Hezbollah accused of deliberately killing peacekeeper

Hezbollah accused of deliberately killing peacekeeper
Lebanese forces secure the area where a UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL convoy came under small arms fire, in the village of Al-Aqabiya in south Lebanon, on December 15, 2022. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 01 June 2023
Follow

Hezbollah accused of deliberately killing peacekeeper

Hezbollah accused of deliberately killing peacekeeper
  • The soldier, an Irishman, was shot in the head as he tried to drive his stricken vehicle to safety

BEIRUT: Hezbollah members have been accused by a military court of intentionally killing a UNIFIL soldier and injuring others in an ambush of their vehicle in southern Lebanon.

Judge Fadi Sawan ruled in a provisional decision after concluding investigations into the incident in Al-Aqabiya on Dec. 14. The soldier, an Irishman, was shot in the head as he tried to drive his stricken vehicle to safety and four others were injured when the vehicle overturned.

Preliminary investigations conducted by the Intelligence Directorate of the Lebanese Army said that at least one person, identified as Mohammad Ayad, who is currently detained, was the one who fired the shots and was handed over by Hezbollah. The others fled, and arrest warrants were issued against them in absentia.

Judge Sawan called for the prosecution of Ayad and four other fugitives: Ali Hassan Khalifa, Ali Hassan Sleiman, Hussein Hassan Sleiman, and Mustafa Hassan Sleiman, and recommended sentences ranging from 20 years in jail to the death penalty.

Article 549, subsection 5 of the Lebanese penal code, invoked by Judge Sawan, states that “the death penalty shall be imposed on anyone who commits the murder of an employee while performing their duties, or in connection with or because of their duties.”

Lebanese law applies to crimes committed against UNIFIL troops under an agreement between the state and the UN.

Sawan said that there “there was a single criminal project among those who attacked the UNIFIL-affiliated vehicle, with the aim of forming a gang.”

His report said that the attack began when the UNIFIL vehicle lost its way while traveling to Beirut. 

A captain in another vehicle radioed the lost soldiers, only to hear screaming and the sounds of sticks and iron pipes pounding against metal. The soldiers appealed for help as they were “trapped in an ambush,” and one of the occupants was heard to say: “We’re finished.” 

The report said that several CCTV devices recorded footage and audio of the incident, including one person arriving in a car who was heard saying: “We are Hezbollah.” 

Another voice caught on surveillance called out for “Hadi” and “Abbas,” and a third voice said: “You fool, we are Hezbollah.”

Attackers surrounded the stricken vehicle, broke the rear window, then started stealing helmets and body armor. The Irish soldier, who was the driver, attempted to get the vehicle to safety but was shot in the back of the head and killed.

The vehicle then overturned. Four others inside were injured, one of whom underwent two surgeries in Lebanon before being returned to his country after falling into a coma.


Lebanese army says it exchanged tear gas, smoke bomb fire with Israel

Lebanese army says it exchanged tear gas, smoke bomb fire with Israel
Updated 15 min 46 sec ago
Follow

Lebanese army says it exchanged tear gas, smoke bomb fire with Israel

Lebanese army says it exchanged tear gas, smoke bomb fire with Israel
  • “Elements of the Israeli enemy violated the withdrawal line and fired smoke bombs at a Lebanese army patrol,” the Lebanese army said
  • The Israeli military said it was Lebanon that started the violence

CAIRO: Lebanon’s army said it fired tear gas at Israeli forces over the border on Saturday in response to smoke bombs fired at its troops, though Israel said Lebanon started the confrontation.
Tensions have flared along the frontier this summer, with rockets fired at Israel during flare-ups of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and members of the heavily armed Lebanese group Hezbollah or its supporters facing off with Israeli forces.
“Elements of the Israeli enemy violated the withdrawal line and fired smoke bombs at a Lebanese army patrol that was accompanying a bulldozer removing an earthen berm erected by the Israeli enemy north of the withdrawal line, the blue line, in the Bastra area,” the Lebanese army said in a statement.
The current demarcation line between the two countries is known as the Blue Line, a frontier mapped by the United Nations that marks the line to which Israeli forces withdrew when they left south Lebanon in 2000.
“The Lebanese patrol responded to the attack by firing tear bombs ... forcing them to withdraw to the occupied Palestinian territories,” Lebanon’s army added.
The Israeli military said it was Lebanon that started the violence.
“A short while ago, IDF soldiers spotted an engineering vehicle’s shovel crossing the Blue Line from Lebanon into Israeli territory in the area of Mount Dov,” a statement from the military said. “In response, IDF soldiers used riot dispersal means.”
“The vehicle returned to Lebanese territory,” the military said.
UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in the area, said there had been tension on Saturday.
“UNIFIL is in touch with the parties to decrease tensions and prevent a misunderstanding. At the moment we are on the ground, monitoring the situation and trying to bring calm back to the area,” spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said.


Lebanon rescues Syrians in sinking migrant boat

Lebanon rescues Syrians in sinking migrant boat
Updated 41 min 13 sec ago
Follow

Lebanon rescues Syrians in sinking migrant boat

Lebanon rescues Syrians in sinking migrant boat
  • A military official, who requested anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to the press, told AFP the migrants were all Syrian
  • Migrants seeking to reach Europe from Lebanon generally head for the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus 175 kilometers away

BEIRUT: The Lebanese military on Saturday rescued 27 Syrian migrants from drowning after their rubber boat capsized off the country’s northern coast, the armed forces said.
The navy, with support from the civil defense, “was able to rescue 27 illegal migrants aboard a rubber boat that was sinking off the Chekka coast,” an army statement said.
A military official, who requested anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to the press, told AFP the migrants were all Syrian.
Migrants seeking to reach Europe from Lebanon generally head for the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus 175 kilometers (110 miles) away.
Also on Saturday, security forces said they arrested a Lebanese people smuggler and 42 Syrians as he was in a vehicle “filled with a large number of Syrians.”
Police said the driver confessed planning to smuggle them by boat to Cyprus.
The would-be migrants said during questioning they had paid between $5,000 and $7,000 a head to reach Europe via Cyprus, the statement added.
“We have been trying to stop them on land before they leave by sea,” a security source told AFP, again requesting anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to journalists.
On Thursday, the army said it had prevented around 1,000 illegal crossings of Lebanon’s porous border with Syria this week.
The military regularly thwarts smuggling operations by sea and arrests both smugglers and would-be migrants.
Lebanon’s economy collapsed in late 2019, turning the country into a launchpad for migrants, with Lebanese joining Syrians and Palestinian refugees making perilous voyages toward Europe.
The authorities in Beirut say Lebanon currently hosts around two million Syrians, while more than 800,000 are registered with the United Nations — the world’s highest number of refugees per capita.
The war in Syria that erupted in 2011 after the government repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests has killed more than half a million people and displaced around half of the pre-war population.


GCC, UK urge Iraq to complete demarcation of borders with Kuwait

GCC, UK urge Iraq to complete demarcation of borders with Kuwait
Updated 23 September 2023
Follow

GCC, UK urge Iraq to complete demarcation of borders with Kuwait

GCC, UK urge Iraq to complete demarcation of borders with Kuwait

DUBAI: The foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states and UK Secretary of State James Cleverly have urged Iraq to complete the demarcation of Kuwaiti-Iraqi maritime borders.

In a joint statement released Friday, the officials urged Iraq to respect international agreements, especially regarding the demarcation of Kuwaiti-Iraq borders.

The statement followed a meeting between Cleverly and GCC Secretary-General James Al-Budawi on the sidelines of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“They underlined the importance of Iraq’s commitment to Kuwait’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to a joint statement published on KUNA news agency.

Tensions have been rising between Kuwait and Iraq after the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court earlier this month ruled an agreement regulating navigation in the Khor Abdullah waterway was unconstitutional. The court said the law that ratified the accord should have been approved by two-thirds of Parliament.

Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah met the UN Baron Tariq Ahmad, and EU Deputy Secretary-General Enrique Mora. (KUNA)

Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah has discussed with UN officials and Western diplomats the latest Iraqi Supreme Court verdict regarding Khor Abdullah.

Sheikh Jarrah met Thursday the German Minister of State Tobias Lindner, UK Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and the UN Baron Tariq Ahmad, and EU Deputy Secretary-General Enrique Mora.

The land border between the two was demarcated by the UN in 1993 after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, but it did not cover the length of their maritime boundaries, which was left for the two oil producers to resolve.

An agreement between the two nations was reached in 2012 and ratified by each of their legislative bodies in 2013.


Iraqi PM will visit Russia in the next few weeks — statement

Iraqi PM will visit Russia in the next few weeks — statement
Updated 23 September 2023
Follow

Iraqi PM will visit Russia in the next few weeks — statement

Iraqi PM will visit Russia in the next few weeks — statement

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani will visit Moscow in the next few weeks, an Iraqi foreign ministry statement quoted Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein as saying during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.


Bahrain making progress on human rights, says FM

Bahrain making progress on human rights, says FM
Updated 23 September 2023
Follow

Bahrain making progress on human rights, says FM

Bahrain making progress on human rights, says FM
  • Bahrain signed the Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement with the US last week
  • Bahraini minister stressed the importance of diplomatic and economic cooperation between countries

NEW YORK CITY: Bahrain has grown immensely in diplomatic cooperation, human rights, tolerance, and social progress, Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullatif Al-Zayani said on Friday.

The minister referenced the signing of the Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement between the US and Bahrain, signed last week, which will enhance coordination between the two countries in defense, security, technology and investment.

Al-Zayani stressed the importance of dialogue and good-neighborliness in the approach to settling international disputes, a peace process supporting an independent Palestinian state, and the solution of conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sudan “in a way that preserves the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of these countries.”

Al-Zayani also called for the implementation of international conventions “to criminalize religious, sectarian and racial hate speech. We must prevent the misuse of ‘freedoms’ in media and digital platforms for religious contempt or to incite extremism, terrorism and intolerance.”

Cooperation in security, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, cybercrime and international navigation was critical, he added.

On economic cooperation, the minister welcomed the announcement of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic corridor, which was unveiled during the G20 summit in New Delhi this year. The corridor is to connect India with Europe via the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Greece.

Al-Zayani also praised Saudi Arabia for announcing earlier this month the establishment of a global water organization to be based in Riyadh.

The minister discussed many of his country’s recent strides in ensuring human rights, including the creation of an impartial, independent judiciary supported by international human rights experts, promotion of the freedom of press and media, encouragement of trade unions, and criminal justice and corrections reform.

“The Kingdom of Bahrain is proud of the advancement of women, and her contribution as active partner in the process of comprehensive development. She is a minister, a parliamentarian, a judge and ambassador,” he said, adding that Bahraini women made up 22 percent of the cabinet, 56 percent of the workforce in the government sector, and 34 percent of the diplomatic corps.