Three US soldiers killed in Iraq

30 June 2011 Last updated at 12:13 GMT The US soldiers' role is to advise and assist Iraq's security forces in fighting insurgents Three US soldiers were killed in action in southern Iraq on Wednesday, the military has said.

The deaths make June the deadliest month for American soldiers in the country in two years.

The US military said they died as the result of a "hostile event" but gave few further details.

However, one report said the three died when a rocket hit a US base near the Iranian border.

An unnamed US military official quoted by the Associated Press said that the type of weapon used bore the hallmarks of a Shia militia with strong links to Iran.

The independent icasualties count of US service member fatalities in Iraq now stands at 4,469.

US fatalities in Iraq have been rare since Washington officially ended combat operations in the country last August, leaving about 45,000 troops.

The role of the US army, which is due to pull out of Iraq on 31 December, is to advise and help the security forces.

But both US and Iraqi governments are now considering extending the deadline of troops leaving the country partly, analysts say, to counter Iran's influence.

There have been several attacks blamed on Shia militias aiming to force the military out.

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Iraq hostages 'unlawfully killed'

21 June 2011 Last updated at 14:00 GMT Jason Creswell, Alec MacLachlan and Jason Swindlehurst (l-r) were captured in Iraq in May 2007 An inquest into the deaths of three British security guards in Iraq has found they were unlawfully killed.

Jason Swindlehurst, 38, of Skelmersdale, Lancs, Jason Creswell, 39, of Glasgow, and Alec MacLachlan, 30, of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, were seized in Baghdad in May 2007.

They were unlawfully killed in 2008, Trowbridge Magistrates' Court heard.

A fourth guard seized with them, Alan McMenemy, 34, of Glasgow, is also believed to be dead.

IT consultant Peter Moore, from Lincoln, whom they were guarding, was also seized but released. He was released from captivity in Iraq in December 2009.

The inquest heard that, on 29 May 2007, the four security guards, armed with automatic rifles and pistols, collected Mr Moore and another IT consultant, Peter Donkin, from their accommodation in Baghdad's green zone.

They were escorted to the ministry of finance where the pair were installing a new IT system.

At about 1140 between 50 and 100 armed men dressed in police and military uniforms entered the building and took the four guards and Mr Moore hostage, the court heard.

The bodies of Mr Swindlehurst and Mr Creswell were flown back to the UK by the RAF in June 2009 after being passed to the UK authorities.

The body of Mr MacLachlan was flown back in September of that year.

A Foreign Office spokesman said it believed Alan McMenemy had been killed and efforts were continuing to try to establish his fate.

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Mexico reporter and family killed

21 June 2011 Last updated at 08:03 GMT Notiver called for a swift investigation to catch those behind the murders A Mexican journalist has been shot dead, along with his wife and 21-year-old son, by gunmen who burst into his home.

Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco, who wrote about politics and crime, was killed in his house in the port city of Veracruz.

Authorities have not yet determined a motive for the murders, which they condemned as a "cowardly" attack.

Rights groups rank Mexico as one of the most dangerous countries in the Americas for journalists.

Armed men broke into Mr Lopez Velasco's house in Veracruz early on Monday morning, killing him, his wife Agustina and his son, Misael.

Mr Lopez Velasco, 55, wrote for the daily newspaper Notiver, where he was also an editor. His columns focussed on crime, drug trafficking and political corruption.

In its coverage, Notiver called for a swift and transparent investigation to find those guilty of the three killings.

Those responsible "should be punished with the full weight of the law", the newspaper said.

In a statement on Monday, Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights said that, since 2000, 70 journalists had been killed and 13 were missing. There have also been 22 attacks on media organisations.

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'Eight killed' in Syria protests

27 May 2011 Last updated at 17:12 GMT There have been reports of protests across Syria, including in the coastal town of Baniyas Syrian security forces have opened fire on anti-government protesters, killing at least eight people, reports say.

The incidents occurred after Friday prayers in a Damascus suburb, a town in the south and near the Lebanese border.

Last Friday after prayers, at least 44 people died after demonstrations calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

The Group of Eight said it was "appalled" at the bloodshed, and urged an end to the use of force.

"We call on the Syrian leadership to immediately stop using force and intimidation against the Syrian people and to respond to their legitimate demands for freedom of expression and universal rights and aspirations," leaders said after a meeting in Deauville, France.

Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began ten weeks ago.

On Friday, at least three people died in Qatana, a suburb of Damascus, where some 1,500 people had gathered to protest.

One person was killed in the town of Zabadani, near the Lebanese border, and a further four died in the southern village of Dael.

Night-time protests

One eyewitness, who did not want to be named, said security forces had entered Dael in the early hours of the morning.

"They spread through the streets and surrounded it. They started shooting gunfire and combed the city using tanks," he told BBC Arabic.

There were also reports of protests in the cities of Baniyas, Homs and Rastan with some 5,000 people gathering in Deir Ezzor.

In Homs, the site of some of the largest demonstrations in recent weeks, security forces did not open fire on protesters but closed all the roads leading to the city centre.

Protesters in the central city could be heard chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great), "Down with the regime" and "Get out, get out," to the president.

Many activists are reported to be choosing to demonstrate under the cover of nightfall when there are fewer security officials on the streets.

According to AP, live rounds were fired on a late-night protest in the town of Deraa overnight on Thursday.

"We refuse to let them sleep," a 28-year-old Dael resident said of the security forces, according to AP.

"We drive them crazy: as soon as they come to the neighbourhood we go quiet and they get lost. And then we start again when they leave," he said.

He said that three of those who died in Dael were cousins from the same family.

Syria has banned foreign journalists, making it difficult to verify eyewitness accounts. Syrian authorities insist they are pursuing "armed terrorist gangs".

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Seven killed in Syria crackdown

15 May 2011 Last updated at 21:10 GMT Hundreds have fled the violence in Talkalakh and attempted to cross the border into Lebanon At least seven people were killed in Talkalakh, western Syria, on Sunday during a crackdown by security forces, activists have said.

They died after "indiscriminate shelling" from the military, the Local Coordination Committees said.

Earlier, a resident told AFP news agency that three protesters were shot dead as they left a mosque in the town.

Hundreds have fled the border town since Friday as authorities try to crush a revolt against the government.

Across Syria, more than 700 people have died in more than two months of protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, activists say.

'Indiscriminate shelling'

The government says it is pursuing "armed terrorist gangs", which it blames for the deaths of soldiers, security service personnel and police officers.

However, reports from Syria are hard to verify independently as foreign journalists are not allowed into the country.

In Talkalakh on Sunday, activists said two women and five men were killed by the military during "indiscriminate shelling of four districts in the town".

At a nearby border crossing with Lebanon, a woman fleeing the violence was killed and five people injured, after gunfire from the Syrian side, Lebanese border officials told AFP.

The incident reportedly took place at al-Boqayah crossing, near the north Lebanon town of Wadi Khaled.

The Syrian government offered to launch a dialogue with the opposition on Sunday, after reportedly freeing several dissidents who had been held in connection with the unrest.

But the dialogue was rejected by the Local Coordination Committees, who said the government must stop shooting protesters first, Reuters news agency reported.

Elsewhere on Sunday, there were clashes at the borders with Syria, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, with Israeli forces opening fire on groups of protesters.

In one incident, thousands of Palestinian supporters from Syria entered the Golan Heights, Israel says.

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Saudi citizen killed in Karachi

16 May 2011 Last updated at 12:10 GMT Officials said the car was attacked about 1km (half a mile) from the consulate Gunmen opened fire on a car belonging to the Saudi consulate in Karachi, killing a Saudi citizen, police said.

Hassan al-Qahtani, a consulate employee, was attacked in the wealthy and normally peaceful Defence district.

The attack comes two days after grenades were thrown at the consulate building, causing no injuries.

No group has said it carried out the attack, but al-Qaeda is known to be violently opposed to the Saudi government.

The group has vowed to avenge the death of its Saudi-born leader Osama Bin Laden, who was killed in a US raid in Pakistan earlier this month. Saudi Arabia stripped the al-Qaeda leader of citizenship years ago.

A Taliban spokesman told the BBC that while they did not carry out this attack, they supported whoever did.

A Saudi official told the AFP news agency that the attack took place about 1km (half a mile) from the consular building.

"At least six bullets were fired in the attack," Deputy Inspector General of Police Iqbal Mahmood told reporters.

"There were four men on two motorbikes and they stopped the vehicle before opening fire," he said.

Saudi ambassador Abdul Aziz al-Ghadeer condemned the attack. "No-one who carries out this kind of attack can be a Muslim," he told the Reuters news agency.

The southern port city of Karachi has seen an increase in violence in recent years. There have been Taliban attacks on the city and ethnically-based political and sectarian killings are common too.

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