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The British government has relented under public pressure to give Afghans asylum who have assisted British forces during the ISAF campaign, and who’s lives may subsequently be under threat.  Approximately half of those who have assisted with the British mission, which equals around 600 people plus their families, are to be given the opportunity to re-settle in Britain as the mission concludes.  Applications for re-location will be considered on a case by case basis and individuals must have been employed with the British military for a minimum of 12 months to be eligible.  Moves such as this however, raise awkward questions of exactly what has been achieved during the 13 years of the ISAF campaign if at it’s conclusion, large swathes of the local population remain in fear of their lives.

Incident Comments

AGE continue to build up a power base in the Kajaki/Sangin area of Helmand Province, with reports of coordinated attacks against multiple ANSF CPs in Sangin over a 48hr period that left at least 6 x ANP KIA and 7 x WIA.  The provincial governor’s spokesman, Omar Zwak, told media reporters that up to 1,000 militants were involved in the assault, although ISAF have been keen to play down the event as being drive-by shootings and put the figure at 10 groups of 4-5 fighters each.  This latest incident follows on from previous reporting where intelligence indicated that AGE are massing in the area of Kajaki and plan to launch a major offensive against the Kajaki dam.  The Taliban denied that they plan to attack the dam, but a series of assaults against the region’s key infrastructure, such as power lines, would indicate otherwise.  The increase in coordinated activity has followed immediately on from the international community handing over reconstruction control for the Kajaki project to the Afghan government last month.  Similar reports have indicated a high number of foreign nationals fighting alongside AGE based in the area, (primarily Arab and Chechen), indicating a greater involvement of al-Qaeda linked groups in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

Incident Comments

AGE continue to build up a power base in the Kajaki/Sangin area of Helmand Province, with reports of coordinated attacks against multiple ANSF CPs in Sangin over a 48hr period that left at least 6 x ANP KIA and 7 x WIA.  The provincial governor’s spokesman, Omar Zwak, told media reporters that up to 1,000 militants were involved in the assault, although ISAF have been keen to play down the event as being drive-by shootings and put the figure at 10 groups of 4-5 fighters each.  This latest incident follows on from previous reporting where intelligence indicated that AGE are massing in the area of Kajaki and plan to launch a major offensive against the Kajaki dam.  The Taliban denied that they plan to attack the dam, but a series of assaults against the region’s key infrastructure, such as power lines, would indicate otherwise.  The increase in coordinated activity has followed immediately on from the international community handing over reconstruction control for the Kajaki project to the Afghan government last month.  Similar reports have indicated a high number of foreign nationals fighting alongside AGE based in the area, (primarily Arab and Chechen), indicating a greater involvement of al-Qaeda linked groups in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

Incident Comments

The Southern Mobility Movement (SMM) commenced with their anti-Unification day rallies Monday. The parade square in Khormakser was the subject of a huge gathering by pro SMM supporters with the gathering gaining momentum into the evening. Gatherings on a smaller scale also took place in the districts of Ma’alla and Al Mansoura.

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An apparent US drone strike killed two suspected Al-Qaeda militants in central Yemen on Monday, a local official said. The attack took place in the Khobza area of the central province of Baida, the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that an American drone launched the attack. Yemen's defense ministry said on its news website 26sep.net that the raid targeted "two members of Al-Qaeda as they as they left a farm on a motorbike," in Khobza. It named the two killed as Abd Rabbo Mokbal Mohammed Jarallah al-Zouba and Abbad Mossad Abbad Khobzi. On Saturday, four suspected Al-Qaeda militants died in a similar attack in southern Yemen.

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Saudi Arabia has executed five Yemenis convicted of murder and committing a series of robberies. Their bodies were left hanging in public following the execution in the south-western town of Jizan, near the Yemen border. Murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's Sharia law. At least 46 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia this year. Executed bodies are left hanging when crimes are seen as particularly grave.

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Libya's oil terminals at Tobruk and Zueitina re-opened over the weekend after protests forced both ports to shut, Libya's deputy oil minister Omar Shakmak said. However, fresh trouble arose at Libya's gas-exporting Mellitah complex, he added, where guards were again attacked overnight after clashes in March forced a halt in flows. This time operations had not been affected, Shakmak said, in the brief assault in which the attackers seized vehicles and weapons from the guards. Mellitah is a joint venture between Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Italian oil and gas giant Eni.

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Israeli and Syrian forces have exchanged fire across the ceasefire line in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel returned fire after one of its military vehicles was hit by shots from Syria, Israel's defense forces say. Media reports say no-one was hurt. Syria says it destroyed an Israeli vehicle which it says crossed the ceasefire line into territory its forces control. Syria and Israel have traded fire a number of times in recent weeks. The Israeli military said its troops "returned precise fire" after the vehicle was hit. A statement from the Syrian army said it had "destroyed an Israeli vehicle with everything that it had in it". The statement said the vehicle was shot after it crossed the ceasefire line and headed towards the rebel-held village of Bir Ajam.

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At least 13 people have been killed in new bomb attacks in Iraq, a day after a wave of bombings across the country left at least 70 people dead. Two car bombs hit the northern town of Tuz Khurmato, a device went off in a cattle market in Kirkuk, and a suicide bomber struck in the town of Tarmiyah. The spate of bombings has marked the period as one of the most violent in Iraq in recent months. The attacks have been linked to growing political and sectarian tension. In the latest attacks, three people were killed when the bombs went off simultaneously in Tuz Khurmato, a town populated mainly by ethnic Turkmen. Tuz Khurmato is claimed by the government in Baghdad and ethnic Kurds, who inhabit a semi-autonomous region in the north. Elsewhere, gunmen and a suicide bomber killed three people in an attack on an army patrol in a Sunni area of Tarmiyah, 50km (30 miles) north of Baghdad. Further north, six people died when three bombs exploded in the cattle market in al-Aruba district in Kirkuk. The string of attacks also left dozens of people injured.

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Egypt has increased its security presence in the Sinai Peninsula, four days after seven members of its forces were abducted there. Armored vehicles were seen crossing into northern Sinai on Monday in response to the kidnapping. A video emerged at the weekend apparently showing the men pleading for their release. The Egyptian president held emergency meetings with security chiefs on Monday morning. The high level meetings and the troop deployment come amid speculation that force could be used to rescue the seven servicemen. President Mohammed Morsi has ruled out negotiating with the abductors, saying there was "no room for dialogue with the criminals".

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The pound has fallen after lower fuel prices led to a lower-than-expected inflation rate of 2.4% for April. This was down from 2.8% in March, according to the office for National Statistics, and the first drop since September 2012. Inflation as measured by the retail prices index (RPI) fell to 2.9% in April, from 3.3% the month before. The pound fell as traders saw the data as giving the Bank of England more leeway to stimulate economic growth.

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Police have arrested four people after a second night of escalating riots in a Stockholm suburb, during which some 200 youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze in anger over the police shooting death of an elderly man. Local police spokesman Jorgen Karlsson says seven youths were detained early Tuesday, but three were released after questioning. The four in custody are suspected of rioting and violence toward public servants. Karlsson says seven police were injured in the riots in the low-income, mainly immigrant neighborhood of Husby. The youths set around 10 cars and several containers on fire and smashed dozens of windows. There were also fires in another Stockholm suburb, Fittja. A prosecutor is investigating the May 13 police shooting death of the 69-year-old man in Husby.

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The right-hand man of Russia's most wanted insurgent was killed by security forces on Tuesday, officials said, as Moscow tries to contain militancy in its Caucasus region before it hosts the Winter Olympics near there next February. Dzhamaleil Mutaliyev, a senior figure in a group fighting to establish an Islamist state, was killed along with another militant in a shootout in the town of Nazran in Ingushetia, a spokesman for local investigators said. Mutaliyev masterminded a bombing that killed 18 people at a market in the nearby city of Vladikavkaz in 2010 and was a close aide of Doku Umarov, leader of the outlawed Caucasus Emirate, Russia's Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK) said.

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A man has shot himself dead inside Notre Dame Cathedral in the French capital. An initial investigation found that the man had killed himself in front of the main altar shortly after 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT). He was a 78-year-old writer and essayist, according to Le Parisien. The cathedral, which is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in Paris, was reportedly evacuated calmly following the incident.

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A Chinese fishing crew seized by North Koreans two weeks ago has been freed along with their boat, reports say. The 16-man crew was taken captive by unidentified North Koreans in the Yellow Sea on May 5. China said on Monday it had been negotiating with Pyongyang for their release since May 10. All were "safe on their way back", China's Xinhua news agency reported. Boat owner Yu Xuejun told Reuters news agency no ransom had been paid. He had earlier said that the North Koreans were demanding a 600,000 yuan ($100,000; £66,000) ransom, and that he had received eight calls demanding payment.

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in India to press for more military aid, ahead of the withdrawal of NATO-led forces from Afghanistan in 2014. He is set to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as President Pranab Mukherjee. India already trains some Afghan military officers, but there has been little assistance in terms of hardware. Last November, Delhi signed mining and development deals and pledged $2bn (£1.3bn) in assistance to Kabul. Correspondents say the two countries are strengthening their ties as the US and its NATO allies prepare to leave Afghanistan next year.

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A blast at an explosives plant in China has left 13 people dead and another 20 missing, state media said Tuesday, compounding the country's poor industrial safety record. Another 19 people were injured in the explosion on Monday at a three-story workshop owned by Poly Explosives (Jinan), a state-owned company in the eastern province of Shandong, the Xinhua news agency reported. Rescuers were still searching for the missing on Tuesday, but clean-up efforts had also started, the report said, citing the rescue headquarters. The company is a civilian explosives manufacturer and the plant is new, with an annual output of at least 30,000 tons of dynamite, it added.

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At least seven policemen have been killed by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan, officials say. The policemen were traveling in the Chashti Shareef district of Herat province when their vehicle was hit. The officers were guarding the Salama Dam, which correspondents say is of great strategic importance. Policemen guarding the dam have been targeted by militants before. There has been a recent escalation of attacks by Taliban in Afghanistan. Tuesday's explosion was so strong that the vehicle was totally destroyed, district police chief, Sher Agha said.

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The American military has turned off its wi-fi service inside the prison at Guantanamo Bay following threats by the hacker collective Anonymous. Access to social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, from military computers has also been blocked because of the threat. Anonymous had threatened to "disrupt activities" at the base, in solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike. It launched "Operation Guantanamo" on Saturday, May 18. At the end of April, 100 of the 166 Guantanamo Bay inmates were staging a hunger strike over conditions in the jail and their ongoing imprisonment. The Anonymous three-day campaign began on the 100th day of the strike.

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At least 91 people, including 20 children, are feared to have been killed by a huge tornado which tore through Oklahoma City suburbs, officials in the US state say. Worst hit was Moore, south of the city, where neighborhoods were flattened and schools destroyed by winds of up to 200mph (320km/h). About 120 people are being treated in hospitals. President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in Oklahoma. He also ordered federal authorities to join in the search efforts which have continued throughout the night. Monday's twister hit Moore, a suburb of about 55,000 people, at 14:56 (19:56 GMT) and remained on the ground for about 45 minutes. The official death toll is 51, but local authorities say the figure is expected to rise as another 40 bodies have been found. At least 20 children were among the dead, the Oklahoma chief medical examiner's office said.