Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{Top US commander in Iraq says ‘fair chance’ coalition bombing had role in killing scores of people.}

The top US commander in Iraq on Tuesday acknowledged the likelihood that the US-led coalition played a role in blasts in Mosul that killed many civilians this month, but said an investigation was under way and ISIL may also be to blame.

“My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties… What I don’t know is were they [the civilians] gathered there by the enemy? We still have some assessments to do,” Lieutenant-General Steve Townsend told a Pentagon news briefing, speaking from Iraq.

“I would say this, that it sure looks like they were.”

Conflicting accounts have emerged since the March 17 explosion in al-Jadida district in west Mosul, where Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes are fighting to clear Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters from Iraq’s second city.

Investigators are in Mosul to determine whether a US-led coalition strike or ISIL-rigged explosives caused a blast that destroyed buildings and may have killed more than 200 people.

“My initial impression is the enemy had a hand in this. And there’s also a fair chance that our strike had some role in it,” Townsend said.

“I think it’s probably going to play out to be some sort of combination. But you know what, I can’t really say for sure and we just have to let the investigation play out.”

More than 300 civilians have been killed in west Mosul since Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition began an offensive last month to push ISIL out of its last stronghold in Iraq, the UN said on Tuesday, adding the toll could exceed 400 if new killings are verified.

“This is an enemy that ruthlessly exploits civilians to serve its own ends, and clearly has not even the faintest qualm about deliberately placing them in danger,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

“[ISIL’s] strategy of using children, men and women to shield themselves from attack is cowardly and disgraceful. It breaches the most basic standards of human dignity and morality,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands more civilians are still trapped inside west Mosul after Iraqi forces and the US-coalition recaptured the city’s east from ISIL in January.

West Mosul is both smaller and more densely populated than the city’s east, meaning this stage of the battle poses a greater danger to civilians than those that came before.

Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera said field research in east Mosul showed “an alarming pattern of US-led coalition air strikes, which have destroyed whole houses with entire families inside”.

“The high civilian toll suggests that coalition forces… have failed to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” she said.

In the east, the Iraqi forces adopted a strategy of encouraging civilians to stay at home, dropping leaflets into the city with safety instructions for residents.

“The fact that Iraqi authorities repeatedly advised civilians to remain at home instead of fleeing the area indicates that coalition forces should have known that these strikes were likely to result in a significant numbers of civilian casualties,” Rovera told Al Jazeera.

Witnesses told Amnesty that people were killed in their own homes after heading government advice not to flee the city.

The UN said it also received reports of another 95 people killed in four western Mosul neighbourhoods between March 23-26.

The rights office said it was not in a position to provide a breakdown of the deaths caused by ISIL violence and air strikes by the international anti-ISIL coalition.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Israeli police arrest Palestinian guards after they try to stop archaeologist from removing ancient stone from compound.}

Jerusalem – The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem says Israel’s detention of Palestinian security guards working at the al-Aqsa compound is “unacceptable” and Israeli police are trying to change the status quo at the holy site.

Israeli police detained several guards working at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem earlier this week after they prevented an Israeli archeologist from trying to remove a stone from the religious compound.

“I believe the Israeli police are trying to impose a new reality and are trying to intimidate the al-Aqsa guards and to stop them from carrying out their duty,” Mufti Muhammad Hussein told Al Jazeera.

{{“That is unacceptable.”}}

The initial confrontation happened on Monday morning after the guards at al-Aqsa intervened when Yuval Baruch, employed by the Israeli Antiquities Authority and escorted by Israeli police, entered the compound and tried to take a stone from a pillar in an underground section of the al-Qibli mosque.

A heated argument ensued when one of the guards allegedly noticed Baruch remove a small piece of stone from the pillar and place it in his pocket. Baruch has denied trying to remove it.

The antiquities employee was removed from the area by police, but later tried to re-enter the underground Marwani prayer hall. Al-Aqsa guards quickly refused him entry.

Israeli police returned to the compound and arrested three guards, according to the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a religious trust tasked with managing the al-Aqsa compound.

The police later raided the homes of four other guards and arrested them, before detaining another guard on Tuesday.

Six guards remained in Israeli police custody as of Tuesday night.

Qasem Kamal, Khalil Terhoni, Arafat Najeeb, Osama Siam, Samer Qabbani and Emad Abdeen were expected to appear before a judge in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the Waqf said.

Israeli police told Al Jazeera in a brief statement only five people had been detained for “attacking police officers” and the incident was under investigation.

Mufti Hussein demanded that Israel respect the status quo that has prevailed since before Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

While Jews and non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound, non-Muslim worship is prohibited according to an agreement signed between Jordan and Israel shortly after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

The agreement put Islamic Waqf in charge of the compound’s administration.

The Mufti added that maintenance and renovation work at the compound are matters dealt with only by the Waqf and Israel has no right to intervene.

Tensions at al-Aqsa Mosque were a significant contributor to the wave of unrest that began in October 2015, after right-wing Israelis made frequent visits to the compound during the Jewish high holidays.

The al-Aqsa compound, also known as the Noble Sanctuary, is the third holiest site in Islam. Jews, who refer to the area as Temple Mount, also see it as a venerated holy site and believe it sits where the First and Second Temples once stood.

Sheikh Omar Keswani, a senior Waqf official, told Al Jazeera the Israeli authority had “no business” in the al-Aqsa compound, but that it frequently “breaks in with a police force”.

Israeli police routinely escort Jewish visitors around the compound, and they often facilitate the visits of right-wing Israeli politicians who have been charged with attempting to “change the status quo” at the holy site.

Right-wing activist and member of parliament Yehuda Glick petitioned Israel’s High Court on Tuesday to repeal a ban barring members of Israel’s parliament – or Knesset – into the compound.

Glick was shot and wounded in October 2014 in an assassination attempt.

He is a member of the Temple Mount Faithful, a group that calls for “liberating the Temple Mount from Arab occupation”.

The group advocates rebuilding a Jewish temple at the religiously important site, including the area containing the mosque.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday the prohibition on Knesset members and ministers visiting the al-Aqsa compound – in place since tensions erupted in December 2015 – would gradually be phased out over the course of three months, if security conditions permit it.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Beijing says the activist is being investigated on suspicion of ‘pursuing activity harmful to national security’.}

China has confirmed it is detaining Taiwanese pro-democracy activist Lee Ming-che, who went missing last week.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said Lee was being investigated on suspicion of “pursuing activities harmful to national security”.

Lee disappeared on March 19 after clearing immigration in Macau. He never showed up for a planned meeting later that day with a friend across the border in China’s city of Zhuhai.

China considers the self-ruled Taiwan a breakaway province.

Chinese authorities said Lee was in good health, but gave no information about where he was being held or other terms of his detention.

“Regarding Lee Ming-che’s case, because he is suspected of pursuing activities harmful to national security, the investigation into him is being handled in line with legal procedures,” Ma told reporters.

Ma said Taiwanese people coming to China for “normal” activities did not have anything to worry about and their rights would be protected.

“The mainland has rule of law,” he said. “On this point, Taiwan compatriots can rest at ease.”

{{‘Sensitive’ material}}

Cheng Hsiu-chuan, president of a Taipei college where Lee worked, told the Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that Lee may have attracted the attention of Chinese security after using the Chinese social media service WeChat to “teach” China-Taiwan relations to an unknown number of people.

“For China, the material he was teaching would be seen as sensitive,” Cheng said.

Cheng urged Beijing to release public records, such as CCTV images, about Lee’s entry.

He added that Lee had travelled annually to China for the past decade to see friends, saying he would discuss human rights in private but had never held any public events there.

However, in mid-2016 Chinese authorities shut down Lee’s WeChat account and confiscated a box of books published in Taiwan on political and cultural issues, Cheng said.

“According to the news we’ve gotten, the state security bureau there doesn’t know how to handle Lee’s case,” Cheng said.

Taiwan’s presidential spokesman Alex Huang said on Tuesday that the Mainland Affairs Council had “engaged” and that it will do its “best”.

Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu, said the Taiwanese government agency also told her this week it had indirect information pointing to a Chinese state security detention.

“I want the government of China to act like a civilised country and tell me what they’re doing with my husband on what legal grounds and, like a civilised country, what they plan to do with him,” Lee said.

She added that her husband might be in need of hypertension medicine.

In June, China halted communications with Taiwan, a move triggered by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s failure to endorse the “one China” principle, which requires countries that seek diplomatic relations with China to break official relations with Taiwan.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949. China insists the two sides must eventually unify – by force if necessary.

Source:Al Jazeera