Reuters, Washington
More than 1,100 civilians have been killed in US-led strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the US military said on Thursday.
The coalition fighting ISIS terrorists said in a statement that during the month of August it had determined that an additional 53 civilians had been killed unintentionally, bringing the total to at least 1,114 civilian deaths since August 2014.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards kill four
militants
Reuters, London
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Friday it had killed four militants at the Saravan border crossing with Pakistan in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Sunni militant groups in southeastern Iran have long carried out periodic attacks on military and civilian targets, aiming to highlight what they say is discrimination against Sunni Muslim ethnic groups in mainly Shi’ite Iran.
Plane ditches into Pacific lagoon
AFP, Wellington
Passengers were forced to swim for their lives Friday when an airliner ditched into a lagoon after missing the runway on a remote Pacific island and immediately began sinking.
The Air Niugini Boeing 737 was attempting to land at Weno airport in Micronesia but ended up half submerged in Chuuk lagoon after the accident on Friday morning.
India’s top court refuses to release 5 rights activists
AP, New Delhi
India’s top court on Friday rejected pleas by five rights activists that they be freed a month after being arrested for alleged links to Maoist rebels.
The Supreme Court said in a 2-1 verdict that the activists were not arrested because of their political views, but because there was prima facie evidence of connections between them and the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Quake prompts tsunami warning off Indonesia
Reuters, Jakarta
A major 7.7 magnitude quake struck off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday, prompting a tsunami alert, hours after a milder quake hit the same area.
Indonesia’s meteorology agency issued an early tsunami warnings for people in Central Sulawesi and West Sulawesi provinces, asking people to evacuate to higher ground.
Saudi Crown Prince to visit Kuwait for talks on Qatar
Reuters, Dubai
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman will visit Kuwait on Saturday, the state-run Kuwait News Agency said on Friday, amid expectations that he will discuss a Kuwaiti mediation to resolve the kingdom’s conflict with Qatar.
A Gulf Arab official told Reuters the conflict with Qatar would be on the agenda in the talks.
