Tag: InternationalNews

{Taliban takes 40 more people hostage, officials say, as Afghan authorities recover 12 bodies of security personnel.}

The Taliban abducted at least 40 people on a highway in Afghanistan’s northern province of Kunduz, Afghan officials have said.

The attackers stopped two vehicles – a 50-seater bus and a station wagon – in Khanabad district on the road from Kunduz city to Takhar, police spokesman Mahfuzullah Akbari said on Wednesday.

Seven people managed to escape, Akbari added.

Taliban gunmen are increasingly staging ambushes on provincial highways and main roads in their war – now in its 15th year – to overthrow the Kabul government.

Last week, the Taliban killed 10 bus passengers, many of them summarily executed, and took hostage dozens of others also in Kunduz province.

The group said at the time that they were targeting Afghan security officials on board the buses.

{{Bodies recovered}}

Separately, Afghan authorities said on Wednesday that they have recovered the bullet-ridden bodies of 12 security officials who had recently been captured by the Taliban in eastern Ghazni province.

The 12 soldiers, police and intelligence officers were captured over the past two months from different highway crossings in Ghazni province.

“The bodies … of our personnel captured by the enemy were discovered in Andar district this morning,” Ghazni’s Governor Mohammad Aman Hamim told reporters.

The violence underscores Afghanistan’s fragile security situation as the Taliban, who launched their annual spring offensive in April, rejected government calls this week for a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Taliban has so far not commented on the 12 captives and the latest abduction.

Taliban fighters have stepped up attacks after announcing Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader on May 25, elevating a low-profile religious figure after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.

{Israeli police say at least five people injured besides the dead in attack by two Palestinian men in Sarona Market.}

Four Israelis have been killed and several others injured in a shooting near Israel’s defence ministry and main army headquarters in Tel Aviv, police say.

The incident happened on Wednesday night at the Sarona Market, an area with restaurants and cafes.

At least five others were injured in the shooting and taken to the nearby Ichilov Hospital.

Reacting to the attack, Israel has suspended entry permits for 83,000 Palestinians during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Israeli police initially said that there was only one attacker, but Meirav Lapidot, a spokesperson, later said two attackers had been captured after carrying out what appeared to be “a terrorist attack”.

One of the shooters was taken in for questioning, and the other, who was injured, was taken to hospital.

{{Attackers in disguise}}

Police said the attackers were two Palestinians from the same family from the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Haaretz newspaper reported that the attackers were disguised as ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Since October 2015, increased tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel have boiled over into violence.

In the first half year of 2016, Palestinian attacks have killed 32 Israelis and two visiting US citizens. Israeli forces have shot dead at least 196 Palestinians.

Tensions over Jewish access to a volatile and contested Jerusalem holy site, revered by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews as Temple Mount, have fuelled the violence.

In a similar attack in Tel Aviv five months ago, an Israeli Arab killed two people on a main shopping street and the driver of a taxi he used to flee the scene.

The assailant was killed a week later in a shootout with police at a hideout in his home village in northern Israel.

{{Ramadan permits halted}}

The announcement of the suspension of entry permits for thousands of Palestinians during Ramadan was announced on Thursday morning.

“All permits for Ramadan, especially permits for family visits from Judea and Samaria to Israel, are frozen,” said a statement from COGAT, the unit which manages civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank.

It said that 83,000 Palestinians would be affected, adding that 200 residents of the Gaza Strip who had received permits to visit relatives during Ramadan would also have access frozen.

{Hospital among three sites targeted in attacks that killed at least 20 as fighting intensifies in the northern city.}

At least 20 people have been killed in air strikes in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, a monitoring group has said.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Wednesday that at least 10 people were killed in strikes targeting the Bayan hospital in a rebel-held part of Aleppo city.

Nine newborns were removed from their incubators after the aerial assault that also damaged equipment, according to the Independent Doctors’ Association in Syria, which runs the hospital.

“There are only a handful of functioning incubators left in Aleppo,” Dr Hatem, director of the hospital, said.

“Our ability to provide even the most basic protections to our most vulnerable is disappearing. Every world leader must imagine that one of these newborns were their own son or daughter.

“Whatever they would do to protect their own children they need to afford the same protection for ours.”

In al-Marjeh neighbourhood, at least four people, including two children, were killed when government helicopters dropped barrel bombs.

One more person was killed in an air strike in the nearby neighbourhoud of al-Moadi, the SOHR added.

Zouhir al-Shimale, a local journalist, told Al Jazeera that the hospital is located on a very busy street.

“There is a vegetable market on that street. It is a very busy area. At least four barrel bombs were dropped by government helicopters. So far the death toll we have received is 10, with another 30 people injured.

“In addition to that, air strikes have targeted al-Salhin neighbourhood, one person has been killed and several others have been injured. In al-Rashdin neighborhoud, an air strike left one woman killed,” al-Shimale said.

‘Distressed and paralysed’

At least 17 medical facilities have been attacked in the past two months, according to independent reports, and there are now only seven hospitals left functioning in Aleppo.

“After a week of intense attacks that have left dozens of civilians killed, Aleppo is now facing its first taste of siege,” said Dr Osama Abo al Ezz, a surgeon from the Syrian American Medical Society working in Aleppo.

“We are distressed and paralysed. Yet international demands for civilian protection are not being backed up by any tangible action.”

Elsewhere in Aleppo province, the SOHR reported that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters have retreated from several villages as heavy clashes continue between the group and the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The SDF, a US-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters, is headed by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units.

Last week, the SDF launched an offensive to capture the town of Manbij, a suspected supply route for ISIL to smuggle weapons in from Turkey.

Separately, the observatory said last week that the US had air-dropped weapons to rebel fighters in Aleppo province, who have been battling ISIL.

“Aleppans’ options are running out,” said Dr Samah Bassas, CEO of the Syria Relief Network.

“The bombs we are used to. But if we are to be held under siege, hunger and disease will quickly take hold. Even more death is inevitable. The Russian and Syrian planes attacking us every day must be stopped.”

Syria’s conflict started with mostly unarmed demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

It has since escalated into a full-on civil war that has killed at least 270,000 people, according to the observatory.

{The HIV epidemic has been in decline over the past decade, but there are still 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/Aids}

UN member-states agreed on Wednesday to fast-track their response to end the Aids pandemic by 2030 despite a last-minute bid by Russia to dilute efforts to focus on drug users and gay men.

A political declaration was adopted by the 193-nation General Assembly that stressed the need to help intravenous drug users, sex workers, gay men, transgender people and prisoners who are at high risk of contracting HIV.

The HIV epidemic has been in decline over the past decade, but there are still 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/Aids, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates that “Aids is far from over,” and that the world had an opportunity over the next five years to “radically change the trajectory of the epidemic.”

Ban appealed for treatment and services “without discrimination” to all people living with HIV. He singled out “young people, migrants, women and girls, sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people and prisoners.”

The political declaration builds on a previous UN Aids plan approved five years ago by placing more emphasis on those most vulnerable to HIV infection.

It sets out three targets to be reached by 2020: reducing new HIV infections, reducing mortality rates and eliminating HIV-related discrimination.

RUSSIAN AMENDMENTS FAIL

Russia late Tuesday demanded changes to the new focus by adding references to national legislation in provisions that mention gay men, drug users and prisoners, diplomats and civil society groups said.

The amendments were rejected over fears that these would allow Russia, Iran and other countries that criminalise homosexuality to deny anti-retroviral treatment and other services to gay men.

Russia has also balked at harm-reduction treatment such as syringe and needle programmes, even though the majority of HIV infections in that country are linked to drug injections.

Russian senior health official Dilyara Ravilova-Borovik told the gathering that while more must be done to end HIV/Aids, governments have a “sovereign right” to decide on their public health strategy.

The three-day meeting opened with a call to action from Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Ndaba, whose father Makgatho died of Aids in 2005. Makgatho was the late South African president’s last surviving son.

Ndaba Mandela urged the leaders of 35 countries that deny entry visas to people living with HIV — including Russia and Singapore — to “end travel restrictions now.”

“Bigotry and fear do nothing but spread the virus,” he said.

In the lead-up to the conference, Russia, 51 Muslim countries, Cameroon and Tanzania blocked 22 LGBT groups from receiving accreditation to the conference.

After the United States and the European Union protested the exclusion, 16 groups were included in delegations from other governments and non-governmental groups.

{Report says that water in Canada’s First Nations communities is contaminated and hard to access, rights group says.}

Toronto, Canada – Canada is violating its international human rights obligations by failing to provide adequate, sanitary water supplies to First Nations communities, several of which are facing a “broader systemic crisis”, Human Rights Watch said.

Water in First Nations communities “is contaminated, hard to access, or at risk due to faulty treatment systems,” the human rights group said in a 92-page report released on Tuesday.

“Make it Safe: Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis” reported that drinking water advisories were in effect in 134 water systems in 85 First Nations reserves across the country – a majority in the province of Ontario – as of January 2016.

Drinking water advisories are put in place by First Nations communities under advice from Health Canada when household water is unfit to drink. Thirty-six percent of the advisories in Ontario last year had been in place for more than a decade.

“Tainted water and broken systems on Ontario’s First Nations reserves are jeopardising health, burdening parents and caregivers, and exacerbating problems on reserves,” said Amanda Klasing, a senior HRW researcher and author of the report, in a statement.

“First Nations people have the same human rights to adequate water and sanitation as all Canadians, but in practice cannot access them.”

To date, First Nations communities are not subjected to drinking water regulations, which has “led to disparate outcomes in access to safe drinking water and sanitation” when compared with non-Indigenous communities in Canada, the report stated.

The problem is also linked to low levels of government funding, poor water and sanitation infrastructure and depleted natural water sources.

During the Canadian election campaign last October, now-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to eliminate boil-water advisories in First Nations communities by 2020.

The federal budget unveiled in March pledged $8.4bn for Canada’s Aboriginal peoples, including $1.8bn over five years for water and wastewater infrastructure.

But despite the promises, the problems persist.

Many households surveyed by HRW said they believed skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis were related to or worsened by the quality of water in their homes. At-risk groups such as children, women, caregivers, the elderly, and people with disabilities feel the problem most acutely, the report found.

“I kept taking him to the clinic and they kept saying it was eczema. His belly and buttocks got really red, oozy and it spread,” said Debora C, a woman in Grassy Narrows First Nation, in northwestern Ontario, about a recurrent rash on her nine-year-old son.

The rash was eventually diagnosed as a skin disease that resists most antibiotics and Debora must use bottled water to bathe him, the report stated.

Finding alternative sources of water has placed an added burden on First Nations communities already struggling with inadequate access to services, including healthcare and high poverty rates.

Little access to clean water has also exacerbated the housing shortage on reserves, as many houses are overcrowded and new homes cannot be built without better water and wastewater systems.

Another woman, known in the report as Roxanne M, told HRW that it takes her two hours every other day to find safe water to bathe her infant son, and an hour each day to wash his bottles safely.

“It makes me feel tired, exhausted. It’s stressful,” Roxanne said.

HRW called on Canada to develop a long-term plan – beyond the government’s five-year funding period – to address water and sanitation problems, and establish an independent First Nations water commission to track Ottawa’s performance.

It also recommended that Canada consult with First Nations on the cultural importance of water, and how cultural traditions can serve as the basis for a more sustainable water policy.

“Decades of failure to fulfill the rights to water and sanitation have caused lasting damage to First Nations communities,” the report stated. “It is time for Canada to make it safe.”

{Turkish police detain four suspects after attack on police bus kills 11 people in central Istanbul.}

Four suspects have been detained for questioning in connection to a bomb attack that targeted a police vehicle near the main tourist district in central Istanbul, killing 11 and injuring 36 people.

The four were arrested hours after Tuesday’s attack and were being held at Istanbul’s main police headquarters, Turkish state media reported.

Speaking at the scene of the blast in the Beyazit district, Istanbul Governer Vasip Sahin said a bomb placed inside a car detonated as the police bus passed by, killing seven members of the police force as well as four civilians.

Reports said the explosion took place near the Vezneciler metro station, which is within walking distance of some of the city’s main tourist sites, including the Suleymaniye Mosque.

The White House condemned the attack as a “horrific act” and confirmed that the US “stands together with Turkey” as the two countries confront challenges in the region.

Al Jazeera’s Emre Rende, reporting from Istanbul, said the “bus was targeted by a remotely detonated car bomb before a second blast, believed to have been caused by a gas canister.

“The attack happened close to the Grand Bazaar so it might have been done to keep tourists away,” he added.

Pictures showed the bomb had turned the police vehicle into mangled wreckage and that nearby shops had their front windows smashed out by the force of the blast.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the country’s fight against armed groups would continue “to the end”. Speaking to reporters after visiting some of the injured in a hospital near the site of the blast, Erdogan said the attack was “unforgivable”.

The bombing came during the first days of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, a time marked by dawn-to-dusk fasting and intense prayer.

Istanbul had already been hit by two bombings this year, including in tourist areas.

Both attacks were blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, and a pair of attacks in Ankara that were claimed by Kurdish separatists and killed dozens.

The two attacks in Ankara were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) – a splinter group of the better-known outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The attacks have had a dire effect on the tourism industry heading into the key summer season.

Some 1.75 million foreigners came to Turkey in April, down more than 28 percent on April 2015, the tourism ministry said in its latest release.

{A long-term solution to ISIL in Iraq requires much more than recapturing territory, says Iraqi scholar Zaid al-Ali}

As the Iraqi army, backed by a coalition of militias and forces, makes slow advances toward Fallujah, one of the most circulating theories suggests that if the Islamic State group (Daesh) (ISIL, also known as ISIS) loses Fallujah to the army, then it is finished off in Iraq.

Al Jazeera talks to Iraqi scholar, Zaid al-Ali, author of the book (The Struggle for Iraq’s Future), on why the battle for Fallujah matters in the larger context of the war on Daesh in Iraq, the human rights abuses committed by the militias accompanying the Iraq army and best approach to end Daesh’s rule of terror in the country.

{{Al Jazeera: To what extent would you agree with the theory that if Daesh loses Fallujah to the Iraqi army, then it is finished in Iraq? }}

“The only long-term solution to Iraq’s ISIL and to the presence of groups like ISIL is to upend the political system by making its politicians more accountable, and that can only be achieved through major electoral reform.”

{{Zaid al-Ali: }} Fallujah is certainly a major centre for ISIL. It has been holding territory there for more than two years now, far longer than any other part of the country, which means that it has had far longer to entrench itself in that city than anywhere else.

ISIL has also invested a significant amount of its own fighters in the city’s defence. Finally, Fallujah is the symbolic centre of resistance to the post-2003 order and to the US occupation that brought it into existence.

ISIL will eventually lose control over Fallujah, probably some time over the next few weeks, and that will certainly represent yet another major blow to the organisation’s prestige.

It seems fairly obvious that while ISIL will continue to hold territory in Iraq in the short term, in the medium term it will almost certainly be pushed out of Iraqi territory. ISIL’s resources are under a significant amount of strain, and it is being pressured by a large number of actors in different places.The maths are simply not in its favour and so it is just a matter of time until it loses control over Fallujah, Mosul and all Iraqi territory.

It’s also worth noting, however, that the long-term picture, however, remains fairly bleak for Iraq. A long-term solution to ISIL requires much, much more than recapturing territory. If the Iraqi state wants to prevent ISIL (or a different version of the organisation) from regaining a foothold in the country after it has been pushed out pursuant to the current effort, then it will have to implement a real and comprehensive counterinsurgency effort.

That will require major reform to the security sector, to the justice sector (including the courts), to prison facilities, etc. All of these things are needed not just to reassure local populations that the state will now be treating them more equitably, but also to ensure that criminals will be punished while the innocent will be protected, which has not been the case thus far.

Under current circumstances, however, there is no way that any of these things will take place. Iraq’s political system is simply too decrepit and too dysfunctional for major reform to be carried out. Sectarianism, corruption and incompetence among the political class are too entrenched.

The vast majority of Iraq’s politicians simply do not care about real reform; and even if they did, they wouldn’t have the faintest idea of how to approach the problem because they’re so incompetent. The only long-term solution to Iraq’s ISIL and to the presence of groups like ISIL is to upend the political system by making its politicians more accountable, and that can only be achieved through major electoral reform.

{{Al Jazeera: }} Is there some exaggeration to suggest that Fallujah is at the heart of Daesh’s recruit network?

{{Al-Ali:}} It would be wrong to suggest that ISIL only has one source of recruits or that Fallujah is a major source of ISIL recruits. ISIL fighters come from a large number of places, and Fallujah is just one of them.

It is certainly true that there are far more people in Fallujah that are willing to fight against the ruling authorities in Baghdad than other areas. To take Tikrit as an obvious counterexample: Tikrit is not particularly tribal or religious, it is a middle-class town, it is a provincial capital, it is the seat of a large university and hospital, many of its inhabitants are employed by the state, and until 2014 it had been relatively peaceful. Thus, when ISIL took over the town, the organisation was not particularly surprised to see Tikritis flee to Erbil and Baghdad.

Almost no one stayed and almost no one fled to other areas under ISIL’s control. Since its liberation, 95 percent of the city’s inhabitants have returned and it has been relatively peaceful.

Fallujah is practically Tikrit’s polar opposite. It is tribal, religious, its social structure was deeply affected by the US-led war in 2003, and it has been a major source of instability since then. The result is that there are far more people in Fallujah who are willing to bear arms against [central government] in Baghdad than in places like Tikrit.

The proportion, nonetheless, is still very low in comparison to the city’s entire population, but it is high enough to make the battle for Fallujah a very difficult one for the Iraq army, and to ensure that post-liberation it will continue to be a very difficult place to govern in comparison with Tikrit.

{{Al Jazeera: Recent reports claimed that Fallujah civilians have been subject to torture at the hands of militia accompanying the Iraqi army. What do we know about such incidents? Do you think this is a reflection of a sectarian-oriented policy adopted mainly by militias such as al-Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces)?}}

{{Al-Ali: }} Torture is extremely common in Iraq. Almost everyone who is accused of terrorist activities or of criminal activity is tortured as a matter of course.

Basic constitutional rights, including the right to be brought before a judge, to be charged with a crime within a specific period of time, to remain free of physical and psychological torture, are all simply ignored by the police, by the army, by public prosecutors and by judges.

So if the state’s official institutions don’t respect these rules, what chance do irregular armed units whose legal status remains uncertain to this day have of respecting them?

Having said all that, I do not think that this is a reflection of sectarianism, given that Shia detainees who are arrested in other parts of the country are typically subjected to the same type of treatment by the security services.

This is more a reflection of a significant amount of laziness and stupidity by policymakers, and the consequence of Iraq’s culture of impunity and lack of accountability. Stupidly, officials who are responsible for determining Iraq’s security policy assume that torture will cause for criminals to confess, not giving any thought to the possibility that they may be torturing the wrong person who will confess to anything under a sufficient amount of duress.

This clearly needs to change as a matter of extreme urgency. This particular issue doesn’t require any major reform, given that there are constitutional and legal rules that prohibit torture in all cases. All that would need to happen in this case is for the law to be applied in as public a way as possible, particularly to ensure that all security officials understand that torture will not be tolerated.

{{Al Jazeera: How would you view statements by the commander of the popular mobilisation forces, Hadi al-Amari, that his militia will not enter Fallujah unless all civilians have been evacuated from it?}}

{{Al-Ali:}} It’s still unclear that al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia will be entering the city in any major way in any event. They are not playing a major role in the operation so far, and are unlikely to play an important role after the city’s liberation either.

Fallujah will be a delicate and difficult environment for a long time, and Iraqi officials understand that. The same can be said of Tikrit, where al-Hashd did not play a particularly important role. The actions that they did take (including significant looting) were widely reported in the press, but in the end they did not carry out large-scale massacres as many people assumed would happen.

Regardless, there isn’t a major distinction insofar as I can tell between the Hashd and the regular armed forces – they are both susceptible to engage in criminal behaviour.

{{Al Jazeera:}} How would you rank the battle over Fallujah in the larger context of the war on Daesh?

{{Al-Ali: }} By all accounts, the battle for Fallujah is another important milestone, but it is part of an ongoing trend of ISIL being pushed out of Iraqi territory. I expect it to be over within a few weeks, but major challenges are expected over the next few years. I am generally optimistic about the short term military campaign, but very pessimistic about the long term prospects for democracy, the rule of law and justice in Iraq.

{Authorities say the unnamed man was planning to carry out 15 attacks during the European football tournament in France.}

Ukraine has detained a Frenchman suspected of planning a series of attacks across France during the forthcoming European 2016 football championship, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said.

The man came to Ukraine under the guise of volunteering to fight in the conflict in the country’s east and managed to obtain 125kg of TNT, five assault rifles, two anti-tank grenade launchers and ammunition, the SBU said on Monday.

The man planned to blow up bridges and highway infrastructure in various parts of France, as well as a tax collection office, a mosque, a synagogue and public areas to be used for the football championship, the statement said.

The security services said the unidentified man wanted to carry out 15 attacks in total.

“The Frenchman expressed opposition towards his government allowing mass immigration into France, as well as the spread of Islam,” the statement said.

Attacks are a major concern for French authorities as they prepare to host the month-long tournament at stadiums in the Paris area and eight other cities from Friday through July 10.

Armed groups have threatened France during the tournament, but authorities have not confirmed specific dangers.

France is deploying 90,000 security forces for the tournament, and French President Francois Hollande said on Sunday night that the threat of attacks will not stop it from being successful.

Three suicide bombers tried to enter the Stade de France, the country’s national stadium, in November last year during the Paris attacks. The country has since been under a state of emergency.

Ukrainian authorities released photos of a fair-haired man, with his face blurred, holding various weapons.