IS CLAIMS DEADLY MARSEILLE KNIFE ATTACK

MARSEILLE: A knifeman killed two women at the main train station in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille on Sunday (Monday in Manila) in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, before being shot dead by soldiers on patrol. One of the victims had her throat slit by the assailant, a man with a criminal record believed to be in his 30s who witnesses said shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) at the start of his rampage. Troops serving in a special 7,000-strong force known as Sentinelle set up to guard vulnerable areas in terror-hit France responded to the stabbings and shot dead the attacker, whose identity remains unknown. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said about a dozen witnesses were being questioned. “This act could be terrorist in nature but at this time we cannot confirm that,” he added. Later, IS’s

SYRIA’S DEADLIEST MONTH OF 2017 CLAIMS 3,000 LIVES

BEIRUT: Syria’s war killed at least 3,000 people including 955 civilians in September, the deadliest month of the conflict this year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said on Sunday (Monday in Manila). Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and millions displaced since the war erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti- government protests. It has since spiralled into a complex conflict involving world powers, with Russia-backed regime forces and a USsupported alliance separately battling the Islamic State jihadist group in the country. The 955 civilians killed in September included 207 children, said the Britain-based Observatory. “More than 70 percent of the civilians were killed in regime and Russian air strikes, or in air raids of the international coalition” fighting IS, the monitor’s head Rami Abdel Rahman said.