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People survey the damage Saturday from a suicide bombing late Friday near a police station in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast.
People survey the damage Saturday from a suicide bombing late Friday near a police station in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast.

Blast near Mosul kills U.S. serviceman

photo

AP/MOHAMMAD ANWAR DANISHYAR

“Let’s join hands to end war and bring peace in Afghanistan,” former warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar urges Saturday in an eastern province of the country.

BAGHDAD -- A U.S. service member in Iraq was killed Saturday by an explosive device outside Mosul, according to a statement released by the Pentagon.

The Pentagon said the service member died from wounds suffered in an "explosive device blast," adding that further information would be released as appropriate.

Saturday's explosion marks the second American military fatality since the start of the Mosul operation against the Islamic State extremist group more than six months ago. In October, just days after the operation to retake Mosul was formally opened, Navy Chief Petty Officer Jason Finan, 34, of Anaheim, Calif., died of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack north of Mosul.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that more than 100 U.S. special operations troops are operating with Iraqi units in and around Mosul, with hundreds more playing a support role in staging bases farther from the front lines.

The service member killed Saturday is the fifth combat death in Iraq since the U.S. began military operations against the Islamic State in August 2014.

Order in Turkey blacks out Wikipedia

ISTANBUL -- In a move that social media users called censorship, a Turkish court on Saturday blocked access to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, enforcing an earlier restriction by Turkey's telecommunications watchdog.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority said an Ankara court ordered Saturday that a "protection measure" related to suspected Internet crimes be applied to Wikipedia. Such measures are used to block access to pages or entire websites to protect "national security and public order."

In response, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales tweeted his support for those who labeled the decision censorship: "Access to information is a fundamental human right. Turkish people I will always stand with you to fight for this right."

Turkey Blocks, an Internet censorship monitor, said users in Turkey had been unable to access all language editions of Wikipedia since 8 a.m. local time Saturday.

The site had initially been blocked by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority under a provisional administration measure.

Russian rallies exhort Putin not to run

MOSCOW -- Under the slogan "I'm fed up," demonstrators urging Russian President Vladimir Putin not to run for a fourth term rallied Saturday in cities across Russia. Dozens were arrested in St. Petersburg and elsewhere.

The centerpiece rally in Moscow went peacefully, despite being unsanctioned by authorities. Several hundred people rallied in a park, then moved to the nearby presidential administration building to present letters telling Putin to stand down from running in 2018.

But in St. Petersburg, Associated Press journalists saw dozens of people arrested. The OVD-Info group that monitors political repression relayed reports of more arrests in several cities, including 20 in Tula and 14 in Kemerovo.

Putin has not announced whether he plans to run for president again next year.

He became president on New Year's Eve in 1999 when Boris Yeltsin resigned. He stepped away from the Kremlin to become prime minister in 2008-2012 because of term limits, but remained in effect Russia's leader.

Ex-warlord appears, urges Afghan peace

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A former Afghan warlord who battled U.S. forces after the 2001 invasion and nursed bitter rivalries with other militant factions before signing a peace deal with the Afghan government appeared in public Saturday for the first time in more than 20 years and called for peace.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who leads the Islamist organization Hezb-i-Islami, appeared in a gathering organized by provincial officials in eastern Laghman province in which local and government officials also were present. He told the crowd in a televised appearance: "Let's join hands to end war and bring peace in Afghanistan."

The United Nations removed Hekmatyar's name from its Islamic State extremist group and al-Qaida sanctions list in February and his assets were unfrozen, rendering him no longer subject to a travel ban or arms embargo.

During his remarks, Hekmatyar called on all insurgent groups to end the war and join the peace process in Afghanistan.

Hekmatyar said only Afghans can bring peace and stability to the country, not foreigners.

A Section on 04/30/2017

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