Violence claims 33 lives in Iraq.

Violence claims 33 lives in Iraq.

KIRKUK | Iraq |26 Sept 2013 :: Militants attacked local government and police buildings in northern Iraq with suicide bombings and mortar fire on Wednesday, sparking clashes that killed 14 people, among 33 deaths nationwide, officials said.

The assault came in Hawijah, a town in ethnically mixed Kirkuk province near which security forces stormed an anti-government protest camp in April, triggering Iraq's deadliest day this year.

One suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a police station, while a second blew up another near a local administrative building.

Militants then hit both buildings and a local council office with mortar fire, and gunmen clashed with the army.

Seven civilians, three soldiers and four militants were killed and 22 people wounded, army Staff Major General Mohammed Khalaf al-Dulaimi said.

Troops were combing the area for another nine assailants who were believed to have escaped, Dulaimi added.

The Hawijah assault came a day after militants attacked two police stations and a local official's house in two towns northwest of Baghdad, killing seven police and the official's brother.

In the capital, six members of a single family were shot dead on Wednesday, officials said.

A man, his wife, their three children aged between three and six, and another woman were killed in the Shaab area of east Baghdad, officials said, while at least one person was killed and nine wounded by a bomb near a cafe in the capital.

North of Baghdad, a bomb exploded near Balad, killing five people and wounding three, while gunmen killed two farmers in the Muqdadiyah area and a soldier in Taji.

And a bomb killed three people and wounded 25 in Mosul, while one person was also shot dead in the northern city.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Pakistan again violates ceasefire in Kashmir .

Pakistan again violates ceasefire in Kashmir .

Jammu | 22 Sep 2013 ::  Pakistani troops violated ceasefire for the second time Sunday, firing at Indian troops on the Line of Control (LoC) in the Mendhar sector of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir. Saturday night, Pakistani troops indulged in unprovoked firing at Indian positions on the LoC in Rajouri district, an army spokesman said Sunday. He added, "The Pakistani firing started at 11.55 p.m. and the exchange of gunfire in the area continued till 2 a.m. today (Sunday). No loss occurred on our side.

In the second violation Sunday, Pakistani troops used small arms and automatics to target Indian positions across the LoC, a defence spokesman told IANS. "Pakistani firing started at 3 p.m. Sunday. Our troops retaliated with similar calibre weapons. Intermittent exchange of firing is still going on," he said. Pakistan has violated the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir almost 20 times this month and 100 times so far this year.(Courtesy:IBN Live)

Kenya mall hostage crisis continues, toll 59 .

Kenya mall hostage crisis continues, toll 59 .

New Delhi | Nairobi | 22 Sep 2013 :: Kenyan troops were locked in a fierce gunfight with Somali militants inside an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall on Sunday, in a final push to end a siege that has left 59 killed and 200 wounded with an unknown number of hostages still being held. Israeli forces joined Kenyan efforts to end adeadly siege by Somali militants at the mall, a security source told AFP.

"The Israelis have just entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured," the source said on condition he not be named.

The intervention came 26 hours after gunmen walked into the complex, tossing grenades and spraying gunfire at shoppers and staff.

Fifty-nine people are confirmed dead in an attack by Somali Islamist militants on a Nairobi shopping mall, Kenya's interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said on Sunday.

Some 10 to 15 gunmen are still battling security forces inside Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall, he said.

"A number of attackers are still in the building, and range between ten to fifteen gunmen," he said.

"We believe there are some innocent people in the building, that is why the operation is delicate."

Somalia's Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels said the carnage at the part Israeli-owned complex mall was in retaliation for Kenya's military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists. Timeline: al Shabab attacks in Somalia, other nations

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation late Saturday that he had "personally lost family members in the Westgate attack".(Courtesy:Hindustan times)