US and Afghan forces searching for three kidnapped UN workers smashed their way into downtown Kabul houses yesterday, officials and witnesses said.
About 10 people were detained in the pre-dawn operation, but there was no indication that the three foreigners had been found.
PHOTO: AP
A US military spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Pamela Keeton, said the joint operation was "related to the hostage situation," but said she had no further details.
Security forces began the assault in the west of the city at about 4am, using rockets to blast a hole in a wall surrounding the two-story home of a doctor working for the UN, witnesses said.
The doctor, Munir Mosamem, and his 17-year-old son were detained, Mosamem's wife Zakia told The Associated Press.
The intruders searched the house and confiscated three mobile phones and part of a computer, she said.
UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva confirmed that a doctor with that name worked at a clinic for the world body in the city, but had no information about the raid.
Another eight men were detained in a derelict house next door where several impoverished families of recently returned refugees were living, witnesses said.
A woman who gave her name as Angoma, 28, said her husband was among the eight taken away with his hands bound and his head covered by a hood.
"They showed us pictures of the three hostages, two women and one man, and asked if we had seen them," she said. "I told them I recognized them from the television, but we don't know anything about them or where they are."
An elderly woman called Mabuba, sharing the doctor's house, also said she had been quizzed about the three.
"I told them no, and that we are very sad about this case," she said.
Armed men seized Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, British-Irish citizen Annetta Flanigan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo in Kabul on Oct. 28, the first such abduction in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban three years ago. It remains unclear where they are being held and by whom.
Afghan officials believe a criminal gang carried out the abductions and that negotiations have snagged over a ransom demand.
But it remains unclear if the kidnappers are working for a Taliban splinter group which has claimed responsibility and demanded that Afghan and US authorities free several prisoners.
The splinter group claims they are holding the three UN workers hostage, and said yesterday that the government was stalling negotiations while trying to search for the hostages, and warned the government not to play tricks.
Mullah Sabir Momin, a commander of the Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) Taliban splinter faction, said the government would be responsible for the fate of the hostages if it tried to deceive the kidnappers.
"The government is just trying to keep us busy with negotiations while at the same time searching for the hostages," Momin said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"We want to tell the government, if they try to be clever during the negotiations, they will be responsible for any loss to the hostages," he said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
RSS