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ByJimHeintz The Associated Press MOSCOW About 300 US Army paratroop- ers on Friday arrived in Ukraine for training exer- cises with national guard units, a move criticized by Moscow and eastern Ukraine's Russia-backed separatist rebels. The troops, from the It- aly-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, are to spend sev- eral weeks training a to- tal of about 900 Ukrai- nian national guardsmen. Russian Foreign Minis- try spokesman Alexander Lukashevich denounced the guardsmen as "ul- tranationalists ... who stained themselves with the blood of women, chil- dren and the elderly dur- ing their punitive opera- tions." Although Interior Min- ister Arsen Avakov had said the guardsman units could include the Azov Battalion, a far-right for- mation notorious for us- ing an insignia used by many military units in Nazi Germany, U.S. Em- bassy spokesman James Hallock said Azov fight- ers would not be among those trained. Though fighting has diminished substantially since a February cease- fire deal was signed in Minsk, Belarus, clashes continue and each side accuses the other of want- ing to resume the conflict. On Friday, the UN Hu- man Rights Commission- er's office said at least 6,116 people have been killed since the fighting broke out a year ago. National guard units, many of which began as volunteer groupings, have been an important part of Ukrainian forces' fighting against the separatists. Two national guard units, working on weeklong ro- tations, are holding the town of Shyrokyne, cur- rently the most fraught location in the east. Shy- rokyne is just east of the major port city of Mariu- pol, which Ukraine fears rebels aim to seize to es- tablish a land corridor be- tween the Russian main- land and the Russia-an- nexed Crimean peninsula. EUROPE UStroops arrive in Ukraine for training The Associated Press COLOGNE,GERMANY The Germanwings crash last month was an "unbeliev- able horror" for the fam- ilies of those killed, com- pounded by the apparent senselessness of the co-pi- lot'S actions in bringing down the plane, German President Joachim Gauck told hundreds of victims' relatives and dignitar- ies at a memorial service Friday. Gauck said people across Germany, which lost 72 citizens, are still coming to grips with the March 24 crash. The sec- ond-biggest group of vic- tims was from Spain, which lost 51 citizens. Prosecutors have said co-pilot Andreas Lub- itz deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps on the way from Bar- celona to Duesseldorf, killing all 150 aboard. They are still trying to determine why. "We really don't know what was going through his head during those deciding seconds, in the deciding minutes," Gauck told the con- gregation that also in- cluded Chancellor An- gela Merkel, ministers from Spain and France, and the heads of Ger- manwings and its par- ent airline, Lufthansa. "But we do know that his relatives also lost on March 24 a per- son whom they loved, who leaves a void in their lives — in a way for which they can find as little sense as all of the others' relatives," Gauck said. "Maybe that is what appalled us so much, the senselessness of what took place." The steps to the altar were covered with 150 lighted candles, one for each person who died, in- cluding Lubitz. "It's not for us to judge," Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the arch- bishop of Cologne, told Bild newspaper about the decision to include a can- dle for the co-pilot. A choir sang hymns, and religious leaders said multidenominational prayers. GERMANWINGS German memorial for crash victims By Colleen Barry The Associated Press MILAN The unabated flow of migrants fleeing insta- bility in Libya brought a new horror on Friday: The discovery of 20 migrants adrift at sea who had suf- fered grave burn injuries in a cooking gas explosion before departing Libya, and then were forced onto a smuggler's boat without treatment. Italian ships have picked up 10,000 people, many of them refugees of war and persecution, over the past week, an unprecedented number in such a short pe- riod. The influx is putting pressure on Italy's shelter system and raising calls for a better response to the emergency. Friday's rescue comes after the feared drown- ing of more than 400 mi- grants in two shipwrecks in the last week, bringing to more than 900 the num- ber of people who have died or gone missing so far this year making the perilous crossing — 10 times higher than over the same period last year. In Washington, President Barack Obama pledged more intense cooperation with Italy on threats com- ing from the instability in Libya, which has contrib- uted to the influx of mi- grants across the Mediter- ranean. Libya, the closest point in north Africa to It- aly, is a transit point for mi- grants hoping to reach Eu- rope by sea. Speaking after a meet- ing with the visiting Ital- ian prime minister, Obama promised to "work together even more intensively to encourage cooperation on threats coming from Libya, including the growing ISIL presence there, as well as additional coordination with other partners in how we can stabilize what has become a very deadly and difficult situation." Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said he expected to see results of the commit- ment in the coming weeks. "It has to do with the jus- tice and the dignity of man- kind," he said. Among the burn vic- tims rescued Friday af- ter two days adrift on a half-deflated dinghy was a 6-month-old baby. They were among 70 migrants who were rescued and transported to the Ital- ian island of Lampedusa. One of the burn victims, a woman, died en route. The U.N. refugee agency said the cooking gas explo- sion occurred at a holding center run by smugglers who demand thousands of euros (dollars) for a place on unseaworthy boats making the journey across the Med- iterranean. MIGRANT CRISIS 20 burn victims rescued at sea near Italy FRANCESCOMALAVOLTA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Migrants are waiting to board on a cruise ship as they leave the Island of Lampedusa, Southern Italy, to be transferred in Porto Empedocle, Sicily, on Friday. By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Vivian Salama The Associated Press BAGHDAD He was the last member of Saddam Husse- in's inner circle still on the run, depicted with his dis- tinctive red moustache as the "king of clubs" on the U.S. military's deck of cards of most-wanted Iraqi re- gime fugitives. Now, officials say they believe government forces killed Izzat Ibrahim al- Douri near Tikrit, where the former deputy to Sad- dam was working along- side Islamic State militants. Reportsofal-Douri'sdeath came Friday as Iraqi forces tried to push back Islamic State group fighters in Sala- huddin province, where Ti- krit is located. Government troops took back several towns near Iraq's largest oil refineryatBeiji,officialssaid. Farther north, a car bomb exploded next to the U.S. Consulate in the city of Irbil, a rare attack in the capital of the Kurdish autonomous zone that killed three peo- ple and wounded five, police said. U.S. officials said no Americans were hurt and no casualties among con- sulate personnel or guards. An Associated Press re- porter at the scene said the blast went off outside a cafe next to the building in the Ankawa neighborhood, set- ting several nearby cars on fire. Shortly afterward, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks militant web- sites. The report of al-Douri's death was not the first time Iraqi officials have claimed to have killed or captured the 72-year-old former aide to Saddam. According to Raed al-Ja- bouri, the governor of Sala- huddin province, al-Douri was killed by Iraqi troops and Shiite militiamen in an operation in the Talal Ham- reen mountains east of Ti- krit, Saddam's hometown, which was retaken from the Islamic State group earlier this month. Troops opened fire at a convoy carrying al-Douri and nine bodyguards, kill- ing all of them, Gen. Haider al-Basri, a senior com- mander, told state TV. The government issues several photos showing a body purported to be al- Douri. The body had a bright red beard, perhaps dyed, and a ginger-colored moustache. Al-Douri was a fair-skinned redhead with a ginger moustache, making him distinctive among the members of Saddam's in- ner circle. Karim al-Nouri, a spokes- man for the Popular Mobili- zation Forces, said the body was brought Friday night to Baghdad for DNA tests, which should be completed within 48 hours. Col. Pat Ryder, spokes- man for U.S. Central Com- mand, said the U.S. had no information to corroborate the reported death of al- Douri. In 2013, the Iraqi gov- ernment said it arrested al- Douri, circulating a photo of a bearded man who resem- bled him. It later said it was a case of mistaken identity. Al-Douri was officially the No. 2 man in Iraq's rul- ing hierarchy. He served as vice chairman of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council, was one of Sad- dam's few longtime con- fidants, and his daughter was married briefly to Sad- dam's son, Odai, who was killed with his brother, Qu- sai, by U.S. troops in Mosul after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. 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