Pro-regime soldiers join opposition in Wadi Barada

January 6, 2017

A group of Syrian regime soldiers deflected yesterday from their ranks and joined rebels fighting in Wadi Barada, near Damascus, media spokesman of the Free Syrian Army in the area, Abu Mohammed Al-Baradawi said.

Al-Baradawi told Gulf Online that “the Free Syrian Army forces secured the defection from the pro-regime army soldiers until they reached the opposition-held areas.”

Violent clashes erupted during the early hours of yesterday morning as the Syrian regime forces tried to advance to the village of Busujima in Wadi Barada using tanks.

The rebels managed to destroy one of the regime’s tanks and killing a group of soldiers.

Clashes and shelling against the opposition-held area of Wadi Barada continued despite a UN Security Council decision on 31 December to supports the Russian-Turkish plan for a nationwide ceasefire.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170106-pro-regime-soldiers-join-opposition-in-wadi-barada/.

Syria's cease-fire holding despite minor violations

December 30, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — A nationwide Syrian cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey that went into effect at midnight held Friday despite minor violations, marking a potential breakthrough in a conflict that has disregarded high-level peace initiatives for over five years.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes early Friday between troops and rebels in the central province of Hama and near the capital, Damascus. It said that later in the day a man was killed by sniper fire in eastern suburbs of Damascus, becoming the first fatality since the truce went into effect. The group also reported an aerial attack on the rebel-held Barada Valley near Damascus.

The Syrian army denied reports it was bombarding the Barada Valley region saying opposition claims aim to show that the army is not abiding by the truce. Opposition activist Mazen al-Shami, who is based in the Damascus suburb of Douma, said minor clashes nearby left one rebel wounded. Activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh, in the southern Daraa province, said government forces had opened fire on rebel-held areas.

Several past attempts at halting the fighting have failed. As with previous agreements, the current cease-fire excludes both the al-Qaida-affiliated Fatah al-Sham Front, which fights alongside other rebel factions, and the Islamic State group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the cease-fire will be guaranteed by both Moscow and Turkey, and the agreement has been welcomed by Iran. Moscow and Tehran provide crucial military support to Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey has long served as a rear base and source of supplies for the rebels.

If it holds, the truce between the Syrian government and the country's mainstream rebel forces will be followed by peace talks next month in Kazakhstan, Putin said in announcing the agreement. He described it, however, as "quite fragile" and requiring "special attention and patience."

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the cease-fire a "major achievement" in a tweet Friday. "Let's build on it by tackling the roots of extremist terror," he added. Russia said the deal was signed by seven of Syria's major rebel factions, though none of them immediately confirmed it, and one denied signing it.

A U.N. official said he hopes that cease-fire would allow them to take aid to 15 besieged areas where some 700,000 people live. Jan Egeland, Special, Advisor to the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, told The Associated Press that "we desperately need this ceasefire. The reports I have from the field is that there is a decrease, a marked decrease in fighting, in bombing, in violence, compared to yesterday. But certainly there's been a number of violations."

"We're willing, we're able to go to all of the 15 remaining besieged areas beyond east Aleppo. We can go in the next (few) days to all of them. But then we need unimpeded access," he said. "We need the government to give us all of the permits that they require us to have before we can go. We need security guarantees from all sides and we're not given them."

"January needs to be really different," Egeland added, "If not — there will be starvation, there will be untold, unnecessary deaths." The truce came on the heels of a Russian-Turkish agreement earlier this month to evacuate the last rebels from eastern Aleppo after they were confined to a tiny enclave by a government offensive. The retaking of all of Aleppo marked Assad's greatest victory since the start of the 2011 uprising against his family's four-decade rule.

"The defeat of the terrorists in Aleppo is an important step toward ending the war," Assad said in an interview with TG5, an Italian TV station, adding that the capture of the city does not mean that the war has ended because "terrorists" are still in Syria.

The United States was left out of both agreements, reflecting the deterioration of relations between Moscow and Washington after the failure of previous diplomatic efforts on Syria. Assad told TG5 "we are more optimistic, with caution," about the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has suggested greater cooperation with Russia against extremist groups.

"We can say part of the optimism could be related to better relation between the United States and Russia," Assad said, speaking in English. "Mr. Trump, during his campaign - (said) that his priority is fighting terrorism, and we believe that this is the beginning of the solution, if he can implement what he announced," Assad said in the interview, which was apparently filmed before the cease-fire was announced.

Asked about the possibility of the United States' participation in the peace process in Kazakhstan, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the process would "be open to everyone." "I hope that this cease-fire holds and turns into a lasting peace so that the deaths of more innocent people, of civilians and children is halted and 2017 brings calm," Yildirim said.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency meanwhile quoted the military as saying Russia carried out three airstrikes against Islamic State targets near the northern town of al-Bab, where Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition forces have been battling the extremist group. The strikes indicated that Russia and Turkey may work together to combat IS once the fighting elsewhere in Syria has been halted.

Turkish Foreign Mevlut Cavusoglu Minister said the U.S.-led coalition forces resumed aerial operations around al-Bab on Thursday, after Turkey complained that it was not getting support from its allies in its fight against IS there.

The Turkish military statement quoted by Anadolu did not say when the Russian air strikes took place, but said they killed 12 IS militants. Separately, 26 IS militants, including some senior commanders, were killed in Turkish airstrikes on al-Bab and the Daglabash region, and some 17 IS targets were destroyed, Anadolu reported. It said a Turkish soldier was kill in a IS attack on troops south of the al-Azrak area.

It said among those killed was an IS commander known as Abu Hussein al-Tunsi. Turkey sent troops and tanks into northern Syria in August to help opposition forces clear a border area of IS militants and curb the advances of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters, who are also battling the extremist group.

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press video journalist Samira Becirovic in London contributed to this report.

Explosion rocks east Aleppo in Syria as residents return

December 24, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — An explosion rocked eastern Aleppo on Saturday as some residents were returning to their homes after the government assumed full control of the city earlier this week, state TV reported while fresh airstrikes on a rebel-held town near Aleppo killed at least five people.

The airstrikes on areas near the northern city of Aleppo show the government has resumed military activities after days of calm that coincided with the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians and rebels from east Aleppo.

On Thursday, President Bashar Assad's forces took control of eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo for the first time since July 2012, marking the government's biggest victory since the crisis began more than five years ago.

Government forces will likely now try to secure the outskirts of the city as rebels are based in the western and southwestern suburbs of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once commercial center. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an airstrike on the town of Atareb, west of Aleppo, killed five people including a man, his daughter and daughter-in-law.

The Aleppo Media Center, an activist collective, said the airstrikes killed seven people including a woman and two children. The Saturday noon airstrike on Atareb came after airstrikes on nearby villages the night before killed three rebels, according to the Observatory.

Earlier Saturday, state TV said the explosion in east Aleppo was caused by a device left inside a school by Syrian rebels, who withdrew from their last remaining enclave under a cease-fire deal after more than four years of fighting. It said three people were wounded in the blast.

A correspondent for Lebanon's Hezbollah-run Al-Manar TV was reporting live from the area when the blast sounded in the background, sending a huge cloud of dust into the air. The correspondent later said that at least three people were killed.

In the capital Damascus, state news agency SANA said militants blew up the Barada water pipeline in the suburb of Kafr al-Zayt. SANA quoted the director of Damascus and Damascus Countryside Water Establishment Hussam Hreidin as saying that the pipeline went out of service due to the attack. He added that the pipeline had been fixed and its service restored on Friday less than a month after a similar attack.

Pro-government media said the government was forced to cut water supplies coming to the Syrian capital for a few days and use reserves instead after rebels polluted the water with diesel. The al-Fija spring which supplies Damascus with water is in the rebel-held Barada valley northwest of the capital in a mountainous area near the Lebanese border.

The cut in water supplies comes at a time when government forces and their allies are on the offensive in the Barada Valley area.

Syrian government takes full control of Aleppo after 4 years

December 23, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government took full control of Aleppo on Thursday for the first time in four years after the last opposition fighters and civilians were bused out of war-ravaged eastern districts, sealing the end of the rebellion's most important stronghold.

The evacuations ended a brutal chapter in Syria's nearly six-year civil war, allowing President Bashar Assad to regain full authority over the country's largest city and former commercial powerhouse. It marked his most significant victory since an uprising against his family's four-decade rule began in 2011.

The announcement was made via an army statement broadcast on Syrian state TV shortly after the last four buses carrying fighters left through the Ramousseh crossing. "Thanks to the blood of our heroic martyrs, the heroic deeds and sacrifices of our armed forces and the allied forces, and the steadfastness of our people, the General Command of the Army and the Armed Forces announces the return of security and stability to Aleppo," an army general said in the statement.

Western Aleppo erupted in heavy celebratory gunfire, with Syrian TV showing uniformed soldiers and civilians shouting "Aleppo, Aleppo!" and "God, Syria and Bashar only!" "No more east and west, Aleppo is back for all Aleppans," said the Syrian TV correspondent, surrounded by people waving Syrian flags.

For Syria's opposition, it was a crushing defeat that signaled the start of a new struggle to forge a way forward. Ahmad al-Khatib, an opposition media activist who left the city before the siege, said the fall of Aleppo was a date "we'll never forget and we will never forgive."

"Let the world bear witness that Bashar Assad has killed and displaced and destroyed Aleppo, and he celebrates in his victory over the blood and offspring of Aleppo ... with the agreement of the Arab and Western nations," he posted on Twitter.

The ancient city had been divided into rebel and government parts since 2012, when rebels from the countryside swept in and took hold of eastern districts. That set the stage for more than four years of brutal fighting and government bombardment that laid waste to those neighborhoods.

The army statement said the victory in Aleppo is a "strategic transformation and a turning point in the war on terrorism and a deadly blow to the terrorist project and its supporters." It was a further incentive to keep fighting to "eradicate terrorism and restore security and stability to every span of the homeland," it added.

Earlier in the day, Assad said his forces' achievements in Aleppo are a "major step on the road to wiping out terrorism" and ending the civil war. The rebel evacuations were set in motion after a months-long siege and Russian-backed military campaign. Years of resistance were stamped out in a relentless campaign over the past month that saw hospitals bombed, bodies left unburied and civilians killed by shells as they fled for safety.

The campaign targeted all remaining hospitals, knocking them out of service. Medical and food supplies ran out and fighters were left demoralized and abandoned by their regional allies. Under a deal brokered by Russia and Turkey, tens of thousands of residents and fighters began evacuating to opposition-controlled areas in the surrounding countryside, a process that took a week.

More than 35,000 fighters and civilians were bused out, according to the United Nations. The ICRC said in a statement that more than 4,000 additional fighters were evacuated in private cars, vans and trucks since Wednesday.

The departure of the last convoy Thursday was a humiliating defeat for the opposition. The rebels' hold in Aleppo was a major point of pride, and at times the city seemed to be an invulnerable part of what was once a growing opposition-held patch of territory in the north.

The divided northern city has paid dearly as a central theater of the war. In the past month alone, hundreds of civilians were killed by intense bombardment of rebel-held zones. A photo of 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh — confused and covered in dust and blood as he sat in an ambulance after being rescued in August from the rubble of a building — became a haunting image in the unforgiving struggle.

Associated Press writers Philip Issa and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed reporting.

Last remaining rebels and civilians await Aleppo evacuation

December 20, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — The last Syrian rebels and civilians are awaiting evacuation from the remainder of what was once a rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo, a day after the U.N. Security Council approved sending observers to monitor the exodus.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that more than 15,000 people, among them 5,000 opposition fighters, have left the enclave since the rebels effectively surrendered the area under an Ankara- and Moscow-brokered deal. It's unclear how many remain.

In Moscow, foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran are meeting on Tuesday to discuss Syria, but the talks are likely to be overshadowed by the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey the previous night by an Ankara policeman, who after killing his victim cried out: "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!"

UN approves Aleppo monitors as evacuations from city proceed

December 20, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — The leaders of Russia and Iran, military allies of Syria's president, talked Monday about joining forces to reach a quick political settlement in Syria, as the country's largest city, Aleppo, was poised to return to full government control.

Syrian state TV said it expected the evacuation of thousands of civilians and fighters from the last opposition footholds in Aleppo to be completed by early Tuesday. As more people left the city, the U.N. Security council approved a compromise French-Russian resolution urging the immediate deployment of U.N. monitors to watch over the evacuation and "the well-being of civilians" remaining in the city. U.N. officials said more than 100 U.N. humanitarian staff already on the ground in Aleppo, most of them Syrian nationals, could be used in that role.

France's U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre said the goal of the resolution is "to avoid new mass atrocities by the forces on the ground and the militias in particular." But thousands of people have already been evacuated from the city and the operation could be completed before the observers arrive.

The departure of the last rebels from Aleppo would close another chapter in Syria's civil war and would give President Bashar Assad a significant symbolic and strategic victory. Almost six years after the outbreak of an armed rebellion against Assad, the Syrian leader will be in charge again of the country's five largest cities and the Mediterranean coast.

The presidents of Russia and Iran spoke by phone Monday to discuss the next moves. The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani "underlined the need for joint efforts to launch a real political process aimed at a quick settlement in Syria."

The leaders noted that a quick launch of talks between the Syrian government and the opposition in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, would be an important step toward that goal, a Kremlin statement said. The conversation came a day before a scheduled meeting of foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran in Moscow. Russia and Iran have backed Assad, while Turkey has supported the opposition.

The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, welcomed the Moscow meeting and any effort that results in a cessation of hostilities. He announced that the United Nations hopes to arrange negotiations between the government and opposition in Geneva on Feb. 8.

In the Turkish capital of Ankara, meanwhile, the Russian ambassador was shot to death by a man shouting, "Don't forget Aleppo. Don't forget Syria!" The gunman fired at least eight shots, killing Ambassador Andrei Karlov, 62, at an embassy-sponsored exhibition, and was then slain by police.

Discussing the Security Council resolution calling for monitors in Aleppo, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there would also be observers from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Crescent.

The resolution also demands that all parties allow unconditional and immediate access for the U.N. and its partners to deliver humanitarian aid and medical care, and "respect and protect all civilians across Aleppo and throughout Syria."

Syria's U.N. Ambassador, Bashar al-Ja'afari, claimed that one of the "main purposes" government opponents pushed for the resolution was to get people into eastern Aleppo to rescue foreign intelligence officers still in the former rebel-held area.

He named 12 alleged officers still trying to get out of Aleppo — six from Saudi Arabia and one each from Turkey, the United States, Israel, Qatar, Jordan and Morocco. He said: "We are going to catch them ... and show them to you."

The rebels captured eastern Aleppo in July 2012 and held on to it despite a ferocious assault in recent months by Syrian government forces, backed by Russia and a host of Shiite militias from Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and Afghanistan.

The evacuation of Aleppo began last week after Turkey and Russia brokered a cease-fire as government forces were closing in on the rebels' last redoubt, but has been repeatedly delayed. The evacuation of more than 2,000 sick and wounded from the rebel- besieged Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya was tacked onto the deal at the last minute. The opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said 10 buses left those villages with civilians on Monday.

There are also plans to evacuate hundreds of people from Madaya and Zabadani, two besieged, rebel-held villages near the Lebanese border. The Observatory and Mayadeen said 15 buses entered the two villages on Monday.

Rebel-held eastern Aleppo has been besieged for months, with several previous cease-fires breaking down and virtually no humanitarian aid reaching its tens of thousands of residents. One of those who left Aleppo on Monday was Mohammed Abu Jaafar, who described a miserable five-kilometer (three-mile) trip that took more than two hours in an overcrowded government bus.

He said they passed three checkpoints, one manned by Russian troops, another by plainclothes Syrian intelligence agents and the third by Syrian troops. Inside the bus, men, women and children were hungry and cold as they waited for hours in freezing temperatures, he said.

"Children were screaming, and some people fainted," he said, adding that there was no baby formula or diapers. Among those evacuated Monday was 7-year-old Bana Alabed and her mother Fatemah, who tweeted about the horrors of living through the government's assault on eastern Aleppo, which destroyed much of the city. Their account had some 334,000 followers.

Speaking to the activist-run Qasioun News Agency in the Aleppo countryside, Fatemah said she was glad to have finally reached safety but expressed regret that she was forced out of her home city and said she did not want to become a refugee.

"I left my soul there," she said. The Observatory and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu later said that since midnight Sunday, some 4,500 people have been evacuated from eastern Aleppo. Reports differed on how many people remain in eastern Aleppo, but estimates converge around 15,000 civilians and 6,000 fighters.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said a total of 131 wounded people — including 46 children — were brought to Turkey for treatment since the evacuations began last week. The agency said five of them have since died.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue reported this story from Beirut and AP writer Edith M. Lederer reported from the United Nations.

France, Russia reach compromise as Aleppo rescue uncertain

December 19, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — France struck a compromise Sunday with Russia on a U.N. resolution that it said would prevent "mass atrocities" in besieged areas of Aleppo, where thousands of trapped civilians and rebel fighters await evacuation in freezing temperatures.

On the ground, prospects for swift evacuations from Aleppo and other besieged areas were thrown into doubt again Sunday after militants burned buses assigned to the rescue operation, although one convoy of five buses was reported to have reached safety from the city late Sunday.

The Aleppo evacuations were to have been part of a wider deal that would simultaneously allow more than 2,000 sick and wounded people to leave two pro-government villages that have been besieged by Syrian rebels. Most villagers are Shiite Muslims, while most rebels are Sunni Muslims.

Six buses that were among those poised to enter the villages of Foua and Kfarya on Sunday were set on fire by unidentified militants, presumably to scuttle any deal. A video posted online showed armed men near the burning buses as celebratory gunshots rang out. "The buses that came to evacuate the apostates have been burned," the narrator of the video said. He warned that no "Shiite pigs" would be allowed to leave the towns.

The video could not be verified independently, but was in line with Associated Press reporting from the area. Earlier Sunday, pro-Syrian government TV stations showed dozens of buses on stand-by at a crossing near eastern Aleppo, reportedly poised to resume evacuations from the opposition's last foothold in the city.

Later, a Syrian opposition war monitoring group said the first civilians and fighters to evacuate eastern Aleppo in over 48 hours arrived safely in the countryside from the city. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said shortly before midnight Sunday that government forces allowed five buses to leave Aleppo.

Evacuations were suspended two days earlier amid mutual recriminations after several thousand people had been ferried out of the war zone. Thousands more desperate civilians are believed trapped in the city.

About 2,700 children were evacuated in the first rescue mission earlier this week, but hundreds more "are now waiting in freezing temperatures, close to the front lines," said Shushan Mebrahtu of the U.N. agency for children, UNICEF. "We are deeply worried."

The troubled evacuations are throwing into disarray an Aleppo deal that was brokered last week by Syria ally Russia and opposition supporter Turkey. The deal marked a turning point in the country's civil war. With the opposition leaving Aleppo, Syrian President Bashar Assad has effectively reasserted his control over Syria's five largest cities and its Mediterranean coast nearly six years after a national movement to unseat him took hold.

At the United Nations, France and Russia announced agreement on a compromise U.N. resolution to deploy U.N. monitors to eastern Aleppo to ensure safe evacuations and immediate delivery of humanitarian aid.

France's U.N. ambassador, Francois Delattre, told reporters the compromise was reached after more than three hours of closed consultations on Sunday and the Security Council would vote on the resolution at 9 a.m. EST on Monday.

He said some countries want to report to their capitals overnight. He said he hoped for a positive vote, but that he remained cautious. Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters before consultations that Moscow could not accept the French draft resolution unless it was changed. He presented council members with a rival text.

After the consultations, Churkin said a "good text" had been formulated. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, said the resolution would quickly put more than 100 U.N. personnel on the ground to monitor evacuations. "The text contains all the elements for safe, secure, dignified evacuation, for humanitarian access to those who choose to remain in eastern Aleppo" and for protecting civilians, she said.

She said that following the siege in eastern Aleppo, there have been "many, many reports of people being pulled off buses and disappeared, whether into conscription or into torture chambers or killed outright." Deploying U.N. monitors would deter "some of the worst excesses," she said.

Delattre agreed. Approval of the resolution, he said, "would give us collectively the tools to avoid ... a situation in which, after the end of major military operations, forces including militias, would commit mass atrocities."

He said the resolution could also offer leverage to negotiate a broader cease-fire.

Associated Press writer Karin Laub reported this story from Beirut and AP writer Edith M. Lederer reported from the United Nations. AP writer Philip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report.

Deal reached that could restart Aleppo evacuation

December 17, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — An agreement was reached Saturday to allow "humanitarian cases" to leave two besieged government-held Shiite villages in northwestern Syria, a step that would allow the resumption of civilian and rebel evacuations from eastern Aleppo which were suspended a day earlier, Hezbollah's media arm and a monitoring group said.

The opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the evacuation of some 4,000 people, including wounded, from the villages of Foua and Kfarya was expected to start Saturday. Hezbollah fighters have joined the Syrian war fighting along with President Bashar Assad's forces. Opposition activists blamed the Lebanese group for blocking the main road south of Aleppo and blocking evacuations from rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of the city.

The Aleppo evacuation was suspended Friday after a report of shooting at a crossing point into the enclave by both sides of the conflict. Thousands were evacuated before the process was suspended. The Syrian government said the village evacuations and the one in eastern Aleppo must be done simultaneously, but the rebels say there's no connection.

Hezbollah's Military Media said the new deal includes the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani near the border with Lebanon where tens of thousands of people are trapped under siege by government forces and the Lebanese group.

Syrian State TV correspondent, speaking from Aleppo, said Saturday that the main condition for the Aleppo evacuation to resume is for residents of Foua and Kfarya to be allowed to leave. The cease-fire and evacuation from east Aleppo earlier this week marked the end of the rebels' most important stronghold in the 5-year-old civil war. The suspension demonstrated the fragility of the cease-fire deal, in which civilians and fighters in the few remaining blocks of the rebel enclave were to be taken to opposition-held territory nearby.

In announcing the suspension, Syrian state TV said Friday that rebels were trying to smuggle out captives who had been seized in the enclave after ferocious battles with troops supporting Assad. Reports differed on how many people remain in the Aleppo enclave, ranging from 15,000 to 40,000 civilians, along with an estimated 6,000 fighters.

There also were contradictory reports on the number of evacuees who left on Thursday and early Friday from east Aleppo. Syrian state TV put it at more than 9,000 while Russia, a key Assad ally, said over 9,500 people, including more than 4,500 rebels, were taken out.

In rare demonstration, thousands protest power cuts in Gaza

January 12, 2017

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Thousands of people took to the streets on Thursday to protest chronic power cuts in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, in one of the largest unauthorized protests in the territory since the Islamic militant group took power a decade ago.

Hamas has shown little tolerance for dissent, and it moved quickly to contain Thursday's demonstration. Police fired in the air to disperse a crowd of stone-throwing protesters and blocked journalists from the area. A day earlier, Hamas-run authorities arrested a local comedian who made a viral video lamenting the power shortages during the cold winter season.

The demonstration began in the Jebaliya refugee camp, and as it grew in size, the crowd marched toward the nearby offices of an electricity distribution company, chanting: "Raise your voice, electricity cuts mean death."

Hamas police made way for the crowd, but took up positions outside the electricity company's building. When a group of youths threw stones at them, they fired into the air to disperse the crowd. Later, the protesters arrived at the building and gathered peacefully.

Hamas forces blocked journalists from filming the gathering, and an Associated Press journalist was briefly detained at gunpoint until he handed over his mobile phones to plainclothes security men. The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said a photographer with Agence France-Presse was badly beaten in the head by uniformed policemen and required medical care after he refused to hand over his camera. The group condemned the "violent behavior" in the "strongest terms."

Interior Ministry spokesman Iyad Bozom denied anyone had been injured. He said protesters were dispersed after they "attacked" the electricity company building and that "quiet has been restored" to the area.

Life has become increasingly difficult for Gaza's 2 million residents, who are squeezed into the tiny coastal territory. Hamas' violent takeover a decade ago triggered a border blockade by Israel and Egypt that, among other things, sharply aggravated power shortages.

In a sign of the worsening situation, Gaza comedian Adel al-Mashwakhi was arrested just hours after posting a video about the hardships under Hamas rule, friends and rights groups said. By Thursday afternoon, the video had received more than 250,000 views.

In the one-minute video, titled "Hamas, it's enough," he lists the basics missing in Gaza, including jobs and the ability to travel. "(Take) everything but electricity, Hamas," he says, facing the camera.

Bozom declined to comment about the arrest. Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, has ruled the territory since 2007, routinely clamping down on critics. Despite the hardships, anti-Hamas protests have been rare, in part because of fear and because even disgruntled Gazans believe there's no realistic path to toppling the militants.

Gaza is currently experiencing the worst electricity shortage in years, with power supplied to households only three to four hours a day in a cold winter. Residents have tried to improvise, using old kerosene heaters to keep warm and restarting previously disused community ovens for cooking and baking.

In recent weeks, Gaza residents have staged spontaneous demonstrations, including marching at night with torches to demand more electricity. Al-Mashwakhi posted his video late Tuesday. "There is no work, no (border) crossing points, no food, no water and also no electricity," he shouts in the clip, after getting out of a white car in the dark.

The artist has produced several short mobile phone videos and acted in some. He rose to fame locally with video clips in which he sings songs with nonsensical lyrics. The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemned the comedian's arrest, and said it was the third time since last year that he was taken into custody for criticizing Hamas. During one of the detentions, he was tortured, the group said.

Lebanon, others in Mideast, bury victims of Istanbul attack

January 03, 2017

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon on Tuesday buried its citizens who perished in the Istanbul nightclub massacre on New Year's Eve amid an outpouring of grief that has for days dominated local TV channels and discussions among the country's politicians.

Lebanon — a Mediterranean nation of 5 million people — lost three nationals in the carnage in Turkey. The attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, killed 39. Another six Lebanese nationals were wounded, according to local media.

Funerals were also held in Jordan and in Israel, which lost a citizen each in the assault. One of Lebanon's victims Rita Chami, 26, had lost her mother to cancer only last July. She had taken time out of her university studies to care for her.

The other two — Haykal Mousallem, 34, and Elias Wardini, 26 — were both personal fitness trainers in Beirut. Wardini was engaged to be married; Mousallem got married four months ago. Both of their partners survived the attack.

Lebanon, accustomed to tragedy in the aftermath of its civil war and occasional bouts of violence, has treated its Istanbul victims as national heroes, their coffins draped in the Lebanese flag as they were brought back home.

In Beirut's Ashrafieh neighborhood, grieving relatives and friends set off fireworks on Tuesday morning as residents bid Wardini farewell. His funeral was attended by some of the country's leading Christian politicians. Mousallem was buried in his native Chouf district, outside the Lebanese capital. Chami will be buried on Thursday.

Newly appointed Prime Minister Saad Hariri asked the Lebanese to stand still for five minutes in memory of the dead. But the local press went further than that. The country's top TV stations sent reporters on intrusive assignments on Sunday, broadcasting live from the homes of the bereaved as they learned of the fates of their loved ones.

On Twitter, Hariri urged the outlets to leave the families in peace. The bodies were repatriated Monday night, sparking another media frenzy, first at the airport and then the hospital morgues where the remains were taken.

Wardini's funeral was broadcast live on Tuesday on national TV, which called the victims "martyrs in every meaning of the word," and condemned Islamic State militants as "enemies of God." The New Year's attack on Istanbul's Reina club also touched others across the Middle East. The IS said it targeted Christian revelers in response to Turkish military operations against the militant group in northern Syria — but most of the dead were foreign tourists from Muslim countries. Turkey's Anadolu Agency said nearly two-thirds of the victims in the upscale club, which is frequented by local celebrities, were foreigners.

In Jordan, hundreds attended the funeral ceremony Tuesday for 44-year-old businessman Nawras Assaf who died in the Istanbul attack. Assaf's wife was among those wounded. In Israel, thousands attended the funeral Tuesday of 18-year-old Layan Nasser, an Arab Israeli killed in the Istanbul attack. She had gone to Istanbul to celebrate the New Year's with three friends.

Mourners wept as they marched through the streets of Tira behind Nasser's wooden coffin. The city's mayor, Mamoun Abd El Hai, declared a day of mourning, with banks and municipal offices closed. "She had dreams to work, to progress, to study, to raise a family, but unfortunately the terror put an end to her dreams and ended her life," the mayor told The Associated Press.

Another Israeli traveling with Nasser was wounded in the attack. Nasser's father told Israeli Channel 10 TV that he had a bad feeling about his daughter's trip to Istanbul. "I was very concerned about this trip," Zaher Nasser said. "I asked her not to travel in light of the bad security situation there, but she insisted to go with her friends."

Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Morocco orders closure of 'Gulenist' schools

2017-01-06

RABAT - Morocco has ordered the closure of schools it says are linked to a US-based Islamic preacher that Turkey blames for a failed coup last year, the interior ministry said.

"Investigations on the establishments of the Mohamed Al-Fatih group, linked to Turkish national Fethullah Gulen, showed they use education to spread the group's ideology and ideas contrary to the principles of the Moroccan educational and religious system," a ministry statement said.

After a series of warnings from the education ministry, "it was decided all the group's educational establishments would be closed within a delay of one month", it said.

The statement did not say how many schools or pupils would be affected but said the government would strive to ensure the students continued their education in other schools.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied any involvement in the July 15 failed coup aimed at toppling Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The preacher heads the Hizmet group which includes schools, associations and companies.

Turkey, which calls it the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO), has embarked on a massive crackdown of the group.

Since the coup, Turkey has piled pressure on the United States to extradite Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally.

In August, an official Turkish delegation visited Morocco to convince the authorities of the danger of Gulen's group.

A school director from the Mohamed Al-Fatih group at the time rejected any link with Gulen for seven schools teaching 2,500 students including 2,470 Moroccans.

He said 90 percent of their teachers were also Moroccan nationals.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=80692.

Police break up protest in northern Morocco

2017-01-05

AL-HOCEIMA - Police have dispersed a protest in Morocco's northern city of Al-Hoceima, a rights group said Thursday, months after a local fishmonger's death in a garbage truck sparked unrest.

Security forces broke up the protest in the city center late Wednesday as the demonstrators did not have a permit to protest, Mohamed Bassiri of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) said.

Footage circulated on social media showed police chasing dozens of protesters from the city's main square after asking them to end the sit-in with a megaphone.

It showed protesters on the ground who appeared to have been bruised, and other demonstrators being arrested. The protesters were later released, according to the AMDH.

Mouhcine Fikri, 31, was crushed to death on October 28 in a garbage truck as he tried to protest against the seizure and destruction of swordfish, which were not allowed to be caught at that time of year.

His death in the Rif -- an ethnically Berber region long neglected and at the heart of a 2011 protest movement for reform -- triggered protests nationwide.

Those protests have now stopped but activists in Al-Hoceima have continued to call for a thorough investigation, alongside broader demands for an end to widespread unemployment and corruption.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=80688.

Escalating tensions leave Libya on brink of deeper crisis

2017-01-06

SIRTE - Escalating tensions between rival Libyan armed forces threaten to plunge the North African country deeper into turmoil only weeks after the fall of the Islamic State group's bastion Sirte.

The deeply tribal nation has been sharply divided since the 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with rival militias vying for influence and control of oil resources.

The power struggle pits an administration based in eastern Libya, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, against a UN-brokered unity government in Tripoli supported by militias from the western city of Misrata.

"The situation is most likely going to escalate further given that the voices of war are now the loudest" after an air strike by Haftar's forces against the Misrata militias, analyst Mohamed Eljarh of the Atlantic Council said.

The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) is the centerpiece of Western hopes to stem an upsurge of jihadism in Libya, but it has failed to assert its authority across the country.

The rival authority in the east has refused to cede power and has its own armed forces, which call themselves the Libyan National Army (LNA) and are led by Haftar.

Pro-GNA fighters mainly from the Western town of Misrata drove IS from Sirte in December, capping a deadly months-long campaign for Kadhafi's hometown.

The Misrata militias include hardliners determined to fight Haftar's army.

The LNA has battled jihadists in second city Benghazi for more than two years and blames Misrata militias of backing diehard extremists.

On December 7, two days after Sirte's liberation, tensions flared when hardline Misrata militias joined an attack against Haftar's forces launched by an alliance of Islamist and tribal fighters.

- Fears of IS regrouping -

The assault on a town near Libya's "oil crescent" -- where Haftar had seized four export terminals from pro-GNA forces in September -- was launched from Al-Jufra air base in southern Libya.

The LNA repelled it and since then has frequently bombarded the base, calling it a den of "terrorists".

On Monday, an LNA air strike hit a military plane carrying senior Misrata military and political figures who were flying out of Al-Jufra, killing one and wounding several.

The Misrata militias dispatched reinforcements to Al-Jufra as well as the Sebha region further west.

Martin Kobler, the UN special envoy to Libya, said he was "alarmed by the tensions in Libya's south" and urged all sides "to act with restraint and to resolve issues through peaceful dialogue".

US State Department spokesman John Kirby warned that further fighting could embolden the Islamic State group and other jihadists to reorganize.

"We note with deep concern... renewed fighting between Libyans... fighting which we believe will only benefit Daesh (IS) and other violent extremists there," he said.

"The truth is that to date, Libyan forces have made progress against Daesh in Sirte and in eastern Libya, and that's what makes this renewed fighting here of concern," Kirby added.

Despite the recapture of Sirte, which had been IS's main base in Libya, the jihadist threat persists in the country where experts say IS cells are present in several other areas including Tripoli.

- Hardliners win support -

Eljarh said a confrontation between Misrata and Haftar's forces could play out in Tripoli as well as the "oil crescent" and the southern region.

Such an outcome "will have a knock-on effect on Libya's oil and water facilities adding to the suffering of the entire population especially in western Libya and the capital," he added.

Eljarh said that the attack on the plane carrying Misrata dignitaries had inflamed even the most moderate factions in the western city.

"Hardliners ... have now managed to successfully switch public opinion within Misrata in their favour" and could now mobilize public support against the LNA, he added.

Mattia Toaldo, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Haftar was trying to form alliances with Libya's powerful tribes to control the south of the country.

"The south is the most immediate flashpoint where Haftar is trying to replicate the strategy of tribal alliances and limited show of force that allowed him to capture the oil crescent in September," he said.

"Sirte is another flashpoint with Misratan fears that Haftar will use tribal allegiances to strip Misrata of its gains on the ground," he said.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=80704.

Qatar set to build embassy in Gaza Strip

JAN. 9, 2017

GAZA (Ma’an) -- Qatar has reportedly decided to build an embassy in the besieged Gaza Strip during a meeting of the Qatari committee for Gaza reconstruction on Monday.

The head of the committee, Abd al-Halim al-Issawi, gave the greenlight for the construction of the embassy after visiting the planned location, a five-dunam (1.2 acres) plot of land south of the Gaza City port, on Thursday with contractors.

While Qatar has had a representative office in the besieged Palestinian enclave, the planned embassy could mark a significant diplomatic move, as most countries have implanted their diplomatic missions and consulates to the occupied Palestinian territory in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Qatar is a prominent backer of the Hamas movement -- the de facto ruling party in Gaza -- and has provided significant financial support for reconstruction in the blockaded enclave following several devastating Israeli offensives.

Naji Sharab, a professor of political science at Gaza's al-Azhar University, told the Dunya al-Watan news outlet that "such a step is unprecedented in diplomatic relations," and that he saw it as a potential move by Qatar to recognize the Gaza Strip as a national entity separate from the Palestinian Authority-ruled West Bank.

However, Dunya al-Watan quoted another political analyst and writer, Hussam al-Dajani, as saying that embassies are usually located in the capital cities of the host countries, but that given East Jerusalem’s occupied status, “Qatar can choose a location for its embassy to Palestine in coordination with the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Al-Dajani thus dismissed the significance of the move "as long as the Foreign Ministry in Ramallah and the one in Gaza are in agreement."

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774823.

Saudi unblocks military aid to Lebanon: Lebanese source

Riyadh (AFP)
Jan 10, 2017

Saudi Arabia and Lebanon agreed Tuesday to hold talks on restoring a $3-billion military aid package, opening a "new page" in relations, a Lebanese official source said.

"The blockage is lifted," said the official in the delegation of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who held talks over lunch with King Salman in the Saudi capital.

After a tense year which saw Saudi Arabia freeze the aid deal over what it said was the dominance of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement, Aoun arrived in Riyadh on Monday night with a delegation of ministers.

It was his first trip to the kingdom since his election in November ended a two-year deadlock between Iran- and Saudi-backed blocs in the Lebanese parliament.

Aoun, a Maronite Christian former army chief who was backed by Hezbollah, clinched the presidency with shock support from Saudi ally Saad Hariri, a leading Sunni figure who in return was named prime minister.

Analysts say Saudi Arabia is hoping for a more stable Lebanon, after concerns over the role played by Hezbollah in the Lebanese government and the threat posed by jihadists and the war in neighboring Syria.

The Iran-backed Shiite militant group has fighters in Syria supporting forces of President Bashar al-Assad, while Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional rival, backs some rebels opposed to his government.

Riyadh last March declared Hezbollah a "terrorist organisation" and urged its citizens to leave Lebanon.

In February, the kingdom halted the $3-billion (2.8-billion-euro) military aid package to Lebanon to protest what it said was "the stranglehold of Hezbollah on the state".

The program would see Riyadh fund the transfer of vehicles, helicopters, drones, cannons and other military equipment from France, which has been seeking to boost arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

The Lebanese official told AFP that a "new page" in relations with Riyadh had been turned and said the aid was "going to move".

"There is truly a change. But when and how, we have to wait to see," the official said on condition of anonymity.

He added that King Salman's son, the powerful Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will discuss with his Lebanese counterpart how to move the package forward.

- 'Security, stability' -

After Aoun's election, France's foreign ministry said it was in "close dialogue" with Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in hope of a deal.

Aoun told Saudi state news channel Al-Ekhbaria that his ministers of foreign affairs, education, finance and information would meet their Saudi counterparts "to find some fields of cooperation."

Asked vaguely about the military aid, Aoun said: "Of course we will discuss all the possible issues."

Syria's nearly six-year civil war has been a major fault line in Lebanese politics, and the country hosts more than one million Syrian refugees.

Aoun said that Lebanon's partners "have agreed to build Lebanon, regardless of the results in the other countries, because building Lebanon is for all, and secondly, security and stability is for all."

He told Al-Ekhbaria his country's internal political situation had improved, and expressed confidence that "balance" can be maintained.

"The state must realize, and maintain, security and stability for individuals and groups even if there are different political visions regarding neighboring and regional countries," Aoun said.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Saudi_unblocks_military_aid_to_Lebanon_Lebanese_source_999.html.

UAE mourns 5 diplomats killed in mysterious Afghan bombing

January 11, 2017

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — The killing of five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates in a bombing in southern Afghanistan marks the deadliest attack ever for the young nation's diplomatic corps, though it's too soon to tell who was behind it or if the Gulf envoys were even the targets.

The federation of seven sheikhdoms, founded in 1971 on the Arabian Peninsula, said it would fly the nation's flag at half-staff for three days in honor of the dead from the attack Tuesday in Kandahar.

The Taliban denied planting the bomb, even as the insurgents claimed other blasts Tuesday that killed at least 45 people. No other group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Kandahar, a province in Afghanistan's Taliban heartland.

The bomb targeted a guesthouse of Kandahar Gov. Homayun Azizi, who was wounded in the assault along with UAE Ambassador Juma Mohammed Abdullah al-Kaabi. The attack killed 11 people and wounded 18, said Gen. Abdul Razeq, Kandahar's police chief, who was praying nearby at the time of the blast.

Razeq said investigators believe someone hid the bomb inside a sofa at the guesthouse. He said an ongoing construction project there may have allowed militants to plant the bomb. "Right now we cannot say anything about who is behind this attack," he told The Associated Press, while adding that several suspects had been arrested.

On Wednesday, broken glass from the powerful blast still littered the blood-stained ground outside of the guesthouse, with thick black soot still visible on the building. Some furniture sat outside, apparently moved as part of the construction.

Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the UAE prime minister and vice president, offered condolences for the families of the dead and condemned the attack. "There is no human, moral or religious justification for the bombing and killing of people trying to help" others, he wrote on Twitter.

On the Afghan side, authorities said the dead included two lawmakers, a deputy governor from Kandahar and an Afghan diplomat stationed at its embassy in Washington. The attack inside the heavily guarded compound represents a major breach of security, even in Afghanistan, a country long torn by war. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday condemned the attack and ordered an investigation.

The Taliban is usually quick to take credit for attacks, particularly those targeting the government or security forces. They claimed attacks earlier on Tuesday in Kabul at a compound of government and legislative offices that killed at least 38 people and wounded dozens. Another Taliban-claimed suicide bombing on Tuesday killed seven people in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.

But on Wednesday, the Taliban issued a short statement blaming an "internal local rivalry" for the Kandahar attack. The Taliban have denied some attacks in the past that diplomats and security forces later attributed to the group. Other insurgent groups, including an Islamic State affiliate, also operate Afghanistan.

A Taliban attack targeting Emirati officials would be surprising. The UAE was one of only three countries, along with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, to recognize the Taliban government during its five-year rule of Afghanistan.

Emirati combat troops deployed to Afghanistan after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaida before and after the Sept. 11 attacks. The UAE had troops there for years as part of the NATO-led mission, training members of the Afghan armed forces and often winning the support of locals by praying with them in community mosques and respecting their traditions as fellow Muslims.

Multiple daily commercial flights link the countries, with Dubai serving as an important commercial hub for Afghan businessmen. Over the years, Taliban and Afghan officials also have met in Dubai to try to start peace talks.

Although the UAE is only 45 years old, Emirati diplomats have come under attack in the past, some felled by assassins' bullets. Saif Ghubash, the UAE's first minister of state for foreign affairs, died after being shot in an October 1977 attack at Abu Dhabi International Airport, an attack that apparently targeted Syrian Foreign Minister Abdul-Halim Khaddam. Khaddam later blamed the attack on Iraq.

In 1984, the UAE's ambassador to France was assassinated outside his Paris home by a gunman. A diplomatic club was named in honor of the slain envoy, Khalifa al-Mubarak, in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, in 2015.

Another Emirati diplomat was wounded in a shooting in Rome in 1984. Reports at the time linked those two attacks to the Arab Revolutionary Brigades, a Palestinian militant group. Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said Tuesday's attack wouldn't stop the UAE's humanitarian efforts abroad.

He wrote on Twitter: "We will not be discouraged by despicable terrorist acts carried out by the forces of evil and darkness."

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Thousands protest Spain's dispersion policy for ETA inmates

January 14, 2017

BILBAO, Spain (AP) — Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Saturday in the Basque city of Bilbao, calling for some 350 imprisoned members and sympathizers of the armed pro-Basque independence group ETA to be allowed serve their sentences closer to home in northern Spain.

In addition to prisoners' families and pro-independence politicians, some relatives of ETA victims took part for the first time in the annual demonstration. Protesters marched through the city holding placards that read "I Denounce" the Spanish government's policy of dispersing ETA prisoners in 40 prisons across Spain to restrict contacts between them.

Rosa Rodero, widow of a police sergeant assassinated by the ETA in 1993, marched behind a banner reading "Basque prisoners to the Basque Country." "All people here in the Basque country, we have fought a lot, we had to suffer a lot. The only thing we want is that peace comes and that peace is also given to these people," she said, referring to the prisoners.

ETA killed 829 people in its nearly four-decade campaign to create a Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France. The group announced a permanent cease-fire in 2011, but Spain's Interior Ministry says there will be no change in its dispersion policy until the group fully disarms and its members ask for pardons.

But AVT, the largest association of relatives of terror victims, urged that any movement of prisoners be done only on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons. "I don't think the victims of ETA should support having their assassins closer to home just because the ETA stopped killing five years ago," said AVT president Alfonso Sanchez, who survived an ETA bombing in 1985.

Last month Spanish and French police made five arrests after discovering a suspected ETA weapons trove in southern France. The Interior Ministry refuses to say how many ETA prisoners are jailed in Spain but the protest organizers say there are 273 ETA prisoners in Spain but just two in the Basque region. Another 78 are in French jails. They say many relatives and friends have to travel hundreds of kilometers (miles) to visit the ETA inmates.

Amnesty International says the dispersion policy goes against U.N. standards. The economically powerful Basque region is one of 17 semi-autonomous regions in Spain. Opinion polls have long indicated a majority of its 2.2 million residents do not favor splitting from Spain.

Associated Press writers Ciaran Giles and Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed to this report.

Mario Soares, Portugal's former president and PM, dies at 92

January 07, 2017

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Mario Soares, a former prime minister and president of Portugal who helped steer his country toward democracy after a 1974 military coup and grew into a global statesman through his work with the Socialist International movement, has died. He was 92.

Lisbon's Red Cross Hospital said in a statement he died there on Saturday afternoon with his son and his daughter at his bedside. The hospital did not provide a cause of death, but Soares had been a patient since Dec. 13 and in a coma for the past two weeks.

Soares, a moderate Socialist, returned from 12 years of political exile after the almost bloodless Carnation Revolution toppled Portugal's four-decade dictatorship in 1974. As a lawyer, he had used peaceful means to fight the country's regime, which eventually banished him.

Soares was elected Portugal's first post-coup prime minister in 1976 and thwarted Portuguese Communist Party attempts to bring the NATO member under Soviet influence during the Cold War. He helped guide his country from dictatorship to parliamentary democracy and a place in the European Union.

"The loss of Mario Soares is the loss of someone who was irreplaceable in our recent history. We owe him a lot," Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa said in India, where he was on a state visit. Costa said three days of national mourning will begin Monday and that Soares would have a state funeral at an unspecified date.

"His cause was always the same: freedom," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said in a televised speech. "At decisive moments, he was always a winner." Soares' role as an international statesman was solidified through his work with the International Socialist movement. As a vice president from 1976, he led diplomatic missions that sought to help resolve conflicts in the Middle East and Latin and Central America.

Soares was visiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the Gaza Strip when Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Tel Aviv in 1995. Both Arafat and Rabin were longtime friends of Soares.

In 1986, Soares became Portugal's first civilian president in 60 years. His broad popularity brought him two consecutive five-year terms. During terms as prime minister and foreign minister, Soares helped rehabilitate Portugal on the international stage after decades of isolation under the dictatorship established by Antonio Salazar in the 1930s. Soares' insistence on using the ballot box instead of weapons to end the dictatorship won him respect around the world.

Soares belonged to a generation of influential European Socialist leaders that also included his close friend Francois Mitterrand of France, Germany's Willy Brandt, Olof Palme in Sweden, and Felipe Gonzalez in Spain.

The 1974 coup shot Lisbon to the center of Cold War attentions as Portugal lurched to the political left after the dictatorship's fall. Days after the Carnation Revolution — so named because people stuck red carnations in soldiers' rifle barrels — Soares returned home by train from Paris to a rapturous welcome from crowds that flocked to meet him at Lisbon's Santa Apolonia train station.

The Communist Party's influence surged following the coup, prompting fears in the West that Portugal — a founding member of the Atlantic military alliance — would come under the Soviet Union's influence and encourage other radical leftist movements in western Europe.

Soares said that at an October 1974 meeting in Washington, then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told him he thought Portugal was doomed to communist rule. But Frank Carlucci, the new U.S. ambassador to Lisbon and later head of the CIA, argued that moderate democratic forces, especially Soares' Socialists, would prevail. The 1976 election proved Carlucci right.

Soares, an affable figure and eloquent campaigner who led the Socialist Party, won the country's first entirely free elections and became prime minister. Portugal had western Europe's last colonial empire, and Soares was instrumental in quickly granting independence to Portugal's five colonies in Africa. Protracted wars had sapped the Portuguese economy and soured its relations with other western nations that had turned away from colonial rule years earlier.

Soares later was criticized for cutting the colonies loose so abruptly. All of them — Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe — became single-party Marxist states supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba after their independence. Angola and Mozambique drifted into civil wars as proxies in the Cold War struggle for influence in Africa.

Soares held posts in a string of governments that lasted less than a year in the post-revolution political chaos. Banks were nationalized, spooking wealthy financiers who fled the country, and poor farmers seized the land they had long worked at large private estates.

Born in Lisbon in 1924, Soares started out as a radical student organizer and became a renowned defense lawyer. He was a relentless opponent of Salazar's regime, which along with Franco's roughly contemporary rule in neighboring Spain, shut off the Iberian peninsula to outside influences. Salazar's secret police, known by its acronym PIDE, jailed Soares 12 times and exiled him twice, once to the island of Sao Tome off west Africa.

After democracy, Soares served four times as the country's foreign minister and three times as prime minister. As prime minister in 1986 he ushered Portugal into the European Economic Community — later the European Union. That turned out to be a watershed year which placed the country on a fast-track modernization program.

Soares capped his political career that year by becoming head of state. He rapidly set about keeping his campaign pledge to serve as "President of all the Portuguese" after years of division and unrest which brought eight governments between 1978 and 1985.

He was a fierce critic of the economic liberalism embraced by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British leader Margaret Thatcher which was alien to his Socialist convictions about the benefits of welfare capitalism.

As president, Soares established a professional, if cool, relationship with center-right Social Democratic Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva, who admired Thatcher. Though an unlikely team, Soares and Cavaco Silva together oversaw the shedding of many left-inspired economic structures, such as the nationalization of banks, adopted after the coup.

Opponents claimed Soares had abandoned his Socialist ideals, but Soares insisted his "cohabitation" with Cavaco Silva contributed to the country's new-found stability. He won a thumping re-election victory to serve a second five-year term in 1991.

Soares then retired from politics to set up a cultural foundation. At the request of the United Nations, he became head of the Independent World Commission of the Oceans. He also led a U.N. fact-finding mission on human rights to Algeria in 1998.

He returned to politics in 1999, winning a seat in the European parliament as the main candidate of the Socialist Party but then failing to be elected head of the assembly. He also ran again for Portugal's presidency in 2006, at the age of 82. Younger voters had little grasp of his historic achievements and he finished third.

He is survived by two children and five grandchildren.

33 inmates die in Brazil, latest in week of prison bloodshed

January 06, 2017

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian authorities said Friday that 33 more prisoners had died at a prison in northern Brazil just days after 60 were killed in rioting at two prisons in a neighboring state. The federal justice secretary said the new deaths occurred overnight at the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo in the city of Boa Vista, in the state of Roraima, but it gave no details. Calls to the secretariat were not returned.

It wasn't immediately clear whether there was a connection to the gruesome rioting earlier this week in the neighboring state of Amazonas, which officials blamed on a war between rival drug gangs over control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil, which borders Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and the Guianas.

A police statement said officers, including a heavily armed military-like riot squad, had been deployed to the prison. "The federal government needs to prepare for a worst case scenario, and that means accelerating measures to keep the situation from getting worse," said Col. Jose Vicente, a former national security adviser and risk consultant.

Just as details about the latest disturbance were emerging, Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes announced measures to stop the bloodshed. Moraes said federal police would be more integrated in state capitals and that special task forces would be created to more quickly process criminal charges, a measure aimed at reducing overcrowding. Moraes offered no deadlines for the initiatives but said they would "be realistic" given the recession in Latin America's largest economy.

The rioting Sunday and Monday in Amazonas include the country's worst prison bloodshed since 1992, with half of the 56 slain at one institution beheaded and several others also dismembered. In another of the riots, four prisoners died.

A total of 184 inmates escaped from Amazonas prisons in the disturbances. As of Thursday afternoon, only 65 had been recaptured. Authorities say that in Amazonas, the local Family of the North gang attacked members of Sao Paulo-based First Command, Brazil's biggest criminal organization.

In October, a riot at the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo, the same where disturbances were reported on Friday, left 18 dead.

Polish ruling party prevails in standoff in parliament

January 11, 2017

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's conservative ruling party appeared to prevail Wednesday in an ongoing standoff in parliament as the Senate approved a budget that centrist opponents said was passed illegally.

In an unprecedented political crisis, opposition lawmakers have occupied the plenary hall in the Sejm, the lower house of Poland's parliament, since mid-December. The main point of contention was a budget vote which two centrist opposition parties said was held illegally. They had demanded a repeat vote.

But the ruling Law and Justice party held firm in insisting the Dec. 16 vote was held properly and refused to have the budget reconsidered in the lower chamber. The Senate — which is dominated by the ruling party — passed the budget on Wednesday without making any changes.

Under parliamentary procedures, the Senate vote precludes another vote in the Sejm. Opposition lawmakers denounced the Senate's move as a crowd of anti-government protesters gathered outside parliament and expressed anger at what they see as anti-democratic practices taking hold in Poland.

"We have a budget that is illegal," said Katarzyna Lubnauer, a lawmaker with Modern, one of the two centrist opposition parties. But ruling party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the protesting lawmakers were the ones violating democratic norms with their blockade. He declared the budget a closed matter.

Kaczynski suggested that the lawmakers who remained in the Sejm could be forcibly removed. But Speaker Marek Kuchcinski postponed a possible confrontation by briefly opening the first session of the year and then calling a recess until Thursday morning.

The centrist lawmakers planned to consider a new form of protest before parliament reconvenes Thursday. Kaczynski is working to reinforce the country's nationalist and Catholic traditions. His opponents say his populist methods are increasingly authoritarian and they have argued the blockade of Parliament was necessary to defend democratic standards.

The centrist Modern and Civic Platform parties began their occupation around the speaker's podium in the main hall to protest government attempts to limit media access to parliament. Attention shifted to the budget after ruling party lawmakers approved it in a side room to get around the blockade.

The opposition argues it was not clear if a quorum of lawmakers was present during the initial budget vote. Votes were cast with a show of hands instead of through the electronic machines normally used.

Duterte orders troops to blast militants and their hostages

January 15, 2017

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he has ordered his troops to bomb extremists who flee with their captives in a bid to stop a wave of kidnappings at sea, calling the loss of civilian lives in such an attack "collateral damage."

Duterte has previously stated that he had told his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts their forces can blast away as they pursue militants who abduct sailors in waters where the three countries converge and bring their kidnap victims to the southern Philippines. He said in a speech late Saturday that he had given the same orders to Filipino forces.

He said he instructed the navy and the coast guard that "if there are kidnappers and they're trying to escape, bomb them all." "They say 'hostages.' Sorry, collateral damage," he said in a speech to business people in Davao, his southern hometown.

He said such an approach would enable the government to get even with the ransom-seeking militants. "You can't gain mileage for your wrongdoing, I will really have you blasted," he said. His advice to potential victims? "So, really, don't allow yourselves to be kidnapped."

Duterte's remarks reflect the alarm and desperation of the Philippines, along with Malaysia and Indonesia, in halting a series of ransom kidnappings primarily by Abu Sayyaf militants and their allies along a busy waterway for regional trade.

On Saturday, ransom-seeking Abu Sayyaf gunmen freed a South Korean captain and his Filipino crewman who were abducted three months ago from their cargo ship. The gunmen handed skipper Park Chul-hong and Glenn Alindajao over to Moro National Liberation Front rebels, who turned them over to Philippine officials in southern Jolo town in predominantly Muslim Sulu province.

The Moro rebels, who signed a 1996 peace deal with the government, have helped negotiate the release of several hostages of the smaller but more violent Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the U.S. as a terrorist organization for kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.

Duterte's adviser dealing with insurgents, Jesus Dureza, said he was not aware of any ransom being paid in exchange for the freedom of the sailors. At least 27 hostages, many of them foreign crewmen, remain in the hands of different Abu Sayyaf factions, he said.

There have been persistent speculations, however, that most of the freed hostages have been ransomed off. Without a known foreign source of funds, the Abu Sayyaf has survived mostly on ransom kidnappings, extortion and other acts of banditry.

A confidential Philippine government threat assessment report seen by The Associated Press last year said the militants pocketed at least 353 million pesos ($7.3 million) from ransom kidnappings in the first six months of 2016.

The militants have mostly targeted slow-moving tugboats in the busy sea bordering the southern Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.