Pope condemns West's sale of weapons
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis blamed Europe and the United States for the deaths of children in Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, saying Saturday that wealthy Western countries fuel conflicts by selling weapons in war zones.
Speaking to students and teachers of Milan's San Carlo Institute, Francis said the reason there are so many wars around the world is "the rich Europe and America sell weapons ... used to kill children and kill people."
Without such firepower, the pope added, there wouldn't have been war in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria.
"A country that produces and sells weapons has on its conscience the death of every child and the destruction of each family," Francis said.
Talking about the need for countries to welcome and integrate migrants, the pope rebutted the crime concerns governments cite to keep out asylum seekers.
Foreigners aren't the source of most crime in Italy because "we also have lots of them," Francis said.
"The Mafia has not been invented by Nigerians. Mafia is ours," he said. "All of us have the possibility of being criminal. Migrants bring us wealth because Europe has been made by migrants."
ISIS prison breakout thwarted in Syria
BEIRUT -- Islamic State militants attempted to break out of a detention facility in northeastern Syria, but U.S.-backed Syrian fighters restored calm, activists and the U.S-led coalition said Saturday.
Few details emerged about what transpired a day earlier in the detention facility in the town of Derik, in Kurdish-administered northeastern Syria.
Activists from the Rojava Information Center said local anti-terror forces were deployed Friday around the building and on its roof after the attempted prison break. The activist-run media platform said warplanes flew over the facility.
Col. Scott Rawlinson, coalition spokesman, said all detainees were accounted for after the Syrian Democratic Forces "peacefully" dealt with the incident. He said coalition forces supported the Syrian Democratic Forces with aerial observation but provided no further details.
Syrian Democratic Forces officials had no immediate comments.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces is holding hundreds of foreign Islamic State militants in facilities around areas they control in northeast Syria. Many more local suspects are detained separately.
Taliban blamed in deadly Afghan attacks
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Insurgents killed seven policemen and three civilians in attacks across Afghanistan on Saturday, provincial officials said.
Such attacks, blamed on the Taliban, have continued in recent months, even as the militants hold talks with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to negotiate an American troop withdrawal.
In a visit to Kabul last week, Khalilzad lobbied for "intra-Afghan dialogue" -- talks that would encompass prominent Afghan figures, government representatives and the opposition, as well as the Taliban. The U.S. envoy has held several rounds of talks with the Taliban, most recently last month in Qatar where both sides said progress was made.
But despite such talks, the Taliban continue to attack Afghan forces. The insurgents, who control half the country, refuse to talk directly with the government in Kabul, considering it a U.S. puppet.
In eastern Ghazni province on Saturday, the Taliban killed three policemen and wounded seven others in attacks on security checkpoints, said a spokesman for the provincial police chief, Ahmad Khan Serat. The group claimed responsibility.
In the northern Sari Pul province, at least four policemen were killed when the Taliban stormed a security checkpoint, a provincial official said.
In eastern Nangarhar province, twin bomb blasts killed at least three civilians, said Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. No militant groups immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in Sari Pul and Nangarhar.
Iran advises Iraq to shorten U.S. stay
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's top leader has warned the Iraqi prime minister against a lengthy presence of U.S. forces in Iran's neighboring Arab country.
The website of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday quotes him as telling Adel Abdul-Mahdi that Iraq's government should take measures to remove American forces quickly. He says the longer the U.S. forces are there, the more difficult it will be to remove them.
Some 5,200 troops are stationed in Iraq as part of a security agreement with the Iraqi government to advise, assist and support the country's troops in the fight against the Islamic State.
A Section on 04/07/2019