• 5 UN peacekeepers, at least 7 civilians killed in ambush in South Sudan

    By Charlton Doki and Nirmala George, The Associated Press

    JUBA, South Sudan -- Five United Nations peacekeepers from India, and at least seven civilians, were killed Tuesday when armed rebels opened fire on a convoy in South Sudan.

    South Sudan's military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, blamed the attack on fighters led by David Yau Yau, a Sudan-backed rebel leader South Sudan's military has battled for months.

    The top U.N. envoy in South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, said in a statement that five peacekeepers and seven civilians working with the U.N. mission were killed. She said at least nine additional peacekeepers and civilians were injured and some remain unaccounted for.

    Aguer said the attack took place on a convoy traveling between the South Sudanese towns of Pibor and Bor on Tuesday morning.

    "Definitely this attack was carried out by David Yau Yau's militia," Aguer said. "They have been launching ambushes even on the SPLA for about six months now," he said, using the acronym for South Sudan's military.

    South Sudan ended decades of civil war with Sudan in 2005 and peacefully formed its own country in 2011. But the south is still plagued by internal violence and shaky relations with Sudan. Leaders in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, deny that they are arming Yau Yau.

    Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman of India's Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, India, said the convoy, which included 32 Indian soldiers, was attacked by rebels in Gurmukh in the volatile state of Jonglei. He said the casualties are being brought to the capital of South Sudan, Juba, and the injured will be sent to the U.N. mission hospital. The Indian embassy will work with the U.N. to bring the bodies back to India, he said.

    India has about 2,200 Indian army personnel in South Sudan. They are in two battalions. One is based in Jonglei and the other is in Malakal, in the Upper Nile, on the border with Sudan.

    The Indian embassy said it will inform families before releasing the names of the soldiers killed.

    The top U.N. envoy in South Sudan, Johnson, sent condolences to the families of the dead and injured.

    Related:

    South Sudan prisons in tatters after decades of war

    S. Sudan president: Sudan has declared war on us

    PhotoBlog: Building South Sudan from scratch

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • 20 killed in 'intense' firefight after NATO convoy is ambushed in Afghan mountains

    By msnbc.com news services and NBC News

    KABUL, Afghanistan -- Insurgents ambushed a NATO coalition supply convoy in a mountainous area of western Afghanistan, sparking a three-hour firefight in which an Afghan soldier, five security guards and at least 14 attackers were killed, Afghan officials said Thursday.

    Najibullah Najibi, a spokesman for the Afghan National Army's western region, told The Associated Press that the battle raged Wednesday along a highway regularly used by coalition supply trucks in Bala Buluk district of Farah province.

    "The fighting was intense and we sent in extra forces," Najibi said.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Jangir / AFP - Getty Images

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

    There were varying estimates of the number of militants killed. 

    Raouf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Afghan National Police in the west, said more than 30 militants were killed and 10 others were
    wounded.

    Suicide vests found in Afghan defense ministry

    Sayed Abdul Wahid, an official of the Arya security company, said his workers who were fighting with AK-47s were overpowered by
    militants using heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

    Slideshow:

    Kevin Frayer / AP

    In southern Afghanistan, the focus of the U.S. war effort, nearly all the Afghan soldiers are foreigners too. Photographer Kevin Frayer shows these soldiers in a series of portraits.

    Launch slideshow

    He said five of his employees were killed and five others were wounded by insurgents who burned three vehicles in the convoy.

    US orders more security for troops in Afghanistan

    Meanwhile. a service member with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force died after a blast caused by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan, NBC News reported Thursday.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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  • Red Cross desperate to deliver aid as Syria shells Homs again

    An aid convoy has been refused access to Baba Amr district of Homs, where residents have been without water for the last four days. Elsewhere in Syria, there have been anti-government protests following Friday prayers. Human rights campaigners claim that 13 people were killed when troops fired a mortar into a crowd of demonstrators in the town of Rastan. Britain's Channel Four News correspondent Carl Dinnen reports.

    By msnbc.com news services

    Armed forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday bombarded the Jobar residential neighborhood of Homs, where a standoff continued between a Red Cross convoy and the government that has blocked the delivery of food, medical supplies and blankets to the thousands still stranded in the area.

    Thousands of civilians from another area overrun by the army have taken refuge in the neighborhood, an opposition activist organization said.

    "In an act of pure revenge, Assad's army has been firing mortar rounds and ... machine guns since this morning at Jobar. We have no immediate reports of casualties because of the difficulty of communications," the Syrian Network for Human Rights said in statement.

    Jobar is adjacent to the district of Baba Amr in Homs, from where Free Syrian Army rebels pulled out this week after almost a month of army shelling. Activists reported mass executions by loyalist troops who subsequently entered the area.

    The Local Coordination Committees activist network said mortars slammed into Khaldiyeh, Bab Sbaa and Khader districts of the city early Saturday.

    Red Cross supplies arrived in the stricken Syrian city of Homs on Friday as evidence mounted of its humanitarian crisis after a month of bombardment from President Bashar Assad's forces. ITV's Paul Davies reports.

    Graphic: The siege of Homs

    Abu Hassan al-Homsi, a doctor at a makeshift clinic in Khaldiyeh district of Homs, said he treated a dozen wounded.

    "This has become routine, the mortars start falling early in the morning," he said. Several homes were damaged from the morning shelling, which he described as steady but intermittent. Most of those he treated were lightly wounded, al-Homsi added.

    Aid convoy blocked
    The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Saturday it was still negotiating with Syrian authorities who have denied its aid convoy access to the shattered Baba Amr district.

    An ICRC convoy of seven trucks carrying food and other life-saving relief supplies, joined by Red Crescent ambulances to evacuate the sick and wounded, has been stalled in the city of Homs since arriving there on Friday.

    Red Cross convoy prevented from entering former Syrian rebel stronghold

    "The ICRC and Syrian Red Crescent are not yet in Baba Amr today (Saturday). We are still in negotiations with authorities in order to enter Baba Amro. It is important that we enter today," ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters in Geneva.

    ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger, in a statement issued on Friday after waiting all day for Syrian authorities to grant entry to the team, said the delay was "unacceptable" as civilians had waited for weeks for emergency assistance.

    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday he had received "grisly reports" Syrian government forces were arbitrarily executing, imprisoning and torturing people in the battle-scarred city of Homs after rebel fighters had fled.

    PhotoBlog: The fear of carnage to come

    'Terrorist' suicide bombs
    Meanwhile, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported Saturday that a suicide bomber killed two people and wounded several others in the southern town of Deraa.

    "The terrorist explosion led to the martyrdom of two citizens," the agency said.

    The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that at least two people were killed and several others wounded in the explosion.

    Syrians flee to northern Lebanon

    Syria has seen a string of suicide bombings, the last on Feb. 10, when twin suicide bombs struck security compounds in the government stronghold city of Aleppo, killing 28 people and bringing significant violence for the first time to the city.

    The capital Damascus, another stronghold of Assad's, has seen three suicide bombings in the past two months.

    The regime has touted the attacks as proof that it is being targeted by "terrorists." The opposition accuses forces loyal to the government of being behind the bombings to tarnish the uprising.

    Saturday's bombing in Deraa marked the first time a suicide bombing struck an opposition stronghold. Daraa is the birthplace of the nearly year-old uprising against Assad. The revolt has killed more than 7,500 people, according to most recent U.N. estimates.

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Red Cross convoy prevented from entering former Syrian rebel stronghold

    An aid convoy has been refused access to Baba Amr district of Homs, where residents have been without water for the last four days. Elsewhere in Syria, there have been anti-government protests following Friday prayers. Human rights campaigners claim that 13 people were killed when troops fired a mortar into a crowd of demonstrators in the town of Rastan. Britain's Channel Four News correspondent Carl Dinnen reports.

    By Ayman Mohyeldin, NBC News Correspondent in Lebanon, msnbc.com staff and news services

    The Red Cross told Syria on Friday it was unacceptable that its aid convoy had been prevented from entering a battle-scarred district of Homs where the opposition said President Bashar Assad's army had committed a massacre.

    Baba Amr became a symbol of resistance to Assad after government troops surrounded it with tanks and artillery and shelled it intensively for weeks, killing and wounding civilians cowering in its ruined buildings.

    "It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help," ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said in a statement.

    "We are staying in Homs tonight in the hope of entering Baba Amr in the very near future."

    A convoy of trucks with food and other aid was preparing to enter the shattered district of Baba Amr, the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, said Friday.

    The ICRC received a "green light" from Syrian authorities late Thursday, hours after rebels left the heavily bombarded area following a 26-day siege aimed at crushing a symbol of the revolt against President Assad.

    Rebels withdrew on Thursday in a key moment in the year-old uprising against Assad's rule. An official at Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said the army had "cleansed Baba Amr from the foreign-backed armed groups of terrorists."

    Activists said Syria's army was hunting down and killing insurgents who had stayed to cover their comrades' retreat, although the reports could not be verified. They said 10 young men were shot dead on Friday.

    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made an impassioned plea on Friday for Damascus to grant immediate access for aid workers to besieged Syrian towns, describing the images of death coming out of the country as atrocious.

    "The images which we have seen in Syria (are) atrocious," Ban told reporters. "It's totally unacceptable, intolerable. How as a human being can you bear ... this situation? That really troubles me. I'm deeply sad seeing what's happening."

    In a rare show of unity with Western powers, Russia and China joined other U.N. Security Council members on Thursday in expressing "deep disappointment" at Syria's failure to allow the U.N. humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos to visit the country, and urged that she be allowed in immediately.

    Russia and China have twice vetoed council resolutions that would have condemned Syria for the crackdown and demanded that it halt the crackdown on anti-Assad demonstrators.

    The United Nations says Syrian security forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians during the government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

    "All violence must stop," said Ban. "I am really urging Syrian authorities to stop (the) violence and allow humanitarian access."

    With government forces moving in, the U.N. human rights office voiced dismay over reports suggesting former rebel areas were being subjected to bloody reprisals.

    Syrians flee into limbo in northern Lebanon

    "We are alarmed at reports starting to come out of the Baba Amr district of Homs after it was taken over by government forces yesterday (Thursday)," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.

    "Although we are not, at this point, in a position to confirm any of those reports, we would like to remind the authorities of their responsibilities under international law.

    UN demands immediate 'unhindered' humanitarian access to Syria

    "It is essential," Colville added, "that there are no unlawful reprisals, no summary executions, no torture, no arbitrary detention. And the rights of those who are detained must be respected."

    Britain's prime minister David Cameron told a press conference in Brussels that "the history of Homs is being written in the blood of its own people" and that the city "is a scene of medieval barbarity."

    His concerns were echoed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who said France had closed its embassy in Damascus.

    Snow delays convoy
    ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said a joint ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent team, carrying seven truckloads of food and other aid, that left Damascus on Friday morning had faced a weather delay.

    "Snow is making the movement of the convoy slower, but we hope to be in Homs within the hour. Red Crescent volunteers and ambulances are waiting in Homs for the convoy to arrive and we are hoping to enter Baba Amr as soon as possible," he said.

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    Ayman Mohyeldin, NBC News correspondent in Lebanon, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.