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US Top Diplomat Blinken Urges All ICC Members to Comply with Putin Arrest Warrant

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 22, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 22, 2023. (Reuters)
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US Top Diplomat Blinken Urges All ICC Members to Comply with Putin Arrest Warrant

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 22, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 22, 2023. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday urged all members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to comply with an arrest warrant that the court issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last week, the court accused Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The legal move will obligate the court's 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.

"I think anyone who's a party to the court and has obligations should fulfill their obligations," Blinken said when asked by US senator Lindsey Graham at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, if he would encourage European allies to "turn over" Putin.

Although the United States is not a party to the ICC, US President Joe Biden said on Friday that Putin has clearly committed war crimes, adding that the ICC warrant was justified.

Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities during its one-year invasion of its neighbor and the Kremlin branded the court decision as "null and void".

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, although Kyiv granted the court jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on its territory. The tribunal has no police force of its own and relies on member states to make arrests.

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At Least 13 People Killed in Pakistani Strikes on Suspected Militant Hideouts in Afghanistan

In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
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At Least 13 People Killed in Pakistani Strikes on Suspected Militant Hideouts in Afghanistan

In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)

Local Afghans and the Pakistani Taliban said Wednesday that civilians, including women and children, were killed after Pakistan launched rare airstrikes inside neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press that Tuesday's operation was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in the province of Paktika, bordering Afghanistan.
Residents in the area told an AP reporter over the phone that at least 13 people were left dead, adding that the death toll could be higher. They also said the wounded were transported to a local hospital.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Mohammad Khurasani, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed that 50 people, including 27 women and children, have died in the strikes.
Pakistan has not commented on the strikes. However, on Wednesday, the Pakistani military said security forces killed 13 insurgents in an overnight intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan, a district located along eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province.
The strikes are likely to further spike tensions between the two countries. Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government denounced the attack, saying on Tuesday that most of the victims were refugees from the Waziristan region and promising retaliation.
The TTP is a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
In March, Pakistan said intelligence-based strikes took place in the border regions inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan has seen innumerable militant attacks in the past two decades but there has been an uptick in recent months. The latest was this weekend when at least 16 Pakistani soldiers were killed when TTP attacked a checkpoint in the country’s northwest.
Pakistani officials have accused the Taliban of not doing enough to combat militant activity across the shared border, a charge the Afghan Taliban government denies, saying it does not allow anyone to carry out attacks against any country.