War News

AP: The Latest: Roadside bomb kills 11 in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, which were extended into a second day after technical issues led to hours of delays at voting stations (all times local):

Afghan officials say a roadside bomb has killed at least 11 civilians in the eastern Nangarhar province.

Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, says the victims of Sunday’s blast include six children. The attack occurred on the second day of Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, which were extended because of attacks on Saturday and technical issues that caused hours of delays.

No one immediately claimed the attack. The Taliban and an Islamic State affiliate are both active in Nangarhar. Afghan civilians are often killed by roadside bombs intended to target security forces.

Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan have entered a second day following violence and chaos that caused delays and interruptions on the first day of polling.

Independent Elections Commission Chairman Abdul Badi Sayat says over 3 million people out of 8.8 million registered voters cast their ballots on Saturday. The biggest turnout was in Kabul and the lowest in the southern Uruzgan province.

Polling on Sunday continues in 401 voting centers, including 45 in Kabul. Polls close at 4 p.m. (1130 GMT). Results will be announced next month.

Twenty-seven civilians and 11 Afghan security forces were killed and more than 100 others wounded in nearly 200 attacks on election day across the country.

REU: Trump says U.S. to exit nuclear treaty, Russia warns of retaliation

The McGlynn: The Enemy of the State

ELKO, Nev/MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said Washington will exit the Cold-War era treaty that eliminated a class of nuclear weapons due to Russian violations, triggering a warning of retaliatory measures from Moscow.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, negotiated by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, required elimination of short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles by both countries.

“Russia has not, unfortunately, honored the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump told reporters on Saturday after a rally in Nevada.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Sunday that a unilateral U.S. withdrawal would be “very dangerous” and lead to a “military-technical” retaliation.

U.S. authorities believe Moscow is developing and has deployed a ground-launched system in breach of the INF treaty that could allow it to launch a nuclear strike on Europe at short notice. Russia has consistently denied any such violation.

AP: Afghan vote enters 2nd day after attacks, technical issues

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections entered a second day after delays caused by violence and technical issues, as a roadside bomb killed nearly a dozen civilians on Sunday, including several children.

Independent Elections Commission Chairman Abdul Badi Sayat said more than 3 million people out of 8.8 million registered voters cast their ballots on Saturday. The biggest turnout was in Kabul and the lowest in the southern Uruzgan province.

Polling on Sunday continues in 401 voting centers, including 45 in Kabul. Polls close at 4 p.m. (1130 GMT). The results of the polling will not be released before mid-November and final results will not be out until December.

The first parliamentary elections since 2010 are being held against a backdrop of near-daily attacks by the Taliban, who have seized nearly half the country and have repeatedly refused offers to negotiate with the Kabul government. The U.S.-backed government is rife with corruption, and many Afghans have said they do not expect the elections to be fair.

Officials at polling stations struggled with voter registration and a new biometric system that was aimed at stemming fraud but instead created enormous confusion because many of those trained on the system did not show up for work. The biometric machines arrived just a month before polls and there was no time to do field testing.

REU: KDP comes first in Iraqi Kurdistan election

ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) came first in a parliamentary election in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, winning 45 seats, the election commission said on Sunday, positioning it to lead the next regional government.

A year after a failed bid for independence, Iraq’s Kurds voted last month in a parliamentary election that could disrupt the delicate balance of power in the region.

Announcement of the results was delayed for three weeks after the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission said it received and was investigating 1,045 complaints of electoral violations.

The KDP’s historic rival and junior coalition partner in government, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was in second place with 21 seats, the commission said in a news conference.

With opposition parties weak, the KDP and PUK are likely to extend their almost three decades of sharing power, but the results suggest that Masoud Barzani’s KDP will take a dominant position in Kurdish politics.

REU: Germany questions arms sales to Saudi over Khashoggi killing

The McGlynn: One man murdered. Thousands murdered via Germany’s sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany should not approve arms sales to Saudi Arabia until investigations into the circumstances of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death have been completed, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Saturday.

Maas’s statement, which appeared to reverse a decision to sell artillery systems to Riyadh, came after he and Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected as unsatisfactory Saudi Arabia’s explanation for the death of the dissident journalist in its Istanbul consulate.

In an interview for public television’s Tagesthemen program, Maas said he believed no weapons should be sold to the kingdom until the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death had been cleared up………………The decision last month to authorize the sale, part of an effort to normalize relations with the kingdom, stirred controversy because it ran against an earlier pledge not to sell arms to countries involved in the Yemen war.

NYT: ‘A Private War’ Goes to Frontline to Tell Reporter Marie Colvin’s Story