Iraq troops, Sunnis unite to free town
BAGHDAD -- Government forces and allied Sunni tribal fighters battled to dislodge militants from a small town north of Baghdad on Monday, while two car bombs in the capital killed at least seven people, officials said.
Fighters from the Islamic State barreled into town of Duluiyah, some 45 miles north of Baghdad, on Sunday and quickly seized the mayor's office, police station, local council and courthouse. They also blew up a bridge connecting the town with the nearby city of Balad.
The Iraqi military launched a counterattack, but the fighting bogged down and was still raging Monday, officials and a resident said.
On Monday, two car bombs exploded in commercial areas of Baghdad, killing at least seven people.
The deadliest attack took place in Baghdad's Allawi neighborhood. A police official said four civilians were killed and 12 wounded in that blast.
A second vehicle packed with explosives blew up near a string of car dealerships in Baghdad's southeastern Bayaa area, killing at least three people and wounding eight, the official said.
U.N. OKs pushing aid into Syria
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday authorizing cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid to Syrians in rebel-held areas in desperate need of food and medicine, without government approval.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said several weeks ago that opening these routes could help 1.3 million Syrians -- and her office said Monday that if security allows, aid could reach 2.9 million people.
The resolution, a rare agreement on Syria among the often-divided council, expresses "grave alarm at the significant and rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Syria." It deplores the fact that the council's previous demands for humanitarian access "have not been heeded" by the government and opposition fighters.
The United States and many European council members said the resolution would not have been necessary if the conflict's participants -- especially the Syrian government -- had complied with a February resolution demanding that all sides allow immediate access for aid.
Plane downed; Ukraine blames Russia
KIEV, Ukraine -- A Ukrainian military transport plane was shot down Monday along the country's eastern border with Russia, but all eight people aboard managed to bail out safely, the Defense Ministry said.
Separatist rebels in conflict-racked eastern Ukraine claimed responsibility for downing the Antonov-26, but Ukrainian officials swiftly ruled that out and blamed Russia instead.
There was no immediate comment from Russia on the plane.
In the past two weeks, the government has halved the territory in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russia separatists, who have been forced back into the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk. Many in the armed insurgency are known to be Russian nationals, but Moscow says they are simply citizens who went to fight in Ukraine on their own.
Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said the plane was flying at an altitude of about 21,300 feet, which he said was too high to be reached with the weapons used by the separatists. Rebels are known to have Igla portable surface-to-air missiles, which work up to about 11,500 feet.
S. Koreans report shots from North
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea fired 100 rockets and artillery shells off its east coast Monday, firing those projectiles within hundreds of yards of the border with South Korea, military officials here said.
The projectiles from shoreline artillery and mobile multiple-rocket launchers flew between 2 and 31 miles into the sea between North Korea and Japan, said a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of National Defense. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing ministry policy.
Although none of the shells fell south of the maritime border with South Korea, the South Korean coast guard told fishing boats to leave the waters near the border as a precaution.
The latest tests came as a U.S. aircraft carrier, the George Washington, arrived in waters near the Korean Peninsula for joint naval exercises with South Korea and Japan that were scheduled to begin this week.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 07/15/2014