Afghan president orders military review
KABUL, Afghanistan – President Ashraf Ghani has ordered a top-to-bottom review of the operations of Afghanistan’s defense forces, including discussing the resumption of controversial night raids banned by his predecessor.
The move appears aimed at revamping the military for the fight against the Taliban amid new indications that U.S. and international forces will play a greater role than initially envisaged after the 13-year U.S.-led combat mission formally ends next month.
The wholesale review is already underway, presidential spokesman Nafizullah Salarzai told The Associated Press, saying Ghani had instructed the National Security Council to “work on a manual of guidelines and standards for military operations.”
Two girls kill dozens in Nigerian bombing
BAUCHI, Nigeria – The teenage girls entered the busy marketplace separately Tuesday, their vests of explosives hidden beneath their full hijabs.
The first detonated her bomb, killing three women. As rescuers rushed in, the second girl screamed and set off her explosives, killing dozens more, according to witnesses and authorities.
More than 40 people died in the double suicide bombing in Maiduguri, a provincial capital in northeastern Nigeria, according to Haruna Issa, a hospital volunteer in the city.
Suspicion immediately fell on the insurgents from the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, which controls a large part of northeastern Nigeria.
Libyan government bombs airport
CAIRO – Warplanes again bombed a Libyan military air base Tuesday that until a day earlier was Tripoli’s only functioning airport, shortly after the Islamist-backed prime minister said his government was at war.
Late Monday, Prime Minister Omar al-Hassi said the Cabinet will now adopt “a policy of confrontation and war,” comments directed at his rivals in Libya’s internationally recognized government based in the country’s east.
“Now, we face an enemy that has plenty of weapons and support from abroad, and we are facing more than one country supplying it with arms,” he said.
Associated Press
