Tag: InternationalNews

{Iraqi forces fight their way towards centre of Mosul amid suicide bombings with thousands trapped in urban warfare.}

Iraqi troops have advanced against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters towards the centre of Mosul after more than a month of hard-fought street battles.

As Iraqi forces pushed into the city on Sunday, they were again slowed down by sniper fire and suicide bombings, as well as concern over the safety of civilians in a city that is home to more than one million people.

A few hundred civilians emerged from rubble-strewn frontline neighbourhoods in search of safer ground, including women and children, some of them carrying bags or small suitcases.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, local resident Abu Ammar said Mosul inhabitants were gripped with fear. “We have no water and no food and we are frightened. Children are frightened, too,” he said.

“We are psychologically tired. We do not know what to do. We do not know if we should go to the camps or stay here. We are besieged here.”

Major-General Sami al-Aridi told the Associated Press news agency that his special forces were searching homes in areas retaken from ISIL, while looking for fighters and vehicles rigged with explosives. Troops in those areas continue to be hit by mortar and sniper fire, he said.

Another Iraqi army commander, Brigadier-General Haider Fadhil, said four civilians were killed and another four wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded before it could reach the troops it was targeting late on Saturday.

The troops laid siege on Sunday to the al-Zohour neighbourhood, about 8km from the city centre. The arrival of the troops at the neighbourhood’s fringes prompted hundreds of civilians to emerge from their homes waving white flags.

“The biggest hindrance to us is the civilians, whose presence is slowing us down,” Aridi said. “We are soldiers who are not trained to carry out humanitarian tasks.”

The Iraqi military began the campaign one month ago to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and ISIL’s last major urban bastion in the country.

Most gains have been made by the special forces operating in the section of Mosul east of the Tigris river. Other forces are advancing on the city from different directions, and the US-led coalition is providing air strikes and other support.

The UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, estimates that upwards of 60,000 residents have fled their homes in Mosul and the surrounding area since the outset of the massive military operation on October 17.

“There has been a marked increase over the past week in the number of people fleeing after fighting intensified in the more densely-populated urban areas of Mosul,” said UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards.

ISIL captured Mosul in the summer of 2014 as part of a blitz that placed nearly a third of Iraq under their control.

Army troops have arrived on the outskirts of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, to reinforce state-sanctioned Shia militias, who have captured the town’s airport and are preparing to retake the town, according to two senior militia officials who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

Before its capture by ISIL, Tal Afar’s had an estimated 200,000 residents.

Human Rights Watch said in a report on Sunday that Shia militiamen fighting alongside the Iraqi military detained and beat 22 men from villages near Mosul and recruited 10 children from displaced camps in the area to join the fight against ISIL.

“The Iraqi authorities should investigate any alleged acts of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment in custody and charge those responsible for war crimes, including anyone with command responsibility who should have known about the crimes and failed to take all reasonable measures to prevent them,” said the New York-based advocacy group.

“The US should press the Iraqi government to ensure that the troops they are supporting don’t have fighters under 18 in their ranks,” said Lama Fakih, HRW’s deputy Middle East director.

In Baghdad, four separate bomb attacks targeted commercial areas on Sunday, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding 34, according to police and health officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any of Sunday’s attacks.

{Barrel bomb kills six members of a family and rebel shelling hits school as casualties rise in the divided city.}

A barrel bomb killed a family of six in rebel-held eastern Aleppo early on Sunday and rebel shelling took the lives of eight children at a school in the west, as one of the heaviest government bombardments of Syria’s civil war continues.

Two medics said the al-Baytounji family suffocated to death because the barrel bomb, which fell in the Sakhour district at about midnight, had been laced with chlorine gas.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war through a network of informants, confirmed the bombing but could not confirm that chlorine gas was used.

Damascus has denied use of the gas, which would contravene the international Chemical Weapons Convention.

Rebel shelling killed at least eight children, aged six to 12 years, among 10 deaths in the Saria Hasoun school in al-Furqan district, the Syrian Observatory and Syrian state television reported.

Hundreds of people have been killed since Tuesday as the government and its allies attempt to quash resistance in Aleppo’s rebel-held eastern zone.

The UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned on Sunday that time was “running out” for eastern Aleppo as he expressed international outrage over the bombing campaign.

Syria’s military and Russia’s air force had paused their bombardment of eastern Aleppo, except for on the frontlines, for two weeks after a month-long offensive from late September to late October, but recommenced air strikes on Tuesday.

The plight of civilians in eastern Aleppo was underscored on Saturday when the World Health Organization reported that the bombing had put all the hospitals in the besieged district out of operation. An official with a rebel group based in east Aleppo said there were still no working hospitals there on Sunday.

The army and its allies began ground attacks on Friday and the Observatory reported intense clashes in Sheikh Saeed in southeast Aleppo and in Baeedain and Bustan al-Basha in northeast Aleppo.

Top UN officials said on Saturday that they were “appalled” by escalating violence in Syria, and urged immediate access to Aleppo, where government forces are waging a ferocious assault to retake rebel-held districts.

“The United Nations is extremely saddened and appalled by the recent escalation in fighting in several parts of Syria and calls on all parties to cease indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure,” the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria Ali al-Zaatari and regional humanitarian coordinator Kevin Kennedy said.

‘All of Syria’ at stake

An inquiry by the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has said that Syrian government forces have used chlorine gas in barrel bombs at least three times during the war. Damascus denies it.

Syria also denies using barrel bombs – improvised ordnance made of oil drums filled with high explosive and shrapnel and dropped from helicopters. Their use has been condemned by the UN for causing unnecessary suffering.

Air strikes continued to hit several districts of eastern Aleppo on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory said, after at least 54 people were killed in bombing on Saturday.

So far about 240 people have been killed in bombing in east Aleppo and the rebel-held countryside to the west of the city since Tuesday, it added.

The French foreign minister on Sunday condemned Syrian government air raids.

Jean-Marc Ayrault’s comments to Al Jazeera came after he met representatives of the opposition Syrian High Negotiations Committee in Qatar’s capital, Doha.

“Today’s war is all-out war. I condemn this in the name of France. I will take the initiative to bring together those who share the same vision for Syria’s future in the coming hours and days,” he said.

“You can’t stand there and wait for Aleppo to fall. Because it is not only Aleppo at stake – it is all of Syria.”

‘Chlorine gas’ attacks

UN envoy de Mistura arrived in Damascus on Sunday for talks.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said in a televised news conference that de Mistura discussed the possibility of an autonomous administration being set up in eastern Aleppo, but that Damascus completely rejected this. An elected city council oversees services in the rebel-held eastern districts.

Moallem said that the arrangement was intended by rebel groups to control distribution of food, and they were holding the civilians of eastern Aleppo hostage.

Asked about Damascus’ expectations from US President-elect Donald Trump, Moalem said he wanted him to stop arming rebel groups and to curb regional powers who did so.

Video of the Syrian family killed was distributed online by the medics. It showed the bodies of four children stretched out on a floor, their lips blue and dark marks around their open eyes.

Medics and residents in rebel-held areas often accuse the Syrian military of using chlorine in barrel bomb attacks, but the difficulty in reaching besieged areas makes it hard for international agencies to verify the claims.

Syria and Russia have also accused the rebels of using toxic gas in artillery shells, including during a major assault on the western fringe of the government-held zone in Aleppo early this month.

{Ex-prime ministers Francois Fillon and Alain Juppe both out-polled Sarkozy in the conservative presidential primary.}

France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has conceded defeat in the race to choose the conservative nominee for next year’s presidential election.

Ex-prime ministers Francois Fillon and Alain Juppe both out-polled Sarkozy in early returns, and stand to advance to the November 27 runoff.

In a speech from his campaign headquarters in Paris on Sunday, Sarkozy called on his supporters to vote for Fillon in the second round.

“I hold Alain Juppe in high esteem, but I feel closer to Francois Fillon’s political choices,” Sarkozy told supporters. “I will therefore vote for him in the second round of the primary.”

“I have no bitterness, no sadness, and I wish all the best for my country, for you my fellow citizens. And for the one who will lead this country I love so much,” he added.

With more than 3.2 million votes counted of an estimated total of five million, Fillon had 44 percent, Juppe 28.1, and Sarkozy 21.1.

Fillon has enjoyed a strong boost in popularity in recent weeks thanks to his image of authority and seriousness compared with Sarkozy’s more brazen demeanour.

“I am very sad for Nicolas Sarkozy and for our political family,” Rachida Dati, a former justice minister under Sarkozy, told France 2 television.

With the left very divided and a majority of voters seen in opinion polls to be opposed to seeing the far-right National Front in power, the chosen centre-right nominee is likely to defeat party leader Marine Le Pen in an expected election runoff next May.

But while polls have consistently shown the 71-year-old Juppe would easily beat Le Pen, there have been no recent surveys on how Fillon would fare in such a match.

Until a week ago, Fillon, 62, a social conservative with economically liberal ideas, trailed Juppe and Sarkozy badly in polls and had not been expected to go through to the second round of the primaries.

Bruno Le Maire, seen as having come fourth in the contest, threw his weight behind Fillon, who was prime minister under Sarkozy, saying he would cast his vote for him next Sunday.

Juppe, a moderate conservative campaigning on an inclusive, “happy identity” platform, had for months been ahead in polls.

But over the past week the contest has been transformed into a tight race between the three men.

Sarkozy had sought to tap into populist sentiment while Fillon was proposing tough measures to shake up the economy.

Were Fillon to get 50 percent of the votes after all votes are counted this Sunday, he would automatically become the conservatives candidate for the election.

{At least four members of Pakistani security forces killed by gunmen on a motorcycle in restive Balochistan province.}

ISIL has claimed the killing of four members of Pakistani security forces who were shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle in the southwestern city of Quetta in the troubled Balochistan region.

A statement issued on Sunday by the armed group gave no further details about the attack, which took place the day before.

The ISIL affiliate in Pakistan has grown in recent months by attracting disgruntled Taliban fighters, and by targeting the country’s Shia Muslim minority.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, ISIL, also claimed an attack on a Sufi shrine earlier this month that killed more than 50 people.

The blast at Shah Noorani shrine occurred while hundreds of people were inside to celebrate the Sufi saint’s 500th birth anniversary.

Balochistan is the scene of a violent separatist movement. But officials recently told Al Jazeera that the area has become a safe haven for fighters fleeing military operations in other regions bordering Afghanistan.

In the largely remote and neglected region, Pakistani security forces and symbols of the state have come under attack from armed groups, while civilians have lost lives in sectarian violence.

Balochistan is a strategically important province to Pakistan because of the high concentration of natural resources – including oil, coal, gold, copper and gas reserves, which generates substantial revenue for the federal government – and the only deep-sea port at Gwadar.

In October, the local armed group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi boasted of a deadly attack on a police station in Quetta.

At least 61 people were killed and several were held hostage for hours during the attack on a dormitory inside the police centre.

Pakistan has carried out military operations against armed groups in tribal areas near Afghanistan and in cities across Pakistan, but fighters are still capable of staging frequent attacks.

{Train was travelling from Patna to Indore when it derailed on Sunday morning, throwing several carriages off the tracks.}

At least 90 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a train derailed in northern Uttar Pradesh, India’s biggest state, police said.

The train was travelling between the northeastern city of Patna and the central city of Indore on Sunday when the incident happened, throwing several carriages off the track, according to railway officials.

“As we know a major accident has happened in which the entire train turned turtle. The death toll has unfortunately increased and it is 91 now,” Daljit Singh Chawdhary, the additional police director general of Uttar Pradesh state, told AFP news agency.

“A lot of teams are currently there including local police, doctors and members of the National Disaster Response Force. The rescue operations are on.”

All local hospitals had been placed on alert and around 30 ambulances had been deployed to transport the injured.

India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the Patna-Indore Express train had derailed near Kanpur, in northern India and that the National Disaster Response Force was overseeing the rescue efforts.

“Dozens of passengers were injured in the derailment. We don’t know what led to the disaster,” said a senior railway official R K Chandra in Kanpur.

Al Jazeera’s Faiz Jamil, reporting from the capital Delhi, said the crash happened at around 3am local time.

“It happened about 450km southeast of Delhi and the local rescue teams have now been joined by the state and national teams. The railway officials have said they will be looking into the cause of the derailment,” he said.

TV footage showed rescue workers trying to cut through severely mangled coaches with suitcases and other luggage strewn around.

Witnesses spoke of being woken up by a huge bang and being thrown around.

“We woke up to a great thud this morning. It was pitch dark and the noise was deafening,” a passenger told reporters as he waited with his family at the accident site.

“I am lucky to be alive and safe. But it was a near-death experience for us.”

Suresh Prabhu, India’s railways minister, said in a tweet that the government would immediately investigate the causes of the derailment and promised accountability with the “strictest possible action”.

India’s creaking railway system is the world’s fourth largest, ferrying more than 20 million people each day, but it has a poor safety record, with thousands of people dying in accidents every year.

The nation suffers frequent train derailments, sometimes with tragic consequences, including another train accident in Uttar Pradesh in March last year that killed 39 people and injured 150.

{NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg says he is certain that Donald Trump will maintain a strong US commitment to NATO.}

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has reassured member-states alarmed by statements from US President-elect Donald Trump that the military alliance is becoming obsolete.

“NATO is important for the stability in Europe, but stability in Europe is also important for the United States,” Stoltenberg said in a speech to a think-tank in Brussels on Thursday.

“And I’m absolutely certain that Donald Trump … will therefore maintain a strong US commitment to NATO.”

Before the election, Trump had questioned whether the US would automatically defend its NATO allies if they came under attack.

“Either they pay up, including for past deficiencies, or we’re going to get out,” said Trump at a campaign event in Wisconsin in April.

“And if it breaks up NATO, it breaks up NATO”, he said.

Trump and Stoltenberg spoke by telephone for the first time on and agreed to look at NATO funding, the US next president’s main concern.

The military alliance includes United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium and Turkey, amongst others.

“The Secretary-General said that when Britain leaves the European Union, 80 percent of NATO’s budget will actually be provided by countries outside Europe,” said Al Jazeera’s David Chater, reporting from the NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“These are matters which defence analysts are saying need to be examined.”

One analyst argued that Trump’s limited foreign policy experience means that it will be his foreign policy advisers who are going to shape the new administration’s relationship with NATO.

“This is a president-elect who comes to it without a lot of background on foreign policy,” Ian Lesser, senior director of foreign policy at the German Marshall Fund, told Al Jazeera.

“It does matter a lot who is appointed in the cabinet positions, the advisors who will shape these foreign policies.”

{Pakistan says three children are killed by Indian mortar shells that hit their house in Kashmir’s Kotli district.}

An official in the Pakistani-administered area of Kashmir has accused Indian forces of firing mortar shells that targeted a village along the disputed Line of Control (LOC), leaving three children killed and three others injured .

“Two girls and their brother died when mortar shells fired by Indian troops hit their house in Kotli district along the Line of Control (LOC),” Raja Arif Mehmodd, a local administration official, told AFP on Saturday.

He said the eldest girl was aged 10 and the youngest girl was five.

“All belonged to the same family,” he added.

Indian news sites citing government sources have also reported ongoing clashes in another Kashmir district of Pulwama, but made no mention of the three child deaths in Kotli.

The reports from Indian Express and Times of India claimed armed men holed up in the Kakapora area of Pulwama opened fire at Indian security forces.

Indian forces exchanged fire with the group, killing one fighter, they added.

Both Pakistani military and Indian defence officials have confirmed the exchange of fire along the LOC.

“Indian troops resort to unprovoked firing in Tander and Baroh areas of Bhimber sector today,” said a statement issued by the Pakistani military, adding that no loss of life was reported in those clashes.

{{‘Unprovoked ceasefire violation’}}

An unnamed Indian defence spokesman also confirmed to Indian media clashes in two areas of Rajouri district along the LOC, blaming the Pakistani army for the “unprovoked ceasefire violation”.

The latest incidents come a day after Pakistan’s navy said it had “pushed” an Indian submarine away from Pakistani waters, as tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals continue to smoulder over unrest in the disputed Kashmir region.

Tensions across the long-disputed de facto Himalayan border reached dangerous levels in September, when India blamed Pakistani armed groups for a raid on an army base that killed 19 soldiers.

India said it had responded by carrying out “surgical strikes” across the heavily militarised border, sparking a furious reaction from Islamabad, which denied the strikes took place.

There have since been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over the mountainous region.

{Around 50 people start fire in central Istanbul building before escaping, Turkish media reports.}

Around 50 refugees have escaped from a repatriation centre in central Istanbul after starting a fire inside the building, according to Turkish media.

The men, most of them reportedly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, burned furniture on the third floor of the building in Kumkapi district protesting over poor living conditions, Turkish national daily Hurriyet said on Saturday.

Video footage from the scene, published online by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency, showed refugees taking advantage of the commotion caused by the fire, with dozens of them bursting open the building’s main gate and scattering into the district’s back streets.

Police and fire department teams were immediately dispatched to the scene.

Authorities said they had started an investigation into the incident.

Turkey currently hosts 2,764,500 registered Syrian refugees, according to the latest UNHCR statistics. The country is also believed to be home to thousands of other registered and unregistered migrants and refugees from countries such Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

The EU, faced with its worst refugee crisis since World War II, signed a controversial deal with Turkey in March, in which the country agreed to take back Syrian asylum seekers from Greece in return for billions of euros in aid.