Tag: InternationalNews

{Democrats join Republicans in backing military action, but many demand the president spell out a broader strategy.}

Members of the US Congress from both parties have backed President Donald Trump’s cruise missile strikes on Syria, but demanded he develop a strategy for dealing with the broader conflict and consult with Congress on any further action.

In the biggest foreign policy decision of his presidency, Trump ordered the firing of cruise missiles at a Syrian air base that US officials said was the launching point for a deadly chemical weapons attack against Syrian civilians this week.

“The strike was well planned, well executed. It was certainly more than a pinprick, and sends a message … that using chemical weapons again is not something [Syrian president Bashar al-Assad] can do with impunity,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a news conference.

McConnell said Vice President Mike Pence had called him to explain the rationale for the strikes. It was one of a series of calls by administration officials to members of Congress beginning shortly before the strikes and extending until after midnight on Thursday evening.

The US said 58 of the 59 cruise missiles fired at the Shayrat airfield hit their targets, dealing heavy damage to the base.

“I am hopeful these strikes will convince the Assad regime that such actions should never be repeated,” Democratic Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said.

But many said the president must present a plan to Congress outlining his Syria strategy for the future, including how his plan of safe zones inside Syria will help victims of the conflict.

Republican Senator John Cornyn told reporters that the administration has not defined its main target in Syria – whether it is Assad’s government or the Islamic State in of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

“We … need a strategy to figure out what is our goals in Syria,” he said. “Is our goal just to defeat [ISIL] or is our goal to change the regime, and if there is policy to change the regime what comes next?”

Most lawmakers insisted Trump should seek Congress’ approval for any additional military action.

“Congress must live up to its constitutional responsibility to debate an Authorisation of the Use of Military Force against a sovereign nation,” Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter asking Speaker Paul Ryan to call the House of Representatives back to Washington to debate a formal authorisation to use military force.

The House is not due to return until late April.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, a member of the foreign relations committee, called the Syria strikes illegal.

Under the US constitution, declarations of war require congressional approval.

“We’ve had no chance to weigh or weigh in on whether we should do it or not,” Paul told reporters.

The 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Senator Tim Kaine, also said Trump’s failure to seek congressional approval in advance violates US law.

“There clearly wasn’t enough consultation and the constitution is very clear about this, you can’t go to war without a vote of Congress,” he said.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, another foreign relations committee member, said that if Congress does not assert itself now, it risked losing its constitutional right to declare war.

“I think it’s devastating to the future role of Congress in foreign affairs. If we don’t authorise this action, I don’t see why any president would ever come to Congress,” Murphy said.

Partisan debate over how to deal with Syria has been bitter. In 2013, then-president Barack Obama ran into stiff resistance from many Republicans, including McConnell, when he proposed military action to retaliate for a chemical attack that crossed Obama’s red line.

Many Democrats, some of whom had paid a political penalty for backing Republican President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, also opposed intervention.

Obama’s abrupt decision not to fire missiles and instead work with Russia to remove Assad’s chemical weapons infuriated many Republicans who had backed the Democratic president’s proposal.

The conflict in Syria has now dragged on for six years, devastating the country, destabilising the region and leaving millions homeless.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Swedish prosecutors say man arrested for ‘terrorist crimes’ after truck rammed into crowds in Stockholm, killing four.}

Swedish police said on Saturday that a man arrested on “suspicion of terrorist crime” was likely to be the driver of a truck that ploughed into a crowd of people in central Stockholm a day earlier, killing four.

“The person in question has been arrested as the culprit … in this case the driver,” Lars Bystrom, police spokesman, said.

Swedish media reported police had arrested a second man and that he had a connection to the previously arrested person, citing police sources. The police declined to comment on whether it had arrested any additional suspects.

The incident, which also left 15 people injured, occurred just before 13:00 GMT on Friday at the corner of the Ahlens department store and Drottninggatan, the Swedish capital’s biggest pedestrian street, above-ground from its central metro station.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said everything indicated it was “a terror attack”.

“We are thinking of the dead and the injured and their families. I am urging the public to be vigilant and keep updating the police,” Lofven said.

The capital was paralysed with a huge security presence after the attack. Police told people to stay away from the centre of the city, and movie theatres as well as many shops were closed.

The metro system was halted, train traffic from the nearby Central Station disrupted and thousands of people were seen walking across the city’s bridges with no alternative transportation available.

Photos from the scene showed a beer truck sticking out of the department store. Swedish beer maker said one of its vehicles had been carjacked earlier on Friday as its driver was unloading goods at a restaurant.

“We stood inside a shoe store and heard something … and then people started to scream,” witness Jan Granroth told the Aftonbladet daily.

“I looked out of the store and saw a big truck.”

Body-like forms covered by blankets were seen on Drottninggatan.

The vehicle caught fire after driving through the busy pedestrian zone and slamming into the building.

The European Union offered Sweden support and solidarity on Friday.

“An attack on any of our member states is an attack on us all,” said EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker. “One of Europe’s most vibrant and colourful cities appears to have been struck by those wishing it – and our very way of life – harm.”

A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “We stand together against terror.”

Friday’s incident was near the site of a December 2010 attack in which Taimour Abdulwahab, a Swedish citizen who lived in Britain, detonated a suicide bomb, killing himself and injuring two others.

Several attacks in which trucks or cars have driven into crowds have taken place in Europe in the past year.

In London last month, a man in a car ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four, and then stabbed a policeman to death before being shot dead by police.

In Nice, France, last July, a truck killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day, and one in Berlin in December smashed through a Christmas market, killing 12 people.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Regional and world leaders are quick to react to the news after US fires missiles at Syria air base.}

The United States had fired nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles at a military airfield in Syria, the first direct military action Washington has taken against Syrian government forces in the six-year-old conflict.

The US said the missiles on Friday severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at the airfield.

US President Donald Trump said he ordered the strikes against Shayrat air base in Homs province, saying it is believed that a suspected gas attack on a town in Idlib province had been launched from there. Trump said he acted in America’s “vital national security interest”.

World and regional leaders and countries were quick to react to the news.

Russia, which has been bombing rebel-held areas in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015, condemned the strikes, saying Washington’s action would “inflict major damage on US-Russia ties”, according to Russian news agencies.

In its first public response to the attack, the Kremlin labelled the US move as “aggression against a sovereign state in violation of international law”.

“Washington’s step will inflict major damage on US-Russia ties,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was quoted as saying.

In contrast, Saudi Arabia said it “fully supports” the strikes, adding that it was a “courageous decision” by President Donald Trump in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, in northwestern Syria

“A responsible source at the foreign ministry expressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s full support for the American military operations on military targets in Syria, which came as a response to the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians,” a statement carried by state news agency SPA said.

The statement said it holds the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responsible for the deaths of dozens of civilians in in Khan Sheikhoun.

Iran, also an Assad ally, said it strongly condemned the missile strikes against the Syrian army’s Shayrat air base.

“Iran strongly condemns any such unilateral strikes … such measures will strengthen terrorists in Syria … and it will complicate the situation in Syria and the region,” ISNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.

Turkey, which hosts three million Syrian refugees, said it views the US missile strikes positively and called for the establishment of a no-fly zone, as well as safe zones, in Syria.

“What happened in Idlib on Tuesday proved again that the bloody Assad regime show complete disregard for the prospect of a political transition and efforts to enforce the ceasefire,” read a statement by presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.

“The destruction of Sharyat airbase marks an important step to ensure that chemical and conventional attacks against the civilian population do not go unpunished.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he supports the “strong and clear message” sent by the US strikes.

The Israeli military said it had been informed in advance of the attack.

“In both word and action, President (Donald) Trump sent a strong and clear message today that the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.

“Israel fully supports President Trump’s decision and hopes that this message of resolve in the face of the Assad regime’s horrific actions will resonate not only in Damascus, but in Tehran, Pyongyang and elsewhere.”

European Council President Donald Tusk also voiced support for the missile strikes.

“US strikes show needed resolve against barbaric chemical attacks. EU will work with the US. to end brutality in Syria,” Tusk wrote on his Twitter account.

Britain said the US action was an appropriate response to the “barbaric chemical weapons attack” launched by the Syrian government, according to a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May.

Italy also gave its support, saying it was a suitable response to Syrian aggression.

The strike was “a commensurate response … and a signal of deterrence against the risks of further use of chemical weapons by Assad”, Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also weighed in, saying that he supported the strike, calling it a “proportionate and calibrated response”.

In a televised statement, he also called on Russia to play its part in bringing peace to Syria.

Meanwhile, Bolivia has requested the UN Security Council hold closed-door consultations on Friday about the missile strikes, a senior Security Council diplomat said.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Homs Governor Talal Barazi says US attack would not impact the Syrian government or its ability to fight ‘terrorists’.}

A United States military attack on a Syrian airfield in Homs province is a clear message that Washington is supporting “terrorists” trying to take over the country, a top Syrian official has said.

The US strike on the Shayrat air base on Friday followed international condemnation over a suspected chemical weapons attack earlier this week that killed dozens of people, including many children, in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province.

Homs Governor Talal Barazi said the US army’s direct military involvement in the country’s long-running conflict would not impact the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or its ability to fight “terrorists”.

“We knew from the beginning that this conspiracy against Syria has means and that ISIL, al-Nusra and others are means of American, Israel and other Arab regimes,” Barazi told local media.

“We are not surprised today to see the supporting parties interfering directly after the failure of terrorists in targeting Syria,” he added.

“We will not be surprised to see the Americans playing direct role on the ground to support its means everywhere.”

Conversely, a Syrian opposition group welcomed the strike, saying Washington’s direct military involvement could be an “opportunity to end” the war, now in its seventh year.

“We welcome these strikes,” Najib Ghadbian, special representative of the Syrian National Coalition to the United States and the United Nations, told Al Jazeera.

“They are first good steps but we would like them to be part of a bigger strategy that would put an end to the mass killing, an end to impunity and eventually we hope that they will lead to a kind of a political transition [in Syria].”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Trump said the strikes hit the airbase used by Syria to launch a deadly chemical weapons attack earlier this week.}

The US launched dozens of missiles against an airbase in Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack earlier this week that the US blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he ordered the missile attack to hit the airbase that Syrian government forces used to launch the deadly chemical weapons attack.

{{Here is his full statement: }}

My fellow Americans: On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians.

Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many.

Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.

Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched.

It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.

There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council.

Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed, and failed very dramatically. As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilise, threatening the United States and its allies.

Tonight, I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria, and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.

We ask for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world. We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed.

And we hope that as long as America stands for justice, then peace and harmony will, in the end, prevail.

Goodnight. And God bless America and the entire world. Thank you.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Some 100 children were among the 311 people killed in the giant mudslide that slammed into the southern Colombian town of Mocoa last week, the government said Thursday.}

The mudslide hit late Friday after heavy rains caused three rivers to flood, sending a sea of mud, boulders and debris crashing into the town.

The latest death toll was given by the country’s Disasters Risk Management office.

More than 300 people remain missing, according to President Juan Manuel Santos.

Mocoa, the capital of the department of Putumayo, was home to 70,000 people, about 45,000 of whom were affected by the disaster, according to the Red Cross.

In an effort to speed up reconstruction, the government formally declared a 30-day state of economic, social and ecological emergency in Mocoa, which will allow direct contracting of services without the need for formal, more time-consuming procedures.

The hardest-hit areas were impoverished neighbourhoods populated with residents uprooted during Colombia’s five-decade civil war.

Authorities are investigating whether local and regional officials correctly enforced building codes and planned adequately for natural disasters.

The mayor, the governor and their predecessors are also being probed to see whether they bear any responsibility, according to Colombian media reports.

The mudslide turned Mocoa into a wasteland of earth, boulders and debris.

Many survivors have had to take the disaster response effort into their own hands, clawing through the mud for their loved ones, digging their graves themselves and defending what belongings they have left from looters.

Source:AFP

{Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he has ordered troops to deploy on unoccupied South China Sea islands, boosting the military presence on remote reefs claimed by Manila in a move that could provoke rival claimants including Beijing.}

“It looks like everybody is making a grab for the islands there, so we better live on those that are still vacant,” he told reporters during a televised visit to a military camp on the western island of Palawan, near the disputed Spratly group.

China asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

Duterte has previously sought to improve his nation’s relations with Beijing by adopting a non-confrontational approach over their competing claims in the strategically vital waters.

But the president appeared to alter his tone with his announcement Thursday, saying it was time to “erect structures there and raise the Philippine flag”.

“I have ordered the armed forces to occupy all,” Duterte said.

“At least, let us get what is ours now and make a strong point there that it is ours,” he said, adding Manila was claiming “nine or 10” Spratly islands, reefs and cays.

The defence department later said that nine outcrops “are already in our possession” and occupied by marines, including Thitu island where the Philippine military maintains an airstrip.

Its statement suggested that Duterte’s plan was to beef up contingents on the reefs.

“The president wants facilities built such as barracks for the men, water (desalination) and sewage disposal systems, power generators, light houses, and shelters for fishermen,” the defence department said.

– Race for possession –

After China occupied Mischief Reef in the mid-1990s, the Philippines marooned a decrepit navy vessel atop nearby Second Thomas Shoal to assert Manila’s territorial claim and has kept the rusting boat manned ever since.

Duterte also said he could visit Thitu island on June 12 to mark Philippine Independence Day and raise the nation’s flag there.

An official at the Chinese embassy in Manila seemed surprised when asked by AFP to comment on Duterte’s declaration, but referred questions on the matter to the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing.

The Philippines under Duterte’s predecessor Benigno Aquino actively challenged China’s claim to control most of the South China Sea including taking the claim to a UN-backed tribunal, which ruled in its favour last year.

But the controversial Duterte, who took office last year on a promises to kill thousands of people in a drug war, reversed that policy as he sought billions of dollars worth of investments and grants from Beijing.

China now controls several reefs in the South China Sea including Scarborough Shoal — which Beijing seized from the Manila in 2012 — and is just 230 kilometres (143 miles) from the main Philippine island of Luzon.

The two neighbours are scheduled to hold talks in China in May to tackle issues related to the sea row.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also sparred with Beijing over territory in the disputed waterway.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has so far taken a tough stance on China’s claims in the South China Sea, insisting it will defend international interests there.

Trump is set to sit down with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later in the day to discuss a range of issues which will likely include tensions in the South China Sea.

Source:AFP

{Police said Thursday they have arrested three people for murder over the death of a Muslim man attacked while transporting cows in India, in the latest incidence of violence over the animal Hindus revere.}

Pehlu Khan, a 55-year-old farmer, died in hospital on Monday after around 200 vigilantes attacked trucks carrying cattle on a highway in Alwar in the western state of Rajasthan.

Cow slaughter is illegal in many Indian states, and vigilante squads that roam the highways checking livestock trucks for animals being transported across state borders have proliferated since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.

Police are still trying to identify most of the 200 vigilantes who attacked Khan and injured six others as they transported dozens of cows into a neighbouring state.

Alwar police chief Rahul Prakash said they arrested three late Wednesday after examining video footage shot by onlookers and broadcast by the media.

“We saw the videos and identified at least five people who were at the spot. We called those five people to the police station and found that three of them were directly involved in assault on the victims,” Prakash told AFP.

Prakash said police had also arrested 11 survivors of the attack, charging them under various sections of Rajasthan’s cow protection law.

Rajasthan is among the states that ban cow slaughter, and authorities also require anyone transporting the animals across state borders to have a licence.

Rajasthan’s BJP home minister Gulab Chand Kataria told reporters earlier that both sides were to blame for the incident on Saturday.

Khan’s death sparked outrage Thursday in India’s upper house of parliament, where opposition lawmakers shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP government.

Rahul Gandhi, vice president of the opposition Congress party, said there had been a “shocking” breakdown of law and order.

“When government abdicates responsibility and allows lynch mobs to rule, tragedies of immense proportion follow,” he tweeted.

At least 10 Muslim men have been killed in similar incidents across the country by Hindu mobs on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows in the last two years.

In 2015 a Muslim man was lynched by his neighbours over rumours that he had slaughtered a cow. Police later said the meat was mutton.

Last month a hotel manager was beaten in Rajasthan after Hindu vigilantes accused him of serving beef.

Millions from India’s huge minority populations — including Muslims, Christians and lower-caste Hindus — eat beef.

India is also the world’s largest exporter of beef, although most of the meat comes from buffalo, which are not considered sacred.

But right-wing Hindu groups have long demanded a complete ban on the slaughter of all cattle, citing religious scripture.

Source:AFP