World

GARDEZ, Afghanistan — Two separate suicide and gun attacks on government forces in Afghanistan left nearly 50 dead and more than 200 wounded, officials said on Tuesday, the latest devastating assault on beleaguered security forces.

The Taliban claimed the most deadly of the two assaults, a coordinated attack on police in the southeast Afghan city of Gardez that left hospital officials calling for blood donations and desperate scenes as relatives queued for news of their loved ones after the hours-long gun battle. 

A separate ambush blamed on the Taliban in the neighbouring province of Ghazni on Tuesday killed 15 security officials with 12 wounded on a bloody day for government forces.

The assaults are a fresh blow as militants step up their offensives across Afghanistan, with security forces already beset by corruption, desertions and suffering shocking casualties over the past year.

"The hospital is overwhelmed and we call on people to donate blood," said Shir Mohammad Karimi, deputy health director in Gardez.

Doctors and nurses rushed to attend to the wounded women, children and police filling the corridors where some bodies also lay. Outside, university students formed a queue to donate blood, an AFP photographer said. 

The attack, claimed by the Taliban in a tweet, began when two suicide car bombs blew up near the training centre, which is close to the Paktia police headquarters, making way for the gunmen to start their assault, the interior ministry and local police said.

"Most of the victims are civilians who had come to the police headquarters to get their passports and national IDs," according to a statement from the Paktia governor's office.

A student at a nearby university who was in class at the time of the attack said he heard "a big boom" which caused the building to shake and windows shatter. 

"As we were trying to find our way [out of the building] I heard a second blast and then the dust and dirt covered us in the class. Several of my classmates were wounded by broken glass," Noor Ahmad told AFP. 

The battle between the attackers, armed with guns and suicide vests, and security forces lasted around five hours before it ended with all five militants killed, officials said. 

Photos posted on Twitter showed two large plumes of smoke rising above the city.

The second attack, in Ghazni some 100 kilometres  from Gardez, involved insurgents detonating an explosives-laden Humvee vehicle near a police headquarters and attackers storming the building, Haref Noori, the Ghazni governor's spokesman, told AFP.

"Dozens of Taliban" were killed in the attack, Ghazni police chief Mohammad Zaman said.

Drone strike 

The attacks are the latest in a series of assaults by militants targeting Afghan security installations, including one on a military hospital in Kabul in March which may have killed up to 100 people, and a devastating attack on a base in Mazar-i-Sharif which left 144 people dead.

They came one day after four-way talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China were held on Monday in Oman with the aim of ending the Taliban's 16-year insurgency. 

Paktia province borders Pakistan's militancy-plagued tribal areas where the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network has a presence.

Tuesday's attack in Gardez came hours after a US drone strike in Pakistan's Kurram tribal district, part of which borders Paktia, killed at least 26 Haqqani militants, officials have said.

Local officials told AFP that drones were still flying above Kurram after the attack, the deadliest targeting militants in the Pakistani tribal region this year. 

In Kurram last week the Pakistani military rescued a US-Canadian family who had been abducted by militants in Afghanistan in 2012. US President Donald Trump has said they were being held by the Haqqani network.

The extremist group has been blamed for carrying out spectacular attacks across Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 and is known for its frequent use of suicide bombers.

It was blamed for the truck bomb deep in the heart of the Afghan capital Kabul in May that killed around 150 people.

The Haqqanis have also been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Westerners for ransom.

These include the recently rescued hostages Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman, and their three children — all born in captivity — as well as US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was released in 2014.

MADRID/BARCELONA — Catalan authorities must drop a bid for independence by Thursday, the Spanish government said, moving closer to imposing direct rule over the region after its leader missed an initial deadline to back down.

In a confrontation viewed with mounting unease in European capitals and markets, Carles Puigdemont failed on Monday to respond to an ultimatum from Madrid to clarify if he had declared independence. A regional broadcaster said he also plans to ignore a second deadline on Thursday.

Plunging Spain into its worst political crisis since an attempted military coup in 1981, Catalan voters backed a breakaway in a referendum on October 1 that Spain's Constitutional Court said was illegal.

On that basis, Puigdemont made and then suspended a symbolic declaration of independence last Tuesday, calling for negotiations on the region's future.

Madrid had given him until 10:00am (0800 GMT) to clarify his position on independence with a "Yes" or "No", and until Thursday to change his mind if he insisted on a split — saying it would suspend Catalonia's autonomy if he chose secession.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said he had not answered the question and had to do so by Thursday. "Mr Puigdemont ...must answer 'yes' or 'no' to the declaration," she said.

Catalan broadcaster TV3 cited unnamed sources as saying Puigdemont did not intend to respond on Thursday, but would maintain an offer of dialogue. A Catalan government spokesman could not confirm the report.

In a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy made public on Monday, Puigdemont did not directly answer on the independence issue, instead making a "sincere and honest" offer for dialogue between the two men over the next two months.

In reply, Rajoy said Puigdemont's stance had brought Madrid closer to triggering Article 155 of the constitution, under which it can impose direct rule on any of the country's 17 autonomous communities if they break the law.

Also suggesting Puigdemont and his team were in no mood to follow Rajoy's game plan, Catalan interior chief Joaquim Forn said Article 155 would not allow Madrid to remove members of the Catalan government.

Broader secessionist concerns? 

The Catalan government says 90 per cent of voters in the referendum backed a breakaway, but turnout was only 43 per cent as most opponents of independence in the region boycotted it. 

While that points to a lukewarm endorsement of Puigdemont's intentions, EU authorities remain concerned that the test of strength between Madrid and Barcelona might impel moves towards secession elsewhere in the bloc.

European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said on Friday that Catalan independence would encourage other regions to follow suit, potentially making the European Union ungovernable.

With some of the region's largest companies having already shifted their head offices elsewhere and others undertaking to follow if Puigdemont declares independence, investors believe a political split could undermine Spain's economic rebound.

As Spanish bonds and stocks sold off on Monday, major Cava producer Codorniu Raventos added its name to the list, saying it had moved from Barcelona to Spain's La Rioja region due to "legal and political uncertainty".

 The terms of Article 155 on direct rule, which has never been applied, are vague.

It says that when a region does not meet its constitutional obligations or other laws, or goes against the general interest, the government "can adopt any measure needed to force those obligations to be met" once receiving approval from Spain's lower house.

The article's wording suggests that would include anything from taking control of regional police and finances to installing a new governing team or calling a snap election.

A legal source said state prosecutors had asked for Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero to be detained in prison pending questioning over whether his force deliberately failed to enforce the court's referendum ban. 

A judge would rule on the request later on Monday, the source said.

Trapero was put under formal investigation for sedition after failing to order the Mossos d'Esquadra to rescue Civil Guard police who were trapped inside a Catalan government building in Barcelona by tens of thousands of pro-independence protesters.

The heads of civic groups Asamblea Nacional Catalana and Omnium will also testify over their role in organising those protests.

WASHINGTON — The United States for the time being will stay in an international nuclear deal with Iran, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said on Sunday, adding that the Trump administration wanted to weigh a "proportionate" response to Tehran's actions on the world stage.

"I think right now, you're going to see us stay in the deal, because what our hope is that we can improve the situation, and that's the goal", Haley said referring to what she said were Iran's ballistic missile tests, international arms sales and state-sponsored terrorism.

Haley, interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press", also said the reason the United States was looking closely at the Iran nuclear deal is because of escalating tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons development. "What we're saying now with Iran is don't let it become the next North Korea".

On Friday, Trump refused to formally certify that Iran was meeting the requirements of a 2015 international deal aimed at monitoring and controlling that country's nuclear programme.

The US Congress now has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the deal.

In her "Meet the Press" interview, Haley said, however, "We're not saying they're in breach of the agreement."

Haley, also interviewed on ABC's "This Week", said of Iran: "We have to hold them accountable. They can't be continuing to support terrorism around the world like we are seeing they do. They can't continue to test ballistic missiles, which will lead to a nuclear Iran. They can't continue to do arms smuggling."

Haley said that other countries were "turning a blind eye" to these activities by Iran in order to "protect" the nuclear agreement.

VIENNA — Austria voted on Sunday in a parliamentary election that is expected to see 31-year-old conservative Sebastian Kurz become chancellor on a pledge to take a hard line on refugees and prevent a repeat of Europe’s migration crisis.

Foreign Minister Kurz propelled his People’s Party (OVP) to the top of opinion polls when he became leader in May, dislodging the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) that had held first place for more than a year.

If Kurz’s OVP wins, the FPO would still have a good chance of entering government for the first time in more than a decade.

The winner will probably need a coalition to govern and the FPO could be kingmaker because the OVP and their current coalition partner, the Social Democrats, are at loggerheads.

Austria, a wealthy country of 8.7 million people that stretches from Slovakia to Switzerland, was a gateway into Germany for more than 1 million people during the migration crisis that began in 2015. Many of them were fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Austria also took in roughly 1 per cent of its population in asylum seekers in 2015, one of the highest proportions on the continent. Many voters say the country was overrun.

“Immigration policy, which Mr Kurz talked about so often, was decisive,” 58-year-old Kurz supporter Ingrid Regina said outside a polling station in Vienna on a warm, sunny autumn day. “I expect things to improve and order to return.”

 The inflow of migrants buoyed the FPO and similar anti-immigration parties across Europe, including the Alternative for Germany Party, which secured seats in parliament last month.

The FPO, by contrast, has been in Austria’s parliament for decades and currently holds a fifth of seats there.

“I am hoping for a good result with a greater vote of confidence,” FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache told reporters at a polling stating in Vienna. “If we reach 25 per cent that would be good, a great success, but perhaps even more is possible.”

 Kurz says he will shut the main migrant routes into Europe through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean. He and the FPO have kept immigration at the heart of the campaign, while Social Democrat Chancellor Christian Kern has touted falling unemployment and the fastest economic growth in six years.

Kurz plans to cap benefits for refugees at well below the general level and bar other foreigners from receiving such payments until they have lived in the country for five years.

He also says he wants to shake up Austrian politics, which for decades has been dominated by coalitions between his party and the Social Democrats. His opponents say he is merely a new face on a party in power in various coalitions for 30 years.

‘Last hope’

“He is our last Christian-social hope,” said Kurz supporter Thomas Heine-Geldern, a retired consultant. He was expressing a view that helped Kurz gain control of the OVP, namely that he is its only chance of bringing electoral success to an otherwise ageing and fading party. “I hope it is enough [to win].”

 Kurz ended the current alliance with the Social Democrats when he took over his party, forcing Sunday’s snap election. 

Opinion polls have for months shown the conservatives ahead with around a third of the vote and a tight race for second between the Social Democrats and the FPO, whose candidate nearly won last year’s presidential election.

The FPO has accused Kurz of copying its ideas and Strache called him an “impersonator”.

 The Social Democrats are hoping for a strong finish to make voters forget a scandal that plunged the party into turmoil two weeks ago when their chairman was forced to step down.

The party said it was connected to Facebook accounts that made unsubstantiated allegations against Kurz, blaming a political adviser Kern had hired. The party leadership has said it was unaware of the party’s involvement and has launched an internal investigation. 

“We are full of optimism. Now the voters have to decide. I think we have led a campaign in the last few days that has gained significant momentum,” Kern told reporters after casting his ballot in Vienna.

He has warned of a repeat of the OVP-Freedom Party coalition in the early 2000s that was marked by financial scandals.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has kicked the fate of the landmark Iran nuclear deal to the US Congress, ignoring the advice of worried allies as he vowed to confront the “fanatical regime” in Tehran.

Trump defended his decision to “decertify” Iran’s compliance with the 2015 agreement in a speech Friday that evoked US grievances dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

He railed against the “Iranian dictatorship, its sponsorship of terrorism, and its continuing aggression in the Middle East and all around the world”.

And he warned he could rip up the 2015 agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear programme “at any time”, saying it had failed to address Iranian subversion in its region and its illegal missile programme.

Sharp reactions 

Reaction to the US move came fast and furious, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declaring the United States was “more than ever against the Iranian people”.

 Former US secretary of state John Kerry, who negotiated the nuclear deal, accused Trump of “creating an international crisis” and called on the US Congress to stand in the president’s way.

“It endangers America’s national security interests and those of our closest allies,” Kerry said.

In a cautious but unmistakable rebuke, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany said the deal remained in “our shared national security interest”.

“We encourage the US administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the US and its allies before taking any steps that might
undermine” the deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron later said he was considering visiting Iran after speaking by phone with his Iranian counterpart.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, also denounced the move, saying it makes proliferation more likely.

Hand-off to Congress 

Trump stopped short of scrapping the deal outright, however, leaving Congress and US allies some room for manoeuvre.

The Republican-controlled Congress now has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran — a step that if taken would almost certainly doom the accord.

The US president said he supports efforts in Congress to work on new measures to address the broader threats posed by Iran without immediately torpedoing the nuclear deal.

“However, in the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated,” Trump said, in a televised address from the Diplomatic Room of the White House.

Proposals by Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Bob Corker to introduce “trigger points” for new sanctions and extend sanctions beyond a pre-agreed deadline have spooked allies, who believe it could breach the accord.

But it remains unclear if their proposals can garner the 60 votes need to pass the Senate.

Trump also backed away from designating Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terror group, a move that would have triggered sanctions and almost certain Iranian retribution.

Apart from running swaths of Iran’s economy and Iran’s ballistic missile programme, the Revolutionary Guards are accused of guiding proxy forces across the region, from Hizbollah in Lebanon, to the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.

“We have considered that there are particular risks and complexities to designating an entire army, so to speak, of a country,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.

Instead, the US Treasury said it had taken action against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards under a 2001 executive order to hit sources of terror funding and added four companies that allegedly support the group to its sanctions list.

‘The worst deal’ 

Trump has repeatedly pledged to overturn one of his predecessor Barack Obama’s crowning foreign policy achievements, deriding it as “the worst deal” and one agreed to out of “weakness”.

 The agreement stalled Iran’s nuclear programme and marginally thawed relations between Iran and what Tehran dubs the “Great Satan”, but opponents, and even some supporters, say it also prevented efforts to challenge Iranian influence across the Middle East.

Since coming to office, Trump has faced intense lobbying from international allies and much of his own national security team, who argue the nuclear deal should remain in place.

Both the US government and UN nuclear inspectors say Iran is meeting the technical requirements of its side of the bargain, dramatically curtailing its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump claimed support for his move in a tweet late Friday, while suggesting that his critics among US allies were placing trade profits ahead of security.

“Many people talking, with much agreement, on my Iran speech today. Participants in the deal are making lots of money on trade with Iran!” he wrote on Twitter.

Washington — Donald Trump has gambled with US diplomatic credibility by attacking an Iran nuclear deal that his European allies cherish as a benchmark for international cooperation.

And in doing so the US president has underlined the risk that his “America First” foreign policy will translate to one of “America Alone” as he confronts future crises.

Between nationalist speeches, protectionist gestures and high-octane Twitter outbursts, observers have struggled to identify a coherent strategy behind Trump’s decisions.

But one thread does stand out as he pulls out of trade deals, provokes allies and tears up international accords — he seems determined that no international ties will bind him.

The United States emerged as the indispensable superpower in the wake of World War II in part through its leadership in a global rules-based system of treaties and alliances.

‘Withdrawal doctrine’ 

But, as Trump made clear last month in a speech to the UN General Assembly, his vision is of a world where America is just the most powerful in a network of sovereign nations.

“Trump foreign policy has found its theme: ‘The Withdrawal Doctrine’,” quipped Richard Haass, influential president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Trump has not yet withdrawn from the Iran deal, although he made it clear that he is ready to do so if Congress and skeptical US allies do not agree to new sanctions.

He did quit the UN cultural organisation, this week. He has collapsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and appears to be poised to destroy the bigger NAFTA treaty.

Time and again his bluster has put in question America’s commitment to its NATO allies, and time and again he has ordered reviews into the utility of remaining in UN agencies.

He has even declared that America will drop out of the biggest — and arguably most important — accord in world history, the 196-member Paris climate deal. 

As might be expected, former members of president Barack Obama’s administration are furious and bewildered at what they see as an abdication of US leadership.

“Once again, Trump is throwing into question the ability of the US to keep its commitment to international agreements,” former top aide Ben Rhodes said.

“Other nations will not want to enter into agreements with the United States,” he warned.

‘Ego and ideology’ 

Former secretary of state John Kerry, a key architect of the Iran deal, called Trump’s decision a “reckless abandonment of facts in favor of ego and ideology”.

Trump, he said, “weakens our hand, alienates us from our allies, empowers Iranian hardliners, makes it harder to resolve North Korea and risks moving us closer to military conflict”. 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who negotiated the deal on behalf of Tehran, said Trump’s move would do lasting damage to US credibility.

“Nobody else will trust any US administration to engage in any long-term negotiation because the length of any commitment, the duration of any commitment from now on with any US administration would be the remainder of the term of that president,” Zarif told CBS News. 

Washington’s traditional allies in Europe were at first cautious in their approach to Trump, hoping he would mellow as he grew into the Oval Office role.

But they were outraged by his Iran gambit, and united in their response. 

“It is clearly not in the hands of any president of any country in the world to terminate an agreement of this sort,” declared EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini. 

“The president of the United States has many powers [but] not this one.”

In Washington, having failed to get through to Trump despite the support of some of his top advisers, European diplomats are now lobbying Congress to save the Iran deal.

Nevertheless, the Iran decision at least has some strong supporters in the US capital.

American leverage 

An outspoken group of foreign policy hawks, backed by influential senator Tom Cotton and Trump’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley, had been pushing for “decertification”.

And they, at least, agree with Trump that his tougher stance could give America more leverage, rather than less, with its foreign partners.

“If anything, the decision to decertify but keep the US in the deal could serve to bolster US credibility,” argues Behnam Ben Taleblu, of the Federation for Defense of Democracies.

Trump, he says, is “sending a message that the US will not be a party to agreements where it feels it has a material disadvantage”. 

This theory will be put to the test almost immediately. 

In the weeks to come Trump and senior US officials will attempt to build a coalition to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme.

YANGON — Myanmar's military has launched an internal probe into the conduct of soldiers during a counteroffensive that has sent more than half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, many saying they witnessed killings, rape and arson by troops.

Coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on 30 security posts on August 25 sparked a ferocious military response in the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine state that the United Nations has said was ethnic cleansing.

A committee led by military Lieutenant-General Aye Win has begun an investigation into the behavior of military personnel, the office of the commander in chief said on Friday, insisting the operation was justified under Buddhist-majority Myanmar's constitution.

According to a statement posted on Senior General Min Aung Hlaing's Facebook page, the panel will ask, "Did they follow the military code of conduct? Did they exactly follow the command during the operation? After that [the committee] will release full information."

 Myanmar is refusing entry to a UN panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016. 

But domestic investigations, including a previous internal military probe, have largely dismissed refugees' claims of abuses committed during security forces' "clearance operations".

Thousands of refugees have continued to arrived cross the Naf river separating Myanmar's Rakhine state and Bangladesh in recent days, even though Myanmar insists military operations ceased on September 5.

Aid agencies estimate that 536,000 people have arrived in the Cox's Bazar district, straining scarce resources of aid groups and local communities.

About 200,000 Rohingya were already in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar, where they have long been denied citizenship and faced restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. 

Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has pledged accountability for human rights abuses and says Myanmar will accept back refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar.

The powerful army chief has taken a harder stance, however, telling the US ambassador in Myanmar this week that the exodus of Rohingya, who he said were non-native "Bengalis", was exaggerated.

In comments to Japan's ambassador carried in state media on Friday, Min Aung Hlaing denied ethnic cleansing was taking place on the grounds that photos showed Muslims "departing calmly rather than fleeing in terror".

Former UN chief Kofi Annan, who led a commission set up by Suu Kyi to find solutions for the ethnically and religiously divided Rakhine, briefed the UN Security Council and other key states in an informal closed-door meeting on Friday.

Some council members are exploring if the 15-member body could agree a formal statement or even a resolution to call for an end to the violence, for full aid access, the safe return of refugees, access for a UN fact-finding mission to ensure accountability and implementation of Annan's recommendations.

Annan said he hoped any possible Security Council resolution "urges the government to really press ahead and create conditions that will allow the refugees to return in dignity and with a sense of security, they should not be returned to camps".

MADRID — Spain celebrated its national day Thursday with a show of unity in the face of Catalan independence efforts, a day after the central government gave the region's separatist leader a deadline to abandon his secession bid.

The country is suffering its worst political crisis in a generation after separatists in the wealthy northeastern region voted in a banned referendum on October 1 to split from Spain.

To mark the national holiday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and King Felipe VI attended a traditional military parade in central Madrid.

Armed forces marched along Madrid's Paseo de la Castellana Boulevard to commemorate the day that Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas in 1492.

But events were overshadowed by the crash of a Eurofighter jet, which went down on its route back to base after taking part in the display, killing its pilot.

Separate pro-unity rallies, including one by members of a far-right movement, were organised in the Catalan capital Barcelona.

Spanish unity rally 

In Madrid, cheering crowds lined the streets, waving red and yellow Spanish flags and some crying "Viva Espana!" as air force jets and helicopters swooped overhead.

Some teenagers climbed trees to get a better look as thousands of troops and vehicles parade through central Madrid.

"I love to see people waving our national flag," said Beatriz Trapero, who was watching with her husband. 

"There used to be a certain shyness in showing it but now it seems not so much."

 Rajoy has vowed to do everything in his power to prevent Catalan secession. 

His government says it is ready to take control of the region after Catalan President Carles Puigdemont's announcement on Tuesday that he accepted a mandate for "Catalonia to become an independent state".

 But he quickly asked regional lawmakers to suspend it to allow for dialogue with Madrid.

Rajoy responded that Puigdemont had until next Monday to decide if he planned to push ahead with secession and then until next Thursday to reconsider, otherwise Madrid would trigger constitutional steps that could suspend Catalonia's regional autonomy.

'Disobedience, illegality' 

World leaders are watching closely and uncertainty over the fate of the region of 7.5 million people has damaged business confidence, with several listed firms already moving their legal headquarters out of Catalonia.

The region itself is deeply divided on the issue, with polls suggesting Catalans are roughly evenly split on whether to go it alone.

While Puigdemont insists the October 1 referendum gave him a mandate for independence and has said he still wants dialogue with Madrid, Rajoy has rejected calls for mediation and refuses to negotiate on anything until the separatists abandon their independence drive.

"It is not peaceful, it is not free, it will not be recognised by Europe and now everyone knows it will have costs," he told lawmakers.

Rajoy's announcement of the deadline was a preliminary step towards invoking article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which allows Madrid to impose control over its devolved regions — an unprecedented move that some fear could lead to unrest.

"We ask for dialogue and they answer by putting article 155 on the table. Understood," Puigdemont tweeted late Wednesday.

Far-right demonstrators 

Spain's defence ministry said the Eurofighter had crashed around 300 kilometres  southeast of Madrid after taking part in the military show.

"Rest in peace, comrade. Thank you for helping us to celebrate the day you have given your life for. We won't forget you," an official ministry account tweeted, posting an image of the Spanish flag pinned with a black ribbon.

While separatist leaders say 90 per cent of voters opted to split from Spain in the banned October referendum, less than half of the region's eligible voters actually turned out.

Several rallies were called on Thursday in Barcelona, including one by far-right activists.

Around 150 gathered to march against secession from Barcelona's Plaza de Espana, flanked by Catalan police and waving Spanish and far-right nationalist flags.

"There has been a coup d'etat," said a man who gave his name only as Eduardo. 

"The Spanish have to react to defend the nation," he told AFP.

Marchers chanted: "Puigdemont, go to jail".

‘Special day' 

Pro-unity demonstrators held other rallies in Barcelona, following a mass demonstration against Catalan independence at the weekend. 

"Today is a special day, we have to go ahead... we are many more" than the separatists, said retired Barcelona resident Eliseo Valbuena Garcia.

Catalonia, which accounts for about one-fifth of Spain's economic output, already enjoys significant powers over matters such as education and healthcare.

Puigdemont insisted on Wednesday that "the majority of Catalan people want Catalonia as an independent state". Rajoy dismissed his plan as "a fairytale".

SANTA ROSA, California — Firefighters battling wildfires in California's wine country faced the prospect of new outbreaks on Wednesday when dry, windy conditions return to an area where blazes have killed at least 17 people and destroyed 2,000 homes and businesses.

Gusts of up to 80kph and 10 per cent humidity are forecast for later on Wednesday and into Thursday for the region, where 17 fires have forced 20,000 people to flee their homes in one of the deadliest wildfire outbreaks in California’s history, fire officials said.

"The potential for new fires that could grow exponentially as these fires did in such a short time period is there," said Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The weather had given firefighters a reprieve on Tuesday as cooler temperatures, lower winds and coastal fog let them make headway against the fires that had burned 115,000 acres.

New evacuation orders were posted overnight across Sonoma County, north of San Francisco.

Some 155 people were missing in Sonoma County, although 45 others had been found and some of those unaccounted for may be due to confusion surrounding evacuations. 

The city of Santa Rosa was particularly hard hit by the so-called Tubbs fire, which damaged a Hilton hotel and destroyed a mobile home park, among other damage. At least 11 people have been killed by that fire alone, officials said. It is the deadliest California wildfire since 2003, when the Cedar fire killed 15 people in San Diego, and the sixth deadliest since records began, according to state records.

Irene Fonzeca and her husband, Luis, spent their second night in a shelter on Tuesday after waking up the day before to the sound of fiery trees crashing down and flames being blown towards their home.

"We have no idea what's there or if there's anything to go back to", Irene Fonzeca said outside the shelter holding a breathing mask as smoke and light ash blanketed downtown Santa Rosa.

In the shelter, emotions were raw, she said. "People are crying, hugging, helping each other. It's devastating."

In Napa County, the dead included 100-year-old Charles Rippey and his wife, Sarah, 98, according to the county sheriff's office. The couple were married for 75 years, a CBS affiliate in San Francisco reported, citing their son, Mike.

Charles Rippey's body was found outside where his wife's bedroom once stood, he said. "He was trying to get from his room to her room," Mike Rippey said. "He never made it."

 Napa Valley Vintners, a trade group, said it was too early to assess the economic impact on Northern California's celebrated wine country. At least four wineries suffered "total or very significant losses" and at least nine reported damage, the group said.

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in several northern counties, as well as in Orange County in Southern California, where a fire destroyed 15 structures and damaged 12, the Anaheim Fire and Rescue Department said.

BARCELONA — Spain held its breath on Tuesday ahead of a crucial Catalan parliamentary session, waiting to see if regional leader Carles Puigdemont would defy Europe-wide pleas for unity and follow through on his threat of declaring independence from Madrid. 

But just as regional lawmakers started making their way into the parliament in Barcelona, the 54-year-old leader delayed the start of the session.

A regional government official told AFP that the delay was to allow time to explore “contacts for international mediation” in the crisis.

But Madrid immediately responded by saying mediation to settle the nation’s worst political crisis in decades was “not on the cards”.

Police deployed en masse around the regional parliament, blocking public access to a park that houses the building as crowds watched the session on giant screens, waving Catalan flags and some brandishing signs reading “democracy”.

 “We came to make sure the government pushes ahead,” said Joan Farreras, a 37-year-old technical engineer from the Catalan city of Girona.

“Independence will not be immediate. There will be time for mediation, but we will reach independence.”

But in Madrid, the Spanish government issued a blunt warning to Puigdemont.

“We call on Puigdemont not to do anything irreversible, not to pursue a path of no return and not to make any unilateral independence declaration,” government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told reporters.

A source from the central government’s representative office in Catalonia said security had been tightened at Catalan airports and railway stations in anticipation of possible protests in the wake of Puigdemont’s announcement.

‘Dialogue impossible’ 

EU President Donald Tusk also urged Puigdemont against making a decision that would make “dialogue impossible”.

At stake is the future of a region of 7.5 million people deeply divided over independence, one of Spain’s economic powerhouses whose drive to break away has raised concern for stability in the European Union.

Political leaders in Catalonia, Spain and Europe have come out against an independence declaration, concerned over the country’s biggest upheaval since its transition to democracy in the 1970s.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed to use everything in his legal power to prevent independence and has even refused to rule out imposing direct rule over the semi-autonomous region — an unprecedented move many fear could lead to unrest.

Spain’s deputy prime minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, earlier on Tuesday also rejected any mediation.

“There is no room for mediation between legality and illegality, between the law and contempt of the law, between democracy and tyranny,” she told the Senate during a tense debate.

But the Catalan president says the independence referendum that took place on October 1 despite a court ban justifies splitting from Madrid.

Around 90 per cent of those who cast ballots voted for independence but the poll was poorly monitored and many Catalans opposed to secession boycotted an illegal plebiscite that was witnessed a violent police crackdown.

“I am very excited, very happy and a little nervous,” said a woman outside parliament.

“We are waiting for them to declare independence and we know we will need to be in the streets to defend it.”

 Anger on both sides 

On Monday, Ada Colau, the popular mayor of Barcelona, warned that a unilateral declaration of independence would put “social cohesion” at risk.

Pro-unity and pro-independence supporters have staged mass rallies in Barcelona over the past week, highlighting divisions in Catalonia.

Anger over the police violence during the referendum swung some Catalans over to the independence camp.

But both Madrid and the Catalan executives have come under fire for their dogged response to the crisis and a lack of dialogue.

Carolina Palles, a 53-year-old flower vendor in Barcelona’s popular La Ramblas boulevard, said it was “a sad day”, almost two months after the seaside city was hit by a deadly terror attack.

Against independence, she was angry at both camps.

“Rajoy’s government handled things very badly,” she said, accusing the separatists “of persisting until the very end, like martyrs”.

Stocks slide 

Short of declaring an outright split, the Catalan leader could use his address play for time and call for dialogue, or back down outright from his secessionist demands.

EU nations are watching developments closely amid concern that Catalan independence could put further pressure on the bloc still dealing with the fallout from Britain’s shock decision to leave.

The crisis has also caused deep uncertainty for businesses in one of the wealthiest regions in the eurozone’s fourth largest economy.

Spain’s stock market shed nearly 1 per cent ahead of Tuesday’s session and string of companies have already moved their legal headquarters — but not their employees — from Catalonia to other parts of the country. 

Demands for independence in Catalonia, which has its own language and cultural traditions, date back centuries.

But a 2010 move by Spain’s constitutional court to water down a statute that gave Catalonia additional powers, combined with a deep economic meltdown in Spain, sparked a surge in support for independence.