Tag: InternationalNews

{Nouf Enfeat, 15, was shot and evacuated to a nearby hospital, while Israeli army says a soldier was also hospitalised.}

Israeli forces have shot and wounded a Palestinian girl after she allegedly stabbed a soldier outside of a Jewish-only settlement in the northern occupied West Bank.

Nouf Iqab Abd el-Jabbar Enfeat, 15, was transferred to a hospital for medical treatment and has sustained moderate wounds, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) healthy ministry told Ma’an News Agency.

The incident took place at the entrance of the Meto Dovan settlement and an Israeli soldier was injured, an Israeli army spokesperson told Al Jazeera by telephone.

Earlier this week, Israeli forces opened fire and injured 16-year-old Khaled Ghamri during a protest on the border of southern Israel and the blockaded Gaza Strip, according to Arabic-language news outlets.

Ghamri, who was struck in stomach, is currently hospitalised and in critical condition, according to Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).

A day before US President Donald Trump met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli forces shot dead 15-year-old Raed Ahmad Rdaydeh during an alleged stabbing attempt at a checkpoint near the city.

Rdadyeh was one of at least eight Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces or settlers so far this year, according to DCIP’s count.

In 2016, DCIP documented the killing of at least 32 Palestinian children by Israeli forces and settlement guards. Israel says that at least 24 of those took place during attacks or attempted attacks, but the rights group says its investigations cast doubt on those claims.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements, which are considered illegal under international law, in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Trump opened his first visit to the region last week, a two-day stop aimed at seeking ways to restart talks between the PA and the Israeli government.

The last round of peace talks, led by then-President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, fell apart in 2014.

One point of contention is the fate of East Jerusalem, which, along with the rest of the West Bank, was occupied by Israeli forces 50 years ago during the 1967 Middle East war.

During his presidential campaign, Trump advocated breaking with decades of precedent and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, deeply alarming Palestinians.

He has since said the move was still being looked at.

Source:Al Jazeera

{From world leaders to prominent intellectuals, many urge the US to keep its commitment to the Paris climate change deal.}

Reports emerged on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is set to pull the United States out of the landmark Paris climate accord,in what is seen as a huge blow to efforts aimed at cutting global emissions.

If the US does withdraw from the Paris accord, it will join Nicaragua and Syria as the only countries to have not signed onto the deal, which aims to limit the increase of global temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

Trump, who has previously called climate change a “hoax” and a Chinese-created concept, tweeted late on Wednesday that he would announce his decision regarding the deal on Thursday at 19:00 GMT.

During his presidential campaign, the Republican vowed to “cancel” the agreement, adding he would “stop all payments of US tax dollars to UN global warming programmes” within his first 100 days in office.

Trump’s promise has drawn immense condemnation from many corners of the world. Here are some of the seven strongest warnings given by prominent individuals and groups to the US president regarding the potential withdrawal from the deal:

{{1. ‘Not a fairy tale’}}

In Europe, many leaders issued strong rebukes over the reported US withdrawal, taking issue with the Trump administration’s climate-sceptic stance.

“Climate change is not a fairy tale,” European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday.

“People die or are obliged to leave their homes because of desertification, lack of water, exposure to disease, extreme weather conditions,” he said. “If we don’t act swiftly and boldly, the huge human and economic cost will continue to increase.”

European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker warned that quitting the Paris agreement is not a straightforward process.

“The Americans can’t just leave the climate protection agreement,” Juncker told a conference in Germany on Wednesday. “Mr. Trump believes that because he doesn’t know the details.”

Juncker added that it is the “duty of Europe” to tell the US how the agreement works.

During last week’s G7 meeting, attended by Trump for the first time, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the discussions on climate change “very difficult – not to say very unsatisfactory”.

Merkel said European leaders “made it clear that we want the US to stick to its commitments”.

{{2. ‘A betrayal’}}

Other leaders and diplomats also warned Trump about the impact of a withdrawal – not just on climate change, but also US standing in the world.

Ethiopian diplomat Gebru Jember Endalew, a key figure in climate change negotiations for the “48 least developed countries” group, said it would be a “betrayal” if the US were to abandon the agreement.

“If the US withdraws, it’s a betrayal to the global community – especially the least developed countries and the most vulnerable groups of countries,” Endalew said.

Chai Qimin, of the Chinese government-funded National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, warned this month that leaving the agreement would “harm mutual trust” between world powers.

“President Xi [Jinping] and our ambassador to the United Nations have said several times that withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is irresponsible, which will harm the mutual trust in the multilateral mechanism.”

Xi on Wednesday reaffirmed his commitment to uphold the Paris agreement, saying the world must “protect the global governance achievements contained” within the Paris accord.

{{3. ‘World’s most dangerous party’}}

Noam Chomsky, the renowned US academic and intellectual, has in the past sharply criticised the Republican Party for its approach to climate change, calling it “the most dangerous organisation in the world”.

In a recent interview with Democracy Now, Chomsky defended his self-described “outrageous statement”, citing what calls the party’s dedication and commitment “to the destruction of organised human life on Earth”.

At least 22 Senate Republicans and a dozen House Republicans have expressed support for a plan to pull out of the Paris agreement.

Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, a climate change denier, led the senators in drafting a letter calling for “a clean break” from the accord.

“We have been encouraged by the steps you have taken to reduce the regulatory burdens facing the country,” the senators said.

But others within the party, including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have expressed concern:

Affirmation of the #ParisAgreement is not only about the climate: It is also about America remaining the global leader.

{{4. ‘Really stupid’}}

Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state and Trump’s Democratic rival in November’s election, recently said it would be “incredibly foolish” and “totally incomprehensible” to pull out of the agreement.

“What’s really stupid about [withdrawing from the agreement] is that they are throwing out the economic opportunities that being part of the Paris agreement provide for the United States,” Clinton said at a technology conference in southern California on Wednesday.

A number of other Democrats have taken to Twitter to express their concern about the possible withdrawal.
{{
5. ‘No choice, but to resign’}}

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, has threatened to quit his role on White House advisory councils if Trump withdraws the US from the agreement.

“[I] don’t know which way Paris will go, but I’ve done all I can to advise directly to POTUS, through others in [the White House] that we remain,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday.

In response to a question about what he plans to do if Trump does pull out of the agreement, Musk said he would “have no choice, but to depart counsels”.

In April, more than 15 tech and energy companies, including Apple, Google and Shell, signed a letter to the president expressing support for US participation in the agreement.

“We urge that the United States remain a party to the Paris Agreement, work constructively with other nations to implement the agreement, and work to strengthen international support for a broad range of innovative technologies,” the letter said.

{{6. ‘Planet Earth First’}}

Activists in Italy’s capital, Rome, projected the message “Planet Earth First” on St. Peter’s Basilica last week as Trump arrived for a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

“Trump must not be allowed to shirk his moral responsibility or renege on America’s Paris commitments,” Greenpeace said in a statement following the protest.

Last month, hundreds of thousands of climate activists marched on Washington, DC as part of the People’s Climate March. This year, the march was focussed on the “need for bold action” to address climate change, especially with an “administration more reticent to climate … than any in recent memory”.

{{7. ‘Get on train or get left behind’}}

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that other countries would be quick to fill a “void” if the US were to pull out of the Paris agreement.

“If one country decides to leave a void, I can guarantee someone else will occupy it,” Guterres said during an event on New York on Tuesday.

“The message is simple: The sustainability train has left the station. Get on the train or get left behind.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{MPs back cabinet led by Social Democrat leader, whose party has formed a coalition with two ethnic Albanian parties.}

Macedonia’s parliament endorsed a new government led by Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev on Wednesday, in a first step towards ending the country’s two-year political crisis.

Zaev, whose SDSM party has formed a coalition with parties representing the country’s ethnic Albanians, won the support of 62 out of 120 MPs, in a vote that came nearly six months after parliamentary elections.

Forty-four voted against and five abstained.

“I conclude that the parliament voted in the government of Macedonia,” Talat Xhaferi, the parliamentary speaker, said after the vote.

Zaev, a 42-year-old economist by training, vowed to step up economic reforms and pledged to speed up the country’s bid to join the European Union and NATO.

“The concept of one society for all is the future of Macedonia,” Zaev said Wednesday, he said.

His opponents, however, said his goals would be difficult to achieve.

During the debate leading up to the vote, which began on Tuesday, a deputy of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, Dimitar Stevanandzija, said Zaev made “promises that are unreal and absurd”.

Political crisis

Macedonia has been without a functional government since 2015, after a wiretapping scandal brought down the previous administration of Nicolas Gruevski.

Efforts to advance towards membership of the EU and NATO have stalled due to a row with Greece over Macedonia’s name, which it shares with a northern Greek province.

What is happening in Macedonia?

Of the 25 ministers in Zaev’s government, seven are ethnic Albanians, who make up one-third of the country’s population.

President Gjorge Ivanov earlier had refused to give the mandate to Zaev, accusing him of endangering Macedonia’s unity and sovereignty.

The crisis threatened to re-ignite inter-ethnic conflict, with ethnic Albanian parties demanding as a condition for joining any new government that Albanian be designated a second official language.

A month of protests followed across the country.

As part of the coalition deal, Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian, was elected last month parliament speaker. That prompted protests by nationalists who stormed the parliament building and beat some politicians, including Zaev.

Source:Al Jazeera

{As battles rage in Marawi against ISIL-linked fighters, errant military strikes kill 10 soldiers, defence minister says.}

Ten Philippines soldiers were killed by “friendly” fire in a military air raid during efforts to take back a southern city sieged by fighters, the defence minister said on Thursday.

Seven other soldiers were wounded on Wednesday when two air force SF-260 close air support planes dropped bombs on a target in the heart of Marawi City, Delfin Lorenzana told reporters. The first plane hit the target but the second missed.

“It’s very sad to be hitting our own troops,” Lorenzana said. “There must be a mistake somewhere, either someone directing from the ground, or the pilot.”

The Philippine armed forces have been using a combination of ground operations by soldiers and helicopters air raids to try to dislodge Maute rebels linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, who have occupied parts of Marawi City for eight days.

The Maute group has proven to be a fierce enemy, clinging on to the heart of Marawi City through days of air strikes the military has said are “surgical” and on known rebel targets.

The deaths of the soldiers takes the number of security forces killed to 38, with 19 civilians and 120 rebel fighters killed in the battles in Marawi over the past nine days.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting.

Lorenzana, the minister, said fighters who were Saudi, Malaysian, Indonesian, Yemeni and Chechen were among eight foreigners killed fighting with the Maute rebels.

In an earlier text message to reporters, he said of the “friendly fire” incident: “Sometimes that happens. Sometimes the fog of war … The coordination was not properly done so we hit our own people.”

‘Relentless air strikes’

Marawi, a mostly Muslim-populated city of 200,000 people, lies about 800km south of the capital, Manila.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the south throughout mid-July after the fighters went on a deadly rampage in Marawi last week, following an unsuccessful military raid to capture Ismilon Hapilon – a veteran Filipino fighter regarded as the local ISIL leader.

“Since the Philippine government announced martial law, there have been relentless air strikes, ‘surgical air strikes,’ as the Philippine military described it,” Al Jazeera’s Jamela Alindogan, reporting from the outskirts of Marawi City, said.

“There have been organisations and civilians here who have been asking the government to stop the air strikes, simply because of the danger they pose for civilians.”

More than 2,000 people are estimated to be trapped in the conflict zones in Marawi, fearing for their lives amid violence by fighters and military air raids.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Authorities move people out from low-lying areas as Cyclone Mora lashes southeastern coast with heavy rains and winds.}

Bangladesh has evacuated at least 350,000 people as Cyclone Mora lashed coastal areas on Tuesday, packing heavy rains and winds that destroyed hundreds of homes on several islands in the Bay of Bengal.

The severe storm made landfall between Cox’s Bazar and the main port city of Chittagong early on Tuesday morning, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said.

No casualties have been reported yet.

Golam Mostafa, a government official coordinating the evacuation, said people were moved from low-lying coastal areas to “at least 400 cyclone shelters, schools and government offices”.

The cyclone also caused havoc in refugee camps set up for some 200,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

Shamsul Alam, a Rohingya community leader, told Reuters news agency that damage in different camps was severe with almost all the 10,000 thatched huts in the Balukhali and Kutupalong camps destroyed.

“Most of the temporary houses in the camps have been flattened,” Alam said.

Omar Farukh, a community leader in Kutapalong camp, said conditions were dire: “Now we’re in the open air.”

About 10 million of Bangladesh’s population of 160 million live in coastal areas.

Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, said the greatest danger lay to fishermen who do not abide by government requests to call in their vessels.

“Many fishing trawlers are still out in the bay. Many of them usually get lost in storms and they are hard to account for. This is where a lot of the casualties happen.”

He added: “Lots of houses have been damaged. Trees have fallen… A lot of the houses along the coastline are barely tin sheds and mud huts, which cannot withstand this kind of storm.

The cyclone was expected to weaken in Bangladesh by late morning as it moved inland towards India where authorities have warned of heavy rain in the northeastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

It formed after monsoon rains triggered floods and landslides in Sri Lanka, off India’s southern tip, which have killed at least 180 people in recent days, authorities said.

In the eastern Indian state of Bihar, 24 people have been killed in recent days, either by lightning or in collapsed dwellings.

Bangladesh is routinely hit by bad storms between April and December that cause deaths and widespread property damage.

In May last year, Cyclone Roanu hit the southern coast of Bangladesh leaving 20 people dead and forcing half a million to flee their homes.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Former ruler of Panama was held in medically induced coma after brain surgery in March.}

Manuel Noriega, Panama’s former ruler, has died aged 83, Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela announced on Twitter.

Noriega was the country’s military ruler from 1983 to 1989, when he was removed from power by the United States during the invasion of Panama.

“The death of Manuel Antonio Noriega closes a chapter in our history; his daughters and their families deserve a burial in peace,” Varela said.

During his rule, Noriega initially positioned Panama as a US asset in a region that was becoming increasingly hostile to Washington’s interests.

He was commissioned into the Panama National Guard in 1967, and in 1968 promoted to lieutenant.

Noriega rose swiftly in the armed forces, becoming a key ally of General Omar Torrijos during a military coup in 1968. As the de-facto leader from 1968 to 1981, Torrijos relied heavily on Noriega’s network of loyal soldiers.

CIA informant

Noriega was soon promoted to head of the Panama’s secret police, a role which brought him into close contact with the CIA.

The US intelligence agency had a vested interest in protecting the strategic trade route of the Panama Canal, which was under US administration until 1977.

Noriega soon became a regular informant for the Americans and was rewarded with an estimated $320,000, although he claimed at his trial in 1990 he was a prize asset that cost the CIA millions.

Throughout the 1970s, he shook off accusations that he was orchestrating the disappearances of Panamanian opposition figures.

After Torrijos’s mysterious death in a plane crash in 1981, the new military ruler, Ruben Dario Paredes del Rio, consolidated Noreiga’s power-base by promoting him as the head of the security services.

Within a short time, power had effectively concentrated in Noriega’s hands. In 1983, he succeeded Paredes as the de-facto military ruler.

During the Reagan presidency in the 1980s, the US began relying heavily on Noreiga as an ally against Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

1989 surrender

In 1987, a former chief-of-staff who had worked under Noriega, accused his former boss of corruption and electoral fraud, as well as being behind the plane crash in which Torrijos died.

The accusations triggered huge demonstrations in Panama.

Noriega defiantly stayed in power, with critics maintaining that the country had become a hub for Latin America’s drug trade, particularly in helping Colombia’s powerful Medellin cartel in laundering drug money.

In December 1989, US President George Bush ordered a US marine invasion to topple Noriega, who had become a liability and an embarrassment to US interests.

Noriega sought refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Panama City.

One US tactic to flush him out was to play deafening music non-stop outside the building. Noriega finally surrendered on January 3, 1990.

Prison terms

Noriega was flown to the US, with prisoner-of-war status, to face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering.

In 2007, Noriega completed his 17 years of confinement in a Miami federal jail, but he was not a free man.

After completing his 17-year sentence, Noriega was extradited to France and received a seven-year sentence for money laundering.

But Panama wanted Noriega to return to face in-absentia convictions and two prison terms of 20 years for embezzlement, corruption and murder of opponents, including military commander Moises Giroldi, who led a failed rebellion on October 3, 1989, and Hugo Spadafora, whose decapitated body was found in a mailbag on the border with Costa Rica in 1985.

In mid-2011, France approved his extradition to Panama.

Despite amassing great wealth, Noriega had worked hard to cultivate an image of a man of the people. He lived in a modest, two-story home in an upper-middle-class neighbourhood in Panama City that stood in stark contrast with the opulent mansions customary among Latin American dictators.

“He would only say ‘hello’ very respectfully,” said German Sanchez, who lived next door for 16 years. “You may think what you like of Noriega, but we can’t say he was anything but respectful toward his neighbours.”

“The humble, the poor, the blacks, they are the utmost authority,” Noriega said in one speech.

{{Asking for forgiveness
}}

While some resentment lingers over the US invasion, Noriega has so few supporters in modern-day Panama that attempts to auction off his old home attracted no bidders and the government decided to demolish decaying building down.

Late in life, the ex-leader essentially had zero influence over his country from behind bars.

“He is not a figure with political possibilities,” University of Panama sociologist Raul Leis said in 2008. “Even though there’s a small sector that yearns for the Noriega era, it is not a representative figure in the country.”

Noriega broke a long silence in June 2015 when he made a statement from prison on Panamanian television in which he asked forgiveness of those harmed by his rule.

“I feel like as Christians we all have to forgive,” he said, reading from a handwritten statement. “The Panamanian people have already overcome this period of dictatorship.”

But for the most part Noriega stayed mum about elite military and civilian associates who thrived on the corruption that he helped instill and which still plagues the Central American nation of some 3.9 million people, a favoured transshipment point for drugs and a haven for money laundering.

“He kept his mouth shut and died for the sins of others,” Koster, the biographer, said in a 2014 interview. “Nobody else ever went to prison.”

Meanwhile, families of more than 100 who were killed or disappeared during his rule are still seeking justice.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Kim Jong-un supervised new ballistic missile test and promises to develop more powerful weapons for defence.}

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has promised bigger “gift packages” following Pyongyang’s latest missile test, a statement that ratchets up already high tensions.

Kim supervised a new ballistic missile test on Monday, controlled by a precision guidance system, and ordered the development of more powerful strategic weapons to defend the country against the US, state media reported.

Kim said the reclusive state would develop more powerful weapons in multiple phases.

“He expressed the conviction that it would make a greater leap forward in this spirit to send a bigger ‘gift package’ to the Yankees” in retaliation for American military provocation, KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

The missile launched was equipped with an advanced automated pre-launch sequence compared with previous versions of the “Hwasong” rockets, North Korea’s name for its Scud-class missiles, KCNA news agency said on Tuesday.

That indicated the North had launched a modified Scud-class missile, as South Korea’s military has said.

The North’s test launch of a short-range ballistic missile landed in the sea off its east coast and was the latest in a fast-paced series of missile tests defying international pressure and threats of more sanctions.

South Korea said it had conducted a joint drill with a US supersonic B-1B Lancer bomber on Monday. North Korea’s state media earlier accused the US of staging a drill to practice dropping nuclear bombs on the Korean Peninsula.

{{Drills planned}}

The US Navy said its aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, also planned a drill with another US nuclear carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, in waters near the Korean Peninsula.

A US Navy spokesman in South Korea did not give specific timing for the attack group’s planned drill.

Florence Looi, reporting from Seoul, said North Korea accused the US and South Korea of military provocation and said this would bring the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war.

“South Korean media are also reporting that the [drill] took place just hours after North Korea conducted its missile launch, and reports have said that South Korean fighter jets have also been involved in the exercise. North Korea is not too happy about this,” said Looi.

Monday’s launch followed two successful tests of medium-to-long-range missiles in as many weeks by the North, which has been conducting such tests at an unprecedented pace in an effort to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting the mainland US.

{{Trump: North’s ‘great disrespect’ for China}}

Such launches, and two nuclear tests since January 2016, have been conducted in defiance of US pressure, UN resolutions and the threat of more sanctions.

They also pose one of the greatest security challenges for US President Donald Trump, who portrayed the latest missile test as an affront to China.

“North Korea has shown great disrespect for their neighbour, China, by shooting off yet another ballistic missile … but China is trying hard!” Trump said on Twitter.

North Korea has claimed major advances with its rapid series of launches, claims that outside experts and officials believe may be at least partially true but are difficult to verify independently.

A South Korean military official said the North fired one missile on Monday, clarifying an earlier assessment that there may have been more than one launch.

The test was aimed at verifying a new type of precision guidance system and the reliability of a new mobile launch vehicle under different operational conditions, KCNA said.

However, South Korea’s military and experts questioned the claim because the North had technical constraints, such as a lack of satellites, to operate a terminal-stage missile guidance system properly.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Malaysians, Indonesian, and possibly Arabs killed after fierce fight for the southern city of Marawi.}

The Philippine military chief says three Malaysians, an Indonesian, and possibly Arab fighters have been killed in a southern city that armed groups planned to burn entirely in an audacious plot to project the lethal influence of ISIL.

General Eduardo Ano told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday the military has made advances in containing the week-long siege of Marawi city. He said a top Filipino fighters is believed to have been killed and the leader of the attack was wounded.

Ano said the group plotted to set Marawi ablaze and kill as many Christians in nearby Iligan city on Ramadan to mimic the violence seen by the world in Syria and Iraq.

The army insists the drawn-out fight is not a true sign of the group’s strength, and the military has held back to spare civilians’ lives.

“They are weak,” Ano said of the gunmen, speaking at a hospital where wounded soldiers were being treated. “It’s just a matter of time for us to clear them from all their hiding places.”

As of Tuesday morning, he said the military working house-by-house had cleared 70 percent of the city and the remaining fighters were isolated.

Still, the fighters have turned out to be remarkably well-armed and resilient.

Attack helicopters were streaking low over Marawi on Monday, firing rockets at hideouts, as heavily armed soldiers went house to house.

The gunmen have held the Philippine army at bay, burning buildings, taking at least a dozen hostages and sending tens of thousands of residents fleeing.

Ano said Tuesday that the commander, Isnilon Hapilon, is still hiding somewhere in the city. Authorities were working to confirm that another leader had been killed.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the south through mid-July after the fighters went on a deadly rampage in Marawi last week following an unsuccessful military raid to capture Hapilon.

In recent years, small armed groups in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have begun unifying under the banner of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Jose Calida, the top Philippine prosecutor, said last week that the violence on the large southern island of Mindanao “is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens”.

Rohan Gunaratna, a security expert at Singapore’s S Rarajatnam School of International Studies, said ISIL and the smaller regional groups are working together to show their strength and declare a Philippine province part of the caliphate that ISIL says it created in the Middle East.

He said the fighting in Marawi, along with smaller battles elsewhere in the southern Philippines, may be precursors to declaring a province, which would be “a huge success for the terrorists”.

Last week, two suicide bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia, killed three police officers, an attack claimed by ISIL. While Indonesia has been battling local fighters since 2002, the rise of ISIL has breathed new life into those networks and raised concern about the risk of Indonesian fighters returning home from the Middle East.

Analysts have warned that as ISIL is weakened in Syria and Iraq, battered by years of American-led attacks, Mindanao could become a focal point for regional fighters.

Southeast Asian fighters fleeing the Middle East “could look to Mindanao to provide temporary refuge as they work their way home”, said a report late last year by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, predicting a high risk of regional violence.

Marawi is regarded as the heartland of the Islamic faith on Mindanao island.

Muslim rebels have been waging a separatist rebellion in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation for decades. The largest armed group dropped its secessionist demands in 1996, when it signed an autonomy deal with the Philippine government. Amid continuing poverty and other social ills, restiveness among minority Muslims has continued.

Hapilon is an Islamic preacher and former commander of the Abu Sayyaf group who pledged allegiance to ISIL in 2014. He now heads an alliance of at least 10 smaller groups, including the Maute.

Acmad Aliponto, a 56-year-old court sheriff who decided not to flee the city, said while the fighters were well-armed, he believes they have little local support, and that the recent violence could turn more people against them.

“In the end their relatives and everyday people may be the ones who will kill them,” he said. “Look at what they did. So many were affected.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Deadly air strikes continue to target Raqqa city, monitoring group says, as thousands continue to flee the fighting.}

At least 13 people have been killed in suspected US-led coalition air strikes on the ISIL-held city of Raqqa and suspected rocket attacks fired by a Kurdish group fighting ISIL, a monitoring group has said.

Some of the deaths in the northern city on Sunday evening resulted from air strikes blamed on the US-led coalition, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

The death toll also included civilians killed in rocket attacks by the Ghadab al-Furat group (dubbed Wrath of the Euphrates) on Sunday, the Observatory said.

Ghadab al-Furat is a Kurdish group fighting under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They launched a campaign in October 2016 to retake Raqqa, the de facto capital of the ISIL in northern Syria.

The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG armed group, said last week it plans to launch the final assault on Raqqa city in early summer.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a press release on Sunday that it conducted 17 air strikes targeting ISIL in Syria, destroying two ISIL bases in Deir Az Zor and three ISIL headquarters near Raqqa.

It did not mention civilian casualties in its report.

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, an activist group in Raqqa, said on Sunday that a school was targeted by the US-led coalition in Mansoura west of Raqqa city.

The school was destroyed in the attack, the group said.

The activists said on Thursday that Raqqa city was targeted with at least 30 coalition air strikes, and 80 rocket attacks by the SDF killing at least 35 civilians in the past 24 hours.

The SDF has been encircling Raqqa since November.

Earlier this month, its fighters captured Tabqa, a previously ISIL-held town some 50km west of Raqqa, and a strategic dam nearby.

The UN said in a report that on May 14, at least 23 farm workers, including 17 women, were reportedly killed when air strikes hit al-Akershi village in a rural area of eastern Raqqa province.

Other air strikes on two residential areas of the ISIL-controlled city of Abo Kamal in eastern Deir Az Zor province the following day (May 15), reportedly killed at least 59 civilians (including 16 children and 12 women) and injured another 70.

The day after that, ISIL fighters are said to have cut the throats of eight men at the sites of the air strikes,after accusing them of providing coordinates for the strikes.

Earlier in May, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition’s campaign in Syria.

Between April 23 and May 23 2017, coalition air strikes killed at least 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

The US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had “unintentionally” killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

At least 23,544 civilians have been displaced between May 18-22, the UN said in a press release last week.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al- Hussein last week urged all states’ air forces operating in the country to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians.

“The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by ISIL, are also falling victim to the escalating air strikes, particularly in the northeastern governorates of Raqqa and Deir Az Zor,” Zeid said.

Source:Al Jazeera