Tag Archives: War

Syria fighting worst since Aleppo, civilian casualties mount: ICRC

Smoke rises at the positions of the Islamic State militants after an air strike by the coalition forces near the stadium in Raqqa, Syria, October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

GENEVA (Reuters) – The worst fighting since the battle for eastern Aleppo last year is raging in several regions of Syria, causing hundreds of civilian casualties, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday.

Up to 10 hospitals have been reportedly damaged in the past 10 days, cutting off hundreds of thousands of people from access to health care, the aid agency said in a statement voicing alarm at the situation from Raqqa to Idlib and eastern Ghouta.

“For the past two weeks, we have seen an increasingly worrying spike in military operations that correlates with high levels of civilian casualties,” said Marianne Gasser, head of the ICRC’s delegation in Syria. “My colleagues report harrowing stories, like a family of 13 who fled Deir al-Zor only to lose ten of its members to airstrikes and explosive devices along the way.”

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay”, editing by Tom Miles)

Islamic State’s last stronghold in northern Iraq falls

Islamic State's last stronghold in northern Iraq falls

By Maher Chmaytelli

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi forces have captured Islamic State’s last stronghold in northern Iraq, the military said on Thursday, leaving the militant group holed up in pockets of land by the Syrian border, across which its self-proclaimed “caliphate” once stretched.

The town of Hawija and the surrounding areas were captured in an offensive carried out by U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops and Iranian-trained and armed Shi’ite paramilitary groups known as Popular Mobilisation.

Some fighting continued to the north and east of the town where the militants were surrounded.

With the fall of Hawija, which lies near the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk, the only area that remains under control of Islamic State in Iraq is a stretch alongside the western border with Syria, where the militant group is also in retreat.

“The army’s 9th armored division, the Federal Police, the Emergency Response division and (..) Popular Mobilisation liberated Hawija,” said a statement from the joint operations commander, Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah.

State TV showed footage of Iraqi forces putting flags in one of the town’s main squares while Humvees patrolled empty streets littered with car wrecks, houses riddled with bullets and shattered storefronts.

Thick black smoke continued to rise from areas surrounding Hawija, from oil wells torched by the militants to prevent air detection.

The capture of Hawija brings Iraqi forces into direct contact with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who control Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic region claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Kirkuk shaped up as a flashpoint last month when the KRG included the city in a referendum on Kurdish independence in northern Iraq.

“We don’t want any aggression or confrontations but the federal authority must be imposed in the disputed areas,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a news conference in Paris, held with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Abadi renewed an offer to jointly administrate Kirkuk with the Peshmerga, but under the authority of the central government. The Kurds took control of Kirkuk in 2014, when the Iraqi army fled in the face of Islamic State’s advance.

Arab and Turkmen communities live alongside a large Kurdish population in Kirkuk, a city claimed by the Kurds for over a century as the “heart of Kurdistan”.

Iraq launched its offensive on Sept. 21 to dislodge Islamic State from the Hawija area, where up to 78,000 people were estimated to be trapped, according to the United Nations.

The militants continue to control the border town of al-Qaim and the region surrounding it.

They also hold parts of the Syrian side of the border, but the area under their control is shrinking as they retreat in the face of two different sets of hostile forces – a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led coalition and Syrian government troops with foreign Shi’ite militias backed by Iran and Russia.

Islamic State’s cross-border “caliphate” effectively collapsed in July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group’s de facto capital in Iraq, in a grueling battle which lasted nine months.

The militants’ leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared the caliphate from Mosul in mid-2014, released an audio recording last week that indicated he was alive, after several reports he had been killed.

He called on his followers to keep up the fight despite the setbacks.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Iraqi forces in final assault to take Hawija from Islamic State

Iraqi forces in final assault to take Hawija from Islamic State

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi forces launched a final assault on Wednesday to capture the town of Hawija, one of two pockets of territory in Iraq still under Islamic State control, the country’s military said in a statement.

Iraqi state TV broadcast live footage showing the area covered by thick black smoke, rising from oil wells torched by the militants as a tactic to prevent air detection. Hawija is located near the oil city of Kirkuk, in northern Iraq.

The offensive on Hawija is being carried out by U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops and Iranian-trained and armed Shi’ite paramilitary groups known as Popular Mobilisation.They began moving on the town of Hawija two days after capturing the Rashad air base, 30 km (20 miles) to the south and used by the militants as a training and logistics site.

Iraq launched an offensive on Sept. 21 to dislodge Islamic State from Hawija and surrounding areas where up to 78,000 people could be trapped, according to the United Nations.

Iraqi security officials say the militants are preventing some residents from leaving, while others are afraid of escaping towards government forces because of explosives that might have been laid by Islamic State around the town.

The other area of the country still under the control of the militant group is a stretch of land along the Syrian border, in western Iraq, including the border town of al-Qaim.

The militants also hold the Syrian side of the border at al-Qaim, but the area under their control is shrinking as they retreat in the face of two different sets of hostile forces — a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led coalition, and Syrian government troops with foreign Shi’ite militias backed by Iran and Russia.

Islamic State’s cross-border “caliphate” effectively collapsed in July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group’s de facto capital in Iraq, in a grueling battle which lasted nine months.

The militants’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared the caliphate from Mosul in mid-2014, released an audio recording last week that indicated he was still alive. He called on his followers to keep up the fight despite the setbacks.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Philippine police chief says won’t stop cops from seeking church sanctuary

FILE PHOTO: Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald Dela Rosa gestures during a news conference at the PNP headquarters in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines January 23, 2017. REUTERS/Czar Dancel/File Photo

By Manuel Mogato

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines’ top police commander on Tuesday said he would not prevent officers involved in the country’s bloody war on drugs from seeking church protection and testifying to their alleged abuses, providing they told the truth.

Police chief Ronald dela Rosa was reacting to a statement from a senior Catholic prelate expressing “willingness to grant accommodation, shelter, and protection” to police involved in unlawful killings during the 15-month-old crackdown.

More than 3,800 people have been killed during President Rodrigo Duterte’s ruthless campaign, in what police say are anti-drugs operations during which suspects had violently resisted arrest.

Human rights group believe that figure, provided by the Philippine National Police (PNP), misrepresents the scale of the bloodshed, pointing to large numbers of killings by shadowy gunmen. The PNP denies allegations that assassins are operating in league with some of its officers to kill drug users.

“The pill may be bitter but we can swallow the bitter pill if that pill is true,” dela Rosa told reporters, adding that he had no information that any PNP members had approached the church and wanted to speak out.

“Even if we are at the receiving end, we can take it as long as it is the truth, not just fabricated. The truth is important.”

The PNP and Duterte have been on the defensive in recent weeks as scrutiny intensifies over the conduct of mostly plain-clothes officers during what the PNP calls “buy bust” sting operations.

Duterte has several times stated that he has never told police to kill, unless in self defense. His critics, however, accuse him of inciting murder in his frequent, truculent speeches.

The killings by police of two teenagers during August is the subject of an ongoing Senate inquiry. Opinion polls released in recent days, which were compiled in June, show doubt among Filipinos about police accounts. [nL4N1MD2U8] [nL4N1M82HN]

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), on Monday said some police sought church help and were struggling to come to terms with their actions. He did not identify them, or say how many sought protection.

He said the church would gauge their sincerity and honesty and establish their motives for coming forward. Priests would help “within the bounds of church and civil laws”, but would not influence them to testify.

“Their consciences are troubling them,” Villegas said.

“They have expressed their desire to come out in the open about their participating in extrajudicial killings and summary executions.”

Some Senators applauded the bishops’ move and urged police to testify.

“I welcome the willingness of these involved policemen to finally speak about their actual involvement in the extrajudicial killings,” Grace Poe said in a statement.

“I laud the church in opening its arms wide to provide sanctuary for them.”

Priests are among the most influential dissenters to take on Duterte, having initially been silent when the drugs killings started.

Some churches have given sanctuary to drug users and witnesses of killings, while some priests have denounced the bloodshed during sermons and called for bells to be rang nightly in protest. [nL4N1M32IY]

(Editing by Martin Petty and Michael Perry)

Israel sees Assad winning Syria war, urges more U.S. involvement

FILE PHOTO: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Croatian newspaper Vecernji List in Damascus, Syria, in this handout picture provided by SANA on April 6, 2017. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s defense minister said on Tuesday President Bashar al-Assad was winning Syria’s civil war and urged the United States to weigh in as Damascus’s Iranian and Hezbollah allies gain ground.

Avigdor Lieberman’s comments marked a reversal for Israel, where top officials had from the outset of fighting in 2011 until mid-2015 regularly predicted Assad would lose control of his country and be toppled.

“I see a long international queue lining up to woo Assad, include Western nations, including moderate Sunnis. Suddenly everyone wants to get close to Assad. This is unprecedented. Because Assad is winning, everyone is standing in line,” he told Israel’s Walla news site.

In late 2015, Russia helped Assad turn the tide with a military intervention that put Moscow’s forces in the field alongside Israel’s most potent foes – Iran and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah – opposite Syrian rebels.

The United States has focused its Syria operations on fighting rebel jihadis like Islamic State – dismaying Israel, which has tried to persuade both Washington and Moscow that Iran’s expanding clout is the greater threat.

In its decades under Assad family rule, Syria has been an enemy of Israel, with their armies clashing in 1948, 1967, 1973 and 1982. While largely keeping out of the Syrian civil war, Israel has tried to sway the world powers involved in the conflict and cautioned it could strike militarily to prevent Iran and Hezbollah entrenching further on its northern front.

“We hope the United States will be more active in the Syrian arena and the Middle East in general,” Lieberman said. “We are faced with Russians, Iranians, and also the Turks and Hezbollah, and this is no simple matter to deal with, on a daily basis.”

Lieberman did not elaborate on what actions he sought from the Donald Trump administration, which Israel has been lobbying for reassurances that Iranian and Hezbollah forces will not be allowed to deploy near its border or set up bases within Syria.

“The United States has quite a few challenges of its own, but as a trend – the more the United States will be active, the better it will be for the State of Israel,” Lieberman said.

(The story is refiled to add dropped source in third paragraph)

(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Islamic State releases video it says shows two Russians captured in Syria

By Omar Fahmy

CAIRO (Reuters) – Islamic State released a video on Tuesday that it said showed two Russian soldiers captured by its fighters in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor, where Russia has been backing the Syrian military against militants.

But the Russian Defence Ministry denied their soldiers had been captured, Interfax news agency reported. The defense ministry, and the foreign ministry, did not immediately respond to requests for comment submitted by Reuters.

In the 42-second video, released on the group’s AMAQ news agency, two men appeared briefly in a room wearing gray tunics. One, with a beard, appeared to be in handcuffs. The other seemed to have bruises on his face.

Reuters could not immediately verify the video.

The bearded man spoke in Russian, the other remained silent, with Arabic subtitles in the video. It was dated Oct. 3, though there was no other evidence when the video was made.

The bearded man, speaking to the camera, gave his name, his date of birth, and his home village in southern Russia. He then said: “I was taken prisoner during a counter-offensive by Islamic State.”

He said he was taken prisoner with a second man, whose name, date of birth and home district he also gave.

Amaq said late last month the militants captured two Russians as they battled in towns around Deir al-Zor. The Russian defense ministry denied then that any military personnel were taken hostage.

With Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, the Syrian army reached Deir al-Zor city in August, breaking an Islamic State siege of an enclave there that had lasted three years as the jihadist group lost ground in Iraq and Syra.

With U.S.-led jets and special forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias is battling Islamic State on the east side of the Euphrates river, as they also capture swathes of Deir al-Zor province from Islamic State.

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy in CAIRO and Margarita Popova in MOSCOW; Writing by Amina Ismail and Patrick Markey; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

U.N. says 78,000 civilians could be trapped in Iraq’s Hawija

U.N. says 78,000 civilians could be trapped in Iraq's Hawija

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Up to 78,000 people could be trapped in Islamic State-held Hawija in northern Iraq, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as security forces push to recapture the town.

Iraq started an offensive on Sept. 21 to seize Hawija, which fell to the hands of militants after the Iraqi army collapsed in 2014 in the face of the Islamic State offensive and remains the last militant-held town in the country’s north.

U.N. humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said the number of people who have fled the fighting has increased from 7,000 people during the first week of the operation to some 12,500 people now. But up to 78,000 remain trapped, he said.

Iraqi security officials say the militants prevent some residents from leaving, while others are afraid of escaping toward government forces because of the explosives that might have been laid by Islamic State around the town.

“We remain concerned for the lives and well-being of these vulnerable civilians and remind those doing the fighting that civilians must be protected at all times and allowed to safely leave Hawija,” Laerke said.

Laerke said more people were expected to flee the fighting in areas around Hawija in the next 24 to 48 hours as security forces push into more densely populated areas.

Hawija, north of Baghdad, and a stretch of land along the Syrian border, west of the Iraqi capital, are the last stretches of territory in Iraq still in the hands of Islamic State.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Alison Williams)

France, ‘in a state of war’, to vote on anti-terrorism law

France, 'in a state of war', to vote on anti-terrorism law

By Richard Lough

PARIS (Reuters) – France remains “in a state of war”, its interior minister said on Tuesday before lawmakers voted on an anti-terrorism bill that will increase police powers to search and restrict people’s movements but which rights groups say will hurt civil liberties.

Parliament’s lower house is expected to adopt the legislation which will boost the powers of security agencies at a time when the French authorities are struggling to deal with the threat posed by foreign jihadists and homegrown militants.

More than 240 people have been killed in France in attacks since early 2015 by assailants who pledged allegiance to or were inspired by Islamic State. In the latest attack on Sunday, a man cried Allahu Akbar — God is Greatest — before fatally stabbing two women outside the railway station in the city of Marseille.

“We are still in a state of war,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in an interview on France Inter radio. “We have foiled numerous attacks since the start of the year that would have led to many deaths.”

Emergency powers in place since November 2015, when Islamist suicide bombers and gunmen carried out attacks in Paris and killed 130 people, have played a significant role in enabling intelligence agencies to disrupt plots, the government says.

The new legislation would see many of those emergency powers enshrined in law, with limited oversight from the judiciary.

The interior ministry, without approval from a judge, will be able to set up security zones when there is a threat, restricting the movement of people and vehicles in and out and with power to carry out searches inside the area.

It will have more power to shut down places of worship if intelligence agencies believe religious leaders are inciting violence in France or abroad or justifying acts of terrorism.

Police will also have greater powers to raid private property, if they have judicial approval, and there will be an increased ability to impose restrictions on people’s movements, including via electronic surveillance tags, if they are regarded as a threat to national security.

SOCIAL COHESION THREATENED

President Emmanuel Macron, painted by rivals as weak on security during his election campaign, has already acted to bolster counter-terrorism efforts, creating a task force in June to improve coordination among France’s multiple intelligence agencies.

The anti-terrorism bill has met little resistance from the public, with people still on edge after the series of Islamist-related attacks and smaller incidents that have followed.

But rights campaigners say it will curb civil liberties.

“France’s new counter-terrorism bill grants the executive far-reaching powers to clamp down on the ability of ordinary people in France to worship, assemble, move freely, express themselves and enjoy their privacy,” Human Rights Watch said last month.

Jacques Toubon, head of France’s public human rights watchdog, warned the legislation could be seen as targeting Muslims and risked unraveling France’s social cohesion.

In a July report to parliament, Toubon said the legislation gave no precise legal definition of terrorism, which left it open to abuse.

Nonetheless, some conservative opponents of Macron say the draft legislation, which is not as all-encompassing as the state of emergency currently allows, does not go far enough.

“We need to rearm the state,” right-wing lawmaker Eric Ciotti told France Info radio. He called for authorities to have greater powers to expel foreigners who threaten public safety.

Ciotti said he and a number of legislators from center-right The Republicans party would vote against the text. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen also said her party, which counts seven lawmakers, would not support the bill.

(Additional reporting by Brian Love; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Syrian army battles IS attack in Deir al-Zor

Smoke rises as Syrian army soldiers stand near a checkpoint in Deir al-Zor, Syria September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army and its allies fought on Friday to recover ground lost during an Islamic State counterattack in eastern Syria that targeted positions on the road to Deir al-Zor, a commander in the pro-Damascus alliance said.

The assault that began on Thursday marks the first major counterattack against the Syrian army and its allies since they broke through a swathe of Islamic State-held territory to reach the city of Deir al-Zor earlier this month.

“They took a number of positions. We absorbed the attack and work is under way to recover the positions,” the commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. Areas lost to Islamic State included the town of al-Shoula, which sits on the road connecting Deir al-Zor to western Syria.

The commander said the road linking Deir al-Zor city to the city of Palmyra was only being used in cases of absolute necessity. A media unit run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is fighting in support of Damascus, said the road was secure.

Helped by the Russian military and Iran-backed militias, the Syrian army’s advance to Deir al-Zor lifted a three-year-long siege imposed by Islamic State on a government-held enclave in the city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State attacks had killed more than 58 fighters from the Syrian army and allied forces since Thursday.

Islamic State said on Thursday it had killed around 100 government fighters south of the town of al-Sukhna, which is also located on the road to Deir al-Zor, and announced it had taken a hill overlooking the town.

A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian militias, the Syrian Democratic Forces, is waging a separate offensive against Islamic State in Deir al-Zor to the east of the Euphrates River, which bisects the province.

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi pressed his followers to “stand fast” and keep fighting in an undated recorded statement released on Thursday.

(Reporting by Sarah Dadouch and Laila Bassam; Editing by Tom Perry and Toby Chopra)

Furious Philippines decries West’s joint stand on drug war killings

Philippines 'President Rodrigo Duterte stands at attention during a courtesy call with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Ministers in Manila, Philippines, September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Pool/Mark Cristino

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines vigorously defended its human rights record on Friday, accusing the West of bias, hypocrisy and interference after 39 mostly European nations expressed concern about thousands of killings during Manila’s ferocious war on drugs.

More than 3,800 Filipinos have been killed by police in anti-drug operations since President Rodrigo Duterte came to office 15 months ago and launched what he promised would be a brutal and bloody crackdown on drugs and crime.

Human rights groups say the figure is significantly higher and accuse police of carrying out executions disguised as sting operations, and of colluding with hit men to assassinate drug users.

The authorities strenuously reject those claims and Duterte insists he has never incited police to commit murder, despite his frequent and animated speeches about killing drug dealers.

During the periodic review on Thursday at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, 38 countries backed a statement by Iceland urging the Philippines to take “all necessary measures to bring these killings to an end”.

The signatories were mostly European countries as well as Australia, the United States and Canada.

Filipino diplomats in Geneva called it a “sweeping and politicized” statement, adding the country was willing to accept international help, but would not be lectured.

“Unfortunately, it still appears that some parties refuse to understand certain aspects of our human rights efforts,” Evan Garcia, head of the Philippine mission, in a statement issued by the foreign ministry on Friday.

“There is no culture of impunity in the Philippines.”

His deputy Maria Teresa Almojuela also weighed in by criticizing Western countries that allowed abortion, manufactured and sold arms and, she said, were a source of private militias for wars.

“It is ironic that many states joining the statement are the very same states that are the sources of arms, bombs, machines and mercenaries that maim, kill and massacre thousands of people all over the world, not only during their colonial past, but even up to today,” she said.

In Washington, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the Iceland-led statement was “based on biased and questionable information”.

“Instead of engaging us constructively, some western countries would rather criticize and impose conditions as if they can do a better job than the Philippine government in protecting the Filipino people,” he said.

Opinion polls show Filipinos are largely supportive of the war on drugs as an antidote to crime the government says is fueled by narcotics.

The latest survey by Social Weather Stations, however, suggests that Filipinos are not convinced of the validity of official police accounts of the killings, with about half of 1,200 people polled doubtful that victims were involved in drugs, or had violently resisted arrest as police maintain.

John Fisher, Human Rights Watch director in Geneva, said the UNHRC should do more to stop the Philippine killing, now that there was a “growing chorus of condemnation” of Duterte’s signature campaign.

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Martin Petty & Simon Cameron-Moore)