Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

Taliban take over some U.N. premises, curb movement -U.N. report

By Ned Parker and Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Taliban fighters have taken over some U.N. compounds in Afghanistan, searching and ransacking offices and in one case demanding the guards provide meals for a commander and his men, according to an internal U.N. report seen by Reuters.

“We have also been advised by the Taliban to remain in our compound ‘for our safety’ which equates to ‘ask permission before thinking about leaving’,” the Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS) wrote in the Aug. 21 risk assessment report.

It said the Taliban has been inconsistent in dealing with United Nations staff and that some Afghan personnel had been prevented from entering some U.N. premises.

The Taliban did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the U.N. security report. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference on Tuesday that the Islamist group wished for good diplomatic relations with other countries and wanted foreign embassies to remain open.

The United Nations had some 300 international staff and 3,000 Afghan staff when the Taliban seized power on Aug. 15. The world body has started moving about 100 of them to Kazakhstan to continue working.

Liam McDowall, spokesman for the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), declined to comment on “alleged leaked documents,” especially those tied to staff safety and security.

He said U.N. premises have not been occupied by the Taliban, but acknowledged that some U.N. buildings – where no staff were present – “have been broken in to and looted, with security personnel subjected to unacceptable intimidation, but no harm.”

The UNDSS report said that the U.N.’s Afghan staff were often reporting house searches by the Taliban and “they are terrified and left alone in dealing with this new reality.”

McDowall said that “no U.N. staff member has reported a single house search, detention or other serious incident involving the Taliban,” but the U.N. remains “mindful” of staff fears and that “the security situation may further deteriorate.”

He said “extensive security arrangements” were in place.

The Taliban spokesman on Tuesday denied reports that the group were conducting house searches to find targets for reprisals, saying: “We have forgotten everything in the past.”

‘NO COHERENT COMMAND, CONTROL’

The UNDSS report rated the present security risk as “very high” that any U.N. security convoy will be deliberately “targeted by gunfire” and U.N. staff will be killed or injured. It rated the risk as “very high” that Taliban will enter a U.N. compound and kill, injure or abduct U.N. personnel.

The UNDSS states that now the Taliban is the ad-hoc Afghan authority it is “the governing element responsible for the security of our personnel and premises.”

“However, at present, there is no coherent command and control with which we can liaise to discuss security requirements or problems. Neither is there a competent force that can or will provide security response in the event of a problem,” the UNDSS warned.

It did note that “in some instances, staff have been politely treated and our facilities and compounds respected and secured” by the Taliban.

Three Afghans who work for the United Nations told Reuters they were concerned the world body was not doing enough to help national staff – who have approval to travel to another country – to get to Kabul airport.

The speed with which the Taliban retook the country, as foreign forces withdrew after a 20-year war, has led to chaotic scenes at the airport as diplomats and Afghans try to leave.

McDowall said the United Nations is trying its best despite “very real limitations right now on what can be done regarding access to Kabul Airport.”

“The U.N. in Afghanistan is an entirely civilian, and unarmed, entity,” he said, adding that the United Nations was in contact with certain member states to urge them to provide visas or support the temporary relocation of Afghan staff.

(Reporting by Ned Parker and Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by Rupam Jain; editing by Grant McCool)

‘Trying to survive’: Scrap metal recycling brings cash in Haiti post-earthquake

By Laura Gottesdiener

LES CAYES, Haiti (Reuters) – After a devastating earthquake leveled tens of thousands of homes in Haiti, some residents have started to pick up the pieces, collecting scrap metal from the rubble to resell and make ends meet.

Djedson Hypolite deftly coiled severed electrical wires at a collapsed home in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes on Monday afternoon, as he scanned the debris for more metal.

The 13-year-old boy and his brother Dawenson, 9, have been extracting and reselling wires and cables found in the wreckage since the quake struck on Aug. 14, killing over 2,000 people across Haiti.

“We are fatherless and our home collapsed, so we’re just trying to survive somehow,” said Hypolite, explaining the two brothers earned about $5 a day collecting the electrical wires.

The earthquake occurred just over a month after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, deepening the political turmoil in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, where violent gangs run rampant, hunger is on the rise and healthcare services were already buckling under COVID-19.

Though official efforts to clear the rubble have been slow in hard-hit cities and towns across Haiti’s southern peninsula, scrap metal collectors and recycling enterprises are busier than ever, providing much-needed cash for hundreds of residents, and extra hands for clearing debris.

All across the city, residents carried the scrap metal to collection sites on motorbikes, pickup trucks, or balanced on top of their heads. Those who could shoulder the weight hauled aluminum sheeting, which netted 25 Haitian gourdes (25 cents) per kilo, or iron rods, which went for 10 gourdes at a recycling collection site in downtown Les Cayes.

Holmes Germain, the owner of a downtown recycling enterprise, said the amount of iron and aluminum he was receiving had doubled or tripled since the quake.

Trucks flowed in and out of his scrap yard, taking the loads of twisted iron, warped aluminum sheeting, tangled wires and the occasional battery to the capital city, Port-au-Prince. From there, he said, it was recycled for domestic use, or packed onto shipping containers and exported.

Germain sees his business as both an economic opportunity and a public service at this time of crisis.

“If we don’t buy the iron they will throw it away or just leave it lying there, so this is our way of trying to clean up downtown,” he said.

(Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener in Les Cayes, Haiti; Editing by Anthony Esposito and Karishma Singh)

Tennessee flooding was more destructive than first estimated

By Rich McKay

(Reuters) -The weekend flooding in Tennessee that killed at least 21 people was more destructive than originally estimated, with about 120 homes washed off foundations, destroyed or simply “gone,” officials said Tuesday.

The scope of the damage came into sharper focus in hardest hit Humphreys County, as rescue teams continue to search house-to-house with trained dogs for dozens believed still missing.

“Our damage is much more massive than what we thought,” Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told NPR in an interview Tuesday.

It was already believed that hundreds of homes were water-damaged and uninhabitable, officials said after the storm brought 17 inches of rain in just three hours.

Davis and other officials surveyed the damage from a helicopter late Monday, focusing largely on the hardest hit town of Waverly, about 55 miles west of Nashville.

“Yesterday we thought it was 20-something houses that had been removed from the foundations,” Davis said. “That’s not even close. Well over 100 – 120 houses have been moved, or are gone, no longer exist.”

Displaced residents found shelter with relatives, local churches and with housing provided by the American Red Cross, the sheriff said.

Officials who had been seeking federal aid were granted it late Monday as President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state of Tennessee and ordered federal aid, the White House said in a statement.

Local officials said that those killed in the flooding ranged in age from babies to the elderly. The Washington Post, citing family members, reported that 7-month-old twins died after they were swept away from their parents’ arms.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill and Chizu Nomiyama)

Taliban says no evacuation extension as G7 meets on Afghan crisis

(Reuters) – Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers said on Tuesday they wanted all foreign evacuations from the country completed by an Aug. 31 deadline and they would not agree to an extension.

The hardline Islamist group sought to assure the thousands of Afghans crowded into Kabul airport in the hope of boarding flights they had nothing to fear and should go home.

“We guarantee their security,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference in the capital, which Taliban fighters seized on Aug. 15.

As he spoke, Western troops were working frantically to get foreigners and Afghans onto planes and out of the country. U.S. President Joe Biden faced growing pressure to negotiate more time for the airlift.

Chaos punctuated by sporadic violence has gripped the airport following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country.

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – were due to meet virtually later on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

CIA Director William Burns met Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday, two U.S. sources told Reuters.

The Taliban’s Mujahid said the group had not agreed to an extension of the deadline and it wanted all foreign evacuations to be completed by Aug. 31.

He also called on the United States not to encourage Afghan people to leave their homeland.

The Taliban wanted to resolve the situation through dialogue, he said, and he urged foreign embassies not to close or stop work.

“We have assured them of security,” he said.

DEADLINE LOOMS

Countries that have evacuated nearly 60,000 people over the past 10 days were trying to meet the deadline agreed earlier with the Taliban for the withdrawal of foreign forces, a NATO diplomat told Reuters.

“Every foreign force member is working at a war-footing pace to meet the deadline,” said the official, who declined to be identified.

Biden, who has said U.S. troops might stay beyond the deadline, has warned the evacuation was going to be “hard and painful” and much could still go wrong.

Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, told reporters he did not believe the evacuation could be completed in the days remaining.

“It’s possible but I think it’s very unlikely given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated,” Schiff said.

British defense minister Ben Wallace told Sky News he was doubtful there would be a deadline extension. But German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany was working with the United States and Britain to ensure the NATO allies can fly civilians out after the deadline.

“Even if the deadline is Aug. 31 or is extended by a few days, it will not be enough to evacuate those we want to evacuate and those that the United States wants to evacuate,” Maas told Bild newspaper.

“That’s why we are working with the United States and Britain to ensure that once the military evacuation is completed it is still possible to fly civilians out of Kabul airport.”

RED LINE

The frantic evacuation operation kicked off after the Taliban seized Kabul on Aug. 15 and the U.S.-backed government collapsed as the United States and its allies withdrew troops after a 20-year presence.

The militant group had been ousted by U.S.-led forces in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaeda militants whose leaders had found safe haven in Afghanistan.

Many Afghans fear reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Islamic law that the Taliban enforced when in power from 1996 to 2001, in particular the repression of women.

Seeking to ease such fears, Taliban spokesman Mujahid said it was trying to come up with a procedure so women could return to work.

He also said there was no list of people targeted for reprisals.

“We have forgotten everything in the past,” he said.

However, the top U.N. human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, said she had received credible reports of serious violations committed by the Taliban, including summary execution of civilians and restrictions on women and protests against their rule.

“A fundamental red line will be the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls,” she told an emergency session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Nick Macfie and Angus MacSwan)

Allies step up pressure on Biden amid Kabul evacuation chaos

KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -With thousands of desperate Afghans and foreigners crowding into Kabul airport in the hope of fleeing Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers, pressure grew on U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday to extend the deadline for the evacuation operation.

Biden on Sunday warned that the evacuation was going to be “hard and painful” and a lot could still go wrong. U.S. troops might stay beyond their Aug. 31 deadline to oversee the evacuation, he said.

Two U.S. officials said the expectation was that the United States would continue evacuations past Aug. 31. A senior State Department official told reporters the United States’ commitment to at-risk Afghans “doesn’t end on Aug. 31”.

The White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the United States was in daily talks with the Taliban and was making “enormous progress” in evacuating Americans and others.

Asked if Biden would extend his deadline, Sullivan said the president was “taking this day by day, and will make his determinations as we go”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said he and Biden agreed to work together to ensure all those eligible to leave Afghanistan were able to do so, even after the initial evacuation phase ended.

The difficulties at the airport were underlined on Monday morning when a firefight erupted between Afghan guards and unidentified gunmen. German and U.S. forces were also involved, the Germany military said.

The security situation around Kabul airport has become increasingly dangerous, a senior Canadian government official told reporters.

“Crowds are intense, violence is becoming more common and Taliban checkpoints in surrounding areas are preventing many from reaching the airport area,” said the official, who spoke on the condition he not be identified.

Canadian special forces are operating outside the airport in an effort to bring as many eligible people as possible through security gates, the official added.

Britain and France were among those calling for the deadline to be eased. But a Taliban official said foreign forces had not sought an extension and it would not be granted if they had.

And a local Taliban militant, speaking to a large crowd in Kabul, urged Afghans to remain in the country.

“Where has our honor gone to? Where has our dignity gone to?” the unidentified militant said. “We will not let the Americans continue to be here. They will have to leave this place. Whether it is a gun or a pen, we will fight to our last breath.”

The Taliban seized power just over a week ago as the United States and its allies were withdrawing troops after a 20-year war launched in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States by al Qaeda in 2001.

Panicked Afghans and foreigners have thronged the airport for days, clamoring to catch a flight out. Many fear reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Islamic law that the Taliban enforced while in power from 1996 to 2001.

Twenty people have been killed in the chaos, most in shootings and stampedes, as U.S. and international forces try to bring order. One member of the Afghan forces was killed and several wounded in Monday’s clash, the U.S. military said.

A flight carrying evacuated at-risk Afghans will arrive in the United States later on Monday from Ramstein air base in Germany, a senior State Department official said, adding that the pace of flights from transit hubs housing evacuees will ramp up.

The official dismissed reports that only Americans could get through to Kabul airport while others were blocked.

Germany said it had airlifted almost 3,000 people originating from 43 countries from Kabul, including 1,800 Afghans.

G7 TALKS

Biden said the security situation was changing rapidly and remained dangerous.

“Let me be clear, the evacuation of thousands from Kabul is going to be hard and painful,” Biden said on Sunday.

A government spokesperson said Britain still wanted to fly out thousands of people, but British evacuations could not continue once U.S. troops leave.

France’s foreign minister said more time was needed. “We are concerned about the Aug. 31 deadline set by the United States,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said a virtual summit of the Group of Seven wealthy nations on Tuesday needed to agree on whether to extend the deadline and how to improve access to the airport.

The airport chaos is also disrupting aid shipments.

Some 500 tonnes of medical supplies were stuck because Kabul airport was closed to commercial flights, a senior World Health Organization official said.

He said empty planes should divert to Dubai to collect the supplies on their way to pick up evacuees in Afghanistan.

Leaders of the Taliban, who have sought to show a more moderate face since capturing Kabul, have begun talks on forming a government, while their forces focus on the last pockets of opposition.

Taliban fighters had retaken three districts in the northern province of Baghlan and surrounded opposition forces in the Panjshir valley, a spokesman for the group said, but there were no signs of fighting on Monday.

(Reporting by Kabul bureau, Rupam Jain, Caroline Copley, Michelle Nichols, Simon Lewis, Ju-min Park, Emma Farge, David Ljunggren, Idrees Ali; Writing by Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel and Giles Elgood; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Grant McCool and Alison Williams)

Syrian army and pro-Iranian militias attack rebel enclave in southern city

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian army units aided by pro-Iranian militias have staged a major assault on an opposition enclave in the southern border city of Deraa in a bid to retake the last opposition stronghold in southern Syria, residents, army and opposition sources said.

Troops amassed around the sprawling government-held city sought to advance into the area known as Deraa al Balaad, which has particular significance in the Syrian conflict as it was center of the first peaceful protests against Assad family rule in 2011 which were met by deadly force before spreading across the country.

Opposition fighters said they had repulsed the attack from the western side of the enclave, which has been under a two-month siege during which the army has prevented food, medical and fuel supplies coming in but opened a corridor for civilians to leave, residents and local figures said.

Pro-Iranian army units led by the elite Fourth Division who have also encircled the enclave poured in new fighters and set up new checkpoints on the main Damascus highway leading to the Jordanian border crossing, a senior army source said.

Another army source said fighting was continuing, but did not elaborate. State media have in recent days said the army was preparing to end a “state of lawlessness and chaos” and reimpose army control.

There was no indication of casualties in the latest incident.

The Syrian army, aided by Russian air power and Iranian militias, in 2018 retook control of the province of which Deraa is the capital and which borders Jordan and Israel’s Golan Heights.

ROAD MAP

Local negotiators from both sides say Moscow, which plays a leading role in maintaining security in the region, had so far held back the army from a military offensive, which they say Iranian-backed army units who have a major presence in Deraa have been pushing for.

Russian generals who on Aug. 14 presented local leaders and the army with a road map that averts a military showdown are trying to win over the opposition, some of whom fear the plan reneges on a deal brokered by Russia three years ago.

The deal at the time forced thousands of mainstream Western- backed rebels to hand over heavy weapons in 2018 but kept the army from entering Deraa al Balaad.

Moscow’s plan seen by Reuters offers ex-rebels a pardon but allows the army to gradually take over the enclave, while offering safe passage to former rebels who oppose the deal to leave for opposition areas in northwest Syria.

Residents say Russian military police have stepped up their presence in the city and its outskirts, where they often act as mediators between locals in disputes with the army and security forces.

The enclave until recently had a population of some 50,000 but most had fled in the last two weeks, so the area has become a virtual ghost town with several thousand rebels dug in.

The enclave and other towns in southern Syria have, since the state regained control of the province, held sporadic protests against President Bashar al Assad’s authoritarian rule that are rare in areas under state control.

“They want to stamp out the remaining voice of the revolution in southern Syria,” said Abu Jehad al Hourani, a local civilian leader in the enclave.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by David Holmes)

Probe clears police officer who shot woman in Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Capitol Police said on Monday an internal investigation has found no wrongdoing by the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt, a supporter of then-President Donald Trump killed during the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

The police department said in a news release it determined the officer’s conduct was “lawful and within Department policy.”

The officer, who has not been publicly identified, will not face internal discipline.

Babbitt, 35, was a U.S. Air Force veteran who embraced far-right conspiracy theories on social media, including Trump’s assertions that his 2020 presidential election loss was due to fraud.

“The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters,” the Capitol Police said in the news release.

More than 570 people face criminal charges related to the attack, which resulted in at least five deaths and temporarily sent lawmakers into hiding as they sought to formalize Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Matthew Lewis)

New flight carrying at-risk Afghans arriving in U.S. later on Monday

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A new flight carrying evacuated at-risk Afghans will arrive in the United States later on Monday from Ramstein air base in Germany, a senior State Department official said, adding that the pace of flights will ramp up from transit hubs temporarily housing those evacuated from Kabul.

Speaking at a briefing with reporters, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were currently eight transit hubs across six countries that were hosting more than 17,000 people.

“The transit hubs that we have arranged in Germany, Italy and Spain will have the combined capacity to process approximately 15,000 people on a rolling basis, which in turn will enable us to keep evacuating people continuously from Kabul,” the official said.

“Today the first onward flight of SIV applicants took off from Germany to the United States and we expect those to continue to ramp up,” the official added, in reference to the Special Immigrant Visa, designed for issuing visas to people who worked with the U.S. military.

The Taliban seized power just over a week ago as the United States and its allies were withdrawing troops after a 20-year war launched in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States by al Qaeda militants in 2001.

Panicked Afghans and foreigners have thronged the airport for days, clamoring to catch a flight out before the U.S.-led forces complete their pullout by the end of the month.

The official said the U.S. commitment to at-risk Afghans would not end on Aug. 31, but did not elaborate on how Washington could continue its efforts to airlift people if it withdraws completely from the country.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said that the United States expects to evacuate between 50,000 and 65,000 people from Afghanistan. That is fewer than the number eligible for safe harbor, according to estimates by advocates.

The official also dismissed reports that only Americans were able to get through to Kabul airport and that others had been blocked.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by David Holmes)

At least 21 dead, 50 missing in Tennessee flooding

(Reuters) – At least 21 people have died and 50 others are reported missing after heavy flooding hit parts of Tennessee, authorities said on Sunday.

A dispatcher at the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the number of those killed and missing and said authorities were working to conduct house-to-house searches of the area.

Record rainfall of up to 17 inches (43 cm) in some areas sparked massive flooding on Saturday afternoon and evening. Especially hard hit was the town of Waverly, about 55 miles (88 km) west of Nashville. Hundreds of homes were left uninhabitable.

Waverly Mayor Wallace Frazier told the Tennessean newspaper that those killed in flooding ranged in age from babies to the elderly. The Washington Post, citing family members, reported that 7-month-old twins died after they were swept away from their parents’ arms.

The flooding uprooted massive trees, tore through homes and tossed cars and pickup trucks into ditches and atop sheds and other structures.

Cindy Dunn, 48, told the Tennessean that she and her husband had been stranded in their attic for several hours after floodwaters rose to 6 feet (1.8 m) high in their home. The pair were saved by a rescue crew that raised the bucket of a bulldozer up to a window they could get through.

“Hell. That’s what we had to go through,” Dunn told the newspaper.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Vietnam deploys troops to enforce COVID lockdown in largest city

HANOI (Reuters) -Vietnam deployed soldiers on Monday to help enforce a strict COVID lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, its biggest urban area and current epicenter of its worst coronavirus outbreak to date.

Vietnam implemented movement restrictions in Ho Chi Minh City in early July, but announced its harshest curbs last week as infections have continued to surge. Authorities have said enforcement of recent curbs has not been sufficiently strict.

After containing COVID-19 for much of last year, Vietnam has recorded 358,456 infections and at least 8,666 fatalities. Ho Chi Minh City has recorded over 180,000 infections – half the country’s total – and 7,010 deaths, making up about 80% of the nation’s fatalities, according to the health ministry.

Most of those cases have been recorded in Ho Chi Minh City and its surrounding industrial provinces, where the Delta variant of the virus has sent numbers soaring since late April.

The government said on Friday a tighter lockdown would begin on Monday, prohibiting people from leaving their homes, even for food, and said the military would step in to help.

The announcement, later amended so that people in some areas could still shop for food, was subsequently reverted to a total ban, triggering confusion and panic-buying at supermarkets in the city over the weekend.

Witnesses said soldiers were delivering food to residents of the city on Monday and images broadcast by state media showed armed soldiers manning checkpoints and checking documents.

Vietnam has over recent weeks sent 14,600 additional doctors and nurses to the city and its neighboring provinces to support its overwhelmed medical system, the ministry said.

Patients with mild or no symptoms have been told to self isolate at home.

The government said on Friday it would send 130,000 tonnes of rice from state stockpiles to Ho Chi Minh City and 23 other cities and provinces. People in the city’s Phu Nhuan and Go Vap districts told Reuters they had received packages of rice, meat, fish and vegetables from the military.

Vietnam received two shipments of 501,600 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses from Poland and 200,000 Sinopharm doses donation from China on Monday, the government said.

In total, the country has secured over 23 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines but just 1.8% of its 98 million people have been fully vaccinated – one of the lowest rates in the region.

(Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Ed Davies, Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Bernadette Baum)