VOA NEWS

September 20, 2016

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Michael Lipin reporting. Humanitarian aid convoy is struck by warplanes in Syria.



The United States is accusing Syria of conducting airstrikes on aid trucks which had been attempting to reach the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday.

The United Nations and Syria's Red Crescent said the multi-agency convoy was hit as it was transporting aid from Turkey to tens of thousands of people in Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the trucks were struck by military aircraft.

There is no immediate response from Syria's government to the U.S. accusation that it was responsible.

The raid came as a one-week cease-fire in the Syrian civil war appeared to dissolve, with Syria's military blaming its collapse on U.S.-backed opposition forces.



U.S. police have detained a man suspected of planting several explosive devices in New York City and nearby New Jersey on Saturday.

Police arrested 21-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami in the town of Linden, New Jersey, on Monday after engaging in a shootout with him. He was taken to a hospital to be treated for light wounds.

U.S. prosecutors charged Rahami with five counts of attempted murder stemming from that shootout which wounded two officers.

Rahami was seen on surveillance video at one of Saturday's bomb sites in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

Speaking in New York, President Obama praised the speed of Rahami's capture.

"It's just one more reminder of the extraordinary skill and sacrifice and courage of our law enforcement officers and what they put on the line every single day to make sure that we are safe."

U.S. police also want to question Rahami about a blast in Seaside Park, New Jersey, on Saturday.



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The bombs in New York and New Jersey became a point of contention in the U.S. presidential contest on Monday.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said she wants a new "intelligence surge" to fight terrorism. She said experts in America's Silicon Valley technology hub could help to devise ways to monitor Internet conversations among plotters.

"We should also launch an intelligence surge to help identify and thwart attacks before they can be carried out. We need to work more closely with Silicon Valley and other partners to counter terrorist propaganda and recruitment efforts online."

On the presidential campaign trail in Florida on Monday, Republican nominee Donald Trump once again urged a tightening of immigration standards for people entering the United States.

Trump said U.S. police "are afraid to do anything" to prevent attacks because they do not want to be accused of racial profiling against suspected terrorists.

"Congress should pass measures to ensure that foreign enemy combatants are treated as such. These are enemies. These are combatants and we have to be tough and we have to be strong."



Meanwhile, the U.S. government says it has mistakenly granted citizenship to more than 800 immigrants that it was supposed to have deported.

An internal Homeland Security Department audit released on Monday found the 858 immigrants came from countries that pose a national security risk to the U.S. or to countries with high rates of immigration fraud. The report did not identify those countries.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department's inspector general said the immigrants used different names or birth dates to apply for citizenship. He said the mistakes happened because the applicants' fingerprints were missing from government databases.



Thousands of migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos have been forced to flee a fire that broke out in their refugee camp.

Volunteers at the Moria refugee camp said around 4,000 people were evacuated from Monday's fire. There were no reports of injuries.

Greek fire officials are investigating the cause of the blaze and assessing the extent of the damage.

Around 5,400 migrants and other refugees live on Lesbos. The island was the main destination for the more than one million people who reached Greece's eastern islands from Turkey since the beginning of 2015.

Greece is struggling to reduce overcrowding at migrant camps on its islands even though the flow of people is less than last year, and the slow processing of asylum requests is adding to frustration(s) that sometimes spark violence among residents.



I'm Michael Lipin in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.