Tag: InternationalNews

{Officials and rebels spar over attacks targeting government positions as UN envoy suspects ‘spoilers’ behind violence.}

Geneva, Switzerland – Deadly suicide attacks in the Syrian government-held city of Homs threaten to derail talks in Geneva, with government and opposition delegates in the Swiss city sparring over the violence.

General Hassan Daabul, an army intelligence chief and close confidant of President Bashar al-Assad, was among the dozens killed on Saturday in blasts targeting two security service bases in Homs.

Hayet Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, claimed the attack.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 42 people were killed, but the provincial governor put the figure at 30 dead.

At a press conference in Geneva late on Saturday, Bashar al-Jaafari, lead government negotiator, demanded that the opposition delegation officially condemn the attacks in Homs.

If they failed to do so, the government would consider them “terrorists”, he said.

“Today, the test is that we expect that the [opposition] platforms [in Geneva] condemn this terrorist attack … If anyone refuses to condemn this terrorist attack then he is an accomplice of terrorism and we will deal with them accordingly.”

Jaafari focused nearly the entirety of his 45-minute press conference on the need to combat “terrorism”.

{{Rebels respond}}

Later, at a separate press conference, leaders of Syria’s main opposition camp condemned the attacks in Homs as “terrorism”, but it was unclear which group they blamed for the attacks.

“Our positions are clear in condemning terrorism and terrorists,” said Nasr al-Hariri, the chief negotiator for the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

He singled out groups the opposition condemns including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and former al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front.

Al-Nusra Front became Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which is the group that created Hayet Tahrir al-Sham. In addition, he condemned the Syrian government itself and its affiliated Iran-backed militias.

However, in a follow up question, Fateh Hassoun, Free Syrian Army (FSA) colonel, implied that the attacks were “facilitated” by the Syrian government.

“The region where the security branches are is very secure and no operation could reach it unless it was facilitated by the security forces,” he said.

“What happened today could be counted as liquidation by the regime of [detainees] who are wanted by international courts.”

Hassoun said he used to be an officer in state security.

“I know how the regime can use events to serve its purposes … and I know how they can twist things to effect the Geneva negotiations,” he said.

Almost all of Homs has been under government control since May 2014, when rebels withdrew from the centre under a UN-brokered truce deal.

But it has seen repeated bombings since, including twin attacks last year that killed 64.

{{Al-Waer attacks
}}

The SOHR said that Syrian army air strikes on Saturday also killed 13 civilians across the country, including three in the last government-besieged rebel enclave of Homs, the al-Waer neighbourhood.

Speaking to Al Jazeera in Geneva, Issam al-Reis, spokesperson for the Southern Front branch of the FSA, accused the Assad government of staging Saturday’s attacks in Homs to influence the Geneva talks.

“During the last Geneva talks an explosion happened in the government area of Sayyda Zeinab,” he said.

“But now we’re talking about military and security branches, which is a military zone inside the [Homs] Green Zone. No one is allowed to enter these areas, not even close.

“This order is coming from the same branch … because the pressure the regime is getting from Russia to be in the ceasefire may have pushed the regime to find an excuse to launch an attack.”

In a statement released on Saturday evening, Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, said the “horrific terrorist attack” in Homs was an attempt to derail the peace talks.

“Spoilers were always expected, and should continue to be expected, to try to influence the proceedings of the talks,” the statement said. “It is in the interest of all parties who are against terrorism and are committed to a political process in Syria not to allow these attempts to succeed.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{At least 32 people killed – including army’s top spy – after brazen attacks on security offices in third-largest city.}

A series of suicide attacks on military installations in Syria’s government-held city of Homs have killed at least 32 people, including the army’s intelligence chief – a close confidante of President Bashar al-Assad.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that loud explosions and gunfire were heard following the assault in the western city.

“There were at least six attackers and several of them blew themselves up near the headquarters of state security and military intelligence,” Syrian Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency.

Bombers engaged in prolonged gun battles with intelligence officers before detonating their explosive vests.

The governor of Homs province, Talal Barzani, said there were three blasts in total killing 32 people and wounding more than 20 others.

The Syrian Observatory said 42 people had been killed.

The attacks hit the heavily guarded Ghouta and Mahatta neighbourhoods and security forces locked down the city centre.

Syrian state television said the army’s intelligence chief General Hassan Daabul died and it paid tribute to the “martyrs” in Saturday’s bombings.

A witness is quoted as saying a suicide bomber actually made it into Daabul’s office and detonated himself.

Brigadier Ibrahim Darwish, head of the State Security Branch, was also critically wounded, state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV reported.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syria border, said it was unclear how the assailants could have pulled off such an audacious assault.

“Both areas are heavily guarded by the state police and also military so it was a really big and organised twin attack,” said Simmons.

The rebel alliance known as Tahrir al-Sham is believed to have carried out the attack.

It was formed earlier this year from several groups including Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, which was al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch until it broke formal allegiance in 2016.

Since it was formed, Tahrir al-Sham has fought other rebel groups, including some that fight under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, as well as a faction linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in northwest Syria.

Homs has been under the full control of the government since May 2014 when rebels withdrew from the city centre under a UN-brokered truce.

But the city has seen repeated bombings since then. Twin attacks killed 64 people early last year.

The attacks come as peace negotiators continue talks for the second day in Geneva over Syria’s six-year-old civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Like its rival ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham is not party to a ceasefire between government forces and opposition groups taking part in the Geneva talks.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Opposition official praises Staffan de Mistura’s ‘positive ideas’ at first meeting of new round of Geneva talks.}

Geneva, Switzerland – The Syrian opposition has described its first meeting here with the UN envoy in the latest round of peace talks as “generally positive”, praising him for being more engaged in discussing a political transition.

The comments came a day after Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, formally launched the fourth round of negotiations at the UN offices amid low expectations.

The talks are part of the latest political initiative to bring an end to a six-year war that has killed nearly 500,000 people, wounded more than a million, and displaced nearly half the population.

“We heard positive ideas and suggestions from Mr de Mistura,” Nasser al-Hariri, the lead opposition negotiator, said at a news conference on Friday.

“I believe he was more enthusiastic than before in discussing a political transition in Syria. So far there are no specific measures.”

Hariri said the opposition presented its “understanding” of points in UN Security Council Resolution 2254 that discuss political transition in Syria, including governance, the formation of a new constitution and new UN-supervised elections.

{{‘Just political solution’}}

The opposition’s goal was to forge “a just political solution that ensures for the Syrian people its aspirations and dreams, for which it has paid a very high price”, he said.

Friday’s discussions with de Mistura only covered “procedural” aspects of the ongoing talks, Hariri said, adding that specific points about the shape and scope of any transition would be clarified in the coming days.

Opposition officials told Al Jazeera that their delegation would respond on Monday to the framework for political transition submitted by de Mistura.

“What will be discussed in the following days is the make-up of a transitional governing body – as in, who the members of this body would be,” Mohammad Sabra, the chief negotiator for the opposition delegation, told Al Jazeera.

He said the opposition’s participation in the latest round of Geneva talks was aimed at finding ways to implement “mechanisms” to “force the Syrian government to comply with UN Security Council resolutions surrounding Syria, if it refuses to do so”.

“The regime always claims that it is looking for a political solution,” Sabra said.

“So far, it has not said that it refuses to implement the resolutions. Resolution 2118 stipulates that in the case of refusal, the Security Council can take measures based on Chapter VII of the UN Charter […] to force the regime to comply with international law, so that we can achieve political transition.”

Shortly after Friday’s news conference, the opposition delegation returned to its hotel and held a closed-door meeting with Michael Ratney, the US special envoy for Syria, and several European diplomats.

Government’s account

For his part, de Mistura met the representatives of the Syrian government earlier in the day.

In a brief press conference after that meeting, Bashar al-Jaafari, the lead Syrian government negotiator, said de Mistura had presented his delegation with a “document” whose contents would be discussed at their next meeting.

Though the Geneva talks are seen as the most serious effort in months to put an end to the Syrian war, the starkly different political objectives of the rival sides remain unchanged from previous rounds of negotiations, casting doubt on the possibility of achieving progress.

For the Syrian opposition, a political transition that ensures the removal of President Bashar al-Assad remains the only option for peace – an issue that his Damascus-based government has consistently refused to consider.

“The only solution that we will accept is to establish a transitional governing body, which Bashar al-Assad will have no role in, not in this transitional period, and not in the future of Syria,” Salem al-Muslet, spokesperson for the opposition delegation, told Al Jazeera.

The latest talks almost fell apart before they began on Thursday, after the opposition threatened to skip the opening ceremony over disagreements on the format of the session.

Source:Al Jazeera

{News organisations criticised by President Trump among those blocked from ‘gaggle’ with Press Secretary Sean Spicer.}

The White House has blocked a number of news outlets from covering a question-and-answer session with spokesman Sean Spicer held in place of the daily press briefing.

Media organisations including The New York Times, CNN, Politico and Al Jazeera were blocked from joining the informal, on-the-record, off-camera press briefing on Friday, referred to as a “gaggle”.

Some of the blocked outlets, including CNN, have been singled out by President Donald Trump as sources of “fake news”.

Spicer invited only a pool of news organisations that represents and shares reporting with the larger press corps.

Journalists from several right-leaning outlets were also allowed into Spicer’s office, including the website Breitbart News, whose former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is Trump’s chief strategist.

When additional news organisations attempted to gain access, they were not allowed to enter.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from the White House, was among those asked to leave.

“This is really the latest in an ongoing media war with this White House,” she said.

“Some of those who are concerned about this are outlets that have been accused by the White House of reporting unfavourably, namely that they reported that the White House recently tried to deploy the FBI to counter some negative reporting with regard to whether or not there had been contact between the White House and Russian officials.”

Typically, the daily briefing is televised and open to all news organisations credentialed to cover the White House.

The Associated Press and Time magazine chose not to participate in the gaggle after Spicer restricted the number of journalists present.

{{‘Don’t need everything on camera’}}

Spicer said the White House held a gaggle rather than an open briefing because Trump made a major speech earlier in the day.

“Our job is to make sure that we’re responsive to folks in the media,” he said during the briefing. “We want to make sure we answer your questions, but we don’t need to do everything on camera every day.”

In a statement, White House Correspondents’ Association President Jeff Mason said the group was “protesting strongly” against how the gaggle was handled by the White House and that the issue would be discussed further with officials.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mason added that press access to the White House since Trump took office in January has been “good”.

“There’s some irony to that statement because the tone set by President Trump about the media, of course, has been very negative,” he said, “but we have had many opportunities to ask questions, both of the president and Sean Spicer, his press secretary, and to see and take pictures basically of how this White House governs. That is a positive thing and a trend we hope will continue.”

After The New York Times was barred from attending the gaggle, its executive editor, Dean Baquet, said that “nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.”

CNN described the move as an “unacceptable development by the Trump White House”.

“Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like. We’ll keep reporting regardless,” the broadcaster said in a statement.

The Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned the move by the White House.

“We are concerned by the decision to bar reporters from a press secretary briefing,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement. “The US should be promoting press freedom and access to information.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Government troops advance on Al Maamun neighbourhood, a day after deadly ISIL rocket strikes on soldiers near airport.}

Iraqi forces have entered a neighbourhood in the western part of Mosul for the first time since the launch of an offensive to retake the city from ISIL last year.

Sami al-Aridhi, a lieutenant-general in Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), said on Friday that the army was fighting for Al Maamun, a small neighbourhood on the southwestern edge of Mosul.

He told AFP news agency that the troops earlier “attacked and fully control” Ghazlani military base and Tal al-Rayyan village outside Mosul.

The fighters belonging to ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, attacked government forces with a suicide car bombing in Tal al-Rayyan and that three other car bombs were found there, according to Aridhi.

The CTS, the most-seasoned force in Iraq, has suffered no losses since the renewed push on west Mosul was launched on Sunday, according to Aridhi.

He said some fighters had been wounded, however, some of them by the weaponised drones that ISIL – also known as ISIS – has increasingly resorted to in recent weeks.

{{Earlier casualties}}

Late on Thursday, ISIL rocket attacks killed at least dozens of Iraqi soldiers, a day after the army secured Mosul airport.

Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Erbil, said that ISIL targeted the troops from multiple fronts, including soldiers who were stationed at Mosul airport, one of the Iraqi army’s most significant achievements in its first phase of the offensive.

“It is one of the largest death tolls you’ve seen in the last six days of this push towards western Mosul,” he said.

He said that while ISIL had claimed that it had killed almost 40 Iraqi soldiers, “Iraqi government officially does not accept or deny any of these casualty figures [although] military sources have been telling us that dozens of soldiers have died in these ISIL attacks”.

The attacks came after Iraqi forces stormed the city’s airport and a nearby military base early on Thursday, which had been captured by ISIL fighters when they overran Mosul in June 2014.

ISIL’s strategy reportedly includes waiting for “darkness to fall” before hidden fighters launch a series of attacks on surrounding soldiers.

Iraqi forces aim to secure the airport and the camp’s surrounding areas, in order to easily bring in reinforcements, Al Jazeera’s Bin Javaid said, adding that “Iraqi forces realise that taking Mosul is weeks, if not months away”.

A federal police officer and an official overseeing operations said on Friday that soldiers secured key infrastructures since the operation to force ISIL out of western Mosul was officially launched on Sunday.

The operation to retake Iraq’s second-largest city was officially launched in October last year, and in January its eastern half was declared “fully liberated”.

Mosul is ISIL’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq, but the battle to retake its western half is expected to be the most challenging yet, since the streets are older, narrower and is densely populated with an estimated 750,000 civilians trapped in the area.

In a separate incident, two suicide car bombers struck army and paramilitary forces west of Mosul on Monday, killing and wounding a number of troops, two army officers said, with ISIL claiming responsibility for the attacks.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Attacks leave more than 60 people dead, day after ISIL’s retreat from northern town.}

Two suicide car bombs have gone off near Al Bab, killing scores of people, just a day after ISIL fighters were pushed out of the northern Syrian town.

Friday’s first bombing killed 53 people in the village of Susiyan, 10km northwest of Al Bab, and struck Syrian rebels battling ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, local sources said.

The second explosion took place a few hours later and left eight dead, according to the Aleppo Media Center and Thiqa News agency, media platforms operated by opposition activists.

Two suicide car bombs have gone off near Al Bab, killing scores of people, just a day after ISIL fighters were pushed out of the northern Syrian town.

Friday’s first bombing killed 53 people in the village of Susiyan, 10km northwest of Al Bab, and struck Syrian rebels battling ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, local sources said.

The second explosion took place a few hours later and left eight dead, according to the Aleppo Media Center and Thiqa News agency, media platforms operated by opposition activists.

He added that several cars and motorbikes were destroyed in the powerful blast.

Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said at least 41 wounded were taken for treatment to the Turkish border town of Kilis.

On Thursday, several Turkish-backed Syrian rebels were killed by a mine in Al Bab while clearing the town of unexploded ordnance after ISIL retreated, according to reports.

Syria’s main conflict pits President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, Iran and Shia militias, against rebels that include groups supported by Turkey, the US and Arab Gulf countries.

However, both those sides, as well as a group of militias led by Kurdish forces and supported by the US, are also fighting ISIL, which holds large expaneses of northern and eastern Syria.

Turkey directly intervened in Syria in August in support of a group of rebel factions fighting under the FSA banner to drive ISIL from its border.

It also wants to stop Kurdish groups from gaining control of most of the frontier.

In Geneva on Friday, the UN’s Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, held his second day of meetings with government and opposition delegations in a bid to move closer to a political solution to end the war.

For the Syrian opposition, a political transition that ensures the removal of President Bashar al-Assad remains the only option for peace – an issue that his Damascus-based government has consistently refused to consider.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Suicide bomber targets checkpoint outside key city after it was captured by Turkey-backed rebels a day earlier.}

A car bomb in a village near al-Bab struck Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), killing at least 45 people and wounding dozens more, medical sources said.

The suicide bomber targeted a checkpoint manned by Free Syrian Army rebels that was crowded with civilians early Friday in the village of Sousian, northwest of al-Bab.

Turkey-backed rebels on Thursday drove ISIL from al-Bab, the group’s last significant stronghold in northwest Syria, along with two smaller neighbouring towns of Qabasin and al-Bezah after weeks of street fighting.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Gaziantep on the Syria-Turkey border, said the attack took place about 10km outside of al-Bab.

The medical charity Ambulanciers Sans Frontieres said 45 people, mostly civilians, had been killed and about 70 others were wounded.

“A large number of civilians were gathering around a checkpoint and suddenly a suicide car bomber drove in and detonated,” Simmons said.

“There could be Free Syrian Army members counted in the casualty figures as well. This is really a warning shot from ISIL it would appear.”

The car bomb hit outside a security office where civilians had gathered seeking permission to return to al-Bab.

A rebel fighter with the Sultan Murad Brigade near al-Bab told Reuters news agency: “It was done on a checkpoint but there were a lot of families there gathered and waiting to get back to al-Bab. Therefore, we have many civilian casualties.”

ISIL said in a social media posting that it was behind the attack.

“There are still lots of cells inside Bab. It is very dangerous. Our search-and-clear operation is still under way,” the rebel fighter said.

On Thursday, several Turkey-backed rebels were killed by a mine in al-Bab while clearing the town of unexploded ordnance after ISIL retreated, the group said.

Syria’s main conflict pits President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, Iran and Shia militias, against rebels that include groups supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.

However, both those sides, as well as a group of militias led by Kurdish forces and supported by the US, are also fighting ISIL, which holds large swathes of northern and eastern Syria.

Turkey directly intervened in Syria in August in support of a group of rebel factions fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner to drive ISIL from its border. It also wants to stop Kurdish groups from gaining control of most of the frontier.

Source:Al Jazeera

{New report says children held alongside parents in immigration detention are at risk of ‘serious’ human rights abuses.}

Toronto, Canada – Hundreds of children are being held every year in immigration detention facilities, an experience that can lead to psychological harm and puts them at risk of “serious human rights violations”, a new report says.

An average of 48 Canadian children have been held annually as “guests” alongside their parents at the Toronto Immigration Holding Centre alone between 2011 and 2015, according to the report released on Thursday by the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto.

Hundreds of non-Canadian children are also held annually in immigration detention facilities across Canada.

“Violating the human rights of some of the most vulnerable members of our society is a blemish on Canada’s reputation as a human rights defender,” the report said.

“Such practices are especially out of step with Canada’s renewed efforts to become a global leader as a multicultural safe haven for refugees and migrants.”

The report included testimonies from nine women from the Middle East, West Africa and Central America.

Canadian children are especially at risk, because while they cannot be legally subjected to detention under the country’s immigration system, they are allowed to stay with detained parents if it is determined to be in their best interests.

Mothers detained with their children, or forced to be separated from them, “expressed deep anguish about the detrimental consequences of the experience on their children’s health”, the report stated.

“Their children had difficulty sleeping, lost their appetite for food and interest in play, and developed symptoms of depression and separation anxiety, as well as a variety of physical symptoms.”

One woman, Naimah, was arrested in February 2015 and detained with her eight-year-old daughter, Aaliya, for more than a year.

The girl was “crying every day [saying] ‘Mommy, I want to go to school,’ because she loved to go to school”, Naimah said in the report.

‘I can’t give my baby to anyone’

Another mother, Mariame, described being arrested and detained with her five-month-old son, Oscar.

“My son was crying because they were searching me, and … he was hungry,” Mariame said. “I couldn’t attend to him, I couldn’t breastfeed him.”

When she told officials that detaining her was not in the best interests of her young child, she said she was told she could give him to someone to take care of while she was detained.

“But I can’t give my baby to anyone,” she said.

Foreign nationals and permanent residents in Canada can be held in immigration detention under Canada’s immigration laws, and the Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for detaining anyone under this system.

Border officials can detain anyone who they deem poses a risk to public safety, cannot prove their identity, or arrives in Canada without a visa.

Immigration officials say they detain children “only as a last resort”.

A child is allowed to stay with a parent in detention if it is determined to be in the child’s best interests.

‘Invisible’

While an average of 242 mainly non-Canadian children were detained in this system every year between 2010 and 2014, children with Canadian citizenship are especially at risk because they fall outside the legal framework.

“Canadian children are invisible in Canada’s immigration detention system,” said Samer Muscati, director of the International Human Rights Program, in a statement.

“While all detention of children is horrible, these children are particularly vulnerable because they lack important legal safeguards, including their own detention review hearings,” Muscati said.

Last year, Canada earmarked $138m to transform the immigration detention system, including finding better alternatives to incarceration and investing in infrastructure.

“The Government of Canada is committed to exercising its responsibility for detentions to the highest possible standards, with physical and mental health and well-being of detainees, as well as the safety and security of Canadians as the primary considerations,” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said at the time.

According to the report, alternatives to detention should be explored and implemented.

These could include community-based, non-custodial programmes that would allow families to stay together in a healthier environment, while also ensuring that individuals meet their obligations to attend immigration proceedings.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Malaysian police say nerve agent found on face of half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.}

Malaysian police say a preliminary report shows the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was carried out with a nerve agent used in chemical warfare.

A statement on Friday from the inspector general of police said that a preliminary analysis from the Chemistry Department of Malaysia identified the agent at “VX nerve agent”.

VX nerve agent, or S-2 Diisoprophylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate, is a chemical weapon classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.

Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, died after two women attacked him at Kuala Lumpur International Airport last week as he was preparing to board a flight to Macau.

Police have not said how the women were able to apply the nerve agent to Kim’s face and also avoid becoming ill themselves. It is not known if they were wearing some sort of thin gloves or if washing their hands quickly removed the danger.

Police had said earlier that the two attackers rubbed a liquid on Kim’s face before walking away and quickly washing their hands. He sought help from airport staff but died before he reached the hospital.

North Korea’s official, state-controlled media mentioned the case for the first time on Thursday, saying Malaysia’s investigation was full of “holes and contradictions” without acknowledging the victim was Kim Jong-nam.

The report from the North Korean news agency KCNA largely echoed past comments by North Korea’s ambassador to Malaysia, but the publication of at least some news inside North Korea could be a sign of its concern over growing international speculation that Pyongyang dispatched a hit squad to kill Kim.

Long estranged from North Korea’s leadership, Kim Jong-nam had lived outside the country for years, staying in Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.

The two suspected attackers, and Indonesian woman and a Vietnamese woman, are in custody.

Source:Al Jazeera