Iraqi forces battle waves of suicide car bombs in Mosul push

November 13, 2016

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi forces battled waves of suicide car bombs on Sunday as they attempt to advance deeper into Mosul in the face of heavy resistance from the Islamic State group. Troops are converging from several fronts on the city, Iraq's second-largest and the extremists' last major holdout in the country. The special forces have advanced the furthest so far, and hold a handful of urban districts.

Officers say they have cleared the neighborhoods of Qadisiya and Zahra, and are planning to advance further in the coming hours. Over the past week they have inched forward slowly, trying to avoid casualties among their troops and civilians as suicide bombers in armor-plated vehicles rush forward from hiding spots among densely populated areas.

"The only weapons they have left are car bombs and explosives," said Iraqi special forces Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi as he radioed with commanders in the field. "There are so many civilian cars and any one of them could be a bomb," he said.

Several suicide car bombers attacked in the same area on Saturday, wounding around a dozen troops, three civilians, and killing a child, officers said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief reporters.

The troops are building berms and road blocks to prevent car bombs from breaching the front lines. Since last week's quick advance into Mosul proper, they have struggled to hold territory under heavy IS counterattacks.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release official casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the operation to liberate the city began on Oct. 17. Meanwhile, a leading U.S.-based rights group released a report alleging that security forces of Iraq's regional Kurdish government had routinely destroyed Arab homes and even some whole villages in areas retaken from the Islamic State group over the past two years.

The Human Rights Watch report says that between September 2014 and May 2016, Kurdish forces advancing against IS destroyed Arab homes in disputed areas of Kirkuk and Ninevah provinces, while Kurdish homes were left intact. It says the demolitions took place in disputed areas in northern Iraq which the Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of the central government.

Sunni Arab politicians have previously accused the Kurds of seeking to recast the demographics of mixed areas in northern Iraq. The struggle is particularly intense in the oil-rich Kirkuk region. "In village after village in Kirkuk and Ninevah, KRG security forces destroyed Arab homes — but not those belonging to Kurds — for no legitimate military purpose," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "KRG leaders' political goals don't justify demolishing homes illegally."

All sides fighting in the battle for Mosul have been accused of human rights abuses, with the worst allegations focusing on IS. Kurdish forces have been accused of destroying Arab homes before, with a report last year by Amnesty International alleging that the peshmerga carried out the attacks in retaliation for what they said was the Arab communities' support for IS.

Kurdish authorities say they abide by human rights laws and deny having any strategy to destroy homes. But they say some villages in which the population fought alongside IS have suffered extensive destruction because of the ferocity of the battles.

Kurdish officials could not be immediately reached for comment on the fresh allegations.

Rohan reported from Baghdad.

UN reports civilian killings, other atrocities in Mosul

November 11, 2016

BASHIQA, Iraq (AP) — New reports emerged Friday of public killings and other atrocities committed against Mosul residents by Islamic State militants, including dozens of civilians whose bullet-riddled bodies were hung from telephone polls after they were accused of using cellphones to leak information to Iraqi security forces.

The United Nations human rights office said IS fighters killed some 70 civilians in Mosul this week, part of a litany of abuses to come to light in recent days, including torture, sexual exploitation of women and girls, and use of child soldiers who were filmed executing civilians.

The revelations are the latest reports of IS brutality as the group retreats into dense urban quarters of Iraqi's second-largest city, forcing the population to go with them as human shields. In its report, the U.N. human rights office in Geneva said IS shot and killed 40 people on Tuesday after accusing them of "treason and collaboration," saying they communicated with Iraqi security forces by cellphone. The bodies, dressed in orange jumpsuits, were hung from electrical poles in Mosul.

A day later, the extremists reportedly shot to death 20 civilians at a military base. Their bodies were hung at traffic intersections in Mosul, with signs saying they "used cellphones to leak information."

A Mosul resident, reached by telephone, said crowds have been watching the killings in horror. One victim was a former police colonel, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety.

The violence is part of a disturbing pattern. As the army advances, IS militants have been rounding up thousands of people and killing those with suspected links to the security forces. Soldiers last week discovered a mass grave in the town of Hamam al-Alil, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Mosul, containing some 100 bodies.

At the same time, the militants have gone door to door in villages south of Mosul, ordering hundreds to march at gunpoint into the city. Combat in Mosul's dense urban areas is expected to be heavy, and the presence of civilians will slow the army's advance as it seeks to avoid casualties.

IS militants have boasted of the atrocities in grisly online photos and video. The United Nations has urged authorities to collect evidence of IS abuses of civilians to use in eventually prosecuting the militants in tribunals.

Iraqi troops are advancing from four fronts on Mosul, the last major IS holdout in Iraq. As Iraqi special forces battle in eastern neighborhoods of the city, Kurdish peshmerga forces are holding a line north of the city, while Iraqi army and militarized police units approach from the south. Government-sanctioned Shiite militias are guarding western approaches.

In the formerly IS-held town of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, Kurdish commander Gen. Hamid Effendi said his forces were working to secure the area but faced booby traps that were holding up the advance.

More than a thousand unexploded bombs are believed buried in Bashiqa, Effendi said. Over 100 IS fighters have been killed in combat, he added, but wounded fighters likely remain in defensive tunnels built by the militants.

On Friday, teams went building by building into the night detonating explosives left behind in Bashiqa, which was deserted except for a few residents trickling in to check on their homes and businesses.

Among them was 60-year-old Khan Amir Mohammed, who discovered that his home had been turned into a mortar post by the militants, who dug seven tunnels on his family's 3 1/2-acre property before retreating.

Ammunition tubes and English-language instruction pamphlets for launching mortars littered the floor in one room. Another had been turned into a makeshift mosque, with lines taped to the floor for worshipers to line up to pray.

A nearby shop where Mohammed sold animal feed had collapsed from an apparent airstrike. "What can I say? I feel powerless," he said, surveying the destruction. Down the road, Kurdish forces were detonating bombs left behind by the militants. First Sgt. Ayub Mustafa said his unit alone had disabled some 250 bombs, the vast majority homemade explosives.

"Apparently they have a smart electrician with them. They're well-made," he said. Special forces troops entered the Qadisiya neighborhood on Friday, the 26th day of the campaign to retake Mosul, exchanging small arms and mortar fire with IS positions and advancing slowly to avoid killing civilians and being surprised by suicide car bombers, said Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil.

Regular army troops control 90 percent of the Intisar neighborhood, said one officer, but progress has slowed because "the streets are too narrow for our tanks." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Meanwhile, the U.N. cited new evidence the militants have used chemical weapons, escalating fears IS will resort to chemical warfare to try to hold onto the city, still home to more than a million people.

Rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva that four people died from inhaling fumes after IS shelled and set fires to the al-Mishrag Sulfur Gas Factory in Mosul on Oct. 23. Shamdasani said reports indicated that IS has stockpiled large amounts of ammonia and sulfur and placed them near civilians. "We can only speculate how they intend to use this," she said. "We are simply raising the alarm that this is happening, that this is being stockpiled."

She also noted a video posted online by IS on Wednesday showing four children, believed to be aged 10 to 14, gunning down four people accused of spying for Kurdish and Iraqi security forces. U.N. officials say about 48,000 people have now fled Mosul since the government campaign began on Oct. 17.

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Susannah George in Qayara, Iraq, contributed to this report.

Iraq troops pause in advance on Mosul to drive out IS

November 10, 2016

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi troops consolidated gains in their advance on the northern city of Mosul on Thursday, regrouping as they clear neighborhoods and houses once occupied by the Islamic State group. In Mosul proper, where troops have a foothold in a sliver of territory in the city's east, the special forces control the Zahra neighborhood, once named after former dictator Saddam Hussein, military officials said.

They have taken at least half of the Aden neighborhood and clashes were still ongoing there, while the regular army's ninth division is stationed in east Mosul's Intisar neighborhood, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief reporters. Skirmishes also continued in the city's southern outskirts.

Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces operating the key air campaign against IS, said that advancing troops and aircraft have destroyed some 70 tunnels the jihadis had been using to launch surprise attacks from inside densely populated areas.

"They've set up elaborate defenses, and we have to assume they'll do anything among the civilian population because they don't care about anyone," he said, noting that airstrikes had hit hundreds of IS positions in the three-week old Mosul campaign.

Iraqi troops are converging from several fronts on Mosul, the country's second largest city and the last major IS holdout in Iraq. Kurdish peshmerga forces are holding a line outside the city in the north, while Iraqi army and militarized police units approach from the south and government-sanctioned Shiite militias are guarding the western approaches.

The offensive has slowed in recent days as the special forces, the troops who have advanced the farthest, push into more densely populated areas of the city's east, where they cannot rely as much on airstrikes and shelling because of the risk posed to civilians who have been told to stay in their homes.

Over 34,000 people have been displaced in the fighting and are settling in camps and host communities in nearby provinces. Troops are trying to screen the crowds for potential IS fighters attempting to sneak out among the civilians, and some have admitted to meting out what they consider swift justice, by executing them.

On Thursday, Amnesty International issued its latest report on the abuses of security forces, urging the government to investigate and stop cases of arbitrary detention, forced disappearances and ill-treatment of prisoners. The London-based rights organization said it visited villages near the Shura and Qayara areas outside Mosul, where it says up to six people were "extrajudicially executed" in late October over suspected ties to IS.

"Men in Federal Police uniform have carried out multiple unlawful killings, apprehending and then deliberately killing in cold blood residents in villages south of Mosul," said Amnesty's Lynn Maalouf. "In some cases the residents were tortured before they were shot dead execution-style."

The battle front in that area has moved further north toward Mosul. Forces there are at the town of Hamam al-Alil, said Brig. Firas Bashar, the spokesman for Nineveh operations command. To the northeast, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the city, peshmerga continued to take territory in the town of Bashiqa, believed to be largely deserted except for dozens of IS fighters. They've have had the town surrounded for weeks, and have assaulted it with mortar and artillery fire.

At an area church in territory freshly freed from the militants' grip, priests rang bells for the first time in two years on Wednesday as the peshmerga worked to secure the town. "We are so happy at the liberation," said the Rev. Elkhoury Alfaran Elkhoury at the Mart Shoomy Church in Bahzani, a village near Bashiqa.

"They want to give a message to the world, and that message is damage, their message is destruction, their message is death," he said, highlighting damage to the church made by the jihadis while they occupied the area.

In New York, the U.N. said the progress meant that the days were numbered for the self-styled caliphate declared by IS from Mosul in 2014. "This liberation operation marks the beginning of the end of the so-called 'Da'esh caliphate' in Iraq," the U.N. envoy for the country told the Security Council on Wednesday, using the group's Arabic acronym.

Jan Kubis said that the U.N.'s humanitarian agencies were preparing to shelter even more of the tens of thousands of displaced people as winter approaches. He also warned that reconciliation and restoration of confidence in the government was necessary if the victories against IS are to be lasting.

Associated Press writers Brian Rohan in Baghdad and Susannah George in Qayara, Iraq contributed to this report.

Iraqi Kurds seize IS-held town near Mosul

By Maya Gebeily with Delil Souleiman in Ain Issa, Syria
Bashiqa, Iraq (AFP)
Nov 8, 2016

Iraqi Kurdish forces have seized the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from the Islamic State group, an official said Tuesday, as US-backed militia forces advanced on the jihadists' Syrian stronghold Raqa.

Capturing Bashiqa would be a final step in securing the eastern approaches to Mosul, three weeks into an offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the country's second city.

Iraqi troops have also seized the town of Hamam al-Alil south of Mosul, and Tuesday investigators carried out an initial examination of a mass grave site discovered in the area.

Bashiqa was under the "complete control" of Kurdish peshmerga forces, Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the Kurdish regional ministry responsible for the fighters, told AFP.

"Our forces are clearing mines and sweeping the city," Yawar said.

An AFP correspondent on the outskirts of Bashiqa said clashes were ongoing, with three air strikes hitting the town and gunfire and an explosion heard.

The peshmerga said there were still some suicide bombers and snipers there, and that about five percent of Bashiqa remained under jihadist control.

Iraqi forces have been tightening the noose around Mosul since launching the offensive on October 17, with elite troops last week breaching city limits.

Upping pressure on the jihadists, the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia alliance on Saturday began its own offensive on IS's other main bastion, Raqa in Syria.

Raqa and Mosul are the last major cities in Syria and Iraq under IS control, and their capture would deal a knockout blow to the self-styled "caliphate" it declared in mid-2014.

- 'Determined to succeed' -

The US-led coalition that launched operations against IS two years ago is providing crucial backing to both offensives, with air strikes and special forces advisers on the ground.

SDF forces have been pushing south from areas near the Turkish border towards Raqa, and alliance spokeswoman Jihan Sheikh Ahmed said Tuesday they had moved to within 36 kilometers (22 miles) of the city.

"Two more villages have been taken since yesterday," she told AFP, adding that SDF forces had so far advanced 14 kilometers (nine miles) closer to Raqa from Ain Issa, the operation's main staging point.

"The fighting continues; morale is good and our fighters are determined that this offensive will succeed," she said.

The fighting has prompted a steady trickle of civilians to flee IS territory, most heading towards Ain Issa.

"We were afraid of the planes, and we were afraid of the IS fighters," said 34-year-old Wazira Al-Jeely from Al-Tuwaila village.

"When the strikes started, we took off our burqas and said we're done with you, and we ran away."

Like in the battle for Mosul, the goal of the Raqa offensive is to surround and isolate the jihadists inside the city before mounting a street-to-street assault.

In both cases officials are warning of long and bloody battles ahead, with IS expected to put up fierce resistance and use trapped civilians as human shields.

More than a million people are believed to be in Mosul. Raqa in 2011 had a pre-war population of some 240,000, and more than 80,000 people have since fled there from elsewhere in Syria.

Iraqi forces scored another victory against IS on Monday by establishing full control over Hamam al-Alil, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the edge of Mosul and the last town of note on the way to the city from the south.

- Mass grave site -

They said a mass grave was found at an agricultural college in the area, with the offensive's Joint Operations Command saying "100 bodies of citizens with their heads cut off" had been uncovered.

An AFP journalist Tuesday said body parts and bones were visible among rubbish dumped there.

Men in Iraqi security forces uniforms used ropes to pull two bodies, one headless, from the grave, and also removed a decapitated head.

"Today, the team conducted an initial examination," said Mohammed Taher al-Tamimi, an Iraqi cabinet official.

Tamimi said the victims had been blindfolded with their hands and feet bound.

He said around 25 bodies were initially visible, but investigators believed there "very large numbers" of corpses there.

Dhiyab Tareq, a 32-year-old from the area, said he had heard shots when IS carried out executions at the site.

"I was sitting close to the door and heard the gunshots," Tareq said, adding that the next day IS members boasted about killing security forces members.

IS's rule has been marked by atrocities including mass beheadings and other executions that it has documented in photos and videos that its supporters share online.

The United Nations said Tuesday that IS fighters "forcibly moved about 1,500 families from Hamam al-Alil town to Mosul airport" on November 4.

The UN has warned for weeks that IS is making civilians living in districts around Mosul move into the city.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iraqi_Kurds_seize_IS-held_town_near_Mosul_999.html.

Iraqi Kurdish forces advance on IS-held town east of Mosul

November 07, 2016

NEAR BASHIQA, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi Kurdish fighters exchanged heavy fire with IS militants early on Monday as they advanced from two directions on a town held by the Islamic State group east of the city of Mosul.

The early morning offensive to reclaim the town of Bashiqa is part of the broader push to drive IS out of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the militants' last major urban stronghold in the country.

Bashiqa, which is believed to be largely deserted except for dozens of IS fighters, is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) northeast of the edge of Mosul and about 20 kilometers from the city center. Iraqi special forces entered Mosul last week and have made some progress in gaining a foothold on the city's eastern edges. But progress inside the city has been slowed as troops push into more densely populated areas.

Iraq's special forces are suffering casualties as militant bog them down with suicide car bombs, booby traps and close-quarters fighting along narrow streets. IS still holds territory to the north, south and west of Mosul.

Iraqi government and Kurdish forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and joined by government-sanctioned militias, are fighting to drive IS out of those surrounding areas and open additional fronts to attack Mosul itself.

Bashiqa has been surrounded by Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, for weeks but Monday's push appears to be the most serious yet to drive IS from the town. Kurdish forces launched mortar rounds and fired heavy artillery into the town on Sunday in advance of the offensive. More artillery and air strikes hit the town early Monday as the Kurdish forces' advance got underway.

The U.S. special envoy to the anti-IS coalition, Brett McGurk, said late on Sunday that the three-week offensive against the extremists in Mosul is proceeding "ahead of schedule." Speaking to reporters in Jordan, McGurk said the fight to degrade the group and break up its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq was expected to take about three years.

Associated Press writers Adam Schreck in Irbil, Iraq, and Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

Syrian troops capture northern parts of rebel-held Aleppo

November 28, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces and their allies captured another major eastern Aleppo neighborhood and several smaller areas Monday, putting much of the northern part of Aleppo's besieged rebel-held areas under government control for the first time in four years, state media reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the areas captured by Syrian government troops include 10 neighborhoods and over 3,000 buildings in the past few days. The ministry added in a statement that more than 100 rebels have laid down their arms and exited the Syrian city's eastern suburbs.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and former commercial center, has been contested since the summer of 2012 and a rebel defeat in the city would be a turning point in the five-year conflict. If Syrian forces capture all of east Aleppo, President Bashar Assad's government will be in control of the country's four largest cities as well as the coastal region.

The government's push, backed by thousands of Shiite militia fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, and under the cover of the Russian air force, has laid waste to Aleppo's eastern neighborhoods. Medical and food supplies have run short in recent weeks as Syrian warplanes pounded the besieged enclave, rendering all remaining functioning hospitals out of service.

Simultaneous advances by Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces on Sunday set off a tide of displacement inside the divided city, with thousands of residents evacuating their premises to safety in government and Kurdish-controlled areas of the city since Saturday.

Rebel defenses swiftly collapsed as government forces pushed into the Hanano district on Saturday, the first time they had pushed this far into eastern Aleppo since 2012. With Monday's capture of Sakhour, the rebels are now left boxed in mostly in central and southeastern Aleppo, encircled by government territory on all sides.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian government forces have captured some 10 neighborhoods over the past few days, putting nearly 30 percent of Aleppo's formerly rebel-held neighborhoods under state control.

State TV said 3,000 people, half of them children, have fled over the past few hours. It showed men, women and children in green buses being taken to government-controlled areas. "It is stinging cold, food is scarce and people are shaken in the streets," Mohammad Zein Khandaqani, a member of the Medical Council in Aleppo, told The Associated Press in a voice text message from east Aleppo.

He added that some residents are taking refuge in mosques while others moved to homes of displaced people in safer areas. He said although thousands of people have fled to government or Kurdish-controlled areas in Aleppo, many stayed because they are wanted by the state.

Ahmad Araj, senior official with the Syrian National Democratic Coalition that consists of Arab and Kurdish groups, said 8,000 people have fled to the Kurdish-control Sheikh Maqsoud district so far, calling on international aid organizations to help those who are now displaced.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said Syrian government troops had pushed the rebels from Qadisia which it described as the "key neighborhood of eastern Aleppo."

Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.

Syrian army Aleppo advance displaces thousands

November 27, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — Simultaneous advances by Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces into eastern Aleppo on Sunday set off a tide of displacement inside the divided city, with thousands of residents evacuating their premises, and threatened to cleave the opposition's enclave.

Rebel defenses collapsed as government forces pushed into the city's Sakhour neighborhood, coming within one kilometer (0.6 miles) of commanding a corridor in eastern Aleppo for the first time since rebels swept into the city in 2012, according to Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Kurdish-led forces operating autonomously of the rebels and the government meanwhile seized the Bustan al-Basha neighborhood, allowing thousands of civilians to flee the decimated district to the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud, in the city's north, according to Ahmad Hiso Araj, an official with the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The government's push, backed by thousands of Shiite militia fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, and under the occasional cover of the Russian air force, has laid waste to Aleppo's eastern neighborhoods.

An estimated quarter-million people are trapped in wretched conditions in the city's rebel-held eastern districts since the government sealed its siege of the enclave in late August. Food supplies are running perilously low, the U.N. warned Thursday, and a relentless air assault by government forces has damaged or destroyed every hospital in the area.

Residents in east Aleppo said in distressed messages on social media that thousands of people were fleeing to the city's government-controlled western neighborhoods, away from the government's merciless assault, or deeper into opposition-held eastern Aleppo.

"The situation in besieged Aleppo (is) very very bad, thousands of eastern residents are moving to the western side of the city," said Khaled Khatib, a photographer for the Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, also known as the White Helmets.

"Aleppo is going to die," he posted on Twitter. The Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the conflict through a network of local contacts, said around 1,700 civilians had escaped to government-controlled areas and another 2,500 to Kurdish authorities.

More than 250 civilians have been killed in the government's bombardment of eastern Aleppo over past 13 days, according to the Observatory. Locals reported thousands more were moving within the eastern neighborhoods, away from the front lines, but staying inside areas of opposition control.

"The conditions are terrifying" said 28-year-old Modar Sakho, a nurse in eastern Aleppo. Wissam Zarqa, an English teacher in eastern Aleppo and outspoken government opponent, said some families would stay put in the face of advancing government forces.

Syrian state media reported government forces had seized the Jabal Badro neighborhood and entered Sakhour Sunday after it took control of the Masaken Hanano neighborhood Saturday. Syrian state TV broadcast a video Saturday showing a teary reunion between a soldier and his family after nearly five years apart, according to the report. It said the family had been trapped in Masaken Hanano.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel reported from the neighborhood Sunday morning, showing workers and soldiers clearing debris against a backdrop of bombed-out buildings on both sides of a wide thoroughfare. Al-Manar is operated by Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group aligned with the Syrian government.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces' advance into Bustan al-Basha dealt the opposition a further blow. Rebels and opposition figures have long accused the SDF and its predecessor groups of conspiring with the government to quash a nationwide revolt.

Araj denied there was any coordination between government and Kurdish-led forces. "We were responding to calls from residents in Bustan al-Basha to secure the neighborhood," he said. He added the SDF had entered the area handily as rebel militants fled.

Aleppo used to be Syria's largest city and commerce capital before its neighborhoods were devastated by the country's more than five-year-long civil war. The U.N.'s child agency warned Sunday that nearly 500,000 children were now living under siege in Syria, cut off from food and medical aid, mostly in areas under government control. That figure has doubled in less than a year.

Many are now spending their days underground, as hospitals, schools and homes remain vulnerable to aerial bombardment. "Children are being killed and injured, too afraid to go to school or even play, surviving with little food and hardly any medicine," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "This is no way to live — and too many are dying."

Activists also reported Sunday tens of civilian casualties from a presumed government or Russian airstrike on a village outside Aleppo. The Local Coordination Committees activist network in Syria reported 15 civilians killed in a Russian airstrike on the village of Anjara, controlled by the opposition in the western Aleppo countryside, and tens of others wounded. Activists usually identify planes by their silhouettes and home base.

The Observatory said the strike was accompanied by raids on other opposition-held villages in the Aleppo countryside. Meanwhile, Anadolu also reported Sunday that the Islamic State group had used chemical weapons against Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters in northern Syria, wounding 22. The report cited a statement by the chief of general staff's office. The report could not be immediately verified independently.

Later Sunday, Turkey's emergency relief directorate, which investigated the claim, said it found no trace of chemical warfare. The military was not available for further comment. Elsewhere in Syria, Israeli aircraft struck a machine gun-mounted vehicle inside the country Sunday, killing four Islamic State-affiliated militants on board after they opened fire on a military patrol on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, according to the Israeli military.

Associated Press writer Cinar Kiper in Istanbul contributed to this report.

Army on rise in Libya's east, spurring hopes of normal life

Thu Nov 17, 2016

By Ayman al-Warfalli
BENGHAZI, LIBYA

At Benghazi University, graduation pictures shot at a wrecked campus symbolize hope for a return to normality in the city after more than two years of war.

It is a war in which the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) has been slowly prevailing against a coalition of Islamists and former revolutionaries. Its commander, Khalifa Haftar, is gaining political influence, his popularity boosted by the army's advance.

"We can't pursue our studies here but thanks to our army I've been able to return, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be standing here," said Amal al-Obeidi, a law graduate. "The situation will get back to normal and we hold great hope in our army."

But while the LNA's progress has brought relative calm to parts of Benghazi, continued clashes and bomb attacks have exposed the limits of the army's control and raised questions about its ambitions to dominate Libya's rival factions.

While Obeidi spoke, the rumble of war could still be heard in the besieged district of Ganfouda, less than 2 km (1 mile) to the south. Residents across Benghazi struggle with deteriorating living conditions and critics are alarmed at the spread of military rule in the city where the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi began.

Haftar, a former Gaddafi ally who fell out with him and returned to Libya during the revolution, is the figurehead for one of two loose alliances that began fighting for power in 2014. His rivals in the Islamist-leaning Libya Dawn faction took Tripoli that year but later splintered and largely swung behind the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), which moved to the capital in March.

Haftar and an eastern parliament and government that back him have refused to endorse the GNA, becoming more confident as the GNA has struggled. Two months ago, they gained new momentum when the Libyan National Army seized oil ports south-west of Benghazi from a GNA-aligned faction, fuelling speculation that Haftar had western Libya - and Tripoli - in his sights.

Clashes in Benghazi have been contained to two or three areas. Some residents in the center of the port city of 700,000 feel safe for the first time in years, remembering the bombings and assassinations that preceded the May 2014 launch of Haftar's Operation Dignity, his campaign against the Islamists, and the fighting that followed.

New measures include electronic traffic surveillance, car bomb detection squads and female police patrols.

"We have brought security back in more than 90 percent of the city," said Saleh Huwaidi, head of Benghazi's security administration. "We're not denying that there are sleeper cells, but they aren't easily able to activate."

Such claims have been tested by recent events, however. In the past month two bomb attacks in Benghazi have struck prominent Haftar allies.

RENEWED CLASHES

Violence has flared between the LNA and its main opponent, the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council (BRSC). This week at least 38 LNA troops have died after Haftar launched his latest offensive, which included air strikes over parts of the city.

On Thursday the LNA said it had "liberated" the long-contested district of Guwarsha, with at least 18 of the LNA's men killed in a single day's fighting.

In Ganfouda, human rights groups estimate that more than 130 families have been trapped for months without access to fresh food by an LNA siege - though the army says it has offered them a chance to leave. When LNA air strikes have hit civilians, the army has accused its opponents of using human shields.

The LNA's real power can be hard to gauge. Supporters say training and organization have improved, but the army's strength depends on complex and shifting local alliances. Analysts attribute its breakthroughs in Benghazi against the BRSC and Islamic State partly to injections of material and intelligence support from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and France.

Rumors swirl of counter attacks against the oil ports, Benghazi, and in the city of Derna, close to the Egyptian border, where the LNA is fighting a separate coalition and clashes resumed over recent days.

Wissam Bin Hamid, a BRSC leader who along with others has sought refuge in Tripoli, told Al Jazeera this week that his group's goal remains "to secure Benghazi ... remove the intimidation against people who live with Haftar's militias, and allow the return of our displaced people and loved ones".

Rivals accuse the LNA of stoking violence by branding all its opponents as terrorists. But as the LNA's profile has grown in the east, criticizing or even questioning it has become risky. Bloggers and activists fear reprisals, and execution style killings have occurred in neighborhoods taken by the army.

The LNA has replaced municipal councils with military governors in Benghazi and at least seven other towns and cities, a move it says is necessary to restore order and bring back services. As elsewhere in Libya, those have been ruined by years of conflict and political turmoil.

But taking on a bigger role also carries a risk for Haftar and the army, said Mohamed Eljarh, an Atlantic Council analyst based in eastern Libya.

"I don't know how they will manage to respond to the needs of the people, and they will increasingly be blamed for any shortcomings," he said. After the recent bombings, "people are saying, 'hey, LNA where are you?'"

(Writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security-benghazi-idUSKBN13C1HR.

Opposition wins seats in Kuwait vote, as does just 1 woman

November 27, 2016

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Opposition members are set to return to Kuwait's parliament after a more than three-year absence, though only one woman secured a place in the legislature, elections results released Sunday showed.

Kuwaitis voted Saturday for representatives in the oil-rich country's 50-member parliament, the most empowered among the Gulf Arab states. The election was held against the backdrop of lingering security concerns following a deadly suicide bombing last year, as well as anxiety over the depth of cutbacks to generous state-funded perks driven by a slump in oil revenues.

The gains by the opposition are unlikely to seriously upend the tiny Western-allied country's political order. Parliament still appears to be controlled by pro-government lawmakers, who have the authority to question government ministers. Power in the country ultimately remains with the hereditary emir.

Six prominent opposition figures who have taken part in street protests secured seats in Saturday's vote. So did 13 political newcomers, including four backed by different Kuwaiti youth liberal groups and nine representing tribal groupings.

Political parties are illegal in Kuwait, meaning opposition blocs tend to be fluid and form alliances around particular issues. Safaa al-Hashem was the only woman to win one of the 50 seats up for grabs in Saturday's election. The liberal candidate has served in previous parliaments, and was one of 15 women who ran for seats.

The tribal opposition along with its conservative Muslim allies boycotted the last elections in 2013 in a dispute over changes to the electoral law that they alleged reduced their clout. Members of Kuwait's substantial Shiite Muslim minority saw their share of seats fall to six from nine previously.

A new Cabinet is now expected to be formed within a week. The 15-seat Cabinet is appointed by the prime minster, who in turn is appointed by the emir.

Germany's 'Mr Flirt' teaches refugees how to pick up women

November 28, 2016

DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — The subject was pickup lines, and Germany's "Mr. Flirt" offered a few examples to his class of Syrian and Iraqi refugees. "I really love the scent of your perfume," he suggested. "You have a beautiful voice." He invited his students to take a stab.

Essam Kadib al Ban, 20, raised his hand. "God created you only for me," he said, then tried another: "I love you. Can I sleep over at your place?" Horst Wenzel winced, but caught himself quickly. "Don't tell them you love them at least for the first three months of your relationship, or they'll run away," he explained patiently. "German women don't like clinginess."

Wenzel, 27, makes his living teaching wealthy but uptight German men how to approach women. But this year, he decided to also volunteer his skills to help Germany as it struggles to integrate more than 1 million refugees who have arrived over the past two years, most of them from war-torn Muslim countries with vastly different relations between the sexes.

"Finding a relationship is the best way to integrate, and that's why I'm giving these classes," Wenzel said. Last week, in downtown Dortmund, he offered his third installment of "How to fall in love in Germany," taking 11 young men through the paces. The students conceded they had a lot to learn.

Omar Mohammed, a shy, 24-year-old goldsmith from Syria with spiky black hair and almond-shaped eyes, said he's attracted to German women, with their Nordic looks and punctuated accents. But they remain a mystery to him, and he has no idea how to approach them.

"It's hard to meet a girl when you don't speak the language well and can't really talk to them," he said. "There are a lot of differences, not only the culture and religion — we just don't have this total freedom at home."

Still, he said, "I'd love to marry a German woman and live with her. She could help me with the language, and she knows the place and the laws much better than I do." Some German women were receptive to the idea. Jasmin Olbrich, having a quick lunch of French fries at a food truck outside the educational center, said she liked the Middle Eastern looks and complained that German men "drink too much beer, watch way too much soccer and are just so white!"

But across Germany, hostility to asylum seekers has been on the rise since groups of foreigners — mostly young men from northern Africa — robbed and groped dozens of women on New Year's Eve in Cologne. Most of the hostility targets young male asylum-seekers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who make up the majority of the migrants reshaping Germany. Last year alone, 890,000 people applied for asylum, with hundreds of thousands more applying this year.

Violent crimes against migrants and arson attacks on asylum shelters and mosques have increased in frequency, and refugees say they have experienced discrimination and abuse since the Cologne attacks. The anti-foreigner sentiment is reshaping German politics as well, with the populist Alternative for Germany party surging as it campaigns against Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to welcome the migrants.

The flirting class, participants said, offered a way to get beyond the adversity. "We are really benefiting from the class," Kadib al Ban said. "The teacher is telling us how German women think, how to talk to them ... and understand their traditions."

Wenzel usually charges 1,400 euros ($1,500) for a private one-day class, or 4,000 euros for a group. The tall blond is an authority in Germany when it comes to the art of seduction, giving flirting advice on TV and radio. He says a half-million Germans follow his "flirt university" blog on how to find Mr. or Mrs. Right. For the migrants, Wenzel is volunteering his time in occasional classes across the country.

"A lot of the guys are absolute beginners when it comes to flirting, dating and sex," he said. The class got off to a rocky start. The migrants, unsure what to expect, sat with their coats on and their arms crossed, eyeing their cheerful coach suspiciously.

Wenzel chatted about pick-up lines, paying compliments and original ideas for first dates. Impress and entertain the girls, Wenzel advised. Invite them to the theater, rock climbing, a concert, or take them on a trip to London or Amsterdam. That last piece of advice would probably work better for Wenzel's regular clientele of rich Germans; asylum seekers aren't allowed to leave the city they're registered in, and don't have the money to travel in any case.

Then he moved on to sex. "Men and women have sex all the time — on the first, second or third date, that's normal." Wenzel said. "It's not a big deal in Germany." The men in the room giggled, but snapped to attention.

When Wenzel moved onto the differences between male and female orgasms and how to arouse a woman, they fell silent again. Several men blushed and others looked down at the floor in embarrassment. One of the students became indignant, whispering in Arabic to his neighbor: "But having sex before marriage is a sin; it's haram!"

But there were moments of realization as well. Asked how to impress a German woman, one student suggested getting ripped at the gym. Wenzel countered that most women don't go for the body-builder type. Another suggested picking up a date in a Ferrari. Wenzel said that would attract women interested only in money. The students readily agreed, perhaps because most were thin and quite aways from being able to afford a sports car.

When class let out, most of the men said they'd learned a lot and were eager to put their new skills to use. But Kadib al Ban, the perky Syrian with the flowery pick-up lines, remained somewhat unconvinced.

"I'd happily have a German girlfriend," he said. "But when I get married, I want to have a girl from my country who shares my culture and my traditions."

Bassem Mroue contributed from Beirut.

Prominent German conservative Peter Hintze dies at 66

November 27, 2016

BERLIN (AP) — Peter Hintze, a deputy speaker of Germany's Parliament who was close to Chancellor Angela Merkel, has died. He was 66. Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union said Sunday that Hintze, who had been suffering from cancer, died during the night. Merkel said in a statement that the party had lost "one of its outstanding personalities."

During a six-year stint as the party's general secretary, responsible for day-to-day political strategy, Hintze organized election campaigns for then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1994 and 1998. He served Merkel as a deputy minister in the early 1990s when she was minister for women and families. After the Christian Democrats returned to government in 2005, he served as a deputy economy minister and the government's coordinator for aviation policy.

France's Hollande and his premier weigh presidential bids

November 28, 2016

PARIS (AP) — France's government spokesman is insisting that Socialist President Francois Hollande and his prime minister can't compete against each other in an upcoming presidential primary. Attention turned Monday turned to the troubled French left, after the staunchly conservative Francois Fillon won the right-wing presidential nomination Sunday on promises of slashing public spending and immigration.

While the unpopular Hollande still hasn't said whether he'll seek re-election, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told French newspaper Journal du dimanche that he is ready to compete in the left-wing primary in January. The national election is in April and May.

Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said on Europe-1 radio Monday, "There will not be a primary between the president and the prime minister." He said Valls could seek the nomination only if he leaves his job.

Fillon wins France's conservative presidential primary

November 27, 2016

PARIS (AP) — Francois Fillon won France's first-ever conservative presidential primary Sunday after promising drastic free-market reforms and a crackdown on immigration and Islamic extremism, beating a more moderate rival who had warned of encroaching populism.

"President! President!" chanted the former prime minister's supporters as he declared victory over Alain Juppe in a nationwide runoff election. Polls suggest the sober, authoritative Fillon, 62, would have a strong chance of winning the French presidency in the April-May election, amid widespread frustration with France's current Socialist leadership.

Fillon, who was prime minister from 2007-2012 under ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, enjoyed a surprise surge in popularity in recent weeks. A rise in nationalist sentiment across Europe may have favored his strict conservative positions over Juppe's more centrist stance.

France needs "a complete change of software," Fillon said, promising in his victory speech to defend "French values." Among his promises: slash public spending, cap immigration, support traditional family values and reach out to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Juppe, 71, congratulated Fillon on his "wide victory." During the primary campaign, he expressed similar ideas as his rival on the French economy, but tried to rally conservatives around a more tolerant attitude toward France's ethnic, religious and social diversity.

With results from 96 percent of voting stations, organizers of the Republicans party primary said Fillon had 66.5 percent of votes and Juppe 33.5 percent. More than 4 million of France's 44 million voters took part, which was considered a good turnout given that it was the conservatives' first experiment with a primary.

Fillon's toughest challenge ahead is likely to be far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Le Pen, candidate of her National Front party, is running an anti-establishment campaign that particularly targets immigrants, France's Muslim minority, and the European Union.

Socialist President Francois Hollande is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether he will seek re-election, but the French left has been deeply weakened by his extreme unpopularity. A wild card is outsider candidate Emmanuel Macron, Hollande's former economy minister, who is leading a centrist campaign.

Fillon walked a careful line Sunday, stressing the need for "authority of the state" but also insisting, "No one should feel excluded from a society that I want to see more just and with more solidarity."

If elected next year, he pledges to hold a referendum on a quota system for immigrants to reduce legal immigration "to a minimum," and to push for stronger controls at Europe's borders. In a country still rattled by a string of deadly Islamic State group attacks, Fillon wants to prohibit French jihadists from returning home. He recently published a book called "Conquering Islamic Totalitarianism."

A practicing Catholic with a British wife of 36 years and five children, Fillon pledges to weaken adoption rights for same-sex couples. Yet he has said he wouldn't scrap a 2013 law allowing same-sex marriage.

His most dramatic proposals concern France's long-stagnant economy, beset by chronic 10 percent unemployment. He wants to cut taxes on businesses, slash public spending by 110 billion euros ($116 billion) and reduce the number of public servants. He would also raise the retirement age from 62 to 65, extend the workweek beyond 35 hours, and ease France's strict labor rules in order to boost job hiring.

Soccer agent Cherif Diallo said it was Fillon's economic program that won his vote. "In life, you must sacrifice in order to obtain good results. The program of Francois Fillon is radical as his adversaries say, but it's a necessity in order to get the country in order," Diallo said.

While he's seen as lacking charisma, Fillon's supporters like him because they regard him as experienced and well-qualified for France's top job. Besides serving as prime minister, he's been a cabinet minister six times and spent years as a lawmaker representing his hometown of Le Mans in western France, home to the famed 24 of Le Mans auto race.

Both Fillon and Juppe, who campaigned on similar economic platforms, are high-profile leaders of the Republicans party who knocked Sarkozy — their former boss — out of the primary's first round of voting a week ago. Sarkozy then threw his weight behind Fillon.

Sunday's runoff came after a bruising and highly adversarial end phase to the months-long primary contest, an American-style effort to end party infighting and bolster support for the party's nominee. The conservatives previously chose their candidate internally.

Fillon has said he wants to drop sanctions against Russia over its aggressive actions in Ukraine and partner with Russia in the fight against Islamic State extremists. Fillon insists "Russia poses no threat" to the West.

All French citizens over 18 — whether they are members of the Republicans party or not — were eligible to vote in the primary, if they paid 2 euros in fees and signed a pledge stating they "share the republican values of the right and the center."

Thomas Adamson and Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this report.

French conservatives vote to choose presidential nominee

November 27, 2016

PARIS (AP) — French conservatives voted Sunday for their nominee in next year's presidential election, choosing between two former prime ministers with some similar ideas on the economy but divergent views on how to prevent further terror attacks on French soil.

The contenders in the primary runoff — Francois Fillon, 62, and 71-year-old Alain Juppe — are both high-profile leaders of the center-right Republicans party. Fillon, who wants to focus on fighting Islamic extremism, is judged by many to be the front-runner.

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy was knocked out of the primary's first round of voting a week ago and threw his weight behind his government's former No. 2 Fillon — who kept a low profile after casting his vote in Paris.

Juppe, the perceived underdog, remained confident of victory after casting his second-round ballot in Bordeaux Sunday morning despite finishing behind his adversary by double digits only last week. "I have no regrets. I ran a great campaign... I've defended my ideas until the end and it's going to work. I'm sure of it," Juppe told reporters. But he also acknowledged he had contemplated defeat.

Sunday's runoff comes after a bruising and highly adversarial end phase to the months-long primary contest. The winner of the runoff ultimately could end up facing far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is banking on anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-establishment sentiments to sweep her to power in the general election set for April, with a runoff the following month if neither side wins a majority.

The incumbent, Socialist President Francois Hollande is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether he will seek re-election. The position of the French left has been weakened by Hollande's extreme unpopularity.

Fillon has enjoyed a strong boost in popularity in recent weeks. He promotes traditional family values and said he plans to reduce immigration to France "to a minimum" — positioning himself firmly to Juppe's right.

Juppe is advocating a more peaceful vision of French society, based on respect for religious freedom and ethnic diversity. The two also have strongly different views on how to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Fillon in favor of forging closer ties. He wants to drop sanctions against Russia over its aggressive actions in Ukraine and partner with Russia in the fight against Islamic State extremists.

Fillon insists "Russia poses no threat" to the West, while Juppe wants France to continue putting pressure on Putin on various fronts. They both pledged to cut public spending, reduce the number of civil servants, raise the retirement age from 62 to 65, end the 35-hour work week and cut business taxes.

Fillon was the prime minister from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was eliminated in the primary's first round a week ago and now is backing Fillon. Juppe was prime minister from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac.

In the first round of primary voting on Nov. 20, Fillon won 44.1 percent of the votes, Juppe 28.6 percent and Sarkozy 20.7. A second round is needed because no candidate secured a majority. All French citizens over 18 — whether they are members of the Republicans party or not — can vote in the primary if they pay 2 euros in fees and sign a pledge stating they "share the republican values of the right and the center."

They can vote in 10,228 polling stations open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. across the country. More than 4.2 million people voted in the first round, which organizers considered as a significant turnout. Results are expected Sunday night.

Britain promises close ties with Poland after EU exit

November 28, 2016

LONDON (AP) — Britain has promised Poland strong business, diplomatic and cultural ties — as well as a deployment of troops near the Russian border — as London tries to build goodwill with European allies before European Union exit talks.

Prime Minister Theresa May had warm words for Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo after the pair met at 10 Downing St. on Monday. But she didn't offer an outright guarantee that almost 1 million Poles living in Britain will be able to stay once the U.K. has left the 28-nation bloc.

May reiterated her intention to give Poles and other EU nationals the right to remain — as long as Britons in other EU nations get the same guarantee. "I hope we can reach an early agreement on this issue," May told reporters.

Poland is considered one of Britain's strongest allies in the EU, and May said before Monday's meeting that she hoped Brexit would "serve as a catalyst to strengthen" the relationship. Szydlo said Brexit was "not the most important topic" at the talks, which focused on the economy, trade, science, culture and defense.

Britain confirmed it would send 150 troops to Poland in April as part of a NATO deployment to provide reassurance amid concerns about Russian military activities. "We must recognize increasing Russian assertiveness, and I think it's important we work together to deal with that," May said.

The two leaders said they agreed on the importance of maintaining sanctions against Russia for what Szydlo called its "act of aggression against Ukraine." Poles, who have moved to Britain in the hundreds of thousands since Poland joined the EU in 2004, became a focal point for anti-EU sentiment during the EU referendum campaign. There was a spike in hate crimes targeting eastern Europeans after the June 23 vote.

Szydlo said Britain and Poland would continue "working together in order to make sure that the Polish community in the U.K. is safe."

Associated Press writer Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed to this story.

Anti-EU UKIP picks new leader to replace Trump ally Farage

November 28, 2016

LONDON (AP) — Britain's populist U.K. Independence Party chose European Parliament member Paul Nuttall as leader on Monday, replacing the charismatic but divisive Nigel Farage. Nuttall beat two other contenders in a contest to head the right-wing Euroskeptic party.

In his acceptance speech to UKIP members, Nuttall vowed to unite the fractious party and fight to ensure that Britain's divorce from the EU is not watered down during negotiations. "We will hold the government's feet to the fire electorally and ensure that Brexit really does mean Brexit," he said.

Monday's announcement follows a tumultuous period for UKIP, which played a major role in Britain's decision to leave the European Union. The result was a triumph for the party, which was founded to get the U.K. out of the EU. However, UKIP soon descended into squabbling.

Farage stepped down after the EU vote, which he said capped his political career. But replacement Diane James resigned after 18 days. The favorite to replace her, Steven Woolfe, also quit after a fight with a UKIP colleague that left him hospitalized.

The party, which has just one lawmaker in the 650-seat House of Commons, faces an uncertain future without Farage, its best-known personality. His international profile has grown because of his strong relationship with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who suggested in a tweet that Farage would make a good British ambassador in Washington.

The British government quickly replied that there was no vacancy for the job. In his final leader's address, Farage told UKIP members he was heading to the United States this week — "purely as a tourist. Nothing more than that."

Haiti: Jovenel Moise apparently wins presidential vote

November 29, 2016

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Electoral officials in Haiti say Jovenel Moise apparently has won the presidency, based on preliminary results that give him 55 percent of the votes cast in the Nov. 20 election against 26 other candidates.

Moise was the leading candidate in first-round balloting last year and headed for a runoff. But that election was later annulled after a Haitian commission reported finding what appeared to be significant fraud and misconduct.

This time no runoff will apparently be needed because the candidate of ex-President Michel Martelly's Tet Kale party got over 50 percent in the election redo. Second-place candidate Jude Celestin had 19.5 percent in the preliminary count.

Cuba bids farewell to Fidel Castro, ruler for half-century

November 28, 2016

HAVANA (AP) — A nine-story portrait of a young Fidel Castro has joined the towering images of fallen guerrillas overlooking Havana's Plaza of the Revolution, the massive square where Cuba on Monday begins bidding farewell to the man who ruled the island for nearly half a century.

After 10 years of leadership by Castro's younger brother Raul, a relatively camera-shy and low-key successor, Cuba finds itself riveted once again by the words and images of the leader who dominated the lives of generations. Since his death on Friday night, state-run newspapers, television and radio have been running wall-to-wall tributes to Fidel, broadcasting non-stop footage of his speeches, interviews and foreign trips, interspersed with adulatory remembrances by prominent Cubans.

"There's a genuine feeling of mourning, that's not a formality, that's not showy, that's not outward-focused, but rather completely intimate," former National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said on state television Sunday.

Ordinary people have largely been staying at home, off streets hushed by a prohibition on music and celebration during the nine days of official mourning for Castro. For some, particularly younger Cubans, Castro's death barely registered.

Yankemell Barrera, a 20-year-old student, said Castro wasn't a strong presence in his life and that he wasn't much affected by his death or planning to go to any of the memorial events. He said studying for finals would be a better use of his time.

"Even if I'm obligated to go, I'm not doing it," he said. Tens of thousands of others, though, were expected to return to the streets Monday after 9 a.m., when simultaneous 21-gun salutes will sound in the capital and in the eastern city of Santiago, where Castro launched his revolution in 1953. At the same moment, Cubans are expected to begin filing through the monument to national hero Jose Marti in the center of the plaza, where the government said they would "render homage and sign a solemn oath to carry out the concept of revolution expressed by the revolutionary leader."

The "concept of revolution" is a section of a 2000 speech in which Castro calls Cubans to believe in "the profound conviction that no force in the world is capable of crushing the force of truth and ideas."

The government did not say if the ashes of the 90-year-old former president would be on display inside the monument. Virtually all schools and government offices were closing during the homage to Castro, which will stretch for 13 hours on Monday and take place again on Tuesday, ending in a rally echoing those that Castro addressed on the plaza for most of his time in power.

"It's a terrible sadness. Everyone's feeling it here," said Orlando Alvarez, a 55-year-old jeweler. "Everyone will be there." On Wednesday, Castro's ashes will begin a three-day procession east across Cuba, retracing the march of his bearded rebel army from the Sierra Maestra mountains to the capital. Castro's ashes will be interred on Sunday in Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago, Cuba's second-largest city.

Juan Zamorano, Andrea Rodriguez and Christine Armario contributed.

Zimbabwe issues new currency, bond notes

November 28, 2016

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has issued its own currency for the first time since 2009 to try to ease biting shortages of the U.S dollar. Banks started issuing the new currency, called bond notes, Monday. Previously the U.S currency had been Zimbabwe's main medium of trade.

The new bond notes sparked a mix of hope and apprehension among a population desperate for a solution to the cash crisis but also skeptical of the ability of President Robert Mugabe's government to manage a currency.

In 2008 and 2009 the state's central bank printed so much of its currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, that the country experienced mind-boggling hyperinflation that reached 500 billion percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. People's savings and pensions were wiped out. The inflation was only brought under control when the government abandoned the Zimbabwe currency and began using the U.S. dollar and several other foreign currencies as legal tender.

But this year the government has not had enough U.S. dollars to make timely payment of the salaries of civil servants, police and army. Banks have been so short of the U.S. currency that people have slept outside branches in the hope of getting a few dollars. Monday the banks began issuing people with bond notes.

"I am happy that I have finally got some cash after days of sleeping in a bank queue," said Tenson Tigere, a Harare man who received a combination of bond notes and U.S. dollars from his bank. "At the same time I am not sure that these bond notes are the solution. They might soon become worthless just like the Zimdollar," he said outside a major bank in Harare after he was given $40 in bond notes and $10 in greenbacks.

The central bank, The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said the new notes will come in $2 and $5 denominations, although only $2 notes are being issued Monday. The Reserve Bank has also introduced $1 bond coins.

The currency is pegged at par with the U.S. dollar and is backed by a $200 million bond facility with Afreximbank, said the Reserve Bank in a statement Saturday. Some vendors readily accepted the new currency but said they are cautious and will stop if the notes begin to lose value.

Harare-based economic consultant John Robertson said the introduction of bond notes could lead to shortages of commodities and price hikes. "Anyone who needs foreign currency for imports will have to go to the black market. Inevitably the bond notes will lose their value," he said. "It is back to the Zimbabwe dollar scenario."

Russia fires 4 officials who got Academy of Sciences seats

November 28, 2016

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired four senior officials who ran for seats on the Russian Academy of Sciences despite his previous orders. In a televised meeting last week, Putin indignantly complained that some government officials were elected members of the Russian Academy of Sciences despite his explicit orders not to do so.

The Kremlin on Monday published an order signed by Putin to dismiss four officials including a deputy interior minister and a department chief at the defense ministry. Three of them were listed as having tendered their resignations and one was listed as having reached pension age.

Russia's scientific community has been criticized for giving an easy ride to officials seeking doctoral degrees and scientific titles as a badge of prestige.

Polish, German presidents visit NATO command center

November 28, 2016

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The presidents of Poland and of Germany are paying a visit to NATO's easternmost command center, which is being upgraded for quick reaction in the event of a threat to the alliance's eastern flank.

Andrzej Duda and Joachim Gauck are meeting on Monday with commanders and troops at the headquarters of NATO's Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin. Stationed there are troops from the U.S. and 24 other nations, including non-NATO countries Finland and Sweden.

Following Russia's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a NATO summit that year decided to raise the corps' readiness to high and to increase its force as a deterrent on the alliance's eastern flank. The corps will take command of NATO's rapid reaction force or "spearhead" in case of a threat.

Mosul battle rages as IS bombings elsewhere in Iraq kill 20

November 06, 2016

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq's special forces worked Sunday to clear neighborhoods on the eastern edge of Islamic State-held Mosul as bombings launched by the extremist group elsewhere in the country killed at least 20 people.

The Mosul offensive has slowed in recent days as Iraqi forces have pushed into more densely populated areas, where they cannot rely as much on airstrikes and shelling because of the risk posed to civilians, who have been told to stay in their homes.

"There are a lot of civilians and we are trying to protect them," said Lt. Col. Muhanad al-Timimi. "This is one of the hardest battles that we've faced till now." Some civilians are fleeing the combat zone, while IS militants are holding others back for use as human shields, making it harder for Iraqi commanders on the ground to get approval for requested U.S.-led coalition air strikes. Iraq's special forces are some of the country's best troops, but they still largely rely on air support to clear terrain.

Iraqi forces first entered the eastern edge of the city on Tuesday. On Friday, forces began pushing into Mosul proper, but so far have advanced just over a kilometer (mile) into the city. On the southern front, Iraqi forces are still some 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the city center. The fighting is centered on the town of Hamam al-Alil, where Associated Press journalists could hear gunfire and saw attack helicopters firing on IS positions.

Kurdish peshmerga fighters launched mortar rounds and fired heavy artillery at the IS-held town of Bashiqa, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) northeast of Mosul. The town, which is believed to be largely empty except for IS militants, has been encircled by Kurdish forces.

The extremists captured Mosul and surrounding areas in 2014, and have had plenty of time to dig trenches, block off roads and mine approaches to the city. "Daesh dug trenches that they filled with water and they have a lot of suicide attackers and car bombs," said al-Timimi, using the Arabic acronym for the IS group.

The extremists meanwhile struck far from the front lines with a series of bombings. The deadliest attack took place in the city of Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, which is home to a major Shiite shrine. Provincial spokesman Ali al-Hamdani said the attacker set off a bomb-packed ambulance in a parking lot near Shiite pilgrims before detonating his explosives vest.

The attack killed 11 people, including at least four Iranians, and wounded up to 100 other people. Another suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into a busy checkpoint outside the city of Tikrit, killing at least nine people. Al-Hamdani said five female students, a woman and three policemen were killed in the attack, while 25 others were wounded.

IS had also captured Tikrit during its lightning blitz across Iraq in the summer of 2014. Iraqi forces drove the militants from the city, around 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad, in April 2015.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, condemned the two attacks, which he said had killed 21 people, including 10 Iranian pilgrims, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting tolls, which are common in the chaotic aftermath of attacks.

In an online statement, IS claimed all three bombings and said the ambulance bomb was set off by a second suicide attacker. The AP could not verify the authenticity of the statement, which was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremists.

In the capital, Baghdad, a series of smaller bombings killed at least 10 people and wounded 21 others, according to police and medical officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. No one immediately claimed the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of IS.

Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Murtada Faraj in Baghdad, Cristiana Mesquita near Bashiqa, Iraq, Balint Szlanko near Hamam al-Alil, Iraq, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Iraqi forces say defenses, civilians hamper Mosul advance

November 06, 2016

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq's special forces struggled Sunday to clear areas retaken from the Islamic State group along Mosul's eastern edge, where the extremists have built up fortifications and ramparts in residential neighborhoods.

The slowdown highlights the challenges ahead for Iraqi forces as they press into more populated areas deeper in the city — where the civilian presence means they won't be able to rely as much on airstrikes.

"There are a lot of civilians and we are trying to protect them," said Lt. Col. Muhanad al-Timimi. "This is one of the hardest battles that we've faced till now." Some civilians are fleeing the combat zone, while IS militants are holding others back for use as human shields, making it harder for Iraqi commanders on the ground to get approval for requests for U.S.-led coalition air strikes. Iraq's special forces are some of the country's best troops, but they still largely rely on air support to clear terrain.

Iraqi forces first entered the eastern edge of the city on Tuesday. On Friday, forces began pushing into Mosul proper, but so far have only advanced just over a kilometer (mile) into the city. On the city's southern front Iraqi forces are still some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the city center.

The extremists captured the city in 2014, and have had plenty of time to erect fortifications. Trenches and berms have turned the streets and alleyways of a neighborhood once named after former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein into a maze, and concrete blast walls have blocked off access to other areas.

"Daesh dug trenches that they filled with water and they have a lot of suicide attackers and car bombs," said al-Timimi, using the Arabic acronym for the IS group. IS fought back Saturday, pushing the special forces from the southern edge of the Gogjali neighborhood, where the troops had made their first major foray into the city itself after more than two weeks of fighting in its rural outskirts.

Both sides fired mortar rounds and automatic weapons, while the Iraqi troops also responded with artillery. Snipers dueled from rooftops in residential areas, where most buildings are just two stories high.

Egypt's population now at 92 million

November 25, 2016

Egypt’s population reached 92 million people on Thursday evening, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has revealed.

Egypt’s population increase represents a rise of one million people in less than six months as there were 91 million Egyptians in June this year.

“Egypt’s population is growing at a rate five times higher than that of developed countries, and twice as high as developing countries,” CAPMAS warned.

According to the agency, 2.6 million children are born every year and there are 600,000 deaths. “The population growth limits the state’s ability to make tangible changes in living standards, since the population growth is not proportionate to the current economic growth.”

Only 7.8 per cent of Egyptian territory is habitable. More than a quarter of the population live below the poverty line.

CAPMAS statistics show that Cairo is the most populous governorate with 9.5 million people, while South Sinai is the least populated with just 172,000 residents.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20161125-egypts-population-now-at-92-million/.

Arabic signs face removal threat in Istanbul's Little Syria

November 25, 2016

ISTANBUL (AP) — With its colorful signs, flashing lights and awnings displaying sales messages in Arabic, Istanbul's Aksaray neighborhood looks just like its nickname, "Little Syria." Those scenes soon could change as part of a crackdown on what one local official calls "visual pollution."

Last week, Aksaray businesses and residents received a notice ordering them to declutter building facades and overhaul their signage. The order represents the latest salvo in an eight-year effort to standardize storefronts and require all signs to be in the Turkish language, which uses the Latin alphabet. It also seeks the removal of signs in Cyrillic lettering and all signs with neon and LED lights.

Some Syrian residents are vowing to ignore the order, seeing it as an assault on their culture. Turkey today is home to 3 million refugees, mostly Syrian. "I will defend my rights because I don't agree with this decision," said Mehmet Basil Souccar, who manages five Syrian restaurants in Istanbul.

The 45-year-old, a dual Turkish-Syrian national, estimates that more than two-thirds of Aksaray's stores are owned and operated by Syrians — and predicts street clashes if authorities try to remove Arabic signage.

"You can be sure that if they enforce this order, there will be a very ugly picture in Aksaray," he said. Some argue that their businesses must be identified with Arabic signs to be identified by their largely Syrian clientele, many of them refugees from the besieged city of Aleppo.

"Our restaurant's name was well known in Aleppo," said Mahrusi restaurant manager Samer Abou Dan. "If we remove our sign, we might as well shut the restaurant down and leave." Local officials bill the crackdown on non-Turkish signage as part of an initiative to beautify Istanbul's central district of Fatih, which includes Aksaray. They deny pursuing an anti-Syrian or anti-Arabic agenda.

"This is not a project that we planned today," Fatih spokeswoman Nurcan Albayrak said in an email to The Associated Press. She said Fatih was part of a historic peninsula that required "aesthetic consistency" and described the spread of ornately lit and non-Turkish signs as part of a wider problem of "visual pollution."

Many Turkish businessmen in Aksaray, including kebab shop owner Mehmet Gunduz, back the effort. "I want everybody to put up their signs in Turkish," he said. "We won't have any Turkishness left if all the signs are in Arabic. How will we know we're Turkish?"

Associated Press reporters Mehmet Guzel and Neyran Elden in Istanbul and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Suspect in Turkey car-bombing reported dead after shootout

November 24, 2016

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A car bomb attack targeting a government building in southern Turkey killed at least two people and wounded 33 others Thursday, senior cabinet officials said. A suspect was later reported dead after a shootout with security forces.

Minister of European Union Affairs Omer Celik said police opened fire on a light utility vehicle believed to be carrying the person responsible for the attack in the city of Adana when the driver refused to stop.

"Ultimately, those who committed this heinous act will not get away with it," Celik said. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported Thursday night that police removed the suspect's body from the vehicle before dispatching a remote-controlled bomb disposal robot to defuse explosives still on board the vehicle.

The bombing outside the office of the governor of Adana province was the latest in a string of deadly attacks that have rocked Turkey for more than a year. The attacks have been carried out by Kurdish militants or the Islamic State group.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's attack. The car bomb was detonated remotely at the entrance to the Adana governor's office, and the governor was the likely target, Celik said.

The governor, Mahmut Demirtas, said earlier that the attack was believed to have been carried out by a woman. Several cars in the parking lot caught fire after the blast, video footage showed. The blast also damaged the government building, Anadolu Agency said.

Some of the wounded were in serious condition, said Huseyin Sozlu, the mayor for the city. "The bomb that was detonated was a high-impact one," he said. The European Union has expressed increasing disapproval of Turkey's wide-ranging crackdown on critics and political opponents following a failed coup attempt in July, actions Ankara defends as part of an ongoing war on terror.

The EU Parliament on Thursday held a non-binding vote to freeze talks on Turkey's bid to join the 28-nation bloc. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus condemned the bombing and offered condolences on Twitter, adding: "Having become a target because it has disrupted the game being played in the region, Turkey will not yield to terrorism, it will continue its fight against terrorism with determination."

As with previous attacks, Turkish authorities imposed a media ban, barring broadcast and publication of graphic images or information that might hinder the investigation. A statement by the United States Consulate urged all citizens to "avoid this area throughout the day, maintain a high level of vigilance, monitor local media for updates, and exercise caution if you are in the vicinity."

American troops are stationed at the Incirlik Air Force base, roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the city center. Incirlik serves as a base for aircraft involved in the U.S.-led coalition's campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

Cinar Kiper reported from Istanbul

Car bomb attack in southern Turkish city kills 2, wounds 33

November 24, 2016

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A car bomb attack Thursday targeting a government building in the southern Turkish city of Adana killed at least two people and wounded 33 others, a senior cabinet official said.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak condemned the attack during a news conference in Adana, promising to "bury ... those who commit terrorism, their pawns and their supporters." The attack was the latest in a string of deadly bombings that have rocked Turkey for more than a year. The attacks have been carried out by Kurdish militants or the Islamic State group.

Adana governor Mahmut Demirtas told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the attack occurred in a parking lot near the entrance to his office. He said it was believed to have been carried out by a woman, without saying whether it was a suicide attack.

"Terror hit my hometown today. Lost 2 citizens, dozens wounded. It is a shame to talk about proportionality against terrorist organizations," Omer Celik, the minister in charge of European Union affairs, wrote on his Twitter account.

The European Union regularly criticizes Turkey's sweeping crackdown following the failed coup attempt in July, which Ankara defends as part of an ongoing war on terror. The bloc will hold a non-binding vote on Thursday on whether or not to freeze Turkey's membership talks.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus condemned the attack and offered condolences on Twitter, adding: "Having become a target because it has disrupted the game being played in the region, Turkey will not yield to terrorism, it will continue its fight against terrorism with determination."

Several cars in the parking lot caught fire after the blast, video footage showed. The blast also damaged the government building, Anadolu Agency said. Some of the wounded were in serious condition, said Huseyin Sozlu, the mayor for the city. "The bomb that was detonated was a high impact one," he said.

As with previous attacks, Turkish authorities imposed a media ban, barring broadcast and publication of graphic images or information that might hinder the investigation. A statement by the United States Consulate urges all citizens to "avoid this area throughout the day, maintain a high level of vigilance, monitor local media for updates, and exercise caution if you are in the vicinity."

American troops are stationed at the Incirlik Air Force base, roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the city center. Incirlik serves as a base for aircraft involved in the U.S.-led coalition's campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

Cinar Kiper reported from Istanbul

Lebanon stopped wall construction around Palestinian camp

November 26, 2016

The Lebanese army has halted construction of a security wall around the Ain Al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, a Lebanese-Palestinian group in the refugee camps said in a statement yesterday.

“The Lebanese army responded to our demands and stopped the construction of the so-called security wall around the Palestinian refugee camp,” a statement by the group known as the Unified National Leadership (UNL) said.

During a meeting held on Thursday between the UNL and representatives of the Lebanese army, the latter said that it would halt the construction of the wall around the Ain Al-Hilweh refugee camp, though it was not immediately clear if this was a temporary measure.

According to the statement, the meeting came in the wake of different activities and several contacts made during the last week, noting that those efforts led to the army’s halting of construction of the wall.

The UNL thanked the Lebanese army for accepting their request to stop building the wall, stressing it would exert its utmost efforts to maintain the security situation inside the Palestinian camps to allay Lebanese fears that terrorists and organised criminals were operating within refugee camps.

Last week, the Palestinian Hamas organization, who hold sway over the Gaza Strip, called on the Lebanese authorities to stop building the wall around Ain Al-Hilweh.

Hamas’ spokesman in Lebanon, Ali Baraka, called for launching “a dialogue with the leaders of the Palestinian factions about the reality and future of Palestinian existence in Lebanon,” stressing that his movement rejects any policy to isolate the refugee camp.

“Building the wall is bad for Palestinian-Lebanese relations,” he insisted, “and harms the interests of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.”

Hamas political bureau leader Khaled Meshaal also denounced the building of a wall around the camp, and communicated with several leading Lebanese politicians, including major players such as Saad Al-Hariri who is likely soon to be Lebanon’s prime minister.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20161126-lebanon-stopped-wall-construction-around-palestinian-camp/.

ISIL extremists surrender in Libya’s Sirte

23 November 2016 Wednesday

Several members of the ISIL extremist group surrendered late Tuesday to forces loyal to Libya’s unity government following fierce clashes in the northern city of Sirte, according to a military source.

He went on to suggest that they had surrendered because they had run out of ammunition.

In a related development, the general hospital in Libya’s northwestern city of Misurata (located some 240 kilometers from Sirte) said in a statement that it had received the bodies of five Libyan soldiers killed in Sirte on Tuesday in clashes with ISIL.

Military sources also said that forces loyal to the unity government had recently killed at least 30 ISIL militants in Sirte.

The same sources went on to estimate that only 50 ISIL militants still remain in the coastal city.

Since May, forces loyal to Libya’s Tripoli-based Presidential Council have been trying to retake Sirte from ISIL, which captured the city in early 2015.

In September, Libyan forces wrested most of Sirte from the militants, who now remain concentrated in the city’s eastern districts.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/africa/180577/isil-extremists-surrender-in-libyas-sirte.

Colombia government, rebels sign revised peace agreement

November 25, 2016

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a revised peace agreement with the country's largest rebel movement on Thursday, making a second attempt within months to end a half century of hostilities.

Santos and Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, signed the 310-page accord at Bogota's historic Colon Theater — nearly two months after the original deal was surprisingly rejected in a referendum.

After signing with a pen crafted from the shell of an assault rifle bullet, they clasped hands to shouts of "Yes we could!" Thursday's hastily organized ceremony was a far more modest and somber event than the one in September, in the colonial city of Cartagena, where the two men signed an accord in front of an audience of foreign leaders and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, all of whom were dressed in white to symbolize peace.

Santos looked and sounded tired after a two-month political roller coaster that saw him rise from the humiliating defeat to win this year's Nobel Peace Prize. This time the deal will be sent directly to Congress without a public referendum.

He tried to inject a dose of optimism about the hobbled accord whose outlook for implementation is shrouded in uncertainty. "In 150 days — only 150 days — all of the FARC's weapons will be in the hands of the United Nations," he said during the only part of his speech that drew applause from the audience of a few hundred local politicians and officials.

FARC leader Londono used his address to call for a transitional government to ensure the accord is effectively implemented, a suggestion immediately denounced by the opposition as a veiled attempt to extend Santos' tenure past elections in 2018, when he'll be constitutionally banned from competing. The rebel leader also congratulated Donald Trump on his victory and called on the president-elect to continue strong U.S. support for Colombia on its path to peace.

"Our only weapons as Colombians should be our words," said Londono, better known by his alias Timochenko, in a 15-minute speech. "We are putting a definitive end to war to confront in a civilized manner our contradictions."

The new accord introduces some 50 changes intended to assuage critics led by still-powerful former President Alvaro Uribe. They range from a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging crimes by the FARC or government to a commitment from the insurgents to forfeit assets, some of them amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate their victims.

But the FARC wouldn't go along with the opposition's strongest demands — jail sentences for rebel leaders who committed atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics. Members of Uribe's political party are threatening protests against what they consider a "blow to democracy." They also are demanding another referendum, which they are confident they'll win. Shortly after Thursday's ceremony, Santos delivered the accord to congress, where a solid pro-peace majority is expected to ratify it in as early as next week.

"I ask public opinion to reflect on what this means for the future of the country," Uribe said on the Senate floor Thursday, drawing attention to the fact that FARC leaders will be allowed to fill specially-reserved seats in congress before completing any sentences handed down by special peace tribunals.

The lack of broad support for the accord will make the already-steep challenge of implementing it even tougher. Colombians overwhelmingly loathe the FARC for crimes such as kidnappings and drug-trafficking. Ensuring that the 8,000-plus fighters don't wind up joining criminal gangs rampant throughout the country, or the much-smaller National Liberation Army, will also test the state's ability to make its presence felt in traditionally neglected rural areas at a time of financial stress triggered by low oil prices.

There's also a risk that peace could trigger more bloodshed, as it did following a previous peace process with the FARC in the 1980s when thousands of former guerrillas, labor activists and communist militants were gunned down by right-wing militias, sometimes in collaboration with state agents.

That fear, although less prevalent than in the darker days of Colombia's half-century conflict, has become more urgent with more than a dozen human rights defenders and land activists in areas dominated by the FARC being killed by unknown assailants since the initial signing ceremony in September.

Santos this week held an emergency meeting with his Cabinet and U.N. officials to discuss the murders, taking an opportunity to reinforce his message that peace can't wait. So far this year, 70 have been killed, according to Bogota-based We Are Defenders, more than in all of 2015 and 2014.

"We couldn't delay implementation a single minute longer," Santos said in his speech, alluding to the risk of a ceasefire falling apart if negotiations were allowed to stretch on. Once signed, Santos will introduce the accord to Congress, where a solid majority in support of peace is expected to ratify it as early as next week. Lawmakers will then embark on the nettlesome task of passing legislation so the guerrillas can begin concentrating in some 20-plus demobilization areas where they will begin turning over their weapons to United Nations-sponsored monitors.

After fatal fire, Greece presses EU on migrant relocation

November 25, 2016

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece asked the European Union Friday to press member states to speed up the relocation of migrants, after a fire raged through an overcrowded refugee camp, killing two people and seriously hurting two others.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he was "shocked, as is the entire Greek nation, by the tragic event" that occurred overnight at the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos. The government said it would seek the faster deployment of promised EU personnel to help process asylum claims. Tsipras' office said he had spoken by phone with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

A gas canister, used for cooking or heating inside a tent, started the fire, police said. The victims were a young boy and an older woman, who have not been identified. Another woman and a second child were severely injured and flown by military plane to Athens, where they were hospitalized in serious condition. Several others were less seriously hurt.

Human rights groups strongly condemned the loss of life and blamed it on the intransience and inattentiveness of governments across Europe. "How many more people need to die in a tent, trying to keep warm, before EU and Greek authorities take action?" said Loic Jaeger, head of mission in Greece for the relief agency Doctors Without Borders, or MSF.

Moria is one of five Greek island camps sheltering refugees and migrants listed for deportation back to Turkey, under a deal struck between the EU and Ankara in March. More than 62,000 migrants and refugees are stranded in Greece, including nearly 11,500 being restricted to the islands, according to government figures .

Despite the overcrowding, EU member states have accepted fewer than 4 percent of the migrants they are committed to hosting under the bloc's Emergency Relocation Mechanism. Early Friday, migrants at Moria clashed with police as they were evacuated from the camp during the blaze. The fire was extinguished by firefighters and no arrests were made.

Jaeger of Doctors Without Borders said the insistence of authorities not to move migrants to the Greek mainland had led to the tragedy. "The fire in Moria is more than an accident. It is a direct consequence of the deplorable living conditions that Greek and EU authorities force refugees to live in inside Moria camp and other places across Greece," he said.

Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece contributed.