Nightlife now rules in Iraq’s former Daesh bastion

Iraqi forces patrol in a street in west Mosul as they advance inside the city during fighting against Islamic State group's fighters on March 8, 2017. (AFP)
Iraqi forces patrol in a street in west Mosul as they advance inside the city during fighting against Islamic State group's fighters on March 8, 2017. (AFP)
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Updated 16 September 2024
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Nightlife now rules in Iraq’s former Daesh bastion

Nightlife now rules in Iraq’s former Daesh bastion
  • Mines had to be cleared before homes, infrastructure and roads could be rebuilt to allow hundreds of thousands of people to return to what is now a metropolis of 1.5 million people

MOSUL, Iraq: If they had tried to do this a few years ago, the group of Iraqi women enjoying a night out in Mosul would probably have risked severe punishment.
The northern city was under the harsh rule of the Daesh group until the terrorists were ousted from their last major Iraqi bastion in 2017.
Seven years later, Mosul’s streets truly come alive at nightfall, and residents are rediscovering the art of having a good time.
Amira Taha and her friends have come to a restaurant with their children, to enjoy food and live music — complete with crooners — on a night out that would have been unthinkable under Daesh rule.
“There has been enormous change in Mosul,” Taha tells AFP. “We now have freedom and nights out like this have become common” because of “the very stable security situation.”
The city has new restaurants to go to, pleasure cruises on the river Tigris, and amusement parks that draw families keen to take advantage of the newfound stability.
Dressed in an electric blue suit, the 35-year-old mother says “people wanted to open up (to the world) and enjoy themselves.”

On the stage, three Iraqi singers in suits and slicked-back hair take it in turns to entertain the diners with Iraqi and Arab pop songs.
The orchestra includes an electric organist, a violinist, and a musician playing the darbouka, a goblet-shaped drum.
When the terrorists took Mosul in 2014 they imposed a reign of sheer terror.
Music was banned, as were cigarettes. Churches and museums were ransacked, and Daesh staged public stonings and beheaded perceived wrongdoers.
Even after Mosul was retaken in 2017 in a destructive and lengthy fight by Iraqi and international coalition forces, it took several years for its citizens to emerge from years of trauma.
Entire neighborhoods were devastated, and reconstruction became a lengthy process.
Mines had to be cleared before homes, infrastructure and roads could be rebuilt to allow hundreds of thousands of people to return to what is now a metropolis of 1.5 million people.
In the past, Taha says, “people would go home, shut their doors and then go to bed” because of fears over security.
But now, all around her on the restaurant’s lawns, families are seated at most of the tables.
Sometimes the men and women puff on water pipes as their children clap and dance.
Overlooking the restaurant is a brand new bridge spanning the Tigris, a proud symbol of a Mosul being reborn.

Other cities in Iraq are in a similar situation, enjoying a return to normality after decades marked by war, sectarian violence, kidnappings, political conflict and extremism.
Ahmed — who goes by only his first name — opened a restaurant called “Chef Ahmed the Swede” in June, after spending “half of my life” in Sweden and taking a gamble.
Now he serves between 300 and 400 diners every day, Ahmed tells AFP.
“I’d always dreamt of coming back and starting my own business,” says the proprietor, who is in his forties.
“People want to go out, they want to see something different,” he says.
At Ahmed’s, diners can choose from dishes inspired by Scandinavian and European cuisines, alongside old favorites such as pastas, pizzas and grilled meats.
Khalil Ibrahim runs an amusement park on the banks of the river.
“The city has seen radical changes over the past few years,” he says. “We’ve gone from destruction to reconstruction.”
Friday is the first day of the weekend, and the evening is pierced by the happy shrieks and laughter of children in dodgem cars, the Ferris wheel and other attractions.
“People used to go home early,” Ibrahim tells AFP. “But now they’re still arriving even at midnight.”

His park opened in 2011, but it was “completely destroyed” in the war.
“We started again from scratch” with the help of private funding, he says.
As Mosul was still emerging from its terrorist nightmare, another tragedy befell the city.
In 2019 around 100 people, mostly women and children, died when a ferry taking families across the river to a leisure park capsized.
But today, pleasure boats ply the Tigris by night, their passengers admiring the riverbank lights of the restaurants and their reflection in the dark waters.
In small cafes, clients play dominoes or cards as they have a smoke.
“We’re comfortable here. We can breathe. We have the river, and that’s enough for us,” says day laborer Jamal Abdel Sattar.
“Some shops stay open until three in the morning, and some never close,” he adds. “When people got their first taste of security, they began to go out again.”


Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack

Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack
Updated 6 sec ago
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Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack

Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack
  • The Islamic republic launched the missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killing of two of its closest allies
  • Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi: ‘We do not want a war’ but ‘we are not afraid of it, and we will be ready for any scenario’
TEHRAN: Iran said it is “fully prepared to defend its sovereignty” if its arch-foe Israel attacks as it has threatened to do in response to a barrage of about 200 missiles.
The Islamic republic launched the missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killing of two of its closest allies, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, along with an Iranian general.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed this week that his country’s response would be “deadly, precise and surprising.”
In an address to the UN Security Council on Thursday, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said the Islamic republic “stands fully prepared to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against any aggression targeting its vital interests and security.”
Iran, he said, was not seeking “war or escalation” but would exercise its “inherent right to self-defense fully in line with international law and will notify the Security Council of its legitimate response.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said meanwhile in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Thursday that “we do not want a war,” but “we are not afraid of it, and we will be ready for any scenario.”
The warnings come against the backdrop of a war between Israel and Iran-allied Palestinian militant group Hamas that has been raging for more than a year and has expanded to include Lebanon in recent weeks.
“Lebanon stands on the brink of a humanitarian collapse, and the international community must not allow this catastrophe to worsen,” Iran’s UN representative Iravani said.

Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire

Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire
Updated 11 October 2024
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Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire

Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire
  • Indonesia foreign minister: ‘Attacking UN personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law’

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Friday confirmed two of its UN peacekeepers were injured in Israeli fire in Lebanon, and called the attack a violation of international law.
UN peacekeepers said Israeli troops opened fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday, injuring two Blue Helmets, and sparking condemnation.
Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah militants near UN posts in an operation that came after the peacekeeping mission rejected Israeli demands to “relocate” from some of its positions.
“In the attack on the tower in Nakura, two personnel were injured, and they were from Indonesia,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a statement.
She added the two peacekeepers had sustained light injuries and are in hospital for further observation.
“Indonesia strongly condemns the attack,” she said. “Attacking UN personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law.”
She called on all parties to ensure respect for UN territory at all times and under all circumstances.
Indonesia, a staunch critic of Israel and supporter of Palestine, has around 1,232 personnel currently deployed with the UN mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL.
UNFIL has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon.


Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers

Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
Updated 11 October 2024
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Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers

Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
  • Earlier in the day, a strike on a central Gaza school-turned-shelter killed 27 people
  • The first strike, in Ras Al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an apartment building

BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut on Thursday left two neighborhoods smoldering, killed 22 people and wounded dozens, Lebanon’s health ministry said, as well as further escalating Israel’s bloody conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The air raid on central Beirut — the deadliest in over a year of war — apparently targeted two residential buildings in separate neighborhoods simultaneously, according to an AP photographer at the scene. It brought down one apartment building and wiped out the lower floors of the other.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported strikes. Israeli airstrikes have been far more common in Beirut’s tightly packed southern suburbs, where Hezbollah bases many of its operations.
After the strikes, Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported that an attempt to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group, had failed. It said that Safa had not been inside of either of the targeted buildings.
Thursday’s strikes followed a year of tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel that boiled over into all-out war in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion. Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.
The attack came the same day Israeli forces fired on United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and wounded two of them, drawing widespread condemnation and prompting Italy’s Defense Ministry to summon Israel’s ambassador in protest.
Israeli strikes hit central Beirut
Witnesses reported a large number of ambulances and people gathering in the rubble of two Beirut sites that were hit, in the Ras Al-Nabaa neighborhood and Burj Abi Haidar area.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said 22 people were killed and 117 others wounded, without elaborating on their identities. Recent Israeli airstrikes in neighborhoods adjoining Beirut, in particular the densely populated southern suburbs, have killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and other senior commanders.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation.
Hezbollah kept up rocket fire into Israel on Thursday, setting off air raid sirens in parts of northern Israel. Several drones heading toward Israel were intercepted, the military said.
Iran — which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups across the region — launched some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in retaliation for the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah militants.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that its response to the Iranian missile attack will be “lethal” and “surprising,” without providing further details, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President Joe Biden.
Asked about the latest airstrikes in Lebanon, US Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters in Las Vegas, “We have got to reach a ceasefire, both as it relates to what’s happening in Lebanon, and of course Gaza. We are working around the clock in that regard, but we need these wars to end and we’ve got to definitely de-escalate what is happening in the region.”
Before the latest strikes, Lebanon’s crisis response unit said Israeli attacks over the past day had killed 28 people, bringing the total to 2,169 killed in Lebanon since the war erupted last October.
Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians as well as 39 Israeli soldiers, both in northern Israel since October 2023 and southern Lebanon since Israel launched its ground invasion on Sept. 30. Israel says the invasion, so far focused on a narrow strip along the border, aims to push militants back so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their homes in the north.
UN peacekeepers caught in intensified fighting in Lebanon
The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that its headquarters and positions “have been repeatedly hit” by Israeli forces.
It said an Israeli tank “directly” fired on an observation tower at the force’s headquarters in the town of Naqoura, Lebanon, and that soldiers had attacked a bunker near where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker’s entrance.
The two UNIFIL troops wounded in the attacks and hospitalized are Indonesian, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.
The Israeli military acknowledged opening fire at a UN base in southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it had ordered the peacekeepers to “remain in protected spaces.”
Later Thursday, the UN peacekeeping chief said 300 peacekeepers in frontline positions on southern Lebanon’s border have been temporarily moved to larger bases, and plans to move another 200 will depend on security conditions as the conflict escalates. Jean-Pierre Lacroix told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that peacekeepers with UNIFIL are staying in their positions, but because of air and ground attacks they cannot conduct patrols.
UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The United Nations expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to patrol a buffer zone set up along the border.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of establishing militant infrastructure along the border in violation of the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, sharply condemned Israeli strikes that hit UNIFIL positions as “an inadmissible act, for which there is no justification.”
From Italy, which has about 1,000 soldiers deployed as part of UNIFIL, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto went further, claimed Israel deliberately targeted the UNIFIL base in southern Lebanon in strikes that “could constitute war crimes.”
Several other countries, including France, Spain and Jordan, also denounced the Israeli attacks.
Aid group says staff killed in strike on school
Even as attention has shifted to Israel’s close combat with Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran, Israel has continued to strike at what it says are Palestinian militant targets across the Gaza Strip.
Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 27 people, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted Palestinian militants, but people sheltering there said the strike hit a meeting of aid workers.
The dead included a child and seven women, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.
The Israeli military said it targeted a militant center inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of taking cover in them.
“There were no militants. There was no Hamas,” said Iftikhar Hamouda, who had fled from northern Gaza earlier in the war.
“We headed to tents. They bombed the tents ... In the streets, they bombed us. In the markets, they bombed us. In the schools, they bombed us,” she said. “Where should we go?”
Israel’s offensive in Gaza started after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify between militants and civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.


Israel army says top Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank

Israel army says top Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank
Updated 11 October 2024
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Israel army says top Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank

Israel army says top Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank
  • The military said Mohammad Abdullah was “eliminated” on Thursday after Israeli aircraft struck the camp in Tulkarem

Jerusalem: Israel’s army said Friday it had killed Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad’s top commander for the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The military said Mohammad Abdullah was “eliminated” on Thursday after Israeli aircraft struck the camp in Tulkarem.
An additional “terrorist” was killed in the operation, which recovered M-16 rifles and vests, it added.
Abdullah was the successor of Muhammad Jabber, also known as Abu Shujaa, who was killed in an Israeli strike in late August.
Islamic Jihad is an ally of Hamas, with both groups battling Israeli forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Violence has soared in the West Bank since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel in October last year.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 705 Palestinians in the West Bank since, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Israeli officials say at least 24 Israelis, civilians or members of the security forces, have been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinian militants or in Israeli military operations over the same period in the West Bank.


Senior Hezbollah official survives Israeli assassination attempt, sources say

Senior Hezbollah official survives Israeli assassination attempt, sources say
Updated 11 October 2024
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Senior Hezbollah official survives Israeli assassination attempt, sources say

Senior Hezbollah official survives Israeli assassination attempt, sources say
  • The target, Wafiq Safa, heads Hezbollah’s liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies
  • Safa was the same Hezbollah official who in 2021 warned the judge investigating Beirut’s catastrophic 2020 port explosion against questioning politicians allied with the militia

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: A senior Hezbollah official eluded an Israeli assassination attempt on Thursday in Beirut, three security sources said, as Israeli strikes there killed 22 people and the UN said its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were in growing danger.
Wafiq Safa, who heads Hezbollah’s liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, was targeted by Israel on Thursday night but survived, the security sources said.
Earlier on Thursday, a Lebanese security source told Reuters that Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut targeted at least one senior official in Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The Israeli strikes hit a densely packed residential neighborhood of apartment buildings and small shops in the heart of Beirut. Israel had not previously struck the area, which is removed from Beirut’s southern suburbs where Hezbollah’s headquarters have been repeatedly bombed by Israel.
Israel did not issue evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes on Thursday, which were the deadliest attack on central Beirut since the beginning of the hostilities.
The number of casualties rose quickly, and as midnight approached the Lebanese Health Ministry reported 22 people killed and 117 wounded. Among the dead was a family of eight, including three children, who had evacuated from the south, according to a security source.
Reuters witnesses said at least one strike hit near a gas station and a thick column of smoke was visible. A large fire blazed in the background as rescue workers searched the rubble for survivors, according to video broadcast by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.
There was no immediate comment on the incident by Israel.
After Israel killed a series of high-ranking Hezbollah officials in recent weeks, including top leader Hassan Nasrallah, Safa was among the few surviving senior figures as the group’s upper echelons struggled to reorganize.
The attempt to kill Safa, whose role merges security and political affairs, marked a widening of Israel’s targets among Hezbollah officials, which previously focused on the group’s military commanders and top leaders.
Safa, whom Middle East media reports said was born in 1960, oversaw negotiations that led to a 2008 deal in which Hezbollah exchanged the bodies of Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for Lebanese prisoners in Israel. The 2006 incident triggered a 34-day war with Israel.
Reuters also reported that in 2021 Safa warned the judge investigating Beirut’s catastrophic 2020 port explosion, who sought to question several politicians allied with Hezbollah, that Hezbollah would remove him from the probe.
The Israeli military issued a new evacuation warning on Thursday night for Beirut’s southern suburbs including specific buildings. Earlier in the day, Israel warned Lebanese civilians not to return to homes in the south to avoid harm from fighting.