عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Army: Extremists Attacked Military Training Camp in Mali's Capital

FILE - Leader of Mali's ruling junta Lt. Col. Assimi Goita, center, attends an independence day military parade in Bamako, Mali on Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Leader of Mali's ruling junta Lt. Col. Assimi Goita, center, attends an independence day military parade in Bamako, Mali on Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
TT
TT

Army: Extremists Attacked Military Training Camp in Mali's Capital

FILE - Leader of Mali's ruling junta Lt. Col. Assimi Goita, center, attends an independence day military parade in Bamako, Mali on Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Leader of Mali's ruling junta Lt. Col. Assimi Goita, center, attends an independence day military parade in Bamako, Mali on Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo, File)

Extremists attacked a military training camp in Mali’s capital, the army said, as explosions were heard in the area.
A sweep operation was underway after gunmen attempted to infiltrate the Faladie gendarme school, the military said in a statement. The army said the situation was under control and asked people to avoid the area.
Early Tuesday morning an Associated Press reporter heard two explosions and saw smoke rise in the distance. The training school is located on the outskirts of the city.
Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaeda and ISIS. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russian mercenary units for security assistance instead.
Since taking power, Col. Assimi Goita has struggled to stave off growing attacks by militants. Attacks in central and northern Mali are increasing. In July, approximately 50 Russian mercenaries in a convoy were killed in an al-Qaeda ambush.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Budapest and Poland’s Wroclaw Reinforce Their River Banks Ahead of More Flooding in Central Europe 

An aerial view shows the high water level of the Oder River near the Opatowice weir in Wroclaw, southwest Poland, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
An aerial view shows the high water level of the Oder River near the Opatowice weir in Wroclaw, southwest Poland, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
TT
TT

Budapest and Poland’s Wroclaw Reinforce Their River Banks Ahead of More Flooding in Central Europe 

An aerial view shows the high water level of the Oder River near the Opatowice weir in Wroclaw, southwest Poland, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
An aerial view shows the high water level of the Oder River near the Opatowice weir in Wroclaw, southwest Poland, 16 September 2024. (EPA)

Soldiers dropped sandbags from military helicopters to reinforce river embankments and evacuated residents as the worst flooding in years spread Tuesday to a broad swath of Central Europe, taking lives and destroying homes.

Heavy flooding has affected a large part of the region in recent days, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. There have been at least 16 deaths reported in the flooding, which followed heavy rainfall across the region.

Other places are now bracing for the flood waves to hit them, including two central European gems: Budapest, the Hungarian capital on the Danube River, and Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland on the Oder River, its old town filled with architectural gems.

Hungary's government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán deployed soldiers to reinforce barriers along the Danube, and thousands of volunteers assisted in filling sandbags in dozens of riverside settlements.

In Budapest, authorities closed the city’s lower quays, which are expected to be breached by rising waters later in the day. The lower half of the city’s iconic Margaret Island was also closed.

In Wroclaw, firefighters and soldiers spent the night using sandbags to reinforce river embankments. The city zoo, located along the Oder, appealed for volunteers to fill sandbags on Tuesday morning.

“We and our animals will be extremely grateful for your help,” the zoo said in its appeal.

The city said it expected the flood wave to peak there around Friday, though some had predicted that would happen sooner. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk met with a crisis team early Tuesday and said there are contradictory forecasts from meteorologists.

Tusk's government has declared a state of natural disaster across the affected region of southern Poland.

To the south of Wroclaw, residents spent the night fighting to save Nysa, a town of 44,000 people, after the Nysa Klodzka River broke its banks the day before. The town mayor Kordian Kolbiarz said 2,000 “women, men, children, the elderly” came out to try to save their town from the rising waters, forming a human chain that passed sandbags to the river bank.

“We simply ... did everything we could,” Kolbiarz wrote on Facebook. “This chain of people fighting for our Nysa was incredible. Thank you. We fought for Nysa. Our home. Our families. Our future.”

In the Czech Republic, waters have been receding in the two hardest-hit, northeast regions. The government approved the deployment of 2,000 troops to help with clean-up efforts. The damage is expected to reach billions of euros.

The Czech government also scrambled to help local authorities organize regional elections on Friday and Saturday as several schools and other buildings serving as polling stations have been badly damaged. However, a planned evacuation of some 1,000 in the town of Veseli nad Luznici could be postponed as the waters had not reached critical levels so far.