Yaqui indigenous communities on opposite sides over a proposed gas pipeline through Mexico's Sonora state clashed Oct. 21, leaving at least one dead by gunfire. The confrontation involved close to 300 people from the neighboring communities of Loma de Bácum (Bácum municipality) and Loma de Guámuchil (Cajeme). The former community is opposed to the pipeline project, while the latter is in favor. Bácum community leaders won an amparo (injunction) against the pipeline, which resulted in temporary suspension of construction in the area, and Bácum residents set up a protest camp at the idled construction site. The clash erupted when company workers arrived to resume construction—allegedly in violation of the amparo, and with the support of Guámuchil leaders and local politicians. Accounts are unlcear as to which side the fatality was on, but 13 vehicles belonging to Bácum residents were torched. There were also several injuries, and reports of a second death still not acknowledged by state authorities. The battle lasted three hours before a mixed force of state and federal police backed up by army troops intervened.

As a US-led mixed Kurdish and Arab force advances on ISIS-held Mosul, an apparent ISIS "sleeper cell" of at least some 30 fully armed militants came to life in Kurdish-held Kirkuk, attacking government, police and security buildings. At a power station in Dubis, on the outskirts of the city, several engineers and workers were killed as militants detonated car-bombs and suicide vests. US-led coalition warplanes bombed a building in central Kirkuk that had been taken by the militants, and street-fighting rages across the city. The death toll so far is put at nearly 60, with twice as many wounded. (Rudaw, BasNews, KUNA)

UN humanitarian agencies operating in Iraq are bracing for what could be a displacement catastrophe of massive proportions as the US-led offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS is launched. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that up to one million people may be forced from their homes in the operation, which is expected to last months. (UN News Centre) The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Fillippo Grandi arrived in Erbil Oct. 17 to discuss preparations for the anticipated deluge. (Rudaw) With fighting now underway on the outskirts of the city, at least 2,000 residents have massed on the border with Syrian Kurdistan, hoping to cross over to safety. Another estimated 3,000 Mosul residents have arrived at an IDP camp near Hasakah in northern Syria. (BasNews)

Shops and homes belonging to Shi'ite Muslims in Nigeria's Kaduna state were destroyed by rampaging mobs in a wave of attacks that spread across several towns Oct. 15. The attacks, which came as Shi'ites were celebrating their Ashura religious festival, were reported from the towns of Tudun Wada, Ungwan Muazu and Kabala West. A Shi'ite religious school was also destroyed in Tudun Wada earlier in the week. Human Rights Watch blamed Kaduna state authorities for enflaming an atmosphere of intolerance by persecuting Shi'ites in appeasement of local Sunni fundamentalist sentiment. HRW stated that "the move to ban the Shia umbrella body, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), by the Kaduna State government appears to have triggered a wave of discrimination and violence against Shia elsewhere in the country." (ABNA, Information Nigeria, Premium Times, Nigeria, Oct. 15)

Chilean national Jaime Castillo Petruzzi, imprisoned for 23 years in Peru for his participation in the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), was immediately deported upon his release Oct. 14. Elite National Police troops escorted him to Lima's airport, where he was put on a commerical flight. Arriving in Santiago, he was greeted by a crowd of supporters waving banners of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), which carried out an armed resistance under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Castillo's first political involvement was as a MIR militant in the 1970s. He later fled Pinochet's repression of the MIR, seeking exile in France—where he met MRTA founder Víctor Polay, and decided to join the struggle in Peru. He was captured in 1993 and charged in the kidnapping of 12 businessmen and the deaths of nine police and army troops. At the Santiago airport he addressed supporters: "We are free today, but we are not completely free. We are happy, but not completely happy. Many of our political compañeros remain [imprisoned] in Peru." (Biobio, Chile, Oct. 15; Ojo, Peru, Oct. 14)

After 37 days, indigenous protesters in Peru's Loreto region lifted their blockade of the Río Marañon Oct. 7 as the central government acceded to their demand that a high-level delegation be sent to their remote community of Saramurillo, Urarina district. The delegation—led by Rolando Luque, head of the National Office for Dialogue and Sustainability and vice-minister for interculturality Alfredo Luna—met with indigenous communities at a local installation of the state firm PetroPeru. The communities were represented by their spokesman José Fachin, while the region's Bishop Miguel Olaortúa moderated. But things turned heated Oct. 12, when indigenous leaders demanded that presidential advisor on social conflicts Jorge Villacorta leave the table. The conflict began in a dispute over whether indigenous leaders from outlying communities would be paid to attend the next meeting. The meeting broke down into shouting, and a physical altercation threaeted, before Villacorta agreed to leave. The river remains open with the next meeting still pending. The government has declared an "environmental emergency" in the distrcits of Urarinas and Parinari over the recent pipeline spills, shipping in potable water. But local communities are demanding the North Peru Oil-duct be closed until its safety is assured, as well as greater social investment in their jungle zone. (La República, Oct. 13; RPP, RPP, Oct. 12; RPP, Oct. 8; RPP, Oct. 7)

The first death due to a social conflict in Peru under new President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski came Oct. 14 as campesinos clashed with National Police over the contested mine at Las Bambas. Quintino Cereceda Huiza, 28, of Choqeqa community, was killed and 34 others wounded as police troops opened fire to clear some 200 protesters blocking a newly built access road to the mine in Challhuahuacho district of the Cotabambas province, Apurímac region. Las Bambas, Peru's largest copper mine, was brought online this year by Chinese company MMG Ltd—over the protests of local campesino communities in Challhuahuacho and Tambobamba districts. "The community has never disagreed with the project. They are not anti-mining," protest leader Rodny Cabrera told RPP Noticias. "The issue is that they cheated us, they lied to us. The mining company changed the environmental impact plan. The ore was going to go through a pipeline, not trucks that are polluting the fields. How will people live?" (OCMAL, Peru Reports, Oct. 15, La Mula, Reuters, Oct. 14; La Mula, Sept. 30)

Towns and villages across large areas of Burma's northern Rakhine state are reported to be deserted, as terrified residents flee a new military crackdown following attacks by supposed Muslim Rohingya militants. At least 26 have been killed in the military raids, and at least hundreds displaced. Villages are said to be in flames. The military action follows attacks on three border posts along the frontier with Bangladesh Oct. 9 that authorities blamed on a previously unknown "Aqa Mul Mujahidin," said to be successor group to the supposedly disbanded Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO). The border attacks, centered on Maungdaw township, left 39 dead—nine police, four soldiers and 26 suspected militants. (Channel News Asia, Channel News Asia, Anadolu Agency, Oct. 14)