Tag: InternationalNews

{Daily Telegraph depicted Mohamed as the proverbial three wise monkeys, claiming he didn’t condemn 2015 Paris attacks.}

Australia’s grand mufti has won a defamation case against The Daily Telegraph newspaper over claims that the scholar failed to condemn the 2015 Paris attacks that left more than 100 people dead.

The Sydney-based tabloid, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp, published the articles about Dr. Ibrahim Abu Mohamed in November last year, depicting him in a front-page spread as the proverbial three wise monkeys, calling the scholar the “unwise” mufti.

The publication lead to widespread condemnation and outrage in Australia’s Muslim community.

“The Grand Mufti is pleased to announce that the matter has now been resolved, and the Supreme Court of New South Wales has recorded a verdict in his favour,” The Australian National Imams Council said in a statement on Friday.

“It is hoped that the outcome of the proceedings is the first step towards improved harmony between Australian Muslims and the media in the future,” the statement added.

‘Lesson for the media’

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Sydney, Moustafa Kheir, the mufti’s lawyer, said the details of the settlement will not be made public.

“We are pleased the matter has settled and that a verdict has been entered in favour of the mufti,” Kheir said.

The Egypt-born cleric, Australia’s highest ranking Sunni Muslim, condemned the Paris attacks and sent his condolences to the families and friends of those killed before the tabloid published its controversial articles.

Mohamed argued in court that the articles suggested he had failed to condemn the deadly attacks.

In one of its front page articles, the paper used three photographs of the Muslim leader, based on the famous “see no evil, hear no, speak no evil” proverb. But the paper replaced the words with “sees no problem, hears no concerns, speaks no English.” The article was headlined: “The unwise Mufti.”

In a second publication, the tabloid run an article headlined: “Even Hamas condemn the Paris attacks so why won’t Australia’s Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed?”

Source:Al Jazeera

{North Korea on Friday accused the CIA and Seoul’s intelligence services of conspiring to assassinate the isolated country’s leader Kim Jong-Un with a biochemical weapon, amid heightened tensions in the region.}

In a statement the powerful ministry of state security, said it had foiled a “vicious plot” by a “hideous terrorists’ group” to attack the North’s “supreme leadership”.
The accusations come with the US and North trading threats over the latter’s nuclear and missile programmes, and as Washington considers whether to re-designate Pyongyang as a state sponsor of terrorism.

That follows the killing of Kim’s estranged half-brother Kim Jong-Nam by two women using the banned nerve agent VX at Kuala Lumpur international airport.

Both Malaysia and South Korea have blamed the North for the assassination, which retorts that the accusations are an attempt to smear it.

The security ministry statement, carried on the North’s official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), said the CIA and the South’s intelligence had suborned, bribed and blackmailed a North Korean citizen named only as Kim to carry out the attack.
Possible locations included the mausoleum where Kim Jong-Un’s father and grandfather — the North’s founder — lie in state, or a military parade.

Such an operation would be extremely difficult to prepare and carry out successfully. The North’s leader is surrounded by tight security at all times, and Pyongyang maintains a gigantic surveillance system over its own population that is ingrained at every level of society, where open dissent is unknown.

The CIA told its agent Kim it had access to radioactive and “nano poisonous” substances whose lethal results would appear only after six to 12 months, the statement said.

Kim — described as “human scum” — received payments totalling at least $740,000 and was given satellite transceivers and other materials and equipment, it said.

He had multiple contacts with South Korean intelligence personnel, and an accomplice who had a Chinese-sounding name, Xu Guanghai of the Qingdao Nazca Trade Co.

Checks on China’s National Enterprise Credit Information system show that a company of that name was formed on March 7 this year, with a Xu Guanghai named as its legal representative, and business areas including “chemical products”.

No details were given in the ministry statement of how the supposed plot was uncovered, or of Kim’s fate. But in a potential sign of an internal purge, it said that the ministry will “ferret out and mercilessly destroy the terrorists”.

{{‘Empire of evil’}}

The lurid accusations come with Pyongyang and Washington at loggerheads over the North’s banned weapons programmes, which have seen it subjected to multiple sets of United Nations Security Council sanctions.

Pyongyang, which says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against invasion, has carried out a series of missile launches and threatened a sixth atomic test, while the administration of new US President Donald Trump has said that military action was an “option on the table” — raising fears of a spiralling conflict.

The alleged plot was a “hideous crime” the security ministry said, and tantamount to “the declaration of a war”.

The statement came hours after the US House of Representatives in Washington voted to broaden US sanctions against the North.

The measure, which now heads for the Senate, also gave the Trump administration 90 days to determine whether Pyongyang should be re-designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, after it was removed from the list in 2008.

The North Korean statement described the US as a state sponsor of terrorism itself, and an “empire of evil”.

Analysts said the accusations could be a pre-emptive attempt to try to dissuade Washington from any attempt at a surgical strike on its leadership, as suggested by some commentators.

The North believes the US and South are seeking to assassinate Kim, said Professor Koh Yu-Hwan of Dongguk University.

It was “unimaginable that individuals can get close enough to Kim to harm him in light of supertight security there”, he said.

But the allegation was also “aimed at keeping its people on their toes and strengthening its grip on them”, and intended “to distance itself from the assassination of Jong-Nam who was killed by a chemical weapon”.

North Korean commandos infiltrated Seoul in January 1968 in a failed attempt to assassinate its then leader Park Chung-Hee. Bullet holes are still visible on a tree above the presidential Blue House.

Source:Daily Monitor

{Russia, Turkey and Iran to create de-escalation areas in Syria, as opposition vents anger over Iranian involvement.}

Russia, Iran and Turkey have signed a deal calling for the setup of so-called de-escalation zones in war-torn Syria during talks in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.

The signing ceremony on Thursday was briefly interrrupted as some members of the Syrian armed opposition’s delegation stormed out in protest against Iran’s participation in the deal.

“We saw several members of the opposition delegation stand up furiously condemning what was going on,” Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Astana, said.

“They shouted that Iran should not be a signatory to this. In fact, they went as far to saying that Iran is a criminal entity that shouldn’t be here and they stormed out.”

Elshayyal said that neither the Syrian government, nor the opposition – which on Wednesday suspended its participation in the talks protesting against ongoing air raids – had signed the agreement.

“It is very clear that this is regional powers who have decided that they are going to bulldoze their way forward, and decide what’s best for Syria,” he said.

Elshayyal said the deal, which is likely to come into effect in around a month, would allow for “unhindered humanitarian access” to the de-escalation areas.

Yet, there was no detail on whether the zones involved restricted use of heavy weaponry or complete de-militirisation; or whether there will be a peacekeeping force and how the deal will be policed.

Elshayyal said the locations of the “de-escalation zones” are likely to be: Idlib, and the Turkmen mountains, parts of Homs governorate, and areas on the outskirts of Damascus – including Ghouta – and in Deraa in the south.

“Over the past two days, the participants in the Astana talks reviewed the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the cessation of hostilities,” Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Kazakhstan’s foreign minister, said of a frail truce brokered by Moscow and Ankara in December.

“As a result the guarantor countries agreed to sign a memorandum on the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria.”

The head of the Russian delegation in Astana said that Syrian government fighter jets are not expected to fly over the “de-escalation” zones for six months.

Syria’s civil war, currently in its seventh year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and has drawn in world powers on all sides.

The latest round of talks in Astana is sponsored by opposition supporter Turkey and Syrian government backers Russia and Iran.

These negotiations are viewed as complementary to broader United Nations-brokered talks in Geneva on a political settlement, but neither have yielded real progress so far.

Abdrakhmanov said that next round of talks in Astana would be held in mid-July.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Opposition returns to talks in Astana, Kazakhstan after walking out on Wednesday over air strikes in Syria.}

The presidents of Russia and Turkey are pushing for the creation of safe-zones in war-torn Syria as talks were expected to resume on Thursday in Kazakhstan between the government and the opposition.

Meeting in the Russian resort town of Sochi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin expressed hope on Wednesday that the Syrian government and the opposition would adopt this latest proposal to “de-escalate” the conflict, which has run now for six years and claimed some 400,000 lives.

“We both proceed on the basis that – and this is our common position – the creation of safe zones should lead to further pacification and cessation of hostilities,” said Putin.

Turkey and Russia are deeply entangled in the war in Syria, including each having troops on the ground – Ankara supporting various Syrian opposition factions and Moscow backing President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The opposition suspended its participation at the talks in Astana, the Kazakh capital, on Wednesday in protest of air attacks that hit areas under their control in Syria, demanding a halt to the government’s bombardment.

The Syrian armed opposition returned to the talks on Thursday, the RIA news agency reported.

Russian representatives had presented the rebels with a proposal for four “de-escalation zones” in Syria where the warring sides would be separated by “security lines”.

“About terrorists, in spite of the creation of these zones, the war on terror will be ongoing – against such organisations as so-called Islamic State [ISIL], Jabhat al-Nusra, and those ones that are put on the list of terrorist organisations approved by the United Nations,” Putin said.

Putin also said Russian and Syrian government jets would halt flights over the specified zones if all sides respect the ceasefire.

The proposal presented to the opposition in Astana delineates four zones in Syria where front lines between the government and opposition forces would be frozen and fighting halted, according to a statement made by the opposition.

The four zones include areas in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, the Eastern Ghouta suburb outside Damascus, and an area in the south of the country.

The zones, according to the proposal, would be monitored by international observers and allow for the voluntary return of refugees.

“We won’t admit the emergence on our southern borders of enemy enclaves that would endanger our territorial integrity and security,” Erdogan said.

Late Wednesday, Syria’s foreign ministry said Damascus is “fully backing” the Russian initiative on the four ceasefire areas, according to the state-run SANA news agency.

But Ahmed Ramadan, an opposition representative, told The Associated Press that the opposition had requested a written answer on a number of questions, including why the ceasefire would only be in effect in the four areas instead of a nationwide truce.

This is the fourth round of talks in Astana since January. Separately, there have been five rounds of UN-sponsored Syria peace talks in Geneva since 2012, but none have led to a sustainable ceasefire.

Later on Wednesday, Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, called on the opposition to return to the talks in Astana “because what is important is also to look at the possibility of an outcome on a de-escalation”. He stressed the importance of not destroying “the opportunity of good news” related to this issue.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Basketball governing body FIBA ratifies proposal overturning ban on head coverings including hijab.}

Headgear, including the hijab and yarmulkes, will be allowed in professional basketball following the approval of a proposal by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) that overturns a ban on such head coverings.

The organisation’s central board approved the proposal on Wednesday and the new rule was formally ratified during FIBA’s midterm congress on Thursday.

“It came up in our board meeting and everyone supported making the change,” USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley told AP news agency prior to Thursday’s FIBA meeting.

The body started the process of revising the rule in September 2014 and in February of this year, it tasked its playing rules committee to create a proposal that outlines how headgear could safely be worn in competition.

“The new rule comes as a result of the fact that traditional dress codes in some countries – which called for the head and/or entire body being covered – were incompatible with FIBA’s previous headgear rule,” FIBA said in a statement.

It was feared that head coverings could fall off during the game and potentially pose a risk to players.

Under the new rule, headgear must meet certain criteria to be allowed in competition, including that it “does not cover any part of the face entirely or partially”, it is “not dangerous to the player wearing it or other players” and it does not have “parts extruding from its surface”.

The rule change comes after a successful social media campaign aimed at overturning the ban that began more than two years ago.

A number of change.org petitions calling for a change to the rule have garnered more than 137,000 signatures.

Kike Salihu Rafiu, who played basketball in college but was forced to give up the sport on a professional level because she wears the hijab, told Al Jazeera she believed social media helped prompt the reversal of the ban.

“Because we couldn’t physically meet in person because we’re all diverse … I think using that platform did open the eyes of FIBA in realising that there’s a huge community that wants to participate in the sport and this rule is actually stopping us from participating professionally and representing our country,” Rafiu said.

The hijab is a headscarf worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion.

The new rule is set to come into effect in October.

It follows the lead of other sports that have, in recent years, allowed religious head coverings and other wear in sport, including football and weightlifting.

Last week, US boxing officials announced religious wear would be exempt from their rules on headgear.

Rafiu said she is excited about FIBA’s rule change.

“I’m really excited. Not just for us, but also for the younger generation,” she said.

“Now they don’t have to worry about any type of ban, all they have to worry about is just playing basketball.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Demonstrators force Senate committee to change vote on amendment to pardon officials convicted of corruption.}

A Romanian Senate committee has caved under public pressure and cancelled proposed legislation aimed at pardoning officials convicted of corruption.

The amendment was designed to allow convicted government officials to walk free or have their jail sentences significantly reduced.

About 2,000 people demonstrated in Bucharest, the capital, and other cities on Wednesday after the Senate committee passed the amendment to a draft bill that would have cleared the convicted officials.

They chanted “Romania demands no pardon” and “If you don’t back down, we’re coming for you.”

The latest demonstrations came two months after the eastern European country witnessed its biggest protest movement since the 1989 anti-communist revolution, after the newly installed Social Democratic government secretly passed an emergency decree to decriminalise some corruption offences involving officials.

It was later withdrawn after the mass demonstrations.

Cristian Ghinea, an opposition Member of Parliament from Union to Save Romania, told Al Jazeera that his party supports the protesters.

“We are witnessing an attempt to force the contents of the old emergency decree through parliament and I hope that the people will keep up the pressure,” he said.

The Romanian government drafted a law to pardon some criminal convictions involving officials citing the need to relieve overcrowded prisons in the country.

That draft bill currently does not include any mention about pardoning corruption convictions – a promise made by Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu in the wake of protests that saw some 600,000 people march upon the seat of his government.

The controversial amendment in the Senate legislative affairs committee also included corruption convictions.

Officials jailed for bribery, official misconduct, conflict of interest, or trafficking influence would have had their sentences pardoned entirely, or reduced in half.

One of the amendment initiators is former Romanian president Traian Basescu. He was elected twice into office, running each time on an anti-corruption platform.

Basescu said “Romania needs a clean slate,” according to a statement made in the Senate committee and quoted by local media.

But critics condemned the move.

“This amendment goes way beyond what drove people into the streets this winter,” Laura Stefan, an anti-corruption campaigner with the Romanian NGO Expert Forum, told Al Jazeera.

“This plan goes against all international obligations of Romania and against the will of the people that was so clearly expressed during previous demonstrations.”

Political reaction

PM Sorin Grindeanu posted a statement on his Facebook page saying “the government supports the draft bill in its initial form. The amendments voted today [Wednesday] do not have the government’s support”.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who joined the demonstrations in February, told Romanian media he was “unpleasantly surprised” by the Senate committee’s move.

The leader of the ruling Social Democrats, Liviu Dragnea, also spoke out against the amendment.

“I will have a talk with the Social Democratic members of the committee so that the final report does not contain the amendment,” Dragnea wrote on Facebook.

Dragnea, the speaker of the House of Representatives, was convicted of voter fraud but did not serve time in jail. He is currently on trial over accusations of official misconduct, and was seen as the main beneficiary of the emergency decree earlier passed.

Radu Magdin, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera the situation put the Social Democrat leader in a difficult position.

“If Dragnea didn’t know about the planned amendment vote then he is no longer controlling his own party. If it turns out he knew, he will lose even more credibility in front of external partners,” Magdin said.

Source:Al Jazeera

Source:Al Jazeera

{Civilians, SDF members killed in ISIL attack on Kurdish-held crossing used by civilians fleeing violence, monitor says.}

At least 37 people, including dozens of civilians, have been killed in an attack by ISIL fighters targeting a crossing along Syria’s northeastern border with Iraq, according to a monitoring group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five suicide bombers detonated explosives before dawn on Tuesday in Rajm al-Salibi, a village in Hasaka province that is home to a temporary camp sheltering hundreds of displaced people.

The explosions were followed by gun battles between other ISIL attackers and US-backed Kurdish fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at a nearby checkpoint, leaving dozens of people wounded.

“The area where the attacks took place is where many refugees escaping violence in Iraq were gathering,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of Observatory, told the DPA news agency, adding that the attackers might have come from Iraq.

The Observatory monitors Syria’s conflict via a network of contacts on the ground.

{{‘They thought I was dead’}}

The International Rescue Committee said thousands of people from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been battling ISIL fighters, have travelled west to the Rajm al-Salibi crossing since October, often via people smugglers.

In a statement, it said several children were among the dead and wounded.

“It was three in the morning when Daesh came and started to shoot at people,” Abdulah Khalef Hamid, an Iraqi refugee from Mosul, told the Associated Press news agency, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

“I was wounded and they thought I was dead so they left me. We were around 200 families, they left at sunrise,” he said, adding that his mother-in-law was killed in the attack

Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the SDF, confirmed to the Reuters news agency that several civilian casualties included people who fled ISIL from Syria’s Deir Az Zor and Iraq.

Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the main Kurdish fighting force in Syria, told AP the attack came a few hours after ISIL suicide bombers dressed in civilian clothes sneaked into al-Shadadi town and attacked SDF forces, triggering clashes.

ISIL, which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and is also known as ISIS, said that a group of 16 fighters had launched an attack on Kurdish checkpoints, killing and wounding dozens.

It said some ISIL fighters carried out four attacks inside al-Shadadi which mainly targeted military posts, while others carried out attacks inside Hariri village and a sixth squad hit the barracks at Rajm al-Salibi.

The attacks came as Kurdish fighters backed by the US-led, anti-ISIL coalition continued their mission in the town of Tabqa, which sits on a strategic supply route about 55km west of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL in Syria.

“After taking the old city, we now control around 90 percent of Tabqa … we advanced against the ISIL and pushed further to the other parts of the city,” Jihan Sheikh, of the Ghadab al-Furat, a Kurdish group fighting under the SDF, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, has seized large swathes of northern Syria from ISIL in a campaign to drive the group out of Raqqa.

Source:Al Jazeera

{White former police officer pleads guilty to federal civil rights charges for killing an unarmed black man in 2015.}

A white former police officer whose killing of an unarmed black man running from a traffic stop was captured on video has pled guilty to federal civil rights charges that could send him to prison for 20 years.

The plea from Michael Slager, 35, came five months after a jury deadlocked on state murder charges against him in the 2015 shooting of Walter Scott.

South Carolina prosecutors had planned to retry Slager, but as part of Tuesday’s plea bargain, they agreed to drop the murder case.

Slager admitted violating Scott’s civil rights by shooting him without justification.

He could get up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing, though prosecutors agreed to ask for more than 20 years behind bars. No sentencing date was set.

Slager pulled Scott over for a broken brake light in North Charleston on April 4, 2015.

The 50-year-old Scott got out of his car and tried to flee. Slager chased him and shot him with a Taser, knocking him down.

When Scott got up and ran again, Slager shot him five times in the back, killing him.

READ MORE: When do US police use body cams?

Slager had claimed that Scott tried to attack him with the Taser. A mobile phone video of the incident made by a bystander showed that Slager was in no danger and had no apparent reason for shooting Scott as he ran.

Scott’s family said he may have bolted because he was worried about going to jail because he was $18,000 behind on child support.

Slager, who has been out on bail for much of the time since the shooting, was led away in handcuffs as the family looked on.

“God never fails,” Scott’s mother, Judy Scott, said outside court.

‘Unnecessary and excessive force’

The chilling video helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged around the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

It was seized on by many as vivid proof of what they had been arguing for years: that white officers too often use deadly force unnecessarily against black people.

According to the Mapping Police Violence database, police killed at least 308 black people in the US in 2016, and black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people.

The plea agreement made no mention of race but said Slager used deadly force knowing that it was “unnecessary and excessive, and therefore unreasonable under the circumstances”.

The state prosecutor who pursued the murder charges, Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, said in a statement that she was satisfied with the case’s resolution.

She said it “vindicates the state’s interests” by holding Slager accountable.

The officer, who was fired after the video became public, testified at the murder trial that he feared for his life because Scott was trying to grab his stun gun.

The video showed Slager picking the Taser up off the ground and dropping it near Scott’s body in what prosecutors suggested was an attempt to plant evidence.

Slager denied that, testifying he was following his training in accounting for his weapons.

Slager also testified last year that he regretted what happened, saying, “My family has been destroyed by it. The Scott family has been destroyed by it. It’s horrible.”

Outside court on Tuesday, Chris Stewart, an attorney who won $6.5m for the Scott family in a settlement with the city of North Charleston, said: “We know what justice truly looks like. It doesn’t look like a big settlement check. It looks like today.”

As for what punishment Slager should receive, Scott’s brother, Anthony, said, “Murder deserves life in prison.”

Slager attorney Andy Savage had little to say outside court. “This is a day for the Scott family and the government,” he said.

{{Alton Sterling case}}

Separately on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that the US justice department has decided not to charge two white Baton Rouge police officers in the death of a black man whose fatal shooting was captured on mobile phone video, sparking protests in Louisiana’s capital and beyond.

Federal authorities opened a civil rights investigation immediately after the July 5, 2016, police shooting that killed Alton Sterling, 37, outside a convenience store where he was selling homemade CDs.

A person familiar with the decision disclosed it to the AP on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

The department’s decision does not preclude state authorities from conducting their own investigation and pursuing their own criminal charges.

Two videos of Sterling’s deadly struggle with two white officers, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, quickly spread on social media after the shooting.

A police report says Sterling was initially jolted with a stun gun after he did not comply with the officers’ commands to put his hands on the hood of a car.

The report also says the officers saw the butt of a gun in one of Sterling’s pants pockets and saw him try to reach for it before he was shot.

Source:Al Jazeera

{At least eight people killed in attack near US embassy in centre of Afghanistan’s capital, officials say.}

Kabul, Afghanistan – At least eight people were killed in a large explosion in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, officials said, with reports saying the target was a NATO convoy.

The attacker blew up his explosives-laden vehicle next to the convoy near a National Defence Security (NDS) checkpoint on Shash Darak road in the central Macroyan area early on Wednesday, military officials said.

At least eight Afghan civilians were killed and 23 others wounded, including three US service members, officials said.

“The injured were transferred to two hospitals in the area; the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital and the Emergency Hospital,” Wahid Majrouh, a health ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera.

“Some of the wounded are in a critical condition,” Majrouh added.

“There are dead bodies lying on the road here, several are believed to be from the NDS,” Abdul Haq, a witness, told Al Jazeera.

“Police are clearing the area and the city is high alert,” he added.

The blast occurred in an area not far from the US embassy and a compound used by the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

{{‘Spring offensive’}}

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack as of yet .

The blast came several days after the Taliban announced their so-called “spring offensive”, in which they vowed to target foreign troops.

Kabul last month endorsed US general John Nicholson’s call for thousands of additional coalition troops in Afghanistan to fend off the group during the spring offensive.

Extra troops were needed to end the stalemate in the war, Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, told the US Congress.

Separately, the Pentagon this year said it would deploy some 300 US Marines this spring to Helmand province alone.

The Marines will assist a NATO-led mission to train Afghan forces, in the latest sign that foreign forces are increasingly being drawn back into the worsening conflict.

A recent UN report showed that Kabul province had the highest number of civilian casualties in the first quarter of the year due to attacks in the capital.

The body had called on all groups to “take every measure possible to prevent unnecessary and unacceptable harm to Afghan civilians”.

Source:Al Jazeera

{US-backed forces say they have advanced in Tabqa as they eye the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa, a spokesperson says.}

Kurdish forces are reported to have taken 90 percent of Tabqa city in Syria’s Raqqa province from ISIL amid clashes that have left an estimated 19 people dead.

The claim was made by the official spokesperson for Ghadab al-Furat, a Kurdish group fighting under the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which launched a campaign in October 2016 to retake Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, in northern Syria.

“After taking the old city, we now control around 90 percent of Tabqa … we advanced against the ISIL and pushed further to the other parts of the city,” Jihan Sheikh, of the Ghadab al-Furat (dubbed Wrath of the Euphrates), told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

Talal Silo, an SDF spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the Euphrates dam – also known as Tabqa dam – and some neighbourhoods are still controlled by ISIL but ongoing clashes are taking place to fully recapture the city.

“The first, second and third neighbourhoods that make up al-Thawra city, in addition to the Euphrates dam are still under ISIL control, but the battle continues to liberate them,” Silo said.

Tabqa city is made up of two parts, the old city and al-Thawra city, which is also known as the new city.

According to Pentagon estimates from last year, the SDF has more than 40,000 fighters.

“Clashes are still taking place, at least 19 ISIL fighters have been killed in the fighting. We managed to recover their weapons, cars and a tank,” Sheikh said.

Ahmad, a Tabqa-based activist, told Al Jazeera that at least 131 civilians have been killed in Raqqa in the past 44 days.

“Our city is destroyed. One of the main hospitals in Tabqa was destroyed in an air raid and many field hospitals too.

“What people should know is that south of Tabqa there are oil fields producing millions of pounds a day. Why else would the US back these Kurdish fighters to this extent?”

The Rojava Defence units, another Kurdish group taking part in the campaign, said at least 5,000 civilians fled the fighting and reached safe areas but are in the need of urgent humanitarian aid.

In Rajm Salibi, in the northern Syrian province of Hasakah, at least 24 civilians and SDF fighters have been killed in fighting between the SDF and ISIL, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The SDF is trying to retake Raqqa province after capturing the south of Tabqa last week.

ISIL captured Raqqa in January 2014, and took Tabqa’s airbase from the Syrian government in August the same year.

It lost the strategic Tabqa airbase , about 45km west of Raqqa, to the SDF last month.

The SDF was founded in Syria’s mainly Kurdish northeastern region in October 2015 and is made up of at least 15 armed factions, mostly fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units and the Free Syrian Army.

The United Nations recently said in a press release that at least 39,000 newly displaced people fled to the Jib Al-Shaair makeshift camp in Raqqa, where four out of five people are staying in the open air without appropriate shelter.

As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year, more than 400,000 people have been killed in the fighting and over 12 million Syrians – half the country’s prewar population – have been displaced from their homes.

Source:Al Jazeera