World

LONDON — A man pictured calmly taking his pint of beer with him as other people fled past him during Saturday’s deadly attack in London has been cast as an unlikely hero who encapsulates British humour and defiance.

Dressed in a red t-shirt and sauntering casually with a friend, the drinker stood out in Sky News footage of men and women running down Borough High Street, away from the London Bridge scene of the attack that left seven people dead and 48 injured.

The image spread like wildfire across Twitter and British newspapers said the man, whose identity is unknown, was a symbol of defiance.

“True symbol of the British spirit as man flees terrorist attack clutching his pint,” said student Henry Slesser (@HenrySlesser), on Twitter. 

Others joked that it was only right that he should take his beer with him, given London’s notoriously high prices.

“Evacuate? Well, OK. But this beer cost six pounds [$7.74] a pint. I’m taking it with me,” said another Twitter user, Andrew Brooks (@taxbod).

Londoners take pride in, and sometimes joke about, showing fortitude during adversity.

Tourist shops are awash with memorabilia emblazoned with “Keep calm and carry on”, a slogan drawn from a World War Two poster that became popular in the last 10 years.

Saturday’s attack, in which three men drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby bars and restaurants, occurred five days before a parliamentary election.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the vote would go ahead as planned on Thursday.

Residents of the northern English city Manchester also looked to their city’s culture for solace after a suicide bombing at a pop concert killed 22 people and injured 116 nearly two weeks ago, Britain’s deadliest attack in almost 12 years.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May called on Sunday for a stronger response to extremism after three attackers drove a hired van into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed others nearby, killing seven people and injuring 48.

The attack occurred five days before a parliamentary election and was the third to hit Britain in less than three months. May said the vote would go ahead as planned on Thursday.

“It is time to say enough is enough,” the Conservative leader said in a televised statement outside her Downing Street office, where flags flew at half-mast.

“We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are,” May said, calling for a beefed-up counter-terrorism strategy that could include longer jail sentences for some offences and new cyberspace regulations.

A Canadian national was among those killed, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement. None of the dead were identified by name. French and Australian authorities said nationals from their countries were among those injured.

London’s Metropolitan Police arrested 12 people in the Barking district of east London in connection with the attack and raids were continuing there, the force said. A Reuters photographer saw another raid take place in nearby East Ham.

Less than two weeks ago, a suicide bomber killed 22 children and adults at a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England. In March, in a attack similar to Saturday’s, five people died after a man drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in central London and stabbed a policeman.

On Saturday night, police shot dead the three male assailants in the Borough Market area near London Bridge within eight minutes of receiving the first emergency call shortly after 10pm (21:00 GMT).

Mark Rowley, head of counter-terrorism police, said eight officers had fired about 50 bullets to stop the attackers, who appeared to be suicide bombers because they were wearing what turned out to be fake suicide vests.

“The situation these officers were confronted with was critical — a matter of life and death — three armed men, wearing what appeared to be suicide belts, had already attacked and killed members of the public and had to be stopped immediately,” Rowley said.

Harrowing scenes

Eyewitnesses described harrowing scenes as the attackers’ white van veered on and off the bridge sidewalk, hitting people along the way, and the three men then ran into an area packed with bars and restaurants, stabbing people indiscriminately.

Accounts emerged of people trying to barricade themselves in a pub while others tried throwing tables and other objects to fend off the attackers.

England’s health authority said on Sunday afternoon that 36 of those injured remained in hospital, of whom 21 were in a critical condition.

May made a private visit to staff and patients at King’s College Hospital, where some of the injured were being treated, a spokeswoman said.

The government announced that a nationwide minute of silence would be held at 10:00 GMT on Tuesday to pay respect to the victims of the attack and flags would remain at half-mast on government buildings until Tuesday evening.

At an apartment block in Barking, a resident told Sky News he heard controlled explosions early on Sunday morning as police gained access to the building. A Reuters photographer later saw four women being removed from the building, shielding their faces as they stepped into police vans.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the London Bridge attack.

The Daesh terror group, losing territory in Syria and Iraq to an advance backed by a US-led coalition, had sent out a call on instant messaging service Telegram early on Saturday urging its followers to carry out attacks with trucks, knives and guns against “Crusaders” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Islamists have carried out scores of deadly attacks in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the United States over the past two years.

“We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face as terrorism breeds terrorism,” May said.

“Perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots... and not even as lone attackers radicalised online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack.”

‘Tolerance of extremism’

She said the series of attacks were not connected in terms of planning and execution, but were inspired by what she called a “single, evil ideology of Islamist extremism” that represented a perversion of Islam and of the truth. She said this ideology had to be confronted both abroad and at home.

“While we have made significant progress in recent years, there is — to be frank — far too much tolerance of extremism in our country,” she said, urging Britons to be more robust in stamping it out in the public sector and in wider society.

US President Donald Trump, taking to Twitter on Sunday, urged the world to stop being “politically correct” in order to ensure public security against terrorism.

Most of the main political parties suspended election campaigning on Sunday, but May said this would resume on Monday. The anti-European Union UK Independence Party said it would not suspend its campaign because disrupting democracy was what the extremists wanted.

London Bridge is a major transport hub and nearby Borough Market is a fashionable warren of alleyways leavened with bars and restaurants that is always bustling on a Saturday night.

The area remained cordoned off and patrolled by armed police and counter-terrorism officers on Sunday, with train stations closed. Forensic investigators could be seen working on the bridge, where buses and taxis stood abandoned. 

At several points outside the cordon, people laid flowers and messages of grief and solidarity.

Ariana Grande and other music stars were due to give a benefit concert at Manchester’s Old Trafford cricket ground on Sunday evening to raise funds for victims of the concert bombing and their families. Police said the event would go ahead as planned though security would be increased.

“Today’s One Love Manchester benefit concert will not only continue, but will do so with greater purpose,” Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun, said on Twitter after the London attack.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the official threat level in Britain remained at severe, meaning a militant attack is highly likely. It had been raised to critical after the Manchester attack, then lowered again days later.

“One of the things we can do is show that we aren’t going to be cowed is by voting on Thursday and making sure that we understand the importance of our democracy, our civil liberties and our human rights,” Khan said.

In tweets, Trump offered help to Britain but also levelled apparent criticism of Khan for saying there was no need to be alarmed. Khan had earlier said Londoners would see an increased police presence on the streets of the city and people should not be alarmed by that.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin were among those who sent messages of condolence and made statements of solidarity.

The Manchester bombing on May 22 was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated assaults on London’s transport network.

WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin said hackers trying to influence last year's US election could have been from anywhere, questioning findings by American intelligence that Russia was behind the operation, according to an interview aired Friday.

"Hackers can be anywhere. They can be in Russia, in Asia... even in America, Latin America," he told NBC News, which previewed an interview with the Russian leader that will be broadcast in full on Sunday.

"They can even be hackers, by the way, in the United States, who very skillfully and professionally shifted the blame, as we say, on to Russia.

"By some calculations it was convenient for them to release this information, so they released it, citing Russia. Could you imagine something like that? I can."

 US intelligence agencies have accused Putin of ordering a hacking and influence campaign to tilt last year's election in favor of Republican Donald Trump, after the billionaire pledged to boost ties with Moscow. 

Speaking at Russia's annual showcase economic forum in Saint Petersburg on Friday, Putin slammed accusations that Moscow meddled in the election.

"This useless and harmful chatter needs to stop," the Kremlin strongman said.

"This is a transferral, I repeat, of internal political squabbling in the United States onto the international arena," he said.

PARIS — A French public prosecutor on Thursday opened an investigation into the financial dealings of the head of Emmanuel Macron’s successful presidential campaign, throwing a new spotlight on sleaze in a fraught election year.

The preliminary probe comes 10 days before a parliamentary vote where Macron hopes his new political party Republic On The Move (LREM) will win control of the National Assembly and consolidate his grip on power after his own election on May 7.

Opinion polls so far show he is likely to achieve that aim, and that the affair surrounding Richard Ferrand, now a minister in the Macron government, is not impacting voting intentions. 

However, two of Macron’s main opponents were hamstrung by corruption allegations during the bitter battle for the presidency. Macron’s government has put political probity front and centre in his first two weeks in power, and was due later on Thursday to introduce a plan for new anti-graft legislation.

A voter survey earlier this week showed most feel Ferrand should step down.

“Is there a risk? [for the parliamentary election result] The answer is yes,” Jean-Paul Delevoye, the man in charge of choosing Macron’s party’s candidates for the parliamentary election, acknowledged to reporters at the European American Press club. But he added he was nevertheless confident of having a solid majority in parliament.

Failure to secure a majority in the June 11 and 18 election could put Macron’s centrist, pro-business reform agenda at risk by forcing him into an uncomfortable alliance, most likely with mainstream conservative party The Republicans, which is still smarting from defeat in the presidentials.

In France, the opening of a preliminary inquiry does not imply guilt. Prosecutors decide after such preliminary checks whether there are grounds for a full-scale probe or not.

‘Good news’?

The government tried to put a brave face on the opening of the inquiry, with spokesman Christophe Castaner telling LCI television this was “good news” because the issue would now be handled by magistrates rather than by the press.

“Nothing in the case” points to Ferrand being guilty of anything, he added.

The public prosecutor in the western city of Brest said he had decided to open the inquiry after a string of media reports about the business and financial dealings of Ferrand, minister for territorial planning and a former Socialist who became one of his key early backers.

Media reports about Ferrand focus on his management of a medical insurance group in Brittany six years ago, notably a decision to rent office space from his partner.

Another issue is his hiring of his son for four months as an assistant paid from parliamentary funds.

Ferrand has denied wrongdoing, and while hiring family as parliamentary assistants is banned in some countries, it is not illegal in France.

Failed conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon’s campaign was derailed by sleaze allegations and he is now under formal investigation, not because he paid members of his family from public funds, but because of allegations that his wife in particular did not do much actual work for the money.

The proposed new legislation to clean up political practices is set to ban hiring of family by members of parliament.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, another failed presidential candidate, is also under investigation with regard to the hiring of party activists as assistants in the European parliament.

Macron has not spoken publicly about the allegations surrounding Ferrand, but Castaner said on Wednesday the president had urged ministers to show solidarity with the man who was head of his presidential campaign team. 

KABUL — A powerful bomb hidden in a sewage tanker exploded in the morning rush hour in the centre of the Afghan capital on Wednesday, police said, killing at least 80 people, wounding hundreds and damaging embassy buildings.

The victims appeared mainly to have been Afghan civilians.

The bomb, one of the deadliest in Kabul and coming at the start of the holy month of Ramadan, exploded close to the fortified entrance to the German embassy, wounding some staff, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. Pictures showed the embassy building with its windows ripped out. 

One Afghan security guard was killed and others were likely among the dead, Gabriel said. A spokeswoman for the German foreign ministry said the bomber's target was unknown.

"Such attacks do not change our resolve in continuing to support the Afghan government in the stabilisation of the country," Gabriel said.

Basir Mujahid, a spokesman for city police, said the explosives were hidden in a sewage truck. He also suggested that the German embassy might not have been the target of the blast, which sent towering clouds of black smoke into the sky near the presidential palace.

"There are several other important compounds and offices near there too," he told Reuters.

The blast, which shattered windows and blew doors off their hinges in houses hundreds of metres away, was unusually strong.

No group had claimed responsibility by late Wednesday afternoon.

The Taliban, seeking to reimpose Islamic rule after their 2001 ouster by US-led forces, denied responsibility and said they condemned attacks that have no legitimate target and killed civilians.

The Daesh terror group, a smaller militant group in Afghanistan seeking to project its claim to a global Islamic caliphate beyond its Middle East base, has previously claimed responsibility for high-profile attacks in Kabul, including one on a military hospital in March that killed more than 50 people.

The NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission in Kabul said Afghan security forces prevented the vehicle carrying the bomb from entering the heavily protected Green Zone that houses many foreign embassies as well as its headquarters, also suggesting it may not have reached its intended target.

A public health official said at least 80 people had been killed and more than 350 wounded. 

Germany will cease flights deporting rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan in the next few days, a German official confirmed. Germany began carrying out group deportations of Afghans in December, seeking to show it is tackling an influx of migrants by getting rid of those who do not qualify as refugees.

The French, Turkish and Chinese embassies were among those damaged, the three countries said, adding there were no immediate signs of injuries among their diplomats. The BBC said one of its drivers, an Afghan, was killed driving journalists to work. Four journalists were wounded and treated in hospital.

Switzerland said the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation had several windows broken but the staff were safe.

Video shot at the scene showed burning debris, crumbled walls and buildings, and destroyed cars, many with dead or injured people inside. Blood streamed down the faces of walking wounded.

‘Felt like an earthquake’

At the Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital a few blocks away, there were scenes of chaos as ambulances brought in wounded. Frantic relatives scanned casualty lists and questioned hospital staff for news.

"It felt like an earthquake," said 21-year-old Mohammad Hassan, describing the moment the blast struck the bank where he was working. His head wound had been bandaged but blood still soaked his white dress shirt.

Another lightly wounded victim, Nabib Ahmad, 27, said there was widespread destruction and confusion.

"I couldn't think clearly, there was a mess everywhere," he said.

Frenzy erupted out outside the hospital as ambulances and police trucks began bringing in the bodies of those killed. Some bodies were burned or destroyed beyond recognition.

India and Pakistan condemned the blast.

"India stands with Afghanistan in fighting all types of terrorism. Forces supporting terrorism need to be defeated," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet. India said its embassy staff were safe. 

Wednesday's attack provided another clear demonstration that Ramadan, which began at the weekend, would provide little respite from the violence across Afghanistan.

Amnesty International demanded an immediate and impartial investigation.

"Today's tragedy shows that the conflict in Afghanistan is not winding down but dangerously widening, in a way that should alarm the international community," it said in a statement.

The explosion will add pressure to the fragile government of President Ashraf Ghani, which has faced mounting discontent over its inability to control the insurgency and provide security for Afghan citizens.

The Taliban have been stepping up their push to defeat the US-backed government. Since most international troops withdrew at the end of 2014, the Taliban have gained ground and now control or contest about 40 per cent of the country, according to US estimates, though Ghani's government holds all provincial centres.

US President Donald Trump is due to decide soon on a recommendation to send 3,000 to 5,000 more troops to bolster the small NATO training force and US counter-terrorism mission now totalling just over 10,000.

The commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, told a congressional hearing this year that he needed several thousand more troops to help Afghan forces break a "stalemate" with the Taliban.

MARAWI, Philippines — Philippine authorities on Tuesday warned extremist militants occupying parts of a southern city to surrender or die, as attack helicopters pounded the gunmen's strongholds where up to 2,000 residents were feared trapped.

More than 100 people have been confirmed killed in the conflict, which began last week when gunmen waving black flags of the Daesh terror group rampaged through the mostly Muslim-populated city of Marawi.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across the entire southern region of Mindanao, home to roughly 20 million people, in response to the crisis as he warned that local militant groups were uniting behind Daesh and becoming a major security threat.

But the militants, initially estimated by the nation's defence chief to number just 100, withstood eight days of intense air assaults and street-to-street combat, prompting the government's threats on Tuesday.

"We call on the remaining terrorists to surrender while there is an opportunity," military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said.

"For the terrorists, not surrendering will mean their sure death."

 Padilla also told AFP the surrender call was aimed at limiting the loss of more lives and property. 

Up to 2,000 residents were trapped in areas held by the militants, according to the local government, and the International Committee of the Red Cross voiced alarm they would be caught in the bombing raids or crossfire.

"The risks and the vulnerabilities of the people inside Marawi are rising every day," ICRC spokeswoman Lany Dela Cruz told AFP.

The militants also took a priest and up to 14 other people hostage at the start of the crisis.

A video of the priest appeared on social media on Tuesday in which he repeated the militants' demands to withdraw, although it was unclear when the footage was filmed and its veracity could not be immediately verified.

Clashes on Tuesday appeared to be as intense as previous days, according to an AFP reporter who followed security forces who had to run from militants' sniper fire coming from nearby buildings. 

Military helicopters fired rockets repeatedly on that part of the city on Tuesday morning, and black smoke rose from the buildings that were apparently hit.

The militants had killed at least 19 civilians, while 20 security forces and 65 gunmen had died, according to the military.

Planned major assault 

The violence began when dozens of gunmen went on a rampage in response to an attempt by security forces to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant regarded as the local leader of Daesh.

Hapilon, a senior member of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang, is on the US government's list of most-wanted terrorists.

He was being protected in Marawi by the local Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to IS.

The gunmen were being backed by foreign fighters, including Malaysians, Indonesians and Singaporeans, authorities said.

Hapilon, the Maute and other militants had been planning a major attack on Marawi, one of the few Islamic cities in the mainly Catholic Philippines with a population of 200,000 people, armed forces chief General Eduardo Ano said.

He said they were planning to launch the assault to coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on the weekend, but the raid on Hapilon triggered them to attack earlier, according to Ano.

A Muslim separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines has claimed more than 120,000 lives since the 1970s.

The main Muslim rebel groups have signed accords with the government aimed at forging a final peace, giving up their separatist ambitions in return for autonomy. 

The Maute, the Abu Sayyaf and other hardline groups are not interested in negotiating and have in recent years looked to Daesh to help them.

The Marawi violence was intended to highlight their credentials to Daesh, security analysts have said.

Duterte said Saturday he was prepared to enforce martial law for as long as was necessary to end the terrorist threat.

MARAWI, Philippines — The Philippines military said on Monday it was close to retaking a southern city held for a seventh day by extremist militants, as helicopters unleashed more rockets on positions held by the rebels aligned with the Daesh terror group.

The clashes in Marawi city with the Maute militia, a group hardly known a year ago, has become the biggest security challenge of Rodrigo Duterte's 11-month presidency, with gunmen resisting air and ground assaults and still in control of central parts of a city of 200,000 people.

The military said the rebels may be getting help from "sympathetic elements" and fighters they had freed from jail during the rampage that started on Tuesday and caught the military by surprise.

"Our ground commanders have assured that the end is almost there," military spokesman, Restituto Padilla told reporters.

"We can control who comes in and who comes out, who moves around and who doesn't. And we're trying to isolate all these pockets of resistance."

 More than 100 people have been killed, most of them militants, according to the military, and most of the city's residents have fled.

The military said the Maute group was still present in nine of the city's 96 Barangays, or communities.

The Maute group's ability to fight off the military for so long will add to fears that Daesh radical ideology is spreading in the southern Philippines and it could become a haven for militants from Indonesia, Malaysia and beyond.

The government believes the Maute carried out their assault before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to capture the attention of Daesh and earn recognition as a Southeast Asian affiliate.

The military's estimates of the size of the rebel force and the extent of its occupation have fluctuated each day. It has maintained throughout that it is in full control of the situation and says supporters of the Maute were making exaggerated claims on social media. 

According to witnesses, men with black headbands typical of Daesh were seen on city streets in recent days. A photograph taken by a resident shows 10 men carrying assault rifles and dressed entirely in black.

A Reuters photographer saw a Daesh flag in an oil drum in an abandoned street on Monday, where chickens roamed in front of damaged shops and homes.

Lockdown

Iligan City, 38 km away, was overflowing with evacuees and was on lockdown over fears that fighters had sneaked out of Marawi by blending in with civilians.

"We don't want what's happening in Marawi to spill over in Iligan," said Colonel Alex Aduca, chief of the Fourth Mechanised Infantry Battalion.

Sixty-one militants, 20 members of the security forces and 19 civilians have been killed since Tuesday, when Maute rebels went on the rampage after a botched military operation to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, who the government believes is a point man for Daesh in the Philippines.

Some troops tried to eliminate Maute snipers on Monday as others guarded deserted streets, taken back block-by-block.

Helicopters circled the lakeside city and smoke poured out of some buildings. Artillery explosions echoed.

Though most people have left, thousands are stranded, worried they could be intercepted by militants at checkpoints on routes out of the city.

There were still bodies of civilians in Marawi and residents urged the military to halt air strikes, said Zia Alonto Adiong, a politician involved in evacuation efforts.

"The anticipation of death is worse than death itself," he told news channel ANC. "We appeal to our military forces to do a different approach."

The military said air strikes were taken on "known and verified enemy positions".

"We are using precision ammunition in our surgical air strikes," said another army spokesman, Colonal Edgard Arevalo. "We have highly skilled and trained pilots delivering the payload." 

Bodies of what appeared to be executed civilians were found in a ravine outside Marawi on Sunday as the crisis took a more sinister turn. Most of the eight men were shot in the head and some had bound hands.

Duterte imposed martial law last week on Mindanao, an island of 22 million people where both Marawi and Iligan are located, to quell the unrest and wipe out militancy.

He made an unconventional offer on Saturday to Muslim separatists and Communist rebels to join his fight against extremists, and said he would give them the same pay and benefits as government troops. 

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has supervised the test of a new anti-aircraft weapon system and ordered its mass production and deployment throughout the country, the state news agency reported on Sunday, after weeks of defiant ballistic missile tests.

The North's KCNA news agency did not report the exact nature of the weapon or the time of the test but said it was organised by the Academy of National Defence Science, a blacklisted agency that is believed to be developing missiles and nuclear weapons.

The North has been pushing to develop a wide range of weapon systems since early last year at an unprecedented pace including a long-range missile capable of striking the mainland United States and has in recent weeks tested its intermediate-range ballistic missile, making some technical advances.

The reclusive state rejects UN and unilateral sanctions by other states against its weapons programme as an infringement of its right to self defense and says the programme is necessary to counter US aggression.

It last conducted a ballistic missile test a week ago.

The United States denies any intention to attack the North.

"Kim Jong-un... watched the test of a new type of anti-aircraft guided weapon system organised by the Academy of National Defence Science," KCNA said on Sunday.

"This weapon system, whose operation capability has been thoroughly verified, should be mass-produced to deploy all over the country ... so as to completely spoil the enemy's wild dream to command the air, boasting of air supremacy and weapon almighty," it said.

KCNA said Kim was accompanied by his military aides and listed the three men believed to be the top officials in the country's rapidly accelerating missile programme.

They are Ri Pyongchol, a former top air force general; Kim Jongsik, a veteran rocket scientist; and Jang Chang-ha, the head of the Academy of National Defence Science, a weapons development and procurement centre.

North Korea said on Monday it had successfully tested what it called an intermediate-range ballistic missile that met all technical requirements and could now be mass-produced, although outside officials and experts questioned the extent of its progress.

On Tuesday, the head of the US Defence Intelligence Agency said that if left unchecked, North Korea is on an "inevitable" path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States.

Appearing at a Senate hearing, Defence Intelligence Agency Director Vincent Stewart declined to offer a time estimate but Western experts believe the North still needed several years to develop such a weapon.

TAORMINA, Italy — G-7 leaders on Saturday wrapped up their annual summit with an unprecedented display of division over climate change as US President Donald Trump rebuffed pressure to toe the collective line in the club of powerful democracies.

Trump tweeted that he would reveal his hand only next week as to whether he will keep the United States in the Paris accord, a global pact on curbing carbon emissions that he vowed to jettison when campaigning for the White House.

The G-7 leading economies, in an extraordinary summit statement, acknowledged that six members were committed to upholding the 2015 accord while the United States stood apart.

“The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics,” the statement said in highly-unusual language.

Despite the discord, Trump concluded his first overseas trip on a typically bullish note, telling US service families at the Sigonella base in Sicily he had “hit a home run” shortly before taking off to fly back home.

Condemning this week’s deadly terror attacks in Manchester and Egypt, Trump said such atrocities “steel our resolve”.

“Together civilised nations will crush the terrorists, block their funding, strip them of their territory and drive them out of this earth,” he said.

A short time later, scuffles broke out among protesters near the ancient hilltop town of Taormina where the summit had taken place under high security.

‘Six against one’ 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also crossed swords with Trump on free trade at the G-7, complained that the US president was keeping his colleagues in the dark.

“The whole discussion on the topic of climate was very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory”, she told reporters, labelling the G-7 deadlock as “six against one”.

On trade, the G-7 vowed “to keep our markets open and to fight protectionism”, but also to combat “unfair trade practices” and help those left behind by globalisation, after Trump came to power vowing “America First”.

On other fronts, the G-7: 

- Noted that the global economy remains patchy with downside risks, pledging “to use all policy tools” to sustain growth;

- Threatened stronger sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea if Moscow’s actions warrant it;

- Condemned nuclear-armed North Korea’s recent missile tests and said they were ready to take new measures as necessary after various rounds of UN sanctions;

- Demanded support from Russia and Iran for a peace process in Syria, and similarly called for an inclusive dialogue in Libya.

All change

After starting his first presidential trip abroad wreathed in smiles, Trump ended it with rebukes, upbraiding America’s European partners over military spending, trade and global warming.

An enduring motif of the G-7, which represents the lion’s share of global economic output, has been to champion free trade. 

At last year’s summit in Japan, leaders issued a lengthy communique in support of resisting protectionism, as well as helping refugees and fighting climate change.

But that was then, when Barack Obama still occupied the White House. Today, his successor is defiant about defying the G-7 line after accusing China, Germany and others of cheating in international trade.

Trump reportedly described the Germans as “bad, very bad” in their trade practices while visiting Brussels this past week. 

“We had very hard deliberations and discussions about trade but we found a reasonable solution,” Merkel said, stressing the G-7 statement’s commitment to open markets.

‘Migrants’ plight

The G-7’s Italian presidency held this year’s summit in the Mediterranean island of Sicily to underline the proximity of the migrant crisis.

But even that prompted discord among participants as Trump resisted the hosts’ desire to issue a declaration underlining the benefits as well as pitfalls of migration.

That sort of language is anathema to a White House that wants to impose a ban on travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.

The G-7 statement recognised the human rights of migrants and refugees.

But with Trump promising to build a “beautiful” wall on the US-Mexico border, it also said: “We reaffirm the sovereign rights of states, individually and collectively, to control their own borders”.

No questions

In a telling sign of the divisions now plaguing the G-7, this year’s statement came in at a meagre six pages — down from 32 pages last year.

The summit did find common ground on Friday in endorsing a British call urging internet service providers and social media companies to crack down on jihadist content online after 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber in the northwestern English city of Manchester this week. 

But while Trump did battle on an array of summit fronts, he also found himself dogged by new allegations as investigations proceed in Washington into whether Russian meddling helped his election victory last year.

The Washington Post reported that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made a pre-inauguration proposal to the Russian ambassador to set up a secret, bug-proof communications line with the Kremlin.

There was no immediate comment from the White House, but Trump has angrily rejected allegations of such collusion.

KHOST, Afghanistan — A Taliban car bomber killed 13 people in Afghanistan's Khost city on Saturday, in the first major attack at the start of the holy month of Ramadan that targeted a CIA-funded militia group.

The powerful explosion in the eastern Afghan city, which also wounded six people including children, left the area littered with charred debris, shattered glass and mangled vehicles.

It is the latest in a series of assaults on Western-backed forces as the Taliban step up their annual spring offensive and the insurgency expands more than 15 years after they were ousted from power in a US-led invasion.

"A suicide car bomb in Khost province has killed 13 people," said Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish. "The target was a public bus station which was hit by the bombing. The victims were in civilian clothes and it is difficult to verify their identities."

 But provincial police chief Faizullah Ghairat said members of the elite Khost Provincial Force (KPF) — known to be paid and equipped by the American CIA —were the target of the attack.

"The bombing took place early morning when KPF members were heading to work," Ghairat told AFP. "But most of the victims are civilians."

 The KPF, estimated to have around 4,000 fighters, are believed to operate a shadow war against the Taliban in a province that borders Pakistan and are accused of torture and extrajudicial killings.

The brazen attack, claimed by the Taliban on their website, comes just a day after at least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when insurgents attacked their base in Kandahar, in the third major assault this week on the military in the southern province.

The attack in Shah Wali Kot district followed insurgent raids earlier this week on military bases in the same area and Maiwand district, bringing the death toll among Afghan troops in Kandahar to around 60.

 Unforgivable crime' 

The battlefield losses mark a stinging blow for NATO-backed Afghan forces and have raised concerns about their capacity to beat back the resurgent Taliban. 

Afghan forces are beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.

During another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.

The pleas for attention, a major embarrassment for the Western-backed government, highlighted the disarray in security ranks.

The United Nations this week called on all parties of the conflict for a halt in fighting during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

That has prompted no response from the Taliban, who launched their annual spring offensive in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy.

"Terrorists, on the first day of Ramadan, conducted an attack in Khost that martyred a number of countrymen," the Afghan presidential office said in a statement.

"The terrorists do not value any religious and holy days, committing a war crime and an unforgivable crime."

 US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.

The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.