Kenya-Ethiopia cross border attacks kill five, injure 17 Kenyans

At least five Kenyans have been killed and 17 others wounded when heavily-armed Ethiopian tribesmen attacked a town in northern Kenya along the border with Ethiopia, Press TV reports.

On Monday, in a cattle rustling attempt, the armed assailants, who belonged to the Ethiopian Gare tribe, attacked the town of Banisa and opened fire on people, causing the fatalities.

Speaking to Press TV, Dahir Mohamed, a local resident, said the victims were “three men, a woman, and a child,” who “were mostly cattle herders.”
According to Kenyan police officers, at least 500 cattle were stolen by the assailants.
The attack also rendered several Kenyan families homeless.

“The repots, we have received, indicate that those killed were shot and others were severely slashed. We are still monitoring the situation,” North Eastern Provincial Commissioner, Ernst Munyi told a Press TV correspondent.
Kenyan MP Abdikadir Mahammed told reporters that the incident was intended to create clannish conflicts ahead of the country’s 2013 general elections.
Kenyan security forces have been deployed to the site of the attack to defuse the tension in the volatile northern region.
The northern region has invariably been scene of disputes and subsequent clashes, which have so far claimed many lives.
In 2011, over 40 people, mainly from the Turkanas tribe in Kenya, were killed in cross border cattle rustling attacks.

Sponsors of terrorism behind UN resolution on Syria: Iran envoy

Delegates vote during the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Syria on August 3, 2012 at the UN headquarters in New York.

Iran's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nation Eshaq Al-e-Habib says some of the states supporting the latest UN resolution against Syria are the sponsors of terrorism in the country.

At the Friday meeting of the UN General Assembly on Syria, Al-e-Habib denounced UN’s Friday resolution against Syria, saying the motion hampers international efforts to settle the Syrian crisis and runs counter to the UN Charter and international laws.
“It is evident who is behind arming and sponsoring the armed and terrorist groups in Syria. Unfortunately, some of these countries are the proposers of this resolution against Syria,” The Iranian envoy pointed out.

The remarks came after the General Assembly passed the non-binding resolution on Friday condemning what it called the Syrian government’s use of “heavy weapons” and its failure to withdraw troops from towns.
The resolution, which was drawn up by Saudi Arabia, also demanded that all parties in Syria stop all forms of violence but it did not call for President Bashar al-Assad to quit.
 

Al-e-Habib argued that the latest UN resolution neither prevents foreign interventions in Syria, nor condemns the terrorist activities led by the extremists in the country.
The Iranian envoy expressed regret over the Thursday resignation of Kofi Annan as the special UN-Arab League envoy to Syria and slammed the Western members of the UNSC for hampering Annan’s diplomatic efforts.
Al-e-Habib expressed optimism that Annan’s successor will pursue diplomatic efforts within the framework of Annan’s plan in an attempt to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.

The Iranian envoy called on the Syrian political factions to enter dialogue with the government to achieve a peaceful solution and expressed Iran's preparedness to assume a mediatory role among the Syrian groups.