seven from one family took place in southwestern Aleppo. Syrian Civil Defense posted photographs online showing children's bodies covered with dust and blood.

Police: Suicide bombers attack Maiduguri; at least 2 die


Police say suicide bombers attacked a checkpoint in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing two of themselves. Two other explosions occurred hours later.

It was the fifth attack in three weeks on the city that is the birth place of Nigeria's homegrown Boko Haram Islamic extremist group.

Police spokesman Victor Isuku says police challenged two women and a man running toward their checkpoint opposite the Federal High Court before dawn Friday. One woman detonated, killing herself and the male accomplice. The other woman has been arrested.

No details were immediately available about two blasts that rang out around 8 a.m. (0700 GMT).

Boko Haram has recently stepped up attacks after a months-long lull in the Islamic uprising that has killed more than 20,000 people over seven years.

Rescuers in Turkey search for 13 missing miners; 3 dead


Officials say a rescue operation is underway to find 13 miners still missing after a copper mine collapsed in southeastern Turkey.

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of three miners who died when the privately owned mine near the town of Sirvan, in Siirt province caved in late on Thursday.

On Friday, families watched as rescue teams searched for the workers who were buried along with trucks and other machines.

The Siirt governor's office said an investigation has been launched but authorities believe a landslide triggered by heavy rains caused the mine collapse.

In 2014, 301 miners were killed in a fire inside a coal mine in Soma, western Turkey — the nation's worst mining disaster. The tragedy exposed poor safety standards and superficial government inspections in Turkey's mines.

Iraqi forces advance cautiously into Mosul; 1 soldier killed


Iraqi officers say troops are advancing cautiously into eastern districts of Mosul where they face stiff resistance from Islamic State militants.

Airstrikes, automatic fire and artillery were heard from dawn and one soldier was reported killed in clashes. Civilians, some of them wounded, could be seen fleeing the fighting.

The officers say Iraqi forces are aiming to take complete control of the city's Tahrir area and from there move into the adjacent Muharabeen district.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media.

Iraqi forces launched the long-awaited operation to retake Mosul a month ago but have only advanced into a few eastern districts. The troops have faced fierce resistance, with snipers, mortar fire and suicide bombers driving armor-plated vehicles packed with explosives.

The Latest: IS shelling kills 7 civilians in eastern Mosul


Iraqi special forces say Islamic State militants have fired mortar rounds on government-controlled neighborhoods in eastern Mosul, killing at least seven civilians.

Army medic Bashir Jabar, in charge of a field clinic run by the special forces, says IS attacked the city's eastern Tahrir neighborhood and nearby areas on Thursday as civilians were fleeing to camps sheltering displaced families.

Jabbar says two children were among those killed and that 35 people were wounded, including 18 children.

On a donkey-drawn wood cart, a grieving family carried the body of their 18-year-old son, wrapped in a white plastic bag. The slain teen's uncle, Mohammed Ismael, said his nephew was in the street when a mortar shell landed nearby, wounding him fatally in the head.

Russia says its strike in Syria killed 30 al-Qaida fighters


The Russian military says one of its airstrikes in Syria this week killed at least 30 members of Syria's al-Qaida-linked group, including some of its leaders.

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov says the strike took place in Syria's northern province of Idlib on Tuesday.

He says it was launched from a Russian aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean and hit the al-Qaida-linked militant group, now known as Fatah al-Sham Front.

Konashenkov said on Thursday that Russian intelligence reports have confirmed that three prominent leaders of the al-Qaida branch — Muhammad Helala, Abu Jaber Harmuja and Abul Baha Al-Asfari — were among those killed.

The strike was part of a long-anticipated offensive against rebel-held areas announced by Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Iraqi special forces pause in Mosul push due to poor weather


Iraq special forces say they're temporarily pausing in their push into the northern city of Mosul held by the Islamic State group due to poor weather.

Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil says clouds over the city on Thursday have obscured the visibility of drones and strike aircraft. He says the troops are securing areas they have taken with checkpoints and sweeping for explosives.

Heavy fighting broke out a day earlier in Mosul's eastern Tahrir neighborhood, where an IS suicide car bomber disabled an Abrams tank belonging to the Iraqi army.

Iraqi forces launched the long-awaited operation to retake Mosul nearly a month ago but have only advanced into a few eastern districts. The troops have faced fierce resistance, with snipers, mortar fire and suicide bombers driving armor-plated vehicles packed with explosives.

Serbia police arrest 10 for arms trafficking; weapons found


Serbian police have arrested 10 people suspected of arms-trafficking and confiscated a large quantity of weapons, including rocket launchers and automatic guns.

Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said Wednesday that the arrests took place in northern Serbia. He said an investigation is taking place to determine whether the weapons were to be sold, and if so where.

Stefanovic says the cache included explosives, more than 100 hand grenades, anti-tank mines, two rocket-launchers, a machine gun, automatic and semi-automatic guns, as well as ammunition.

Arms-smuggling has flourished in the Balkans following the wars of the 1990s when many weapons were left behind and later sold or distributed illegally. Some of the weapons used in last year's terror attacks in Paris originated in the Balkans.

Libyans say al-Qaida leader killed in drone strike


Libya's official news agency says a senior al-Qaida leader has been killed in a drone strike in the country's remote south.

LANA reports that Abu Talha al-Hassnawi, a senior member of al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, was killed when a drone struck his house late Monday in Sabha. The agency says al-Hassnawi had fled from the northern coastal city of Sirte, where Libyan militias are battling IS with the help of U.S. airstrikes.

The agency says al-Hassnawi was previously a leading member of al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, and was a leading recruiter of fighters heading there.

Hundreds of Iraqis line up for food in Mosul after IS battle


Hundreds of Iraqi civilians lined up on Tuesday for food in eastern neighborhoods of Mosul recently retaken from the Islamic State group, as rations ran low, an Iraqi officer said.

Maj. Salam al-Obeidi says some 700 residents gathered in three areas of the Zahra and Qadisiya neighborhoods, the latter of which was the scene of a fierce IS counterattack a day earlier.

"This is a problem for us because the food we have is not enough for them and we're waiting for more food to be sent from the government," al-Obeidi said. "Now the Iraqi soldier is giving his food to the civilians."

Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians.

Special forces have captured a foothold in the city's east, and have been advancing slowly over the past week to avoid casualties and civilian deaths as IS fighters emerge to attack from the dense, urban landscape, often with armor-plated suicide car bombs.

The militants struck back against special forces in Qadisiya a day earlier, Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi said. Two dozen men wearing suicide vests charged the front lines, setting off a three-hour battle that killed 20 militants and severely wounded a special forces soldier.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release official casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the operation to liberate the city began on Oct. 17.

Since last week's quick advance into Mosul proper, Iraqi forces have struggled to hold territory under heavy IS counterattacks.

At a news conference outside Mosul, Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces supporting the operation, said airstrikes had so far destroyed 59 suicide car bombs and over 80 tunnels.

"We will continue to strike the enemy for as long as it takes for the Iraqi flag to be raised over Mosul and every other corner of this country," he said, adding that the coalition had conducted over 4,000 strikes with air power and artillery since the campaign began.

The United Nations meanwhile said smoke from oil wells and a chemical plant torched by IS near Mosul has forced over 1,500 people to seek medical treatment for respiratory problems.

The group's humanitarian affairs coordination office said the fires have emitted toxic smoke for 25 to 60 days, affecting 14 towns.

It says the mid- and long-term effects on people's health, the environment, agriculture and livelihoods could be dire.

IS shelled and set fire to the al-Mishraq Sulfur Gas Factory south of Mosul in late October, causing the deaths of at least four people from toxic fumes, the U.N. has said, likening the attack to the use of chemical weapons.

Nearby oil wells set ablaze by IS have been burning uncontrollably since June.

Germany bans Islamic organization, police search 190 sites



Hundreds of police officers searched about 190 offices, mosques and apartments of members and supporters of the Islamic group "The true religion" as the German government announced a ban of the organization Tuesday.

Police raided places in 60 cities in western Germany and also in Berlin seizing documents and files, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. Nobody was detained.

The group — also known as "Read!" — has been distributing German-language copies of the Quran across the country. The interior minister said that more than 140 youths had traveled to Syria and Iraq to join fighters there after having participated in the group's campaigns in Germany.

"The translations of the Quran are being distributed along with messages of hatred and unconstitutional ideologies," de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin. "Teenagers are being radicalized with conspiracy theories."

Young men in long robes and bushy beards handing out German copies of the Quran has been a common sight in downtown and shopping areas across Germany for several years.

The ban of the group comes a week after security authorities arrested five men who allegedly aided the Islamic State group in Germany by recruiting members and providing financial and logistical help. The recent operations suggest that the German government is trying to clamp down hard on radical Islamists.

The German interior minister stressed that the ban does not restrict the freedom of religion in Germany or the peaceful practice of Islam in any way, but that the group had glorified terrorism and the fight against the German constitution in videos and meetings.

"We don't want terrorism in Germany ... and we don't want to export terrorism," de Maiziere said adding that the ban was also a measure to help protect peaceful Islam in the country.

ICC prosecutors: US forces may have committed war crimes


U.S. armed forces and the CIA may have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says in a report, raising the possibility that American citizens could be indicted even though Washington has not joined the global court.

"Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity on the territory of Afghanistan between 1 May 2003 and 31 December 2014," according to the report issued by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's office on Monday.

The report added that CIA operatives may have subjected at least 27 detainees in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania to "torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape" between December 2002 and March 2008.

Most of the alleged abuse happened in 2003-2004, the report said.

Prosecutors said they will decide "imminently" whether to seek authorization to open a full-scale investigation in Afghanistan that could lead to war crimes charges.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the U.S. does not believe an ICC investigation is "warranted or appropriate."

"The United States is deeply committed to complying with the law of war, and we have a robust national system of investigation and accountability that more than meets international standards," Trudeau said.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said officials were awaiting more details about the ICC findings before commenting.

Established in 2002, the International Criminal Court is the world's first permanent court set up to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. More than 120 countries around the world are members, but superpowers including the United States, Russia and China have not signed up.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Rome treaty that established the court on Dec. 31, 2000, but President George W. Bush renounced the signature, citing fears that Americans would be unfairly prosecuted for political reasons.

Even though the United States is not a member of the court, Americans could still face prosecution at its headquarters in The Hague if they commit crimes within its jurisdiction in a country that is a member, such as Afghanistan, and are not prosecuted at home.

So far, all of the ICC's trials have dealt with crimes committed in Africa.

Prosecutors say investigations also are reportedly underway in Poland, Romania and Lithuania — all signatories to the Rome Statute — into possible crimes at CIA detention facilities in those countries.

The abuse allegations came in a wide-ranging annual report into the prosecution office's so-called preliminary examinations, which involve studying reports of possible crimes to establish if they fall under the court's jurisdiction.

The same report said that Taliban and Afghan government forces also may have used torture and committed other atrocities in that country's long and bitter conflict. The report says that the Taliban and its affiliates killed thousands of people and are suspected of committing war crimes including murder, recruiting and conscripting child soldiers and attacking civilians and humanitarian workers.

Referring to the alleged U.S. war crimes, the report said they "were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals. Rather, they appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract 'actionable intelligence' from detainees."

The report adds that, "The information available suggests that victims were deliberately subjected to physical and psychological violence, and that crimes were allegedly committed with particular cruelty and in a manner that debased the basic human dignity of the victims."

Before deciding to open a full-scale investigation, ICC prosecutors have to establish whether they have jurisdiction and whether the alleged crimes are being investigated and prosecuted in the countries involved. The ICC is a court of last resort that takes on cases only when other countries are unable or unwilling to prosecute.

The report noted that U.S. authorities have conducted dozens of investigations and court-martial cases and says ICC prosecutors are seeking further clarifications on their scope before deciding whether any American cases would be admissible at the ICC.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the administration of President George W. Bush allowed the use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning, and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. President Barack Obama banned such practices after taking office in 2009.

During the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump suggested that as president he would push to change laws that prohibit waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, arguing that banning them puts the U.S. at a strategic disadvantage against Islamic State militants.