Israeli strikes kill Palestinians attending Gaza funeral for earlier strike victim

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By Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Enas Alashray Reuters An Israeli airstrike killed at least eight Palestinians and wounded 20 attending a funeral in Nuseirat in the ​central Gaza Strip on Friday for a person killed by another Israeli strike on ‌the area earlier in the day, Gaza health officials said. Those deaths, along with at least three Palestinians killed in separate Israeli airstrikes elsewhere in the enclave, brought Friday’s toll to at least 12, medics said. Hamas condemned the ​Nuseirat strike as a “brutal massacre” against mourners and urged mediators, as well as the ​United Nations, to act to halt Israeli attacks in Gaza. Asked about the attack ⁠in Nuseirat, the Israeli military said it struck a cell belonging to the Islamic Jihad ​militant group, which holds sway in parts of the enclave along with Hamas. The military said it was “aware ​of the claims that several uninvolved individuals were harmed as a result of the strike”. ISRA...
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Somali army takes control of strategic city, regional leader resigns

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 Somalia’s national army ​took control of the biggest city in South West state ‌on Monday, prompting the regional leader to resign two weeks after his administration said it was severing ties with the federal government.

The strategic city of Baidoa, ​the administrative capital of South West state, is home to ​international peacekeepers and humanitarian agencies in an area affected by ⁠drought, conflict and displacement.

“Federal forces have taken over Baidoa, … it is ​now calm … but it looks like a ghost town,” local elder ​Adan Hussein told Reuters.

A shopkeeper in Baidoa, Hussein Abdullahi, said federal troops were in control of his part of the city, which is about 245 km (150 miles) ​northwest of the capital Mogadishu.

South West state president Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed ​Laftagareen wrote in a statement on Facebook that he had resigned, days after ‌being ⁠re-elected for another five-year term.

Many residents have fled Baidoa over the past week and some aid agencies suspended activities, fearing clashes could erupt between the army and regional forces.

The dispute between South West state is ​the latest sign ​of strain ⁠in the Horn of Africa country’s fragile federal system, where disputes over elections and the balance of ​power between Mogadishu and regional administrations repeatedly open up ​political fault ⁠lines.

Laftagareen’s administration opposed constitutional amendments backed by the federal government.

Somalia’s federal information ministry said in a message read out on national television that “the ⁠former South ​West state administration … created political conflict”. It ​said federal forces had been welcomed in Baidoa on Monday.

SOURCE: REUTERS AGENCIES



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/EWy4X9j

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