A suicide car bomber targeted the convoy of a provincial governor in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least 8 people, including four civilians, government officials said, according to dailymail.co.u.

The condition of the governor, Rahmatullah Yarmal, was not immediately known and officials would not confirm local reports that he was slightly wounded in the bombing in Laghman province. The governor’s spokesman, Asadullah Dawlatzai, said only that along with the eight fatalities, about 30 people – both military and civilians – were wounded in the attack, which took place in Mihterlam, the provincial capital.

Tareq Arian, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said that four civilians and four of Yarmal’s bodyguards were killed. The wounded included 28 civilians and two other guards.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but both the Islamic State group and the Taliban are active in the area. Both militant groups have carried out attacks in the past against Afghan government representatives, national security and defense personnel, and civilians.

Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban are holding intra-Afghan negotiations in Qatar, a Mideast country where the Taliban have had a political office for many years. The negotiations are meant to end the country´s decades-long long war, following a U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in February in Doha, Qatar’s capital.

President of France Emmanuel Macron has announced that more than 300 Syrian Islamist militants have been transferred through Turkey’s Gaziantep into the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone and are involved from the Azerbaijani side in the military operations.

International news media reported that France has confirmed that this is a proven fact and that Russia also possesses this information.

Macron added that France is closely working with the other co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia and the US – and that they are jointly preparing peaceful initiatives for the NK situation.

“I can announce that more than 300 Syrian Islamist militants, who had earlier left the Aleppo region, have been transferred to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone through the Turkish Gaziantep. This is a confirmed fact, these people are identified, all of them are affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist organization. I have discussed this issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who confirmed that Russia also possesses this information,” Macron told reporters.

The French President said these actions by NATO-member Turkey are unacceptable. He said Turkey has crossed the red line.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented the death of the first Syrian fighter of Turkish-backed factions in Azerbaijan after being shot, SOHR reported according to news.am.

Reliable sources have informed the SOHR that Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries were sent to join the battles in Azerbaijan, while their sole mission was supposed to be protecting the oil fields.

The sources have confirmed that the number of Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries in Azerbaijan approximates 320, and they have been transported by Turkish security companies. It is worth noting that these fighters have not participated in any battles so far.

“Most of the Syrian fighters sent to Azerbaijan are of Turkmen descent, and they went to Azerbaijan under the pretext of ‘defending the national cause’, while the Turkish-backed Arab factions refused to send their fighters to Azerbaijan,” SOHR sources added.

An Afghan official says at least nine people were killed when a suicide car bomber attacked a military checkpoint in the southern province of Helmand, like reported by rferl.org.

Four civilians, including two women, were among those who died in the late September 30 attack in the Nahri Sarah district, according to Omer Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

A child and three security personnel were also wounded.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taliban militants are in control of most of Helmand Province.

The suicide bombing comes as Taliban and Afghan government negotiators are meeting in Qatar to try to find a way to put an end to 19 years of war in the country.

Violence has continued across the country despite the peace talks in Doha, which kicked off on September 12, as the Taliban are refusing a nationwide cease-fire.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has documented more than 1,280 Afghan civilian deaths during the first half of 2020 — mainly as a result of fighting between Afghan government forces and Taliban militants.

Clashes continue for a fourth day over Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh despite growing international calls for an immediate end to deadly clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, like reported by rferl.org.

Both sides confirmed on September 30 attacks in several directions along the so-called Line of Contact that divides them, with fighting spreading well beyond the borders of the enclave and threatening to spill into all-out war between the former Soviet republics.

“Intense fighting continues,” Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on September 30, adding that military operations were under way “along the entire front line.”

Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Shushan Stepanyan said in a Facebook post that “artillery engagement continues along the entire front line in [Nagorno-Karabakh] at present.”

With dozens killed and injured, the fighting has escalated to some of the worst seen since a 1994 cease-fire was agreed.

The UN Security Council late on September 29 strongly condemned the use of force and backed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for an immediate halt in the fighting, a de-escalation of tensions, and the urgent return to meaningful negotiations.

However, both Azerbaijan and Armenia brushed off the suggestion of peace negotiations, accusing each other of obstructing the process.

“The Armenian prime minister publicly declares that Karabakh is [part of] Armenia, period. In this case, what kind of negotiating process can we talk about?” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told Russian state TV channel Rossia 1.

In turn, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told the broadcaster that Azerbaijan must “immediately end [its] aggression toward Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia,” calling it “an existential threat to our nation.”

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since the waning years of the Soviet Union. They fought a war that ended in 1994 in an uneasy cease-fire and an estimated 30,000 killed.

Since then, the region has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces. The region’s 1991 declaration of independence has been recognized only by Armenia, which is its sole outlet to the outside world.

Sporadic violence has broken out over the years, and internationally mediated negotiations with the involvement of the OSCE’s so-called Minsk Group, cochaired by France, Russia, and the United States, have failed to achieve a resolution.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the long-simmering conflict to erupt anew on September 27, with the sides fielding helicopters, drones, tanks, and artillery and accusing each other of firing into their territory outside of the Nagorno-Karabakh area.

The clashes are the heaviest since at least 2016 and have reignited concern over stability in the South Caucasus, a corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas to world markets. The fighting has also threatened to draw in Russia and regional power Turkey.

Separatist fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh said that 84 servicemen have been killed over the past four days, while Azerbaijan reported the death of 12 civilians on its side but released no figures on its military casualties.

In a statement on September 30, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged all armed forces fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh to “respect the absolute ban against targeting civilians or carrying out attacks that indiscriminately harm civilians.”

“All sides should remember that attacks targeting civilians are serious violations of international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes…even if they are carried out in reprisal for indiscriminate attacks by the adversary,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at the New York-based watchdog.

In what would be a major escalation of the violence, Armenia said on September 29 that one of its warplanes was shot down by a fighter jet from Turkey, killing the pilot. Both Azerbaijan and Ankara, its closest ally, denied this.

In an interview with the BBC, Pashinian accused Turkey of being “a participant in the hostilities,” saying Turkish instructors and officers were directly involved in the fighting — an allegation that has not been independently confirmed.

Earlier in the day, Fahrettin Altun, a spokesman for the Turkish president, said Turkey “will be fully committed to helping Azerbaijan take back its occupied lands and to defending their rights and interests under international law.”

Meanwhile, Russia and Western nations have called for restraint, with the Kremlin urging all countries, especially Turkey, to “do everything to convince the opposing parties to cease fire and return to peacefully resolving the conflict by politico-diplomatic means.”

Pashinian spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 29 and said that, at this point, he was not considering asking for help under a post-Soviet security treaty, though he reserved the right to do so.

“Armenia will ensure its security, with the participation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) or without it,” he said, referring to a collective security agreement signed by six post-Soviet states, including Russia.

Russia is among the largest supplier of weaponry to both Azerbaijan and Armenia. It also has a military base in Armenia.

At least 14 people were killed on Tuesday morning when the vehicle they were traveling in hit a roadside bomb, like reported by ariananews.af.

The explosion happened in Kariz village in Kajran District, the Ministry of Interior confirmed.

The incident happened at about 9am. Seventeen civilians had been in the vehicle at the time of the explosion.

Those killed include seven women, five children and two men, officials confirmed. Three others were wounded.

A sharp rise in violence has been detected around the country in the past two months, with a marked increase in the use of IEDs by the Taliban – which largely affects civilians as they are planted along public roads.

Afghan security forces have however been detecting and defusing hundreds of these explosive devices around the country each week – putting their own lives at risk to do so.

Syrian rebel fighters have signed up to work for a private Turkish security company as border guards in Azerbaijan, several volunteers in Syria’s last rebel stronghold have said, at a time when the long-running conflict between Baku and neighbouring Armenia is showing dangerous signs of escalation, like reported by theguardian.com.

The potential deployment is a sign of Turkey’s growing appetite for projecting power abroad, and opens a third theatre in its regional rivalry with Moscow. Ankara is already engaged in a volatile power struggle with Russia in the conflicts in Syria and Libya, and tensions could now spill over into Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Guardian spoke to three men living in the last rebel-controlled corner of Syria, who said that almost a decade of war and grinding poverty had made them keen to register with militia leaders and brokers who promised work with a private Turkish security company overseas. They expect to travel over the border to Turkey before being flown to Azerbaijan.

The arrival of foreign fighters would inject a new layer of complexity into the battle between Yerevan and Baku over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, an enclave legally considered to be part of Azerbaijan but which has been run by ethnic Armenians since it declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The area attracts western concern because it is a major oil and gas pipeline corridor.

Clashes in July that killed 17 people in a different border region, as well as fresh hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh in the last two days, which have left 15 dead so far, have led to concerns that the dormant conflict could once again be lurching into full-blown war.

Turkey has strong cultural and economic ties with Azerbaijan. Russia has been traditionally close to Armenia but has forged links with the Baku elites in recent years, and continues to sell arms to both sides.

While most of the international community, including Moscow, have called for de-escalation and a return to the diplomatic process in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Sunday that Baku had his country’s full support.

“The Turkish people stand with their Azeri brothers with all our means, as always,” he said on Twitter, going on to criticise other nations for “double standards and insufficient reaction” against what he characterised as Armenian attacks.

Observers have questioned why Baku’s highly-trained and well-armed military forces would be in need of assistance from Syrian mercenaries. Men in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province, however, say that a recruitment drive began a month ago.

Two brothers living in Azaz, Muhammad and Mahmoud, who asked for their names to be changed because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they were summoned to a military camp in Afrin on 13 September.

On arrival they were told by a commander in the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad division that work was available guarding observation posts and oil and gas facilities in Azerbaijan on three or six month contracts at 7,000-10,000 Turkish lira (£700-£1,000) a month – significantly more than they could earn at home.

The commander did not give details on what the job would entail, how long the posting would be, or when they were expected to leave. The men are also not clear about the name of the Turkish security company, or who would be paying their wages.

“Our leader told us that we won’t be fighting, just assisting in guarding some areas,” Muhammad said. “Our salaries aren’t enough for living, so we see it a great opportunity to make money.”

“There are no jobs available,” his brother added. “I used to work as a tailor in Aleppo but since we were displaced to Azaz [after Aleppo fell to Assad in 2016], I’ve tried many times to practise my craft but my family and I can’t earn enough.”

The promised salaries are vast sums compared with the 450-550 Turkish lira a month Syrian rebels earn from Ankara in the fight against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Ankara has supported the Syrian opposition since the early days of the war, even as the original Free Syrian Army umbrella group grew weak and splintered because of infighting and the growth of Islamist elements within rebel ranks.

Turkey also uses some rebel fighters as proxies against Kurdish-led forces despite allegations of human rights abuses from watchdogs.

Since December, Ankara has also facilitated the movement of thousands of Syrian rebels to Libya as mercenaries, where they have helped turn the tide of the civil war in favour of the UN-backed government fighting warlord Khalifa Haftar.

Omar from Idlib city, who also asked for his real name not to be used, was called to Afrin on 22 September along with 150 other men and was asked to prepare to leave, only to be told later the same day the deployment had been delayed until further notice. He said he had asked around for a broker’s number after hearing about the potential deployment, registering his name with a local agent on the understanding that Omar would pay him $200 (£156) of his first month’s wages.

“When we first started being offered work abroad in Libya, people were afraid to go there, but now there are definitely thousands of us who are willing to go to either Libya or Azerbaijan,” he said. “There is nothing for us here.”

As with the Azerbaijan proposition, some men who went to Libya have said they were also told they would be employed as guards, but found themselves caught up in frontline fighting instead. Many have also reported that commanders pocketed up to 20% of their salaries.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Washington DC-based Center for Global Policy, said: “The international community regards the lives of Syrians as expendable, with Syria serving as an arena to settle geostrategic scores and advance the interests of countries intervening in the country at Syrians’ expense.

“Syrians resisted and still resist this logic, but the economic ruin stemming from the war and the recent depreciation of the Syrian currency mean that most Syrians are now struggling to feed themselves. Faced with few choices, many are now willing to sell themselves to the highest bidder.”

Several sources in the Syrian National Army (SNA), the main umbrella of Syrian rebel groups funded by Turkey, as well as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, say that a first batch of 500 Syrian fighters from the SNA’s Sultan Murad and Al Hamza divisions has already arrived in Azerbaijan, including two senior commanders: Fahim Eissa, the leader of Sultan Murad, and Saif Abu Bakir of Al Hamza. The Guardian could not confirm the reports.

The rumours have been bolstered by several unverified videos circulated on social media that purport to show armed Syrian rebels travelling along an Azerbaijani road in the back of pick up trucks while chanting battle songs.

Both the Armenian government and Russian media have alleged that up to 4,000 Syrian men are already present in Nagorno-Karabakh, claims which have been denied by Baku as “nonsense”.

A Turkish defence ministry source said on Monday: “We strongly reject such claims. Our support consists of military advice and training of Azerbaijan’s armed forces … The Turkish ministry of defence does not deal with recruiting or transferring militiamen anywhere in the world.”

The Taliban have killed 28 paramilitary policemen in fighting in southern Afghanistan, officials said, the latest losses in an ongoing siege of a government-controlled district that could tip into insurgent hands, like reported by thenational.ae.

One local official said the Taliban executed the police after they had surrendered, but the insurgents denied this and AFP was not immediately able to confirm the claim.

If proven, a mass shooting of dozens of captives would mark a grim new low point in Afghanistan’s recent violence, which has been worsening in recent weeks despite the start of peace talks between the insurgents and the government.

The incident occurred in the Gizab district of the southern province of Uruzgan, where intense fighting has raged for days as the Taliban besiege outmanned and outgunned Afghan police and army outposts.

Zelgai Ebadi, a spokesman for the Uruzgan governor, said Taliban fighters offered 28 local and national police a chance to go home if they surrendered on Tuesday night.

“But after taking their guns, the Taliban killed them all,” Mr Ebadi said.

Provincial council head Amir Mohammad Barekzai confirmed the death toll and said heavy fighting was ongoing.

Mr Barekzai would not say if the men had been killed before or after surrendering.

A third local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, put the toll at 28-30 police, adding that three policemen managed to escape.

The interior ministry declined to comment on the circumstances of the deaths.

In a statement, the Taliban denied it had slaughtered the policemen after they surrendered.

“Enemy claims that they were executed after surrender are baseless. Mujahidin [Taliban fighters] repeatedly asked them to lay down arms and end hostility, but they insisted on fighting,” Taliban spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi said on Twitter.

The deaths come after at least 14 Afghan policemen and soldiers were killed during the same battle overnight on Sunday.

Taliban and Afghan government negotiators are meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha, where they are trying to find a way to end 19 years of war.

A hopeful start to the peace talks on September 12 was immediately marred by fresh violence across Afghanistan.

Negotiations are moving slowly, with the two sides trying to thrash out various parameters before deciding an agenda.

Fierce fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban has killed dozens in a restive eastern province as negotiators from both sides pushed ahead with peace talks in Qatar, like reported by sbs.com.au.

Overnight clashes erupted in three districts of Nangarhar province when Taliban fighters attacked several checkpoints of Afghan forces and pro-government militiamen, Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar governor told AFP.

He said at least 11 Afghan security personnel were killed in fighting in Hesarak, while eight pro-government militiamen were killed in another region.

Mr Khogyani said about 30 Taliban fighters died in the clashes – including some foreigners.

The hardline insurgent group has not commented on the fighting.

Afghanistan’s acting Defence Minister Asadullah Khalid blamed the Taliban for the fighting.

“There have been no attacks from our side… The enemies continue to attack and spill the blood of Afghans,” he said at a ceremony where US forces handed over four A-29 Super Tucano aircraft to the Afghan military.

New ceasefire call unheeded

Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the peace process for the Afghan government, said the ongoing talks offered an opportunity to end the war.

The two warring sides are at the negotiating table, a first in the three decades since the Taliban emerged as a movement across Afghanistan, Mr Abdullah said.

“We recognise the need to get together, to sit together, to present our views which are different from one another, but to find ways how to reconcile those differences,” Mr Abdullah told Doha-based Al-Jazeera TV in an interview released on Thursday.

He said negotiations aim to “find ways to be able (to) live together while maintaining some differences and fighting for it politically rather than through violence”.

In his speech at the opening session of the peace talks on Saturday, Mr Abdullah had called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, but his plea has gone unanswered.

The Taliban have long worried that reducing violence could lessen their leverage, but have implemented two temporary ceasefires this year itself.

Peace talks commenced on Saturday after months of delay over a contentious prisoner swap between the two sides.

The negotiations are a result of a deal between the Taliban and Washington signed in February, which also paved the way for withdrawing of all foreign forces by May next year.

Hundreds of angry residents clashed with government forces Thursday in the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir after a firefight left three suspected rebels and a young woman dead, police and witnesses said.

Counterinsurgency police and federal paramilitary forces surrounded the Batamaloo neighborhood of Srinagar after midnight following a tip-off that armed militants were hiding inside a residential house, triggering an exchange of fire.

Three suspected rebels, believed to be locals, were killed in the firefight that lasted several hours, police announced on Twitter.

“One young woman also died during the encounter,” a police officer told AFP.

“The woman was caught in the crossfire. Her death is unfortunate,” director general of police Dilbagh Singh told reporters. A paramilitary trooper was also injured during the firefight, Singh said.

As news of the deaths spread hundreds of residents took to the streets, throwing stones at government forces who fired tear gas and metal pellets.

The crowd shouted slogans, such as “Long live Pakistan” and “We want freedom”, according to an AFP photographer at the scene. No injuries were immediately reported from the clashes.

Armed encounters between rebels and government forces are frequent in the territory, but rare in the capital city.

The last such firefight occurred in June, and left three local rebels dead and 15 houses destroyed in the heart of Srinagar.

Thursday’s deaths came a day after similar protests in northeastern Kashmiri town Sopore, where Irfan Ahmed Dar, 26, was found dead hours after he was detained by police. Dar’s family allege police tortured and killed him, later dumping his body in an open area.

Police however claim Dar was an overground associate of anti-India rebels and escaped from police custody before he was found dead.

Dar’s body was not released to his family, and officers buried him in a graveyard reserved for slain rebels.

At least 192 rebels, 73 government forces personnel, and 47 civilians have been killed in armed violence this year across the disputed territory also claimed by Pakistan which administers a part of it.

India and Pakistan have exchanged small arms fire and mortar shells almost daily for months across their disputed border in Kashmir, leading to the deaths of soldiers and civilians on both sides.

On Wednesday an Indian soldier was killed during cross border firing in the south.

Anxiety and anger has deepened in the restive Himalayan region since August last year when New Delhi revoked its semi-autonomous status and brought it under direct federal rule.