MIDDLE EAST
Foreign fighters still flowing to Syria
Reuters, Washington
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
The number of foreign fighters traveling to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or rival militant groups in Syria is continuing to grow, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official will tell a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
The United States and its allies believe that more than 20,000 foreign fighters from more than 90 countries have gone to Syria, Nick Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in testimony prepared for a hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.
A senior intelligence official said this compared to an estimate of “more than 19,000” foreign fighters which the U.S. government produced in mid-January.
However, the flow of fighters to Syria is irregular, and the rise in the estimate does not mean that hundreds of new foreign fighters were pouring into Syria every week, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rasmussen will tell the committee that at least 3,400 of the foreign fighters in Syria came from Western countries, and that they include over 150 U.S. citizens or residents. A copy of his testimony was made available to Reuters.
He says the “majority” of those arriving in Syria now are joining ISIS formations in Syria and Iraq.
In other testimony prepared for Wednesday’s hearing, the Homeland Security department’s intelligence chief, Francis X. Taylor, said the United States remains “unaware of any specific, credible imminent threat to the Homeland.”
However, Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the FBI, intends to say that last month ISIS released a video encouraging “lone wolf” militants to attack soldiers, police and intelligence officers in Western countries.
Last Update: Wednesday, 11 February 2015 KSA 10:43 - GMT 07:43
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ISIS fighters seize western Iraqi town
By Saif Hameed | Reuters, Baghdad
Friday, 13 February 2015
Friday, 13 February 2015
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) insurgents took control on Thursday of most of the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, threatening an air base where U.S. Marines are training Iraqi troops, officials said.
Al-Baghdadi, about 85 km (50 miles) northwest of Ramadi in Anbar province, had been besieged for months by the radical Sunni Islamist militants who captured vast swathes of northern and western Iraq last year.
"Ninety percent of al-Baghdadi district has fallen under the control of the insurgents," district manager Naji Arak told Reuters by phone.
Militants attacked al-Baghdadi from two directions earlier in the day and then advanced on the town, intelligence sources and officials in the Jazeera and Badiya operations commands said.
The officials said another group of insurgents then attacked the heavily-guarded Ain al-Asad air base five km southwest of the town, but were unable to break into it.
About 320 U.S. Marines are training members of the Iraqi 7th Division at the base, which has been struck by mortar fire on at least one previous occasion since December.
Pentagon spokeswoman Navy Commander Elissa Smith confirmed the fighting in al-Baghdadi. She said there had been no direct attack on the air base, adding: "There were reports of ineffective indirect fire in the vicinity of the base."
An Iraqi defence ministry spokesman declined to comment on the situation in Anbar.
The death toll from the fighting was not immediately clear.
Most of the surrounding towns in Anbar fell under ISIS control after the group's rapid advance across the Syrian border last summer.
Elsewhere in Iraq, five civilians were killed when bombs went off in two towns south of Baghdad, police and medical sources said. Such attacks are not uncommon in and around the capital.
Last Update: Friday, 13 February 2015 KSA 23:45 - GMT 20:45
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ISIS magazine interviews Hayat Boumedienne
Staff Writer, Al Arabiya News
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Thursday, 12 February 2015
The latest issue of Dabiq, a magazine produced by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has featured an interview with Hayat Boumedienne, the widow of Paris Kosher market gunman Amedy Coulibaly, saying that she felt “at ease” with having "migrated" to ISIS.
In the interview, which did not show her photo, she was named “Umm Basir al-Muhajira” and was identified as the widow of “Abu Basir al-Ifriqi (Amedy Coulibaly)”
“Living in a land where the law of Allah .is implemented is something great,” Dabiq quoted the 26-year old woman as saying. “I feel at ease that I have carried out this obligation,” said the most wanted woman in France.
Speaking about Coulibaly, whom she married in a religious ceremony, the woman said “he was very happy” when the so-called caliphate was declared.
“He immediately believed in the caliph and the caliphate by swearing allegiance.
“His eyes shined every time he would watch the videos of the Islamic States. He would say, “Don’t show me this,” because when he would watch the videos, it would make him want to perform hijra [immigration] immediately and that would have conflicted with his intent to carry out the operations in France,” she said.
Three days after the Paris shooting on Jan. 9, Turkey released footage of the woman when she arrived in Istanbul from Madrid. The trip was made on on Jan. 2, a week before the attacks.
Last Update: Friday, 13 February 2015 KSA 00:16 - GMT 21:16
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U.N. envoy: “Yemen is on the brink of war”
By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Thursday, 12 February 2015
The U.N. special envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, told Al Arabiya News Channel and its sister channel al-Hadath late on Wednesday that the country was close to entering a civil war.
"We believe the situation is very dangerous. Yemen is on the brink of civil war," Benomar said.
“The United Nations’ position vis-à-vis the Yemeni crisis is clear: conflicts should be resolved by peaceful means,” he added. “The United Nations has no choice except to stay with Yemenis to support them in this situation and help them work a deal.”
He accused “all” Yemeni factions of having contributed to the political and economic turmoil.
"They are all party to what has happened so far, they have all made mistakes and follies and sometimes groups resorted to violence to realize political aims."
“And some groups used political maneuvers to impede the political process,” the envoy added.
He said the Houthi constitutional decree was “one-sided” and called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.
“We are not leaving Yemen, and we will remain standing for Yemen until a political deal and a clear roadmap are reached,” he added.
Yemen, a country already rife with violence, slipped into further chaos as the Iranian-backed Houthi militias seized the capital in September. Last month, the group stormed the country’s presidential complex forcing President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi to resign from his office.
Earlier this week, the United States, France and Britain evacuated their embassies in Sanaa, a move criticized by the Houthi rebels as “unjustified.”
Last Update: Friday, 13 February 2015 KSA 00:20 - GMT 21:20
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Syrian rebel leader vows guerrilla war in south against Hezbollah, govt
By Tom Perry | Reuters, Beirut
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Thursday, 12 February 2015
A Syrian rebel commander in the south vowed to wage guerrilla warfare against the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Syrian government forces which have launched a major offensive against insurgents in the border region near Israel and Jordan.
The offensive that got under way this week is focused in an area south of Damascus that is the last notable foothold of the mainstream armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, who has consolidated control over much of western Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war, says the offensive is being spearheaded by Hezbollah, and that government forces and allied militia have made significant progress.
The Syrian army said on Wednesday that territory including four hills and three towns had been secured from insurgents it identified as members of the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
The mainstream rebels known collectively as the Southern Front are dismissive of Nusra's role in the area. The battle -- the most serious effort to date by the state to take back the south -- was mostly brought to a halt on Thursday by snow.
"The battle could be lengthy. It will be hit and run -- this is the system we are going to use in battle," said Abu Osama al-Jolani, a senior commander in the southern rebel alliance.
"We are not a state army defending borders ... we operate a system of guerrilla warfare. As far as we are concerned, land is not important," he added, speaking to Reuters via the Internet from an area near the Syrian-Jordanian border.
Jolani, who held the rank of major when he defected from the Syrian army in 2011, said advances made by the attacking forces were insignificant. He is now deputy commander of the "First Army", formed from three smaller rebel groups in January.
Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, said four days of fighting had killed 19 combatants on the government side and 48 on the opposition side. He said the advances by Hezbollah and the government should not be underestimated.
Hundreds of Hezbollah fighters
The Syrian defense minister visited the frontline on Thursday, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV station reported.
The Southern Front rebel alliance includes groups that have received support from foreign states opposed to Assad. The support has included what the rebels describe as small amounts of military aid, including some U.S.-made anti-tank missiles.
With much of the north and east held by jihadist groups including the powerful Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the southern rebels see themselves as the last bastion of the revolt against Assad that erupted in 2011 before descending into civil war.
The opposition complains that while the Syrian government has received vital military support from Assad's allies, including Hezbollah and Iran, Arab and Western states that want to see Assad gone have failed to do the same.
A Lebanese columnist close to Hezbollah wrote on Wednesday that the decision to launch the southern offensive had been taken several weeks ago at the highest levels of the "Resistance Axis" - a reference to Syria, Iran and Hezbollah.
The battle is being waged a short distance from the Israeli frontier on the Golan Heights, a sensitive area at the intersection of Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
An Israeli official briefed on intelligence said the current offensive "involves Hezbollah more heavily than in previous operations". "There are hundreds of their fighters involved," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Jolani said the Syrian army was playing no role in the battle. "This is a very important test for the Southern Front," he said.
"We ask all the states of the world to help the Syrian people and to help us the way Iran and Russia help the regime."
Last Update: Thursday, 12 February 2015 KSA 21:56 - GMT 18:56
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Israel electoral commission bans Arab MP’s reflection bid
AFP, Jerusalem
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Firebrand Arab MP Haneen Zuabi, a regular critic of Israel’s right-wing government, was banned Thursday from standing in next month’s general election.
The elections committee gave no reason for the disqualification, reported on its website, but Zuabi’s lawyer Hassan Jabareen said it was because she was deemed “hostile to the Jewish state.”
The committee also banned extreme right winger Baruch Marzel, a follower of radical rabbi Meir Kahane, assassinated in 1990.
A member of the leftwing Arab-Israeli Balad party, the 45-year-old Zuabi was also banned ahead of the 2013 election in a move overturned by the Supreme Court.
The country’s top tribunal must also rule in this case.
Zuabi rejects the concept of Israel as a Jewish state and of it living alongside an independent Palestinian state. Instead, she supports the idea of a single state in which Jews and Arabs have equal rights.
Israel has 1.3 million Arab citizens, or 20 percent of the population. They are the descendants of 160,000 Palestinians who remained on their land when the state of Israel was established in 1948.
Zuabi’s opponents also claim she backed enemies of the state by participating in a 2010 bid to break Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. An Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla killed nine Turkish activists.
The latest action against her was brought by members of the governing right-wing Likud party and the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party on the grounds that she supports the “armed struggle against Israel.”
Zuabi’s opponents point out that she was suspended from parliament in July after declaring that the Palestinians who murdered three Israeli teenagers -- an act that set off a series of events leading to a war in the Gaza Strip -- were not terrorists.
Last month, Israel’s four Arab political parties decided to fight the March 17 election as a single block. Zuabi is seventh on that united list, which opinion polls have suggested could win between 10 and 13 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Last Update: Thursday, 12 February 2015 KSA 22:11 - GMT 19:11
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Lawyer for accused 9/11 plotter alleges mistreatment at Guantanamo
By Tom Ramstack | Reuters, Fort Meade
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Thursday, 12 February 2015
An attorney for a Saudi man charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks accused his U.S. jailers at the Guantanamo Bay military prison on Thursday of mistreatment.
The charges by defense attorney Walter Ruiz at a pretrial hearing at Guantanamo prompted arguments about whether the remaining 122 inmates at the prison in Cuba should be treated under standards of U.S. or international law.
“Constitutional rights do not stop at a prison door,” said Ruiz, who is defending Mustafa al-Hawsawi, 46, against war crimes charges.
Ruiz said Hawsawi showed possible symptoms of colon cancer but he might not be getting proper medical care.
The attorney also said abuse by Hawsawi’s guards, which he called “torture,” appeared to have worsened his medical condition and contributed to a dramatic weight loss.
Blood had been found in Hawsawi’s urine recently, he said. Hawsawi also has sat on a pillow during hearings of the military court because of pain in his colon.
“Excessive rectal examinations” since Hawsawi was captured in 2003 might have caused his medical problem, Ruiz said. He asked Army Colonel Judge James Pohl for permission to question Hawsawi's doctors and to review his medical records.
Hawsawi is accused of being an organizer and financier of the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon.
Prosecuting attorneys said some of Hawsawi’s reported ailments might stem from a Dec. 7 struggle with guards at Camp Seven, Guantanamo Bay's secret lockup for former Central Intelligence Agency captives.
The hearing is the first in the case since the December release of a Senate committee report detailing torture methods used under a secret U.S. detention program. The report cites CIA records indicating that Hawsawi has been diagnosed with chronic hemorrhoids and other rectal ailments.
Ruiz said the handling of Hawsawi and other Guantanamo detainees violated an article of the Geneva Conventions forbidding torturing prisoners of war.
Justice Department attorney Clay Trivett said Guantanamo detainees should be classified as “alien unlawful belligerents” but not prisoners of war.
He said the Military Commissions Act of 2009 approved by Congress set the standard for treatment.
Hearings this week in the slow-moving trial previously centered on defense allegations that the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were trying to infiltrate the defense team.
The Guantanamo hearing was monitored over closed circuit television from a media center at Fort Meade.
Last Update: Friday, 13 February 2015 KSA 00:36 - GMT 21:36
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