PLO hit back at Netanyahu

PALESTINE: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu came under fire yesterday after he demanded the UN refugee agency (UNRWA) to be disbanded.

Mr Netanyahu made the call on Sunday, pointing to “a Hamas tunnel found near a UNRWA school.”

Palestinian Liberation Organisation official Hanan Ashrawi condemned the demand as “the epitome of arrogance, particularly since Israel itself is responsible for creating the Palestinian refugee problem.”

Kashmiri militants kill six officers

INDIA: Six police were killed yesterday when Kashmiri separatists ambushed their vehicle.

Senior police officer SP Pani said militants fired at the police vehicle in the southern Achabal area. All five officers on board were killed.

Earlier a man and a teenage boy were shot dead in the village of Arwani. Police said they died in the crossfire during a raid on militants, but locals said police fired at protesters.

Police nab one leader of Maute

PHILIPPINES: The army captured one of seven brothers at the head of the Islamist Maute movement fighting troops in the southern city of Marawi on Thursday.

Mohammad Noaim Maute was arrested at a checkpoint near the coastal city of Cagayan de Oro just after dawn.

The fighting which started last month after the militants laid seige to Marawi has left 202 militants, 58 soldiers and police and 26 civilians dead.

4 dead in suspected al-shabab bombing

KENYA: A roadside bomb killed at least four people and left 11 critically injured after exploding beside a bus near the Somali border.

An unnamed official who spoke on condition of anonymity reported the casualty figures of the attack which took place in northern Mandera country.

Somali al-Shabab militants were believed to have carried out the bombing.