Tag Archives: Death

Georgian soldier killed in Afghanistan convoy attack: coalition

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Georgian soldier from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission was killed and six personnel were wounded in Afghanistan on Thursday after a suicide bomber attacked their convoy in Kabul province, a coalition statement said.

In addition, two Afghan civilians were killed and seven wounded in the attack.

The wounded service personnel, three Georgians, two Americans and a local interpreter, were being treated at a U.S. military hospital at Bagram airfield and were in stable condition, the statement said.

The incident occurred in Qarabagh district outside the capital, Kabul.

The coalition maintains nearly 13,000 troops from 39 countries, as part of a mission to train, advise and assist Afghan troops. Georgia is not a member of NATO, but has 870 troops serving in Afghanistan, one of the largest contingents in the coalition.

“The commitment of Georgia as our largest non-NATO contributor is vital to our mission and we are honored to stand beside them under these difficult circumstances,” said the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson.

A suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan killed two American troops on Wednesday as they traveled in a convoy near the airport in southern Kandahar city, the U.S. military said, in a strike claimed by the Taliban insurgency.

The attack was seen as a reminder of the dangers posed to the 8,400 U.S. service members in Afghanistan as President Donald Trump weighs sending thousands more troops to fight America’s longest war.

U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan have asked for several thousand additional troops, but the request is stalled in Washington, where Trump has expressed skepticism over extending the American commitment.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and James Mackenzie; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Clarence Fernandez)

Elite firefighter killed while battling western Montana blaze

(Reuters) – An elite California firefighter was killed by a falling tree while battling a blaze in western Montana, the second firefighting death in the area over the last two weeks, officials said.

Brent Witham, 29, of Mentone, California, was killed on Wednesday while fighting the so-called Lolo Peak Fire about 30 miles (50 km)south of Missoula in the Lolo National Park. It was sparked by lightning on July 15, the Missoula County sheriff and coroner said.

Witham was given CPR at the scene, but could not be revived, the Missoulian newspaper reported.

“Please keep wildland firefighters on the Lolo Peak fire and firefighters across the nation in your thoughts and prayers,” Leigh Golden, the fire department’s public information officer, said in an emailed statement to the newspaper.

Witham was a member of the Vista Grande Hotshots, an elite firefighting crew, one of 113 20-member specially trained squads in the United States that fight wildfires at close range with hand tools.

Witham’s death comes two weeks after Trenton Johnson, 19, was struck by a tree and killed while fighting the Florence Fire, a blaze in the Lolo National Forest, on July 19.

An elite squad of 19 Arizona firemen were killed in Arizona in 2014, the worst U.S. wildland firefighting tragedy in 80 years.

Witham was one of about 350 firefighters battling the Lolo Peak Fire that has burned 6,500 acres (2,600 hectares) of high elevation timber 10 miles (26 km) southwest of Lolo, forcing some evacuations.

 

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; editing by Clelia Oziel)

 

In violence-plagued Baltimore, weekend ceasefire offers glimmer of hope

In violence-plagued Baltimore, weekend ceasefire offers glimmer of hope

By Ian Simpson

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – After the deaths of nearly 20 of her friends and relatives, Erricka Bridgeford said she wanted to take a stand against Baltimore’s worst wave of deadly violence in a generation.

It was with that sense of urgency that the 44-year-old community mediation trainer and other activists decided to organize a grassroots “ceasefire” to stop the killings, at least for 72 hours, starting at midnight on Thursday (0400 GMT on Friday).

“We want to purposefully just have a pause and a sacred space where everybody’s intention is that nobody gets killed,” Bridgeford said.

The ceasefire has the support of gang leaders, drug dealers and others linked to the violence, she said.

The slogan selected by organizers gets straight to the point: “Nobody kill anybody.”

That immediate goal is ambitious, given the spotty response to the last Baltimore ceasefire, when two people died in May on Mother’s Day weekend, slightly above the average weekend toll.

As a consequence, there is plenty of skepticism in the city, where rioting broke out in 2015 over the death of a black man in police custody.

Even so, the organizers hope that this time Maryland’s largest city can take a first, tentative step in changing a culture of violence that has fueled one of the highest homicide rates in the United States.

So far this year, there have been 206 homicides in Baltimore, putting it on a pace to break the record of 353 in 1993.

Baltimore, along with Chicago and Detroit, is among cities that Republican President Donald Trump has mentioned in criticizing the failure of local politicians, mostly Democrats, to stop the violence.

T.J. Smith, a Baltimore police spokesman whose own brother was shot to death last month, said the department backed the ceasefire as a grassroots effort to curb violence.

He blamed the trend on repeat offenders caught up in the drug trade, gang rivalries and other disputes.

But on the streets of West Baltimore, where riots erupted after a young African-American man named Freddie Gray died from an injury in the back of a police van, retiree Todd Douglas sounded a note of skepticism, saying the killings would simply resume once the ceasefire ended.

“They’ll just wait and make up for lost time,” Douglas said.

Ceasefire organizers are planning almost 50 events -cookouts, peace walks, a basketball tournament and prayer meetings – across the largely African-American city of 615,000 people.

The Rev. Scott Slater, an Episcopal priest, will lead prayers at 10 spots where people have been killed in the past year.

“The intent is to honor the people who never make the news, except as a statistic,” Slater said by phone.

If nothing else comes from the ceasefire, such gestures were a first step in helping residents feel that they were regaining control of neighborhoods, said Cassandra Crifasi, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins-Baltimore Collaborative for Violence Reduction.

“Even if it ends up being only one day without a shooting, that’s going to be good for the city,” Crifasi said.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Grant McCool)

Investigators look for answers in deadly Minneapolis school explosion

Investigators look for answers in deadly Minneapolis school explosion

(Reuters) – Federal and state authorities on Thursday investigated the cause of a gas explosion that ripped through a Christian private school in Minneapolis, killing two people and injured nine.

School receptionist Ruth Berg and staff member John Carlson were killed in the explosion that tore through the Upper School of the Minnehaha Academy at about 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the school said.

“Please keep John’s family, Ruth’s family, those who were injured, and our school community, in your prayers,” the school said on Facebook.

The school called Carlson, who graduated from the school in 1953, its “biggest cheerleader.” Carlson, 82, was a custodian and Berg, a 47-year-old receptionist, was engaged to be married, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper reported.

Local officials said it appeared that a ruptured gas line may have led to the explosion, caused by contractors working at the school, local media reported.

The academy said there had been a gas leak and explosion at its school.

The state fire marshal and local fire officials were combing through the rubble on Thursday to determine the exact cause of the explosion, Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel said at a news conference on Wednesday.

“The investigators will continue their work and hopefully they will have some answers … in the coming days,” he said.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had agents on the scene, the agency said on Twitter.

According to its website, Minnehaha Academy was founded in 1913 and teaches more than 800 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade on two campuses.

School was not in session due to summer break.

“It would have been dramatically worse … we were pretty lucky in that sense,” Fruetel said.

Of the nine people injured, one was in critical condition and three were in satisfactory condition at Hennepin County Medical Center. Another five were released, the hospital said on Twitter.

Hundreds of people crowded into the campus chapel for a prayer service at the academy’s lower and middle campus on Wednesday night.

“We’re going to get through it,” said Minnehaha Academy President Donna Harris, who was injured in the explosion. “We trust God. He is going to do phenomenal work.”

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Exclusive: Russian losses in Syria jump in 2017, Reuters estimates show

A portrait of Russian private military contractor Yevgeni Chuprunov is seen at his grave in Novomoskovsk, in Tula region, Russia June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Maria Tsvetkova

By Maria Tsvetkova

BELORECHENSK, Russia (Reuters) – Ten Russian servicemen have been killed fighting in Syria so far this year, according to statements from the Defence Ministry.

But based on accounts from families and friends of the dead and local officials, Reuters estimates the actual death toll among Russian soldiers and private contractors was at least 40.

That tally over seven months exceeds the 36 Russian armed personnel and contractors estimated by Reuters to have been killed in Syria over the previous 15 months, indicating a significant rise in the rate of battlefield losses as the country’s involvement deepens.

Most of the deaths reported by Reuters have been confirmed by more than one person, including those who knew the deceased or local officials. In nine cases, Reuters corroborated a death reported in local or social media with another source.

The data may be on the conservative side, as commanders encourage the families of those killed to keep quiet, relatives and friends of several fallen soldiers, both servicemen and contractors, said on condition of anonymity.

(For a graphic on Russian casualties in Syria’s conflict click http://tmsnrt.rs/2hjq3Et)

The true level of casualties in the Syrian conflict is a sensitive subject in a country where positive coverage of the conflict features prominently in the media and ahead of a presidential election next year that incumbent Vladimir Putin is expected to win.

The scale of Russian military casualties in peace time has been a state secret since Putin issued a decree three months before Russia launched its operation in Syria. While Russia does not give total casualties, it does disclose some deaths.

Discrepancies in data may be explained partly by the fact that Russia does not openly acknowledge that private contractors fight alongside the army; their presence in Syria would appear to flout a legal ban on civilians fighting abroad as mercenaries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that any Russian private citizens fighting alongside the Syrian army are volunteers. “If there are Russian citizens in Syria as volunteers and so on, they have nothing to do with the state,” Peskov said in response to a question about the Reuters story on a daily conference call with media.

The Defence Ministry denied Reuters findings on Russian losses. “This is not the first time that Reuters is attempting to discredit by any means Russia’s operation aiming to destroy Islamic State terrorists and return peace to Syria,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said the Russian military is focused on delivering humanitarian aid and negotiating peace in Syria, and called information about Russian private military contractors “a myth”.

The government has previously denied understating casualty figures in Syria, where Moscow entered the conflict nearly two years ago in support of President Bashar al-Assad, one of its closest Middle East allies.

Months after soldiers die, Russia quietly acknowledges some losses, including private military contractors. Their families get state posthumous medals and local authorities sometimes name schools, which fallen soldiers attended as children, after them.

Of the 40 killed, Reuters has evidence that 21 were private contractors and 17 soldiers. The status of the remaining two people is unclear.

MISSION CREEP?

Little is known about the nature of operations in Syria involving Russian nationals. Russia initially focused on providing air support to Syrian forces, but the rate of casualties points to more ground intervention.

The last time Russia lost airmen in Syria was in August, 2016, and it suffered its first serious casualties on the ground this year in January, when six private military contractors died in one day.

Reuters has previously reported gaps between its casualty estimates and official figures, although the difference widened markedly this year.

Russian authorities disclosed that 23 servicemen were killed in Syria over 15 months in 2015-2016, whereas Reuters calculated the death toll at 36, a figure that included private contractors.

IN IT FOR THE MONEY?

One private contractor whose death in Syria was not officially acknowledged was 40-year-old Alexander Promogaibo, from the southern Russian town of Belorechensk. He died in Syria on April 25, his childhood friend Artur Marobyan told Reuters.

Promogaibo had earlier fought in the Chechen war with an elite Russian paratroops unit, according to Marobyan, who was his classmate at school.

He said his dead friend had struggled to get by while working as a guard in his hometown and needed money to build a house to live with his wife and small daughter.

Last year he decided to join private military contractors working closely with the Russian Defence Ministry in Syria and was promised a monthly wage of 360,000 roubles ($6,000), about nine times higher than the average Russian salary.

According to multiple sources, Russian private military contractors are secretly deployed in Syria under command of a man nicknamed Wagner.

Private military companies officially don’t exist in Russia. Reuters was unable to get in touch with commanders of Russian private contractors in Syria through people who know them.

“I told him it was dangerous and he wouldn’t be paid the money for doing nothing, but couldn’t convince him,” Marobyan said, recalling one of his last conversations with Promogaibo.

According to Marobyan, he got the job offer at a military facility belonging to Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) near the village of Molkino. The agency is a part of the Defence Ministry and does not have its own spokesperson.

The Kremlin did not reply to requests for comment.

Promogaibo went there for physical fitness tests and failed twice. He was accepted only after showing up for the third time having losing 55 kg after seven months of training.

“He left (Russia) in February,” said Marobyan, who only learnt that his friend had been killed in Syria when his body was delivered to his hometown in early May.

One more person who knew Promogaibo said he died in Syria.

Reuters was unable to find out where in Syria Promogaibo was killed.

Igor Strelkov, former leader of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine who stayed in touch with Russian volunteers who switched to battlefields in Syria, said in late May that military contractors from Russia recently fought near the Syrian town of Homs alongside Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

GRAVESTONES COVERED UP

Fifty-one-year-old Russian Gennady Perfilyev, a lieutenant colonel, was deployed in Syria as a military adviser. He was killed in shelling during a reconnaissance trip on April 8, his former classmates at Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School said.

“Several grammas of metal hit his heart,” Pave Bykov, one of his classmates, told Reuters.

One more classmate confirmed to Reuters Perfilyev was killed in Syria on a reconnaissance trip.

His name has not appeared in the Defence Ministry’s official notices of military deaths in Syria.

He was buried at a new heavily guarded military cemetery outside Moscow where visitors have to show their passports and are asked at the entrance whose grave they want to visit.

On Perfilyev’s gravestone, his name and the date of his death are covered by his portrait.

Several other servicemen killed in Syria and buried nearby also have photos obscuring their names and the dates of their death, which if visible would make it easier to trace how and where they died.

Names on other graves, of non-Syrian casualties, were visible.

Asked if this was a special secrecy measure, a cemetery official, Andrei Sosnovsky, said the names were covered up temporarily until proper monuments could be built.

($1 = 59.8930 roubles)

(Additional reporting by Denis Pinchuk in Moscow, Natalya Shurmina in Yekaterinburg, Russia; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mike Collett-White)

Charlie Gard, ‘beautiful little boy’ at heart of dispute, dies

Charlie Gard's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard read a statement at the High Court after a hearing on their baby's future, in London. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

By William James and Fanny Potkin

LONDON (Reuters) – Charlie Gard, a British baby who became the subject of a bitter dispute between his parents and doctors over whether he should be taken to the United States for experimental treatment, has died, local media said on Friday.

The 11-month-old baby suffered from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, and his parents’ long struggle to save him drew an international outpouring of sympathy, including from U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Francis.

“Our beautiful little boy has gone, we are so proud of you Charlie,” Connie Yates, the baby’s mother, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

Local media said a family spokesman had confirmed the death.

“Everyone at Great Ormond Street Hospital sends their heartfelt condolences to Charlie’s parents and loved-ones at this very sad time,” said a spokeswoman for the hospital, where Charlie had been receiving treatment

After a harrowing legal battle that prompted a global debate over who has the moral right to decide the fate of a sick child, a judge on Thursday ordered that Charlie be moved to a hospice where the ventilator that keeps him alive would be turned off.

Yates and the baby’s father Chris Gard had wanted Charlie to undergo a treatment that has never been tried on anyone with his condition before, against the advice of doctors at his London hospital who said it would not benefit him and would prolong his suffering.

Charlie required a ventilator to breathe and was unable to see, hear or swallow.

The case drew comment from Trump, who tweeted on July 3 that “we would be delighted” to help Charlie, and from Pope Francis, who called for the parents to be allowed to do everything possible to treat their child.

Britain’s courts, after hearing a wealth of medical evidence, ruled that it would go against Charlie’s best interests to have the experimental nucleoside therapy advocated by a U.S. professor of neurology, Michio Hirano.

The case prompted heated debate on social media and in the press on medical ethics, and staff at the Great Ormond Street Hospital which treated him received abuse and death threats.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that he was saddened to hear of Charlie’s death. He has previously referred to the case in the context of the U.S. healthcare debate, saying it offered a warning of the risks of state-funded healthcare.

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and David Milliken; Editing by Gareth Jones)

One dead in knife attack in Hamburg supermarket, motive unclear

Security forces are seen after a knife attack in a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany, July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen

BERLIN (Reuters) – One person was killed in an attack by a lone knifeman in a supermarket in the northern German city of Hamburg on Friday, and four more were injured when the man fled the scene, police said.

The police said the man had suddenly started attacking customers in the shop, with no immediate indication of any political or religious motive. Officers detained him near the site.

“We have no clear information as to the motive or the number of wounded,” Hamburg police said in a tweet. “It was definitely a lone attacker.” They said initial reports about a possible robbery had not been substantiated.

Police said passersby tackled the man after he fled the scene, injuring him slightly, before plain clothes police officers could take him into custody.

Police have been on high alert in Germany since a spate of attacks on civilians last year, including a December attack on a Berlin Christmas market, when a hijacked truck plougher into the crowds, killing 12 and injuring many more.

Security has been a campaign issue ahead of Sept. 24 parliamentary elections, in which Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to win a fourth term in office.

Newspaper Bild showed a picture of the alleged Hamburg attacker sitting in the back of a police car, his face concealed with a bloodied shroud.

A video on its website showed a helicopter landed outside the supermarket with armed police in body armor patrolling the neighborhood.

(Reporting By Thomas Escritt and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Michelle Martin and Toby Davis)

UK announces fire safety review after tests identify 82 unsafe tower blocks

A man looks at floral tributes for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fatal fire, in London, Britain July 15, 2017. REUTERS/Tolga Akmen

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain announced a review of building and fire safety rules on Friday after tests conducted following last month’s deadly tower block blaze in London found a cladding system known to be used on 82 buildings breached regulations.

Police have said they believe the system of insulation and cladding panels added during a refurbishment of Grenfell Tower may have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire in which 80 people died.

After initial testing highlighted potential fire risks in buildings across the country, a second, more extensive round of tests found a specific cladding system known to be in use on 82 buildings did not meet building regulations, the government said in a statement.

Alongside the release of the test results, ministers ordered an independent review of building regulations and fire safety.

“It’s clear we need to urgently look at building regulations and fire safety,” communities minister Sajid Javid said in a statement. “This independent review will ensure we can swiftly make any necessary improvements.”

The review will look at the existing regulatory system, compliance and enforcement of the regulations, and will draw on similar regulations overseas.

Friday’s results are the first to be published from six sets of tests involving three different types of aluminium composite material combined with two different types of insulation.

The government said immediate action was already underway to ensure the safety of residents in the affected buildings, without giving further details.

The BBC reported on Thursday that police investigating the fire believe there are grounds to suspect that corporate manslaughter may have been committed by the local council.

(Reporting by William James,; editing by Kylie MacLellan and Ed Osmond)

Dutch manufacturer suspends ride that killed 1 at Ohio fair

A ride called Fireball malfunctioned causing numerous injuries at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. July 26, 2017. Bruce Lamm/@OntheLamm/Social Media Website/via REUTERS

By Suzannah Gonzales and Chris Kenning

(Reuters) – The Dutch manufacturer of the ride that killed an 18-year-old man who just enlisted in the Marines and injured seven other people at the Ohio State Fair instructed operators on Thursday to suspend use of similar rides.

The notice from KMG International BV came as several states said they had temporarily shut or were further inspecting rides similar to the “Fireball,” which police in Columbus, Ohio, said flung the victims into the air on Wednesday after their seats snapped off.

“We are currently gathering information on the accident and investigating the cause and circumstances,” KMG product manager Albert Kroon said in a statement.

Following the death of Tyler Jarrell, 18, in Ohio, at least nine other states, a New Jersey county fair and a Canadian city said they were suspending or reinspecting similar rides.

Inspectors are notifying operators in Illinois to stop three “Fireball” rides, eight “Freak Out” rides, and one “Extreme” ride, state labor department officials said.

Officials said the Fireball ride will not operate at the Indiana State Fair when it opens next week, while Kentucky State Fair officials said they scrapped plans to include the Fireball ride at this year’s event in August.

A spokeswoman for the California State Fair said that operators there suspended use of the Fireball within 20 minutes of the Ohio accident and were reinspecting it.

“It’s one of the more popular rides. My son was just on it yesterday,” said spokeswoman Darla Givens.

North Carolina issued a moratorium on the ride’s use until an investigation is completed. Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Missouri, New York and the Monmouth County Fair in New Jersey also suspended operations of the Fireball and similar rides.

At an annual fair in the Canadian city of Edmonton, officials shut down the Fireball ride on Wednesday night until further notice, said Caiti Farquharson, a spokeswoman for the organization that holds the event.

Those taken to area hospitals after the Ohio accident ranged in age from 14 to 42, authorities said. Two patients remain in critical condition and another is in serious condition after multiple surgeries at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, according to a hospital statement.

Jarrell had enlisted in the Marines Friday and had been due to begin basic training in South Carolina next June, said Captain Oliver David, a Marine spokesman.

Since 2010, there have been 22 U.S. fatalities, including Jarrell, linked to amusement attractions such as rides, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is investigating the Ohio incident. That excludes work-related incidents and fatalities at water parks or slides.

There were about 30,900 injuries associated with amusement attractions seen in emergency rooms in 2016, commission spokeswoman Elizabeth Klinefelter said.

Amusements of America, which provided rides to the Ohio State Fair, called the Fireball “an aggressive thrill ride” and said it was one of its most popular since it began using it in 2002.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Chris Kenning in Chicago; Additional reporting by Julia Jacobs in Chicago and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker)

Floods kill 120 in India’s Gujarat, with industry, cotton hit

People use boats as they try to move to safer places along a flooded street in West Midnapore district, in West Bengal. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

By Amit Dave

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) – Widespread flooding in India’s western industrial state of Gujarat has killed more than 120 people and paralyzed infrastructure, officials said on Friday, with tens of thousands of cotton farmers also suffering heavy damage.

Torrential monsoon rain and flooding in recent weeks have killed at least 300 people in western and eastern states, an official in the National Disaster Management Authority told Reuters in New Delhi.

“Our teams are working in different parts of India with soldiers to ease the situation,” said Deepak Ghai, an emergency room control officer.

More than a million households had been affected and losses to farmlands were being assessed.

The airport in Ahmedabad, the main commercial hub of Gujarat, was partially flooded, forcing airlines to divert flights. More than 150 factories were forced to shut down, said A.R. Raval, a district administrator.

The floods have come at a particularly bad time for cotton farmers in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

Raval said more than 50,000 were struggling to drain water from their land and homes.

Recent downpours have hit cotton and millet in Gujarat and Rajasthan, where farm experts now fear pest infestations.

“Cotton and millet harvests are expected to suffer in about three districts each in Gujarat and Rajasthan, but the biggest worry is that the extra moisture could lead to pest attacks in these areas,” Devinder Sharma, an independent farm expert, said.

Rains have been 4 percent above average since the four-month monsoon season began in June, according to the state-run India Meteorological Department.

(Additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj Writing by Rupam Jain)