11 Syrian opposition groups form new front in Idlib

28.05.2018

IDLIB, Syria

Eleven opposition groups fighting against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria formed a new alliance in northwestern Idlib province on Monday.

The sources from the groups said they merged under the name of "National Front for Liberation."

“The aim of the new formation is to unite the components of the Free Syrian Army in Idlib province on Syria under one roof,” the new formation said on social media.

The formation includes following groups: Sham Legion, Jaysh al-Nasr, Free Idlib Army, 1st Costal Division, 2nd Costal Division, 1st Division, 2nd Army, Army of Elites, Shuhada al-Islam Darayya, Al-Hurriyat Brigade, and 23rd Division.

All of the groups have been operating in Idlib and northern part of Hama under the Free Syrian Army.

The Sham Legion commander Fadil Allah al-Hajji became the leader of the new front, while Suhaib Layyush from Jaysh al-Nasr was appointed as his deputy.

With the new formation, the opposition group created one of the largest military groups in Syria fighting the Assad regime, bringing together nearly 30,000 people.

Syria has just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.

Source: Anadolu Agency.
Link: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/11-syrian-opposition-groups-form-new-front-in-idlib/1159183.

Al-Bab's patience with Turkey wears thin after rebel lawlessness

Thursday 17 May 2018

Like any other day at work, Dr Mamdouh Matlab arrived at the Al-Salam Hospital in the northern Syrian city of Al-Bab to make his rounds of the wards.

Arriving a few minutes early, Matlab sat down on a bench close to an empty office and rifled through his bag for patient notes.

After three years of living under Islamic State group (IS) control  - a period of public beheadings and strict controls on daily life - Matlab and the other residents of the city were beginning to adjust to a life free from the militant group.

Danger still resides in Al-Bab, however.

The doctor was on his way to see his first patient when he heard raised voices and shouting down the hallway.

Running to see what was happening, he saw a nurse kneeling on the floor, crying, as a member of the Turkish-backed Al-Hamzat Brigade pointed a gun at her head.

The unit was one of five Free Syrian Army rebel groups to join Turkish troops in an offensive that drove IS out of Al-Bab in 2016.

"Someone from the Al-Hamzat faction was screaming and shouting at the nurses and doctors. One of their fighters needed urgent medical care, but no one was able to attend to him," said Matlab.

"They ended up dragging one of the doctors out of the hospital like he did a crime. We were scared and didn't know what to do."

The Turkish-backed rebels also ransacked and harassed medical staff in the Al-Hikmah hospital elsewhere in the city on the same day, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

One week on, the whereabouts of the kidnapped doctor, whose identity is withheld for security reasons, remains unknown.

An invitation to return

The battle for Al-Bab, a three-month offensive on the IS-held city that was conducted as part of Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield to better protect its border with Syria, left considerable damage.

Once IS was ousted, Turkey urged displaced Syrians - including the many who had fled north across the Turkish border - to return and help rebuild the city. Matlab heeded this call and came back.

Turkish-occupied areas in northern Syria have become a haven for displaced Syrians.

Following pro-Syrian government forces' successes in rebel strongholds around Damascus and northern Homs province, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have sought refuge in the country's north, including areas controlled by Turkey and its allies.

The displaced and returned residents have swollen the city's population, with hundreds of Syrians recently evacuated from northern Homs stuck on the city's outskirts. Turkey is refusing them entry, insisting Al-Bab is full.

While residents say life in Al-Bab today is more stable than during the reign of IS, months of sporadic infighting among Turkish-backed rebel groups - which has led to the deaths and wounding of many civilians - has led many caught in the crossfire to question their choice to come back.

With hospitals and medical workers now swept up in lawlessness and violence, patience with Turkey's control of the city is beginning to wear thin.

Safety concerns

The doctor's kidnapping angered hundreds of residents, who protested outside the police station in Al-Bab earlier this month. The crowd called for the doctor's release and an end to the rebel clashes in their city.

Moments after the protest began, Turkish troops jumped out of their armored vehicles and started shooting into the air to disperse the protest.

But rather than turning away, the protesters directed their anger towards the Turks, chanting "free, free, Al-Bab" and telling soldiers to "go back to where they came from", according to videos posted on social media.

Matlab joined the demonstrators. "Turkey is playing a significant role in the city, treating Al-Bab like it is its own soil. But they are not doing enough to improve security," he said.

"I have always been unsure about Turkey's role in the city, and despite the improvement of services, people are continuing to die from clashes by rebels who they support. Something needs to be done about this."

Badr Taleb, a videographer based in Al-Bab, was also at the demonstration, where he said a stray Turkish bullet grazed his forehead.

During IS's occupation of Al-Bab, Taleb lived in Aleppo city and retreated to its countryside when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces tightened the noose around the opposition-held eastern neighborhoods, which fell in the last days of 2016.

He now regrets coming back to Al-Bab following a recent bout of fighting between the Al-Hamzat fighters and rebels from Deir Ezzor.

"Things are just getting out of control. We appreciate Turkey and the role it's played, as other world powers turned a blind eye," said Taleb.

"But it must bring the rebels it supports in line, and not allow them to ruin everything Turkey has been building for the Syrians."

'Better than nothing'

Despite the simmering tensions between residents and Turkish troops in Al-Bab, Syrians have told MEE that for now, they have no choice but to work with the Turks.

Turkey has a significant presence inside Al-Bab, and since taking the city has helped repair damaged buildings, reopened schools and begun construction on a new industrial zone.

But according to Matlab, stability and safety inside Al-Bab remain its residents' key priorities.

"The situation is no different from how it used to be under the regime," said a dismayed Matlab.

"When a robbery took place, we would go to the police station and sign a report about what was stolen and expect nothing to be done.

"Now we can still go to the same police station. Only this time, the officers we have are trained and backed by the Turks. It's useless but better than nothing."

Source: Middle East Eye.
Link: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/Al-Bab-patience-with-Turkey-wears-thin-after-rebel-lawlessness-1790512911.

Germany's Merkel slaps down talk of working with leftists

August 13, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday slapped down an ally's suggestion that her conservatives could work with the post-communist Left Party in the country's east, an idea that appalls many on the right.

Germany's political landscape has become increasingly fragmented in recent years — particularly in the formerly communist east, where the Left Party is a major force and the far-right Alternative for Germany is at its strongest.

That makes it increasingly hard to form governing coalitions, and three eastern states hold regional votes next year. In federalized Germany, state governments play an important role and regional political experiments can foreshadow national developments.

Daniel Guenther, the conservative governor of the western state of Schleswig-Holstein, said in a weekend newspaper interview that his Christian Democratic Union must be "pragmatic" if election results in the east make it impossible to form a coalition without the Left Party.

The Left Party won 9.2 percent of the vote in last year's national election. A fusion of eastern ex-communists and other left-wingers created in 2005, it has experience of governing in several eastern states but tends to be more radically left-wing in the west.

Merkel has jettisoned many tenets of conservative orthodoxy and moved her party to the center in her nearly 13 years as chancellor, but an alliance with the Left Party so far has been off-limits — as has working with the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

"If there are sensible people at work in the Left Party, it isn't a mistake to seek sensible solutions," Guenther was quoted as saying. His comments drew criticism from many in the CDU, and Merkel wasn't impressed.

"I don't advocate working with the Left Party and that has been the case for many years," she told reporters. "We will do everything in the upcoming elections in the (eastern) states to form governments under the CDU's leadership without the Left Party and, of course, without AfD."

UK Labor leader under fire over Palestinian wreath-laying

August 13, 2018

LONDON (AP) — British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is facing allegations of enabling anti-Semitism, acknowledged Monday that he was present at a wreath-laying to Palestinians allegedly linked to the murder of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

But the Labor Party leader said "I don't think I was actually involved" in laying the wreath. The left-wing politician — a longtime critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians — has been facing mounting criticism since the Daily Mail published photos of Corbyn holding a wreath in a Tunis cemetery in 2014, near what the newspaper said were graves of Black September members. The Palestinian militant group carried out the kidnapping and massacre at the Munich games. Several members were later killed by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.

Corbyn has previously said he was at the cemetery to commemorate the victims of a 1985 Israeli air attack on Palestinian Liberation Organization offices in Tunis. On Monday, he acknowledged a wreath had also been laid to "those that were killed in Paris in 1992." PLO official Atef Bseiso, whom Israel has accused of helping to plan the Munich Olympic attack, was gunned down outside a Paris hotel that year.

"I was present when it was laid. I don't think I was actually involved in it," Corbyn told reporters. "I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere because we have to end it."

The statement is unlikely to quell criticism from Jewish groups and Labor members who say Corbyn has allowed anti-Semitism to spread in the party. "Being 'present' is the same as being involved. ... Where is the apology?" tweeted Labor lawmaker Luciana Berger.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted that "the laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre and his comparison of Israel to the Nazis deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone — left, right and everything in between."

Corbyn responded on Twitter that Netanyahu's "claims about my actions and words are false." The Labour Party said Corbyn "did not lay any wreath at the graves of those alleged to have been linked to the Black September organization or the 1972 Munich killings."

Corbyn has been accused of failing to expel party members who express anti-Semitic views and has received personal criticism for past statements, including a 2010 speech in which he compared Israel's blockade of Gaza to Nazi Germany's sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad during World War II.

The dispute recently boiled over after the party proposed adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that differed from the one approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Labour's version omits some of the alliance's language around criticism of Israel. The alliance's definition says it is anti-Semitic to compare contemporary Israeli policies to the policies of the Nazis, a view Labour did not endorse.

Corbyn said Labour was consulting with Jewish groups on the party's definition of anti-Semitism. He said it was important to ensure "you can discuss and debate the relations between Israel and Palestine, the future of the peace process and, yes, make criticisms of the actions of the Israeli government in the bombing of Gaza and other places."

"But you can never make those criticisms using anti-Semitic language or anti-Semitic intentions, and that is what we are absolutely clear on," Corbyn said.

Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa urges nation to move beyond elections

August 13, 2018

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's president has called on the troubled country to unite and "put the election period behind us and embrace the future" in his first public address since winning disputed elections.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa was speaking on the Heroes' Day holiday which commemorates the lives of those who died in this southern African country's 1970s war against white minority rule. Mnangagwa was to have been inaugurated Sunday but the swearing in ceremony was postponed because of the legal challenge to the election results lodged by the main opposition MDC party at the Constitutional Court.

The July 30 vote was largely peaceful and many had hoped it would usher in a new era for Zimbabwe but the capital was rocked by post-election protests in which the military opened fire, killing six people.

Mnangagwa blamed the opposition for the shooting deaths, saying they had incited violence. He, however, urged reconciliation. "We should never be deterred by temporary setbacks or regrettable events which we encounter in our course to build an open, free and democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe," said Mnangagwa, who was cheered on by supporters chanting his election campaign slogans.

"The time for politics is over . let us therefore march forward in peace, harmony and love," said Mnangagwa, an ex-vice president and longtime enforcer of former president Robert Mugabe, who resigned in November after pressure from the military.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party won the country's first election without Mugabe on the ballot. Mnangagwa won 50.8 percent of the vote, said the commission.

But in their court challenge to Mnangagwa's win, opposition lawyers allege "gross mathematical errors" and call for a fresh vote or a declaration that main challenger Nelson Chamisa was the winner. Mnangagwa's ZANU-PF party is expected to oppose the opposition court challenge. On Monday, he said such differences should not result in violence.

"Let us never allow our differences to separate us, to cause animosity or stir intolerance and violence among us," said Mnangagwa. "We are one people. It is indeed time for us to close ranks and collectively push our national agenda and forge our country to new frontiers of economic development."

South Korea bans driving BMWs under recall due to fires

August 14, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea will ban driving recalled BMWs that haven't received safety checks following dozens of fires the German automaker has blamed on a faulty exhaust gas component. South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday the ban taking effect Wednesday affects about 20,000 vehicles.

Drivers cannot use the cars except for taking them to safety checks. While violating the ban is punishable by up to 1 year in prison, the ministry said the focus will be on persuading drivers to take their vehicles for safety checks as soon as possible. However, the government will "aggressively" pursue charges against drivers if their vehicles catch fire after they had continuously defied the ban, ministry official Kim Gyeong-wook said.

Junghyun Kim, an official from BMW's South Korean unit, said the company has currently secured more than 14,000 cars it will lend to affected drivers for free until their BMWs are cleared to drive again.

"We will do our best with the safety checks to reduce the number of drivers affected by the ban," she said. Nearly 40 fires of BMW vehicles this year are suspected to have been caused by engine problems. Images and videos of BMW sedans engulfed in smoke and gutted by fires caused alarm among drivers. Some parking lots reportedly refused to let in BMW drivers and other drivers said they were trying to avoid BMWs on the road. A group of angry BMW owners filed a complaint with Seoul police earlier this month, saying that the German automaker was reacting too slowly to address the problem.

BMW last month recalled about 106,000 vehicles of 42 different models. The company has identified the cause of the engine fires as leaks of glycol coolant in their exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) coolers. Combined with carbon and oil sediment the leaks could combust and cause fires when the vehicles were driven at high speeds for long periods of time. Such fires can occur only when the vehicles are being driven.

BMW AG's Korean unit earlier apologized over the fires. The company is still investigating why South Korea saw so many such incidents this summer. BMW is recalling about 323,000 vehicles across Europe over concerns about the same exhaust component, but the company isn't yet sure whether EGR coolers have caused fires outside of South Korea, said Junghyun Kim, the South Korean BMW official. Overall, engine failure rates in South Korea were no more numerous than in other countries where BMW has used the same software and hardware, BMW has said.

The ministry says 27,000 recalled cars hadn't received safety checks as of Monday but it expected a portion of them to be checked before the ban goes into effect. Earlier this month, BMW AG said its investigations had found similar malfunctions that could, "in rare cases," cause fires in some BMW diesel vehicles in the European market.