World Briefs: Opposition agrees on united front against Assad

Mohammad Zarak, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, said the shooting took place in Nad Ali district after an argument between an Afghan soldier and coalition service members.

Coalition figures show at least 60 NATO troops have been killed so far this year and others have been wounded in about 45 insider attacks, where members of the Afghan security forces or insurgents dressed in their uniforms turn their guns on U.S. and allied troops.

SRI LANKA

Opposition calls prison deaths a massacre

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s main opposition party has described the deaths of 27 inmates after a prison riot as a “cold-blooded massacre” and demanded a parliamentary investigation. Authorities have said the prisoners died in a shootout.

Mangala Samaraweera, a lawmaker for the United National Party, said Sunday that he has information that most of the prisoners killed during Friday’s clash had been fatally shot by police commandos and soldiers.

The party has called for a parliamentary committee to be appointed to investigate.

Officials have said the clash erupted when prisoners attacked a search team that went into the Welikada Prison facility in Colombo looking for narcotics and communication devices. The prisoners armed themselves by breaking into the armory, they said.

Forty-two others, including police commandos and soldiers, were wounded.

KENYA

Officers killed chasing cattle rustlers

NAIROBI — Cattle rustlers killed 12 police officers in an ambush, a police spokesman said Sunday.

The officers were killed early Saturday morning in northwestern Kenya, as they were pursuing the cattle thieves, said spokesman Eric Kiraithe. He said nine other officers were wounded in the attack and have been flown to Nairobi for treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital.

Mr. Kiraithe said that hundreds of cattle were stolen from the Samburu community by raiders suspected to be from Turkana. He said police officers and reserves pursued the raiders when they were caught in the trap.

Cattle raiding is an ongoing source of friction between communities in northwestern Kenya.

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