NATION/WORLD
Thursday, August 25, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Turkey makes irst major foray
into Syria with assault on IS
Jason Hoekema/The Brownsville Herald via AP, File
In this April 28 ile photo, a wrecker crew prepares to lip
over a Ford Bronco that was involved in an accident in
Brownsville, Texas.
Trafic fatalities
surge in irst
half of 2016
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Trafic
fatalities were up 9 percent
in the irst six months of this
year compared with the same
period last year, continuing
a surge in deaths that began
two years ago as the economy
improved and travel picked
up, according to preliminary
estimates released Tuesday by
the National Safety Council.
An estimated 19,100 people
were killed on U.S. roads from
January through June, said
the council, a congressionally
chartered nonproit that gets
its data from state authorities.
That’s 18 percent more than
two years ago at the six-month
mark. About 2.2 million people
also were seriously injured in
the irst half of this year.
The council estimates the
cost of these deaths and inju-
ries at about $205 billion.
At that rate, annual deaths
could exceed 40,000 fatalities
this year for the irst time in
nine years, the council said.
More than 35,000 people were
killed on U.S. roads last year,
making it the deadliest driving
year since 2008, when more
than 37,000 were killed.
“Our complacency is
killing us,” said Deborah A.P.
Hersman, the safety council’s
president and CEO. “Ameri-
cans should demand change
to prioritize safety actions and
protect ourselves from one of
the leading causes of prevent-
able death.”
U.S. drivers have also put
in a record 1.58 trillion miles
on the road in the irst half of
this year, a 3.3 percent increase
over the same period in 2015,
the Federal Highway Adminis-
tration said this week.
States with the biggest
increases since the upward
trend began in late 2014
include Vermont, up 82
percent; Oregon, 70 percent;
New Hampshire, 61 percent;
Idaho, 46 percent; Florida,
43 percent; Iowa, 37 percent;
Georgia, 34 percent; Indiana,
33 percent; California, 31
percent and Wisconsin, 29
percent.
Trafic deaths declined in
seven states over the same
two-year period: Delaware,
-8 percent; Hawaii, -11
percent; Montana, -3 percent;
Nebraska, -7 percent; North
Dakota, -10 percent; South
Dakota, -34 percent and
Wyoming, -35 percent. Trafic
deaths also declined 31 percent
in the District of Columbia.
“While many factors likely
contributed to the fatality
increase, a stronger economy
and lower unemployment rates
are at the core of the trend,”
the council said in a statement.
Another likely factor: Average
gas prices for the irst six
months of this year were 16
percent lower than in 2015.
The council also predicts
that 438 people will be killed
on the nation’s roads over the
three-day Labor Day weekend
that begins Sept. 2, which
would make it the deadliest
Labor Day weekend since
2008.
Historical data show that
after peaking in the 1970s,
trafic deaths have generally
trended downward, according
to the Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety. Large dips in
deaths have corresponded to
shocks to the economy — the
oil embargo of the mid-1970s,
the recessions of the early
1980s and early 1990s and
the more recent downturn that
began in late 2007 with the
subprime mortgage crisis.
During the Great Recession
triggered by the housing crisis,
the number of miles Ameri-
cans put on the road each year
plunged and fatalities dropped
to levels not seen since Harry
Truman was president.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey
on Wednesday launched its irst major
ground assault into Syria since the
country’s civil war began, sending
in tanks and special forces backed by
U.S. airstrikes to help Syrian rebels
retake a border town from Islamic State
militants.
The surprise incursion to capture
the town of Jarablus was a dramatic
escalation of Turkey’s role in Syria’s
war. But its objective went beyond
ighting extremists. Turkey is also
aiming to contain expansion by Syria’s
Kurds, who are also backed by the
United States and have used the ight
against IS and the chaos of the civil war
to seize nearly the entire stretch of the
border with Turkey in northern Syria.
That raises the potential for explo-
sive frictions between two American
allies. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden
lew into Ankara hours after the offen-
sive, and he backed Turkey with a stern
warning to the Kurds to stay east of the
Euphrates River, which crosses from
Turkey into Syria at Jarablus.
Kurdish forces “must move back
across the Euphrates River. They
cannot, will not, under any circum-
stance get American support if they do
not keep that commitment,” he said.
The Turkish assault, launched in
retaliation after a string of militant
bombings in Turkey, adds yet another
powerhouse force on the ground in an
already complicated war.
It appeared Turkish forces would
remain for at least the near term. A
senior Turkish oficial told journalists
that operations would continue until
“we are convinced” imminent threats
Colombia, FARC
rebels reach deal
to end 50-year war
HAVANA (AP) —
Colombia’s government
and the country’s biggest
rebel group reached a deal
Wednesday evening for
ending a half-century of
hostilities in what has been
one of the world’s longest-
running armed conlicts.
The government’s accord
with the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
must still be ratiied by
voters in a plebiscite in order
to take effect.
But the announcement
in Havana of a deal after
four years of talks opens the
possibility for Colombians
to put behind them political
bloodshed that has claimed
more than 220,000 lives and
driven more than 5 million
people from their homes.
The accord, whose
inal text has yet to be
published, commits
Colombia’s government
to carrying out aggressive
land reform, overhauling its
anti-narcotics strategy and
greatly expanding the state
into traditionally neglected
areas of the country. But
many sensitive details
being worked out during
around-the-clock sessions in
recent days remain unknown
and the joint statement read
by the talks’ Cuban and
Norwegian sponsors was
intended more to celebrate
the conclusion of talks than
offer new insights.
Negotiations began in
November 2012 and were
plagued by distrust built
Italy earthquake
kills at least 159
AMATRICE, Italy
(AP) — Rescue crews
using bulldozers and their
bare hands raced to dig out
survivors from a strong
earthquake that reduced
three central Italian towns
to rubble Wednesday. The
death toll stood at 159, but
the number of dead and
missing was uncertain given
the thousands of vacationers
in the area for summer’s
inal days.
Residents wakened
before dawn by the
temblor emerged from
their crumbled homes to
ind what they described
to Turkey are neutralized. He said the
aim is to create a “terror-free zone”
in northern Syria to prevent militants
from entering Turkey. The oficial
spoke on condition of anonymity in
line with government regulations.
The Turkish assault began around 4
a.m. with a furious barrage by artillery
and warplanes. Then around 20 Turkish
tanks, a team of Turkish special forces,
and hundreds of Syrian rebels surged
across the border, according to Turkish
media and Syrian opposition activists.
Only hours later, the rebels burst
into Jarablus, posting photos from the
town’s center. IS militants withdrew
apparently without a ight, retreating
to the IS-held town of al-Bab further
south.
In the evening, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced
that rebels had retaken the city, saying
they seized “government and oficial
residences.” He spoke alongside Biden,
who said Washington backed the
offensive with airstrikes, adding, “We
believe very strongly that the Turkish
border should be controlled by Turkey.”
Much of what happens next depends
on whether the Turkish offensive goes
deeper and what they move against:
IS-held towns or nearby Kurdish-con-
trolled areas, including the town of
Manbij which Kurdish forces retook
from IS earlier this month. Manbij lies
west of the Euphrates, and Ankara has
demanded the Kurds hand it over to
Syrian rebels and withdraw.
Attack on American University in Kabul leaves 7 dead
KABUL, Afghanistan
(AP) — An attack on the
American University of
Afghanistan has ended, a
senior police oficer said
Thursday, after at least
seven people were killed
and more than 30 were
wounded.
Kabul police Chief
Abdul Rahman Rahimi
said the dead included one
guard, and that about 700
students had been rescued.
Rahami said one foreign
teacher had been wounded.
There were no imme-
diate claims of responsi-
bility for the attack on the
university on the edge of
Kabul. It was established
in 2006 to offer liberal
arts courses modeled on
the U.S. system, and has
more than 1,000 students
currently enrolled.
Police spokesman Sediq
Sediqqi earlier said it was
still not clear if there were
one or two attackers.
Hedayatullah
Stan-
ikzai, an oficial with the
Ministry of Public Health,
said a guard employed by
BRIEFLY
up during decades of war
propaganda on both sides.
Polls say most
Colombians loathe the rebel
group known as the FARC
and show no hesitation
labeling them “narco-
terrorists” for their heavy
involvement in Colombia’s
cocaine trade, an association
for which members of the
group’s top leadership have
been indicted in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the FARC held
onto a Cold War view of
Colombia’s political and
economic establishment as
“oligarchs” at the service of
the U.S.
The rebel army was
forced to the negotiating
table after a decade of heavy
battleield losses that saw
a succession of top rebel
commanders killed by the
U.S.-backed military and the
its ranks thinned by half to
the current 7,000 troops.
AP Photo
Turkish army tanks and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces move
toward the Syrian border from Karkamis, Turkey, Wednesday.
as apocalyptic scenes “like
Dante’s Inferno,” with entire
blocks of buildings turned
into piles of sand and rock,
thick dust choking the air
and a putrid smell of gas.
“The town isn’t here
anymore,” said Sergio
Pirozzi, the mayor of the
hardest-hit town, Amatrice.
“I believe the toll will rise.”
The magnitude 6.2 quake
struck at 3:36 a.m. and was
felt across a broad swath
of central Italy, including
Rome, where residents woke
to a long swaying followed
by aftershocks. The temblor
shook the Lazio region and
Umbria and Le Marche
on the Adriatic coast, a
highly seismic area that has
witnessed major quakes in
the past.
Dozens of people were
pulled out alive by rescue
teams and volunteers that
poured in from around Italy.
In the evening, about
17 hours after the quake
struck, ireighters pulled a
10-year-old girl alive from
the rubble in Pescara del
Tronto.
“You can hear something
under here. Quiet, quiet,”
one rescue worker said,
before soon urging her on:
“Come on, Giulia, come on,
Giulia. ... Watch your head.”
Cheers broke out when
she was pulled out.
And there were wails
when bodies emerged.
“Unfortunately, 90
percent we pull out are dead,
but some make it, that’s why
we are here,” said Christian
Bianchetti, a volunteer from
Rieti who was working in
devastated Amatrice where
AP Photo/Rahmat Gul
Afghan security forces inspect the site after an at-
tack on the American University of Afghanistan in
Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday.
the university had been
killed and that the wounded
included a foreign teacher.
University
authorities
could not immediately be
reached for comment.
Dejan
Panic,
the
program director at Kabul’s
Emergency Hospital, said
18 people wounded in
the attack, including ive
women, had been admitted.
He said three were “seri-
ously” wounded, probably
from automatic gunire.
AP
photographer
Massoud Hossaini was in a
classroom with 15 students
when he heard an explosion
on the southern lank of the
campus.
“I went to the window to
see what was going on, and
I saw a person in normal
clothes outside. He shot at
me and shattered the glass,”
Hossaini said, adding that
he fell on the glass and cut
his hands.
The students then barri-
caded themselves inside the
classroom, pushing chairs
and desks against the door,
and staying on the loor.
Hossaini said at least two
grenades were thrown into
the classroom, wounding
several of his classmates.
Hossaini and about nine
students later managed to
escape from the campus
through an emergency gate.
Hossaini and the other
students took refuge in a
residential house near the
campus, and were later
safely evacuated by Afghan
security forces.
The Pentagon said
U.S. military advisers
were on the ground with
Afghan security forces at
the university. Spokesman
Adam Stump said the
forces had been embedded
with the Afghan units.
The attack on AUAF
comes two weeks after two
university staff, an Amer-
ican and an Australian,
were kidnapped from their
car by unknown gunmen.
Their whereabouts are still
unknown.
lood lights were set up so
the rescue could continue
through the night.
Premier Matteo Renzi
visited the zone Wednesday,
greeted rescue teams and
survivors, and pledged that
“No family, no city, no
hamlet will be left behind.”
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