YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Twin suicide bomb attacks in the capital of Cameroon’s far northern region Maroua killed at least 13 people on Wednesday, senior Cameroon military sources told Reuters. The attack was the second this month and was the furthest south that Cameroon has been struck since it deployed thousands of troops to the region to combat neighboring Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgents. A senior military source said the first explosion
By Orhan Coskun and Dasha Afanasieva ANKARA (Reuters) – Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for the assassination on Wednesday of two Turkish police officers in what they said was retaliation for a suspected Islamic State suicide bombing which killed 32 mostly young students. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said in a statement on one of its websites that the two police officers were killed at around 6 a.m. in the south-eastern
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman is expected to visit the United States in the fall, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters after his meeting with the monarch. Carter earlier said to King Salman in front of reporters that President Barack Obama was looking forward to seeing him in September.
By Boubacar Mazou Abdel-Kader DIFFA, Niger (Reuters) – A wave of attacks by Islamist insurgents Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria and the islands of Lake Chad has forced tens of thousands across the border to Niger’s arid southeastern region of Diffa, worsening a dire humanitarian situation. An estimated 150,000 people have fled to Diffa in the past two years, according to aid agencies, increasing by one-third the population of the
Kurdish militants on Wednesday claimed the murder of two Turkish police officers as revenge for a deadly suicide bombing near the Syrian border blamed on Islamic State jihadists that killed 32 activists. The attack by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the town of Ceylanpinar intensified fears that the fighting raging in Syria between Kurds and IS extremists was spilling over onto Turkish territory. In Ankara, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
By Gernot Heller and Doina Chiacu TEHRAN/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s administration sent a nuclear agreement with Tehran to Congress on Sunday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged U.S. lawmakers to reject a deal he said would only feed an “Iranian terror machine”. In a first concrete sign of European determination to quickly rebuild economic and political ties with Iran after a 12-year standoff, German Economy Minister Sigmar
Greek banks expect long queues but no major problems when they reopen on Monday for the first time in three weeks, although withdrawals will still be limited and capital controls will remain, senior banking officials said on Sunday. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is trying to turn a corner after bailout terms he reluctantly accepted prompted a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party. The government on Saturday issued a decree ordering
A British man who was last year sentenced by a U.S. court to 12-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to running a website that supported the Taliban, has been released, his family said on Sunday. Babar Ahmad’s sentence included 10 years he had already served. U.S. prosecutors had said his crimes included recruiting fighters for the Taliban and al Qaeda in the run-up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
Syria’s army said on Sunday it had stepped up air strikes and retaken villages in a new offensive on Islamist insurgents in areas close to President Bashar al Assad’s ancestral homeland in the northeastern coastal province of Latakia. Latakia province – home to Syria’s biggest port and a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect – has been a key battleground of the conflict, which is now in its fifth year. Sunni
By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron wants Britain to do more to help the United States destroy Islamic State in Syria, he said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. Britain conducts regular strikes against IS militants in Iraq but has so far limited its Syrian involvement to flying surveillance missions to gather intelligence. Cameron failed to get parliamentary approval for military action against the forces of