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Putin: Palestinian Leader Abbas Invited to BRICS Summit in Russia Next Week

File - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting in Bethlehem, January 23, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov, Pool via AP)
File - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting in Bethlehem, January 23, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov, Pool via AP)
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Putin: Palestinian Leader Abbas Invited to BRICS Summit in Russia Next Week

File - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting in Bethlehem, January 23, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov, Pool via AP)
File - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting in Bethlehem, January 23, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov, Pool via AP)

Russia has invited the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to take part in a BRICS summit in Kazan next week, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, Reuters reported.

Putin also reaffirmed Russia's support for a two-state solution in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and said the issue would be discussed at next week's summit.

The BRICS grouping has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as well as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

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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.