Tag: InternationalNews

{Iraqi troops push from Mosul’s south against ISIL held-territory securing villages on the edge of historic Nimrud city.}

Iraqi forces have captured two villages on the outskirts of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud as they move ahead to drive Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters from Iraq’s second city Mosul.

The 9th division of the Iraqi army on Sunday advanced on Nimrud and Numaniyah villages on the edge of the main city, military officials told Al Jazeera. Earlier reports said the entire 3,000-year-old city – about 30km south of Mosul – had been captured by the army.

Nimrud – once the capital of an empire stretching across the ancient Middle East – is one of several historic sites looted and ransacked by ISIL fighters, who deem the country’s pre-Islamic religious heritage as idolatrous.

ISIL still controls other Assyrian landmarks, including the ruins of Nineveh and Khorsabad, as well as the 2,000-year-old desert city of Hatra.

Four weeks into the campaign to crush ISIL in Mosul, the city is almost surrounded but the armed group’s defences have so far been breached only to the east, where they have battled elite troops for control of about a dozen districts.

The fight for Mosul, the biggest city held by the armed group in Iraq, is the largest military operation in a decade of turmoil unleashed by the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Iraq’s government, which has assembled a 100,000-strong coalition of troops, security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, and mainly Shia militias – backed by US air power – said the battle will mark the end of ISIL in Iraq.

But it acknowledged the fight will be a long one.

Meanwhile on the frontline, an army special forces officer said his men aimed to target Hadba, the first neighbourhood ahead of them within city limits. The district was visible from his position in the village of Bawiza, Reuters news agency reported.

Brigadier Ali Abdulla said ISIL fighters had been pushed out of Bawiza and another village, Saada, although forward progress had been slowed by the presence of civilians.

“Our approach will be very slow and cautious so that we can reach the families and free them from Daesh’s grip,” Abdulla said, using the Arabic name for ISIL.

IN PICTURES: A deserted sanctuary near Mosul’s frontlines

The urban warfare tactics were similar to those deployed to lethal effect in the east of Mosul against elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) forces and an armoured division.

In some districts, control has changed hands three or four times as ISIL fighters – using tunnels and exploiting the presence of civilians as cover – have launched night-time attacks and reversed military gains of the previous day.

More than 54,000 people have been forced to flee their homes so far in the Mosul campaign.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said on Sunday tens of thousands of people “lack access to water, food, electricity and basic health services” in areas recaptured by the army in Mosul and surrounding towns and villages.

Ultimately, 700,000 people were likely to need shelter, food, water or medical support, it said.

{PM says Israeli citizens complain about excessive “noise” coming from loudspeaker systems for calls to prayer.}

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he backs a bill limiting the volume of calls to prayer from mosques, a proposal government watchdogs call a threat to religious freedom.

Israeli media reported on Sunday the bill would stop the use of public address systems for calls to prayer.

“I cannot count the times – they are simply too numerous – that citizens have turned to me from all parts of Israeli society, from all religions, with complaints about the noise and suffering caused them by the excessive noise coming to them from the public address systems of houses of prayer,” Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting.

While the draft bill applies to all houses of worship, it is seen as specifically targeting mosques.

{{Discrimination accusations}}

Israel’s population is roughly 17.5 percent Arab, most of them Muslim, and they accuse the Jewish majority of badly discriminating against them.

East Jerusalem is also mainly Palestinian and traditional calls to prayer by muezzins through public address systems can be heard in the city.

The Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think-tank, has spoken out against the proposal.

On Sunday, one of the group’s officials accused Israel’s right-wing politicians of dangerously using the issue to gain political points under the guise of improving quality of life.

Nasreen Hadad Haj-Yahya wrote in Israeli newspaper Maariv “the real aim” of the bill “is not to prevent noise, but rather to create noise that will hurt all of society and the efforts to establish a sane reality between Jews and Arabs”.

{Military says it killed 28 people who attacked security forces in Rakhine state as violence continues.}

Myanmar’s military says at least 28 people have been killed during renewed clashes in western Rakhine state.

The announcement on Sunday came the same day a Human Rights Watch report said satellite images appeared to show three Muslim Rohingya villages had been “burned to the ground” in recent weeks.

In a statement published online, the military said 22 attackers armed with swords were killed near Dar Gyi Zar village after they charged at soldiers, adding another six attackers were killed during clashes elsewhere in the restive state.

Authorities have heavily restricted access to the area, which came under deadly attack last month, making it difficult to independently verify government reports or accusations of army abuse.

Northern Rakhine, which is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority and borders Bangladesh, has been under military lockdown ever since surprise raids on border posts left nine police dead last month.

Soldiers have killed several dozen people and arrested scores in their hunt for the attackers, who the government said are radicalised Rohingya people with links to foreign armed groups.

On Saturday, the military claimed two soldiers and six attackers were killed in an ambush, after helicopter gunships were deployed.

Rohingya villages burned down

The crisis and reports of grave rights abuses being carried out in tandem with the security crackdown have piled international pressure on Myanmar’s new civilian government, and raised questions about its ability to control its military.

New York-based HRW urged authorities to invite United Nations investigators to look into the destruction of a total of 430 buildings in three villages in the northern Maungdaw district between October 22 and November 10.

“New satellite images not only confirm the widespread destruction of Rohingya villages, but show that it was even greater than we first thought,” Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, said in a statement.

According to the group, the damage took place in the villages of Pyaung Pyit, Kyet Yoe Pyin, and Wa Peik.

Rohingya people are a stateless minority whom Buddhist nationalists vilify as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh – even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

The latest outbreak of violence came at a time of heightened tensions between the authorities and the ethnic Rohingya community, which has seen the government arm non-Muslim civilians in Rakhine and renewed crackdowns on the Rohingya.

{A 7.8-magnitude quake hits central New Zealand, killing at least two people and prompting a tsunami warning.}

A powerful magnitude 7.8-magnitude earthquake has rocked New Zealand, prompting a tsunami warning and knocking out power and phone services in many parts of the country.

Prime Minister John Key said at least two people were killed in the powerful temblor.

Officials warned all people along the east coast of the country to get to higher ground as the first waves began to roll in.

The US Geological Survey said the shallow quake hit 90km from the South Island city of Christchurch, which was devastated five years ago by a 6.3 tremor.

That quake killed 185 people in one of New Zealand’s deadliest disasters.

Monday’s earthquake, initially put at 7.4 but later upgraded, struck at 12:02am local time (1102 GMT on Sunday).

It was only 10km deep and felt throughout most of the country.

It was followed by a series of strong aftershocks and there were reports of damaged buildings in the small rural township of Cheviot near the epicentre.

“It was massive and really long,” Tamsin Edensor, a mother of two in Christchurch, told AFP news agency.

“We were asleep and woken to the house shaking, it kept going and going and felt like it was going to build up.”

Civil Defence organisation, which is in charge of New Zealand’s emergency management, said it was too early to assess the damage or whether there had been any injuries or deaths.

“The whole house rolled like a serpent and some things smashed, the power went out,” a woman who gave her name as Elizabeth told Radio New Zealand from her home in Takaka, near the top of South Island.

The ambulance service said it did not receive any reports of quake-related injuries.

Civil defence warned people all along the country’s east coast to move to higher ground over fears of a tsunami.

“The first wave activity may not be the most significant,” it said in a bulletin, adding tsunami activity would continue for several hours.

New Zealand to demolish iconic cathedral

Anna Kaiser, a seismologist at GNS Science, said a tidal signal or surge of up to one metre had been recorded in the North Canterbury region of the South Island.

“That’s reasonably significant so people should take this seriously,” she told Radio New Zealand.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, however, said based on available data “a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected”.

Chris Hill, a fire officer in Cheviot, said officials had gone door to door evacuating residents.

“Everyone seems okay here,” he told Radio New Zealand. “There’s a lot of debris in houses, but at this stage it doesn’t look like anything too bad has happened.”

In a brief message the Prime Minister John Key tweeted: “I hope everyone is safe after the earthquake tonight.”

In September, a strong 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the east coast of New Zealand, generating a small tsunami, but no significant damage or injuries were reported.

New Zealand is on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, which form part of the so-called “Ring of Fire”, and experiences up to 15,000 quakes a year.

{ISIL mortars, RPGs, and suicide car bombs target Iraqi forces as urban push meets stiff resistance.}

ISIL fighters have launched several fierce counterattacks on Iraqi forces in Mosul city, underscoring the intense battle ahead as government troops and their allies push into densely populated neighbourhoods.

An ISIL suicide car bomber targeted Iraqi troops in the city’s eastern Qadisiya neighbourhood early on Saturday, setting off heavy fighting that involved mortar rounds, gunfire, and rocket-propelled grenades.

Iraqi officers told the AFP news agency fighting was also under way in the adjoining Arbajiya area.

“The fighting is intense this morning. We’re trying to fortify our positions in Arbajiya before continuing our attack into al-Bakr,” Colonel Muntadhar Salem of the counterterrorism unit said.

Salem later clarified the aim was to surround the al-Bakr neighbourhood, but not to assault it for now.

To the south of the city, militarised Iraqi police said they had come within 5km of Mosul’s airport, which satellite images show has been heavily fortified by ISIL.

The images, taken earlier this month by US-based private intelligence firm Stratfor, showed ISIL fighters having cleared terrain and leveled buildings around the airport and a nearby former military base on the west bank of the Tigris River.

Rows of concrete barricades, earthen mounds and rubble could be seen blocking key routes into the city centre.

Thousands of Iraqi regular troops and special forces, Shia militias, Kurdish Peshmerga, and other groups in an alliance of 100,000 fighters.

The nearly four-week campaign that began on October 17 to drive Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant out of the biggest city under its control is also backed by thousands of Western personnel on the ground and US-led air power, including fighter jets and Apache helicopters.

The International Organisation for Migration said on Saturday more than 49,000 people had been displaced since the operation began.

In recent days the advance has slowed as they fight their way into densely populated neighbourhoods, with the urban landscape making defence easier for ISIL.

Iraqi armed forces do not release casualty figures, but field medics have noted that dozens have been killed and wounded.

Winning back Mosul would be a major blow to ISIL’s self-declared caliphate. In a rare audio message released earlier this month, ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – whose whereabouts are unknown – said there could be no retreat in a “total war” against the forces arrayed against ISIL, telling fighters they must stay loyal to their commanders.

In a brief published on Friday, the UN’s human rights office said ISIL carried out a series of executions and abuses and that 40 people had been killed by the armed group for “treason and collaboration” with Iraqi forces and their allies closing in on the city.

Dressed in orange jumpsuits, the bodies of the victims were hung from electrical poles in several areas around Mosul, the UN said.

{{Civilian deaths}}

As street battles raged deeper into the city, civilians – some of them carrying white flags – walked towards the city’s outskirts.

Meanwhile, the United Nations warned of a possible exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Mosul, which is still home to as many as 1.5 million people.

The World Health Organisation said it has set up 82 “rapid response teams” to manage risks of epidemics, chemical exposure, and other health worries among people fleeing Mosul.

The UN health agency said water and sanitation in camps for displaced people could “face disruptions” as the numbers of those fleeing Mosul grew, raising the risk of food and water borne diseases such as cholera.

{Army and allies regain control of several districts, rolling back recent rebel gains in besieged northern city.}

Syrian government forces recaptured territory in the contested city of Aleppo, reversing all gains rebels made two weeks into their counterattack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor with sources on the ground, said on Saturday the army and allies made several advances on the divided city’s western edge, hampering the rebel offensive to break the siege on opposition-held districts.

The group said government forces regained control of Al-Assad and Minyan districts in the west of Aleppo.

State television said the army swept the suburban area for land mines.

“The ‘epic battle for Aleppo’ has failed,” said the Syrian Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman, using the term the rebels had assigned to the offensive.

Zakaria Malahifji, head of the political office of the Fastaqim rebel group fighting in Aleppo, confirmed the army’s gains.

“Of course, when the regime takes control, it has a negative effect, but there is persistence” among the rebel factions, he said. “And hopefully there will be change in the coming days.”

The city has been divided for years between the government-held west and rebel-controlled east.

Syrian forces launched a major Russian-backed assault on eastern Aleppo in September after besieging the area, which is home to about 250,000 people.

On October 28, rebels counterattacked in a bid to break the siege, targeting western districts of Aleppo, but their progress slowed after early successes.

Aleppo has become the most intense front in the war pitting President Bashar al-Assad – helped by Iranian militias and Russian air power – against rebel groups, some backed by Turkey, the United States, and Gulf monarchies.

Russia said its air force has been observing a moratorium on air strikes on rebel-held eastern Aleppo since October 18.

Prior to that, the Syrian Observatory and emergency workers said heavy air strikes had killed at least 450 people, and hit hospitals and other civilian facilities.

An armada of Russian warships, meanwhile, is now in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast after being sent to reinforce Russia’s military in the area.

The commander of Russia’s flagship Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, Sergei Artamonov, said via videolink the ships “are now jointly carrying out tasks, manoeuvering to the west of the Syrian coast”.

{Portland police say suspect confronted and then shot a demonstrator who was taken to hospital with non-lethal injuries.}

A police manhunt is on for a suspect who shot an anti-Donald Trump protester in Portland, Oregon after they got into a confrontation, as demonstrations against the US president-elect continue.

Protests have taken place in various parts of the United States since Wednesday after the controversial Republican candidate Trump was elected the 45th US president.

On Saturday, hundreds resumed marches in New York City. In Chicago, hundreds more – including families with small children – chanted “No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here” as they marched through Millennium Park, a popular downtown tourist attraction.

“We’re horrified the country has elected an incredibly unqualified, misogynist, racist on a platform that was just totally hateful,” said Mary Florin-McBride, 62, a retired banker from New York who held a sign reading, “No Fascism in America.”

Police said in a statement the Portland attacker got out of his vehicle on a bridge where he confronted and then shot the anti-Trump protester, who was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

A search was on for the shooter, who reportedly fled in the vehicle after the attack and is still at large.

Anti-Trump protests swept on Friday across the cities of Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and Portland, drawing about thousands of people who voiced anger at the billionaire businessman’s controversial campaign rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims and women.

Other small demonstrations were held in US cities. Some waved American flags or carried signs reading “Not My President.”

Earlier in the night, protesters blocked traffic and threw objects at Portland police dressed in riot gear who responded with pepper spray and flash-bang devices. At one point, police pushed protesters back and appeared to take at least one person into custody, according to footage on a local NBC affiliate.

Hundreds joined a “Love Rally” on Friday afternoon in Washington Square Park in New York City’s Manhattan.

In Los Angeles on Thursday night, police arrested about 185 people, mostly for blocking roadways or being juveniles out past curfew, according to police.

One officer was hospitalised for injuries suffered during the protest.

Anti-Trump demonstrators have voiced concerns his presidency, due to start on January 20, would infringe on Americans’ civil and human rights.

They cited his campaign promises to restrict immigration and register Muslims, as well as allegations against the former reality-TV star that he had sexually abused women.

Protesters in various cities have chanted slogans and carried signs reading “Impeach Trump”.

{Brazen attack by disguised suicide bomber at Bagram airbase north of Kabul also wounds 17 other people.}

A Taliban suicide bomber dressed as a labourer blew himself up at the NATO airbase at Bagram north of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing four Americans and wounding at least 17 people.

Two US military service members and two US contractors were killed on Saturday, and 16 other US service members were wounded, along with a Polish soldier who was part of the NATO mission.

“For those who carried out this attack, my message is simple: ‘we will not be deterred in our mission to protect our homeland and help Afghanistan secure its own future,’” US defence chief Ashton Carter said in a statement.

The explosion struck at dawn on Saturday inside the heavily fortified Bagram based as the Taliban steps up attacks on Western targets before the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs.

Waheed Sediqqi, spokesman for the Parwan provincial governor, said the bomber managed to enter the heavily protected site and was standing in a queue with Afghan labourers when he detonated a suicide vest.

Bagram Airfield, close to Kabul, has frequently come under attack by Taliban fighters.

Al Jazeera’s Abdullah Shahood, reporting from Kabul, said the base is in a heavily guarded area where people only with exclusive access can enter.

“An Afghan police official told us that the person who got in with the explosives must be a dual citizen and someone who has an access pass and is trusted to go without escort,” he said.

{{Worsening situation}}

On Thursday, four people were killed and 128 others were wounded when a suicide bomber drove a lorry loaded with explosives into the German consulate in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

The Taliban said that attack was retaliation for air strikes near the northern city of Kunduz last week, which killed more than 30 civilians.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Saturday’s blast – which he said had been planned for four months – had caused heavy casualties, killing 23 Americans and wounding 44. The group often exaggerates the number of casualties caused by its operations.

The explosion underscores a worsening security situation nearly two years after NATO formally ended its combat operations in Afghanistan.

The US currently has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, with the largest contingent stationed at Bagram Airfield.

Last December, a motorcycle-riding Taliban suicide bomber killed six US soldiers near Afghanistan’s largest US military base. It was one of the deadliest attacks on foreign troops in the country in 2015.

{Tickets sell out in less than 30 minutes for charity concert as nation commemorates anniversary of the bloody attacks.}

British singer Sting reopened the Bataclan – the revered Paris concert hall – with a charity concert marking the first anniversary of the bloody attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

Many survivors of the Bataclan assault, where some 90 people were killed, attended the concert on Saturday, the dominant event in a weekend of otherwise low-key commemorations.

The coordinated suicide bomb and gun attacks in various parts of Paris on November 13 last year also targeted bars, restaurants, and a sports stadium.

“We will not forget them,” the British rock star Sting told the crowd in French after a minute’s silence. He began the emotionally charged concert with his song “Fragile”, singing: “Nothing comes from violence and nothing will.”

The Eagles of Death Metal, a rock band from the United States, was playing on stage when the legendary Bataclan concert hall was raided.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the bloodbath – the worst of its kind in the history of France.

A year later, nine people out of the 400 wounded in the rampage are still in hospital.

Mohamed Amghar, a survivour of the Paris attacks, told Al Jazeera he could not understand what made the young Muslim men want to kill others.

“Killing yourself is against our religion. Killing in the name of God is against Islam. I don’t think we read the same book [with these attackers], because Quran is all about love. Killing others to go to paradise has no place in our religion,” Amghar said.

He worked as a security guard at the Stade de France, where a suicide bomber blew himself up after Amghar refused to let the attacker inside the stadium.

Sold out in minutes

The Bataclan said all 1,000 Sting tickets sold out in less than 30 minutes for the concert hall that has a 1,500-person capacity.

The families of those who died and survivors in the Bataclan were given tickets by organisers. Psychologists and counselors will be on hand to offer support.

While reopening the doors will mean reliving painful memories for many, Jules Frutos, who has co-run the venue for the last 12 years, told AFP news agency, “We had to go on after such horror and not leave a mausoleum, a tomb.”

On Sunday, President Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will unveil plaques to the victims outside the stadium, the Bataclan, and bars and restaurants targeted that night.

{Hundreds of thousands of protesters in Seoul demand Park Geun-hye’s resignation over corruption scandal.}

Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans have taken to the streets of Seoul to demand the resignation of scandal-hit President Park Geun-hye, in one of the largest anti-government protests in decades.

On the back of official appeals for calm, police deployed around 25,000 officers on Saturday for the third instalment in a series of weekly mass demonstrations in the South Korean capital that have left Park fighting for her political life.

In an effort to soothe public anger, Park has issued several apologies, reshuffled her top officials, and even agreed to relinquish some of her extensive executive powers, but the popular calls for her to step down have been relentless.

“We are feeling the weight of the serious public mood,” Jung Youn-kuk, presidential spokesman, acknowledged on Friday.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Choi, 60, leveraged her personal relationship with the president to coerce donations from large companies like Samsung to nonprofit foundations which she set up and used for personal gain.

The scandal engulfing Park is focused on a close personal friend, Choi Soon-sil, who is currently under arrest on charges of fraud and abuse of power.

She is also accused of interfering in government affairs, despite holding no official position.

On Saturday, prosecutors questioned the head of the country’s largest steelmaker as well as a top Samsung executive.

Kwon Oh-joon, Posco chief executive, was interrogated about allegations surrounding the 2014 sale of the company’s in-house advertising unit.

Kwon was the first head of a major South Korean conglomerate to be questioned over the scandal.

The allegations are that one of Choi’s associates attempted to force the company that bought Posco’s advertising subsidiary to hand over 80 percent of its shares.

Reports of the unhealthy influence Choi wielded over Park have sent the president’s approval ratings plunging to record lows.

Police said they had planned for a crowd of around 170,000 for Saturday’s demonstration, while organisers said they expected “between 500,000 and one million” to turn out.

Tens of thousands arrived in Seoul by buses and trains from provincial cities around the country. One group of 1,000 protesters flew in from the popular southern resort island of Jeju.

Such numbers make it one of the biggest anti-government rallies since the pro-democracy protests of the 1980s.

“The organisers were talking about a million people coming to the streets of Seoul today,” Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett said, reporting from Seoul.

“It’s impossible to estimate at this point, but it is an enormous protest and very well-organised.”

A protest in June 2008 against then-president Lee Myung-bak’s decision to lift an import ban on US beef drew 80,000 people according to police, while organisers claimed 700,000.

To soothe public anger, Park has issued several apologies and reshuffled her top officials [Reuters]
In a televised press conference on Friday, Lee Joon-sik, deputy prime minister, voiced concerns at the possibility of “illegal collective action or violence”.

“We hope the public will cooperate so that the demonstration will be legal and peaceful,” Lee said.

The two previous rallies were largely peaceful, with a large number of families attending, including couples with infants and young children.

Although opposition lawmakers said they would attend Saturday’s protest, they have largely avoided direct resignation calls and appear more interested in extracting more concessions from Park in terms of devolving power to the legislature.

“Among people in their 20s, Park’s support is down near zero percent in the latest Gallup poll,” said Al Jazeera’s Fawcett.

“But [the opposition] aren’t really sure what to do with it because if they do drive her from office, there isn’t really a unifying figure on the left of politics to take up the mantle of the presidency right now.”

The candlelight rally was scheduled to begin at 4pm local time (07:00 GMT) at Seoul City Hall, followed by a march in the direction of the presidential Blue House.

Police plan to erect roadblocks to keep the crowds well away from Park’s official residence, and organisers said they would respect police boundaries.