25 dead in Boko Haram raid in Niger

Militants clash with army UN force turns over ‘Lebanese staffer’

NIAMEY, Nov 12, (RTRS): Around 25 people were killed on Wednesday in a Boko Haram attack on a village in southern Niger and subsequent clashes between the Islamist militants and the army, Niger military officials said.

Fighters from the Nigerian militant group killed five civilians in their initial attack on the village located in the West African nation’s Bosso district. Niger soldiers drove back the militants, killing around 20 of them, the officers said.

“Reactingly quickly, the government’s forces were able to push them back. Most of the Boko Haram elements have been neutralised,” said one of the officers, based in the Diffa border region.

“The situation is under control and we are carrying out clean-up operations,” he added.

Boko Haram has ramped up cross-border attacks into Niger, Chad and Cameroon from its strongholds in northeastern Nigeria in recent months.

Almost a third of Diffa’s nearly 600,000 inhabitants have been displaced by the violence.

A long-awaited 8,700-troopstrong regional task force is set to begin joint operations soon against the Islamist fighters when the region’s rainy season ends, a top United Nations official said late last month. BEIRUT, Nov 12, (AFP): The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon UNIFIL said Wednesday it has turned over a longtime local staffer to Lebanese authorities who accuse him of spying for Israel.

The Lebanese man who had worked in the UNIFIL administration for over 20 years is among three people accused by authorities of spying for the Jewish state.

On Sunday, Lebanese authorities said they had arrested the 3 suspects, a Syrian man, his Lebanese wife and a Lebanese man.

But the man “was in the UNIFIL compound when authorities requested him”, UNIFIL spokesman Andrea told AFP. Right-wing Christian Phalange Party supporters carry a symbolic coffin and Lebanese flags during a protest near the parliament building in downtown Beirut, Lebanon on Nov 12. Supporters of the Phalange Party protested Thursday outside the parliament building demanding that the legislature elect a new president rather than

draft new laws. (AP)