An Ivory Coast militia leader has been killed by forces of the country’s new President Alassane Ouattara.
The leader of the so-called Invisible Commandos, Ibrahim Coulibaly, was killed in an offensive on Wednesday, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The Commandos had helped Mr Ouattara gain control of parts of Abidjan during a post-poll dispute.
But they had since fallen out and their respective forces clashed on Wednesday in the city, Ivory Coast’s largest.
“I can confirm that Ibrahim Coulibaly was killed during fighting today,” defence ministry spokesman Capt Alla Kouakou Leon told Reuters.
A comander of the defence ministry’s fighters said they had found Mr Coulibaly’s body when they seized his headquarters.
via BBC News – Ivory Coast renegate warlord Ibrahim Coulibaly killed.
A series of thunderstorms with near hurricane force winds and suspected tornadoes have struck the south-eastern US, killing at least 15 people in states from Arkansas to Alabama.
The storm system pummelled states from Texas to Georgia on Tuesday evening and Wednesday.
The system was forecast to hit Tennessee, Kentucky and North and South Carolina on Wednesday evening.
Eleven more people were killed in storms earlier this week in the South.
“Today is the day you want to be careful,” Greg Carbin, of the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in the state of Oklahoma, told the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
Forecasters have warned the current storm system could worsen during the next few hours while making its way eastwards across the southern US.
US media reported a tornado near Andrews Air Force Base in Virginia, just outside Washington DC, early on Wednesday evening.
via BBC News – Deadly US storms kill 15 from Arkansas to Alabama.
Cairo – PNN Exclusive – Palestinian sources confirmed for PNN that Hamas and Fatah have signed in Cairo on Wednesday a deal to end the division and achieve national unity.
via PNN – Palestine News Network – Hamas-Fatah Officials Sign Unity Deal in Cairo.
(CNN) — Eleven anti-government protesters were killed and more than 100 were injured Wednesday in Sanaa, Yemen, after they were attacked by security forces, two medical sources told CNN.
“We don’t have enough medicine to treat the over 100 shot by the government. We call on the international community to give us medicine to save those the government shot from dying,” said a senior medical staff member at Sanaa’s Change Square.
The reported attacks represent one of the deadliest days in the weeks-long protests that have pitted demonstrators against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“The language of bullets and killing is what this regime wants to spread. It’s a massacre against humanity and human rights. Eleven have been killed and the number is expected to rise,” the medical staff member said.
Two protesters were also killed Monday.
Over the weekend, the protests spread across 14 provinces, despite Yemeni officials saying that Saleh had accepted a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) under which he would step down.
Both Saleh and the Yemeni opposition have agreed to the deal in principle. But Saleh has yet to sign the agreement, which stipulates he leave office within 30 days and provides complete immunity for him and those who served in his regime, said a senior Foreign Ministry official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The agreement also calls for a unity government to be formed within seven days.
The GCC — a bloc of six oil-producing Gulf nations — has been working to ease tensions between Saleh and an increasingly restive opposition.
Violent anti-government demonstrations have erupted for many weeks across Yemen.
Saleh has been in power since 1978 and has served as a staunch U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
via Security forces open fire on protesters in Yemen, sources say – CNN.com.
Eight US troops and a US contractor have been killed by an Afghan air force pilot at Kabul airport in an apparent argument, US officials say.
The incident took place at a facility used by the Afghan air force at about 1100 local time (0630 GMT), the Afghan defence ministry said.
The pilot was also killed in the exchange.
The incident is the deadliest of a number of recent attacks on foreigners by Afghan security personnel.
via BBC News – Afghan pilot kills eight US troops at Kabul airport.
Libya’s opposition fighters are battling Muammar Gaddafi’s forces on the country’s western border, while fighting continues in the besieged city of Misurata.
Pro-democracy forces said the Libyan army withdrew from central Misurata, but fierce fighting was still ongoing for control of the city’s port on Wednesday.
“Gaddafi’s forces retreated from the port area where they were positioned yesterday after air strikes
by the NATO forces. The strikes completely destroyed 37 military vehicles,” an opposition spokesman, called Reda, told the Reuters news agency.
“Gaddafi’s forces this morning started bombarding an area about 10km north of the city. It is known as the Steel area.
“The bombardment is still going on. They are using Grad missiles … Warplanes are flying over Misurata’s outskirts but I don’t hear any sound of strikes,” he said by telephone.
While government forces pulled out of the city over the weekend under pressure from NATO air attacks, they have since unleashed a heavy bombardment on the city, the only major western city in opposition hands.
via Battle continues for Libya’s Misurata – Africa – Al Jazeera English.
