ANKARA (AFP) - A parliamentary commission here yesterday blamed local authorities in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey’s for the killings last month of a 12-year-old boy and his father and the 1993 disappearance of 11 villagers, the Anatolia news agency reported. Commission chairman Mehmet Elkatmis accused police in Kiziltepe, a town in Mardin province, of “heavy negligence” in the shooting deaths on November 21 of Ahmet Kaymaz and his 12-year-old son, Ugur. Police said the father and son were gunned down outside their home in what they described as a raid against armed Kurdish rebels, but local rights activists and neighbors said the two were unarmed civilians. The commission report said the pair “could have been captured unharmed if the security forces had tried,” according to Anatolia.

BELGRADE (AFP) - The army of Serbia and Montenegro is reinforcing troops in the troubled region of southern Serbia, the scene of ethnic-Albanian insurgency in 2001, Defense Minister Prvoslav Davinic said yesterday. The army was to deploy two battalions at several locations in the region bordering the UN-administered province of Kosovo, Davinic was quoted by Beta news agency as saying. “By such measures we only want to send a message that we are ready to respond to any security challenge,” the minister said.

Turkey’s powerful military yesterday warned that Islamic groups continue to pose a threat to the mainly Muslim country. “Since the day it has been founded, the Republic of Turkey has continuously been the target of attacks by reactionary groups,” Gen. Hilmi Ozkok said. “There is no change in the Turkish Armed Forces’ known approach to ‘fundamentalist religious’ trends which continue to be an important threat today.” (AP)

A man who robbed 26 stores and betting offices in Croatia over a nine-month period was tracked down by police because he was nice to his victims. The 25-year-old man called the people in the stores “honey” or “kitten,” and told them: “You are very dear,” “This is a tiny little robbery” and “Take some of the money yourself, babe.” Zagreb police said yesterday informants identified the man by the kind of language he used. (AP)