UK PM to Visit Poland, NATO Chief amid Ukraine Crisis

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, February 2, 2022. (Reuters)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, February 2, 2022. (Reuters)
TT

UK PM to Visit Poland, NATO Chief amid Ukraine Crisis

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, February 2, 2022. (Reuters)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, February 2, 2022. (Reuters)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Poland and NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday amid tensions over the security situation in Ukraine.

Johnson will visit British soldiers stationed in Poland together with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and will also meet President Andrzej Duda, a Polish foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

Johnson is also set to meet North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) chief Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels on the same day, according to a NATO statement. It did not contain the meeting's agenda.

The visits come as Western countries are working to de-escalate the situation on the Ukrainian border, where thousands of Russian troops are gathered.

Defense minister Ben Wallace had said on Monday week that Britain would send a further 350 troops to Poland. Last year it sent 100 troops to Poland to help support it with a migrant crisis at its border with Belarus.



4 Security Officers, 2 Children Killed in Bomb and Mortar Attacks in Pakistan

People drive amid smog in Lahore, Pakistan, 06 November 2024. EPA/RAHAT DAR
People drive amid smog in Lahore, Pakistan, 06 November 2024. EPA/RAHAT DAR
TT

4 Security Officers, 2 Children Killed in Bomb and Mortar Attacks in Pakistan

People drive amid smog in Lahore, Pakistan, 06 November 2024. EPA/RAHAT DAR
People drive amid smog in Lahore, Pakistan, 06 November 2024. EPA/RAHAT DAR

A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in restive northwestern Pakistan, killing four officers and wounding five others, officials said Thursday, and the same day two schoolchildren were killed when a mortar exploded near them elsewhere in the northwest.
The roadside bombing happened Wednesday in South Waziristan district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, local police officer Dilawar Khan said.
The military in a statement confirmed the “martyrdom” of four officers, but said security forces also responded to the attack and killed five “Khwarij”, a term which is used by the military for the Pakistani Taliban.
In a statement, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi paid tribute to the slain officers, The Associated Press reported.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, has stepped up its assaults in the region since its ally the Afghan Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.
Later the same day, a mortar fired by insurgents landed near a road in the Tirah valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, killing two schoolchildren who were going to school on foot, police said.
The Pakistani military has launched dozens of operations against the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in South Waziristan and other former tribal regions nearby, but the militants continue to carry out frequent attacks.
On Thursday, Naqvi met with Chinese ambassador Jiang Zaidong in Islamabad to brief him about an investigation into an attack Tuesday in which a guard shot and wounded two Chinese nationals at a textile mill in the port city of Karachi, allegedly over a private dispute.