A5 briefs

One of the victims is in critical condition, police said. No arrests have been made, but police believe the early morning attack was “targeted.”

“This was not a random act of violence, based on the preliminary investigating efforts,” Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. “We believe that this was a targeted event, where someone was specifically targeted and others were injured in that process.”

Three Baton Rouge police officers were nearby when the shots were fired around 1:30 a.m. and responded to the Dior Bar & Lounge. They administered life-saving aid until emergency medical technicians arrived.

“We believe their immediate response prevented further injuries,” Paul said.

Although police have some leads, Paul urged anyone else with information about shooting to come forward.

“There is someone who knows something — do the right thing. You can save the next incident because it is obvious that this person has total disregard for life,” Paul said.

Police did not say how many of the people shot were targeted. Paul declined to comment on how many shooters opened fire.

“I do understand the interest and everybody wanting information, but remember ... we have to get this right,” Paul said about the ongoing investigation. “And sometimes, getting it right means I can’t give information right now.”

Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome — who met with mayors of other major U.S. cities in Washington, D.C., last week, to discuss the issue of crime — called the shooting “a senseless act of violence that will not go unchecked.”

“We will not stop our work until everyone feels safe and individuals no longer turn to guns to resolve their differences,” Broome tweeted.

Although the number of homicides in Baton Rouge decreased last year from 2021, Louisiana’s capital city has been plagued by gun violence. In October, an early-morning shooting near Southern University’s campus in Baton Rouge left nine people injured.

Building collapse in Syrian city leaves 16 dead

BEIRUT | A building collapsed in a neighborhood in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo early Sunday, killing at least 16 people, including one child, and injuring four others, state media reported.

The five-story building housing about 30 people is in the Sheikh Maksoud neighborhood under the control of the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. It collapsed overnight, according to the report, after water leakages weakened the structure’s foundation.

Dozens of firefighters, first responders and residents covered in debris and dust were searching through the rubble for the remaining residents with drills and a bulldozer.

Some relatives of the tenants waited anxiously nearby, while others mourned at the entrance of a nearby hospital as the bodies arrived in ambulances and on the backs of trucks.

Hawar News, the news agency for the semiautonomous Kurdish areas in Syria, initially reported that seven people were killed and three were injured, two of them critically.

SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi in a statement condemned the Syrian government forces that control the neighborhoods surrounding Sheikh Maksoud for “banning for years the entry of basic materials into the neighborhood, obstructing efforts to stabilize and restore life in the area.”

Many buildings in Aleppo were destroyed or damaged during Syria’s 11-year conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.

Although Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government has retaken Aleppo from armed opposition groups, Sheikh Maksoud is among some neighborhoods under the control of Kurdish forces.

Aleppo is Syria’s largest city and was once its commercial center.

Extremists storm govt office in Somalia’s capital; 5 dead

MOGADISHU, Somalia | Al-Qaida-linked extremists stormed a regional government office in Somalia’s capital Sunday, and five civilians were killed, the government said.

The founder of the Aamin ambulance service, Abdulkadir Adan, told The Associated Press his team collected 16 wounded people from the scene.

The al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility for the assault on the Banadir Regional Administration headquarters in Mogadishu.

A staff member at the headquarters said the attack began with a suicide bombing before gunmen entered and exchanged fire with security guards. The staffer, Mustafa Abdulle, said most of the workers were rescued by security forces.

Al-Shabab often carries out attacks in Mogadishu. The federal government last year declared “total war” on the extremist group and has retaken a number of communities the fighters had controlled in central and southern Somalia.

—From AP reports