Plane Crash: Four Die In Anti-Drug Operation

Three American contractors have died after a small plane on a US counter-drug mission crashed in a jungle region of Colombia.

A Panamanian National Guardsman also died and two other Americans, who were also on board, were seriously injured with multiple bone fractures and burns over 40% of their bodies.

The Dash 8 - which is equipped with surveillance instruments - was tracking a suspected smuggling vessel along with a Colombian vessel over the western Caribbean when it went down near Capurgana, close to the border with Panama.

The twin-engine turboprop plane lost radio contact with the US sponsored task force JIATF-South in Florida that runs drug interdiction in region, said its spokeswoman, Jody Drives.

The plane crashed in northern Colombia

Ms Drives said the American contractors aboard were under a US Air Force contract and flew out of Panama. 

The plane was contracted to provide detection and monitoring of drug trafficking routes in the coastal region of Central America.

The two injured Americans were rescued by Colombian soldiers and taken to a hospital in the capital, Bogota, US Southern Command said in a statement.

Their names were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

General Nicasio de Jesus Martinez, commander of the Colombian army's Brigade IV whose troops travelled to the accident scene, ruled out the possibility that the plane was shot down by rebels active in Colombia.

"There was no aggression, no impact," said Gen Martinez, adding that it was too soon to know if the crash was caused by mechanical failure, human error or the weather.

The region where it crashed is mountainous jungle and rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, operate there along with drug traffickers.

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Kenya Mall Massacre Gunmen Are Named

Four of the gunmen involved in the Kenya mall attack have been named, as police say the number who took part is fewer than first thought.

A Kenyan military spokesman gave their names as Abu Baara al Sudani, Omar Nabhan, Khatab al Kene and a man known only as Umayr.

The men all died in the attack that began on September 21, say officials.

Al Qaeda-linked Somali-based militant group al Shabaab said it carried out the gun and grenade assault in retaliation for Kenya's military operations inside Somalia.

Al Sudani, from Sudan, was the leader of the group inside the mall and had been trained by al Qaeda, said Kenyan military spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir.

Abu Baara al Sudani is said to have been the group's leader

He was described as "an experienced fighter and sharpshooter".

Nabhan, a Kenyan of Arab origin, was born in Mombasa and travelled to Somalia with his uncle at the age of 16, said the spokesman.

The third attacker, al Kene, is said to be Somali from the capital Mogadishu, and is linked to al Shabaab Islamist militants, Maj Chirchir said.

Omar Nabhan was born in Kenya and travelled to Somalia as a teenager

The other names of the fourth attacker, Umayr, as well as his nationality and history were "not yet identified", he said.

Al Kene and Umayr are known members of al Hijra, a Kenyan extremist group affiliated with al Shabaab, according to Matt Bryden, former head of the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia.

At least 67 people were killed in September's assault on Nairobi's Westgate shopping centre.

New video has also emerged showing the four named gunmen during the siege.

Khattab al Kene is being linked with an al Shabaab-affiliated group

It shows the attackers walking through a storeroom in the mall and searching other adjacent rooms. 

It is understood that the CCTV pictures captured the gunmen mid-way through the assault - as many of the victims remained terrified and trapped inside the mall.

Kenya's government initially said 10 to 15 attackers were involved in the assault, but police now believe no more than six people took part.

Umayr's nationality and history have not yet been identified

"From what we have now that is coming out of the investigation, the number of attackers was between four to six," police chief David Kimaiyo told Kenyan television station KTN.

"None of them managed to escape from the building after the attack," he said.

Mr Kimaiyo also confirmed that wanted British "White Widow" Samantha Lewthwaite - reported to have been one of the attackers - was not involved.

He said: "On Samantha we have also established that she was not part of the attackers in the building. There was no woman."

Al Shabaab has promised more attacks inside Kenya unless the country's troops are withdrawn, but Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed to continue the military mission inside Somalia despite the mall attack.

Some of the mall complex collapsed during the three-day siege

Mr Kenyatta ordered a commission of inquiry into the attack. The Red Cross says a further 39 people are still unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, Somali al Shabaab militants have claimed foreign forces raided one of its bases in the early hours of Saturday and attacked a house.

Forces landed on the beach at Barawe -110 miles south of Mogadishu - and a gunfight ensued, a spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations, told the Reuters news agency.

Sky's correspondent Alex Crawford said she had spoken to a "high-level source" in Somalia who said he believed it was carried out by American forces.

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Syria: UN Begins Destroying Chemical Weapons

Weapons experts have begun destroying Syria's chemical stockpiles and production facilities, a UN source has told AP news service.

The source said members of the team from the UN and The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) "have left for a site where they are beginning verification and destruction".

"Today is the first day of destruction, in which heavy vehicles are going to run over, and thus destroy missile warheads, aerial chemical bombs and mobile and static mixing and filling units," the source added.

A UN weapons inspector at the site of the August 21 attack

An OPCW official said earlier this week that all "expedient methods" would be used to destroy the arsenal and production facilities.

Methods used could include explosives, sledgehammers, and pouring in concrete.

The inspectors arrived in Damascus on Tuesday to begin verifying details of the weapons programme handed over by President Bashar al Assad's regime.

The UN published a report into the chemical weapons attack last month

"Phase one, which is disclosure by the Syrians, is ending and we are now moving towards phase two - verification and destruction and disabling," the UN source said.

The team is in Syria under the terms of a UN resolution, agreed after long talks between Russia and the US, for Damascus to hand over its chemical weapons for destruction.

The deal was hammered out in the wake of a sarin attack on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21, which killed hundreds of people.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's Sergey Lavrov agreed the deal

The United States has blamed Mr Assad's forces for the attack - a claim disputed by Russia, and denied by the Syrian government.

Washington threatened military strikes in response to the chemical atrocity, but action was averted following intense negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Under the UN agreement, Syria's chemical weapons are to be destroyed by the middle of next year.

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Monster Truck Kills Eight At Mexico Show

Eight people have died after an out-of-control monster truck ploughed into a crowd of spectators at a Mexico air show.

Carlos Gonzalez, spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office, said the driver appeared to have lost control of the truck after leaping an obstacle during a demonstration at the Extreme Aeroshow on Saturday.

Footage shows the truck bouncing around after the jump and then driving into spectators standing about 10 metres (32ft) away.

At least one child is among the dead and 80 people were hurt, with 46 still hospitalised on Sunday morning, said Mr Gonzalez.

It is thought the number of people killed could rise and local health authorities have also put out an urgent call for blood donors.

Eighty people were hurt with many of them hospitalised

Prosecutors are looking into the possibility of a mechanical failure that left the driver unable to release the accelerator pedal.

Some witnesses also said the driver appeared to have hit his head on the inside of the truck during the jump, causing his helmet to come off.

The air show - at the El Rejon park near Chihuahua - is an annual festival where planes, motorbikes and monster trucks perform stunts.

The remainder of the three-day event was cancelled after the crash.

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Al Shabaab: US Forces Abort Somalia Terror Raid

US special forces have aborted a mission to capture an al Shabaab leader in Somalia after coming under heavy attack.

Their target was Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, who claimed responsibility for last month's Nairobi shopping mall massacre that killed at least 67 people, according to a Somali intelligence official.

A Navy Seal team staged a pre-dawn raid on a house in the southern town of Barawa after swimming ashore before the al Qaeda-linked militants rose for morning prayers.

Reinforcements arrived at the house and Seal Team Six, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, encountered fiercer resistance than expected, a senior US military source told The Associated Press.

After a 15 to 20-minute firefight, the unit leader decided to abort the mission and they swam away, the source said.

Al Shabaab later claimed there was "no senior official" in the house at the time of the raid.

Al Shabaab released photos of US gear it says was left behind in the raid

The group posted pictures on the internet of what it said was US military gear left behind, including bullets, a GPS device and a stun grenade.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Bali for an economic summit, spoke about the failed US operation, and said terrorists "can run but they can't hide".

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that US military personnel had been involved in a counter-terrorism operation against a known al Shabaab terrorist in Somalia, but did not provide details.

He said there were no US casualties in the raid.

Within hours of the attack, the US Army's Delta Force carried out a raid in Libya, and captured an al Qaeda leader wanted for the 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 220 people.

A GPS device apparently used by the Seal team

The aborted Somalia operation came 20 years after the famous "Black Hawk Down" battle in Mogadishu, in which a mission to capture Somali warlords went wrong when militia forces shot down two US helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers.

Residents in Barawa, a seaside town some 150 miles south of Mogadishu, said they woke up to the sound of heavy gunfire.

The SEAL team killed a guard and battled their way inside a two-storey beachside house, where al Shabaab fighters reportedly lived, before being driven back.

A US official said the mission was aimed at capturing a "high-value target" while trying to avoid civilian casualties.

A Barawa resident called Mohamed Bile said militants closed down the town in the hours after the raid, and were carrying out house-to-house searches to find evidence that a spy had tipped off the US.

One of the gunmen in the Kenyan shopping centre attack

"We woke up to find al Shabaab fighters had sealed off the area and their hospital is also inaccessible," he told The Associated Press by phone. "The town is in a tense mood."

Speaking after the US raid, Somalia's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said his government was "collaborating with the world and neighbouring countries" in its battle against al Shabaab.

Last month, addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, he denounced the group's "cowardly attack" in Kenya, but said a military solution to their insurgency was not enough.

He praised the 17,000-strong African peacekeeping force in Somalia for improving security and fighting al Shabaab, who he said were now weakened. But he said Somalia needed economic stability to cut youth unemployment.

"This provided al Shabaab a building ground to recruit and spread their destructive ideology. It is therefore essential to create educational and economic opportunities for youth," he warned.

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Sandy Hook: Voters Accept Grant For New School

Voters in Newtown have accepted a $50m (£31m) grant from the state of Connecticut to build a new Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site of last year's school massacre.

There were 4,504 residents in favour of the grant offer and 558 against.

State lawmakers had set aside the money to help the town build a new school to replace the one where gunman Adam Lanza killed 26 people last December.

The vote was essentially a formality since a task force of Newtown officials decided in favour of the plan in May.

Students have not returned to the school since the shooting, instead attending classes at a former campus renamed Sandy Hook, in neighbouring Monroe.

Connecticut officials said the state was willing to allocate all of the $50m to the new school.

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Iraq: Children Killed In Playground Bombing

Suicide bombers have driven vehicles packed with explosives into a school and police station, while another blew himself up on foot among pilgrims, killing at least 27 people of whom many were children.

One drove a truck into the playground of a primary school in Qabak, near the town of Tel Afar, killing 12 students and their headmaster.

The explosion caused part of the single-storey building to collapse.

Just minutes earlier there was a similar attack on the village's police station in which two officers were killed.

The village, which is home to about 200 people and has a large Shiite population, is situated northwest of Mosul city, where al Qaeda Sunni Islamists and other insurgents have a foothold.

Tel Afar's mayor Abdul Aal al Obeidi said: "We were exposed to two big explosions today in which dozens were killed or injured."

He said a further 90 people were injured in the attacks.

"It's a tragedy," he said. "These innocent children were here to study. What sins did these children commit?"

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of Shiite pilgrims passing through a Sunni neighbourhood in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

At least 12 people were killed in the blast and 23 others injured as they walked to a shrine to commemorate the death of Imam Mohammed al Jawad, the ninth Shiite imam.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the day's violence, which followed several deadly assaults across the country on Saturday in which at least 66 people were killed.

In one, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a cafe in Balad, a largely Shiite town surrounded by Sunni communities located about 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 22 others.

The attacks are the latest in a relentless wave of killing that has made for Iraq's deadliest outburst of violence since 2008.

United Nations figures released this week showed that at least 979 people, most of them civilians, were killed last month alone.

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Al Qaeda: Libya Condemns Leader's 'Kidnapping'

US Special Forces Abort Somalia Terror Raid

Updated: 4:10pm UK, Sunday 06 October 2013

US special forces have aborted a mission to capture an al Shabaab leader in Somalia after coming under heavy attack.

Their target was Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, who claimed responsibility for last month's Nairobi shopping mall massacre that killed at least 67 people, according to a Somali intelligence official.

A Navy Seal team staged a pre-dawn raid on a house in the southern town of Barawa after swimming ashore before the al Qaeda-linked militants rose for morning prayers.

Reinforcements arrived at the house and Seal Team Six, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, encountered fiercer resistance than expected, a senior US military source told The Associated Press.

After a 15 to 20-minute firefight, the unit leader decided to abort the mission and they swam away, the source said.

Al Shabaab later claimed there was "no senior official" in the house at the time of the raid.

The group posted pictures on the internet of what it said was US military gear left behind, including bullets, a GPS device and a stun grenade.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Bali for an economic summit, spoke about the failed US operation, and said terrorists "can run but they can't hide".

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that US military personnel had been involved in a counter-terrorism operation against a known al Shabaab terrorist in Somalia, but did not provide details.

He said there were no US casualties in the raid.

Within hours of the attack, the US Army's Delta Force carried out a raid in Libya, and captured an al Qaeda leader wanted for the 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 220 people.

The aborted Somalia operation came 20 years after the famous "Black Hawk Down" battle in Mogadishu, in which a mission to capture Somali warlords went wrong when militia forces shot down two US helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers.

Residents in Barawa, a seaside town some 150 miles south of Mogadishu, said they woke up to the sound of heavy gunfire.

The SEAL team killed a guard and battled their way inside a two-storey beachside house, where al Shabaab fighters reportedly lived, before being driven back.

A US official said the mission was aimed at capturing a "high-value target" while trying to avoid civilian casualties.

A Barawa resident called Mohamed Bile said militants closed down the town in the hours after the raid, and were carrying out house-to-house searches to find evidence that a spy had tipped off the US.

"We woke up to find al Shabaab fighters had sealed off the area and their hospital is also inaccessible," he told The Associated Press by phone. "The town is in a tense mood."

Speaking after the US raid, Somalia's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said his government was "collaborating with the world and neighbouring countries" in its battle against al Shabaab.

Last month, addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, he denounced the group's "cowardly attack" in Kenya, but said a military solution to their insurgency was not enough.

He praised the 17,000-strong African peacekeeping force in Somalia for improving security and fighting al Shabaab, who he said were now weakened. But he said Somalia needed economic stability to cut youth unemployment.

"This provided al Shabaab a building ground to recruit and spread their destructive ideology. It is therefore essential to create educational and economic opportunities for youth," he warned.

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Yemen: Unicef Worker Seized After Envoy Attack

Gunmen have seized a Sierra Leone citizen working for the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Yemen, according to reports.

The man was seized at gunpoint from a UN vehicle in northern Sanaa, diplomatic sources told AFP, adding that his Yemeni driver was not kidnapped.

The incident came after the bodyguard of the German ambassador to the country was reportedly shot dead while attempting to protect her from kidnappers.

Gunmen in a vehicle opened fire at Ambassador Carola Muller-Holtkemper and her bodyguard as they were leaving a supermarket in the capital Sana'a's southern Hada district, where foreign embassies are located.

It is understood Ms Muller-Holtkemper was not injured in the incident.

A spokeswoman for the foreign ministry in Berlin said only that the government could not yet confirm the incident, but was "making intensive efforts to clear up the facts".

Medics in Sanaa said the corpse of the bodyguard was taken to the Saudi-German hospital in the capital.

A security source told Reuters the attack bore the hallmarks of the al Qaeda terror network's Yemeni branch, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The group has attempted to attack several Western targets, including airliners.

Germany was among several Western countries which closed their embassies in August following US warnings of a major terror attack in the Middle East.

No attack took place and the embassies were later reopened.

More follows...

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Egypt: 15 Dead After Pro-Morsi Protests

At least 15 people have been killed in Egypt in clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The figure, from a health ministry official, comes as Morsi supporters protest in several cities during celebrations to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Eighty people are also reported to have been wounded.

Journalist Bel Trew, in Cairo, told Sky News the military had been expecting the unrest and described seeing "chaotic side street clashes with lots of gunfire and tear gas".

She added: "There's quite a lot of anger here toward the Morsi supporters by local residents and those who wanted to go to the streets to celebrate their military on this day that Egyptians regard as one of the most proud moments of their history.

"What we're looking at is rival protests on the streets together."

A heavy security presence with tanks and armoured vehicles gathered in Cairo to try to deter the protesters, said Trew.

Supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement had tried to get close to Tahrir Square, where in the past thousands have set up camp in protest against the army's coup.

But security forces guarded entrances to the square, frisking people arriving for the celebrations.

Mr Morsi, who became Egypt's first democratically elected president, was removed from office in July.

Since then, the military-backed government of General Abdel Fatah al Sisi has cracked down on members of the Brotherhood.

Hundreds of Mr Morsi's supporters were allegedly killed in August as protest camps were cleared, while the government said around 100 members of the security forces also died.

More follows...

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