Al-Shabab raid African Union army base in Somalia

Al-Shabab raid African Union army base in Somalia
In recent months, the army and militias known as “macawisley” have retaken swathes of territory in the country. (AFP)
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Updated 26 May 2023
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Al-Shabab raid African Union army base in Somalia

Al-Shabab raid African Union army base in Somalia
  • The Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group has been waging a jihadist insurgency for more than 15 years

MOGADISHU: Islamist Al-Shabab fighters attacked an African Union military base in Somalia on Friday, the AU force said, without specifying if there were any casualties.
The Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group has been waging a jihadist insurgency against the central government in the fragile Horn of Africa nation for more than 15 years.
The army base in Bulo Marer, 120 kilometers southwest of the capital Mogadishu “came under Al-Shabab attack,” the AU force known as ATMIS said in a statement on Facebook and Twitter.
“ATMIS forces are currently assessing the security situation,” it said, without giving details.
In recent months, the army and militias known as “macawisley” have retaken swathes of territory in the center of the troubled country in an operation backed by ATMIS and US air strikes.
Despite the gains by the pro-government forces, the militants have continued to strike with lethal force against civilian and military targets.
In the deadliest Al-Shabab attack since the offensive was launched last year, 121 people were killed in October by two car bombings at the education ministry in Mogadishu.


International community must help stop Houthi militias: Yemeni president

Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, addresses 78th UNGA in New York City on September 21, 2023
Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, addresses 78th UNGA in New York City on September 21, 2023
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International community must help stop Houthi militias: Yemeni president

Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, addresses 78th UNGA in New York City on September 21, 2023
  • Rashid Al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council of Yemen, spoke at the UN General Assembly in New York
  • Al-Alimi condemned Houthi militia activity in his country and called for international support to end the decade-long conflict

NEW YORK: The world must do more to stop the flow of arms and resources to Iran-backed Houthi militias, Rashid Al-Alimi, the chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said on Thursday.

Al-Alimi, the opening speaker at the 8th plenary meeting of the 78th UN General Assembly’s general debate in New York, strongly condemned human rights violations committed by the Houthis since the conflict erupted in Yemen almost a decade ago.

He first called for “an end to the suffering of the Yemeni people,” and commended the international community for supporting “the constitutional legitimacy, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen and noninterference in its international affairs.”

Al-Alimi said that despite attempted compromises and efforts by the government, “peace remains elusive” in Yemen.

“We do hope that the militias will recognize the truth — that only a state that is based on the rule of law and equal citizenship will help to make sure that our country is stable and safe. These are the demands of the legitimate government,” he said.

Al-Alimi warned that if Houthi militias are allowed to continue their insurgency unchecked, “our country may become a hotspot for exporting terrorism.”

He added: “If we deal with the militias as a de facto authority, this means that oppression, the violation of freedoms — we will not be able to eradicate this behavior easily.”

Houthi militias are using peace agreements to prolong the conflict and gain time to gather more resources, he said.

Sustaining peace and ending the war is the only way to guarantee rights, freedom and equality for the Yemeni people, and build good relations with other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Al-Alimi said.

He called for the strengthening of the Yemeni economy via the country’s central bank in order to improve service conditions in Yemen and prevent funds from falling into the hands of the Houthis.

“The institutions of Yemen will remain underfunded and will not have the necessary resources to deal with these cross-border challenges” if funds are not directed to recognized governmental financial institutions, Al-Alimi said.

He ended his speech with a call for the international community to intervene in Yemen to end Houthi activity in the region.

“Every delay from the international community to be firmer when it comes to the Yemeni dossier will increase losses, and Houthi militias will continue with their cross-border threats. They will continue to commit grave violations of human rights,” he said.

Al-Alimi said that although the Yemeni budget and economy was strong enough to allow for the provision of adequate services for the Yemeni people at the beginning of the war, Houthi attacks on oil facilities had halted the pre-war economic momentum.

“Houthi militias recently escalated their threats, targeting navigation routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They’ve used these as military areas. They’ve tested new weapons. They’ve targeted commercial ships and tankers. These militias, supported by the Iranian regime, continue to destabilize the region,” he said.

Al-Alimi said that his speech took place on the ninth anniversary of the Houthi takeover in Yemen. He called on UN member states to commit to an arms embargo to stop Houthi access to weaponry such as ballistic missiles and drones.

He also thanked Saudi Arabia for a “generous donation of $1.2 billion to support our public budget,” saying that without the grant, “we would have been unable to honor our obligations, including the disbursement of salaries.”


Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM

Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM
Updated 21 September 2023
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Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM

Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM
  • International aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing
  • The United Nations warned this week that disease outbreaks could bring “a second devastating crisis” to the flood-hit areas

Derna: Libya’s flood disaster, which killed thousands in the city of Derna, also displaced more than 43,000 people, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday.
A tsunami-sized flash flood broke through two aging river dams upstream from the coastal city after the Mediterranean Storm Daniel lashed the area on September 10.
It razed entire neighborhoods, sweeping untold thousands of people into the sea.
The official death toll stands at more than 3,300 — but the eventual count is expected to be far higher, with international aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing.
“An estimated 43,059 individuals have been displaced by the floods in northeastern Libya,” the IOM said, adding that a “lack of water supply is reportedly driving many displaced out of Derna” to other areas.
“Urgent needs include food, drinking water and mental health and psychosocial support,” it said.
Mobile and Internet services were meanwhile restored after a two-day disruption, following protests Monday that saw angry residents blame the authorities for the high death toll.
Authorities had blamed the communications outage on “a rupture in the optical fiber” link to Derna, but some Internet users and analysts charged there had been a deliberate “blackout.”
Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah announced that communications had been restored in the east, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
War-scarred Libya remains split between Dbeibah’s UN-backed and nominally interim government in the west, and another in the disaster-hit east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The dams that were overwhelmed by the torrential rains of September 10 had developed cracks as far back as the 1990s, Libya’s top prosecutor has said, as residents accused authorities of negligence.
Much of Libya’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair in the chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Haftar’s forces seized Derna in 2018, then a stronghold of radical Islamists, and with the reputation as a protest stronghold since Qaddafi’s days.
The demonstrators had gathered on Monday outside Derna’s grand mosque and chanted slogans against the parliament in eastern Libya and its leader Aguilah Saleh.
In a televised interview Wednesday evening, Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Seddik Al-Sour vowed “rapid results” in the investigation into the cause of the tragedy.
He added that those suspected of corruption or negligence “have already been identified,” without naming them.
Survivors in have Derna meanwhile faced new threats.
The United Nations warned this week that disease outbreaks could bring “a second devastating crisis” to the flood-hit areas.
Local officials, aid agencies and the World Health Organization “are concerned about the risk of disease outbreak, particularly from contaminated water and the lack of sanitation,” the UN said.
Libya’s disease control center has warned that mains water in the disaster zone is polluted and urged residents not to use it.


Israel says framework Saudi normalization deal possible by early 2024

Israel says framework Saudi normalization deal possible by early 2024
Updated 21 September 2023
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Israel says framework Saudi normalization deal possible by early 2024

Israel says framework Saudi normalization deal possible by early 2024
  • Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said “every day we get closer” to a deal
  • Biden voiced optimism about the prospects in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

JERUSALEM: A framework US-brokered deal for forging relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia could be in place by early next year, the Israeli foreign minister said on Thursday after the three countries signalled progress in the complex negotiations.
An Israeli-Saudi normalization would dramatically redraw the Middle East by formally bringing together two major US partners in the face of Iran — a foreign-policy flourish for President Joe Biden as he seeks reelection in late 2024.
Biden voiced optimism about the prospects in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN general assembly on Wednesday. Separately, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said “every day we get closer” to a deal.
But a Rubik’s cube of tie-in issues looms. Riyadh’s quest for a civilian nuclear program tests US and Israeli policy. Saudi and US calls for the Palestinians to make gains under any deal are unpalatable for Netanyahu’s hard-right government.
“The gaps can be bridged,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Army Radio. “It will take time. But there is progress.”
“I think there is certainly a likelihood that, in the first quarter of 2024, four or five months hence, we will be able to be in at a point where the details (of a deal) are finalized.”
Such a timeline could enable the Biden administration to get through a review period in the US Congress and Senate and clinch ratification ahead of the November presidential ballot.


Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack

Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack
Updated 21 September 2023
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Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack

Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack
  • Nine suspects — all of them foreigners — were arrested after the August 13 attack
  • The convicted attacker, identified as Rahmatollah Nowruzof from Tajikistan and described as an Daesh member, was handed two death sentences

TEHRAN: An Iranian court has sentenced to death a Tajik man convicted over carrying out a deadly gun attack on a Shiite Muslim shrine in August, the judiciary said Thursday.
The attack on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in Shiraz, capital of Fars province in Iran’s south, came less than a year after a mass shooting at the same site that was later claimed by the Daesh group.
Nine suspects — all of them foreigners — were arrested after the August 13 attack, which killed two people and wounded seven others.
The convicted attacker, identified as Rahmatollah Nowruzof from Tajikistan and described as an Daesh member, was handed two death sentences, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.
He was convicted on charges of “moharebeh,” or waging war against God, as well as “sedition and collusion against the security of the country,” the website said.
Two other men were sentenced to five years in prison and deportation from the country over “participating in gatherings and collusion with the intention of disrupting the country’s security,” it added.
Footage and pictures published following the attack showed windows shattered by bullets, and blood staining the ground in a courtyard of the arched and colonnaded complex.
The European Union and several countries including Iraq, Russia and France condemned the shooting and expressed their condolences.
In October 2022, a mass shooting at the shrine left 13 people dead and 30 wounded. Daesh later claimed the attack.
Iran hanged two men in public on July 8 over the killings after their conviction for “corruption on earth, armed rebellion and acting against national security,” Mizan said at the time.
London-based rights group Amnesty International says Iran executes more people than any other country except China and hanged at least 582 people last year, the highest number since 2015.
The Shah Cheragh mausoleum is home to the tomb of Ahmad, brother of Imam Reza — the eighth Shiite imam — and is considered the holiest site in southern Iran.


An Israeli tank was stolen from a military zone. Authorities found it in a junkyard

An Israeli tank was stolen from a military zone. Authorities found it in a junkyard
Updated 21 September 2023
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An Israeli tank was stolen from a military zone. Authorities found it in a junkyard

An Israeli tank was stolen from a military zone. Authorities found it in a junkyard
  • The army said the tank was not armed and could not have been used for military purposes

JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities are trying to figure out how a heavily armored, but unarmed, tank was stolen from a military training zone after finding it discarded in a junkyard.
The Israeli Merkava 2 tank disappeared from a training zone in northern Israel near the coastal city of Haifa, the Israeli army said Wednesday. The training zone is closed to the public when in use, but is otherwise accessible to passersby.
Police said the 65-ton tank was found abandoned in a scrapyard near a military base. In a video from the scene, the army green tank towers alongside rusty scraps of metal and other industrial castoffs.
The army said the Merkava 2 was decommissioned years ago and was unarmed. It said it had been used most recently as a “stationary vehicle for soldiers' exercises.”
Police said they had arrested two suspects in connection with the theft.