Tag: InternationalNews

{Coalition strikes on the northern Syrian town of Manbij kill 167 in two months, Syrian Observatory says.}

Dozens of civilians have been killed in US-led air strikes against areas in Syria held by the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), a monitoring group said.

At least 56 civilians, including 11 children, were killed in air strikes on Tokhar in the northern city of Manbij in the Aleppo governate on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Ten others, including four children, were killed by coalition strikes on the village of Hamira, in the southern suburbs of Manbij.

The UK-based Observatory has put the total number of civilians killed by coalition air strikes on Manbij since the Democratic Forces of Syria (DFS) launched their campaign there at the end of May, at 167.

Among the dead were about 44 children, 17 women and eight prisoners, the Observatory said.

“The US central command has confirmed to Al Jazeera that it was conducting air strikes in the area and says it needs to investigate allegations of whether civilians were injured or killed in this incident,” Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, said.

WikiLeaks said it obtained the emails a week before Friday’s attempted coup.

“WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government’s post-coup purges.

We have verified the material and the source, who is not connected, in any way, to the elements behind the attempted coup, or to a rival political party or state,” the organisation said.

Director of the Observatory Rami Abdel-Rahman told German news agency DPA: “We believe that the raids which were carried out Tuesday were by US [or] allied planes, but it was by mistake.”

Residents in the area say the death toll could be upwards of 200.

“It seems that the Syrian Democratic Forces under the leadership of the International coalition which is in charge of planning have decided to adopt a scorched earth policy,” Hasan al-Nifi, a community leader in Manbij, told Al Jazeera.

“Manbij is full of residents, a quarter of a million residents, used by ISIL as human shields. Yesterday the coalition struck al-Zahuna neighbourhood, where more than 23 people were killed. Then it struck the western gate of the city, killing 6 people.”

“Today the residents of Tokhar woke to a horrific massacre. The death toll rose to 212 and the numbers are rising.”

The Manbij area has seen intense US-led air strikes in support of Kurdish-led forces who are trying to seize the city from ISIL, so as to block the armed group’s access to the nearby Turkish border.

The SDF, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by the US, launched an offensive against ISIL to retake the city of Manbij late last month.

They have besieged the town and are advancing to the city centre under the cover of air strikes by the US-led international coalition.

ISIL has held the city since 2014, the year that the armed group seized control of large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq and declared its “caliphate”.

{{Aleppo besieged}}

On Monday, Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said a driver who works for the agency in Syria was killed after suffering a shrapnel wound in the northern city of Aleppo.

Gunness said Yaser Mahmoud Shuaeeb, a 45-year-old father of six children, died on Sunday.

Aleppo has witnessed some of the worst fighting in Syria over the past months. On Sunday, government forces besieged rebel-held neighbourhoods of the contested city.

WikiLeaks previously claimed that the Turkish government would attempt to censor the distribution of the documents, and urged the Turkish public to be ready to bypass any government attempts at blocking access to the material.

Gunness said that UNRWA reported two other incidents on Sunday.

In one, a mortar shell landed 600 metres from the UN agency’s office in Damascus. In the other, a missile hit close to the Nairab refugee camp south of Aleppo.The incidents caused no injuries, he said.

The death toll in the Syrian conflict, which began with mostly unarmed demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, has risen to more than 280,000 people, while half the country’s population have been forced from their homes, according to UN estimates.

Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Syria, estimated last month that the actual death toll could be as high as 400,000 people.

{Amid growing calls post-coup attempt for capital punishment, Turkey’s leader says “democracy” is demanding its return.}

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is ready to reinstate the death penalty if the Turkish people demand it and parliament approves the necessary legislation.

Erdogan spoke early on Tuesday to thousands of supporters outside his Istanbul residence who were chanting for Turkey to restore capital punishment following the failed coup.

“Today, is there no capital punishment in America? In Russia? In China? In countries around the world? Only in European Union countries is there no capital punishment,” Erdogan said.

The president added Turkey is “a democratic state run by rule of law”, and “you cannot put aside the people’s demands”.

Parliament is expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

European Union officials had warned that long-stalled talks on Turkey’s bid to join the EU would end if Ankara restores the death penalty.

Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004 under reforms aimed at obtaining European Union membership.

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Ankara, said leaders of the EU will be closely watching the death penalty discussion in Turkey.

“We do know when it comes to Turkey’s accession to the European Union, there has been a very clear message given to President Erdogan. The German Chancellor Merkel in a phone call said if the death penalty gets reinstated here, then that will no longer happen.”

Howard Eissenstat of St Lawrence University told Al Jazeera the president does not appear concerned about following the dictates of the West post-coup attempt.

“Erdogan isn’t particularly interested at joining the EU at this point… Were he to reinstate the death penalty, that in and of itself alone would be enough to scuttle any EU membership,” Eissenstat said.

Thousands of alleged coup plotters have been rounded up since Friday’s failed putsch, in which more than 260 people were killed.

{Multiple people wounded after 17-year-old stabs and hacks passengers with an axe and knife before being shot dead.}

German police have shot dead a young Afghan refugee after he attacked passengers on a train with an axe and a knife, seriously wounding three people.

Several others were also hurt in the attack on a train on Monday night near the southern city of Wuerzburg, police said, adding the teenager was killed as he tried to flee.

Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of Bavaria state, said the attacker was a 17-year-old Afghan who had lived in nearby Ochsenfurt.

“He suddenly attacked passengers with a knife and an axe, critically injuring several. Some of them may now be fighting for their lives,” Herrmann said.

Among those injured were four people from Hong Kong, according to the South China Morning Post.

Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, said the refugee “came to Germany as an unaccompanied refugee” and had “been in the care of a welfare organisation”, citing the interior ministry in Bavaria.

He added the authorities “are looking into what may have been said [by the assailant] during the incident”.

The alleged attacker’s motivation, however, remained unclear, Kane said.

The incident is likely to deepen worries about so-called “lone wolf” attacks in Europe, and could put political pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Bavaria is governed by the Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party to Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats.

Merkel’s popularity has rebounded recently but the attack in Bavaria is likely to revive political tensions.

Germany welcomed about one million refugees in 2015, including thousands of unaccompanied minors. Many were fleeing war in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The attack happened around 1915 GMT on the train, which runs between Treuchlingen and Wuerzburg in Bavaria.

In May, a mentally-unstable 27-year-old man carried out a similar knife attack on a train in southern Germany, killing one person and injuring three others. He is being held in a psychiatric hospital.

{Latest launch comes after South Korea and the US announced the deployment of an advanced missile-defence system.}

North Korea has launched three ballistic missiles in Pyongyang’s latest defiance of United Nations resolutions against the use of such military technology.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday the short-range ballistic missiles were fired from northern North Korea and flew about 600km before crashing into the sea east of the Korean peninsula. The missiles are believed to be modified from outdated Soviet SCUD missile systems.

Pyongyang has fired several missiles in recent months. The last launch was July 9 when a North Korea ballistic missile exploded shortly after being fired from a submarine.

South Korea and the United States said earlier this month they would deploy an advanced missile defence system in South Korea, drawing a sharp and swift protest from neighbouring China, Pyongyang’s sole major ally.

Seoul and Washington started talks on a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system deployment after North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year.
The North has warned it will take “physical counter-action” against the THAAD location.
Pyongyang also conducted a test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in April, calling it a “great success” that provided “one more means for powerful nuclear attack”.

The UN Security Council has imposed harsh new sanctions on the country in response.

{WikiLeaks said it would publish data on Turkey’s political power structure following the failed coup attempt.}

WikiLeaks has said it is planning to release documents on Turkey’s political power structure, after a failed coup attempt over the weekend that left hundreds dead, thousands injured and more than 7,500 suspects in custody.

“Get ready for a fight as we release 100k+ docs on #Turkey’s political power structure,” the whistle-blowing organisation said on Monday via its official Twitter feed.

The first batch will contain 300 thousand emails and 500 thousand documents and most of the material will be in Turkish, WikiLeaks said.

The organisation also claimed that the Turkish government will attempt to censor the distribution of the documents, and urged the Turkish public to be ready to bypass any government attempts at blocking access to the material.

“Turks will likely be censored to prevent them reading our pending release of 100k+ docs on politics leading up to the coup,” the organisation said on Twitter.

“We ask that Turks are ready with censorship bypassing systems such as TorBrowser and uTorrent. And that everyone else is ready to help them bypass censorship and push our links through the censorship to come.”

WikiLeaks later shared a link for a torrent browser.

The announcement caused excitement in Turkey with thousands of Twitter users sharing the organisation’s tweets. But public opinion on the subject was divided.

While many people celebrated the announcement and argued that the leaks may “finally shed some light on the coup attempt”, others questioned the timing of the release.

Some claimed that the documents will likely be “fake”, and will be used to make President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP government look “weak” or even “guilty”.

Some Turkish Twitter users also accused WikiLeaks of supporting the coup attempt. WikiLeaks responded by maintaining its neutrality and support for open access to information.

Turks ask whether WikiLeaks is pro or anti-AKP. Neither. Our only position is that truth is the way forward. 100k+ docs serves all sides.

A faction in the Turkish military attempted to stage a coup late on Friday night. In dramatic scenes, tanks blocked bridges in Istanbul, jets were seen in the skies over at least two cities, and the parliament and the headquarters of the intelligences services were strafed with gunfire from attack helicopters.

At least 290 people were killed and more than 1400 wounded. Erdogan has blamed a high-profile former ally who has since become a bitter rival, Fethullah Gulen, for the attempt.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday that more than 7,500 suspects had been detained in connection to the coup attempt.

{Maryland judge acquits highest-ranking officer of April 2015 killing of 25-year-old black man in Baltimore.}

A judge has acquitted the highest-ranking officer involved in the April 2015 death of a black detainee, Freddie Gray, in Baltimore, the largest city in the US state of Maryland.

The judge on Monday acquitted Baltimore police Lieutenant Brian Rice of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office for the death of Gray, who was 25 years olf when he was killed.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams handed down his verdict after a bench trial.

Rice, 42, is the highest-ranking officer charged in Gray’s death from a broken neck suffered in a police transport van.

Monday’s verdict is the latest setback for prosecutors, who have failed to secure a conviction in the trials of four officers thus far.

Rice, who is white, ordered two officers on bicycle to chase Gray, 25, when the police claimed he fled.

Gray’s death triggered protests and rioting in the city, which has a majority of black Americans, and stoked a national debate about police brutality against minorities.

Prosecutors said Rice was negligent in shackling Gray’s legs and not securing him in a seat belt, as required by department protocol.

But defence lawyers said Rice was allowed leeway on whether to get inside a van to secure a prisoner. The officer made a correct decision in a few seconds while Gray was being combative and a hostile crowd was looking on, they said.

Williams, who heard the case without a jury at Rice’s request, said prosecutors failed to show the lieutenant was aware of a departmental policy requiring seat belts for prisoners during transport.

“The state did not prove the defendant was aware of the new policy,” the judge said in court.

A handful of protesters were at the courthouse for the verdict’s announcement.

Williams previously acquitted Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr., the van’s driver. A third officer, William Porter, faces a retrial after a jury deadlocked.

Black Lives Matter

Anti-police brutality protests were renewed earlier this month when officers killed African American men in Minnesota and Louisiana, sparking at least two apparent ‘revenge’ attacks on police.

On Sunday, three police officers were fatally shot and three others injured in Louisiana’s Baton Rouge.

Baton Rouge became the scene of large protests against police brutality after white officers shot dead 37-year-old Alton Sterling on July 5.

Police officers killed Sterling outside a supermarket, claiming he had a gun.The father of five, whose funeral was held on Friday, had been selling CDs.

Footage of the moment Sterling was killed was captured on a mobile phone was circulated online.

Sterling’s killing was followed the next day with another police shooting. An officer killed a 32-year-old black man, Philando Castile, at a traffic stop in the midwestern state of Minnesota. The aftermath of the shooting was also captured on video and streamed live by Castile’s girlfriend on Facebook.

On July 7, five white police officers were shot dead at one such protest in Dallas, Texas.

The Black Lives Matter movement – which campaigns against police killings of African Americans – disavowed the killing of the officers and said in a statement it stands for “dignity, justice and respect”.

The Guardian has documented at least 587 people killed by police across the US so far this year. From that total, 145 – nearly 25 percent – were black, although black Americans constitute only around 13 percent of the country’s total population.

{President urges supporters to remain vigilant as massive purge of army and judiciary sees 6,000 people detained.}

Tens of thousands of demonstrators came out on the streets of Turkey’s capital Ankara and other cities to show support for the goverment in the wake of a failed coup that grabbed world attention.

On Sunday, huge crowds carrying Turkish flags streamed into Ankara’s Kizilay Square and Taksim Square in Istanbul, the country’s biggest city, after authorities called on the public to stay vigilant.

A call from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that his supporters should take to the streets in the early hours of Saturday as the coup attempt unfolded proved vital to defeating the army faction behind it.

Speaking on Monday to throngs of government supporters in Kizilay Square, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim thanked the Turkish people for defeating the coup in what he said was a defence of democracy.

“No matter their political views, all parties came together arm-in-arm against the coup. They cried out together,” Yildrim said. “This shows that when the matter at hand is the country, then everything else is incidental.”

In an unusual show of unity, Turkey’s four main political parties released a joint declaration during an extraordinary parliamentary meeting on Saturday, denouncing the plot to topple Erdogan.

“Those who bombed and fired shots against the people, those who attacked the people with arms can not be described as Turks, but they are criminals and terrorists wearing army outfits. They will face justice and pay a heavy price,” Yildrim said.

Speaking after a huge purge against members of the army and the judiciary was launched, netting some 6,000 people so far, Erdogan said his government could consider reinstating the death penalty, which Turkey abolished in 2004 as part of reforms aimed at joining the European Union.

The 6,000 people in detention include 29 generals and 2,839 military personnel, a senior Turkish official told Al Jazeera. The state news agency, citing the office of the governor of Ankara, said 149 police personnel have been detained in the capital.

{{‘Authoritarian rule’}}

The coup attempt became apparent late on Friday when, in dramatic scenes, tanks blocked bridges in Istanbul, jets were seen in the skies over at least two cities, and the parliament and the headquarters of the intelligences services were straffed with gunfire from attack helicopters.

At least 265 people were killed and more than 1400 wounded.

Erdogan has blamed a high-profile former ally who has since become a bitter rival, Fethullah Gulen, for the attempt. Gulen, who lives in exile in the US state of Pennsylvania, has denied any involvement. Turkey is expected to officially seek his extradition.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said he had no evidence that Gulen was behind the plot and urged Turkish authorities to compile evidence as quickly as possible so the US could decide whether Gulen should be sent back to Turkey.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Marc Pierini, a former European Union ambassador to Turkey, said Turkish citizens clearly did not back the attempt and the military leaders involved had not understood that.

“What is of worry right now is that the failed coup attempt is likely to be used as an opportunity to reinforce authoritarian rule in Turkey,” he said.

Erdogan’s AK Party, which has won five legislative elections in a row, has long had strained relations with a military that has a history of mounting coups to defend secularism, although it has not seized power directly since 1980.

He has said did not want to seek revenge against those behind the failed coup and that his government would act with “reason and experience”.

{Security forces killed and many more wounded as two car bombs target checkpoints in former al-Qaeda stronghold.}

Two car bombs went off near army checkpoints in Yemen’s southeastern city of Mukalla, killing several security personnel and wounding many more, sources have told Al Jazeera.

The explosions on Monday morning targeted checkpoints in the east and west of the port city, a former stronghold of the local al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP].

General Faraj Salemine confirmed the attacks to the AFP news agency, saying “terrorists” had killed at least five soldiers. Other reports said that at least nine had been killed.

The capital of Hadramaout province, Mukalla had been under the control of AQAP for one year until pro-government troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition recaptured it in April.

Mukalla attacks

Yemen has been gripped by a devastating conflict that escalated in March last year when the coalition began air strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels after northern and central parts of the country, including the capital, Sanaa, were seized.

The fighting has caused a security vacuum that has allowed groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIL) to extend their influence and attack security forces.

Last month, ISIL claimed a wave of suicide bombings aimed at Yemeni troops in Mukalla that killed at least 38 people.

The Pentagon said in May that a “very small number” of US military personnel had been deployed around Mukalla to support pro-government forces.

The conflict has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.

{Security tightens as open-carry gun advocates and rival groups expected to rally outside the Republic convention.}

Cleveland, Ohio – In the countdown to the Republican National Convention, the City of Cleveland is bracing for potentially large and rowdy rallies, as controversy around the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, intensifies.

Both pro- and anti-Trump groups, as well as groups with contrasting views on various hot-button issues, are set to demonstrate close to the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland, where the convention is taking place starting on Monday for four days.

Citing security concerns, the City of Cleveland had originally tried to limit the scope and time of the planned protests but finally approved regulation changes that allow demonstrators closer to the RNC site and increase the time and space permitted for protesting.

The changes came after The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio sued the city, and in late June, a federal judge ruled that the city’s original rules were in contravention of the right of free expression.

An agreement was struck between the two sides. Accordingly, the parade route was extended to include areas around the Quicken Loans Arena, where the convention is taking place. The march, however, will not be permitted to pass directly by the arena.

“City officials found that this agreement would meet their security needs,” said Steve David communications manager for ACLU’s Ohio chapter. “It was narrowly focused and didn’t sweep in these areas that would restrict folks’ ability to express themselves.”

Ensuring safety and security whilst safeguarding First Amendment rights will be a tough challenge for authorities: Trump rallies have been chaotic at times, and the GOP convention comes in the wake of a deadly sniper attack in Dallas, Texas, that left five law enforcement officers dead.

This followed the police killings of two African-American men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and the worst mass shooting in recent US history at a Florida nightclub.

“This agreement really shows that security and peoples fundamental right of expression aren’t opposing forces,” David told Al Jazeera.

“One of the things that came as a result of the litigation was extending the times for marches and the city agreed to add buffer times for different groups – adequate times so people won’t be put directly against each other.”

Pro- and anti-Trump groups have clashed before: In May, in San Diego, baton-wielding police had to disperse protesters, and in San Jose, supporters of the celebrity business tycoon running for office were viciously attacked.

Trump even warned at one point that riots were a possibility if a contested GOP convention led to his nomination being taken away.

{{Ohio gun laws in spotlight}}

Fears of violence are intensifying with Ohio’s laws allowing guns to be carried openly or concealed with a valid permit in the zone where demonstrations and events related to the convention will be held.

Ohio Governor John Kasich said on Sunday that he doesn’t have the authority to suspend the state law allowing people to openly carry guns, after a request was made by the Cleveland police union president for the suspension of the law during the convetion.

The request for a temproary suspension of the open carry law came after an assailant on Sunday shot and killed three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

No state permit or license is required to purchase a handgun, rifle, or shotgun in Ohio, according to the National Rifle Association. Unlike firearms, demonstrators will be prohibited from carrying toy guns, umbrellas with sharp tips, tennis balls and canned goods.

Many groups representing various interests, from black rights to climate change, are set to converge in Ohio, and some, like the Oath Keepers – a militia group described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “fiercely antigovernment, militaristic group” – have said they will be carrying guns near the convention area.

The City of Cleveland is accordingly tightening up its security measures. A small parameter surrounding the Republican gathering venue will not allow guns, and delegates will be forbidden from taking weapons onto the convention floor.

Brian Kazy, a member of the Cleveland City Council and its Safety Committee, told Al Jazeera that there were concerns that it would be difficult for police to differentiate between potential suspects and protesters carrying guns legally.

“I’m neither pro- or anti-gun,” Kazy said. “I understand and accept the Second Amendment right to carry a firearm, but the concern arises when you have thousands of people and it’s difficult to find out who has a CCW (concealed carry) permit. We don’t need a re-enactment of the Wild Wild West in downtown Cleveland.”

Despite these fears, some groups are still supporting having people carry their guns near Cleveland’s downtown area.

“There are lots of people who will be there, not just to protest: people who work in the area and others who may just want to know what’s going on,” said Brett Pucillo, President of Ohio Carry, a gun-rights advocacy group. “They should not lose their right to defend themselves.”

Ohio Carry will not be among the various groups protesting downtown, Pucillo told Al Jazeera, adding: “We would say it’s people’s personal decision if they choose to either carry their guns or leave them at home at that time. Their safety is the most important aspect for us.”