Tag: InternationalNews

{Government forces and allied Shia militias targeted east of Iraqi city, leaving at least 50 dead.}

Dozens of Iraqi government forces and militia members have been killed in an attack on military barracks east of Fallujah by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Military sources said 50 members of the Iraqi security forces and allied Shia militias were killed on Saturday.

ISIL losses were reported too, with sources close to the group saying 12 of its fighters were killed by helicopter gunships.

On May 23, Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, announced the start of the offensive to “liberate Fallujah” from ISIL.

For almost two years, Fallujah, which is just 50km west of the capital Baghdad, has endured a siege imposed on the city after it became the first to fall to ISIL in January 2014.

Matthew Glanville, former adviser to the governor of Anbar province, believes the Iraqi forces were overly confident in their operation to recapture Fallujah.

“The lesson from the earlier offensive against Tikrit last year was that where ISIL had the opportunity to dig in, particularly amongst the civilian population, it was always going to take a very long time to get them out without civilian casualties,” Glanville told Al Jazeera.

“While Fallujah itself has been isolated, the wider ISIL movement still has the capacity to fight back. The time the Iraqi government has spent putting together this offensive has given ISIL even more time to dig in.”

An example of ISIL’s defence strategies was revealed earlier this week, when the army discovered a network of tunnels near the southern edge of the city.

It is believed that up to 90,000 civilians are still inside Fallujah.

Although the Iraqi government said it had a particular strategy to establish safe corridors for civilians in the city centre to leave, Glanville said many are reluctant to exit from fear of how they may be treated by the Shia forces.

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq has been dubbed one of the world’s worst by the UN.

Since the beginning of the present conflict in 2014, more than 3.4 million people have been internally displaced and 2.6 million have fled Iraq.

{Israeli ministry’s map of Jerusalem’s Old City marks historically unimportant sites and omits key non-Jewish holy sites.}

Jerusalem – In groups of twos, threes and families, visitors shuffled towards the ticket booth at the City of David archaeological park. Sunscreen was reapplied, mineral water sipped, and shekels exchanged for paper tickets.

It is a typical touristic scene that plays out thousands of times daily across Jerusalem. But the City of David park, located in the heart of a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, is not a regular attraction.

It is a touristic settlement managed by Elad, a private political organisation that facilitates the purchase and takeover of Palestinian homes in the Old City and occupied East Jerusalem in an effort to increase Jewish settlement.

The City of David site features prominently, in large, bold red letters, on the Israeli tourism ministry’s official Old City map, which is distributed free of charge at official tourist information centres in Jerusalem.

But the nearby al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, a 14-hectare compound that comprises Islam’s third holiest site, al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as the Dome of the Rock, is only referred to by its Jewish name: the Temple Mount.

Although these major tourist attractions have always been promoted in most touristic literature about Jerusalem, al-Aqsa Mosque is illustrated on the official Old City map – albeit anonymous – while the Dome of the Rock is mentioned. Meanwhile, dozens of sites of questionable historical importance, many of them Jewish settlements in the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City, are highlighted by the mapmakers in an “Old City Legend” numbered guide.

Among 57 numbered sites, almost half are buildings occupied by Jews in the Muslim quarter of the city, many unknown to licensed tour guides. A number of yeshivas, Jewish religious schools, as well as synagogues purchased by Jews in the Muslim quarter of the Old City, are managed by the Ateret Cohanim organisation, a right-wing nonprofit organisation that seeks to replace Palestinian residents of the city with Jewish-Israeli settlers.

Like Elad, Ateret Cohanim is a nationalistic settler group. In recent years, it has pursued a legal campaign to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the Old City in order to replace them with Jewish families.

“There are a bunch of sites that are not only historically unimportant, but that are run by settlers,” said Betty Herschman, director of international relations and advocacy at Ir Amim, an Israeli human rights NGO that gives tours of East Jerusalem to diplomats and other parties.

“That is to the detriment of historically relevant Christian and Muslim sites, which you would think would be far more prioritised on a map of the Old City, the hub of the three major monotheistic religions.”

One licensed Jerusalem tourist guide, who did not want to disclose his name, noted that the map favoured Jewish sites regardless of their touristic value and appeared religiously skewed.

“When I saw it, I thought it was a map for only Jewish tour groups,” he told Al Jazeera, surprised to learn that it was being distributed at the main tourist information centre by Jaffa gate. “The narrative it shows is quite exclusive to one religious group.”

While buildings like Beit Wittenberg, Beit Danon and Beit Eliyahu feature among the list of 57 sites, there is no room on the list of the numbered sites for the Church of St Anne or the Church of the Redeemer, although the latter is on the map with a tiny, hard to find name.

Aziz Abu Sarah, a Jerusalemite who cofounded Mejdi Tours, told Al Jazeera that the exceptions do not make sense from a business perspective. “I think that a lot of Israeli tour operators and tour guides, even right-wingers, would agree with me that a touristic map should show the treasures of the city,” said Abu Sarah.

“I grew up in Jerusalem. St Anne’s Church, which I think is one of the most amazing places, is not on the map. There are many Christians coming to Jerusalem, and they are going to get a map that doesn’t identify their holy sites. It’s not a smart decision.”

The Israeli Ministry of Tourism defended the map when contacted by Al Jazeera. “The map, which was produced in cooperation with tour guides and took into account their recommendations and the vast knowledge they have accumulated, is useful and convenient, listing the main tourist sites,” the ministry said in a statement.

However, Abu Sarah suggested that the inclusion of certain sites inside and outside the Old City walls seemed to promote a Jewish nationalistic representation of East Jerusalem.

“Politically speaking, it adds sites that are controversial, like the settlements in East Jerusalem, and I think that makes it political and one-sided. In many ways, there is a national narrative, and perhaps this is where the national narrative is going.”

Indeed, the Palestinian neighbourhoods outside the Old City walls are absent on the map, apart from Ras al-Amud, while Jewish-only settlements built in those neighbourhoods are represented.

The City of David is easily spotted, but the neighbourhood of Silwan that surrounds it is not labelled. Palestinian communities, including At-Tur, Wadi al-Joz and Issawiya do not appear, but the settlement of Maale Har Hazeitim is labelled with the Star of David.

“This map, in addition to erasing important Muslim and Christian holy sites in the Old City, completely erases entire neighbourhoods around the historic basin, supplanting them not only with Hebrew names but with the names of settlements,” Herschman told Al Jazeera.

These settlements, added Herschman, are built by radical settlers within the heart of Palestinian neighbourhoods; namely, Bet Orot, a community of 150 settlers living in the Palestinian neighbourhood of At-Tur, that does not even appear on the map.

Maintaining the Palestinian identity of East Jerusalem is a crucial plank in the “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse as the neighbourhoods would form the capital of a future Palestinian state. In this context, the settlements are seen as an attempt to disrupt Palestinian territorial contiguity in East Jerusalem in order to ruin Palestinian plans to have East Jerusalem as its capital city.

“The map is legitimising private settlement around the historic basin,” Herschman told Al Jazeera.

“This is a form of consolidating Israeli control of arguably the epicentre of the most critical point of Jerusalem – which is itself the epicentre of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. So there are extremely important political consequences involved.”

{President Obama calls attack on gay nightclub in Orlando “an act of terror and an act of hate”.}

Fifty people have been killed, including the assailant, and at least 53 injured in an attack inside a gay nightclub in the US state of Florida, authorities said, in the worst mass shooting in US history.

Authorities identified the shooter on Sunday as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old man born in New York with Afghan origins.

Mateen, who was armed with an assault-type rifle and a handgun, was killed in a shootout with at least 11 police officers inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Ron Hopper, special FBI agent in charge of the Orlando office, confirmed that Mateen was interviewed twice by the agency in 2013, after he made “inflammatory comments” to co-workers alleging possible “terrorist ties”.

In 2014, authorities interrogated Mateen anew for possible ties to an American suicide bomber.

In both cases, the FBI closed the investigations as they turned out to be “inconclusive” at that time, Hopper said.

Hopper also confirmed media reports that Mateen made 911 calls to police early on Sunday, and referred to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL also known as ISIS) group.

{{‘Act of terror and hate’}}

In a televised statement, President Barack Obama condemned the shooting as “an act of terror and an act of hate”, calling the shooter “a person filled with hatred”.

“As Americans, we are united in grief and outrage,” he said, adding that the attack is “a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon” and commit violence in the US.

Orlando Police chief John Mina described the shooting as “one of the worst tragedies we have seen”, adding that police officers “were shaken by what they have seen inside the club”.

“It’s a tragedy not only for the city but the entire nation,” he said. “Just a look into the eyes of our officers told the whole story.”

The injured, many in critical condition, were transferred to nearby hospitals. Among those injured was one police officer, whose kevlar helmet was hit by a round from the suspect.

The suspect exchanged gunfire with a police officer working at the club, which had more than 300 people inside. The gunman then went back inside and took hostages, Mina said.

Around 5am, authorities sent in a SWAT team to rescue the hostages.

While details of the attack were still emerging, Orlando residents gathered outside the nightclub to pay their respects to the victims.

Al Jazeera’s Andy Gallacher, reporting from the scene, described a banner laid out in the streets where people dipped their hands in paint and made their mark. Across the top of the banner was written, “Today our hearts cry out in unity”.

“Just metres away at the Pulse nightclub, a popular venue for the LGBT community, bodies of the victims are still lying where they fell,” our correspondent said. “Many are yet to be identified.”

As the shooting occurred, the nightclub urged patrons to “get out” and “keep running” in a post on its Facebook page.

One witness, who said he was inside the building during the incident, said he heard about 40 shots being fired.

Christopher Hansen said he was in the VIP lounge of the club when he heard gunshots. He continued to hear shooting even after he emerged and police urged people to back away from the club. He saw the wounded being tended to across the street.

“I was thinking, ‘Are you kidding me?’ So I just dropped down. I just said, ‘Please, please, please, I want to make it out,’” he said. “And when I did, I saw people shot. I saw blood. You hope and pray you don’t get shot.”

Police said they carried out a “controlled explosion” at the club hours after the shooting broke out, while entering the nightclub.

Florida Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in Orlando.

The nightclub shooting came just a day after a man thought to be a deranged fan fatally shot Christina Grimmie, a rising singing star who gained fame on YouTube and as a contestant on The Voice, while she was signing autographs after a concert in Orlando.

{Double bombing in Sayeda Zeinab suburb of Syrian capital kills at least 12 people.}

A double bomb attack near a Muslim shrine in a suburb of Syria’s capital Damascus has killed at least 12 people, according to state media, in the latest in repeated deadly strikes on the site.

The official SANA news agency said on Saturday that a suicide bomber and a car bomb struck at the entrance to the Sayeda Zeinab district housing the shrine, which is revered by Shia Muslims around the world.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility for the attacks via an online post.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a British-based monitoring group, reported a higher toll of at least 20 people killed and 30 wounded.

The shrine, about 10km south of the centre of Damascus, is heavily guarded by pro-government forces but has still been the target of several attacks, including those claimed by ISIL.

It contains the grave of Zeinab, a venerated granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and is notable for its glistening golden dome.

Syria’s official Al Ikhbariya channel showed images from the scene of burned-out cars billowing with plumes of black smoke.

Firefighters battled to extinguish the flames as shop signs lay in the street.

Alaa Ebrahim, a journalist who visited the scene on Saturday, told Al Jazeera via Skype that having seen the extent of the damage, he expected the death toll to rise.

The last attack on Sayeda Zeinab on April 25 killed at least seven and wounded dozens.

In response to the bombings, “there could be an escalation in attacks in areas controlled by rebels”, Ebrahim said, adding that most Damascus residents were supportive of the Syrian government.

“These [government-led military] operations are not viewed through the same eyes here as by those who are abroad.”

A string of ISIL bombings near the shrine in February left 134 people dead, most of them civilians, according to the SOHR. And in January, another attack claimed by ISIL killed 70 people.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia group, cited the threat to Sayeda Zeinab as a principal reason for sending its fighters to Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad.

ISIL route blocked

The Sayeda Zeinab attack near Damascus came a day after US-backed Arab-Kurdish fighters reportedly encircled a stronghold of ISIL fighters in northern Syria, cutting off a major supply route of the fighters.

ISIL lost control of a vital supply artery when the troops completely surrounded the town of Manbij, at the heart of the last stretch of territory along Turkey’s border still under ISIL control.

ISIL has come under growing pressure on various fronts in Syria and Iraq, where it established its self-declared “caliphate” in 2014.

SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman said tens of thousands of civilians were trapped inside the town and unable to leave as all the routes out were cut.

“Bakeries in the town haven’t been open since Friday, and food is beginning to become rare,” he said.

{Il Giornale, owned by former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s brother, is selling copies of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic manifesto.}

An Italian newspaper owned by the brother of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is giving out copies of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic manifesto “Mein Kampf”, in a move which sparked both shock and condemnation in Italy.

For 11.90 euros ($13.40), on top of the regular newsstand price of 1.50 euros, readers of Il Giornale were offered on Saturday the option of buying the book, along with “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by US journalist and World War II correspondent William L Shirer.

“Know it in order to reject it” was the justification given by the conservative tabloid, which is owned by Paolo Berlusconi.

In a frontpage editorial headlined “Understanding Mein Kampf so that it never returns”, Il Giornale editor Alessandro Sallusti denied that his paper was being an apologist for Nazi ideology or was trying to boost circulation with a “sly” move.

“Studying evil to prevent it from happening again, perhaps in new and deceptive guises. That is the real and only purpose of what we have done,” Sallusti added.

The initiative, however, received widespread criticism, with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi writing on Twitter: “I find it sordid that an Italian daily is giving away Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’. I embrace the Jewish community with affection. #neveragain”

It was also denounced by Italy’s 30,000-strong Jewish community, which is one of the oldest in Europe.

Giving out copies of Mein Kampf “is light years away from all logic of studying the Shoah [Holocaust] and the different factors that led the whole of humanity to sink into an abyss of unending hatred, death and violence”, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Renzo Gattegna said in a statement.

Many Italians also expressed their anger about the newspaper’s decision on social media.

Partly autobiographical, “Mein Kampf” – which means “My Struggle” – outlines Hitler’s ideology that formed the basis for Nazism. Written in 1924, it sets out his hatred of Jews which led to the Holocaust in which about six million of them were murdered at the hands of Nazi Germany.

For 70 years, the German state of Bavaria, which was handed copyright of the book in 1945, refused to allow it to be republished out of respect for the victims of the Nazis and to prevent incitement of hatred.

But “Mein Kampf” fell into the public domain on January 1 this year, when a special edition was published for the first time since World War II which included critical annotations by historians.

The version distributed by Il Giornale is a reprint of the first Italian translation, published in 1938, the year fascist Italy adopted anti-Semitic laws. It includes a modern critical introduction by an Italian historian, Professor Francesco Perfetti.

Known for its right-wing positions, notably over the question of immigration, Il Giornale has a circulation of around 200,000. Neither the paper nor its owners are suspected of harbouring anti-Semitic views.

Anything touching on national-socialism is particularly sensitive in Italy due to the alliance between the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and Hitler.

{Legislators and religious scholars accused of being in denial as incidents of domestic and sexual violence remain high.}

Karachi, Pakistan – Twenty-two-year-old Ammara [name changed to protect identity] rarely stepped out of her family’s haveli, mansion, in a remote village in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

Her father, a feudal lord, never felt the need to send her to school, or anywhere else, and provided her with all of life’s comforts and luxuries within the confines of the haveli.

“I had never imagined I would leave the haveli for a place like this but my father left me with no other option when he told me I must marry the alcoholic, twice-married man he had chosen for me,” Ammara told Al Jazeera inside a tiny room at a women’s shelter home in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi.

It has been six months since she ran away from home along with her nine-year-old sister, fearing the same fate for her once she grew up.

“I grew up watching my father decide the fate of too many innocent, helpless women in karo-kari (honour killing) cases.”

Ammara managed to escape but that is not the case for hundreds of other women in Pakistan.

Eighteen-year-old Zeenat Rafiq was burnt alive by her mother in Lahore earlier this month. Her crime, according to her mother, was marrying a man of her choice and against the family’s will.

Police said Parveen Rafiq, Zeenat’s mother, was assisted by her son and husband of her other daughter as they avenged Zeenat “bringing shame to the family”.

Zeenat’s fate was no different from that of a 19-year-old teacher in the hilly town of Murree, who was assaulted, burned alive and thrown behind her family home by a group of men. She had reportedly refused to marry the principal’s son.

She died due to the 85 percent burns in an Islamabad hospital a day later.

{{‘Lightly beat the wife’}}

Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), a constitutional body responsible for ensuring no legislature in the country is repugnant to Islam, has drawn up a 163-point bill enlisting women’s rights as well as actions it deems non-permissible for women.

The group recently declared it is permissible for a man to “lightly beat” his wife “if needed”.

The bill was presented last month in response to the Protection of Women Against Violence bill (PWAV) 2016, which was passed in the Punjab Assembly earlier this year and is aimed at providing relief to women facing domestic abuse.

Mehnaz Rahman, resident director of women’s rights NGO Aurat Foundation, believes the CII’s recommendations hold no legal value.

“The existence of this council cannot be justified,” Rahman told Al Jazeera.

“When the country’s constitution says no law shall be made against Islam, that should be enough. Besides, lawmaking and bill-passing are tasks entrusted with people sitting in the assemblies, who have been voted in, who are representatives of the public, whose main duty is legislation.”

The CII, in turn, argues that by passing the bill without its consent, the Punjab Assembly has committed an act of treason .

Of late, Pakistani legislators have also been vocal in their opposition to the CII. Opposition senators last Friday blamed “the anti-women bias of the CII” for the recent rise in incidents of violence against women.

While legislators, religious scholars and rights activists battle it out for influence, women in Pakistan continue to be victims of what a group of men or a family consider as their “honour”.

According to the Human Rights Commission Of Pakistan (HRCP), there were 470 cases of honour killing against women last year. Of those, 145 were categorised under “marriage choice” and 254 under “illicit relations”.

Both subsets are based on the constitutional right of citizens of Pakistan to carry out their lives according to their own will, but both are culturally and traditionally controlled by men or elders of the family.

“Laws are not the only way to resolve all issues,” said Rahman.

“We need to improve our social structures and our ancient customs and traditions in order to move forward.”

Meanwhile, police officials act as the first point of contact and, according to a senior official, they try to side with women while dealing with cases involving domestic abuse or violence against women.

“Our first call of action is to arrest the accused and file a First Information Report (FIR),” Superintendent of Police Faisal Mukhtar told Al Jazeera in Lahore.

“We treat accusations of violence between two unrelated parties differently than those of domestic violence between husband and wife. We pay more attention to ground realities and try to help them bridge their differences by counselling.”

{{‘Abuse part of culture’}}

Mukhtar says cases of domestic abuse are mostly reported by women belonging to the middle or lower-middle classes of the society.

“In the lower economic class, women perceive domestic abuse as part of their culture and tend to accept it as their fate while the upper class directly goes towards divorce or compromise without involving the police on most occasions,” he said.

Activists say that by not having any clauses that criminalise violence against women, the PWAV relies on the basic tenets of the Pakistan Penal Code for action against perpetrators.

The main focus of the bill is on the establishment of protection centres and shelters for the victims but religious opposition to the bill has brought this process to a halt, according to Mukhtar.

In lower class, women perceive domestic abuse as part of their culture and tend to accept it as their fate

“It [the opposition] has made an impact. The process of implementation has slowed down and people are not promoting it or creating awareness about women’s rights, which is also a part of the bill,” he said.

The shelter homes and centres set up for working women and single mothers by various nongovernmental organisations across the country are barely able to keep up with the influx of regular admissions.

Anis Haroon, former chairperson of National Commission on Status of Women, told Al Jazeera that while political parties are quick to pass such bills while in power, they fail to follow it up when it comes to implementation.

“For laws concerning women, there is a lack of political will in terms of implementation,” said Haroon, who is also a lawyer.

“But even if a handful of cases are reported, they have an impact because the criminals get this message that they will not get off scot free.”

It is that very message that Ammara wanted to give her father when she fled with her sister, having little idea of life outside her family mansion.

In addition to receiving educational and vocational training at a temporary sanctuary, she is also learning to do daily chores and help other housemates.

“I miss my parents and the luxurious life I had back in my village,” Ammara said, “but I wouldn’t leave this independence and freedom to choose my own future I have here for all the luxuries in the world.”

{MPs reportedly given more protection and asked not to travel to Turkey after Germany recognises Armenian “genocide”.}

German MPs of Turkish origin have been warned not to travel to Turkey and will get increased police protection after Germany’s parliament declared the 1915 massacre of Armenians a “genocide”, according to media reports.

Eleven MPs have been getting threats after the resolution, which has injected fresh tensions between Germany and Turkey, was passed in the beginning of June, the reports say.

Der Spiegel, a German newsmagazine, said the foreign ministry had warned the MPs against travelling to Turkey because their safety could not be guaranteed.

“It is unspeakable to know that it is not possible to fly there for now,” Aydan Ozoguz, Germany’s integration commissioner, was quoted by Der Spiegel as saying.

Other MPs with Turkish roots have also cancelled business trips to the country, it said.

Separately, the Frankfurt Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported that the 11 MPs will now receive increased police protection and further security measures for both their professional and private activities.

“The threats against MPs of Turkish origin are unacceptable,” Thomas de Maiziere, Germany’s interior minister, told the paper. “Of course security measures will be adjusted if necessary.”

He stressed, however, that the majority of the 3.5 million people with Turkish roots who live in Germany were “good neighbours” and said the perpetrators were “isolated cases”.

{{‘Death threats and insults’}}

Cem Ozdemir, the leader of Germany’s Green Party, who initiated the resolution, told Turkey’s Armenian weekly Agos that despite receiving “death threats and insults”, at least they were “not imprisoned” and not had their “immunity lifted for having simply expressed what we thought, unlike our colleagues in Turkey”.

Ozdemir told the Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that he had received threats, reading: “At some point, your German friends will have forgotten that – we won’t” and “We will find you everywhere.”

He also called on Turkish groups in Germany to condemn the death threats.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that MPs of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution should be given blood tests, and has accused them of having “tainted blood” and of being terrorists.

On Thursday Norbert Lammert, the president of the Bundestag, said threats against individual MPs were attacks on the entire parliament.

Millions of Germans have Turkish heritage following a wave of so-called guest worker immigration during Germany’s economic boom of the 1960s and ’70s.

{At least 20 people taken to hospital and several arrests made as supporters of rival teams fight in French port city.}

At least 20 people have been taken to hospital after English and Russian football fans clashed with each other and with French riot police in the French port city of Marseille.

AP news agency reported late on Saturday that Russian fans attacked their English rivals inside the stadium, straight after their countries’ opening match ended in a dramatic 1-1 draw.

After the final whistle of the match at the Stade Velodrome, Russian supporters were seen storming a section of the ground housing England fans, causing them to flee. Video footage and still images posted on social media also showed people running towards one side of the stadium in order to escape.

During the match, flares were also fired from a section seating Russian fans.

Violence had already broken out prior to the match, with some wielding cafe tables as weapons, in a third day of violence in the narrow streets leading off Marseille’s old port.

Police made at least six arrests on Saturday, adding to the nine from Friday, and those charged could face trial as early as Monday.

Al Jazeera footage of one incident shows a man smashing a chair against another man, who then fell off a concrete flight of steps.

Marseille’s emergency services said among those who were injured were one middle-aged man who was knocked unconscious, while one England supporter suffered a heart attack.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Some fans walked through the city bare-chested and with blood dripping from head wounds.

“Once again, as over the last 30 years, an international football competition has been the scene of clashes between violent people claiming to be supporters of their national team,” Bernard Cazeneuve, French interior minister, said in a statement.

{{‘Vicious and intense’}}

Al Jazeera’s David Chater, reporting from Marseille, described the pre-match clashes as “intense” with rocks, bricks and beer bottles being thrown and people exchanging punches.

“It’s been a long, hot day of violence here in Marseille,” he said. “There were very vicious and intense fights breaking out everywhere.”

Chater also reported witnessing a Russian fan knocking out “completely unconscious” a man walking from the market.

With up to 90,000 fans expected to fill the city, authorities were working to keep some sort of control of the crowd.

Europe’s football organisation UEFA said on Saturday it “firmly condemns” the street battles.

“People engaging in such violent acts have no place in football,” a UEFA spokesman said.

The England-Russia game was one of five classified as “high-risk” for hooliganism by tournament organisers and Marseille residents said the violence should have been expected.

“It’s the English, what do you expect? We know what it’s going to be like when they come here,” Laurent Ferrero, a pizzeria owner, told the AFP news agency. “In 1998 [when France hosted the football World Cup] it was the same thing.”

Meanwhile, in the city of Lyon, four French men aged between 20 and 24 were briefly detained following a drunken fight in a bar where England fans had been drinking, police said.

The month-long tournament, which kicked off on Friday, is expected to attract around 1.5 million tourists at 10 venues around France.

{Thousands gather as casket carrying boxer and rights activist makes its way through streets of his hometown, Louisville.}

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali has been laid to rest in his hometown in the US state of Kentucky, following a funeral procession attended by tens of thousands of fans.

Ali’s private burial ceremony on Friday at Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery, was followed by a memorial, attended by world leaders including former US president Bill Clinton.

As the interfaith service got under way, the crowd of up to 15,000 burst into applause and chanted, “Ali! Ali!” when a Muslim religious leader welcomed the audience to “the home of the people’s champ”.

In his tribute, Clinton said Ali “is a truly free man of faith”.

Lonnie Ali, widow of the boxing legend, said her husband was “proof that adversity can make you stronger”, growing up in a segregated country.

Kevin Cosby, pastor of a Louisville church, said Ali “dared to love America’s most unloved race”, referring to African-Americans.

Earlier, people lining the streets threw flowers, and shouted, “Ali! Ali!”, as the hearse carrying his body pulled out of the funeral home. Others carried banners and photos of Ali.

The AP news agency reported that at least 100,000 people lined up the streets to say their final goodbye.

Ali died last week at the age of 74.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from outside Ali’s childhood home, said hundreds of people waited outside their houses to see the hearse carrying the boxing champion’s body pass by his old neighbourhood.

Lawrence Montgomery, a former neighbour of Ali, told Al Jazeera that he has “mixed emotions”, knowing that Ali, who was suffering from the debilitating Parkinson’s disease for decades, is no longer in pain.

“He was a marvelous young man. Very cordial and playful,” Montgomery said, recalling that as a child Ali already wanted to be a boxer.

The funeral procession, which went down Muhammad Ali Boulevard, ended with a private burial ceremony before the public memorial service at a sports arena.

Actor Will Smith, who played the three-time heavyweight world champion in the 2001 film “Ali”, helped carry the coffin, along with former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and family members.

US President Barack Obama did not attend the memorial because of his daughter’s high school graduation, but Valerie Jarrett, one of his closest aides, read a letter on his behalf.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and former Ali opponents George Foreman and Larry Holmes were also expected to be in attendance on Friday.

Ali died on June 3 at his home in Arizona after suffering for some 30 years from Parkinson’s disease, which made it difficult for him to speak in recent decades.

A Muslim prayer service in Louisville on Thursday drew thousands of mourners, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ali joined the Nation of Islam sect in 1964 – changing his name from Cassius Clay – but later left the group to practise orthodox Islam.

{Local council says at least 28 crude explosives dropped shortly after government gave UN access to 15 besieged areas.}

Government forces have dropped barrel bombs on a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, which received its first food-aid delivery in four years, according to local activists.

The reported violence on Friday came in rebel-held Daraya just hours after the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the UN delivered food aid to its residents for the first time since it came under siege in 2012.

Writing on Facebook, the Local Council of Daraya said that at least 28 barrel bombs – crude, unguided weapons that kill indiscriminately – were dropped by helicopters.

Late on Thursday, the food-aid delivery came after the UN said the Syrian government had permitted access to 15 of the 19 besieged areas within the country.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited local sources saying that the distribution of aid within Daraya was not carried out due to the bombing on Friday.

Daraya has been under siege since November 2012 and has witnessed some of the worst bombardment during Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, France’s foreign minister, voiced outrage after the reports of barrel bombings.

He accused Syria of “extraordinary duplicity”, saying the government had finally granted access for aid after heavy international pressure “and then the bombing restarted”.

The delivery of food supplies came a week after a joint convoy of the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and SARC reached Daraya and delivered medicine, vaccines, baby formula, and “nutritional items for children” but no food.

The UN estimates that there are currently 592,700 people living under siege in Syria, with the vast majority of them – about 452,700 people – besieged by government forces.

Lifting the siege on rebel-held areas was a key demand by the opposition during indirect peace talks held in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this year.

‘One meal per day’

SARC said the delivery – which included food, flour and medical supplies – was coordinated with the UN in Damascus.

In a video posted online by media activists in Daraya, an official with the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said the organisation had delivered about 480 food rations that would feed around 2,400 individuals for a month.

The official said he had met some beneficiaries of the food aid and community leaders.

“The supply of the very basic commodities is very challenging, so as a consequence the prices of the commodities themselves are very high whenever they are available,” he said.

“As a result, most families are having to do with one meal, which is not complete as a meal, per day in order to be able to get by.”

An amateur video posted online showed UN 4WD vehicles and white SARC trucks driving through sand barriers in the dark until they were met by opposition fighters.

Photographs posted online by activists in the suburb showed UN and SARC officials meeting local dignitaries and men removing WFP boxes from a white truck.

According to photographs posted by local activists, among those joining the convoy into Daraya were Yacoub El Hillo, UN humanitarian coordinator for Syria, and Khawla Mattar, a spokeswoman for Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria.

The UN estimates that 4,000 to 8,000 people live in Daraya, which has been subject to a government blockade since residents expelled security forces in the early stages of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.