Afghan official says Taliban abducted 26 peace activists
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban ambushed a peace convoy in western Afghanistan and abducted 26 activists, members of a peace movement, a police spokesman said Wednesday.
The insurgents staged the ambush in the district of Bala Buluk in Farah province on Tuesday. The Taliban forced the six-vehicle convoy to a halt, then got into the cars and drove them and the activists to an unknown location, said the provincial police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib.
According to Mohib, a police operation is underway to locate and free the activists whose convoy was going village-to-village to rally for peace.
However, Bismillah Watandost of the People’s Peace Movement of Afghanistan, to which the activists belong, said that 27 of their members were abducted by the Taliban in the Farah assault. The different figures could not immediately be reconciled.
The Taliban, who have been active in Farah, have not claimed responsibility for the abductions. However, Watandost also said that tribal elders in the province immediately launched an effort to negotiate with the Taliban to release the abducted activists. He added that phone lines were down in the region, making communication and getting information from the area difficult.
Remains of US soldier killed in Afghanistan returned to US
DOVER, Del. — The remains of a 33-year-old American soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan have been returned to the United States, arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Goble of Washington Township, New Jersey, was killed Monday in a roadside bombing in northern Kunduz province. The Taliban has claimed they were behind the attack.
Goble was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The Pentagon has said Goble’s unit was engaged in combat operations when he suffered fatal injuries.
Multiple U.S. officials, including national security adviser Robert O’Brien and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attended Wednesday what the military calls a dignified transfer in which the cases containing the remains are transferred to a vehicle from the aircraft that ferried them to the United States.
Israeli PM evacuated from rally after rocket fired from Gaza
JERUSALEM — Israel said a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into its southern territory Wednesday, forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be hustled from a stage during an election rally in the city of Ashkelon.
The Israeli military said its air defense system, known as Iron Dome, intercepted the rocket. There were no reports of casualties.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz posted a video on its website showing Netanyahu being taken to a shelter as he was campaigning hours before the primaries of his Likud party. The video showed Netanyahu and his wife slowly walking off the stage with security guards after sirens went off.
Netanyahu says he knows how to protect Israel, but opponents accuse him of being soft on handling threats from Gaza.
Gideon Saar, Netanyahu’s challenger in Thursday elections, called in a Twitter statement for a “broad national consensus for dismantling the military infrastructure” of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Relief group: 216,000 have fled homes in northwest Syria
BEIRUT — More than 200,000 men, women and children fled their homes in northwest Syria in buses, trucks and cars in recent weeks, amid intense air and ground bombardment by government forces, a Syrian relief group said Wednesday.
Government forces have been bombarding southern and eastern Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country, since late November. A ground offensive that began last week has displaced more people and government forces have captured more than 40 villages and hamlets, according to the Syrian army and opposition activists.
The Syrian Response Coordination Group, a relief group active in northwestern Syria, said 216,632 people have fled their homes, many of them with no specific place to go. Many have been heading toward the Turkish border for safety.
The group said people fled from about 250 villages and towns, adding that 252 civilians, including 79 children have been killed as a result of the violence.
Before the ground offensive began last Thursday, the U.N. reported that some 60,000 Idlib residents had already been displaced since the government’s bombing campaign began late last month.