Pro-Trump groups raised more than $60 million in January and have more than $200 million on hand for this year’s general election, shattering fundraising records on the path toward a goal of raising $1 billion this cycle.

The Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s campaign have raised more than $525 million since the start of 2019 together with two joint-fundraising committees. The RNC and the Trump campaign provided the figures to The Associated Press. The January haul coincided with most of the Senate’s impeachment trial, which resulted in the Republican president’s acquittal earlier this month.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, “We already have 500,000 volunteers trained and activated, and this record-breaking support is helping us grow our grassroots army even more.”

Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said Democrats’ “shameful impeachment hoax and dumpster fire primary process” have contributed to the “record-breaking financial support” for Trump’s reelection.

“With President Trump’s accomplishments, our massive data and ground operations and our strong fundraising numbers,” Parscale said, “this campaign is going to be unstoppable in 2020.”

The pro-Trump effort said it has gained more than 1 million new digital and direct mail donors since Democrats launched their push to impeach Trump in September 2019. The investigations proved to be a fundraising boon for Trump’s campaign, even as the president was personally frustrated by the scar it will leave on his legacy.

The Trump team’s haul and cash on hand were twice that of former President Barack Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee at the same point ahead of his 2012 reelection.
 

…

From: MeNeedIt

 Japan’s health ministry says a woman infected with the new virus has died, becoming the country’s first confirmed fatality.

Health minister Katsunobu Kato announced Thursday that the victim is a woman in her 80s who had been treated at a hospital near Tokyo since early February after developing symptoms. Her infection was confirmed after her death.

Japan has confirmed 247 cases of the virus, including 218 from a cruise ship quarantined at the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo, amid growing fears of the spreading virus.

…

From: MeNeedIt

Closing arguments at the Harvey Weinsten rape trial are set to begin Thursday, with the jury hearing first from a Chicago attorney who’s taken #MeToo movement heat for representing the disgraced Hollywood mogul and making provocative mid-trial comments about his case outside of court.
    
Donna Rotunno faces the tricky task of convincing a Manhattan jury that there are too many inconsistencies and contradictions in the testimony of six Weinstein accusers who took the witness stand to convict her client – all without her breaking a promise made in defense opening statements that jurors wouldn’t hear any “victim shaming.”
    
In a podcast interview that aired last week, Rotunno said Weinstein is “well aware of the fact that his life is on the line here” and that he “deserves to have a voice out there.”
    
Weinstein, 67, is charged with raping a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on a different woman in 2006. Other accusers testified as part of a prosecution effort to show he has used the same tactics to victimize many women over the years.
    
Weinstein, whose lawyers informed the court on Tuesday that he wouldn’t testify, has maintained any sexual encounters were consensual.
    
The jury of seven men and five woman is scheduled to hear the prosecution closings on Friday before getting instructions on the law from Judge James Burke next week and starting deliberations.
    
In often emotional testimony stretching over three weeks, Weinstein’s accusers described in lurid detail how he lured them to hotels in New York and Los Angeles on the pretense of promoting their acting careers before sexually assaulting them. The defense countered on cross-examination by confronting some with warm emails and other communications with Weinstein that continued for months or even years after the alleged attacks.
    
The jury has already heard about emails, certain to be a focus of Rotunno’s closing, in which the victim of the alleged rape wrote to Weinstein afterward to accept party invitations from him, give him new phone numbers and even express gratitude. One read: “I feel so fabulous and beautiful, thank you for everything.”
    
The lawyer is also likely to highlight the testimony of a friend and former roommate of the same accuser who said she never heard the woman say anything bad about the defendant. Instead, the woman once called Weinstein her “spiritual soulmate,” the witness said.
    
Rotunno’s closing argument will come less than a week after she came under fire on social media for a podcast interview in which she blamed victims for getting sexually assaulted. Rotunno told The New York Times’ “The Daily”’ she’d never been attacked “because I would never put myself in that position.”
    
In court, prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon questioned the timing of the interview and rebuked Rotunno for calling the prosecution’s witnesses “liars.”
    
“That was taped a long time ago” Rotunno interrupted, claiming that she hadn’t talked to anyone in the media since the case began.
    
She was later contradicted by a Times spokeswoman, who told reporters the interview was recorded on Jan. 28, five days after opening statements and the start of testimony.

…

From: MeNeedIt

75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we still see remnants of neo-Naziism in today’s society. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren marks the beginning of the end of the Holocaust with VOA reporter Auschwitz survivor Stanislav Zalewski; Gretchen Skidmore from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Oren Segal from the Anti Defamation League (ADL); and Christian Picciolini, a reformed neo-Nazi who was recruited at age 14. Air date: February 12, 2020.

…

From: MeNeedIt

…

From: MeNeedIt

Lebanon’s international backers said Wednesday they supported its new Cabinet, while urging it to swiftly tackle the country’s snowballing crises amid ongoing anti-government protests.

The group urged Prime Minister’s government to commit to major reforms that would “stop and reverse the deepening crises” afflicting the country economically and politically. Those issuing the statement included international partners like France, the United States, Russia and the United Nations.

Lebanon’s economic crash has sparked months of mass protests against its government and ruling elite.

The international group’s support for the new premier was not a given. Diab, a former professor at the American University of Beirut, was picked by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and its allies after Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned on Oct. 29, two weeks after the nationwide protests erupted.

Lebanon is at the center of a foreign power play between supporters and detractors of Iran. Hezbollah, a major ally of Tehran, has come under intensifying U.S. sanctions as Washington seeks to put pressure on Iran and its regional allies.

Thousands of protesters clashed with security forces outside the Parliament on Tuesday while lawmakers voted on the new government. Nearly 400 people were injured in the melee.

The new Cabinet secured 63 votes out of the 84 lawmakers who attended Tuesday’s session. Over forty lawmakers skipped the vote while the protests hurled stones at security forces outside the fortified barriers surrounding the legislative chamber.

Speaking ahead of the vote, Diab said he fully realized the massive task ahead but was confident it was possible to rescue Lebanon’s economy from complete collapse — and that his government would get to work immediately.

Diab vowed to fight corruption, while ushering in judicial, financial and administrative reforms, but offered few specifics in his 16-page plan.

Amid a spiraling financial crisis, Lebanese banks have imposed informal capital controls on withdrawals of U.S. dollars and halted transfers of foreign currency abroad.

Lebanon has one of the highest debt ratios in the world, standing at more than 150% of GDP with no economic growth, a liquidity crunch and high unemployment.

International donors had pledged some $11 billion in grants and loans for Lebanon in 2018, calling for major reforms to unleash the money. In recent weeks, friendly nations have said they will not bail Lebanon out without those major policy and regulatory changes.

On Wednesday, the international group, which also includes the European Union, Britain, China, Germany and Italy, said it supports Lebanon’s efforts to restore economic stability, credibility of the financial sector and key sector reforms. It also announced its support for peaceful protests.

Diab urged the international community, and local opponents, to give his government a chance.

…

From: MeNeedIt

Journalists in disputed territorially Kashmir urged the Indian government on Monday to allow them to report freely and expressed concern about alleged police harassment since the region’s semi-autonomy was rescinded in August amid an unprecedented lockdown.

The Kashmir Press Club, an elected body of journalists in the region, said security agencies were using physical attacks, threats and summons to intimidate journalists. The group said the government should “ensure freedom of speech and expression as guaranteed in the constitution instead of muzzling the press.”

On Saturday, police summoned two journalists for questioning in Srinagar for reporting about a strike call issued by the pro-independence Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front. The Kashmir Press Club denounced the police action.

“The harassment and questioning of journalists in Kashmir on flimsy grounds” by the police is “a damning verdict on the appalling condition in which media is operating,” the group said in a statement.

It also criticized restrictions on the internet and surveillance by police, calling them “tools designed and aimed to ensure only the government-promoted version is heard.”

India’s decision to strip the region of its special status in August brought journalism to a near halt in Kashmir. A communications shutdown affected media operations, and most newspapers published in Srinagar, the region’s main city, have been unable to issue online editions.

Foreign journalists have been denied permission to visit the Himalayan region.

India is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, a global media watchdog.

The conflict over Kashmir began in the late 1940s, when India and Pakistan won independence from the British Empire and began fighting over their rival claims to the region.

Since 1989, a full-blown armed rebellion has raged in the Indian-controlled portion seeking a united Kashmir — either under Pakistani rule or independent of both countries. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.

About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and an Indian military crackdown.

…

From: MeNeedIt

Nicaragua’s best-known daily newspaper La Prensa is aiming to expand its page count and possibly re-hire some laid-off newsroom staff after an 18 month government-enforced blockade of newsprint supplies.

Nicaraguan customs officials on Thursday agreed to release an impounded shipment of ink and paper after a communications channel between the government and the country’s only remaining national newspaper was reopened.

According to news wires, the government’s decision came just days after the Vatican’s top diplomat in Managua intervened on La Prensa’s behalf.

The breakthrough came just days after a La Prensa editorial warned that the newspaper’s days may be numbered.

“Nicaragua would be the only country in the world that would not have a printed newspaper,” said the storied publication’s editorial board, which has long been an irritant of President Daniel Ortega.

2018 seizure

La Presna’s imported newsprint shipments were seized in August 2018, shortly after the paper repeatedly called Ortega a dictator following deadly police crackdowns on a wave of anti-government protests over cuts to social security and calls for his resignation.

Ortega’s government labeled the uprising a U.S.-financed coup attempt, and its violent response claimed more than 320 lives.

“We have not offered anything in return to the government [for the surprise release of print materials],” said La Prensa Director Jaime Chamorro, whose family bought the publication in 1932, just six years after it was founded.

La Presna editor Eduardo Enrique said the seizure forced rationing of newsprint, cutting its standard 36-page daily edition down to eight pages, sacrificing ad revenue and forcing newsroom-wide layoffs.

Over the weekend, La Prensa executives said they plan conduct a market study to determine how many pages they can print in light of their economic losses. Enrique, who now leads of newsroom of 25 journalists that produce multiple publications, also said they’re planning to rehire newsroom personnel lost during the blockade, although he did not give a specific number.

A storied history

“La Prensa used to have a big newsroom with more than 70 journalists,” said Emiliano Chamorro, who was laid off after a 25-year career covering political and religious affairs for La Presna.

“It’s the most important newspaper in the country,” he said. “With more than 94 years of history, the newspaper has survived three dictatorships—two of Somoza, and the first one of Daniel Ortega in the 80s.”

Nicaraguan government officials did not respond to requests to explain why they retained the materials or what prompted them to free it.

Part of broader press clampdown

The violent unrest of 2018 was followed by a severe clampdown on independent media, in which Ortega’s security forces raided news outlets and imprisoned journalists.

Since that time, more than 100 journalists have fled the country in the wake of threats, beatings and arbitrary detentions, according to a July 2019 statement by the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

Ortega, whose own family presides over a vast media empire, has repeatedly offered assurances that all Nicaraguans enjoy unrestricted freedom of personal expression.

“In Nicaragua there is an absolute freedom of religion and expression,” the president said during a recent presidential speech.

Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of independent newsweekly and TV channel Confidencial, told Voice of America he hopes the released paper and ink will be followed by a return of confiscated news facilities, including his 100% Noticias television newsroom.

La Prensa executives say they anticipate printing a full edition in coming weeks, but that they must first assess the quality of the recently released paper, newsprint reel, and plate cylinders.

Washington-imposed sanctions on Nicaragua for human rights violations followed the 2018 unrest, which aimed to pressure Managua into easing restrictions on various organizations.

According to Reuters, Michael Kozak, the Acting Assistant Secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said on Twitter that “the long-overdue decision to release @laprensa’s paper & ink from Nicaraguan customs is a step in the right direction.”

Managua-based El Nuevo Diario shut down in September after government officials impounded their newsprint supplies. Leaders of both El Nuevo Diario and La Prensa have accused Ortega’s government of de facto censorship and “economic asphyxiation” for editorials critical of his administration’s response to the 2018 protests.

A report by the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation recorded some 420 press violations between April and October 2018. 

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranks Nicaragua 114 out of 180 countries in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index, a 24-point drop from its 2018 ranking.

“The persecution of independent media outlets has become much more intense since the political crisis intensified in April 2018,” the report states. “…Although the environment is now extremely violent, non-aligned media outlets cannot afford the bulletproof vests and other protective equipment that their reporters need when covering demonstrations.”

This story originated in VOA’s Latin American Division (( https://www.voanoticias.com )). Some information is from Reuters.

…

From: MeNeedIt

Despite criticism by international human rights organizations, opposition leaders and activists, authorities in Pakistan have not released the leader of a prominent rights group in Pakistan who was arrested last month on charges of sedition and contempt for the country’s constitution.

Authorities arrested Manzoor Pashteen, the leader of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), in January in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.  

His movement advocates for end to militancy in Pashtun-populated regions, equal rights for Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtuns, an end to forced disappearances, illegal detention, and extrajudicial killings allegedly carried out by Pakistani security forces.  

According to the first incident report (FIR) filed against Pashteen by the police, charges against him include conspiracy, promoting enmity between different ethnic groups, threatening Pakistan’s sovereignty, and sedition for a speech he delivered that allegedly criticized the constitution of Pakistan.  

However, his supporters charge that demanding changes in the constitution is not a crime. 

“Demanding changes in the constitution is not sedition. To silence our voices, they [the military] are involving us in these kinds of fake cases. But they can’t silence us for demanding change, justice and equality.” Mohsin Dawar, a member of Pakistan’s National Assembly and a prominent leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), told VOA.

Dawar, who has been arrested by authorities several times for his activism in the past, was also briefly detained after the arrest of Pashteen during a rally where protesters demanded his immediate release.  

Since Pashteen’s arrest, thousands of ethnic Pashtuns have organized big rallies across multiple cities in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, demanding his release.  

Rights organizations

Prominent rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also demanded the “immediate and unconditional release” of Pashteen.   “

Manzoor Pashteen has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He must be released immediately and unconditionally,” Amnesty International said in a tweet following Pashteen’s arrest.  

Human Watch Watch, a global rights group, has also voiced concerns over the arrest of Pashteen. 

“Pakistani authorities should stop arresting activists like Manzoor Pashteen who are critical of government actions or policies,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement released by the rights group.  

Speech in DI Khan  

While addressing his supporters during a speech last month in Dera Ismail Khan region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pashteen accused the Pakistani establishments of systematic discrimination against ethnic Pashtuns and criticized the country’s constitution for not treating Pashtuns fairly.  

“The constitution is not right. It is not based on human rights. It is not based on the equality of ethnic groups. It based on minority and majority. Punjab [ethnic group] will always be the majority and you [Pashtuns] will always be the minority.  The constitution was made with the intention of excluding you from power so that they will be in power or their favored ones will be in power. These mistakes need to be changed,” he said in Pashto.

Several days later, authorities arrested him for contempt of the constitution. He has appeared twice before a court and will have another hearing Tuesday.  

According to his lawyers, due to the sheer number of cases against him, the government picks a different case against him every time he secures acquittal from the court on the previous case.   

“Pashteen has several cases against him; he may be granted bail for some charges but could remain under detention or be arrested again based on the other charges filed against him,” Syed Akhtar, Pashteen’s lawyer, told VOA.  

Government’s reaction

The Pakistani government has issued no official statement regarding the arrest of Pashteen and other PTM members that the police have taken into custody.  

VOA reached out to both the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s public affairs office and the country’s Foreign Office (FO) for comments, but received no response.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s public affairs office and the country’s Foreign Office (FO) did not respond to VOA requests for comments.  

A senior government official, however, reacted to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s tweets in regards to Pashteen’s arrest and labeled Ghani’s remarks as interference.  

“We have noted with serious concern the recent tweets by President Ashraf Ghani, which are a clear interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs and hence, unwarranted,” Firdous Ashiq Awan, the special assistant to Pakistan’s prime minister on information, said in a tweet in Urdu.   

“We believe that such statements are not helpful to the promotion of good neighborly relations between the two countries… Pakistan is a sovereign state. It is Pakistan’s law to take legal action against elements who are against the Constitution…Troublemakers cannot be allowed to play with peace,” she added.  

Ghani expressed concerns over Pashteen’s arrest and urged authorities to deal with peaceful movements through dialogue and engagement.  

“…While our region is suffering from atrocities caused by violent extremism and terrorism…governments in the region must support and encourage peaceful civilian movements for justice and must avoid any means of force and violence against these movements. On the contrary, differences with such peaceful movements must be resolved through dialogue and engagement,” Ghani said.  

Accusations

Authorities in Pakistan have accused PTM leadership of receiving support from intelligence agencies of India and Afghanistan, a charge denied by Pashteen and his PTM members.  

Last year, Asif Ghafoor, the previous Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DGISPR), accused PTM of receiving funding from outside.  

“They [PTM] have a lot more money than they claim to have on their official site. We have details. Why don’t they tell us how much they have? Also, who and where did the money come from? According to finances on March 22, 2018 the NDS gave them money to keep their protests going,” Ghafoor said.

Pashteen has rejected the allegations against PTM as baseless. In an interview with VOA last year, he said that there is no proof of them receiving outside support.  

“These are baseless accusations that we receive funding from foreign intelligence agencies. They cannot produce a single evidence,” Pashteen said.  

“They [military] train militants here and then the militants carry out attacks in my country and other countries of the world. With PTM’s emergence as a movement, the military can no longer operate with impunity to do that and their so-called business has been faced with difficulties,” he added.  

Since its establishment, dozens of prominent PTM activists have been arrested and some have been released on bail. This is the first time that authorities have gone after the founder of the group.

VOA’s Adnan Bitani contributed to this report from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

…

From: MeNeedIt

Syrian government forces killed five Turkish soldiers and wounded five more on Monday in an attack on a Turkish military post in the Taftanaz area of northwest Syria, broadcaster NTV cited the Turkish Defense Ministry as saying.

Turkey has sent major reinforcements to Syria’s Idlib region where the attack occurred, as Ankara tries to stem rapid advances by Syrian government forces. Turkish officials told Reuters Turkish forces were retaliating after the latest strike.

The Syrian government offensive in Idlib, the last major enclave of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, has driven more than half a million people from their homes towards the closed Turkish border, threatening a new humanitarian crisis.

A rebel source said Syrian government forces had shelled the military base at Taftanaz, and witnesses said Turkish helicopters flew into northwest Syria to evacuate the wounded.

A rebel commander said the insurgents launched a military operation on Monday against the Syrian army near Saraqeb with the help of Turkish artillery, with witnesses also reporting Turkish shelling of Syrian military positions in the region.

Turkey, which already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, says it cannot absorb any more and has demanded Damascus pull back in Idlib by the end of the month or face Turkish action.

…

From: MeNeedIt

KANO, NIGERIA — Jihadists killed at least 30 people and abducted women and children in a raid in northeast Nigeria’s restive Borno state, a regional government spokesman said on Monday.

The attack Sunday evening targeted the village of Auno on a key highway linking to regional capital Maiduguri.

The jihadists stormed in on trucks mounted with heavy weapons, killing, burning and looting before kidnapping women and children, state government spokesman Ahmad Abdurrahman Bundi said.

They aimed at travelers who had stopped for the night and torched vehicles.

The attackers “killed not less than 30 people who are mostly motorists and destroyed 18 vehicles,” Bundi said in a statement after visiting the scene.

The attack, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Maiduguri, occurred in an area where fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been active, mounting roadblocks to target security forces and civilians.

Witnesses said jihadists set alight 30 vehicles in the raid, including trucks that had stopped overnight on their way to Maiduguri.

“Many of the drivers and their assistants who were sleeping the vehicles were burnt alive,” civilian militia fighter, Babakura Kolo told AFP.

The jihadists combed through the village, looting and burning shops and property before withdrawing, he said.

Auno lies on the 120-kilometre highway linking Maiduguri to Damaturu, a major regional city in neighboring Yobe state.

The highway has been increasingly targeted by ISWAP militants in recent months.

The surge has followed the creation of so-called “super camps” by the Nigerian military in the northeast — a strategy under which small army camps have withdrawn from several areas and combined into fewer, larger bases.

Last month, four Nigerian soldiers were killed and seven injured when the jihadists attacked troops positioned in Auno.

The decade-long Islamist insurgency has killed 36,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes in northeast Nigeria.

The violence has spread to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the insurgents.

…

From: MeNeedIt

A Russian delegation returned to Turkey on Monday for further talks over rising tensions in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, after an initial round last week failed to yield results, Turkey’s foreign minister said. An airstrike in a nearby rebel-held region, meanwhile, killed nine people including children, opposition activists said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, backed by Russian air cover, have been advancing into the last rebel-held areas of Idlib and nearby Aleppo countryside, seizing dozens of towns and sparking a large-scale humanitarian crisis with some 600,000 people fleeing from their homes toward safer areas near the border with Turkey.

Most of the displaced are living in open-air shelters and temporary homes in freezing winter conditions close to the border. Half of the displaced are believed to be children.

The fighting led to the collapse of a fragile cease-fire that was brokered by Turkey and Russia in 2018. The two countries back opposing sides in the Syrian war: Turkey supports the Syrian rebels, while Russia has heavily backed the Syrian government’s offensive.

Turkey sent hundreds of military vehicles and troops into Idlib province in the past week. The buildup and the continued government advances sparked a rare clash on Feb. 3 between Turkish and Syrian soldiers that killed eight Turkish military personnel and 13 Syrian troops. Turkey has warned Syria to retreat to the cease-fire lines that were agreed in 2018.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkish and Russian delegations exchanged proposals over the situation in Idlib during a first meeting in Ankara on Saturday. On Monday, the Russian team returned to Ankara from a visit to Jordan, for further discussions, he said.

“If a compromise had been reached there would have been no need for today’s meeting,” Cavusoglu told reporters. He said the Turkish and Russian leaders could step in if no compromise is reached.

Syria’s military has vowed to keep up its campaign.

The early morning airstrike on the village of Ibbin in Aleppo province killed nine people, including six children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and the Step news agency, an activist collective. At least 10 people were also wounded in the airstrike.

The Syrian government’s campaign appears to be aimed at securing a strategic highway in rebel-controlled territory for now, rather than seizing the entire province and its the densely populated capital, Idlib.

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media released a map of the area of fighting showing that Syrian troops only have 15 kilometers (9 miles) left from seizing full control of the strategic highway, know as M5. The highway links the national capital of Damascus with the country’s north, which has for years been divided between government and opposition forces.

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded Monday in a Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing at least four people and wounding 15 others, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The attack was the latest in a series of explosions in Turkish-controlled regions that have killed and wounded scores of people. Turkey has blamed the attacks on on the Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Protection Units.

The bomb went off on a main street in the town of Afrin, which Turkey took control of following a military incursion in 2018, Anadolu reported. It said some of the wounded were in serious condition, adding that the death toll was likely to rise.

The Turkish offensive has aimed at pushing Kurdish fighters away from the border. Those Kurdish fighters had been key U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State group. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.

…

From: MeNeedIt