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Blasts near Pakistan candidates’ offices kill 26 on election eve

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Two explosions near electoral candidates’ offices in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan killed 26 people and wounded dozens on Wednesday, officials said, raising concerns over security on the eve of a general election, Reuters reported.

Pakistan goes to the polls on Thursday amid rising militant attacks and the jailing of Imran Khan, the winner of the last national election, who has been dominating the headlines despite an economic crisis and other woes threatening the nuclear-armed country.

Authorities have said they are boosting security at polling booths.

The first attack, which killed 14 people, took place at the office of an independent election candidate in Pishin district.

The second explosion in Qilla Saifullah, near the Afghan border, detonated near an office of Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), a religious party that has previously been the target of militant attacks, according to the province’s information minister.

The deputy commissioner of Qilla Saifullah, Yasir Bazai, said that 12 people were killed and 25 wounded by a device planted on motorcycle parked near the office, read the report.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the two blasts in a message on its Telegram channel on Wednesday.

Several other groups, including the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and separatist groups from Balochistan, oppose the Pakistani state and have also carried out attacks in recent months.

A TTP spokesman claimed an attack on Monday that killed 10 people at a police station in northwest Pakistan. The TTP has said it was targeting police and security officials rather than electoral candidates.

Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement its western border crossings with Iran and Afghanistan would close and re-open on Friday to ensure security during the election, Reuters reported.

Khanzai hospital, close to the site of the explosion in Pishin on Wednesday, put the death toll at 14 and said more than two dozen were wounded. The deputy commissioner of Pishin district, Jumma Dad Khan, said that the blast had wounded many people.

“I’m appalled by today’s terrorist attacks and condemn those seeking to prevent people from voting,” British High Commissioner to Pakistan Jane Marriott said.

The attacks came as political parties wrapped up their campaigning in the quiet period mandated by electoral rules the day before the election.

Khan, in a message from jail, earlier urged his supporters to wait outside polling booths after casting their votes, as rival political parties held large rallies to mark the end of the election campaign period.

Any large-scale gathering of Khan’s supporters near booths could raise tensions because of what they call a military-backed crackdown on him and his party that has restricted campaigning. The military denies interfering in politics.

“Encourage the maximum number of people to vote, wait at the polling station … and then stay peacefully outside the Returning Officer’s office until the final results are announced,” said Khan on social media platform X, accompanied by an undated photograph depicting him wearing simple black clothing.

His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also released a video of Khan recorded just days before he was arrested in August, calling on people to turn out to vote.

Kasim Khan, Khan’s son with British journalist Jemima Goldsmith, in a post on X called on people to vote with an image of him and his brother holding a PTI flag. A PTI official confirmed the account belonged to Kasim Khan, a rare social media post from Imran Khan’s children who have previously stayed out of the public eye.

Electoral frontrunner Nawaz Sharif led a huge rally in the eastern city of Kasur with his brother, former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is running in that constituency.

Amid a sea of tens of thousands of supporters waving green party flags, Sharif, also a former prime minister, called on the country’s youth to support his party and took aim at Khan who has previously attracted support from young voters in the area.

“Don’t fall for him,” Sharif said.

Supporters of the rival Pakistan People’s Party also gathered in the southern city of Larkana led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who could play kingmaker if no single party receives enough parliamentary seats to form a government outright.

The former foreign minister and son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto criticised opponents, including Sharif, for what he described as compromising the country’s security and economy during their tenures, Reuters reported.

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Trump rejects Iran’s response to US peace proposal as ‘unacceptable’

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President Donald Trump’s swift rejection of Iran’s response to a U.S. peace proposal ​sent oil prices surging higher on Monday amid concerns the 10-week-old conflict will drag on, keeping shipping through the Strait of Hormuz paralyzed.

Days ‌after the U.S. floated an offer in the hopes of re-opening negotiations, Iran on Sunday released a response focused on ending the war on all fronts, especially Lebanon, where U.S. ally Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Tehran also included a demand for compensation for war damages and emphasized Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state TV said, Reuters reported.

It also called on the U.S. to ​end its naval blockade, guarantee no further attacks, lift sanctions and end a U.S. ban on Iranian oil sales, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.

Within ​hours, Trump dismissed Iran’s proposal with a post on social media.

“I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, ⁠without giving further detail.

The U.S. had proposed an end to fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.

Oil prices jumped $3 a barrel on Monday ​following news of the continued stalemate that leaves the narrow Strait of Hormuz largely closed. Before the war the waterway carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and ​has emerged as one of the central pressure points in the war.

Surveys show the war is unpopular with U.S. voters facing sharply higher gasoline prices less than six months before nationwide elections that will determine whether Trump’s Republican party retains control of Congress.

The U.S. has also found little international support, with NATO allies refusing calls to send ships to open the Strait of Hormuz without a ​full peace deal and an internationally mandated mission.

It’s not clear what fresh diplomatic or military steps may be ahead.

Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday. ​With mounting pressure to draw a line under the war and the global energy crisis it has ignited, Iran is among topics Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to ‌discuss.

Trump has ⁠been leaning on China to use its influence to push Tehran to make a deal with Washington.

Addressing whether combat operations against Iran were over, Trump said in remarks aired on Sunday: “They are defeated, but that doesn’t mean they’re done.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war was not over because there was “more work to be done” to remove enriched uranium from Iran, dismantle enrichment sites and address Iran’s proxies and ballistic missile capabilities.

The best way to remove the enriched uranium would be through diplomacy, Netanyahu ​said in an interview that aired Sunday on ​CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” But he did ⁠not rule out removing it by force.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a social media post that Iran would “never bow down to the enemy” and would “defend national interests with strength.”

Despite diplomatic efforts to break a deadlock, the threat to shipping lanes and ​the economies of the region remained high.

Recent days have seen the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the strait since ​a ceasefire began.

On Sunday, ⁠the United Arab Emirates said it intercepted two drones coming from Iran, while Qatar condemned a drone attack that hit a cargo ship coming from Abu Dhabi in its waters. Kuwait said its air defences had dealt with hostile drones that entered its airspace.

Clashes have also continued in southern Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, despite a ⁠U.S.-brokered ceasefire announced ​on April 16.

An end to hostilities with Iran would not necessarily bring an end to the ​war in Lebanon, Netanyahu said in the “60 Minutes” interview, in which he also said Israeli planners had underestimated Iran’s ability to choke off traffic through the Hormuz Strait.

“It took a while for them to understand ​how big that risk is, which they understand now,” he said.

 

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Fourteen Pakistani police officers killed in KP car bombing and shootout

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The death toll from a suicide attack on a security post in northwest Pakistan rose to 14 police officers, authorities said early Sunday.

A suicide bomber and several gunmen detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the post in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, late Saturday, said senior police official Sajjad Khan. The attack triggered an intense shootout, and some officers were killed in the exchange, while others died later after the building collapsed, the Associated Press reported.

Rescuers conducted an hourslong search operation using heavy machinery to retrieve bodies from under the rubble, Khan said, adding that three police officers were wounded in the attack.

Security forces have also launched an operation to track down the perpetrators.

A newly formed militant group, Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.

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UAE countering Iranian air attack after Trump says ceasefire still in effect

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U.S. ally ​the United Arab Emirates said its air defences were engaging missile and drone threats from Iran early on Friday in a further ‌test of the shaky, month-long ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.

There were few details immediately available about the latest attack on the UAE, which came a day after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire around the Strait of Hormuz, and as Washington awaited a response from Tehran to its proposal to end the conflict. Iran has often targeted the UAE and other Gulf countries that ​host U.S. bases since the war began on February 28, Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday three U.S. Navy destroyers were attacked as they ​moved through the strait, a conduit for around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows that Iran has ⁠all but closed since the conflict started.

“Three World Class American Destroyers just transited, very successfully, out of the Strait of Hormuz, under fire. There was no damage ​done to the three Destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump later told reporters the ceasefire was still in effect and ​sought to play down the exchange.

“They trifled with us today. We blew them away,” Trump said in Washington.

Iran’s top joint military command accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire by targeting an Iranian oil tanker and another ship, and of carrying out air attacks on civilian areas on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz and the nearby coastal areas of Bandar ​Khamir and Sirik on the mainland. The military said it responded by attacking U.S. military vessels east of the strait and south of the port of Chabahar.

A ​spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said the Iranian strikes inflicted “significant damage,” but U.S. Central Command said none of its assets were hit.

Iran’s Press TV later reported that, following ‌several hours ⁠of fire, “the situation on Iranian islands and coastal cities by the Strait of Hormuz is back to normal now.”

The two sides have occasionally exchanged gunfire since the ceasefire took effect on April 7, with Iran hitting targets in Gulf countries including the UAE.

Oil prices rose in early trade in Asia on Friday, with Brent crude jumping above $100 a barrel after the latest clashes between the U.S. and Iran.

TRUMP URGES NEGOTIATED END TO WAR

Trump suggested ongoing talks with Tehran remained on track despite Thursday’s ​hostilities, telling reporters, “We’re negotiating with the ​Iranians.”

Before the latest strikes, the U.S. ⁠had floated a proposal that would formally end the conflict but did not address key U.S. demands that Iran suspend its nuclear work and reopen the strait.

Tehran said it had not yet reached a decision on the emerging plan.

Even so, Trump said Tehran had ​acknowledged his demand that Iran could never get a nuclear weapon, a prohibition he said was spelled out in the ​U.S. proposal.

“There’s zero chance. ⁠And they know that, and they’ve agreed to that. Let’s see if they are willing to sign it,” Trump said.

Asked when any deal might be reached, Trump said, “It might not happen, but it could happen any day. I believe they want to deal more than I do.”

The war has tested Trump’s relationship with his U.S. base of ⁠supporters, after he ​had campaigned against involving the United States in foreign wars and promised to bring down fuel ​prices.

Average U.S. gasoline prices have climbed more than 40% since late February, rising by about $1.20 a gallon to more than $4, according to data from the American Automobile Association, as disruptions to oil shipments ​through the Strait of Hormuz pushed crude oil prices higher.

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