190 people rescued from Pakistani train after 450 passengers taken hostage
Mazhar Chandio/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — At least 190 people have been rescued from a train in Pakistan as of Wednesday after it was attacked one day prior and hundreds were taken hostage by the militant Balochistan Liberation Army, according to a Pakistani military official.
At least 17 people have been injured and 30 terrorists, members of the BLA, have been killed as a military operation continues, according to the official.
On Tuesday, a U.S. official told ABC News at least 450 people were taken hostage on the train and said six Pakistani military personnel were killed.
The separatist militant group claimed it had taken 182 military and security personnel hostage on the train, according to a post on Telegram, but said they had released the majority of the civilians on board. The group claimed a higher number of casualties in the attack, saying they killed 20 Pakistani military personnel and shot down a drone.
The BLA had threatened to kill all the hostages if Pakistan’s military tries to rescue them, the official said.
The BLA blew up part of the track, forcing the train to stop, before they boarded and took control, according to the official.
The attack happened in mountainous area right before a tunnel, making a rescue very difficult, they said.
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and said the government would not make any concessions to “beasts who fire on innocent passengers.”
The train was trapped in a tunnel after the tracks were blown up and militants opened fire on it, reportedly injuring the driver, local authorities and police have told media.
The BLA believes the Balochistan region of Pakistan, in the country’s far west bordering Iran and Afghanistan, should be allowed to break off from Pakistan. They are well-known for committing terror attacks in Pakistan. The BLA also attacked Jaffar Express trains in August 2013 and October 2016.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A general view of a Mosque in Mogadishu on March 4, 2025. (Photo by Hassan Ali Elmi/ AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The U.S. embassy in Somalia has warned Americans that they are tracking “credible information” regarding potentially imminent terror attacks “against multiple locations in Somalia including Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport,” officials said.
The U.S. embassy in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu said that all movements of embassy personnel have been canceled until further notice in a statement released on Tuesday.
“The U.S. Department of State level four travel advisory (“do not travel”) for Somalia remains in effect due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health issues, kidnapping, and piracy,” U.S. officials said.
“The U.S. Embassy in Somalia reminds U.S. citizens that terrorists continue to plot kidnappings, bombings, and other attacks in Somalia,” the statement continued. “They may conduct attacks with little or no warning, targeting airports and seaports, checkpoints, government buildings, hotels, restaurants, shopping areas, and other areas where large crowds gather and Westerners frequent, as well as government, military, and Western convoys.”
Shortly after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the United States used manned fighter jets to conduct an airstrike against Islamic State targets in Somalia in early February.
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the airstrike, claiming no civilians were harmed in the attack. No details were released about the targets aside from the president labeling the target as a “Senior ISIS Attack Planner.”
Hegseth said the airstrikes were carried out “at President Trump’s direction and in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia.”
The embassy warned that potential methods of attack include, but are not limited to, car bombs, suicide bombers, individual attackers and mortar fire.
“The U.S. government has extremely limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Somalia due to the lack of a permanent consular presence in Somalia,” officials said.
The embassy warned Americans who are still in Somalia to continue to exercise vigilance, review your personal security plans, notify a trusted person of your travel and movement plans and to avoid all large crowds, gatherings and demonstrations.
(LONDON) — India claimed on Thursday morning to have intercepted “drones and missiles” fired by Pakistan at a several military targets throughout northern and western India, saying the overnight attack amounted to a bid by Pakistan to “escalate” the conflict between the two countries.
India also said it targeted Pakistani sites, including a Pakistani air defense system at Lahore, which it said it destroyed.
“Today morning Indian Armed Forces targeted Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan,” the Indian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. “Indian response has been in the same domain with same intensity as Pakistan.”
India on Tuesday and Wednesday launched aerial attacks on Pakistan, about two weeks after a deadly terror attack in the disputed Kashmir region. India blamed Pakistan for that militant attack, the Pahalgam incident, which left 26 people dead in Indian-held Kashmir. Pakistan denied involvement.
At least 16 people have been killed in India, the defense ministry said on Thursday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had convened on Thursday a meeting of his secretaries to discuss “national preparedness,” a high-level defense discussion that came as his Pakistani counterpart declared that Pakistan had “once again proven its superiority over its enemy.”
The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, on Thursday praised the actions of his country’s military over the last few days.
“I salute the heads of all three armed forces and every brave soldier,” Sharif said, according to his office. “The 240 million people of Pakistan are proud of their armed forces.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a command center in Kursk on Wednesday, ordering troops there to “destroy” all Ukrainian formations remaining in the contested border region.
“Your task is to completely destroy the enemy, which has entrenched itself in the Kursk region and is still conducting warfare here, and fully liberate the Kursk region’s territory within the shortest possible time,” Putin said while clad in military fatigues.
“The previous status along the borderline must be restored,” the president said. “I do expect that all combat objectives facing your combat units will be attained unconditionally and the Kursk region’s territory will be fully cleared of the enemy in the near future.”
Ukrainian forces pushed into Kursk in August in a surprise offensive, seizing the town of Sudzha and surrounding villages. Kyiv’s troops have repelled months of Russian counteroffensives, but recent weeks have seen their salient crumble and Russian forces retake significant ground.
On Wednesday, Russian troops raised their flags over central Sudzha as Ukrainian forces hurriedly retreated back toward the shared border.
Russia’s battlefield successes in Kursk come as the U.S. pushes both Moscow and Kyiv to return to peace negotiations. This week, Ukraine and the U.S. agreed to a potential 30-day ceasefire, with American representatives also putting the proposal to a non-committal Kremlin.
Russian officials have indicated that they will not engage in peace negotiations while any of Kursk remains under Ukrainian control. Kyiv had hoped to use its occupation of the territory as leverage in talks, though its footprint there is now rapidly shrinking.
On Wednesday, Putin said he will give “special thought in the future to creating a security zone along the state border” to prevent repeat Ukrainian incursions. Prisoners taken on Russian territory would be treated “as terrorists,” Putin said, adding that “foreign mercenaries” are not protected under the Geneva Conventions.
President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow this week as the administration pushes for a ceasefire and broader peace deal. The ball is now “truly in their court,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of Russia following the U.S.-Ukrainian agreement to a 30-day ceasefire proposal.
The Kremlin was non-committal. Officials were “scrutinizing” the publicly released statements, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Russia, he added, “doesn’t want to get ahead of itself” on the potential ceasefire.
On Thursday, Peskov confirmed that American negotiators are traveling to Moscow. “Contacts are planned,” Peskov told a press briefing, adding of the potential outcomes, “We will not prejudge, we will tell you later.” Peskov did not say whether Witkoff would meet with Putin.
Trump’s push for peace — which has been twinned with fierce public criticism of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — has been welcomed by America’s allies, though leaders have been perturbed by the president’s apparent alignment with Russia’s false narratives about the conflict.
Rubio will meet with G7 foreign ministers in Quebec, Canada, on Thursday. His presence at the meeting will also be overshadowed by Trump’s spiralling trade war with America’s northern neighbor, plus the president’s repeated suggestion that Canada be absorbed by the U.S. and become its 51st state.
The G7 event “is not a meeting about how we’re going to take over Canada,” Rubio said Wednesday, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, though, said that “in every single meeting, I will raise the issue of tariffs to coordinate a response with the Europeans and to put pressure on the Americans.”
“The only constant in this unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump’s talk of annexing our country through economic coercion,” Joly said. “Yesterday, he called our border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric.”
ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova, Patrick Reevell and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
