Somali pirates kill five crew members on hijacked tanker before rescue

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By Reuters | Posted By TOE Somali pirates killed five crew members of the hijacked MT Honour 25 petroleum products tanker before it was rescued by security ‌forces, Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland said on Tuesday. Puntland’s authorities said they also ‌rescued a second vessel on Tuesday that had been hijacked in May. The deaths aboard the Palau-flagged ship appear ​to be the first at the hands of Somali pirates in over a decade. The ship with 17 crew members was seized by pirates in April during a resurgence of Somali piracy that experts have attributed, in part, to impacts of the Iran war, including elevated oil prices ‌that make tankers more attractive targets. Puntland’s ⁠information ministry said in a statement that a rescue mission had successfully freed the ship and captured 16 pirates. “Before the operation begun, the ⁠pirates on board the ship killed five of the crew. Among those killed were three from Pakistan, one fr...
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Nine policemen killed in clash with militants in Pakistan’s Balochistan

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By ABDUL SATTAR AP | Posted by TOE

Dozens of militants attacked a police post overnight in southwestern Pakistan, triggering an intense gunbattle that killed nine police officers and wounded some others, officials said Tuesday in the latest escalation of militant violence in the region where insurgents have stepped up attacks on security forces.

The attack took place in a remote area of Ziarat district in Balochistan province, police said, without providing further details. The assailants also abducted eight police officers, but all were later recovered by security forces, said Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government.

He said a subsequent clearance operation by security forces ended with 15 militants killed. Rind said intelligence-based operations against militants would continue and vowed that authorities would respond decisively to any such attacks on security forces.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack, though suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army.

The BLA claimed responsibility for a weekend suicide attack on a security post in the coastal town of Jiwani, though the government has neither confirmed nor denied the claim.

Authorities, however, acknowledged that armed men attacked civilians on the outskirts of Quetta city over the weekend. Since then, villagers have staged a sit-in near Quetta, demanding better security and protection against future attacks.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi blamed the latest attack on what he described as Indian-backed militants. He provided no evidence to support the allegation. India has repeatedly denied Pakistan’s accusations that it backs separatists in Balochistan or Pakistani Taliban militants.

His statement also paid tribute to the officers who died and offered condolences to the victims’ families, saying that such attacks “cannot sabotage peace.”

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, also maintain a strong presence in Balochistan and have carried out attacks there.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least populous province, has long been the scene of an insurgency by separatist groups as well as attacks by the Pakistani Taliban. The BLA, which the United States designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2019, has been behind numerous attacks targeting security forces and civilians across the province in recent years.



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/n45WwIY

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