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Adding to the growing civilian death toll caused by US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, the US overnight attacked the Syrian border town of Abu Kamal, along the key Iraqi border crossing, killing at least 30 civilians in the process.

The US carried out the strikes at 3:00 am, targeting a series of apartment buildings in the towns residential area. Unsurprisingly, the apartments were full of sleeping civilians, and also unsurprisingly, blowing up the apartments killed a lot of them.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS is believed to have been using some of the apartments in the targeted area. There is, however, no sign that the apartments the US bombed contained any of the ISIS fighters in question.

This is the latest in a growing number of US strikes around Syria which have killed civilians, with reports of at least 87 civilians killed in the last five days from US and coalition strikes.

Abu Kamal is a hugely important strategic holding of ISIS, though its value has dropped somewhat since they lost most of their territory in Iraqs Anbar Province. Still, it is along the main highway connecting Syrias Deir Ezzor and Iraq, and has been contested by US-backed rebels intermittently, albeit unsuccessfully.

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US Airstrike Kills at Least 30 Syrian Civilians Near Iraq Border - Antiwar.com

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From Iraq to Leander: A flag to honor fallen peace officers KXAN.com In 2009, Carson returned to Iraq and visited Camp Wetherbee, named for Darrell Wetherbee, an international police officer killed by sniper fire there. Carson saw many commonalities between his family and Wetherbee, who was both a Marine and a Maine ... and more »

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From Iraq to Leander: A flag to honor fallen peace officers - KXAN.com

David Burge , El Paso Times Published 2:02 p.m. MT May 14, 2017 | Updated 6:38 p.m. MT May 14, 2017

Lt. Col. Mike Bandy and CSM Marcus Alford talk about 1AD headquarters' upcoming deployment to Iraq. Wochit

Soldiers with the 1st Armored Division practice the key skill of breaking down and moving their battlefield command post during the Warfighter exercise in February. This exercise was part of the train-up for Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion as it got ready to deploy to Iraq.(Photo: DAVID BURGE/EL PASO TIMES)Buy Photo

After months of training, soldiers from the 1st Armored Divisions headquarters are ready to deploy and get on with their new mission.

About 400 soldiers from the divisions Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, with a small contingent fromDivision Artillery, will deploy to Iraq in June.

The team will include Fort Bliss and 1st Armored Division commanding general Maj. Gen. Robert Pat White and division Command Sgt. Maj. Danny Day.

Related:Taking care of families part of Iraq deployment plan

Soldiers have been training really hard for the past year, said 1st Lt. Carlos Valenica, the executive officer for Headquarters Support Company with HHBN, as the headquarters battalion is more often called.

So finally being able to enact that training in a real-world scenario, I think a lot of soldiers are very excited to get out the door, said Valencia, from Austin, Texas.

White will lead what is called the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command in Iraq. In that role, the 1st Armored Division will be responsible for mission command over coalition forces who are training, advising and assisting Iraqi security forces in their fight against the Islamic State and other threats.

The deployment is expected to last nine months.

In February, 1st Armored Division soldiers, including those from Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, practiced moving their battlefield headquarters during the Warfighter exercise.(Photo: DAVID BURGE/EL PASO TIMES)

Division headquarters around the Army regularly deploy, but this is the first time that the 1st Armored Division headquarters has deployed since it moved to Fort Bliss from Germany in 2011, said Lt. Col. Mike Bandy, the commander of HHBN.

These Fort Bliss soldiers will take over the mission command role from the 1st Infantry Division headquarters from Fort Riley, Kan., and will officially start the mission in July.

The Gladiators, as the headquarters battalion is nicknamed, contain a diverse array of soldiers who specialize in military intelligence, supply, maintenance, human resources and signal support, among other functions.

The battalion will bring representatives from all those different specialty areas and will provide a wide range logistical support so White and his staff can conduct mission command while in Iraq, Bandy said.

Since Bandy took command of HHBN on Jan. 19, the battalion has been working nonstop to prepare for this deployment, he said.

The battalion took part in the large-scale Warfighter exercise in February and recently completed a mission readiness exercise called Iron Gauntlet that mimicked what it will experience in Iraq, Bandy said.

A Look Back:Competition tests skills as medics, soldiers

Before coming to Fort Bliss, Bandy, a Green Beret, served as the operations officer for Special Operations Joint Task Force-Iraq, when he was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Bandy served a six-month deployment in Iraq lasting until July 2016. So, he is quite familiar with the mission set and conditions on the ground there.

Soldiers from the 1st Armored Division headquarters and the division's Sustainment Brigade both participated in the recent Warfighter exercise in preparation for upcoming deployments.(Photo: DAVID BURGE/EL PASO TIMES)

One of the challenges the battalion will face is it will operate with smaller teams in several locations while deployed, said Maj. Tam Dam, the battalion operations officer from San Jose, Calif.

The challenge is maintaining communication when we are down range, Dam said. We already have a plan in place. Thinking through those kinds of things will probably reduce a lot of the friction when you go down range.

Battalion Command Sgt. Maj. Marcus Alford, of Dillon, S.C., said HHBN is absolutely ready for its Iraq mission.

I think the soldiers want the opportunity to get out and show that they are trained and prepared for this, Alford said.

Any mission America calls us to do is important, Alford added. We will get out there and continue moving forward with the Iraqis in their development.

David Burge may be reached at 546-6126; dburge@elpasotimes.com; @dburge1962 on Twitter.

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1AD HQ ready to 'get out door' on Iraq mission - El Paso Times

Plans that would see European border agents conduct patrols in Libya to stop the flow of migrantshave been welcomed by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs.

FedericaMogherini said strengthening the north African country's border management wasonly a good idea, although she said there was already an EU mission, lead by Italy, that specifically addressed the issue.

The Italian Commissioner also stated hersupport for ''the appeal by Germany and Italy for work to be stepped up on the southern border of Libya'' to control the movement of African migrants across the desert.

Her comments were a response to a letter fromGerman Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere, and his Italian counterpart Marco Minniti to the European Commission, which requested an EU presence on the border betweenLibya and Niger as soon as possible.

"The first months of this year have shown that our efforts up to this point have been insufficient," they said.

We must prevent hundreds of thousands of people who are in the hands of smugglers from risking their lives in Libya and the Mediterranean."

Libya is now the principal point of entry to Europe for African migrants.

This yearThe International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says more than 45,000 people have reached Italy by boat from North Africa, an increase of over 40 percent on the same period of 2016. More than 1,200 are said to have died on the way.

Italian coastguard rescues thousands of refugees off coast of Libya

The European Commission is looking at proposals for an EU force which would assist Libyan border officials in their work, according to reports in German press.

The smuggling of people and contraband has grown in Libya, as militias capitalise on the lack of stable government for enormous financial gain.The IOM has also reported that refugees are being sold at modern-day slave markets in Libya.

Simon McMahon, a researcher of migration and refugees at the University of Coventry, said he thought an EU presence would be ineffectiveand serve only to further increase danger for migrants travelling through Libya.

We know that border controls dont really stop people from moving, they just shape the way people move," he said.

In the short term, a militarised border would benefit the smugglers, because people will still need to make those journeys regardless of an EU presence. In the long term, it's almost certain to make those journeys increasingly dangerous.

He added: "This plan doesn't address the root cause of why people are moving, it just seeks to stop them moving in the first place."

Mr McMahon was part of theMEDMIG project, which conducted extensive interviews with African migrants hoping to reach Libya. The team found that 80 to90 per cent of migrants from West and Central Africa had experienced violence while passing through Libya.

Europe has had a presence in the region for some time, but the desire to control the border of a country which isn't an EU state is certainly new and unprecedented, he said.

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EU to conduct border patrols in Libya to stop migrants reaching Europe - The Independent

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May 15, 2017, 6:29 AM EDT May 15, 2017, 12:27 PM EDT

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office sought documents from Societe Generale SAamid probes into a dispute between the French bank and the Libyan Investment Authority, days after the lender agreed to pay 963 million euros ($1.06 billion) to resolve a related civil-bribery lawsuit.

Lawyers for the LIA and the bank disagreed on why the prosecutor wants the paperwork,with an attorney for the Libyans saying the SFO was conducting a probe into Societe Generale. The banks attorney said the document request was made on behalf of U.S. investigators.

The U.K. prosecutor was working on behalf of the U.S. Justice Department, the banks lawyer, Sandy Phipps, told the court. "It is not the case" the bank is under investigation by the SFO.

"The SocGen defendants have long been cooperating with the DOJ," Phipps said. The SFOs request covers documents "broadly similar to the U.S subpoena," he said.

The Justice Department has been investigating a plethora of banks, private-equity firms and hedge funds that may have violated anti-bribery laws while dealing with the LIA. The document request and any SFO interest will be an unwelcome development for Societe Generale in the case, in which a group of executives were given permission to testify in secret to avoid incriminating themselves.

Roger Masefield, a lawyer for the LIA, had said earlier Monday that there was a "pending SFO investigation."

"My understanding is that the SFO wishes the SocGen defendants to hand over various categories of documents by 8 June 2017, including all those that have come into SocGens possession as a result of these proceedings," Masefield said.

Spokespeople for Societe Generale and the SFO declined to comment. Societe Generale apologized to the LIA and said it regretted the lack of caution of some of its employees, when it settled the matter this month.

Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment.

The lender and LIA settled their legal dispute, involving five transactions between 2007 and 2009, hours before a civil trial was to start this month.

The U.K. prosecutors request emerged at a hearing scheduled to discuss what should happen with the thousands of documents generated for the vacated trial and the identification of those people who would have testified anonymously. Masefield said the confidentiality club had grown to 150 individuals from 20 over the two-year period before the trial.

"We have moved from tens of documents to tens of thousands of documents being part of the confidentiality club,"Masefield said. An SFO representative attending the hearing didnt participate in the discussions.

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The Libyan case hinged on a $58.4 million payment made by Societe Generale to a businessman named Walid Al-Giahmi to secure investment deals. The LIA, which manages Libyas oil profits and has assets of more than $60 billion, sought to claim losses of about $1.5 billion. The group alleged the payment was a bribe, making the trades invalid. The bank had denied wrongdoing, saying the money was for introductory services and market research.

A similar lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from the LIA -- that dealt with allegations of undue influence instead of bribery -- was thrown out six months ago after a long trial in London.

(A previous version of this story was corrected to fix the name of the LIA attorney.)

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SFO Seeks Files From SocGen Over Libya Bribery Allegations ... - Bloomberg