Saudi Arabia says strikes push Yemen rebels out of air bases

March 29, 2015

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A Saudi-led airstrike campaign targeting Shiite rebels who control much of Yemen has pushed them out of contested air bases and destroyed any jet fighter remaining in the Arab world's poorest country, the kingdom has said.

Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed bin Hasan Asiri said the airstrike campaign, now entering its fourth day Sunday, continued to target Scud missiles in Yemen, leaving most of their launching pads "devastated," according to remarks carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

However, he warned Saturday that the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, could control more of the missiles. His account could not be immediately corroborated. The Houthis began their offensive in September, seizing the capital, Sanaa, and later holding embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi under house arrest. The rebels later took over government in Yemen and ultimately forced Hadi to flee the country in recent days.

A Saudi-led coalition of some 10 countries began bombing Yemen on Thursday, saying it was targeting the Houthis and their allies, which include forces loyal to Yemen's former leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

On Saturday, Hadi directly accused Iran of being behind the Houthi offensive as leaders at an Arab summit considered creating a military reaction force in the Mideast, raising the specter of a regional conflict pitting Sunni Arab nations against Shiite power Iran. Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms the rebel movement, though the Islamic Republic has provided humanitarian and other aid.

Meanwhile Sunday, Pakistan planned to dispatch a plane to the Yemeni city of Hodeida, hoping to evacuate some 500 citizens gathered there, said Shujaat Azim, an adviser to Pakistan's prime minister. Azim told state-run Pakistan Television more flights would follow as those controlling Yemen's airports allowed them.

Pakistan says some 3,000 of its citizens live in Yemen. Ali Hassan, a Pakistani in Hodeida, told Pakistan's private GEO satellite news channel that hundreds there anxiously waited for a way home. "We had sleepless nights due to the bombardment in Sanaa," Hassan said.

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Jon Gambrell in Cairo contributed to this report.

Summer camp for Iraqi Shiite boys: training to fight IS

July 28, 2015

BAGHDAD (AP) — A quiet middle-class Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad was transformed recently into a mini-boot camp, training teenagers for battle against the Islamic State group.

The Shiite boys and young men ran through its normally placid streets carrying out mock exercises for urban warfare since the toughest battles against the Sunni extremists are likely to involve street fighting. They were taught how to hold, control and aim light weapons, though they didn't fire them.

In cities from Baghdad to Basra, summer camps set up by the Popular Mobilization Forces, Iraq's largest militia umbrella group, are training teens and boys as young as middle school age after the country's top Shiite cleric issued an edict calling on students to use their school vacations to prepare for battle if they are needed.

With dozens of such camps around the country, hundreds of students have gone through the training though it is impossible to say how many went on to fight the Sunni extremists since those who do so go independently. Of around 200 cadets in a training class visited by The Associated Press, about half were under the age of 18, with some as young as 15. Several said they intended to join their fathers and older brothers on the front lines.

It's yet another way minors are being dragged into Iraq's brutal war as the military, Shiite militias and Kurdish fighters battle to take back territory from Islamic State militants, who seized much of the country's north and west over the past year. The Sunni extremists have aggressively enlisted children as young as 10 for combat, as suicide bombers and as executioners in their horrifying videos.

Among those training this month in the streets of Baghdad, 15-year-old Jaafar Osama said he used to want to be an engineer when he grew up, but now he wants to be a fighter. His father is a volunteer fighting with the Shiite militias in Anbar and his older brother is fighting in Beiji, north of Baghdad.

"God willing, when I complete my training I will join them, even if it means sacrificing my life to keep Iraq safe," he said. Earlier this summer, the AP saw over a dozen armed young boys, some as young as 10, deployed on the front line with the Shiite militias in western Anbar province.

Baghdad natives Hussein Ali, 12, and his cousin Ali Ahsan, 14, said they joined their fathers on the battlefield after they finished their final exams. Carrying AK-47's, they paced around the Anbar desert, boasting of their resolve to liberate the predominantly Sunni province from IS militants.

"It's our honor to serve our country," Hussein Ali said, adding that some of his schoolmates were also fighting. When asked if he was afraid, he smiled and said no. The training program could have serious implications for the U.S.-led coalition, which supports the Iraqi government but has distanced itself from the Iranian-backed militias. The U.S. does not work directly with the Popular Mobilization Forces, but they receive weapons and funding from the Iraqi government and are trained by the Iraqi military, which receives its training from the U.S.

The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 says the U.S. cannot provide certain forms of military support, including foreign military financing and direct commercial sales to governments that recruit and use child soldiers or support paramilitaries or militias that do.

When informed of the AP findings, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement saying the U.S. was "very concerned by the allegations on the use of child soldiers in Iraq among some Popular Mobilization Forces in the fight against ISIL," using an acronym for the militant group. "We have strongly condemned this practice around the world and will continue to do so."

Last year, when IS took over the northern city of Mosul, stormed to the doorstep of Baghdad and threatened to destroy Shiite holy sites, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on the public to volunteer to fight. His influence was so great that hundreds of thousands of men came forward to join the hastily-established Popular Mobilization Forces along with some of the long-established Shiite militias, most of which receive support from Iran.

Then, on June 9, as schools let out, al-Sistani issued a new fatwa urging young people in college, high school and even middle school to use their summer vacations to "contribute to (the country's) preservation by training to take up arms and prepare to fend off risk, if this is required."

A spokesman for the Popular Mobilization Forces, Kareem al-Nouri, said the camps give "lessons in self-defense" and underage volunteers are expected to return to school by September, not go to the front.

A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister's office echoed that. There may be "some isolated incidents" of underage fighters joining combat on their own, Saad al-Harithi told the AP. "But there has been no instruction by the Marjaiyah (the top Shiite religious authority) or the Popular Mobilization Forces for children to join the battle."

"We are a government that frowns upon children going to war," he said. But the line between combat training and actually joining combat is weakly enforced by the Popular Mobilization Forces. Multiple militias operate under its umbrella, with fighters loyal to different leaders who often act independently.

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis response adviser, said that if the Shiite militias are using children as fighters, "then the countries that are supporting them are in violation of the U.N. Convention" on the Rights of the Child.

"If you are supporting the Iraqi army, then by extension, you are supporting" the Popular Mobilization Forces, she said. The U.N. convention does not ban giving military training to minors. But Jo Becker, the advocacy director of the children's rights division at Human Rights Watch, said that it puts children at risk.

"Governments like to say, 'Of course, we can recruit without putting children in harm's way,' but in a place of conflict, those landscapes blur very quickly," she said.

Taliban confirm leader's death, choose Mullah Omar successor

July 30, 2015

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Two high-ranking Afghan Taliban officials have confirmed the death of their leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and say the group's council has elected a successor.

The two told The Associated Press that the Taliban Shura, or Supreme Council, has chosen Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as the new leader. He has been acting as Mullah Omar's deputy for the past three years. The two Taliban officials say the seven-member-council has been meeting in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized by the council to talk to the media. They also said the group chose Sirajuddin Haqqani as their new deputy leader.

Gannon reported from Timmins, Canada.

Libya court sentences Gadhafi son to death for 2011 killings

July 28, 2015

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A court in Libya on Tuesday sentenced a son of Moammar Gadhafi to death by firing squad after convicting him of murder and inciting genocide during the country's 2011 civil war.

It is unlikely, however, that the sentence against Seif al-Islam Gadhafi will be carried out anytime soon, as a militia in western Libya has refused to hand him over to the government for the past four years.

That uncertainty reflects the chaos still gripping this North African nation split between rival militias and governments while facing an affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group. The Tripoli court sentenced to death eight others, including former Libyan spy chief Abdullah al-Senoussi, who is in their custody. Also sentenced to death were foreign intelligence chief Abuzed Omar-Dorda and Gadhafi's former Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi.

The rulings can be appealed, and a defense lawyer in the case, Ali Aldaa, said he would challenge it before the Libyan Supreme Court. The Tripoli-based top court has in the past ruled the Tobruk government as illegitimate, raising questions over whether it is under pressure from militias that dominate the city.

Only 29 of the 38 Gadhafi-era figures were present in court. Six others were sentenced to life in prison and four were cleared of charges. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said the trial was "undermined by serious due process violations," and called on the Libyan Supreme Court to independently review the verdict. Other international organizations, including the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europe, also condemned the verdict.

"This trial has been plagued by persistent, credible allegations of fair trial breaches that warrant independent and impartial judicial review," said Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch's deputy Middle East and North Africa director. "The victims of the serious crimes committed during the 2011 uprising deserve justice, but that can only be delivered through fair and transparent proceedings."

The Council of Europe said the case should have been turned over to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, which wants Seif al-Islam on charges of crimes against humanity. Libya has slid into chaos since the overthrow and killing of Gadhafi, who ruled the country for four decades. It is now bitterly divided between an elected parliament and government cornered in the country's east, with little power on the ground, and an Islamist militia-backed government in the west that has seized the capital, Tripoli.

Since the end of the civil war, Seif al-Islam has been held by a militia in Zintan, which is allied with the Tobruk-based internationally recognized government against the Tripoli one. The court that convicted him is affiliated with the Tripoli-based government.

During the trial, Seif al-Islam was accused of recruiting mercenaries who were given Libyan nationality, planning and carrying out attacks on civilian targets from the air, forming armed groups and shooting into crowds of demonstrators. Among the charges he was convicted of were incitement of murder and rape.

Hundreds of militias in Libya are battling for power and turf in a lawless environment has allowed human traffickers and kidnappers to flourish. Meanwhile, extremists returning from fighting in the Syrian civil war have created a local affiliate of the Islamic State group, taking territory and beheading captives.

The U.N. envoy for Libya has urged the Islamist-led government in Tripoli to sign a peace deal that would establish a unity government. Members of the Tobruk government and regional leaders signed the unity accord in Morocco on July 11.

Associated Press writer Brian Rohan in Cairo contributed to this report.

Rome's hot summer: corruption, breakdowns run city to ground

July 29, 2015

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has declared a Jubilee Year for Rome. But the Eternal City will need a miracle to find anything to feel jubilant about.

Just when Rome needs to be at its best, the city is being shamed by corruption scandals and a breakdown in public services — especially in the mass transit that many of the expected 30 million Jubilee pilgrims will depend on.

Amid a relentless heat wave, bus drivers have been yanking buses out of service, forcing passengers off, often between stops. Others deliberately drive their spine-rattling buses so slowly that it's faster to walk.

The actions are part of a protest against Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino's order for bus drivers to punch in the clock like other city employees. The transport breakdown is one of the biggest headaches in a summer of chaos extraordinary even for a city that sees chaos as a way of life.

Meanwhile, Marino has taken the drastic step of getting help from a prosecutor famed for combatting Sicilian mobsters to help root out City Hall corruption. The Mafia-fighter was enlisted following dozens of arrests since late last year of city politicians and businessmen with links to the political right and left.

The scandal's best-known suspect is none other than Marino's predecessor as mayor: former neo-fascist street fighter Gianni Alemanno, who denies wrongdoing. He is being investigated for allegedly colluding with businessmen using mafia-like methods to win municipal contracts. Alemanno's tenure allegedly involved rampant nepotistic hiring, including a go-go dancer as a manager's assistant.

Corruption and cronyism have direct links to Rome's current transport woes: Patronage scandals are blamed for helping to bankrupt the municipal transit company ATAC, which might be forced to stop service due to lack of funds. Free-wheeling hiring of friends and other improper practices have also put other municipal agencies like trash pickup in terrible financial condition.

Under Alemanno, bonuses were generously doled out to city workers to reward them for diligently showing up for work at least 110 days a year. Marino, a liver transplant surgeon who became a politician a decade ago, says he is determined to keep Rome from collapsing in dysfunction. The problem is he's desperately trying to save the patient while seeing his own operating team disappear. Several commissioners have quit in despair.

On Tuesday, replacing his second budget czar, Marino drily recalled the shock that greeted him shortly after being elected in 2013: "I never imagined I'd find the coffers empty," he said. "Nearly a billion (euros) in the red, organized crime, corruption."

"About all that was lacking along the way were land mines," the mayor told reporters. Marino fired his transport commissioner after a video surfaced on the Internet showing a crammed subway car filled with commuters hurtling through the underground with doors wide open.

"The trains are old, they aren't maintained, they are dirty. It seems like there isn't even anyone who cleans them," said Claudio Laudi, waiting at a stop near the Piazza del Popolo. "I just don't think you can compare (Rome) to other European capitals. Madrid is different. Paris is different, we have been left behind."

Premier Matteo Renzi, whose Democratic Party backed Marino for mayor, is keeping a cautious distance. At a recent political event, Renzi told Marino critics: "Take an opinion survey of Romans and let me know how it turns out."

Opinion polls have already shown Marino's losing the popularity he enjoyed after he was elected two years ago. On Tuesday, he promised fed-up Romans they would get 200 new buses by year's end, see roads repaved and have 60,000 new garbage bins for trash, which chronically piles up along the streets.

With ATAC running out of cash, Marino announced he is seeking a private partner to pump in funds. About 300 bus, tram and subway car drivers protested those plans Wednesday outside City Hall, worried that private investors might demand private sector levels of productivity.

The protesters yelled Marino's name in hopes the mayor would appear, and draped protest banners fashioned from sheets over the elegant buildings on a Renaissance-era square. Meanwhile, Italy's interior minister must soon decide whether to pull the plug on Marino's administration, and put the city in the hands of a special commission. That's the same humiliating treatment meted out to southern Italian towns whose governments are infiltrated by crime syndicates like Cosa Nostra.

The prosecutor leading the probe has stressed that Marino is himself completely free of suspicions of corruption. Rome's corruption has long thrived on the connivance of city politicians, administrators and local gangsters, who have no formal ties to the traditional southern crime syndicates. Lucrative city contracts, prosecutors say, are divvied up, skirting public bidding procedures as the wrongdoers pocket kickbacks or bribes.

But these largely went undetected until probes intensified under Marino's watch.

Trisha Thomas contributed to this report

Greece's Tsipras prevails over rebels at party meeting

July 31, 2015

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has defeated a bid by dissenters in his left-wing Syriza party to push for an end to bailout talks and an exit from the euro currency.

Syriza's governing central committee early Friday backed a proposal by Tsipras to hold an emergency party conference in September, after the talks have been concluded. Dissenters had sought a conference earlier, pressing the government to abandon ongoing negotiations with rescue lenders.

The decision followed a dramatic 12-hour meeting by the 200-member central committee, during which party rebels appealed for Greece to return to its national currency, the drachma. It also came hours before the main round of negotiations were due to start in Athens with a scheduled visit to the finance ministry by negotiators from the European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Stability Mechanism.

Tsipras effectively lost his majority in parliament in a vote three weeks ago, when nearly one-fourth of Syriza's lawmakers refused to back new austerity measures. Pro-European Union opposition parties were left to save the bill and have continued to prop up Tsipras' government.

"We have to agree that we can't go on this way," Tsipras told the committee members, adding that "the absurdity of this peculiar and unprecedented dualism" within the party must stop. Far-left dissenters argue Syriza has abandoned its principles over the past six months under the country's popular prime minister. They have openly voiced support for Greece to turn its back on the euro as its national currency.

"This country no long has democracy, but a peculiar type of totalitarianism — a dictatorship of the euro," prominent dissenter Panagiotis Lafazanis said. Despite the heated debate, Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos, an associate professor of political science at the University of Athens, says that at the moment a party split still looks unlikely.

"Being in power has a binding effect ... and (dissenters) will not want to be held responsible for a break up." Greece is currently negotiating the terms for a third bailout worth an some 85 billion euros ($93 billion) that will include a new punishing round of austerity measures heaped on a country reeling from a six-year recession and more than 25 percent unemployment.

According to government officials, bailout negotiations must be concluded before Aug. 20, when a debt repayment to the European Central Bank worth more than 3 billion euros is due.

Greek PM seeks to quash rebellion with party vote

July 30, 2015

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's prime minister has called for a vote within his radical-left Syriza party to decisively sideline rebels opposed to any bailout deal with the country's creditors.

Addressing the party's 200-strong top decision-making body Thursday, Alexis Tsipras said the vote slated for this Sunday would answer whether Greece would be better off without a rescue agreement as hard-liners contend.

He likened the vote to putting "the pin back in the hand grenade" and quelling the conflict with dissenters that threatens to splinter the party and touched off speculation of the country may be heading for fresh elections in the autumn.

In a vote three weeks ago, nearly a fourth of Syriza's lawmakers refused to support new austerity measures demanded by creditors before a bailout deal can be sealed.

Greece's Tsipras: party rebels could force early election

July 29, 2015

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's prime minister sought to contain a deepening rift in his radical left Syriza party Wednesday, warning rebels that he would have to call early elections if they keep opposing key reforms demanded for a new international bailout.

Alexis Tsipras insisted that he has no wish to go to the polls, which would put the country through more political uncertainty, potentially hurting the economy at a crucial point in its struggle to stabilize.

But he added: "If I don't have the parliamentary majority I will be forced to go to elections." In an interview with Syriza's Sto Kokkino radio station, Tsipras said that he wants to hold a party congress in September, once the vital bailout deal is sealed, to decide on the party's future. Tsipras and his Syriza party came to power only in January with a four-year mandate.

Representatives of Greece's creditors — its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund — are currently meeting officials in Athens to discuss the terms of the new bailout, designed to provide 85 billion euros over three years.

"We are satisfied with the smooth and constructive cooperation with the Greek authorities, and that should now allow us to progress as swiftly as possible," Mina Andreeva, a European Commission spokeswoman, said in Brussels.

The main issues under negotiation are pension and labor reforms. Greece is hoping to have a deal ready for parliamentary approval on Aug. 18, two days before it has to repay more than 3 billion euros, which it currently lacks, to the European Central Bank. Failure to pay the ECB would prompt bankruptcy and new fears of a forced euro currency exit.

Tsipras was elected on a staunchly anti-austerity platform that resonated with Greeks hard-hit by five years of tough income cuts and tax hikes demanded by international creditors in return for the rescue loans that kept the country afloat.

But his attempts to negotiate a better deal fell flat, and Greece was forced on July 13 to accept further harsh cutbacks, including hikes in the sales tax on key consumer goods. Anti-austerity hardliners in Syriza did not back two initial packages of reforms this month that were demanded by creditors to start talks on the new lifeline — Greece's third since 2010.

The reforms were approved in parliament with the support of pro-European opposition parties, but the revolt called the government's survival into question. Tsipras has taken no action so far against rebel lawmakers, although he criticized their stance Wednesday and said they should step down if they disagree.

"It is too surreal to say that 'I vote against the government's proposals but support the government'" he said. "(Or) 'I am denouncing you to protect you.' I'm not a little child." Teneo Intelligence analyst Wolfgango Piccoli said Syriza looks set to split into at least two groups — the leftwing hardliners and a moderate group led by Tsipras.

"Despite his popularity, Tsipras is facing an uphill struggle to keep his party united and under his control," he said in a note. "As a result, the risk of unforeseen intra-Syriza developments that could delay, and at worst derail, the ongoing talks between Athens and its international creditors cannot be discarded."

In the stormy days leading up to the July 13 agreement, Tsipras called a referendum on whether to accept creditors' demands for further austerity — which Greeks voted against — and was forced to impose strict controls on bank withdrawals to stop panicking depositors from emptying their accounts.

In Wednesday's interview, Tsipras accused other European countries of "taking revenge" on Greece for the referendum by forcing capital controls on the country. While banks have reopened for limited business after a three-week closure, Greeks are still limited to a 60 euro ($66) daily withdrawal ceiling and are blocked from most online purchases abroad.

The Greek parliament's budget office said Wednesday that the controls are unlikely to be lifted soon, hampering the economy's return to "normality." It said the restrictions are costing the shrinking economy an estimated 1.75-2.8 billion euros weekly, while long delays in negotiations with creditors significantly worsened the economy's outlook for the next five years.

Greece's economy is forecast to contract between 2 percent and 4 percent this year, despite initial forecasts for modest growth, because of deep uncertainty in the run-up to this month's deal in Brussels. Since 2008, the economy has shrunk more than a quarter — with unemployment hitting record peacetime highs of more than 25 percent.

France deploys riot police to bolster Calais security

July 29, 2015

CALAIS, France (AP) — France deployed more than 100 riot police to Calais on Wednesday to bolster security as hundreds of migrants have been trying night after night to rush the railway tunnel leading to England — at times with fatal consequences.

One migrant was crushed to death and another was critically injured after being electrocuted in Paris amid tens of thousands of attempts to breach security that have fueled a growing sense of crisis on the Channel this year.

The 50-kilometer (30-mile) Channel Tunnel, often referred to as the Chunnel, is used by passenger trains and freight services to connect France and Britain. Migrants pressing northward toward both countries are fleeing war, dictatorship and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. Migrants tend to spend as little time as possible in their southern European landing spots, like Italy, where two ships unloaded on Wednesday, one carrying 435 passengers and 14 bodies and another with 692 migrants.

British officials have increasingly sounded the alarm over a potential influx of foreigners. French officials, meanwhile, are concerned about around 3,000 migrants in encampments called "the jungle" by inhabitants of the largely lawless sites scattered haphazardly in the area.

It's not clear how many ever reach Britain, although at least a few succeeded this week in stowing aboard trains to make the 35-minute trip. Others were led away in the darkness, including a small group retrieved from a ditch by a single watchman wielding little more than a flashlight.

France dispatched 120 riot police immediately to Calais to bolster security that British authorities complain has been lax. France's government, meanwhile, called on Eurotunnel, the company that operates the tunnel, to step up its protection of the sensitive site.

Those caught on the French side are generally immediately freed to return to the camps and try again. Those caught on the in British side may be detained while their applications for asylum are considered. But many stay hidden aboard trucks as they roll off the trains until they stop for fuel, then hop off and vanish.

"Smugglers sell migrants the notion that Britain is the only El Dorado for a better life," said Emmanuel Agrius, the deputy mayor of Calais. Eurotunnel defended its efforts, saying Wednesday it had blocked more than 37,000 attempts since January. Nine people have died trying since June, including the man crushed by a truck. An Egyptian trying to leap from a train roof and board the Eurostar at Paris' Gare du Nord train station was in critical condition after being electrocuted.

There were wildly conflicting totals of people involved in Wednesday's rush for the tunnel, ranging from 150 to as many as 1,200. But French authorities and the company agreed there had been about 2,000 attempts on each of two successive nights. British Home Secretary Theresa May said "a number" of migrants made it through overnight.

Attempts have been increasing exponentially as has the sense of crisis in recent weeks, spurred by new barriers around the Eurotunnel site, lack of access to the Calais port, labor strife that turned the rails into protest sites for striking workers, and an influx of desperate migrants.

"This exceptional migrant situation has dramatic human consequences," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. "Calais is a mirror of conflicts tearing up regions of the world." About 25 migrants were seen getting off a public bus in Calais on Wednesday with a police officer who left them by the side of the road. Several said they were returning from a night of trying to cross the Channel.

"(We) come from train here and tomorrow, inshallah, try again in the train," said an Eritrean, using the Arabic expression for "God willing," who would not give his name as he planned further attempts to reach England.

The man killed overnight, believed to be a Sudanese man in his mid-20s, was crushed by a truck as he tried to stow away, Gilles Debove, a police union official told The Associated Press. The delays caused mayhem for truckers on both sides of the Channel. Cargo trucks were backed up overnight in Calais for several kilometers (miles) leading to the loading zone, some of them stuck on a highway overpass above one of the many makeshift migrant camps. British police, meanwhile, turned parts of a highway near the British end of the tunnel into a giant parking lot. Passenger service was also delayed.

Eurotunnel called for help from both the French and British governments to protect the site and its 23-kilometer (14-mile) perimeter, which is far more dangerous for migrants than the now locked-down port had been, with small hills, basins of water and electrified shuttles for the trucks that can strike stowaways.

"It's become a phenomenon which is beyond our means," Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe said. "We're just a small transport company operating in a little corner of Europe." Keefe said attacks on the fences are organized.

"This is very clearly criminal gangs or human traffickers who coordinate attacks on the fences," he said. British Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking during his visit to Singapore, described the crisis as "very concerning," but that there was no point in "pointing fingers of blame." Other British officials blamed the government in France, where officials said Eurotunnel also needed to do more.

The British government has agreed to provide an extra 7 million pounds ($11 million) of funding for measures to improve security at Calais. Until Wednesday, 60 French police covered the site, along with Eurotunnel security crews. The new arrivals, Debove said, would be a "burst of oxygen" to protecting the site, but he expected attempts to continue.

The Conservative Party lawmaker for Folkestone in southern England, Damian Collins, said French authorities needed to better secure their side. "They have allowed people willingly to break into the Channel Tunnel site. I can't believe they would be that lax in protecting an airport or another sensitive facility," Collins said. "But that has happened constantly throughout the summer."

Many of the migrants disembarking in Italy on Wednesday were families, said Giovanna De Benedetto, spokeswoman for Save the Children in the port of Messina. "Most of them (are) Syrians, who are traveling with their families so they have escaped from four years of conflict, children who simply want to play, to have a future, a dignified life in Europe as millions of children their age have."

May, the home secretary, said Britain was pressing for a bigger fence around the Calais railhead to stop people reaching the French end of the tunnel. She said Britain and France would work together to return people to their home countries and crack down on smugglers.

Ultimately, May added, "the answer to this problem is to ensure we are reducing the number of migrants who are trying to come from Africa across into Europe, that we break that link between making that dangerous journey, as it often is for people, and coming to settle in Europe."

Lori Hinnant reported from Paris. Maggy Donaldson in Paris, Chris Den Hond in Calais, Danica Kirka and Jill Lawless in London, and Patricia Thomas in Messina, Italy, contributed.

French farmers protest taps into freewheeling tradition

July 28, 2015

PARIS (AP) — Over the past week, French farmers have used tractors to block the border with Germany and chucked foreign vegetables off trucks in protest of cheap imports. French leaders did not call in the police — they gave the farmers their support.

France's permissive attitude toward protest has cultural roots that run even deeper when it comes to the people who work the land. The actions of French farmers in this summer of discontent has included hijacking toll booths, setting up "customs" roadblocks to search trucks carrying German meat and throwing produce from abroad off trailers heading to French supermarkets.

They are protesting increasingly slim margins they blame on cheap imports and high social charges, which they say make them unable to compete against Germany, much less Eastern Europe. The farmers at the center of the roadblocks went beyond what even their union chief wanted, when he asked them to "respect goods and people" in their protest.

Within hours, French President Francois Hollande — normally a bedrock supporter of the European Union's open borders — had nothing but assurance for the farmers: "We will continue to pressure," he said, "so that the farmers are certain, protests or not, that we are at their side."

On Tuesday, the union chief, Xavier Beulin, noted the tacit support of the French public for his protesters. "To my fellow citizens, I express our gratitude for their comprehension and their sympathy," he wrote in a letter. "They can feel that this will be an important part of our country's future."

On Tuesday, tractors again blocked highways in eastern France: "We will stop all the refrigerated trucks to screen for imported meat," Jean-Marc Breme, a local union leader, told Europe 1 radio. General sympathy for farmers runs deep in France. Even those exasperated by the protest were reluctant to come out harshly against it. Instead, top government ministers met with agriculture representatives and bankers to continue negotiations on a plan to help the farmers that would not run afoul of European Union rules. The agriculture minister, Stephane Le Foll, noted that closing the borders wasn't an option but didn't announce any specific countermeasures.

Even Germans, whose products were this week's primary targets, seemed to accept the protest as something unique to their neighbors. German Agriculture Ministry spokesman Jens Urban described the movement as "a protest by French farmers that it is not for us, as the German government, to evaluate."

The farmers' protest is a passionate expression of French mistrust of free trade, as well as the country's freewheeling tradition of protest, said Laurent Warlouzet, a historian of European industrial policy. "There is no arbiter between the citizen and the state," he said, "and so citizens revolt violently when there is a problem."

Protesters stop short of real violence, which would draw immediate police intervention. But so long as it's just a show — like detaining a factory manager for hours, or even a few days, to make a point, or burning tires on the Channel Tunnel rail tracks in Calais to protest job cuts — authorities tend not to interfere. And farmers get even more leeway for histrionics than most, as the history of the country's most famous farmer — Jose Bove — can attest.

Bove, a sheep farmer and producer of Roquefort cheese, led a group of activists as they dismantled a McDonald's under construction in the south of France in 1999 in a protest against the U.S. and the World Trade Organization. Bove was ultimately jailed and convicted, but the former spokesman of the Farmers Confederation now serves as a deputy in the European Parliament.

"I would do the same if I were in their (the current farmer protesters') place," Bove told Sud Radio. A current Farmers Confederation spokesman, Laurent Pinatel, was more circumspect about the protests led by the rival union. He instead called for putting the brakes on a free-trade accord between the U.S. and Europe.

"We're having a hard time with the discourse that we're hearing now, whether it's from politicians or activists," said Pinatel. "We don't see ourselves represented very well." Although even disruptive protests tent to get broad support, those led by the farmer have a special place in French culture, according to Warlouzet.

"He is the guardian of all that is France, the gastronomy, the countryside," he said. "Even if they count for less than 3 percent of the population, there is a symbolic importance."

Associated Press writers David Rising and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

New Nigerian general to head multinational Boko Haram fight

July 30, 2015

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's Defense Ministry has appointed a new general to head the multinational army it is hoped can defeat the Boko Haram Islamic uprising that has killed 20,000 people and driven nearly 2 million from their homes.

Thursday's appointment comes as the West African nation's new president promised deeper collaboration with neighboring states in the fight against Islamic extremism. President Muhammadu Buhari headed home Thursday after two days of talks in Cameroon focused on Boko Haram.

Its attacks have spread across Nigeria's borders and forced tens of thousands of refugees to flee to neighboring states. Chad announced Thursday that its troops killed 13 Boko Haram fighters in attacks this week near Lake Chad, where militants slit the throats of three villagers.

It said the extremists had kidnapped about 30 people, and spirited them away on speed boats. Nigeria's Defense Ministry said Maj. Gen. Iliyasu Isah Abbah will command the 8,700-strong four-nation army based in N'Djamena, Chad's capital.

Buhari has said it is a disgrace that Nigeria needs foreign troops on its soil. But he noted before leaving Cameroon that "none of us can succeed alone." Relations with Cameroon have been strained by a long-simmering border dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula, but the two leaders agreed Thursday that demarcation of their border under U.N. auspices should be completed by year's end.

Nigeria's military, poorly equipped with soldiers reporting going into battle without rations and just 30 bullets, last year allowed Boko Haram to take control of a large swath of the northeast. Chadian troops earlier this year forced the militants out of Nigerian border towns. Nigerian troops trained by South African mercenaries drove the extremists from most other towns.

But suicide bombings and village assaults have increased recently. Buhari this month fired all the military's top commanders. The former chief of defense staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, complained in a retirement address Wednesday that "fifth columnists" in the military and security agencies have leaked information to the insurgents, causing the deaths of many troops ambushed by militants who had advance warning.

Associated Press writer Dany Padire contributed to this report from N'Djamena, Chad.

Nigeria president visits Cameroon to discuss militant threat

July 29, 2015

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — The president of Nigeria made his first official state visit to neighboring Cameroon on Wednesday, as the two former enemies struggle to contain the mutual threat posed by Islamic militants carrying out suicide bombings across the region.

New Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari came to Cameroon's capital to bolster support for a multinational army to fight the Boko Haram uprising that has claimed at least 60 lives in recent days in Cameroon alone.

The violence has displaced nearly 2 million people and killed 20,000 across the region where the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad meet in the course of the 6-year uprising. Attacks have mounted over the past year in Cameroon's far north and in Chad's capital as the militants seek retaliation for those countries' military aid in the Nigerian army's fight against Boko Haram.

The group drew international prominence when it abducted nearly 300 girls from Chibok, sparking an international campaign for their return that has stalled. Girls and young women have increasingly been used as suicide bombers in attacks on civilians.

Also complicating the fight has been the long-tense relations between Cameroon and Nigeria, and concerns over the role of Chad's military might on Nigerian soil. The U.N. Security Council has issued a statement calling for "increased regional cooperation."

Hard feelings between Nigeria and Cameroon date back to a 1980s land dispute. More recently, Nigeria accused Cameroon of doing little to prevent Boko Haram from using their territory as a refuge. Cameroon saw Buhari's failure to visit earlier as a snub after he traveled to Niger and Chad, and the Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, didn't attend Buhari's May inauguration.

Israel passes law sanctioning force-feeding prisoners

July 30, 2015

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's parliament passed a contentious law on Thursday that would permit the force-feeding of inmates on hunger strike, eliciting harsh criticism over the practice.

The law allows a judge to sanction the force-feeding or administration of medical treatment if there is a threat to the inmate's life, even if the prisoner refuses. It passed with a 46-40 vote in favor — a slender margin in the 120-seat Knesset. The remaining lawmakers were sent from the early morning vote.

While the law applies to all prisoners held in Israeli jails, Palestinian prisoners have used hunger strikes as a tool to draw attention to their detention without trial or charges. Scores of Palestinian inmates have held rounds of hunger strikes over recent years and, with many prisoners hospitalized, their failing health has caused tensions to flare among Palestinians.

Israel fears that a hunger-striking prisoner's death could trigger unrest. Israel in the past has acceded to hunger-striking prisoners' demands and at times has released prisoners. "The hunger strikes of the terrorists in jail have turned into a tool they use to try to pressure and threaten the state of Israel and to cause it to release terrorists," said Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan. "The new law allows us to prevent a threat to the prisoners' lives and to prevent them from putting pressure on the state."

David Amsalem, a lawmaker with the ruling Likud party who backed the law, said it "creates the right balance between the state's interest to protect the prisoner's life and his rights and sovereignty over his body."

Under the new law, Israel's prison service would need to seek permission from the attorney general to ask a judge to allow the force-feeding of a prisoner. The judge would then weigh a doctor's opinion, the prisoner's position as well as security considerations before ruling in the matter, according to Amany Daiyf, from the group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, which opposes the law.

Critics say force-feeding is unethical and amounts to torture. The Israeli Medical Association, which has urged physicians not to cooperate, plans to challenge the law in the Supreme Court. "Israeli doctors ... will continue to act according to medical ethical norms that completely prohibit doctors from participating in torture and force-feeding amounts to torture," said Leonid Eidelman, the head of the association.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel called the law "shameful," saying "it pushes the medical community to severely violate medical ethics for political gains." The fate of the prisoners is deeply emotional for Palestinians, where nearly everyone has a neighbor or relative who has spent time in an Israeli jail. Palestinians view the thousands of prisoners held by Israel as heroes. Several hundred are held in administrative detention, according to the Palestinian prisoner advocacy group Addameer, where they can be held for months or years without charge or trial.

Qadura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, called the law "ugly" and said it violated the prisoners' right to conduct a hunger strike.

Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.

Russian human rights NGO folds its work, goes underground

July 28, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — A prominent Russian human rights group said on Tuesday it is closing down its operations this week because of a repressive law, but has come up with a plan to continue its work.

The Committee against Torture has documented torture in Russia for 15 years and provided legal advice for victims, bringing forward the conviction of more than 100 police officers and investigators. The justice ministry earlier this year listed the group as a "foreign agent" in compliance with a law, requiring non-governmental organizations that receive funding from abroad and are engaged in loosely-defined "political activities" to register as "foreign agents." NGOs found the law discriminatory, saying that the term suggests they are spies.

Igor Kalyapin, head of the Committee against Torture, told reporters Tuesday that the organization will be "liquidated" this week because they refuse to comply with the law and thus admit that they "work for a foreign benefactor."

Kalyapin said they have set up a new head office that won't accept foreign funding, thus being able to dodge the listing of "foreign agent." His associates have also founded six other NGOs, which will receive foreign funding, to carry out the actual work — but in a clandestine manner.

"All of these organizations will be not be publicizing their work because any publicity, an interview, any mention of such an organization in the media will be treated by the justice ministry and prosecutors as political activities," thus exposing them to danger, Kalyapin said.

In June, the group's office in Chechnya was attacked by masked men armed with crowbars who bashed their way into the group's office, sending its staff fleeing. Kalyapin said roughly half of their 44 million ruble ($730,000) budget came from foreign funding last year. Some of their donors are shutting down their operations in Russia, like the MacArthur Foundation, and some are considering leaving. The recent registration of the new six NGOs and their formal lack of background could make it difficult for them to attract some foreign funding this year, Kalyapin said.

Oldest ever giant panda celebrates with bamboo, veggie cake

July 28, 2015

HONG KONG (AP) — The oldest giant panda ever in captivity tasted a vegetable ice cake and, of course, bamboo in celebration of her 37th birthday.

Jia Jia was recognized Tuesday as holding two Guinness World Records, the oldest ever and the oldest living giant panda. Her mate, An An, also marked a birthday, his 29th. Born in 1978, Jia Jia was sent to Hong Kong Ocean Park with An An in 1999. They were given by China to mark the second anniversary of Hong Kong's handover.

Jia Jia has had six babies and four are still living. The park's veterinary service director, Paolo Martelli, says typical panda life expectancy is around 20 years and only eight of about 400 living in captivity today are older than 30.

So, he says, "it's quite exceptional to reach such an old age for a panda." Jia Jia's age equals about 110 for humans. She suffers high blood pressure and arthritic pain, though her health is stable.

Saudi airstrikes target rebel bases in Yemen

March 26, 2015

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Saudi Arabia bombed key military installations in Yemen on Thursday after announcing a broad regional coalition to oust Shiite rebels that forced the country's embattled president to flee. Some of the strikes hit positions in the country's capital, Sanaa, and flattened a number of homes near the international airport.

The airstrikes, which had the support of nine other countries, drew a strong reaction from Iran which called the operation an "invasion" and a "dangerous step" that will worsen the crisis in the country.

Iran "condemns the airstrikes against Yemen this morning that left some innocent Yemenis wounded and dead and considers this action a dangerous step," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said in a statement. She said military action would complicate and worsen the crisis in Yemen.

"This invasion will bear no result but expansion of terrorism and extremism throughout the whole region," she said. The Saudi airstrikes came hours after President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a close U.S. ally, fled Yemen by sea after rebels pushed their way toward the southern port city of Aden where he had taken refuge.

The back-and-forth between the regional heavyweights was threatening to turn impoverished Yemen into a proxy battle between the Middle East's Sunni powers and Shiite-led Iran. Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya News reported that the kingdom had deployed 100 fighter jets, 150,000 soldiers and other navy units in "Operation Decisive Storm."

The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, were calling on their supporters to protest in the streets of Sanaa on Thursday afternoon, Yemen's Houthi-controlled state news agency SABA reported. TV stations affiliated with the rebels and their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, showed the aftermath of the strikes Thursday morning in what appeared to be a residential area.

Al-Masirah TV, affiliated with the Houthis, quoted the ministry of health as saying that 18 civilians were killed and 24 were injured. Yemen Today, a TV station affiliated with Saleh, showed hundreds of residents congregating around a number of flattened houses, some chanting "Death to Al-Saud", in reference to the kingdom's royal family. The civilians were sifting through the rubble, pulling out mattresses, bricks and shrapnel.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene in the Sanaa neighborhood near the international airport saw people searching for loved ones in the debris of flattened homes. Residents said at least three bodies were pulled from the rubble. There were traces of blood between the bricks.

Ahmed al-Sumaini said an entire alley close to the airport was wiped out in the strikes overnight. He said people ran out from their homes in the middle of the night. "This was a surprise. I was asleep and I was jolted out of my bed," he said, waving a piece of shrapnel.

In addition to the airport, targets included the camp of U.S.-trained Yemeni special forces, which is controlled by generals loyal to Saleh. Yemeni security officials said the targets also included a missile base in Sanaa that was controlled by the Houthis earlier this year. One of the security officials said the strikes also targeted the fuel depot at the base.

The Houthis said in a statement that Saudi jets hit the military base, known as al-Duleimi, and that they responded with anti-aircraft missiles. The strikes also hit the al-Annad air base in the southern Lahj province. About 100 U.S. military advisers withdrew over the weekend from base, where they had been leading a drone campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

The crumbling of Hadi's government is a blow to Washington's counterterrorism strategy against al-Qaida's branch in Yemen, considered to be the most powerful in the terrorist network. The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to brief journalists.

Riad Yassin, Yemen's foreign minister, told Saudi's Al-Hadath TV that the airstrikes were welcomed. "I hope the Houthis listen to the sound of reason. With what is happening, they forced us into this," he said.

Saudi ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir announced the military operation in a news conference in Washington. He said his government had consulted closely with the U.S. and other allies but that the U.S. military was not involved in the operations.

The White House said in a statement late Wednesday that the U.S. was coordinating military and intelligence support with the Saudis but not taking part directly in the strikes. Other regional players were involved in the Saudi operation: The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain joined Saudi Arabia in a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency, saying they would answer a request from Hadi "to protect Yemen and his dear people from the aggression of the Houthi militias which were and are still a tool in the hands of foreign powers that don't stop meddling with the security and stability of brotherly Yemen." Oman, the sixth member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, didn't sign onto the statement.

On a Thursday conference call with foreign ministers from the council, Secretary of State John Kerry commended the work of the coalition's military action against the Houthis, according to a State Department official traveling with Kerry in Lausanne, Switzerland. Kerry noted U.S. support for coalition efforts, including intelligence sharing and logistical support for strikes against Houthi targets, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private diplomatic call.

Egypt announced political and military support, saying it is ready to send ground troops if necessary. Jordan confirmed it was participating in the operation. Pakistan, Morocco and Sudan were also taking part, the Saudi Press Agency reported Thursday.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies believe the Houthis are tools for Iran to seize control of Yemen and say they intend to stop the takeover. The Houthis deny they are backed by Iran. Yemen now faces fragmentation, with Houthis controlling much of the north, including the capital of Sanaa, and several southern provinces. In recent days, they took the third-largest city, Taiz, as well as much of the province of Lahj, both just to the north of Aden.

The Houthis are backed by Saleh, the autocrat who ruled Yemen for three decades until he was removed amid a 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Some of the best-equipped and trained military and security units remained loyal to Saleh and they have helped the Houthis in their rapid advance.

Hadi left Sanaa for Aden earlier this month after escaping house arrest under the Houthis, who overran the capital six months ago. In Aden, he had sought to make a last stand, claiming it as the temporary seat of what remained of his government, backed by allied militias and loyal army units.

With Houthis and Saleh forces closing in on multiple fronts, Hadi and his aides left Aden Wednesday on two boats in the Gulf of Aden, security and port officials told AP. The officials would not specify his destination.

Arab leaders are meeting in Egypt this weekend for a pre-planned summit. It is unclear if Hadi will join them.

Saudis, Egypt consider intervention in Yemen, likely by air

March 25, 2015

CAIRO (AP) — With Yemen's president swept out of power by Shiite rebels, neighboring Saudi Arabia and allies such as Egypt are considering whether and how to intervene to stop a takeover of the country by rebels they believe are backed by Shiite Iran.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has asked Gulf countries for military intervention and asked the United Nations to set up a no-fly zone to shut down rebel-held airports that he claims are being used to fly in Iranian weapons. The question is how Arab nations might act: Experts say a ground operation would be a likely impossibly daunting task, but that airstrikes are an option.

Gulf intervention would have been hard enough when Hadi was clinging to his authority after fleeing from the capital Sanaa to the southern port city of Aden. But it became an even tougher issue Wednesday, when Hadi was forced to flee Yemen by boat as rebel fighters — known as Houthis — and their allies advanced into Aden. The Houthis now control much of the north and a few southern provinces, backed by military forces loyal to Hadi's predecessor, longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was removed in 2011 after a popular uprising.

There does remain resistance to the Houthis and Saleh — chiefly Sunni tribesmen in the north and center of the country, local militias and some units of the military and police remain loyal to Hadi, though they are profoundly weakened by his departure. The scattered nature of the opposition raises the question of whom would any foreign intervention being aiming to help. Also battling the Houthis are militants from al-Qaida's branch in Yemen, which has attracted some Sunni tribesmen as allies.

A summit of Arab leaders being held this weekend in Egypt is due to address a proposal to create a joint Arab defense force, an idea promoted by Saudi Arabia and Egypt to intervene in regional crises. Hadi is to attend the summit, being held in the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The summit is also likely to address the crisis in Yemen and how to deal with it — opening the door for a possible Arab League stamp of approval for action.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdellaty said that he and his Arab counterparts would discuss the idea of establishing a joint force on Thursday, to prepare for national leaders to decide on Saturday.

Gulf nations also have cited their own pretext for intervention. The Gulf Cooperation Council, made up of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain, warned earlier this year that they would act to protect the Arabian Peninsula's security and described the Houthi takeover of parts of Yemen as a "terrorist" act. The Gulf's emergency military force, known as Peninsula Shield, intervened in Bahrain in 2011 to help the Sunni monarchy crush protests backed by the Shiite majority.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies fear that the Shiite advance in Yemen is putting that strategic country on the southern Saudi borders into the control of Iran. The Houthis and Iran both deny Tehran is arming the rebels. Still, a direct air route recently opened from Tehran to Sanaa, which has been held by the Houthis since September, officially to being aid and medical supplies. Hadi and his allies say the heavy air traffic along the route is delivering Iranian weapons.

This week, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned that "if the Houthi coup does not end peacefully, we will take the necessary measures for this crisis to protect the region." On Sunday night, Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman visited troops in the south near the Yemen border. According to the state news agency he ordered the rapid completion of plans on building a naval base and new military camps in the area, apparently part of plans to build up the army presence in the area.

Egypt has said for months that it would act if the Houthis threaten vital shipping lanes that lead to its Suez Canal through the Gulf of Aden, an area the Houthis have already approached. Much of the Gulf region's oil exports destined for the West sail through the area.

But what would a military intervention look like? Not a ground invasion, says Sir John Jenkins, Middle East Executive Director for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "I think the likelihood of boots on the ground is very low," he said. "The Houthis are on home terrain, supported by Ali Abdullah Saleh, and have proved themselves effective fighters. They also have heavy weaponry and political support from Iran."

A ground invasion now would face the tough terrain between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and a fierce enemy that for years beat back Yemeni government forces from its northern highland redoubts. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen against the Houthis once before, in late 2009 to early 2010, when the rebels' battle at the time with Saleh's regime spilled over across the border into the kingdom. Saudi Arabia retaliated with airstrikes against the Houthis and a ground incursion. The campaign left more than 130 Saudi troops killed.

More likely now would be airstrikes by some combination of Saudi Arabia, UAE or Bahrain, all of which have advanced versions of American F-16s, or Egypt, which has large numbers of older versions. Egypt would have to send its planes to air bases in Saudi for the raids, and other countries would likely opt to do the same.

Saudi Arabia could also step up its arming of Sunni tribesmen against the Houthis. The kingdom already funds and arms Sunnis in Yemen's Marib province, which borders the kingdom. But with Hadi driven out, there isn't a clear front line for international intervention to support. Any intervention would likely be in the name of restoring Hadi — but doing so with airstrikes alone would be a difficult task.

"Air strikes are a possibility, against military targets, particularly Houthi air assets, artillery and tanks, but that brings its own risks," Jenkins said. "At the moment preserving the integrity of the land border with Saudi Arabia and the key passages in the Red Sea seems to me the priority."

Far-right Hungary mayor imposes tough conditions on Gypsies

July 27, 2015

OZD, Hungary (AP) — The workers wake up in the middle of the night and walk miles to get to their jobs by 6 a.m. Taking up hoes and rakes, they toil for hours with little chance of rest. Soon surveillance cameras shaped like eyeglasses will track their every move.

The workers are mostly Gypsy men and women, and their boss is a new far-right mayor who is cracking down on a group his Jobbik party often casts as an enemy. David Janiczak's leaderhip in Ozd gives clues into what Hungary might feel like if the surging Jobbik managed to unseat Prime Minister Viktor Orban's conservative Fidesz party — which is slumping in popularity.

Jobbik now runs about a dozen Hungarian towns and holds 12 percent of the seats in the national parliament. It is also the most popular party with young voters. If the trend continues, the party could pose a serious challenge to Fidesz in 2018 parliamentary elections.

Since Janiczak won power in Ozd — whose population of 34,000 is about one-third Gypsy — members of the minority who work on city-run farmland and other public projects have seen their work conditions get much harsher. The mayor has imposed longer hours, fewer breaks and soon the introduction of surveillance cameras to ensure that they don't slack off.

Janiczak, 28, suggested that the tough work conditions were at least in part intended to drive Roma away. "Every person in Ozd has two options — they either live in order and integrity and build the city, or they destroy it," Janiczak told The Associated Press. "The majority of these destructive people are Gypsies, without whom ... it would be easier for the city to develop."

With fewer Roma, Janiczak said, the city would spend less on social benefits and people would feel safer. Jobbik often uses the term "Gypsy crimes" to refer to petty thefts and other law-breaking rarely investigated by police. If efforts to integrate the "destroyers" are unsuccessful, he added, "authorities will use the full force of the law."

Jobbik is using Ozd as a "laboratory of government," experimenting with policies and ideas at the municipal level as its support grows across the country, said Peter Kreko, director of the Political Capital Institute, which has been closely following Jobbik for years.

While Jobbik's electoral campaigns last year presented candidates with their families or pets — and downplayed the party's radical views — Kreko said that Ozd showed that beneath the surface Jobbik has not really changed.

"The intentions and plans of Jobbik and its treatment of the public works employees clearly refute its efforts to soften its image," Kreko said. "What is functioning is a very ideological, discriminative racism."

During the communist era, Ozd, 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, had a steel mill which employed some 14,000 people. After the mill and a coal mine closed in the 1990s, the unemployment rate jumped to over 20 percent and unskilled Roma were among the most affected.

Roma laborers make up the bulk of 1,300 Ozd residents taking part in a public employment program that was introduced across Hungary in late 2013 by the Orban government. After Janiczak took office last year he enforced the rules in a stricter way and implemented new ones, such as the use of surveillance cameras. Net pay for unskilled workers is around 51,000 forints ($180, 165 euros) per month, and many are glad to take it as the government has also greatly cut unemployment benefits, which are now called "work search allowances."

On a recent spring day, a crew of about a dozen laborers was preparing some farmland for planting on the outskirts of town. Rakes and hoes in hand, their complaints ranged from getting only one 5-minute break an hour to a lack of drinking water and toilet facilities. Their work day now starts as much as two hours earlier than before Janiczak took over, meaning many need to walk to work because there are few public transportation options so early in the day.

Indignation was strongest over a clause in the new work contract allowing officials to take video and photos of their work performance. "This is only about intimidation," said Bela Biro, a Roma former steel mill worker who works on the city-run farming project. "We don't dare sit down for five minutes. They said we can't, even if blood is running from our nose."

Janiczak said he is only carrying out existing laws. "We want nothing else but to enforce order, enforce employment regulations and educate these people to work," he said. "I think their issue is not with walking, but with ... having to do actual work instead of just showing up."

As for the surveillance, Janiczak said the city had spent 340,000 forints ($1,260; 1,100 euros) on eight video cameras, including two which look like eyeglasses, not just to oversee workers but also to protect supervisors from threats and attacks.

"This is going to clear up many disputes," said the mayor. "In the developed, civilized world every workplace has cameras. Why should the public workers be exempt from this?" Those in the public employment program, he said, should "get used to being observed."

Janiczak said the surveillance plan had been cleared by an official investigation, and that recordings would be made on "exceptional occasions." Human rights activists said the measures amounted to harassment.

"To burden the already defenseless public works employees with the issue of surveillance is unacceptable and embitters their lives," said Mate Szabo, a director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. "It would be more justified to keep the job inspectors under surveillance instead and monitor their treatment of the workers."

Kriszta Bodis, a rights advocate who has been working with the Roma in Ozd for many years, said the mood in the community had deteriorated since Janiczak's victory. "I think the humiliation is what is much stronger now than before," Bodis said.

The new mayor said he his job-creation plans would potentially draw back many of the 15,000 Ozd residents who left over the past two decades. As part of that plan, Janiczak has nominated Ozd as the location for one of several new prisons being built by the government by 2019, which could add 250 jobs. A prison "also deters criminals," the mayor said.

Many of the local Roma live in dire poverty in slums where they lack running water and where the city does not come to remove their garbage. They share a communal water pump and burn garbage nearby. Bodis, who runs the Your Place foundation which mentors disadvantaged Roma students, argued for a more compassionate approach.

"Discipline and order are important," Bodis said. "But it is more important to provide opportunities."

French farmers turn back trucks with foreign meat, cheese

July 27, 2015

PARIS (AP) — French farmers angry over low prices turned back hundreds of trucks at the German border on Monday, looking for cargoes of foreign meat and milk products.

An Associated Press photographer at the German frontier saw farmers stopping refrigerated trucks to verify their contents on Monday, and one of the protest's organizers said 300 trucks had been turned back since the morning. Other vehicles were allowed to cross freely.

Police in France tend to avoid intervening in peaceful protests, and French President Francois Hollande on Monday said he backed the farmers and called for a high-level meeting of European agricultural officials.

"Between now and then, we will continue to pressure, so that the farmers are certain, protests or not, that we are at their side," he said. German Agriculture Ministry spokesman Jens Urban declined to comment on the protest but said he didn't think it was leading to a total stoppage of German agricultural exports to France.

The farmers also blocked the Spanish and German border highways on Sunday as part of an ongoing protest against low prices caused by cheap imports and pressure from grocery chains that have put about 10 percent of livestock farms on the verge of bankruptcy, according to the government.

"French agriculture is suffocating and no one realizes it and no one says anything," Franck Sander, president of the main farmers' federation in the Bas-Rhin region, told France-Info radio. The French government last week offered a 600-million euro ($654 million) agricultural plan to back loans and delay tax payments for farmers, who say that is not enough. France cannot give direct financial aid under EU rules.

A senior official with the German Farmers' Association expressed understanding for French farmers' demand for higher producer prices, but argued that their criticism of wage costs in Germany is no longer justified. Germany introduced a national minimum wage of 8.50 euros ($9.3) an hour this year, which will have a negative impact on farming, deputy general secretary Udo Hemmerling told N24 television.

German food and agriculture exports to France last year totaled 5.6 billion euros, while Germany imported 6 billion euros worth of French such products.

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

IOC awards Olympic broadcast rights to Qatar's beIN Media

July 27, 2015

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The International Olympic Committee has awarded broadcast rights in the Middle East and North Africa from 2018-2024 to Qatar's beIN Media Group.

The IOC said Monday the deal would cover the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, and Olympics in 2022 and 2024. The IOC hasn't yet chosen hosts for 2022 and 2024.

The beIN Media Group acquired Al Jazeera's sports channels in 2013. Its sports arm now has 36 channels worldwide, broadcasting in North America, Europe and Asia, as well as the Middle East and North Africa.

BeIN already shows Spanish, Italian and French soccer leagues in the United States and Canada.

Putin OKs maritime code calling for strong Atlantic presence

July 26, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a new version of the country's maritime doctrine that calls for maintaining a strong Russian presence in the Atlantic Ocean amid concerns about NATO expansion.

The doctrine, which covers naval, merchant marine and scientific maritime issues, also adds the Antarctic as a region of strategic interest for Russia. Putin gave his approval on Sunday at a meeting with military officials and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in Baltiisk, where he observed elaborate ceremonies marking Navy Day.

The new doctrine states that NATO is pursuing "unacceptable" plans to move military infrastructure to Russia's borders. Rogozin, a strong critic of NATO, told the meeting that the new doctrine reflects "changes in the international political situation and the objective strengthening of Russia as a great naval power."

Shiite rebels fire on protesters in south Yemen, killing 6

March 25, 2015

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Shiite rebels fired bullets and tear gas Tuesday to disperse thousands of protesters demanding they withdraw from a southwestern province, killing six demonstrators, wounding scores more and escalating tensions in a country on the verge of civil war.

The rebels, known as Houthis, seized the capital Sanaa in September and have been advancing south alongside forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In recent days they have closed in on the southern port city of Aden, where the internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is now based.

Hadi on Tuesday asked the U.N. Security Council to authorize a military intervention "to protect Yemen and to deter the Houthi aggression expected to occur at any hour from now" against Aden and the rest of the south. In a letter to the council's president, Hadi said he also has asked members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League for immediate help.

Massive protests were held in the third largest city of Taiz — which the rebels largely seized over the weekend — and in Torba, some 60 miles (100 kilometers) away, where witnesses said the streets were filled with thick black smoke from burning tires and where protesters torched three armored vehicles.

"Torba turned into a ball of fire," said Khaled al-Asswadi, a resident. He said the protesters prevented the Houthis from advancing into the city. A medical official said six protesters were killed and dozens wounded in Torba. Local activists posted pictures on social media of what they said were dead protesters, their clothes drenched in blood.

Another witness, Mohammed Salem, said the Houthis and Saleh's forces fired anti-aircraft guns to scare off the protesters, "but the number of protesters increased instead." In a statement, Yemen's Socialist Party warned that the Houthis' invasion of the mostly Sunni south would set off a "sectarian war."

Gov. Shawki Hayel of Taiz province meanwhile accused top security commanders of mutiny, saying a special forces commander ordered his men to disperse the protesters without consulting him, according to an official in Hayel's office. Hayel threatened to resign in protest, said the official.

Yemen's security forces, which have received U.S. aid and assistance in order to battle a powerful local al-Qaida affiliate, have splintered, with entire units rallying to Saleh and the rebels. Amnesty International, citing medics, said 119 people were wounded in the anti-Houthi demonstration and called for an inquiry into the crackdown.

"Human rights in Yemen are in free-fall as even peaceful protest becomes a life-threatening activity," said Said Boumedouha, the deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program. Taiz is Yemen's third largest city and the birthplace of its 2011 Arab Spring-inspired uprising, which forced Saleh to hand over power to Hadi in a deal brokered by the U.N. and Gulf countries the following year.

But Saleh never fully retired, and has been widely accused of acting through his loyalists in the government and security forces to derail the country's democratic transition. He is now allied with the rebels, and his loyalists helped the Houthis to take over the airport and other government buildings in Taiz.

In addition to dispersing the protesters, the Houthis also engaged in heavy fighting with militias loyal to Hadi in the city of al-Dhalea, where the two sides used artillery, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, according to a Yemeni security official. The Houthis and troops loyal to Saleh have taken over the governor's office there.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Houthis hail from the Shiite Zaydi community, which makes up around a third of Yemen's population and is concentrated in the north. The Houthis' opponents view them as a proxy of Shiite Iran, charges they deny.

Hadi fled house arrest in Sanaa last month and has set up a base in Aden, the capital of the once-independent south. On Monday he called for the U.N. to set up a no-fly zone. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal meanwhile warned that "if the Houthi coup does not end peacefully, we will take the necessary measures for this crisis to protect the region."

The Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain — warned earlier this year that they would act to protect the Arabian Peninsula's security and described the Houthi takeover as a "terrorist" act.

The Houthis meanwhile rejected an invitation to participate in any dialogue talks if they are held in Saudi Arabia or Qatar. Houthi spokesman Said Abdul-Salam said on his Facebook page Tuesday that both of those countries opposed his movement.

Associated Press writer Cara Anna at the United Nations contributed.

Shiite rebels call for Yemen offensive; US troops evacuate

By Ahmed Al-Haj
March 22, 2015

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's Shiite rebels issued a call to arms Saturday to battle forces loyal to the country's embattled president, as U.S. troops were evacuating a southern air base crucial to America's drone strike program after al-Qaida militants seized a nearby city.

The turmoil comes as Yemen battles al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the target of the drone program, and faces a purported affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group that claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings killing at least 137 people Friday.

All these factors could push the Arab world's most impoverished country, united only in the 1990s, back toward civil war.

"I hate to say this, but I'm hearing the loud and clear beating of the drums of war in Yemen," Mohammed al-Basha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, D.C., wrote on Twitter.

The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, swept into Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in September and now control it and nine of the country's 21 provinces. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a one-time prisoner of the Houthis in his own home, escaped last month and installed himself in Aden, declaring it the temporary capital amid the Houthi insurrection.

Earlier Saturday, Hadi gave his first televised address since fleeing the capital, striking a defiant tone. He described the rebels' rule as "a coup against constitutional legitimacy." He also pledged to raise the Yemeni flag over the Maran mountains, a stronghold for the Houthis, members of the Shiite Zaydi sect that represents nearly 30 percent of Yemen's population.

Hadi also said regional Shiite power Iran supported the Houthis, something critics also allege and the rebels deny. Sunni Gulf countries have lined up to support Hadi and have moved their embassies to Aden to back him against the Shiite rebels.

Almost immediately after Hadi's speech, the Houthis issued a statement announcing their offensive against security and military institutions loyal to Hadi, calling it a battle against extremists.

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's Shiite rebels issued a call to arms Saturday to battle forces loyal to the country's embattled president, as U.S. troops were evacuating a southern air base crucial to America's drone strike program after al-Qaida militants seized a nearby city.

The turmoil comes as Yemen battles al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the target of the drone program, and faces a purported affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group that claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings killing at least 137 people Friday.

All these factors could push the Arab world's most impoverished country, united only in the 1990s, back toward civil war.

"I hate to say this, but I'm hearing the loud and clear beating of the drums of war in Yemen," Mohammed al-Basha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, D.C., wrote on Twitter.

The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, swept into Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in September and now control it and nine of the country's 21 provinces. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a one-time prisoner of the Houthis in his own home, escaped last month and installed himself in Aden, declaring it the temporary capital amid the Houthi insurrection.

Earlier Saturday, Hadi gave his first televised address since fleeing the capital, striking a defiant tone. He described the rebels' rule as "a coup against constitutional legitimacy." He also pledged to raise the Yemeni flag over the Maran mountains, a stronghold for the Houthis, members of the Shiite Zaydi sect that represents nearly 30 percent of Yemen's population.

Hadi also said regional Shiite power Iran supported the Houthis, something critics also allege and the rebels deny. Sunni Gulf countries have lined up to support Hadi and have moved their embassies to Aden to back him against the Shiite rebels.

Almost immediately after Hadi's speech, the Houthis issued a statement announcing their offensive against security and military institutions loyal to Hadi, calling it a battle against extremists.

"The council announces this decision to call the proud sons of the Yemeni people in all regions to unite and support and cooperate with the armed and security forces in confronting terrorist forces," they said in the statement carried by the Houthi-controlled state news agency SABA.

Though seizing power in Sanaa and clashing with those protesting their power grab, the Houthis largely haven't resorted to open warfare since beginning their campaign in September. Their statement Saturday immediately recalled the years of war fought in the country, once split between a Marxist south that once was a British colony and a northern republic.

As the threat of civil war grew, the U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting for Sunday afternoon beginning at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) to discuss the Yemen crisis. The U.N. spokesman's office said that after a briefing on the situation in Yemen, the council would meet in closed session for consultations. Representatives of Yemen and Qatar, which currently heads the Gulf Cooperation Council, were scheduled to speak.

Meanwhile Saturday, U.S. troops including Special Forces commandos were evacuating from the al-Annad air base in southern Yemen, Yemeni security and military officials said. The air base, the country's largest, was believed to have some 100 American troops stationed there.

Late Saturday, the U.S. State Department said in a statement that it "has temporarily relocated its remaining personnel out of Yemen."

Saturday night, a security official in Aden said a military transport plane from Oman evacuated 16 British military and security forces. He and other security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

On Friday, al-Qaida militants seized control of the southern provincial capital of al-Houta in the group's most dramatic grab of territory in years. That's just nearby the al-Annad air base, which has been the scene of rocket attacks in the past by militants.

Maj. Gen. Mahmoud al-Subeihi, the country's defense minister who is loyal to Hadi, said troops would be deployed near the base to protect it from militants.

The al-Annad base is where American and European military advisers help Yemen battle the country's local al-Qaida branch through drone strikes and logistical support. That group, which holds territory in eastern Yemen, has said it directed the recent attack against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

U.S. forces also have been involved in at least two hostage rescue raids in Yemen in recent months, including one that saw militants kill an American photojournalist and a South African teacher in December.

It's unclear what the pullout will mean for the drone program. The U.S. has carried out more than 100 suspected drone strikes in Yemen since 2009, according to the New America Foundation's International Security Program, which tracks the American campaign. Civilian casualties from the strikes have stoked widespread anti-American sentiment in the country.

All this comes a day after suicide bombers attacked a pair of mosques in Sanaa, unleashing monstrous blasts that killed 137 people, including at least 13 children. A purported affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombings, which also wounded 357 people — raising the alarming possibility the extremist group has expanded its presence to Yemen after already setting up a branch in Libya. U.S. officials expressed skeptisim about the claim, though there have been several online statements by individual Yemeni militants declaring allegiance to the Islamic State group.

The presence of the Islamic State group could set up yet another conflict in Yemen, as al-Qaida and the extremists holding a third of Iraq and Syria already are rivals.

Associated Press writers Brian Rohan and Jon Gambrell in Cairo contributed to this report.

Shiite rebel leader vows to fight rivals in Yemen's south

March 22, 2015

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's Shiite rebel leader escalated his attack Sunday against the country's embattled president, vowing to send fighters to the south where Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi has taken refuge. The fiery speech came hours after his militia seized the third- largest city of Taiz, an important station in its advance.

Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, who is backed by supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the mobilization is aimed at fighting al-Qaida and other militant groups, as well as forces loyal to Hadi who are in the south intending to further destabilize Yemen.

In his one-hour speech on al-Masirah TV, al-Houthi called Hadi a "puppet" to international and regional powers who want to "import the Libyan model" to Yemen. He named the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as conspirators against Yemen and other countries in the region.

Libya is torn by warring militias with rival parliaments on either end of the country claiming legitimacy and radicals from the Islamic State group taking root. Yemen's turmoil has deepened since the Shiite rebel group, known as the Houthis, seized Sanaa in September, putting Hadi under house arrest and eventually dissolving the country's parliament. They now control at least nine of the country's 21 provinces.

Hadi, who is backed by the international community, fled to Aden — the country's second most important city and economic hub — declaring it a de-facto capital earlier this month. The U.N.'s special envoy for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, warned an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Sunday that events were pushing the country "to the edge of civil war." Benomar, appearing in a video briefing from Qatar, said "it would be an illusion" to think the Houthis could take control of the entire country, and he urged all parties to resolve the conflict peacefully.

The escalation Sunday began when forces loyal to Saleh took over Taiz and its international airport. Security officials allied with Hadi said the rebel forces were already mobilizing tanks and fighters on the road from Taiz to neighboring Lahj province, apparently on their way to Aden.

"The decision (to mobilize) aims to confront the criminal forces, al-Qaida, and its partners and sisters, and all those who want to take cover in regions or using political pretexts," al-Houthi said. He accused Hadi of partnering with militant groups to destabilize Yemen.

Security officials said one person was killed and four wounded when rebel fighters opened fire on protesting crowds in Taiz against their advance in the city, which was known as a hotbed for protests against Saleh in the beginning of 2011 that forced him to step down.

The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press. If the rebels hold onto Taiz, the capital of Yemen's most populous province, it would pose a major threat to Hadi in Aden, just 140 kilometers (85 miles) away.

The turmoil has undermined Yemen's ability to combat al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the target of a U.S. drone program, and the country now also faces a purported affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings killing at least 137 people Friday.

A day earlier, U.S. troops evacuated a southern air base crucial to the drone program after al-Qaida militants seized a nearby city. All these factors could push the Arab world's most impoverished country, united only in the 1990s, back toward civil war.

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

In shift, Turkish jets strike Islamic State targets in Syria

July 24, 2015

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — In a major tactical shift, Turkish warplanes struck Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria on Friday, a day after IS militants fired at a Turkish military outpost. A Syrian rights group said the airstrikes killed nine IS fighters.

Turkey, which straddles Europe and Asia and borders the Middle East, had long been reluctant to join the U.S.-led coalition against the extremist group. In a related, long-awaited development, Turkey said it has agreed to allow U.S.-led coalition forces to base manned and unmanned aircraft at its air bases for operations targeting the IS group.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said Turkey's military would also take part in the operations. The ministry would not provide details on the agreement, citing operational reasons, but said it expected Turkey's cooperation to "make a difference" to the campaign. The statement did not say which bases would be used, but Turkish media reports said they would include Incirlik, Diyarbakir and Batman, all in southern Turkey near the border with Syria.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed earlier that Turkey had agreed to let the U.S. use Incirlik air base for operations "within a certain framework." A U.S. official said the agreement was reached during a phone call this week with President Barack Obama.

In June 2014, the Islamic State group launched a blitz, capturing large parts of Iraq and of Syria — which has been ravaged by a four-year-old civil war. The group subsequently declared an Islamic caliphate on the territory it controls. The U.S.-led coalition has been striking the group in both Syria and Iraq.

Turkish police also launched a major operation Friday against extremist groups including the Islamic State, detaining more than 290 people in simultaneous raids in Istanbul and 12 provinces. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the airstrikes Friday had "removed potential threats" to Turkey, hitting their targets with "100 percent accuracy." He did not rule out further airstrikes, saying Turkey was determined to stave off all terror threats.

"This was not a point operation, this is a process," Davutoglu said. "It is not limited to one day or to one region ... the slightest movement threatening Turkey will be retaliated against in the strongest way possible."

A government official said three F-16 jets took off from Diyarbakir air base in southeast Turkey early Friday and used smart bombs to hit three IS targets. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules requiring authorization for comment.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the three Turkish airstrikes were all near the border, hitting north of the village of Hawar al-Nahr, east of the Rai area and west of the town of Jarablous.

He said the airstrikes killed nine IS fighters, wounded 12 others and destroyed at least one IS vehicle and a heavy machine gun. The private Dogan news agency said as many as 35 IS militants were killed in the airstrikes, but did not cite a source.

The Observatory also reported that an airstrike targeted a post near the border with Turkey for al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front. It said it was not clear if Turkish warplanes or those of the U.S.-led coalition struck the Nusra Front position.

Davutoglu said Turkish planes did not violate Syrian airspace Friday, but he did not rule out incursions in the future. He denied news reports claiming that Turkey had told the Syrian regime about the airstrikes, but said it had contacted NATO allies before the operation.

The agreement on the Turkish air bases follows months of U.S. appeals to Turkey and delicate negotiations. Davutoglu said Friday that an agreement that takes Turkey's concerns into account had been reached, but did not elaborate.

Turkey's moves came as the country finds itself drawn further into the conflict in neighboring Syria by a series of deadly attacks and signs of increased IS activity inside Turkey itself. A government statement said the airstrikes were approved Thursday after IS militants fired from Syrian territory at the Turkish military outpost, killing one soldier. A funeral was held Friday for the slain Turkish soldier, Yalcin Nane, where mourners denounced IS violence, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Officials said Friday's airstrikes were codenamed "Operation Yalcin" in his honor. The agency said as many as 5,000 police officers were involved in Friday's sweep against suspected extremists, which also targeted the PKK Kurdish rebel group and the outlawed far-left group DHKP-C. Davutoglu said those detained included 37 foreign nationals but did not name their home countries.

One DHKP-C suspect, a woman, was killed in a gunfight with police in Istanbul, Anadolu reported. The agency said those detained in Istanbul included Halis Bayuncuk, an alleged IS cell leader in the city who is suspected of having helped recruit supporters.

On Monday, a suicide bombing blamed on IS militants killed 32 people in Suruc, a Turkish town near the Syrian border. The bombing ignited protests from Turkey's Kurds, who said the government had not done enough to prevent attacks from the IS group.

Turkish officials say the Suruc bombing could be retaliation for Turkey's crackdown on IS operations. In the last six months, more than 500 people suspected of working with the IS group in Turkey have been detained, officials say.

Butler reported from Istanbul. Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed.

After delays, construction begins on destroyed homes in Gaza

July 23, 2015

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Undeterred by scorching heat, Palestinian workers in Gaza on Thursday hammered nails into wooden boards and jolted steel bars as they lay the foundations for the first group of homes to be rebuilt since the war with Israel last summer. The work brought a rare glimmer of hope to a territory that remains devastated a year after the fighting.

The long-awaited reconstruction started in Shijaiyah, one of Gaza's areas that was hardest hit during the 50-day war between Israel and the Islamic militant Hamas group. "Thank God!" said Sharif Harara, 50, who stood under the sun as the workers laid the foundation of his new residence. "After a year of suffering in rental homes, our God brought his mercy."

Last year's fighting was the third and most devastating war between the bitter enemies since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the rival Palestinian Authority, dominated by President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party. Over 2,200 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side were killed in the fighting.

The war also destroyed 11,900 homes and damaged about 140,000 dwellings, according to the Palestinian Minister of Public Works Mufeed al-Hasayneh, whose ministry oversees the rebuilding. One year later, thousands of houses with minor or moderate damage have been repaired under strict guidelines agreed to by Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations. But so far, no new homes have been built to replace those that were completely destroyed.

Reconstruction efforts have also been hampered by unmet international funding promises, the rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which remains the internationally recognized government for the Palestinians, and continued Israeli security restrictions — though Israel has recently taken steps to increase the flow of goods into Gaza.

Shijaiyah is one of Gaza City's most densely populated and impoverished neighborhoods. Entire city blocks were laid to waste there in fierce fighting between hundreds of Hamas gunmen and Israeli troops.

The first houses are being rebuilt as part of a Qatari-funded project that will see 1,000 housing units reconstructed. For residents in Shijaiyah, where entire blocks remain flattened, it was a rare sign of progress and hope.

Harara used to have a two-floor home for his 10-member family. His new house will only have one floor. But he doesn't mind, he said. "I quickly signed on it to get rid of the suffering," he said. Harara's old home was one of over 60 housing units in a bloc of buildings shared by his extended family that was destroyed by artillery shells and airstrikes last summer.

Only four housing units are being rebuilt in the Qatari project. The four homes were the first to receive Israeli approval for the necessary building materials, according to Al-Hasayneh. But he said Israel has approved requests to build more than 630 additional homes funded by Qatar. In addition, plans are in the works for another 1,000 homes funded by Kuwait, he said.

"I think within two weeks, there will be a revolution in construction," said al-Hasayneh, the Palestinian minister. Harara's brother, Ziad, a teacher who also lost his house, said he was excited to see Sharif's new home begin to take shape. "This gave me a huge hope," he said, standing outside a tent he erected on the empty lot where his house once stood.

But others were less positive. Among them was Hussam Harara, 37, a cousin of Sharif and Ziad. His home is nearby, in an apartment building that was moderately damaged. "Those with total destruction started rebuilding while nobody gave us any money to repair," he said.

He frowned as he pointed out a freshly painted white mosque that was quickly repaired by Hamas. "This is a Hamas mosque," he said. "They repaired the mosque and the house that has children was not repaired."