The world in brief

Soldiers and rescue workers stand around the wreckage after an army helicopter crashed in Bitlis, eastern Turkey, Thursday March 4, 2021. Turkey’s Defense Ministry says a military helicopter has crashed, killing several soldiers on board and injuring others. News reports said the victims included an army corps commander. The ministry described the crash as an accident, but it wasn’t immediately known what caused it. (IHA via AP )
Soldiers and rescue workers stand around the wreckage after an army helicopter crashed in Bitlis, eastern Turkey, Thursday March 4, 2021. Turkey’s Defense Ministry says a military helicopter has crashed, killing several soldiers on board and injuring others. News reports said the victims included an army corps commander. The ministry described the crash as an accident, but it wasn’t immediately known what caused it. (IHA via AP )

Shooting, bombing fatal to 8 Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan -- At least seven Afghan civilians were shot and killed by gunmen overnight in the country's east and a doctor died when a bomb attached to her rickshaw exploded Thursday, provincial officials said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying its fighters had detonated a so-called sticky bomb placed on the vehicle of a woman. The statement claimed she worked for the Afghan intelligence service in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.

Gen. Juma Gul Hemat, provincial police chief in Nangarhar, said the shooting victims were workers at a plaster factory in the Sorkh Rod district. Police arrested four suspects, he said.

The laborers were all from Afghanistan's minority Shiite Hazara community, said Farid Khan, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack, but militants from the Islamic State group have declared war on Shiites and frequently target the Hazaras. Eastern Afghanistan has witnessed an increase of attacks by Islamic State militants, including an attack Tuesday for which it claimed responsibility in which three women who worked at a private TV station were gunned down in Jalalabad.

Nepal rebels make peace for concessions

KATHMANDU, Nepal -- Nepal's government signed a peace agreement Thursday with a small communist rebel group widely feared because it was known for violent attacks, extortion and bombings, as well as threats and enforcing general strikes.

The government agreed to lift a ban on the group, release all their party members and supporters in jail and drop all legal cases against them, while the group agreed to give up violence and resolve any concerns through peaceful dialogue, the government said after peace talks.

Details of the agreement were to be made public at a ceremony today with Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli and the leader of the rebel group, Netra Bikram Chand, who is better known by his guerrilla name, Biplav. The rebels also call themselves the Nepal Communist Party.

The group had split from the Maoist communist party, which fought government troops between 1996 and 2006 when it gave up its armed revolt, agreed to U.N.-monitored peace talks and joined mainstream politics.

The Maoist fighting had left 17,000 people dead, hundreds missing and many more maimed.

The peace agreement was made at a time when the prime minister and his government are facing a crisis since a split developed in his ruling party and the Supreme Court reinstated the parliament he had dissolved.

Migrants said to be tossed in sea; 20 die

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The International Organization for Migration says that at least 20 migrants are dead after smugglers threw 80 overboard during a voyage from Djibouti in East Africa to Yemen.

A statement says "smugglers started shouting there were too many on board" after the boat with 200 migrants, including some younger than 18, set off Wednesday.

The organization said five bodies have been recovered, and survivors are being treated in Djibouti.

This has happened before as thousands of migrants continue trying to make their way from the Horn of Africa to Yemen and then on to rich Persian Gulf countries.

The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting closed borders have only slowed the flow. The migration group said about 138,000 people made the journey in 2019, but just 37,500 last year.

It is not immediately clear what countries the migrants in this latest journey were from, but many make the voyage from Ethiopia and Somalia.

11 Turkish soldiers killed in copter crash

ANKARA, Turkey -- An army helicopter crashed in eastern Turkey on Thursday, killing 11 military personnel on board and injuring two, the Defense Ministry said. News reports said a high-ranking officer was among the victims.

The Cougar type helicopter crashed near the village of Cekmece, close to the town of Tatvan, in the predominantly Kurdish-populated Bitlis province. It was on its way to Tatvan from the nearby province of Bingol when authorities lost contact with it, the ministry said.

The victims included Lt. Gen. Osman Erbas, an army corps commander, said Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey's main nationalist party, on Twitter. The pro-government Daily Sabah also reported that Erbas was killed. Nine of the victims died at the crash site, while two died of their injuries in the hospital, officials said.

The ministry described the crash as an accident, but it wasn't known what caused it. HaberTurk television said the chopper is believed to have crashed in adverse weather conditions, including snow and fog.

The crash site is in an area where Turkish troops have been combating militants of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is considered to be a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.

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