Islamists attack villages in Nigeria,15 killed
Maiduguri, June 29
Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 15 people on Sunday in an attack on two Nigerian villages, including one targeting worshippers at a church, a few kilometres from Chibok, the scene of a mass abduction of more than 200 school girls.

Baghdad, June 29
Insurgents brought down an army helicopter over the northern city of Tikrit on Sunday as the military sent in tanks to try to dislodge them on second day of a major pushback against a Sunni militant takeover of large stretches of Iraq.

In Baghdad, threatened by the rebel advance, top Shia, Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers scrambled to agree cabinet nominations before Parliament meets on Tuesday to try to prevent the rebel advance threatening Iraq's future as a unitary state.

They are racing against time as Sunni insurgents led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an Al-Qaida offshoot that loathes Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia-led government, consolidate their grip on the north and west. Maliki's political future will be the most contentious issue.

Troops backed by helicopter gunships began the assault on Tikrit, the birthplace of former President Saddam Hussein, on Saturday, to try to take it back from insurgents who have swept to within driving range of Baghdad. The army sent in tanks and helicopters to battle ISIL militants near the University of Tikrit in the city's north on Sunday, security sources said.

Two witnesses said they saw a military helicopter gunned down and crash near a market. Iraqi army spokesman Qassim Atta told reporters in Baghdad security forces had killed 142 "terrorists" over the last 24 hours across Iraq, including 70 in Tikrit, and said the armed forces were in control of Tikrit's university. Both claims were impossible to immediately verify.

"Our security forces have taken complete control of the University of Tikrit and they have raised the Iraqi flag on top of the building," Atta said. The offensive was the first major attempt by the army to retake territory after the United States sent up to 300 advisers, mostly special forces, and drones to help the government take on ISIL.

Earlier on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, one of Iraq's most senior politicians, faulted the US for not doing enough to bolster the country's military. "Yes, there has been a delay from the Americans in handing over the contracted arms. We told them, 'You once did an air bridge to send arms to your ally Israel, so why don't you give us the contracted arms in time?'" he told al-Hurra television.

US officials have disputed similar statements from Iraqi officials in the past and say they have done everything possible to ensure the country is equipped with modern weaponry. In a sign of Iraq's attempts to bolster its lacklustre air force, five Russian Sukhoi jets were delivered to Baghdad late on Saturday, which state television said "would be used in the coming days to strike ISIL terrorist groups".

Iraq has relied largely on helicopters to counter militants and has few aircraft that can fire advanced missiles. — Reuters

Jerusalem, June 29
About 1,000 African migrants have marched out of an Israeli detention centre in protest at their treatment and are camped out by the border after Israel's army prevented them from crossing into Egypt, migrant activists said today.

The Eritrean and Sudanese migrants left the open detention facility Friday, saying Israel has not processed their claims for asylum. The migrants are imploring the UN to help resettle them elsewhere.

"We cannot continue living in a cage in the desert, with no release date and no judicial review," migrant activists said in a statement.

The army said the migrants approached an area that is restricted for security reasons and were not allowed to proceed.

About 50,000 Africans have poured into Israel in recent years from Egypt. The Africans say they are fleeing persecution and danger. Israel says many are looking for employment.

Some believe Israel's history as a refuge for Holocaust survivors compels it to help the downtrodden. Others fear taking in so many Africans will threaten the country's Jewish character. Israel does not deport the migrants because they could face danger in their conflict-ridden homelands. — AP

Maiduguri, June 29
Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 15 people on Sunday in an attack on two Nigerian villages, including one targeting worshippers at a church, a few kilometres from Chibok, the scene of a mass abduction of more than 200 school girls.

Violence in Nigeria's northeast has been relentless in the past year, and has gained in intensity since April, when more than 200 schoolgirls were snatched by Boko Haram rebels from Chibok. Efforts to free them, which have attracted Western support, have so far not succeeded. In a separate assault on Friday evening, insurgents killed seven soldiers in the village of Goniri, in Yobe state, a security source and witnesses said.

The attackers on Sunday made simultaneous strikes on two villages in the Chibok community, in Borno state. Samuel Chibok, a survivor of the attack on Kautikiri village, about 5 km from where the girls were snatched, said that around 20 men in a Toyota pick-up truck and motorcycles rolled into town.

They sprayed it with bullets, focusing much of their fire power on panicked worshippers in a local church. "Initially I thought they were military but when I came out, they were firing at people. I saw people fleeing and they burned our houses," he said, adding that some people had died in the attack, including two of his relatives. — Reuters

Seoul, June 29
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into seas east off its coast on Sunday, South Korea's military said, defying a UN ban on the isolated country testing such weapons.

The launch came days before Chinese President Xi Jinping's scheduled state visit to South Korea. China is the main benefactor of the North, which is also under sanctions for conducting nuclear tests.

North Korea is also due hold talks with Japan this week to work out the details of Pyongyang's plan to reinvestigate the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the reclusive state decades ago.

The missiles, which appeared to be Scud class, were launched from an area on the east coast of the peninsula and flew about 500 km before crashing harmlessly into the water, an official said.

The test firings on Sunday came three days after the North launched three short-range projectiles into the waters off its east coast, which flew about 190 km and landed in the sea.

North Korea frequently test-fires short range multi-rocket launchers, which are not prohibited under UN sanctions. — Reuters

Washington, June 29
Pakistan-based LeT and its front group JuD, enjoying backing of the military, have not only grown far stronger since the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, but are also trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD), in addition to developing air and sea power, a new book says.

“It is known that the JuD has been acquiring sea and air power. However, what is less known is that it is also trying to acquire WMD,” US-based Pakistani author Arif Jamal writes in his book titled ‘Calls for Transnational Jihad: Lashkar-e-Taiba 1985-2014’.

“The JuD believes it is likely to acquire access to nuclear technology by not going against the Pakistani State.

It may come sooner than we can imagine given the JuD’s ability to realise its plans systematically and cool headedly,” he writes in the book running into more than 260 pages.

Jamal concludes that the Pakistan Government is unlikely to take any action against LeT or JuD or its leader Hafeez Saeed mainly because of the goal of the army and the spy agency ISI to bleed India in times of peace and avoid war.

Jamal noted that the Pakistan Army has used the jihadist groups against India and Afghanistan mostly in time of peace.

“The goal has been to bleed India in times of peace and avoid war,” he said.

The US last week named JuD as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, a status that freezes any assets it has under American jurisdiction.

Noting that the West’s efforts to get Pakistan act against the JuD seems at best half-hearted, Jamal says the military raised jihadist organisations to fight its jihad in Kashmir and later in Afghanistan.

“Even after the passage of more than five years, Pakistan has not taken any action against the perpetrators of the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The sham trial of LeT commanders shows that Pakistan has no plans to dismantle the jihadist infrastructure,” Jamal says.

“In fact, the JuD has grown far more stronger since November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks with the support of the Pakistani Army,” he adds.

“Although Pakistan’s primary reasons to keep supporting the jihadist organisations remain the same, new reasons came as time went on. Both publicly and privately, Pakistani military officials stress the new reasons to keep supporting the JuD,” he said.

The new reason to not dismantle the JuD’s jihadist infrastructure may be beneficial in the short-term, but may imperil world peace in the medium and long terms beyond imagination, he added. — PTI