NATO-Afghan raid victim childs, sparking protests

Hundreds of protesters carrying the bodies of two people killed in a NATO-Afghan raid blocked a key road in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. The demonstrators say the dead were villagers while the coalition says they were Taliban insurgents.
The protest was one of the first since a recent U.S.-Afghan deal on night raids mandated that Afghans were supposed to take the lead in such operations with U.S. forces taking a back seat. But many Afghans still blame the raids on the U.S. and NATO, and they've persisted as a point of disagreement.
Afghans say the raids, especially those carried out at night by American forces and their allies, cause needless civilian deaths and sow terror among the population. The U.S. military considers the raids critical to its operations.

NATO and residents offered competing narratives on what happened during the overnight raid in a village in Laghman province.
NATO said one of the men killed was a Taliban leader wanted for coordinating roadside bombings against coalition forces in the area. It said he and another man opened fire during the Afghan-led operation.
Hundreds of protesters carrying the bodies of two people killed in a NATO-Afghan raid blocked a key road in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. The demonstrators say the dead were villagers while the coalition says they were Taliban insurgents.

The protest was one of the first since a recent U.S.-Afghan deal on night raids mandated that Afghans were supposed to take the lead in such operations with U.S. forces taking a back seat. But many Afghans still blame the raids on the U.S. and NATO, and they've persisted as a point of disagreement.
Afghans say the raids, especially those carried out at night by American forces and their allies, cause needless civilian deaths and sow terror among the population. The U.S. military considers the raids critical to its operations.
NATO and residents offered competing narratives on what happened during the overnight raid in a village in Laghman province.
NATO said one of the men killed was a Taliban leader wanted for coordinating roadside bombings against coalition forces in the area. It said he and another man opened fire during the Afghan-led operation.
The alliance said several other insurgents were detained.
In the village of Bolan, Mohammad Aziz Khochi said soldiers stormed his house at about 2 a.m. Tuesday and that two of his nephews were killed in the raid.
"My sister thought that thieves had come to the house, and she started shouting," Khochi said. "One of her sons came out and the American forces shot him and killed him. Then her other son came out, and they killed him."
Khochi, who was in the house at the time of the raid, said the security forces detained seven other men. He said many of the people staying in his house were government workers and that one of his slain nephews was a member of the local district council.
Another villager who witnessed the raid, Abdul Malik Abdul Rahimzai, denied the victims were insurgents and insisted the soldiers "attacked innocent people" who were unarmed.
The villagers marched with the bodies of the slain men to a key road that leads from the capital, Kabul, to Jalalabad in eastern Nangarhar province. They said they would not bury the bodies until the coalition released all of those detained and explained what information spurred the raid.
"It is not acceptable that they are coming and conducting night raids on the homes of innocent civilians," said Quasimullah, a villager who goes by only one name. "We want the president to put a stop to night raids as soon as possible."
A spokesman for the coalition declined to comment further on Tuesday's operations, saying they were in the process of gathering more information.
Under the deal signed between the U.S. and Afghanistan in April, Afghan forces are now supposed to conduct home searches and U.S. forces are allowed to enter private compounds "only as required or requested."

Pakistani court :A paramilitary soldier guilty of murder.

Pakistan soldier to hang for murder

A paramilitary soldier guilty of murder that’s a Pakistani court today found and sentenced him to death for killing an unarmed man at point blank range in an incident caught on camera in a public park.

Lawyers said it marked the first time that a civilian court in Pakistan has sentenced to death a serving member of the military.

Although the Rangers paramilitary technically comes under the supervision of the interior ministry, it is considered part of the powerful armed forces, which has ruled the country for more than half its existence.

The June 8 killing of Sarfaraz Shah, 22, was filmed by a cameraman and broadcast on television, sparking a backlash over the brutality of trained officers in a country awash with violence blamed on the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

 

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso read out the verdict before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi, finding 35-year-old Shahid Zafar guilty of pulling the trigger, and sentenced him to death and a fine of $2224 "The crime of killing Sarfraz Shah has been proved against you and I announce the death sentence and also impose a fine of 200,000 rupees," said Khoso, addressing Zafar

The Syrian people are calling for peaceful change

The Syrian people are calling for peaceful change

William Hague urged the "discredited" Syrian regime to end its violent as the United Nations Security Council adopted. A statement condemning attacks on civilians and widespread human rights abuses.

Intensification of the three-month-old bloody crackdown against anti-government protests, the international body agreed the wording – with only Syria's neighbour Lebanon dissociating itself from the text.

Hague said: "I welcome the UN security council presidential statement on Syria.

"The Security Council demonstrates the rising international concern at the unacceptable behaviour of the regime and shows that President Assad is increasingly isolated. It comes on top of a fourth round of EU sanctions put in place earlier this week.

The UN Security Council finally broke through a near-unanimous statement condemning President Bashar al-Assad for unleashing his forces on civilians and violating human rights.

Though the presidential statement has no teeth and was less than the full Security Council resolution that by the US, UK and France, it is an indication of growing impatience within the international community towards the Syrian crackdown.

Hague said: “The Syrian people are calling for peaceful change. I call on President Assad's regime to end its violence and to allow genuine political reform.

"Until it does, the regime will be discredited amongst its own people and facing increased pressure internationally."

Rapidly – increasing pressure on the 15 members of the Security Council to issue a condemnation of the regime's actions. Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa had been resisting the move.

Lebanon's deputy UN ambassador Caroline Ziade said that "while we express our deep regret for the loss of innocent victims," the presidential statement "does not help in addressing the current situation in Syria."