World

KABUL — Taliban attackers stormed a regional police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing five officers and injuring 22 people in an assault launched by a suicide bomber.

Of the seven attackers involved, one blew himself up in a car at the entrance to clear the way for the others to rush into the building, the office of the Paktia provincial governor said in a statement announcing the end of the raid.

Special forces killed four of the insurgents but two held out for several hours, it said, adding that nine police and 13 civilians were wounded in addition to the dead.

The attack on the base in the centre of the city of Gardez — part of the Taliban's all-out assault during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan — was launched at 6:00am. 

The base houses both regular policemen and police special forces.

"One [attacker] blew up his vehicle at the entrance of the headquarters, opening the way for... others who opened fire on the security forces," regional police commander, Asadullah Shirzad, told AFP.

The head of the police hospital, Dr Shir Mohammad, confirmed the five fatalities.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the raid.

"Around 6:20 this morning a martyr attack was conducted by our mujahideen against a special forces base in Gardez, Paktia," he said in a statement.

"First a car bomb detonated then our mujahideen entered the building, opening fire on police."

 Since they launched their spring offensive in late April, the Taliban have been mounting lethal assaults on positions of the Afghan army and police, who have lost several dozen men in recent weeks. 

About sixty soldiers were killed on their bases, mostly at night, in the southern province of Kandahar alone around the end of May. 

The insurgents are also targeting the international coalition supporting Afghan forces.

Seven US soldiers were injured on Saturday in an insider attack by an Afghan soldier who turned his weapon on his instructors and advisers. 

The Taliban did not directly claim the attack but described the soldier, who was killed, as a "patriot". 

On June 11 the insurgents claimed responsibility for a similar attack in which an Afghan soldier killed three US soldiers and wounded a fourth in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

The Pentagon is set to announce it is sending another 4,000 US troops to the country to counter the increasingly aggressive insurgents.

US troops in Afghanistan currently number about 8,400, with another 5,000 from NATO allies. They mainly serve in a training and advisory capacity.

LONDON — Shouting "Killers!" and "We want justice", dozens of people stormed the town hall in London's richest borough on Friday, accusing the authorities of ignoring the plight of the victims of the Grenfell Tower block blaze.

Three days after fire ripped through the 24-storey block, killing at least 30 people, residents are desperate for answers — and for the bodies of their loved ones, many of which are still inside.

During an angry protest outside the headquarters of the offices of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which manages the social housing block, a group broke off and scuffled with security guards in the lobby of the red-brick building.

"Shame on you!", they shouted in a stand-off involving around 30 people, as many police officers, as well as a dozen security guards.

Hundreds of people, including singer and human rights campaigner Lily Allen, were protesting outside, holding up signs saying "Justice for Grenfell".

One protester held up a "Wanted" poster for an executive who manages the building, accusing him of "corporate manslaughter".

"It is criminal to wrap homes in flammable plastic," read another sign after it emerged that cladding installed on the exterior walls as part of a recent refurbishment was not fire-resistant.

Residents had long complained about fire safety risks at Grenfell Tower, but said the concerns of the multi-ethnic, largely working-class inhabitants had been brushed off by local authorities.

"We are in the richest borough in the UK and in this very borough we have a building where some of the poorest live and the safety measures are totally inadequate," said Mustafa Al Mansur, one of the organisers of the demonstration.

"We need to know what commitment the council is taking to ensure this tragedy is not repeated," he said. "We need to know exactly the number of people who were there during this tragedy." 

There were chaotic scenes as angry protesters shouted through a loudspeaker, with one woman saying: "We are in pain. We have been trodden on by people who say they are there to protect us."

 Another said: "It was a death trap and they knew it."

 The protesters also held up pictures of those still missing and now feared dead, as the crowd shouted: "No justice, no peace!" 

Can't respect the bodies 

"We are not here to trouble people. We just want answers," said Salwa Buamani, 25, who attended the protest with her three-year-old niece on her shoulders.

"I have friends in the tower and they are not telling us anything," she told AFP, adding: "We can't respect the bodies."

 The death toll was revised up on Friday from 17 to 30, but police warned they expect it to increase further, with as many as 70 people thought to still be missing.

Many of those in the crowd were calling for the remains of their loved ones to be returned, highlighting how survivors had described walking over bodies on the stairwell as they fled.

"They [the authorities] are clearly aware roughly of the number of bodies," said local resident Karen Brown, 36, whose friend's 12-year-old daughter Jessica was among those missing. 

"The fact that they are not telling people is very frustrating. We are not stupid we are aware people are dead. Just tell them!" 

A man shouted: "Where are our children now? In the building! No one takes care of their bodies. Shame on you!"

 The crowds moved back towards the blackened tower, gaining numbers until several thousands were marching through the affluent streets around Notting Hill and Kensington High Street.

It developed an almost festive atmosphere, with locals providing free food and revellers in pubs and residents on balconies standing up and applauding as the protesters walked by.

But there was still anger, largely directed at Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who was earlier heckled and booed after visiting survivors in a church nearby.

"Theresa May it's time to go" they shouted, while others held up banners saying "Tories out".

MARAWI, Philippines — Philippine troops pounded extremist militants holding parts of southern Marawi city with air strikes and artillery on Saturday as more soldiers were deployed and the death toll rose to more than 300 after nearly a month of fighting.

Fires erupted and dark plumes of smoke rose from enclaves still occupied by the militants as the air force staged bombing runs to support ground troops struggling to dislodge the fighters from entrenched positions, AFP journalists at the scene said.

MG520 attack helicopters and FA50 fighter jets were used in the raids, while sustained bursts of automatic gunfire could be heard in the distance, indicating the intensity of the fighting.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, appearing in public for the first time in nearly a week, said the presence of foreign fighters from the Daesh terror group among the militants in Marawi have made the fighting more difficult.

"You have a conglomeration there of ISIS [Daesh] fighters from Syria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lankan and Arabs," he told soldiers during a visit to a military camp in Butuan city, northeast of Marawi, in the southern region of Mindanao.

"We have to use the air assets because we are up against fighters from the Middle East and they have learned the art of brutal killing — they will burn you, behead you," he said.

Duterte's absence had fuelled speculation about the state of the 72-year-old leader's health.

Also on Saturday, 400 fresh troops were airlifted to Marawi from the central Philippines, ANC television said quoting military officials.

Television footage showed the soldiers bidding goodbye to their families before being flown to the conflict zone.

Hundreds of militants — supported by foreign fighters — rampaged through Marawi, the largely Christian Philippines' most important Muslim city, on May 23 waving black flags of Daesh.

Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao to counter the attack, which he said was part of a plan by Daesh to establish a base in the country.

Such a base could be crucial for Daesh’s ambitions to establish a caliphate in Southeast Asia, analysts say.

The military has said at least eight foreign fighters from Chechnya, Yemen, Malaysia and Indonesia were among the militants killed in the Marawi fighting.

Hundreds of thousands displaced 

The overall death toll rose to 329 with 310 — 225 militants, 59 soldiers and 26 civilians — killed in the conflict, according to government figures.

The 19 others deaths came from those displaced by the fighting, said Mujiv Hataman, the governor of a Muslim autonomous region in the south.

Hataman said the deaths among the evacuees were caused by severe dehydration from diarrhoea.

More than 309,000 people have been been displaced in Marawi and nearby areas, the government said. Many have fled to the homes of friends and relatives and others are in evacuation centres.

"Our forces are moving towards the heart of the enemy," regional military spokesman Jo-ar Herrera told reporters in Marawi on Saturday, referring to the heavy fighting under urban conditions.

"It's the centre of gravity. This is where the location of their command and control, the leadership of the enemy."

Ground commanders estimate "more than 100" militants are still holding out in at least four villages in Marawi, military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said in Manila.

But he said the figures were based on estimates a few days ago "so this number could have dropped significantly".

Padilla said in an interview with DZMM radio the military would no longer give any self-imposed deadlines on when the militants would be driven out after failing to meet previous ones they had set.

"We are trying our best to expedite [driving them out] without unduly compromising the lives of our soldiers and at the same time the remaining civilians there," he said.

ATHENS — Sitting in a Greek cafe, fugitive Turkish journalist Cevheri Guven explains why he severed links with his homeland “with a knife” after a post-coup crackdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“People must understand, there is no justice in Turkey,” says Guven, formerly the editor-in-chief of the magazine Nocta.

“Erdogan is a dictator. Anyone who is against him, even if acquitted in court, will face a new trial before they are even released from prison. You can’t get away,” he told AFP.

A supporter of cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed by Erdogan for an abortive coup against him last July, Guven fled to Greece in 2015 with his wife and two children after on-and-off stints in police custody.

His magazine, critical of the Ankara government, had already been hit with a flurry of state lawsuits — first on economic grounds, then on charges of extremism.

Guven paid 15,000 euros ($17,000) to smugglers who led him and his family across the river Evros into northeastern Greece.

It is the same land route followed for years by Kurdish guerrillas, and now refugees from Syria and other war-torn and poverty-stricken countries into the European Union.

But because Turks are deemed to be wealthier, the price charged by smugglers is far higher, explains Guven, who faces a 22.5-year prison sentence if he goes back.

“For Syrians generally the price is 250 euros. For Erdogan opponents it’s 5,000 euros per person,” he says.

“But the smugglers gave us a discount, my eight-year-old daughter and my five-year-old son counted as one,” the 38-year-old adds.

Over 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended from the public sector in Turkey for suspected links to the Gulen movement under a state of emergency imposed a few days after the foiled putsch, and renewed three times.

Over 50,000 judges, police officers, civil servants and journalists have been arrested.

The Turkish government claims Gulen ordered the July 15 attempt to oust Erdogan from power.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, denies the charges.

Some 400 Turkish citizens have requested asylum in Greece since July. Others have sought refuge in Germany, Britain, Spain and Portugal.

Some support Gulen but there are others, more affluent members of the secular Turkish elite who are worried by what they see as a hard turn to Islamisation spearheaded by Erdogan.

For the latter, an additional draw is that Greece offers a five-year visa to anyone spending over 250,000 euros on buying a house.

“There is enormous interest in the Greek property market,” says Michalis Katsaros, a real estate agent active in the north of the country.

Ironically, many choose to relocate to the Athens suburb of Palio Faliro, home to thousands of ethnic Greeks kicked out of Istanbul in the 1960s during a Greek-Turkish crisis over Cyprus.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday ordered a public inquiry into the devastating London tower block fire which left at least 17 people dead as firefighters searched for bodies with dozens still reported missing.

“We owe that to the families, to the people who have lost loved ones and the homes in which they lived,” said May, as firefighters said parts of the council-owned building in west London had become structurally unsafe.

The prime minister said the inquiry, an official review of action by public institutions, was needed to ensure “this terrible tragedy is properly investigated”.

Seventeen people have been confirmed dead and the number is expected to rise, with Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton telling Sky News there were still “unknown numbers” of people inside.

“Tragically now we are not expecting to find anyone else alive,” she said.

The 24-storey Grenfell Tower was home to around 600 people when the fire ripped through the building before dawn on Wednesday.

Whole families remain missing after the fire which forced residents to flee through black smoke down the single stairwell, jump out of windows or even drop their children to safety.

Around 35 appeals to find missing loved ones have been made in the press and on social media so far.

‘Very hard questions’ 

Questions are growing about how the flames spread so quickly, engulfing the tower’s 120 apartments in what fire chiefs said was an unprecedented blaze.

Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who visited the tower on Thursday after the prime minister, said “some very hard questions must be answered” about how the fire took hold.

“We have to get to the bottom of this — the truth has got to come out and it will,” he told volunteers at a local church.

The focus of criticism centres on the cladding fitted to external walls on the 1970s concrete block as part of a £8.7 million refit ($11 million, 9.9 million euros) completed last year.

According to the BBC, the cladding had a plastic core and was similar to that used by high-rise buildings in France, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, which had also suffered fires that spread.

Rydon, the firm responsible for the refit, said the project “met all required building regulations”.

Harley Facades, which fitted the panels, told the BBC: “At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower.”

‘We saw them dying’ 

Grenfell Tower is part of a social housing estate in north Kensington, just streets away from some of the most expensive homes in the world in Notting Hill.

The area has a large immigrant population, but many families have lived in the area for years, passing on their low-rent homes to their children.

Witnesses told how residents in the upper floors used their mobile phone torches to attract attention, before they disappeared from view, their screams of help falling silent.

“We saw them dying,” said Adi Estu, 32, who was evacuated from her home nearby.

Some people reportedly jumped from the windows, and one witness, Samira Lamrani, said she saw a woman drop a baby from the ninth or 10th floor, for the child to be caught by a man below.

The fire triggered a fresh wave of mourning in a country already battered by a string of terror attacks.

More than £480,000 had been raised online for the victims by early Thursday, while local community centres were inundated by donations of clothes and food.

Volunteers in Glasgow — 550 kilometres away — sent a truck laden with nappies and other supplies.

Queen Elizabeth II sent her condolences, paying tribute to the bravery of the emergency services.

“It is also heartening to see the incredible generosity of community volunteers rallying to help those affected by this terrible event,” she in a statement.

Questions over 

safety measures 

Cladding has been added to a number of buildings across London in recent years, intended to provide insulation as well as improve the appearance of older buildings.

But Kostas Tsavdaridis, associate professor of structural engineering at the University of Leeds, warned: “Some materials used in facades act as significant fire loads.”

“Although theoretically they are fire resistant, in most cases they are high-temperature resistant instead of fire resistant. But even if they are, smoke and fire will spread through the joints and connections,” he said.

There were questions about why there was no sprinkler system in the Grenfell Tower which could have helped stop the fire spreading, or any central smoke alarm system that would have woken sleeping residents.

Official fire service advice for residents to stay in their homes and use towels to block out smoke, while awaiting help, has also come under scrutiny.

Firefighters were able to reach only the 12th floor of the block during the height of the blaze.

Abdelaziz El Wahabi, his wife Faouzia and their three children were among those who followed protocol by staying in their flat on the 21st floor.

“Last time I spoke to his wife, he was on the phone to the fire brigade. I’ve not heard from them since,” his sister Hanan Wahabi told AFP on Wednesday morning.

David Collins, former chairman of the Grenfell Tower Residents’ Association, said the building’s management had failed to listen to residents’ calls for improvements on fire safety.

“If the same concerns were had in a wealthy part of Kensington and Chelsea they would have got resolved, but here they didn’t get resolved,” Collins told AFP.

BEIJING — An explosion rocked a kindergarten in eastern China on Thursday, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens, authorities said, as state media published images showing bloodied and unconscious victims.

The explosion happened at the school’s gates, Xinhua news agency said, citing the emergency office of Xuzhou city.

Images circulating online showed that the force of the blast tore people’s clothes off and one woman was seen clutching her child, who is in tears.

An official at the police station in Fengxian county told AFP that the cause of the blast was under investigation. 

However the Global Times and China Youth Daily newspapers cited witnesses as saying that a gas cylinder at a food stall had exploded.

At least seven people were killed and 66 injured, including nine seriously, according to Xuzhou city government. Two died at the site of the explosion and five while being treated.

Pictures of the scene showed more than a dozen people outside a building, many lying on the concrete and some appearing to be unconscious, including a small child. 

Another video posted by the People’s Daily showed emergency workers arriving at the scene with gurneys. Another showed people lying in a hospital.

Online media reports cited a business owner near the kindergarten as saying that around 5:00pm (0900 GMT) he heard a “bang”, and found that there had been an explosion at the kindergarten entrance only 100 metres away.

Some people on China’s Twitter-like Weibo website said the use of gas canisters by food stalls posed a danger.

“China’s small restaurants are landmines, and every mobile street vendor is a moving bomb,” one person wrote.

“How can the city management officers allow a vendor to set up a stall at a school entrance with a gas fuel canister?”

History of attacks 

It is the latest tragedy to strike a kindergarten in China in recent weeks.

A school bus packed with kindergarten pupils erupted in flames inside a tunnel in eastern Shandong province on May 9, killing 11 children, a teacher and the driver.

Officials later said the fire was intentionally set by the driver, who was angry at losing overtime wages.

There have also been knife attacks at schools in recent years.

In January a man armed with a kitchen knife stabbed and wounded 11 children at a kindergarten in southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In February last year, a knife-wielding assailant wounded 10 children in a schoolyard in Haikou, in the southern island province of Hainan, before committing suicide.

In 2014 state media reported that a man stabbed three children and a teacher to death and wounded several others in a rampage at a primary school that refused to enrol his daughter.

That followed a March 2013 incident in which a man killed two relatives and then slashed 11 people, including six children, outside a school in China’s commercial hub Shanghai.

LONDON — At least six people perished on Wednesday and many more are still missing after a massive inferno tore through a London apartment block, with witnesses reporting terrified people had leapt from the 24-storey tower.

As smoke continued to billow from the charred building, survivors voiced anger over longstanding safety fears at the Grenfell Tower, which was home to between 600 and 800 people.

Parents wrapped wet towels around their children as they tried to escape, with others seen desperately waving for help from the higher floors.

“I can confirm six fatalities at this time but this figure is likely to rise,” said police commander Stuart Cundy, describing the fire as “truly shocking”.

Seventy-four people were being treated in hospitals, 20 of whom are in a critical condition.

The alarm was raised just before 1:00 am (0000 GMT) and within an hour flames had engulfed the entire block of 120 flats, which is home to between 600 and 800 people.

More than 200 firefighters had been tackling the blaze and 12 hours on, the building was still smoking.

Large pieces of debris fell from the wrecked building, a 1970s local authority-built block in the working-class area of north Kensington, just streets away from the wealthy homes of Notting Hill.

Residents claimed the fire spread on the exterior of the tower, which had been covered in cladding in a major refurbishment completed last year.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said firefighters had only able to reach the 12th floor at the height of the blaze.

“A lot of people are unaccounted for,” he told Sky News television.

The London Fire Brigade said the cause of the fire was under investigation, but chief Dany Cotton said she had “never seen anything on this scale”.

She said the building’s structure was stable enough for fire crews to scale inside, searching for survivors.

Witnesses said they heard screaming from the upper floors as the flames raced up the tower.

“I saw people jumping out of their windows,” Khadejah Miller, who was evacuated from her home nearby, told AFP.

Adi Estu, 32, who lives nearby and took refuge in a church with her husband and nine-month-old son, said: “I saw people flashing their lights for help, families flashing their mobile phones like a torch. But the smoke covered them.

“We saw them dying.”

 Salah Chebiouni, 45, who escaped from his ninth-floor flat with his wife and two children, said he was in his kitchen when “I saw fire outside my window”.

Members of the local community delivered food, water, blankets and clothes to the church and nearby community centre, where frantic families attempted to call their loved ones, fearing they could be stuck inside.

Eddie Daffarn, a 16th-floor resident, said he struggled to find the stairs as the building filled with black smoke until a fireman grabbed his leg and directed him to safety.

He said residents had complained for years about mismanagement of the block, saying he had warned that “one day there will be a catastrophic fire and that will hold these people to account”. 

“This is mass murder and these people need to be put into court,” he said.

Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “deeply saddened” by the situation and has called an emergency meeting to coordinate the response to the fire, which comes just 11 days after eight people were killed in a terror attack on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market.

May faced further delays in forming her new government after a failed election gamble when her would-be allies said their agreement would be put back following the blaze.

The apartment block was built in 1974, but had recently undergone a major refurbishment, including a new heating and hot water system and new cladding on the outside.

The £8.7 million ($11 million, 9.9 million euros) refit was completed in May 2016.

Rydon, the construction firm which carried out the refurbishment, said it “met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards”.

ALEXANDRIA, United States — A man wielding a rifle opened fire on lawmakers and staff at a baseball practice just outside the US capital early Wednesday, wounding a top Republican congressman and several others.

Congressman Steve Scalise, the majority whip who rallies Republican votes in the House of Representatives and one of around two dozen lawmakers at the baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, was shot in the hip, but was in stable condition after surgery, according to his office.

The gunman was taken into custody after being wounded in a shootout with Capitol Police, but his motive was not immediately clear.

The Washington Post and NBC news, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, identified the attacker as James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois.

Alexandria Police Chief Michael Brown said five people were transported to hospital following the shooting, which broke out at arund 7am (1100 GMT). They included the gunman, according to The Washington Post.

No other members of Congress were shot. The other wounded included a congressional staffer and two members of the Capitol Police who were assigned to guard Scalise. 

Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa said his officers were “in good condition” and their injuries were not life-threatening. 

President Donald Trump tweeted a message of support to his “friend and patriot” Scalise, calling himself “deeply saddened” by the incident in Alexandria, where schools were briefly placed on lockdown.

FBI Agent Tim Slater would not characterise the attack, saying “We are exploring all angles.”

 It is “too early to tell if they were targeted or not”, he said of the Republican lawmakers.

He would also not confirm a report by CBS that the gunman was welding a high-powered semi-automatic assault rifle.

‘He knew who we were’ 

The shooting took place during the Republican team’s practice for an annual charity game against Democrats scheduled for Thursday.

Congressman Rodney Davis told CNN he was up for bat at the time, and Scalise was in the field at second base.

“I was batting, we heard a loud noise.... The next thing I remember was somebody on the field yelling ‘Run, he’s got a gun.’”

Republican Senator Jeff Flake told reporters some 50 shots rang out in the exchange of fire between the gunman — described as a white man with dark hair, in his 40s or 50s — and law enforcement officers.

Police chief Brown said his officers arrived at the scene within three minutes, engaged the suspect together with the Capitol Police officers and took him into custody.

Senator Rand Paul, also at the practice, said he believed the rapid intervention narrowly prevented a bloodbath. 

“It would have been a massacre. And having no self-defence, the field was basically a killing field. If you were to run out while the killer was still shooting, he could have shot anybody,” he told reporters.

Asked whether he thought it was a random shooting, Republican lawmaker Mo Brooks, who was preparing to bat at the time, told CNN: “It sure as heck wasn’t an accident.”

“People know this is the Republican baseball team practicing,” he said. “He knew who we were. I’m a former prosecutor and, yeah, he was going after elected officials, congressmen.”

 Held almost every year since 1909, the Congressional Baseball Game — slated to take place at Nationals Park Stadium in Washington — is a well-loved showdown between Senate and House members of both Republican and Democrat camps.

‘Dragging his body’ 

Scalise’s office said the 51-year-old was in stable condition at a Washington hospital after being shot in the hip.

“Prior to entering surgery, [Scalise] was in good spirits and spoke to his wife by phone,” it added in a statement.

Trump described himself as “deeply saddened by this tragedy”, saying in a statement his “thoughts and prayers are with the members of Congress, their staffs, Capitol Police, first responders and all others affected” and that he was closely monitoring developments.

Vice President Mike Pence cancelled a planned speech to the national homebuilders’ association and headed to the White House where Trump was scheduled to deliver remarks on the shooting.

Lawmaker Brooks described Scalise dragging his body across the pitch to get away from the shooter while the firing continued.

After the shots subsided, he and others at the scene attempted to tend to Scalise’s wound, while Brooks took off his belt and used it as a tourniquet for a bleeding staffer who had been shot in the leg.

Scalise, a representative from the southern state of Louisiana elected to Congress in 2008, heads the conservative House caucus known as the Republican Study Committee.

The staunch conservative is among the lawmakers leading the drive to repeal former president Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, among other top Republican priorities.

MARAWI, Philippines — US troops are on the ground helping local soldiers battle extremist militants in a Philippine city, a Filipino military spokesman said on Wednesday, giving the most detailed account of their role.

The small number of US soldiers are providing vital surveillance assistance and, although they do not have a combat role, are allowed to open fire on the militants if attacked first, spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said.

“In a battle the most important item for the commander is to be able to determine what is happening,” Padilla said as he confirmed that men in civilian clothes caught by a television camera flying drones from a pickup truck were US troops.

“It’s called situational awareness and that is the sort of assistance being given.”

 The Philippine military has for over three weeks been engaged in fierce battles with hundreds of militants, who have pledged allegiance to the Daesh terror group, in the southern city of Marawi on Mindanao island.

The fighting has left 202 gunmen dead, while 58 soldiers and 26 civilians have also been killed, according to the government.

The militants have withstood a relentless bombing campaign that has made parts of Marawi, the most important Islamic city in the mainly Catholic Philippines, resemble war-devastated cities in Iraq and Syria.

The Philippines and the United States are longtime allies and are bound by a mutual defence treaty. 

American troops have since 2002 rotated on short-term deployments in the southern Philippines to provide intelligence and counter-terrorism training to Filipino troops. 

There used to be about 600 American troops in the south at any one time but the operations were scaled down in 2014.

The issue of US troops in the Philippines has become extremely sensitive since Rodrigo Duterte became president last year and sought to downgrade his nation’s military alliance with the United States in favour of China.

Duterte has repeatedly called for American troops to leave the Philippines.

Last weekend Duterte said he was not aware that US soldiers were helping in Marawi, while making a frank admission that his military favoured close ties with the United States.

“Our soldiers are pro-American, that I cannot deny,” Duterte said.

Aside from the television footage of the American drone operators, cameramen in Marawi have regularly filmed a US spy plane over the city.

The US embassy announced at the weekend that special operations forces were providing assistance in Marawi, but gave no details.

MUNICH, Germany — A German police officer was critically wounded and two passers-by hurt on Tuesday when a lone gunman fired shots at a commuter rail station near the German city of Munich before being injured himself and detained, police said.

A Munich police spokesman told reporters there was no indication of a "political or religious" motive behind the morning rush hour incident.

"The sole male perpetrator was motivated by personal reasons," said spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins.

Police identified the gunman as a 37-year-old German national, whose criminal record showed only one charge for possession of a small quantity of marijuana in 2014.

Martins said the man had tried to push at least one police officer in front of an incoming train at an S-Bahn station in Unterfoehring, a northeastern suburb of the Bavarian city.

A scuffle ensued during which the assailant snatched an officer's gun and fired.

"The police officer was shot in the head and critically injured," Martins said. She is 26 years old.

Two other people at the station, one German and one Romanian, were seriously wounded and are being treated in local hospitals but their lives were not believed to be in danger.

"The assailant was arrested. He was also injured. There are no indications of further perpetrators," police tweeted. 

The officers had been called to the scene when a fight broke out among several people on a train, witnesses said.

The train was stopped at the Unterfoehring station and the brawlers were hauled out by police, leading to the escalation.

The station is on a busy line leading to and from Munich's main international airport. Travellers were diverted to another rail line after the shooting.

The perpetrator was not shot but rather injured in the scuffle, in which neither of the two victims were involved, police said.

Authorities on high alert 

Last July, 18-year-old David Ali Sonboly shot dead nine people at a Munich shopping mall before turning the gun on himself, having spent a year planning the rampage.

Police said the German-Iranian teen was "obsessed" with mass murderers such Norwegian right-wing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik and had no links to the Daesh terror group.

In March, an axe-wielding attacker wounded nine people in a bloody rampage at a railway station in the western city of Duesseldorf.

The 36-year-old Kosovan had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic with a history of high anxiety and self-harm, police said, ruling out a terrorist motive.

Instead, they suggested he might have carried out the attack at the station to end his own life.

The suspect was taken into custody after jumping off a bridge.

And in May 2016, a psychologically disturbed man killed one person and wounded three in an apparently random knife attack at Grafing railway station east of Munich.

The suspect reportedly yelled "Allahu akbar" but police found no evidence of a political or religious motive.

German authorities have been on high alert since a series of attacks claimed by Daesh.

The deadliest was in December when a Tunisian rejected asylum seeker rammed a truck into a crowded Berlin Christmas market in an attack that killed 12 people and wounded dozens of others.