Top stories from DAWNS Digest
Bombing Targets UN in Mogadishu
No UN staffers were killed in the attack. “At least five people were killed and a dozen wounded on Thursday when a car loaded with explosives blew up outside a restaurant next to the entrance to the international airport in Mogadishu, officials said. Witnesses said the car bomb attack, which was believed to be aimed at a passing United Nations convoy, went off around 12:40 p.m., setting shops and cars ablaze along the busy road to the Aden Abdulle International Airport. The Shabab, the militant Somali Islamist group, claimed responsibility.” (NYT http://nyti.ms/1gd9WhY)
Humanitarian Ceasefire for Homs, Syria extended for another Three Days
But the UN is over capacity and cannot begin to immediately evacuate distressed civilians. “Both sides in the Syrian conflict have agreed to extend a cease-fire in the Old City of Homs, but relief efforts to the besieged district will not immediately resume, the United Nations’ top official in the country said Thursday. Yacoub El Hillo, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Syria, said aid workers are concentrating on assisting more than 1,400 people who have been evacuated from the Old City since the high-profile relief operation began Feb. 7.” (LAT http://lat.ms/1gdbloG)