World

SOMA, Turkey – Rescuers battled Wednesday to reach hundreds of workers feared trapped after an explosion at a mine in western Turkey that has killed at least 205 people in one of the worst industrial disasters ever to hit the country.

As Turkey declared three days of national mourning for the victims, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said the toll could rise to exceed the 263 workers killed in the country's worst ever mining disaster.

"We are worried that human loss could increase," he told reporters.

"The problem is more serious than we thought. It is developing into an accident with the highest worker death toll Turkey has seen so far."

Yildiz said 205 miners had been confirmed dead after Tuesday's blast at the mine at Soma, in Manisa province.

He declined to say how many people remained trapped in the mine, although earlier reports said 787 workers were underground when the blast occurred.

Turkey's disaster management agency AFAD said 93 people had been rescued, 85 of them injured.

Explosions and cave-ins are common in Turkey, particularly in private mines where safety regulations are often flouted.

Turkey's worst mining accident happened in 1992 when 263 workers were killed in a gas explosion in a mine in Zonguldak.

Tuesday's explosion was believed to have been triggered by a faulty electrical transformer at around 1230 GMT Tuesday.

A security source told AFP that there were pockets in the mine, one of which was open so rescuers were able to reach the workers, but the second was blocked with workers trapped inside.

Hundreds of people gathered around the explosion site as rescuers brought out injured workers, who were coughing and struggling to breathe due to the dust.

Sena Isbiler, mother of one of the miners, stood on top of piles of wood, craning her neck to see who was being led out of the mine.

"I have been waiting for my son since early afternoon," she told AFP.

"I haven't heard anything about him yet."

Arum Unzar, a colleague of the missing miners said he had lost a friend previously "but this is enormous."

"All the victims are our friends," he said as he wept.

"We are a family and today that family is devastated. We have had very little news and when it does come it's very bad," he added.

- 'Tragic accident' -

Fire officials were trying to pump clean air into the mine shaft for those who remained trapped some two kilometres (one mile) below the surface and four kilometres from the entrance.

Injured people emerged from the collapsed mine, some walking, others being carried by rescue workers while being given oxygen, as security officers tried to keep ambulance routes clear.

Energy Minister Yildiz promised the government would "not turn a blind eye" to negligence. "We will do whatever necessary, including all administrative and legal steps," he said.

The mining company Soma Komur issued a statement saying it had taken maximum measures to ensure safety.

"The accident happened despite maximum safety measures and inspections, but we have been able to take prompt action."

- 'Hopes fading' -

Turkey's ministry of labour and social security said the mine was last inspected on March 17 and was found to comply with safety regulations.

But Oktay Berrin, a miner, said workers were not protected underground.

"There is no security in this mine," he told AFP.

"The unions are just puppets and our management only cares about money."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due to arrive in Soma on Wednesday after cancelling a trip to Albania.

Speaking in Ankara, the leader expressed his "heartfelt condolences" to the families of those who died.

"Some of the workers have been rescued and I hope we will be able to rescue the others," Erdogan said.

Turkey's President Abdullah Gul has cancelled a trip to China and will also travel to the scene of the disaster.

Yildiz told journalists in Soma that a team of 400 people were involved in the rescue effort and that the main cause of the deaths was carbon monoxide and dioxide poisoning.

He said fires and the risk of toxic carbon monoxide were hampering rescue efforts.

"I must say that our hopes about rescue efforts inside (the mine) are fading," he added.

The miners are all thought to have gas masks, but it was not clear how long they would last.

Vedat Didari, a professor of mining, told AFP that the biggest risk was the lack of oxygen.

"If the ceiling fans are not working, the workers could die within an hour," said Didari, from the Bulent Ecevit University in the city of Zonguldak.

Soma is one of the key centres for lignite coal mining in Turkey, a district with a population of around 100,000 where the mines and a lignite-fired thermal power plant are the main economic activity.

MOSCOW/KIEV — Russia cast doubt on the long-term future of the International Space Station, a showcase of post-Cold War cooperation, as it retaliated on Tuesday against US sanctions over Ukraine.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Moscow would reject a US request to prolong the orbiting station’s use beyond 2020 and bar Washington from using Russian-made rocket engines to launch military satellites.

Moscow took the action, which also included suspending operation of GPS satellite navigation system sites on its territory from June, in response to US plans to deny export licences for high-technology items that could help the Russian military.

“We are very concerned about continuing to develop high-tech projects with such an unreliable partner as the United States, which politicises everything,” Rogozin told a news conference.

Washington wants to keep the $100 billion, 15 nation space station project in use until at least 2024, four years beyond the previous target.

While six years away, the plan to part ways on a project which was supposed to end the “space race” underlines how relations between the former Cold War rivals have deteriorated since Russia annexed Ukraine in March.

Since the end of the US Space Shuttle project, Russian Soyuz spacecraft have been the only way astronauts can get to the space station, whose crews include both Americans and Russians.

At a time when Moscow is struggling to reform its accident-plagued space programme, Rogozin said US plans to deny export licences for some high-technology items were a blow to Russian industry. “These sanctions are out of place and inappropriate,” Rogozin said. “We have enough of our own problems.”

Moscow’s response would affect NK-33 and RD-180 engines which Russia supplies to the United States, Rogozin said. “We are ready to deliver these engines but on one condition that they will not be used to launch military satellites,” he said.

RD-180 engines are used to boost Atlas 5 rockets manufactured by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing that holds a virtual monopoly on launching US military satellites.

Rogozin said Moscow was planning “strategic changes” in its space industry after 2020, and aims to use money and “intellectual resources” that now go to the space station for a “a project with more prospects”.

He suggested Russia could use the station without the United States, saying: “The Russian segment can exist independently from the American one. The US one cannot.”

The US space agency NASA is working with companies to develop space taxis with the goal of restoring US transport to the station by 2017, but the United States currently pays Russia more than $60 million per person to fly its astronauts up.

Rogozin said Russia will suspend the operation of 11 GPS sites on its territory from June and seek talks with Washington on opening similar sites in the United States for Russia’s own satellite navigation system, Glonass.

He threatened the permanent closure of the GPS sites in Russia if that is not agreed by September.

Rogozin said the suspension of the sites would not affect everyday operations of the GPS system in Russia, where it is used by millions of Russians for navigation on their smartphones and in their cars.

The upheaval in Ukraine — where the United States says Russia is backing separatists and the Kremlin accuses Washington of helping protesters to topple a Moscow-friendly president in February, has led to the worst East-West crisis since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

In addition to the high-tech sector sanctions, the United States has imposed visa bans and assets freezes on officials and lawmakers, and targeted companies with links to President Vladimir Putin. The European Union has also imposed sanctions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier on Tuesday that the latest EU measures were an “exhausted, trite approach” that would only deepen discord and hamper efforts to defuse the crisis in Ukraine.

Separatist ambush 

Six Ukrainian soldiers were killed and eight wounded on Tuesday when their armoured column was ambushed by pro-Russian separatists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk, the Defence Ministry said.

It was the biggest single loss of life by the Ukrainian army since soldiers were sent into the mainly Russian-speaking east of the country to break up armed separatist groups who have seized control of towns and public buildings in a bid to further demands for autonomy.

The ministry, in a statement published on its website, said an armoured column came under fire as it approached a bridge near a village 20km from Kramatorsk, one of several hot spots in the region where the army has had only limited success against the separatists.

About 30 rebels, who had taken cover among bushes along a river, attacked with grenade-launchers and automatic weapons, immediately killing two soldiers and wounding three others, it said.

“In all, as a result of the prolonged fighting, 6 members of the armed forces were killed. Eight soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously,” it said.

Earlier on Tuesday Defence Minister Mikhailo Koval said a total of 9 servicemen had been killed so far in the “anti-terrorist” operation which has been directed mainly against rebels in the towns of Slaviansk and Mariupol.

The dead included 5 pilots, Koval said, who apparently died when their helicopters were downed by separatist fire.

LEER, South Sudan — Bodies stuffed in wells. Houses burned down. Children playing on military hardware. And infants showing the skeletal outlines of severe hunger.

These are the scenes from a remote part of South Sudan — Leer — where Doctors Without Borders has just begun feeding severely malnourished children about three months after the aid group’s hospital was destroyed in violence that has been ripping apart the country since December.

One child brought to the clinic by a mother hoping for life-saving aid instead died the next day. That and other scenes of desperation were recently filmed by an Associated Press journalist.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council on Monday that he visited South Sudan this month in order to “sound the alarm about the violence and the risk of catastrophic famine”. Ban warned that if the fighting continues, half of South Sudan’s 12 million people will be displaced, starving or dead by year’s end.

Government troops led by President Salva Kiir and rebel forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar battled each other on Sunday, only two days after Kiir and Machar met in Ethiopia to sign a cease-fire deal, the second peace treaty of the conflict. The first one fell apart soon after it was signed.

More than 1.3 million people have fled their homes because of the violence. Many have spent months living in what people in this part of the world refer to as “the bush”, the untamed wild where dirty water and disease lie in wait.

People who fled Leer, a town of 20,000 in Unity state, are just starting to return to their homes, many of which are burned out or looted. Seasonal rains are starting to pour down, leaving families without a roof to cram in with neighbors or rough it in the rain.

“To be living in a place where you don’t even have a roof is awful,” said Sarah Maynard, a Doctors Without Borders project coordinator. “With the rains coming it will only get worse. People need help here.”

Doctors Without Borders re-opened its clinic doors last Thursday to a flood of residents seeking help for malaria, measles, diarrhea, respiratory tract infections — and hunger. The group screened 600 children and found 50 faced the most dire level of malnutrition.

Nyagaaw Biel Dhoar brought 2-year-old son Jacob Rit Wadaar to the clinic in the hopes that the medical personnel could save him. She tried to keep breastfeeding him as he lay dying in her arms, but it was too late. Jacob died the next morning.

World leaders like the UN secretary-general and US Secretary of State John Kerry both worked to get Kiir and Machar to agree to the latest cease-fire in part because the aid community says that if residents don’t return home this month and plant crops before the rains truly set in the country will have no food to eat.

“Hunger and malnutrition are already widespread. If this planting window is missed, there will be a real risk of famine. That is why we are calling for 30 days of tranquility backed by both sides. I am troubled by the accusations by both sides of breaches of the cease-fire already,” Ban told the Security Council.

Ban says South Sudan still needs $781 million for aid operations this year. A donor conference is being held in Norway in one week.

Violence has upturned the rhythm of daily life. Residents showed an Associated Press reporter how garbage and corpses fill one of Leer’s communal wells.

Myabani Nhial, a mother of 10, traded food staples like sorghum before the fighting broke out. Although her home and grain store has been reduced to a burned-out shell, she keeps returning to it in the hope of finding something that might have escaped the looting fighters and their fires.

“This was my home,” says Nhial. “It was burned by the soldiers. They killed three of my children and they took all the sorghum and whatever we had in our house. Now we are left to die without any food, water or shelter. They have taken away everything.”

LAGOS — Manned US aircraft were flying over Nigeria on Tuesday, searching for over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram Islamists after Abuja dismissed a prisoner-swap offer from the militants.

“We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] assets over Nigeria with the government’s permission,” a senior US administration official said Monday.

The official declined to be named and it was not immediately clear what kind of aircraft were being deployed, nor where they were based.

Boko Haram’s leader said in a new video obtained by AFP Monday that the girls, whose abduction has sparked global outrage, would only be released if the government freed militant fighters from custody.

Abubakar Shekau made the claim in a 27-minute video, which apparently showed about 130 of the teenagers who were snatched from their school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok nearly a month ago.

The militant leader said the girls in the video had converted to Islam and all were shown in Muslim dress, reciting the first chapter of the Koran and praying at an undisclosed location.

Asked if the government would reject Shekau’s suggestion, Interior Minister Abba Moro told AFP: “Of course”.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said US intelligence experts were “combing through every detail of the video for clues that might help ongoing efforts to secure the release of the girls”.

Their disappearance has triggered global outrage, in part due to a social media campaign that has won the support of high-profile figures including US First Lady Michelle Obama, Pope Francis and Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.

A total of 276 students were abducted on April 14 from Chibok, which has a sizeable Christian community. Police say 223 are still missing.

Nigeria’s government has been criticised for its slow response to the kidnapping, but has been forced into action as a result of international pressure.

President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted help from the United States, Britain, France, China and Israel, which have sent specialist teams to help in the search effort.

French President Francois Hollande has also called for a west Africa security summit to discuss the Boko Haram threat, which could be held as early as Saturday.

The United States and Britain have been invited, he said.

The latest footage shows the girls in black and grey full-length hijabs, sitting on scrubland near trees.

Three of them are shown being interviewed — two said they were Christian and had converted while one said she was Muslim.

All three pronounced their belief in Islam dispassionately to the camera, sometimes looking down at the ground and apparently under duress.

Most of the group behind them were seated cross-legged on the ground. The girls appeared calm and one said they had not been harmed.

There was no indication of when the video was taken, although the quality is better than on previous occasions and at one point an armed man is seen in shot with a hand-held video camera.

Shekau does not appear in the same scene. Instead, he is seen dressed in combat fatigues, carrying an automatic weapon in front of a lime-green canvas backdrop.

‘We have liberated them’ 

Speaking in his native Hausa language as well as Arabic, he restated his claim of responsibility for the kidnappings, and said the girls were converting to Islam.

“These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with... we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims,” he said.

“There are still others who have not converted and are holding on to your belief. There are many of them,” he added.

“Only Allah knows how many women we are holding, the infidels who Allah commands us to hold.”

On the prisoner release, Shekau said Boko Haram’s brothers in arms had been held in prison for up to five years and suggested that the girls would be released if the fighters were freed.

“We will never release them [the girls] until after you release our brethren,” he said.

Boko Haram has been waging an increasingly deadly insurgency in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north since 2009, attacking schools teaching a “Western” curriculum, churches and government targets.

Civilians, though, have borne the brunt of recent violence, with more than 1,500 killed this year alone while tens of thousands have been displaced after their homes and businesses were razed.

Boko Haram has used kidnapping of women and young girls in the past, and Shekau indicated that more were being held. Eleven girls were abducted from the Gwoza area of Borno state on May 4.

Jonathan has previously said that he believed the kidnapped students were still in Nigeria and would be freed soon.

There have been fears that the girls may have been taken into neighbouring Chad or Cameroon, from where Boko Haram is said to have launched attacks in the northeast and may have camps.

DONETSK, Ukraine — Rebels in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region appealed on Monday to join Russia after what they claimed were resounding victories in independence referendums.

Moscow said it “respects” the result of the weekend votes on self-rule, which were denounced by authorities in Kiev as a “criminal farce” and by the West.

But Moscow left the door open to a negotiated solution, calling for talks between Kiev and the rebels in the industrial regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, home to seven million of Ukraine’s 46 million people.

The Kremlin’s move allayed fears Moscow might move to quickly annex the territories, as it did earlier this year after a similar vote in Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

But tensions remained high in the worst crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War, and Germany announced plans for a diplomatic mission to Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was to travel on Tuesday to Kiev and eastern Ukraine to support efforts to mediate a “national dialogue” between the interim pro-Western leadership in Kiev and pro-Moscow groups.

“Proceeding from the expression of the will of the people... and in order to restore historical justice, we ask the Russian Federation to consider the issue of the Donetsk People’s Republic becoming part of the Russian Federation,” the self-styled rebel governor of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, told reporters.

Rebel officials in Donetsk had earlier said 89 per cent of voters backed breaking away from Ukraine in Sunday’s referendum, with a turnout of 75 per cent. Separatists in Lugansk said 94 per cent had backed independence.

Pushilin also said Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election, seen as vital to restoring order, “will not happen” in Donetsk.

Moscow endorsed the separatist votes on Monday, with President Vladimir Putin’s office saying in a statement: “Moscow respects the expression of the people’s will in Donetsk and Lugansk.”

The Kremlin called for “the results to be implemented in a civilised manner, without any repeat of violence, through dialogue between representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk”.

Ukraine’s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said Kiev was willing to “continue dialogue with those in the east of Ukraine who have no blood on their hands” but dismissed the votes.

“The farce that terrorist separatists call a referendum is nothing more than propaganda,” he said.

Both European and US officials denounced the referendums, with EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy calling them “illegal, illegitimate and not credible” on a visit to Kiev.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the voting “was an attempt to create further division and disorder” in Ukraine.

On the streets of Donetsk, meanwhile, confusion reigned.

“For me, I am still in Ukraine but who knows where we will be tomorrow — it is a mad house,” pensioner Anna told AFP in Donetsk.

“I was born in this country, my children were born here and my grandchildren, and I just want there to be peace.”

The crisis has raised fears of a violent breakup of Ukraine and the possibility of a civil war on Europe’s eastern edge.

An agreement between Moscow, Kiev, Washington and the EU in Geneva last month did little to ease tensions and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday there was no point in further discussions without the separatists.

“Holding another four-way meeting makes little sense,” Lavrov said. “We do not want to repeat what has already taken place... but to move on to talks between Kiev and its opponents in the eastern regions of Ukraine.”

Kiev and Western leaders have accused Moscow of backing the rebels and on Monday EU foreign ministers announced new sanctions against Russians and Crimeans involved in the crisis.

A further 13 people and two companies were listed as subject to a European Union asset freeze and visa ban, EU diplomats said.

There were no immediate details available but sources said two Ukrainian firms in Crimea confiscated following the March annexation of the peninsula by Russia were on the list.

 ‘Far-reaching’ steps 

Van Rompuy warned the EU was ready to take “additional, far-reaching” steps “in a broad range of areas” if Russia failed to help resolve the conflict.

The EU has so far imposed asset freezes and visa bans on 48 Russians and Ukrainians for violating or threatening Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Highlighting the stakes for the EU, Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom warned on Monday it may halt shipments to Ukraine on June 3 in a repeat of previous energy wars that hit Europe.

Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said Ukraine must pay upfront for its June deliveries because of debts totalling $3.51 billion (2.55 billion euros).

Kiev had until the morning of June 3 to make the payment “or Ukraine will receive zero cubic metres [of gas] in June,” he added.

Nearly 15 per cent of all gas consumed in Europe is delivered from Russia via Ukraine and previous disputes in 2006 and 2009 disrupted supplies to parts of the EU.

On Monday, sporadic explosions and gunfire could be heard in the flashpoint town of Slavyansk, as Ukraine’s military pressed its siege of the rebel-held town.

Isolated violence flared during voting in some parts of eastern Ukraine on Sunday, where troops have been waging an offensive against well-armed rebels in control of several towns.

Anti-Kiev sentiment was riding high in the regions after a fierce firefight between troops and rebels that left several dead in the city of Mariupol on Friday.

Ukrainian officials have said 49 people have died in the Donetsk region since the start of the unrest, and deadly clashes and an inferno in Odessa killed at least 42 people earlier this month.

LAGOS — Boko Haram’s leader said in a new video obtained by AFP on Monday that more than 200 abducted Nigerian schoolgirls would only be released if the government freed militant fighters from custody.

Abubakar Shekau made the claim in a 27-minute video, which he claimed showed about 130 of the girls who were kidnapped from their school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok nearly a month ago.

The girls’ disappearance has triggered global outrage, in part due to a social media campaign that has won the support of high-profile figures from US First Lady Michelle Obama to Pope Francis.

The militant leader said the girls shown in the video had converted to Islam and all were shown in Muslim dress, reciting the first chapter of the Koran and praying at an undisclosed location.

Boko Haram has made prisoner exchange demands before without success and Nigeria’s government again dismissed the request outright.

Asked if the government would reject Shekau’s suggestion, Interior Minister Abba Moro told AFP: “Of course.”

“The issue in question is not about Boko Haram... giving conditions,” he added.

A total of 276 girls were abducted on April 14 from Chibok, which has a sizeable Christian community. Police say 223 are still missing.

Nigeria’s government has been criticised for its lack of immediate response to the kidnapping but has been forced into action as a result of international pressure.

President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted help from the United States, Britain, France, China and Israel, which have sent specialist teams to help in the search effort.

French President Francois Hollande has also called for a West Africa security summit to discuss the Boko Haram threat, which could be held as early as Saturday.

The United States and Britain have been invited, he said.

 ‘We have liberated them’ 

The latest footage shows girls in black and grey full-length hijabs sitting on scrubland near trees.

Three of the girls are interviewed. Two say they were Christian and had converted while one said she was Muslim.

All three pronounce their belief in Islam dispassionately to the camera, sometimes looking down at the ground and apparently under duress.

Most of the group behind them were seated cross-legged on the ground. The girls appeared calm and one said that they had not been harmed.

There was no indication of when the video was taken, although the quality is better than on previous occasions and at one point an armed man is seen in shot with a hand-held video camera.

Shekau does not appear in the same shot. Instead, he is seen dressed in combat fatigues, carrying an automatic weapon in front of a lime-green canvas backdrop.

Boko Haram has been waging an increasingly deadly insurgency in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north since 2009, attacking schools teaching a “Western” curriculum, churches and government targets.

Civilians, though, have borne the brunt of recent violence, with more than 1,500 killed this year alone while tens of thousands have been displaced after their homes and businesses were razed.

Speaking in his native Hausa language as well as Arabic, he restates his claim of responsibility made in a video released last Monday and said the girls had converted to Islam while others had not.

“These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with... we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims,” he said.

“There are still others who have not converted and are holding on to your belief. There are many of them,” he added.

“You are making so much noise about Chibok, Chibok, Chibok. Only Allah knows how many women we are holding, the infidels who Allah commands us to hold.”

‘Free prisoners’ 

On the prisoner release, Shekau said Boko Haram’s brothers in arms had been held in prison for up to five years and suggested that the girls would be released if the fighters were freed.

“We will never release them [the girls] until after you release our brethren,” he said.

Boko Haram has used kidnapping of women and young girls in the past and Shekau indicated that more were being held.

Eleven girls were abducted from the Gwoza area of Borno state on May 4.

President Jonathan has previously said that he believed the girls were still in Nigeria and would be freed soon.

There have been fears that the girls may have been taken into neighbouring Chad or Cameroon, from where Boko Haram is said to have launched attacks in the northeast and may have camps.

Nigeria’s army is currently concentrating its efforts on the Sambisa forest of Borno state while international assistance involves specialist surveillance and intelligence teams.

Washington said on Sunday that no US troops would be used in any rescue mission while the leader of the world’s Anglicans, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, urged for negotiations to start.

But he admitted that back-channel talks would be fraught with danger because of Boko Haram’s disparate structure, its “extremely irrational” action and their “utterly merciless” history.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — The Taliban began their annual “spring offensive” Monday with attacks across Afghanistan, including a suicide assault on government offices that killed seven people and multiple rocket strikes on two airports.

At least 10 people were killed in a series of attacks after Taliban leaders vowed last week that the offensive would target US-led foreign forces and government facilities.

Afghanistan’s instability was underlined by an International Crisis Group (ICG) released on Monday that said “the overall trend is one of escalating violence and insurgent attacks”.

The report added that residents of Ghorak village in the southern province of Kandahar had resorted to eating grass after being blockaded for months by Taliban fighters.

On the first day of the Taliban offensive, officials said three suicide bombers entered the provincial justice department in the eastern city of Jalalabad, triggering a firefight with security forces that lasted several hours.

“All of the attackers were killed and their bodies displayed at the building,” Abdul Rauf Uruzgani, chief police investigator, told reporters.

“The dead were three justice department employees, two policemen, a 15-year-old boy who was caught up in fighting and another visitor.”

Two rockets exploded near Kabul airport at 5:00am (0030 GMT), the exact time that the insurgents had pledged to start a nationwide operation to cleanse “the filth of the infidels” from the country.

Four rockets were also fired at Bagram airport, the biggest NATO military base in Afghanistan, which lies north of Kabul.

There were no casualties in either airport attack. But two women and a policeman died in Ghazni province southwest of Kabul, when Taliban insurgents targeted several police checkpoints.

Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, Ghazni’s deputy governor who gave the casualty figure, told AFP that two police officers and six civilians were wounded.

The Taliban’s “Khaibar” offensive, is named after an ancient battle between Muslims and Jews. This year it has begun in the run-up to a second round of elections next month to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has ruled since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001.

About 51,000 US-led NATO troops still deployed in Afghanistan are set to withdraw by December, ending a long and costly battle against the Taliban, who launched a fierce insurgency after being ousted from power.

A small number of US troops may stay on from next year on a training and counter-terrorism mission, if a long-delayed deal is struck between Kabul and Washington.

Monday’s ICG report warned that the absence of a continuing US force “could prove extremely problematic”.

The report also detailed how residents of Ghorak, a pro-government enclave under a long Taliban siege, “have resorted to boiling and eating grass”.

It cited an unnamed resident who was interviewed by telephone last month.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force confirmed it was investigating Monday’s airport attacks.

“A vacant building and some equipment were damaged at Bagram,” a spokesman said. “There were no casualties.”

Sediq Sediqqi, the interior ministry spokesman, confirmed that two rockets fell outside Kabul airport but caused no casualties.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the spate of attacks on Monday via a recognised Twitter account.

The group said ambushes, bombings and firefights in provinces including Nimroz, Kapisa, Zabul, Patika and Paktika had killed US soldiers, and Afghan police and soldiers during the day.

The Taliban often exaggerate attacks and death tolls.

The insurgents’ statement last week said that attacks during the offensive would target US military bases, foreign embassies and vehicle convoys, as well as Afghan officials, politicians and translators.

Afghanistan’s fighting season traditionally begins in April or May as snow recedes from the mountains, and the Taliban mark the occasion with an annual declaration to attack foreign forces and unseat the Kabul government.

DONETSK, Ukraine — Pro-Russian rebels claimed a massive turnout in a vote they held Sunday to split east Ukraine into two independent republics, though Kiev slammed it as a “farce” amid Western fears it could lead to civil war.

Thousands of people queued in front of a limited number of polling stations in the restive provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk to cast their ballots, AFP journalists in several towns reported.

“I want to be independent from everyone,” said ex-factory worker Nikolai Cherepin as he voted yes in the town of Mariupol, in Donetsk province. “Yugoslavia broke up and they live well now”.

Insurgent leaders asserted that more than 70 per cent of the electorate in the two regions — home to seven million of Ukraine’s total population of 46 million — had slid voting slips into transparent ballot boxes.

There was no way to verify that assertion however. No independent observers were monitoring the vote, which took place in the absence of any international support — even from Moscow, which had urged it be postponed.

No violent incidents were reported during polling, but tensions remained high amid an ongoing military operation ordered by Kiev against the rebels.

Early Sunday, an isolated clash occurred on the outskirts of the flashpoint town of Slavyansk as militants tried to recapture a TV tower, but polling in the centre was unaffected.

Roman Lyaguin, the head of Donetsk’s self-styled electoral commission, told reporters that voter turnout across the province was 70 per cent four hours before polls were to close at 8:00pm (1700 GMT). Lugansk’s rebels put their province’s turnout at more than 75 per cent.

Lyaguin added that results would not be in until Monday, but already appeared confident that the outcome would be in favour of independence. After the results, he said, “there will likely be a period of negotiation with the authorities in Kiev”.

‘Financed by the Kremlin’ 

The hastily organised poll fell short of Western balloting norms. Notably, curtained booths were not set up in every town taking part, and polling staff lacking electoral rolls registered anyone who turned up to vote.

Kiev called the process a “criminal farce” that had no legal or constitutional validity.

It said the vote was “inspired, organised and financed by the Kremlin”.

Western nations backing the Ukrainian government also dismissed the regional “referendums”.

They were “null and void”, French President Francois Hollande said on a visit to Azerbaijan.

Britain’s Foreign Office issued a statement calling the “illegitimate, so-called referendum” regrettable.

It added that a nationwide presidential election Ukraine is scheduled in two weeks that will give “all Ukrainians... a democratic choice”.

Britain also added its weight to a French and German warning of “consequences” against Russia if that election were to be scuppered.

The United States and the European Union see Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hand in the unrest that has gripped eastern Ukraine since early April. They believe he is seeking a repeat of the scenario that led to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March.

If Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election is stymied, the West has warned of immediate sanctions to cripple broad sectors of Russia’s economy.

Independence ‘will be hard’ 

But questions over the vote’s validity or the geopolitical consequences appeared far from the minds of those lining up to vote in Ukraine’s east on Sunday.

Tatiana, a 35-year-old florist voting in the regional hub of Donetsk, told AFP: “If we’re independent, it will be hard at the beginning but it will be better than being with the fascists.”

The “fascist” epithet she used was the one separatists and Russian state media use to describe Ukraine’s Western-backed government.

Mariupol, a city of 500,000 inhabitants, saw some of the longest voting lines because only four polling stations were operating.

Anti-Kiev sentiment was riding high there after a fierce firefight between troops and rebels that killed up to 21 people on Friday.

Coupled with deadly clashes and an inferno in Odessa a week earlier that killed 42 people, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians who had been wavering decided to vote their anger against the government.

“I know many people who were strongly anti-Russian but after what happened in Ukraine with the slaughter of people, with what happened in Odessa, a lot of them changed their position to pro-Russian,” said Yaroslav, a post-graduate student who gave only his first name as he queued to vote in Donetsk.

Others, though, were strongly opposed to the rebels and the referendums.

“It’s an illegitimate action carried out by an unknown group of people who took over the administration buildings and run around with weapons in their hands,” growled one Donetsk resident, Anatoli Kozlovskiy.

Another, Alice Skubko, added: “I understand why they are going to vote, because there was propaganda, illegal propaganda. People don’t understand what they are doing, they don’t understand the consequences of their action if they vote in this referendum.”

One 20-year-old fireman in Mariupol, Ivan Shelest, told AFP: “If this goes through and they really become the Donetsk Republic it will be a disaster. What sort of people will lead it? It will be chaos — even worse than now.”

The chief of staff for Ukraine’s interim presidency, Sergiy Pashinskiy, told reporters in the Kiev: “This isn’t a referendum, this is a pitiful attempt of the terrorists and murderers to use people of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions to cover up their crimes.”

The US State Department said the referendums were illegal and “an attempt to create further division and disorder”.

A poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Centre in the United States suggested 70 per cent of Ukrainians in the east want to stay in a united country, while only 18 per cent back secession.

LONDON — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warned Sunday of the difficulties of negotiating with an “utterly merciless” group like Boko Haram, but called for active contact with the Nigerian Islamists over their abduction of scores of schoolgirls.

Welby has experience of negotiating with violent groups in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, and with a predecessor to Boko Haram around Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Borno state where the group started out.

In an interview with BBC radio about the fate of more than 200 schoolgirls seized by the Islamist group last month, the archbishop said the girls faced a “colossal” risk.

“They’re in the hands of a very disparate group which is extremely irrational and difficult to deal with, and utterly merciless in the example it’s shown in the past and it must be a huge concern,” he said.

Asked if it is possible to talk to groups like Boko Haram, he said: “They’re in many layers. You have a very, very difficult inner core. And I think negotiation there is extremely complicated, though it needs to be tried.

“Then it goes out and out in different layers of commitment and understanding and involvement.

“There needs to be active negotiation, active contact with all the different layers.”

He said Boko Haram has “always been a mixture of groups united as much by a common enemy as by a common cause”.

Supporters turn to them because of immense poverty, high youth unemployment and the group’s promises of social change delivered through the barrel of a gun, he said.

The kidnap of 276 schoolgirls on April 14 by Boko Haram in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok has sparked a wave of international outrage.

US, British and French experts are working on the ground in Nigeria to help trace the schoolgirls. China has also offered to share “any useful information acquired by its satellites and intelligence services” with Nigeria.

Pope Francis is among the latest high-profile figures to weigh in on the search. He tweeted: “Let us all join in prayer for the immediate release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria #BringBackOurGirls.”

History of conflict 

Welby, a former oil executive who joined the church in his 30s, was careful not to criticise too strongly the response of the Nigerian government security forces.

The leader of the world’s Anglicans noted their loss of control over large parts of northeastern Nigeria, despite a huge commitment of force.

“There needs to be effective police and security action across that area, and that is a huge challenge for the Nigerian government and one that we should not underestimate,” he said.

He added: “We’re talking about a massive area and a longstanding history of ethnic difference, of conflict with other Muslim groups.”

Asked about allegations of human rights abuses by the military, he said he had no firsthand evidence but viewed the reports “with great concern”.

He also said that it was “always a worry” that more Christians in Nigeria might take up arms to defend themselves against the group.

“They have a right to defend their lives, and the lives of their children and their families,” he said.

“But at the heart of Christian teaching is the example of Jesus who said forgive your enemies and forgave his own enemies on the cross.”

Boko Haram militants were blamed for another attack on Friday night that completely destroyed the north-eastern village of Liman Kara.

Villager Usman Alaramma said residents managed to flee before the attack after being warned that a convoy of gunmen in military uniform were approaching by people from nearby villages.

“We immediately realised we were going to be attacked by Boko Haram and the whole town evacuated,” he said.

“They almost burnt the whole town. When we returned yesterday... we counted 301 burnt homes... All shops on the major streets in the town were looted and burnt.”

JUBA — South Sudan’s government and rebels accused each other Sunday of breaching a ceasefire just hours after it came into effect, dealing an early blow to hopes for an end to the five-month civil war.

The rebels accused government soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir of launching ground attacks and artillery barrages against their positions in two oil-rich northern states, including near the key hub of Bentiu.

The government insisted the rebels attacked first and that it killed around 27 fighters in the morning fighting. President Kiir also accused rebel leader Riek Machar of having been opposed to the peace deal signed in Addis Ababa on Friday.

“The violations... shows that Kiir is either insincere or not in control of his forces,” rebel military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said of the president.

Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar met in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Friday and agreed to halt fighting within 24 hours — or by late Saturday evening.

Independent witnesses said fighting broke out by dawn Sunday around Bentiu — the Unity state capital which has changed hands several times in recent weeks — but that was impossible to say which side fired first.

The rebels said government troops also attacked in neighbouring Upper Nile State, and that they reserved “the right to fight in self-defence”.

But South Sudan’s defence minister, Kuol Manyang, told AFP that it was the rebels who attacked first in Bentiu and that the opposition suffered heavy casualties.

“They attacked first thing this morning. They attacked our position and 27 of them were killed. They have a policy of attacking then going to the media,” he said.

Kiir also insisted he wanted peace, telling a crowd in Juba that “we have ordered our forces not to lift a foot from where they are to attack rebels”. He said, however, that Machar only signed the deal “under pressure”.

The two sides had agreed to a ceasefire in January, but that deal quickly fell apart and unleashed a new round of fierce fighting.

International pressure 

Observers have said both side will face challenges in implementing a truce, with the rebels made up of a loose coalition of army defectors, ethnic rebels and, allegedly, mercenaries from Sudan. On the government side, the command structure under Kiir is also seen as weak.

The peace deal signed on Friday came after massive international pressure on both sides to stop a war marked by widespread human rights abuses, a major humanitarian crisis and fears the world’s youngest nation was on the brink of a genocide and Africa’s worst famine since the 1980s.

The war in the world’s youngest nation has claimed thousands — and possibly tens of thousands — of lives, with more than 1.2 million people forced to flee their homes.

The conflict, which started as a personal rivalry between Kiir and Machar, has seen the army and communities divide along ethnic lines, pitting members of Kiir’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay, a former head of the UN genocide court for Rwanda, said she recognised “many of the precursors of genocide” listed in a UN report on atrocities that was released during the week.

These included broadcasts urging rape and “attacks on civilians in hospitals, churches and mosques, even attacks on people sheltering in UN compounds — all on the basis of the victims’ ethnicity”.

Testimonies in a report this week by Amnesty International describe civilians, including children, executed by the side of the road “like sheep” and other victims “grotesquely mutilated” with their lips sliced off.

The war erupted on December 15 with Kiir accusing Machar of attempting a coup. Machar then fled to the bush to launch a rebellion, insisting that the president had attempted to carry out a bloody purge of his rivals.