Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/455524
ByBalintSzlanko The Associated Press DONETSK, UKRAINE Artil- lery fire in the rebel strong- hold of Donetsk killed at least 12 civilians on Friday afternoon, the city hall in the rebel stronghold said, as fighting intensifies be- tween pro-Russia sepa- ratists and government troops. Five people were killed as they were waiting for humanitarian aid outside a community center and two people were killed in the same neighborhood when a mortar shell landed near a bus stop. By the time an Associ- ated Press journalist ar- rived at the community center, the bodies were taken away. Nearby trees were cut down by what could have been a projec- tile. Five other people died Friday in sporadic artillery fire in the west of Donetsk. Full-blown fighting be- tween the rebels and gov- ernment forces erupted anew earlier this month following a period of rela- tive tranquility. Hostilities now seem to be focused around Debaltseve, a rail- way hub which could prove a crucial link between the rebels in Donetsk and in Luhansk to northeast to it. While clashes in east Ukraine rage, hopes are still being invested in re- viving a peace process that has been undermined with every new day of fighting. Two rebel representa- tives went to Minsk for peace talks on Friday, but went back to eastern Ukraine a few hours later after the Ukrainian repre- sentative failed to turn up. Donetsk rebel represen- tative Denis Pushilin in- sisted that the rebels' on- going offence is a way to protect the civilians from Ukrainian artillery fire and said they will go ahead with it unless Kiev stops shelling the rebel-held ar- eas. "The situation has wors- ened and it is forcing us to go on offensive," Pushilin told reporters in Minsk. "New victims are inevita- ble, I'm afraid." Pushilin said they would be ready to resume the cease-fire that was bro- kered in September and withdraw heavy weaponry, but as long as the demarca- tion line takes into account the rebels' recent advance. UKRAINE By Haruna Umar and Lekan Oyekanmi The Associated Press MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA A Chadian warplane and ground troops drove Boko Haram fighters from a Ni- gerian border town, leaving it strewn with the bodies of the Islamic extremists, wit- nesses said Friday. The Af- rican Union moved to send ground forces to Nigeria and the U.S. said it would assist. Thursday's fighting marked the first such action by foreign troops on Nige- rian soil to fight the Islamic extremists. The African Union chair- woman, at an AU summit in Ethiopia, called for de- ployment of 7,500 African troops to fight the spread- ing Islamic uprising by Ni- geria's home-grown ex- tremists. A senior U.S. offi- cial told reporters that the United States government will take a role in the fight against Boko Haram. "We are prepared to pro- vide technical support, training and equipment to fight the Boko Haram group. The group's activity in the region has clearly af- fected our attention in Af- rica away from develop- ment," said Linda Thomas- Greenfield, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Af- rica. Abari Modu said he wit- nessed the Chadian offen- sive on Malumfatori village in Nigeria's Borno state. "We saw the fighter jet when it started shelling and bombarding the insurgents who were lodging mostly inside the local government secretariat and the district head's palace," he told The Associated Press. He said the bodies of many Boko Haram fighters were still in the town Fri- day morning. Modu spoke by telephone after crossing the border from a Chadian village where he had sought refuge after Boko Haram seized Malumfatori at the end of October. He said the Chadian jet had pursued fleeing fighters to the border, and that the bombardment was coordi- nated with Chadian ground troops, offering the fighters no escape. A Nigerian military offi- cer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed the account. There was no im- mediate official word from Nigerian authorities about the Chadian offensive. Boko Haram's five-year Islamic uprising has killed about 10,000 people in the last year and displaced 1 million people. AU Chairwoman Nkosa- zana Dlamini Zuma called for the deployment of 7,500 troops to combat Boko Ha- ram. She made the recom- mendation to the AU Peace and Security Council meet- ing of African leaders on Wednesday night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The vote on the planned deployment will be made during the two-day AU Heads of State Summit, which began Friday. Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Benin would be part of the joint Force. The troops would be de- ployed under the Multina- tion Joint Taskforce and would have a 12-month period of initial opera- tion time. It would also be tasked with searching for, and freeing, all abductees, including the young girls abducted in Chibok in April 2014. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a guest at the AU summit, said: "The Boko Haram insurgency poses a clear danger to national, regional and international security. This group contin- ues to kill Christians and Muslims, kidnap women and children, and destroy churches and mosques." "We will never forget the girls kidnapped from Chibok last April, and I will never stop calling for their immediate and uncondi- tional release," he said. Nigeria's President Good- luck Jonathan said Nige- rian troops on Thursday recaptured several villages and the town of Michika in northeast Adamawa state. There was no way to imme- diately confirm the claim of a rare victory for the demor- alized and ill-equipped Ni- gerian soldiers. Jonathan, who is running in Feb. 14 elections, told a campaign rally Thursday in Yola,theAdamawastatecap- ital, that "Michika local gov- ernment was recaptured by our gallant forces today." NIGERIA ChadairforcebombsBoko Haram out of border town By Elaine Kurtenbach and Karin Laub The Associated Press TOKYO The fates of a Jap- anese journalist and Jorda- nian military pilot were un- known Friday, a day after the latest purported dead- line for a possible prisoner swap passed with no fur- ther word from the Islamic State group holding them captive. "Government institu- tions are working around the clock on the case of pi- lot Muath al-Kaseasbeh," Jordanian military spokes- man Mamdouh al-Ameri said in a statement. "We will inform you of any de- velopments in due time." He urged Jordanians not to listen to rumors. Jordan has said it will only release an al-Qaida prisoner from death row if it gets proof the pilot is alive and so far has received no such evidence from the hos- tage-takers. Officials in Tokyo also said they had no progress to report. "There is nothing I can tell you," said government spokesman Yoshihide Suga, reiterating Japan's "strong trust" in the Jordanians to help save the Japanese hos- tage, freelance journalist Kenji Goto. Suga said the govern- ment was in close contact with Goto's wife, Rinko Jogo, who released a state- ment late Thursday plead- ing for her husband's life. An audio message pur- portedly posted online by jihadis said the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, would be killed if Sajida al- Rishawi, the al-Qaida pris- oner, was not delivered to the Turkish border by sun- set on Thursday, Iraq time. It was not clear from the re- cording what would happen to Goto if the Iraqi woman was not turned over by the deadline. The authenticity of the recording could not be ver- ified independently by the AP. But the possibility of a swap was raised Wednes- day when Jordan said it was willing to trade al-Rishawi for the pilot. The pilot's father, Safi al- Kaseasbeh, said Friday that he had no word on the fate of his son and had not re- ceived any update from Jor- danian authorities. "I have nothing," he said, speaking after Muslim noon prayers in the Jorda- nian capital of Amman. With no news on the fate of either the pilot or Goto, their families' agonizing wait dragged on. Jordan faces a tough choice over whether to re- lease al-Rishawi, 44, who faces death by hanging for her role in a suicide bomb- ing, one of three simultane- ous attacks on Amman ho- tels in November 2005 that killed 60 people. She sur- vived because her belt of explosives didn't detonate. She initially confessed, but later recanted, saying she was an unwilling partici- pant. She is from the Iraqi city of Ramadi and has close family ties to the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida, a pre- cursor of the Islamic State group. Three of her brothers were al-Qaida operatives killed in fighting in Iraq. Releasing al-Rishawi, im- plicated in the worst terror attack in Jordan, would be at odds with the govern- ment's tough stance on Is- lamic extremism. However, King Abdullah II faces public pressure to bring home the pilot, who was captured in December after his Jordanian F-16 crashed near the Islamic State group's de facto capi- tal of Raqqa in Syria. He is the first foreign military pi- lot to be captured since the U.S. and its allies began airstrikes against the Is- lamic State more than four months ago. Jordan's participation in the U.S.-led airstrikes is unpopular in the king- dom, and the pilot is seen by some as a victim of a war they feel the country shouldn't be involved in. The hostage drama be- gan last week after the Is- lamic State group released a video showing Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa kneeling in orange jumpsuits beside a masked man who threat- ened to kill them in 72 hours unless Japan paid a $200 million ransom. That demand later apparently shifted to one for the re- lease of al-Rishawi. The militants have re- portedly killed Yukawa, 42, although that has not been confirmed. JAPAN-IS Jo rd an a wa it s pr oo f ho st ag e is still alive a er swap deadline POO—MYKOLALAZARENKO Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko inspects a newly designed armored personnel carrier for the Ukrainian Army at a military plant in Lviv, Ukraine, on Friday. Artillery fire kills at least 12 civilians in Donetsk EUGENE HOSHIKO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A woman along with other protesters hold a placard and chant "Free Goto" during a rally outside the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on Tuesday. JOSSY OLA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Nigerian soldiers, le , pass on the back of a armed truck as they patrol at a local market on Tuesday a er recent violence in surrounding areas at Maiduguri, Nigeria. FollowusonTwitterandFacebook. Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 737-5047 to find out how. 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