Tag: InternationalNews

{Series of attacks reportedly kill at least 130 soldiers as thousands remain trapped between fighters and advancing army.}

Reports say at least 130 Iraqi soldiers have been killed in a series of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group near the city of Fallujah in Anbar province.

The first attack happened at dawn on Wednesday when 10 suicide bombers belonging to ISIL, also known as ISIS, hit the town of Kubaisah, before storming the nearby village of Al Sejar, and then attacked an army convoy to the south of Fallujah at Amiriyat al-Fallujah with roadside bombs, military sources told Al Jazeera.

After more than a week of operations aimed at retaking Fallujah, which lies just 50km west of Baghdad, the Iraqi army – made up of the military, police and Shia units, and backed by air power from a US-led coalition – has been unable to reach the city centre.

The overall commander of the Fallujah operation, Lieutenant-General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, told Al Jazeera that while the Iraqi army had slowed its advance, it was still at the fringes of Fallujah.

“We are here in Naimiyah district and operations are ongoing, and the advance towards the centre of Fallujah is continuing too,” he said.

The Iraqi government has blamed ISIL for using human shields and preventing civilians from leaving the city for the slow progress.

“It would’ve been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn’t one of the foundations of our plan,” Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, said in comments broadcast by state television.

Since the start of the operation on May 22-23, Iraqi commanders have claimed to have killed dozens of ISIL fighters but remain hesitant about releasing their own casualty figures.

After more than a week of operations aimed at retaking Fallujah, which lies just 50km west of Baghdad, the Iraqi army – made up of the military, police and Shia units, and backed by air power from a US-led coalition – has been unable to reach the city centre.

The overall commander of the Fallujah operation, Lieutenant-General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, told Al Jazeera that while the Iraqi army had slowed its advance, it was still at the fringes of Fallujah.

“We are here in Naimiyah district and operations are ongoing, and the advance towards the centre of Fallujah is continuing too,” he said.

The Iraqi government has blamed ISIL for using human shields and preventing civilians from leaving the city for the slow progress.

“It would’ve been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn’t one of the foundations of our plan,” Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, said in comments broadcast by state television.

Since the start of the operation on May 22-23, Iraqi commanders have claimed to have killed dozens of ISIL fighters but remain hesitant about releasing their own casualty figures.

Officials in Basra said the southern province had lost 26 fighters from Shia units belonging to the Hashed al-Shaabi umbrella group.

Medics also reported many wounded from the battle for Fallujah. Since Monday, just two of Baghdad’s hospitals received 97, AFP reported.

The operation for Fallujah has come at a dire human cost, with thousands of civilians trapped between ISIL fighters and the advancing Iraqi army.

Up to 50,000 people are still stuck in the centre of the city on Thursday, struggling with dwindling water and food supplies.

No aid has reached Fallujah since September last year and residents have been living on dates, dirty water from the Euphrates and animal feed.

Lise Grande, the deputy special representative of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, told Al Jazeera that there was a dramatic story unfolding on the ground with at least “50,000 Iraqis at grave risk.”

“ISIL have moved many families to the centre of town where they’re a kind of human shield,” she said citing informants on the ground.

“There is widespread food deprivation, medicines haven’t made it into Fallujah for months and we know that people no longer have access to clean drinking water and they’re forced to drink out of the irrigation canals. We’re worried that their might even be a cholera outbreak because of this.”

Fallujah is one of only two major Iraqi cities – the other being Mosul – still controlled by the armed group.

Armed groups in Fallujah fought the US occupation of Iraq and the Shia-led authorities that replaced Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The city on the Euphrates River had a prewar population of about 300,000.

Known as the City of Minarets and Mother of Mosques, it was badly damaged in two assaults by the US army in 2004.

{Those who escaped the besieged city described a lack of food, frequent executions, and forced domestic violence.}

Amiriyat al-Fallujah – As the Iraqi military and allied Shia militias continue their campaign to regain control over Fallujah, a small number of families have managed to escape the besieged city.

Located 50km west of Baghdad in Anbar province, Fallujah was among the first to fall to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in January 2014. For nearly 18 months now, Iraqi forces have kept Fallujah under siege.

Most of the families who succeeded in fleeing lived in the al-Hessie area, on Fallujah’s southern outskirts, about 10km from the city centre.

Although Iraqi forces regained control of al-Hessie a few days ago, the area is not yet fully secured. ISIL fighters still manage to attack it, forcing families to leave their houses in fear of it falling back under ISIL control.

Al Jazeera spoke with some Fallujah residents who managed to flee the city in the past week.

“The route is never easy nor safe, but many families like us chose to take the journey in the hope of reaching a safe place,” said Safia Jasim Saoud (Um Ahmad), 57, a Fallujah resident who escaped the city with her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren on May 28.

“Many of us lost sons and husbands. We lost our dignity. Food was scarce: We ate dried dates and tried to bake bread with date seeds. It was too much to endure.”

They left the city after Saoud’s son-in-law advised them to flee owing to the Iraqi army’s assault. “Our biggest fear was to be caught by ISIL fighters. They have no mercy; they will execute anyone whom they catch or even suspect of trying to flee,” she said.

The 10km journey to the Amiriyat al-Fallujah camp goes through an open, exposed area where there is no place to hide. Those escaping the city cannot afford to stop until they arrive at an Iraqi army checkpoint.

Upon arrival at the camp, her son-in-law was immediately detained by the Iraqi army. “They took him, and they told us it was standard procedure to make sure that he had nothing to do with ISIL. But it has been three days now and he is not back yet,” she said.

Saoud said that under ISIL rule “our husbands and fathers were pushed to discipline us. Husbands would be forced to hit their wives for not wearing the niqab properly. If our men did not obey the orders of ISIL, they would face punishment.”

When the attack on Fallujah began, ISIL tried to move all civilians from al-Hessie into the city, but many families refused to leave. They believed ISIL was trying to keep them from fleeing to later use them as human shields. ISIL responded by executing some of the area’s residents to scare the rest into moving, but many families would still not leave.

“ISIL forced us to witness beheadings. We have seen them throw people from the tops of buildings. We have walked through streets where corpses are left to rot and stray dogs would feed on them,” said Hussein Abdo Nassief (Abu Ammar), 60, who used to live in Fallujah.

He added that ISIL fighters set up large screens in Fallujah’s neighbourhoods to broadcast the executions.

“ISIL made sure to spread terror among the civilians. If you didn’t attend the public executions, then they made sure to show them on screens. They would even copy them on compact discs and deliver them to every house in the city.

“They executed innocent people for reasons like shaving their beards or smoking a cigarette. They killed those who refused to cooperate or join them. Brave men who preached against ISIL lost their lives.”

Abu Ammar, who was a soldier in the Iraqi army during Saddam Hussein’s rule, said he had never witnessed such brutality when he was a soldier.

“They [ISIL] would beat anyone. All of us in Fallujah were humiliated, our human dignity was violated,” said Mohammad Abbas Jassam (Abu Falah), 52, a resident of Fallujah.
“They would kill anyone for smoking, or for shaving their beards. They would flog women if they considered their veils to not properly cover their features. They made us live in fear. Life in Fallujah was horrific.”

“They used us as human shields,” he added. “They would deploy their militants among the houses and in the streets. They would say it is to maintain order, but in fact they were hiding among us.”

“We lived under inhuman conditions. We barely had anything to eat. We had to eat grass and dried dates – this is all that we had, and we called it food,” says Thuraya Aboud Zaidan (Um Iman), 54, whose family was among those who succeeded in reaching Amiriyat al-Fallujah camp.

“Supplies were very rare, and as the siege was fully imposed on Fallujah, it became impossible to get any kind of food supplies,” she added.

Although many city residents had been losing their hopes of survival, the start of the attack on Fallujah gave some families the courage to leave.

“We were barely alive anyway, and we thought it did not matter any more. We just had to leave at any risk,” said Um Iman.

{Model Merve Buyuksarac given 14-month suspended prison sentence for insulting Turkey’s president through Instagram post.}

A former Miss Turkey has been handed a 14-month suspended prison sentence for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan through a poem she shared on social media.

She is the latest of at least a dozen Turks to face such a sentence.7

An Istanbul court found model Merve Buyuksarac, 27, guilty of insulting a public official but suspended the sentence on condition she does not repeat the act for the next five years, local media said on Tuesday.

Buyuksarac, who was crowned Miss Turkey in 2006, was briefly detained last year for sharing the poem on Instagram in 2014.

It was called “the Master’s Poem” and referred to a high-level Turkish corruption scandal in 2014.

Her lawyer, Emre Telci, said he would file a formal objection to the verdict and appeal her case at the Strasbourg, France-based European Court of Justice.

“These insult trials are being initiated in series, they are being filed automatically,” Telci told The Associated Press news agency by telephone after the verdict.

“Merve was prosecuted for sharing a posting that did not belong to her. My client has been convicted for words that do not belong to her.”

WATCH: Turkey’s media takeover

Before the verdict was announced, Erdogan’s lawyer argued in court that Buyuksarac’s Instagram post had gone beyond “the limits of criticism” and amounted to “an attack” on the Turkish leader’s personal rights, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in jail in Turkey. The law was used infrequently until Erdogan became president in August 2014, since which time prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases for insulting him, including against cartoonists, journalists and teenagers.

Prosecutors are also pursuing a case against a German comedian who mocked Erdogan on German television.

{The State Department says targets could include major events, tourist sites, restaurants and commercial centres.}

The United States has issued a warning to American citizens visiting Europe this summer to be on the alert about the potential threat of attacks.

The State Department said on Tuesday targets could include major sporting events and tourist sites, as well as restaurants, commercial centres and transportation.

“The large number of tourists visiting Europe in the summer months will present greater targets for terrorists planning attacks in public locations, especially at large events,” it said.

“We are alerting US citizens to the risk of potential terrorist attacks throughout Europe, targeting major events, tourist sites, restaurants, commercial centers and transportation.”

The Euro 2016 football championship, which runs from June 10 to July 10, is being held in France, which is under an extended state of emergency following last year’s deadly attacks in Paris.

Another major event held in the country is cycling’s Tour de France, while millions of people are expected in Krakow, Poland, for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day in late July.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington DC, said this was “a standard warning from the State Department ahead of what it could become a very busy summer”.

“They are saying ‘look, if you’re travelling to any of these events, if you’re moving around Europe, please be aware of the risks involved,” he added.

“Clearly, given the big summer of sport that is coming up in Europe and concerns with recent incidents in Belgium and France, there is heightened concern.”

The State Deparment warning expires on August 31.

{South Korean officials say missile exploded at mobile launchpad in latest attempt to test ballistic capacity.}

A North Korean attempt to fire a missile from its east coast has failed, South Korean officials said, in what would be the latest in a string of unsuccessful ballistic missile tests conducted by Pyongyang.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the North tried to launch an unidentified missile early in the morning from the town of Wonsan on Tuesday, but that it is likely to have failed.

Officials said later they were analysing the incident and gave no further details.

South Korea’s official news agency, Yonhap, citing an unidentified government source, said the missile exploded at a mobile launchpad when the launch button was pressed.

Tension in Northeast Asia has been high since North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.

Japan put its military on alert on Monday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch.

“We have no reports of any damage in Japan. We are gathering and analysing data. The defense ministry is prepared to respond to any situation,” Japanese Minister of Defence General Nakatani said.

“North Korea shows no sign of abandoning the development of nuclear missiles and so we will continue to work closely with the US and South Korea in response and maintain a close watch on North Korea.”

{{Invasion rehearsal}}

The most recent launch follows Seoul’s rejection of an offer from the North to talks.

In April, Pyongyang attempted unsuccessfully to launch three suspected powerful intermediate-range Musudan missiles.

All three missiles exploded in mid-air or crashed, according to South Korean defence officials.

The South’s government believe the missile launches followed an order from the country’s leader Kim Jong-un in March to conduct tests of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying such warheads.

That order was thought to be part of Pyongyang’s reaction to annual South Korea-US military drills that it sees as a rehearsal for invasion.

{Russia denies charges of causing civilian deaths in northwestern province amid reports of fighting across the country.}

Russia’s defence ministry denies its aircraft has carried out any strikes on Idlib city [Reuters]
Thousands of families are fleeing the rebel-held city of Idlib after the heaviest bombardment in months, coinciding with a separate increase in air strikes in Aleppo province.

The developments come as Russia faces charges its air strikes have killed dozens of civilians across Idlib province, including in an area near a hospital.

Despite strenuous denials from Moscow, Turkey has called on the international community to rein in what it called Russia’s growing military intervention in Syria.

The bombardment is part of a government offensive to take Idlib city, the provincial capital in Syria’s northwest, held by al-Nusra Front and its allies since March last year.

Al-Nusra Front is not party to a Russian- and US-brokered ceasefire that went into force on February 27 between government forces and moderate rebels.

Russian air strikes targeted the city overnight, killing 23 civilians, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Tuesday.

“The air strikes are the most intensive on Idlib since the beginning of the truce,” the SOHR’s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency.

The SOHR said dozens of civilians were also wounded in the raids on Idlib. However, the Russian defence ministry has denied its aircraft carried out any strikes on the city.

“Russian aviation did not carry out any military operations, still less air strikes, in Idlib province,” Igor Konashenkov, a military spokesperson, said in a statement.

{{Fighting in the north}}

At least 280,000 people have been killed and more than half of Syria’s population have fled their homes since the conflict first erupted in 2011.

In recent days, fighting has especially intensified along the country’s northern border where the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group is targeting a strip of rebel territory.

The SOHR says thousands of civilians remain trapped there due to the fighting.

It said rebel groups in Azaz tried to launch a counteroffensive on Tuesday but failed when ISIL blocked the attack with a suicide bomber, killing six.

The SOHR said ISIL swept towards the opposition strongholds of Marea and nearby Azaz in the northern Aleppo province on Friday, forcing thousands of civilians to flee.

Meanwhile, thousands of civilians are trapped in Marea and a nearby town after Kurdish authorities closed the main road towards the autonomous Kurdish canton of Afrin to the west, according to the UN relief agency.

“Due to the closure of the Marea-Afrin road, an estimated 7,000 civilians are effectively trapped in Marea and Sheikh Issa towns,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday.

About 2,000 people had already managed to leave Marea and Sheikh Issa before the road was closed on Sunday, OCHA said.

It said about 5,000 people in total have been displaced by fighting since Friday, and the situation remains “volatile and unpredictable”.

Two roads blocked

Yacoub El Hillo, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, has called on armed groups to “ensure the unhindered movement and protection of civilians trying to reach safety”.

However, Kurdish authorities announced on Sunday the closure of the two roads from Afrin to Marea and Azaz in response to shelling of a majority-Kurdish district of the provincial capital, Aleppo city, by Syrian armed groups.

The SOHR said the groups continued to shell the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood on Tuesday.

They have been shelling Sheikh Maqsud for months after an advance by Kurdish forces into rebel territory west of Marea, the SOHR’s Abdel Rahman said.

An estimated 130 civilians have died in the shelling since February, he said.

The UN says clashes have also trapped about 165,000 civilians between Azaz and the closed Turkish border.

Pablo Marco, the regional manager of Doctors Without Borders, said on Monday tens of thousands – many of them already displaced from other areas – were caught less than 5km from the front line with “nowhere to go”.

In other developments on Tuesday, the SOHR said US-backed Kurdish-led fighters seized fresh ground from ISIL in Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, who control an expanse of territory along the Turkish border, launched a push south towards the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa last week, capturing a string of villages in the north of Raqqa province.”

The SDF has captured 12 villages … northwest of Raqqa in the past 36 hours,” the SOHR’s Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said the villages lie 80km or more from Raqqa itself but that ISIL’s de facto Syria capital was not the immediate goal.

Abdel Rahman said the target of the offensive was the town of Tabqa and its adjacent dam on the Euphrates River, which lie about 40km upstream.

ISIL lost 18 fighters in the fighting on Monday, taking its losses since the start of offensive on May 24 to 79, he said.

Among those killed were 24 child fighters from ISIL’s Cubs of the Caliphate recruitment programme.

The US has ignored protests from its NATO ally Turkey to back the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters it regards as the most effective force on the ground against IS in Syria.

The Pentagon has deployed more than 200 American special forces personnel to work alongside it.

{With strong connections to Israeli leaders, analysts say Prime Minister Hani Mulki will focus on bolstering investment.}

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has appointed long-time politician Hani Mulki as the new prime minister responsible for forming an interim government with parliamentary elections fast approaching.

The king ordered the resignation of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour’s government as its four-year term came to an end and dissolved parli

ament on Sunday. Mulki will shepherd in the elections, which are set to take place within the next four months.

Jordanian analysts said the moves came as no surprise as both steps were long anticipated in light of domestic and regional developments.

The outgoing Ensour, who served since 2012, was one of the longest-serving prime ministers in Jordan’s history. Traditionally prime ministers serve between one to two years, and in some instances for few months only.

Ensour’s long tenure witnessed the passing of a new election law, controversial economic reforms, and constitutional amendments that gave the king absolute control over the legislative and judicial branches, in addition to his own executive powers as king.

The new prime minister-designate Mulki was the head of the Aqaba economic zone before he was chosen by King Abdullah.

Husam Abdallat, a former senior government aide at the prime minister’s office, told Al Jazeera from Amman that Mulki will most likely be given the job of attempting to engineer new negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis.

“Mulki will be working to bring Palestinians and Israelis to the negotiation table and work to bring a final solution to the Palestinian cause which most likely be at the expense of the Palestinian people,” he said.

Tareq al-Fayed, an Amman-based analyst on Jordanian affairs and a journalist at the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, said Mulki has two major mandates during his tenure.

“The first is to manage the news phase of the parliamentary elections and set the government’s political agenda. The second is to manage Israeli-Jordanian relations, which have seen tension over Israel’s policies and encroachment on the Palestinians in Jerusalem and against al-Aqsa mosque,” Fayed told Al Jazeera.

{{Strong Israeli ties}}

One of the final acts of the outgoing parliament last week was the passing of the “investment law”, which allows foreign countries, including Israel, to invest in strategic projects in Jordan, such as energy and infrastructure development.

The majority of parliamentarians voted in a morning session against the inclusion of Israel in the law, but later in the day went on to rescind that vote.

“Passing the investment law and allowing Israel to have control over our economics constitutes a serious threat to Jordan’s economic interests and its national security,” said retired army general and columnist Mousa al-Odwan, who writes for the Al-Maqar online newspaper in Amman.

{{}}Mulki, 65, previously chaired the Jordanian government committee that negotiates with Israel from 1994-96.

Fayed noted that Mulki enjoys long and strong ties with Israeli leaders, which would not only enable him to smooth over bilateral differences – including over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians – but also bring in Israeli capital and investment to help the faltering Jordanian economy.

{{National security threats}}

Odwan told Al Jazeera he thinks Mulki is a “fresh face” and a choice that is much better than the typical ones based on family ties and personal relationships that have dominated the prime minister’s office for decades.

He also highlighted that the economic situation in Jordan has reached dangerous levels. “Mulki must embark on new economic policies that would revive the Jordanian economy and help the Jordanian public. I wish him well in this area,” he said.

{Transparency chief Fabiano Silveira resigns over leaked recording related to corruption probe at state oil company.}

Leaked recordings of heavyweight politicians discussing Brazil’s sprawling kickback scandal caused more headaches for acting President Michel Temer, with a new tape forcing his anti-corruption minister to quit.

Transparency Minister Fabiano Silveira was the second member of the interim administration to leave in only 16 days on Monday because of recorded conversations about the investigation into corruption at the state oil company Petrobras and the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.

The new turmoil started when TV Globo broadcast a recording of Silveira giving legal advice to the Senate president, who is under investigation for links to corruption at Petrobras. The recording also shows Silveira criticising the investigation itself, which has implicated some of Brazil’s most prominent politicians and businessmen.

In its report late Sunday, TV Globo said Silveira had repeatedly contacted investigators in the Petrobras case to seek information on the accusations against Senate chief Renan Calheiros, but he did not succeed in getting any details.

The conversation was recorded at Calheiros’ residence some time before the Senate voted to suspend Rousseff pending an impeachment trial and put the government in Temer’s hands.

{{Anti-corruption protests}}

Brazilian media had said Temer met with Cabinet ministers in the afternoon and decided to keep Silveira on the job for now, with Silveira saying he was not involved in any wrongdoing. But later Silveira sent a letter of resignation, saying it was best that he leave the job “despite the fact that nothing is hitting my behaviour.”

Temer did not announce any pick to succeed Silveira, who came under intense criticism from Brazilians and international groups following the TV Globo report.

According to the union for workers at the Transparency Ministry, about 200 officials of the anti-corruption body offered their resignations to protest Temer’s initial decision to keep Silveira on the job.

Rousseff’s attorney: Brazil is like ‘House of Cards’

Earlier Monday, employees at the ministry blocked Silveira from entering the building in the capital of Brasilia. They also staged a protest in which they cleaned the front doors of the building and his office.

The newspaper O Globo printed an extra editorial to demand Silveira’s resignation, echoing calls by allies of Rousseff, who argues that her foes ousted her because she allowed the Petrobras investigation to go forward.

Brazil faces worst recession in decades
The Berlin-based watchdog group Transparency International also called for Silveira to go. In a statement, the group said it would halt any conversations with Temer’s interim administration “until a full investigation is conducted and a new minister with adequate experience in the fight against corruption is appointed.”

Another leaked recording forced Temer’s planning minister to take a leave of absence last week. In that recording, Romero Juca suggested there should be “a pact” to impeach Rousseff and appeared to link it to obstructing the Petrobras investigations.

Meanwhile, the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo reported that Temer’s 7-year-old son, Michelzinho, is the registered owner of real estate properties worth $550,000. The interim president told the daily that he transferred the assets as a way to anticipate his will and that his daughters from previous marriages also received real estate in similar conditions.

The report also said Temer’s total assets nearly doubled between 2006 and 2014.

{We have to rebuild our military, White House hopeful says.}

White House hopeful Donald Trump received a warm welcome on Monday as he addressed a motorcycle rally that attracted many military veterans to the US capital.

“I will protect every bit of the Second Amendment” right to bear arms, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told several thousand people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial, traditionally a favoured spot for major political demonstrations in Washington.

“We have to rebuild our military” and “we are going to take care of our veterans” the billionaire said in a brief speech as the crowd — consisting of leather-clad bikers, tourists and other spectators — cheered him on.

Mr Trump asked during his address why other countries, nodding at Japan, aren’t asked to pay “100 percent” of the cost of deploying US troops to overseas bases.

“Because we are stupid,” responded a voice in the crowd.

GET RID OF POLITICIANS

The Rolling Thunder rally is an annual event that sees thousands of bikers — many of them former service members — roar into Washington.

Jack Bellamy, a 41-year-old veteran and biker from northern Virginia, was thrilled that Trump addressed the rally.
“The other candidates, they don’t want to do anything for the vets,” he said.

“We want to get rid of politicians” who “don’t listen to people” and “put someone else in power,” he added.

Mr Bellamy lamented that things were not going well in the United States, pointing to federal government guidelines telling public schools to let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice as an example.

A group of states is now suing over the move. “The whole bathroom issue … they tried to shovel it down our throats,” Bellamy said. “A man is a man, a woman is a woman.”

First started in 1988, Rolling Thunder draws bikers from around the country to Washington on the Memorial Day holiday weekend honouring the nation’s war dead.

Some 300,000 were expected for this year’s event, according to the Pentagon, which on Sunday morning hosted the start of a flag-filled parade through the streets of downtown Washington.

{{

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{I’ve never attended any proclamation (in) all my life, says Rodrigo Duterte.}

Rodrigo Duterte snubbed his proclamation as the next Philippine president on Monday, reinforcing his image as a maverick outsider intent on challenging the nation’s political establishment.

A joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate in Manila endorsed the official count of this month’s election, which saw the trash-talking politician who revels in threats to kill criminals win by more than six million votes.

Mr Duterte declined to attend the nationally televised event, preferring to remain more than 900 kilometres away in his southern hometown of Davao that he has ruled as mayor for most of the past two decades and he admits is his comfort zone.

“I am not attending the proclamation. I’ve never attended any proclamation (in) all my life,” Mr Duterte, who will be sworn into office on June 30, told reporters on the weekend.

WON ELECTIONS

Mr Duterte, 71, won the elections largely due to an incendiary law-and-order platform headlined by a vow to wipe out crime within six months.

He pledged to give security forces shoot-to-kill orders, and vowed that tens of thousands of criminals would die. Since the election Duterte has continued to encourage police to kill drug suspects, and said he would bring back the death penalty.

Another key message of Mr Duterte’s campaign was his pledge to take on the nation’s political and economic elite, selling himself as an explosive political outsider that could shake up a power structure overseeing one of Asia’s biggest rich-poor divides.

Mr Duterte railed against the elites and promised to fight for the poor, despite having created his own political dynasty in Davao and his own vice presidential running mate coming from one of the nation’s richest families.

Since the elections, Duterte has refused to travel to Manila and promised to remain in Davao until he assumes the presidency.

This has forced politicians, powerbrokers, business leaders and courtiers to fly to Davao for an audience. In further blows for so-called “Imperial Manila”, Mr Duterte has named many politicians from the southern Philippines to cabinet posts.

Duterte has also repeatedly expressed his disdain for spending time in Manila, describing it last week as a “dead city” overrun by slums.

He also said he planned to spend as little time as president in the capital as possible, and that he hoped to be able to fly each day to and from Davao.

Duterte’s absence at the Manila ceremony on Monday delivered a message that he would not be beholden to lawmakers, said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute of Political and Economic Reforms.