Tag: InternationalNews

{Israel rejects French invite to a peace conference on Palestine, saying it prefers direct talks with the Palestinians.}

Israel formally rejected France’s invitation to take part in a Middle East peace conference in Paris later this year, saying it was a distraction from the goal of direct negotiations with the Palestinians.

At a meeting in Jerusalem with Israel’s acting national security adviser and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s diplomatic adviser, French envoy Pierre Vimont was informed that Israel wanted nothing to do with the effort to revive talks that last broke down in 2014.

“[They] told the French envoy in a clear and unequivocal manner that Israel’s position to promote the peace process and reach an agreement will only come through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from Vimont, but the French foreign ministry said it still planned to hold the conference before the end of the year.

France has repeatedly tried to breathe new life into the peace process this year, holding a preliminary conference in June where the United Nations, European Union, United States, and major Arab countries gathered to discuss proposals without the Israelis or Palestinians present.

The plan was to hold a follow-up conference before year-end with the Israelis and Palestinians involved, and see whether the two sides could be brought back to negotiations. The last US-backed talks ended in failure in April 2014.

The Palestinians have said they will attend the Paris conference if it goes ahead.

Israel, which regards the United States as the chief broker in the Middle East, has long maintained that only direct negotiations with the Palestinians can lead to peace and sees France’s efforts as a diversion.

“Any other initiative, including this one, will only distance peace from the region,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding it expected France “not to promote a conference or a process that is contrary to [our] official position”.

The Palestinians say they cannot resume talks with Israel until it suspends the building of settlements on occupied land that the Palestinians seek for an independent state, and it meets previous commitments, including the release of prisoners.

Despite two US attempts to resolve the conflict during Barack Obama’s presidency, talks have stalled over issues including settlements and Palestinian political divisions.

While most of the so-called “final status” issues are clear to both sides, critics say there will be little chance of a breakthrough without genuine US pressure on Israel to halt settlement building, and without the Palestinians overcoming internal splits between Hamas and the Fatah party.

Many analysts say the prospect of a two-state solution to end the conflict is now beyond reach, with no signs of Israel ending its nearly 50-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

{With white nationalist militias on the rise, Muslim communities across the US fear violence come Election Day.}

Atlanta, United States – With the US presidential election only days away, many in the US – particularly the Muslim-American community – are bracing for the worst over fears that a win, or a loss, by Republican candidate Donald Trump could bring violence.

Fuelled by Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, members of local militias from across the US have said they plan to carry firearms at polling stations to prevent alleged election “rigging” in favour of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

In Newton County, 85km south of Atlanta, Georgia, those concerns are justified.

When a local Muslim-American community in the Atlanta area decided last August to buy land to be used primarily as a community cemetery, they did not expect their innocuous plans would set off a firestorm of opposition that included local officials and armed white nationalist militia groups.

Al Maad al-Islami Mosque sought approval from Newton County to construct a cemetery, a funeral home and, perhaps many years down the road, a mosque and a recreational area on the half a square kilometre of land purchased for the project.

But when word spread of the plans, local residents and several county commissioners protested on the grounds that the property would be used as “training ground for ISIL terrorists”, referring to the armed group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS.

The plans also drew the attention of a group known as the Georgia Security Force III% , one of many white nationalist militias around the country that have been galvanised by the Trump campaign and his anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric.

In August, Members of Georgia Force III% – headed by Chris Hill, 42, a former US marine who goes by the name “General Blood Agent” – held an armed protest against the Muslim community at the property in Newton County, accusing them of being an ISIL supporters and “terrorists”.

The Georgia militia group is also connected to a Kansas militia, which had plotted to blow up a Somali Muslim mosque and community center, according to Ryan Lenz, a researcher for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks and researches hate groups in the US.

READ MORE: White Lives Matter – A new US hate group shows its face

The FBI announced last month that it had foiled a plot by a local militia in Garden City, Kansas, to detonate car bombs at the Somali Muslim community centre and around the apartment buildings where many of the community members live.

Lenz told Al Jazeera that historically, white nationalist groups have tended to embrace a conspiratorial view of the US federal government, accusing it of conspiring with the UN to establish a new world order and thereby undermining the US.

“In the aftermath of September 11, white nationalist groups teamed up with organised anti-Muslim hate groups, creating a dangerous and threatening alliance against members of American Muslim community,” he said.

Lenz added that the convergence of these two groups has created a terrifying mix in US local and national politics, the effects of which are not going away anytime soon.

“The election of President Barack Obama, whom white nationalists and anti-Muslim hate groups accuse of being a crypto Muslim, is also energising the anti-Muslim hate campaign in this country.”

The Georgia Security Force III% did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for an interview.

Imam Mohamad Islam, the leader of the al Maad Mosque, is unfazed by the threats and hateful statements made by militia members and others who opposed the cemetery plans.

He said he only wants to establish legitimate institutions to care for the community’s social and religious needs, but knows a change in local attitudes will only come through patience and dialogue with the area’s non-Muslim community.

“As a Muslim, I have to exercise patience when facing hardship and animosity,” Islam told Al Jazeera.

Islam also expressed frustration that as an American and a Muslim he is somehow required by the general public and the American media to answer for actions of other Muslims across the globe.

“It seems like certain segments of the American society insist on holding us responsible for the violent actions of some Muslims overseas. We don’t condone any kind of violence much less defend those who commit it. We are Americans first and foremost.”

Edward Ahmed Mitchel, the executive director of the Council of Islamic American Relations (CAIR) and a former Atlanta prosecutor, agreed with Islam that Muslim Americans are just as American as any other citizen of the US and therefore should be treated equally.

The build-up to the 2016 presidential election, Mitchel stressed, has caused anti-Muslim rhetoric to spike, with candidates like Trump and Ben Carson frequently making bigoted statements against Islam and Muslims.

“The anti-Muslim rhetoric of certain politicians encouraged bigots who otherwise lurked in the dark recesses of the internet have now a national platform,” he said.

Imam Islam’s approach of reaching out to county officials, dignitaries in the area and the local community by holding several joint meetings and having lunches and dinners with them has worked in easing the tension and eliminate the misunderstanding between the two communities.

A Newton County spokeswoman told Al Jazeera the county is now ready to receive the mosque’s application for permits to start the construction of its cemetery ground.

“At the end, the people of Newton County stood up in defence of religious freedom that ultimately makes this a success story,” Mitchell said.

{Syrian Democratic Forces call for help in military operation to “exterminate ISIL” from its de facto capital.}

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has declared its intention to launch an assault on ISIL-held Raqqa.

The SDF, an umbrella group comprising Kurdish and Arab rebel groups fighting in Syria, said at a press conference on Sunday the offensive to reclaim the de facto capital of Isamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) would begin on Saturday.

In the press conference in Ayn Issa, northern Syria, it was announced rebel fighters would “continue [their offensive] until all objectives are met, namely, seizing and toppling the capital of ISIL”.

“On this occasion, we call on the international community and regional forces to coordinate and take part in the operation to exterminate ISIL,” an SDF official said before announcing the US would offer air support in the offensive.

“We also call on international humanitarian and relief agencies to perform their duties for the people in Raqqa after the city has been liberated.”

The official said 30,000 fighters would take part in the offensive, dubbed the “Euphrates Shield” operation.

The fighters called on civilians to stay away from areas in which ISIL fighters are known to be, and to try to run to “liberated” areas of the country.

The announcement came as the Iraqi government and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, with the help of the US-backed coalition, continue a bloody battle in Iraq to retake Mosul.

The Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) – which had already dealt ISIL several defeats, including seizing the key border town of Tal Abyad – forms the backbone of the alliance.

Along with the Kurdish female Women’s Protection Units, the SDF includes Arab factions, Syriac Christian fighters and Turkmen units.

The Raqqa Falcons Brigade, a 1,000-strong Arab force whose fighters all hail from Raqqa, is expected to be a key component of the fight for the city.

“When it comes to Raqqa, we want a force that ultimately liberates Raqqa that is primarily from the local area. We have trained many of these fighters and that force will continue to grow as we get to the subsequent phases of that campaign,” Brett McGurk, the American official leading the fight against ISIL, told a press conference in Jordan.

“We work closely with the Syrian Democratic Forces. When they are fighting Daesh [ISIL], we do provide air support. So that will continue as they move south against Daesh positions north of Raqqa.”

Regional forces

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned on Sunday that the fight to wrest control of Raqqa from ISIL would “not be easy”.

The US considers the YPG to be the most effective force against ISIL in Syria, but Turkey views it as a “terror” organisation and claims it’s linked to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkish officials including President Recep Tayip Erdogan have said they will not accept a role for the Kurds in the liberation of Raqqa.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from Gaziantep on Turkey’s border with Syria, said although the SDF called on international forces to assist the offensive, it has made it clear it does not want Turkish military involvement.

“Who will participate with the SDF [in the assault on Raqqa] remains to be seen,” he said before adding that the Turkish military has been weary of the mainly Kurdish SDF, preferring to ally with the Free Syria Army (FSA) instead.

Andreas Krieg, a researcher at the Near East Centre for Security and Strategy at Kings College London, told Al Jazeera that “Turkey did not want the YPG [Kurdish People’s Protection Units] or the SDF to take more control of land [in Syria], which is why their military got involved there in the first place”.

Krieg added that rebel forces were 40 to 50km outside Raqqa, and there were many towns and villages along the way.

“It is unlikely that the SDF would be able to fight this battle alone,” Krieg added. “But it remains to be seen who, whether the FSA, Syrian government forces, or any international forces, will participate.”

There was no immediate comment from Turkey on the Kurdish announcement.

Turkey launched an operation inside Syria on August 24 alongside allied rebel forces who have managed to retake the ISIL stronghold of Jarabulus and the symbolically important town of Dabiq.

But one of the operation’s goals is also to check the advance of Syria’s Kurds, and Turkish forces have carried out air strikes against YPG positions.

{Raids by US aircraft in Kunduz province killed more than 30 civilians, including many women and children last week.}

The United Nations said it was investigating an incident in which more than 30 civilians were killed in US air strikes called in support of a special forces raid on suspected Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said at least 32 people had been killed and 19 wounded in the strikes in the village of Buz Kandahari near Kunduz, the vast majority women and children.

The deaths add to a growing civilian casualty total in Afghanistan, where 95 have been killed and 111 injured in the past week alone, according to UN figures.

“The loss of civilian life is unacceptable and undermines efforts toward building peace and stability in Afghanistan,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA.

“When conducting aerial operations, international military forces should take all feasible measures to minimise civilian harm, including full analysis of the context for aerial strikes,” he said in a statement.

The US military acknowledged on Saturday the air strikes had probably caused civilian casualties and promised an investigation. The top US commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, expressed deep regret for the loss of innocent life.

The strikes were called in to protect a team of Afghan special forces and their US advisers who came under heavy fire during a raid on suspected Taliban commanders.

Three Afghan soldiers and two Americans were killed in the fighting.

Although US combat operations against the Taliban largely ended in 2014, special forces units have been repeatedly engaged in fighting while providing assistance to Afghan troops.

Thousands of US soldiers remain in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support training and assistance mission and a separate counter-terrorism mission.

Afghan forces have suffered thousands of casualties, with more than 5,500 killed in the first eight months of 2016.

Last October, a US air strike hit a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, killing at least 42 people, including 24 patients, 14 staff and four caretakers.

At least 37 others were wounded in the raid, which destroyed the MSF hospital building and prompted widespread condemnation from human rights groups.

The US military said the air strike was a “mistake” and apologised, but insisted the attack was not a war crime.

{Police say Rolando Espinosa shot after firing at guards, becoming second mayor in fortnight to be shot dead.}

A Philippine mayor President Rodrigo Duterte named as being involved in the illegal drug trade was shot dead in jail on Saturday, police said, the second local official implicated in drugs to be killed in two weeks.

Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide victory on a promise to kill tens of thousands of criminals to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state, and has launched an unprecedented war on drugs that has left more than 4,000 people dead.

He had named several local officials, policemen and judges as being involved in the narcotics trade and urged them to surrender.

In August, he accused Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera town in the central island of Leyte, and his son of drug trafficking and demanded they turn themselves in, giving police a “shoot on sight” order if the two resisted arrest.

Espinosa then surrendered to the national police chief, saying he feared for his life, and was arrested last month.

But early on Saturday morning, police said Espinosa was killed in his cell in the provincial jail after he shot at officers during a search for illegal firearms.

“He fired on the raiding team. The raiding team fired back and this led to the mayor’s death,” Chief Inspector Leo Laraga of the regional police told AFP news agency.

He added that another inmate accused of drug trafficking was also killed, after he too fired at the officers.

The national police said that it was investigating the circumstances surrounding Espinosa’s death as well as possible collusion between guards and inmates to get guns and drugs into the jail.

{{‘Drug protector’}}

Police chief Ronald dela Rosa previously said that Espinosa had been listed in official records as a “drug protector”, whose son Kerwin controlled the narcotics trade in the Albuera region.

Kerwin was arrested in the United Arab Emirates last month and is to return to the Philippines to face drug trafficking charges.

In August, six of the Espinosas’ supporters died in a gunfight with police outside the mayor’s property in Albuera where officers said they recovered guns and several grenades.

Another mayor accused of drug trafficking was killed in the southern Philippines in late October.

Police said Samsudin Dimaukom and his security personnel opened fire after anti-narcotics police stopped their vehicles at a checkpoint on suspicion they were transporting illegal drugs.

Al Jazeera’s Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Tacloban – the provincial capital of Leyte, said: “Human rights lawyers were quick to condemn this incident [the killing of Espinosa]. Even senators have said this was one of the most brazen acts ever committed by police under Duterte’s presidency.”

She added that any have termed Duterte’s war on drugs “a war against the poor”.

“Because the majority of those being killed are living in shanty towns who really have no strength to fight what they call abuse of police power. Last week the police said there would be no scaling down when it comes to drugs.”

{Air quality plummets in New Delhi as smoke and fog sit heavily across the northern plains.}

The trigger for the smog is India’s northeasterly monsoon, which has now set in across all parts of the country. This signals an end of the summer rains, and a change to drier weather for most of the country.

The reason for this is the moisture feed is cut off as the winds are now draining in cool air from the Himalayas. This stable set up is ideal for the development of fog.

The fog is mixed with smoke from burning crops in agricultural states across the northern plains and traffic emissions. Add to that firecrackers set off to mark the festival Diwali and it’s a perfect recipe for a thick blanket of smog.

Weather scientists said that the Diwali firecracker smoke caused the air pollution to hit “severe” levels. The pollutants breached the 1,000 microgram mark in the Indian capital as it shot up nearly 10 times above normal levels.

It is standard practice at this time of year for farmers in New Delhi’s neighbouring Punjab and Haryana states to set fire to paddy stubble in their fields after cultivating crops as part of slash-and-burn efforts.

According to the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi is facing a health emergency amid the worst smog in 17 years.

Authorities said they would crack down on those found burning waste, including leaves, to curb pollution.

“The situation today is not confined to New Delhi but also to its surrounding areas of Gurgaon and Noida, and a major contributing factor to the pollution is the smoke coming from the burning of crops in Punjab, which is still going on,” said New Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain.

The government has come under sharp criticism from courts and environmentalists for not doing enough to deal with the problem.

Authorities have responded with measures such as a ban on old lorries from entering the city, and briefly introduced a scheme that limited private vehicle usage to alternate days. But experts say those efforts have done little to reduce pollution.

{Special forces meet fierce resistance from ISIL fighters who attack in the east with suicide car bombs and sniper fire.}

ISIL fighters launched ferocious counter-attacks on Saturday in territory Iraqi special forces captured in Mosul’s eastern edges, highlighting the tough battle ahead as troops push into densely populated neighbourhoods.

Fighters from the armed group emerged from deeper in the city to target Iraqi soldiers with mortars and suicide car bombs. They also attacked the southern edge of the Gogjali district, which Iraqi forces declared “liberated” earlier this week, pushing back some gains.

Street battles continued with both sides firing mortar rounds and automatic weapons at each other’s positions, while Iraqi troops also responded with artillery.

Clashes were most intense in the al-Bakr neighbourhood. Sniper duels played out from rooftops in the mostly residential areas, where the majority of buildings are two stories high.

Lieutenant-Colonel Saad Alwan, from Iraq’s counter-terrorism unit, told Al Jazeera the street battles were ferocious.

“We’re facing fierce resistance, they’re digging trenches and using car bombs,” Alwan said.

More evidence of daunting fortifications emerged on Saturday, with satellite images showing ISIL had set up defences to bog down advancing forces, including rows of concrete barricades, earth berms, and rubble blocking key routes leading to the centre of the city.

{{Slow southern advance}}

Advances towards Mosul have been slower from the south with government troops still 35km away, yet some progress has been made, Iraqi forces say. They assaulted ISIL positions in the town of Hammam al-Alil on Saturday, which lies along the Tigris river about 15km from the southernmost parts of Mosul.

Kurdish television channel Rudaw broadcast live footage of Iraqi troops and armoured vehicles amassing outside the city as an attack helicopter fired rockets.

Truckloads full of as many as 1,600 civilians may have been forcibly moved from Hammam al-Alil to Tal Afar earlier this week, and may be transferred onward into Syria for possible use as human shields, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Friday.

Another 150 families from the town were moved to Mosul itself, it said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, on what state television said was a visit to forward lines near Mosul, urged ISIL fighters to surrender.

“My words to the terrorists are that if you wish to save your lives, you should lay down your weapons. There is no place for you in Iraq,” said Abadi, surrounded by soldiers dressed in black from the counter-terrorism unit.

“My message to the people in Mosul: Be ready, any minute now we will enter Mosul and cut off the head of the ISIL snake.”

Mosul is the only major Iraqi city still held by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS, which seized control of the city in 2014.

Last month, Iraqi troops and special forces, Shia militias, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, and other groups backed by US-led air raids launched a campaign to retake the city.

Meanwhile, an aid agency said on Saturday the number of displaced people had risen sharply, with more than 9,000 new arrivals in camps outside the city.

“This is the beginning of a massive exodus from Mosul city,” Wolfgang Gressmann, of the Norwegian Refugee Council warned. “We must insist that civilians fleeing have genuinely safe exit routes out of the city.”

The agency said at least 1.2 million people were thought to be trapped inside Mosul and some 700,000 “might soon require humanitarian assistance”.