Pakistan Says Afghan Forces Kill 6 Civilians in Cross-Border Fire 

Residents gather after Taliban forces fired mortars at Pakistan's border town of Chaman on December 11, 2022. (AFP)
Residents gather after Taliban forces fired mortars at Pakistan's border town of Chaman on December 11, 2022. (AFP)
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Pakistan Says Afghan Forces Kill 6 Civilians in Cross-Border Fire 

Residents gather after Taliban forces fired mortars at Pakistan's border town of Chaman on December 11, 2022. (AFP)
Residents gather after Taliban forces fired mortars at Pakistan's border town of Chaman on December 11, 2022. (AFP)

Heavy gunfire and artillery shelling by Afghan border forces killed six civilians across the border in Pakistan on Sunday and wounded another 17, the Pakistan army said. 

Pakistani troops retaliated at the Chaman border crossing in southwestern Balochistan province, the army said in a statement, without giving details of any losses on the other side. 

Afghan official Noor Ahmad, in Kandahar, the province on the Afghan side of the border, told Reuters the incident was accidental and the situation had returned to normal after the two sides had a meeting. 

He gave no further details on any casualties on Afghan side. 

Afghan security sources said the clash started after Pakistani forces demanded that Afghan forces stop building a new check post on their side of the border. 

The Pakistan army statement described the incident as an "uncalled for aggression" and said Pakistani troops had responded proportionately, avoiding the targeting of civilians on the other side. 

"Afghan Border Forces opened unprovoked and indiscriminate fire of heavy weapons including artillery/mortar onto the civilian population," the statement said. 

Pakistan had approached Kabul to demand action to avoid a recurrence of the incident, it said. 

The busy Afghan border crossing at Chaman, used for trade and transit, was closed for some hours before reopening, officials on both sides said. The crossing was closed for several days last month after similar clashes. 



Germany Arrests Five Suspected of War Crimes in Syria

German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
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Germany Arrests Five Suspected of War Crimes in Syria

German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

German police arrested four stateless Syrian Palestinians and one Syrian national suspected of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria some 10 years ago, prosecutors said.
The men, identified in line with German privacy laws only as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S. and Wael S. are suspected to have been affiliated with the Free Palestine Movement in Syria. Mazhar J. is suspected to have been a Syrian Intelligence Officer, said prosecutors in a statement on Wednesday.
"The individuals ... are strongly suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians (which) qualified as crimes against humanity and war crimes," the statement said.
Jihad A., Mazhar J. and Sameer S. were arrested in Berlin, Mahmoud A. in Frankenthal in the south-western state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Wael S. in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, said prosecutors.
The individuals are suspected of participating in a violent crackdown on a peaceful anti-government protest in Al Yarmouk in July 2012, in which civilian protesters were targeted and shot at. Six individuals died and others were seriously injured, Reuters quoted prosecutors as saying.
The suspected militia members are also accused of punching and kicking civilians between 2012 and 2014 at checkpoints and beating them with rifle butts, according to prosecutors.
One individual was handed over to the Syrian Military Intelligence Service to be imprisoned and tortured, they said. In addition, one of the suspects is suspected of having turned in to authorities three people killed in a mass execution of 41 civilians in April 2013.
The arrests were made thanks to Germany's universal jurisdiction laws, which allow courts to prosecute crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world. Authorities coordinated with Sweden in a joint investigation.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a separate statement it had arrested three people in Sweden for crimes against international law committed in Syria in 2012.