Region

SFAX, Tunisia — Racial tensions in the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax flared into violence targeting migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, dozens of whom were forcibly evicted from the city or fled, witnesses said on Wednesday.

Amid the disturbances late Tuesday, police detained some migrants and deported them as far away as the Libyan border more than 300 kilometres, according to a local rights group.

The latest unrest started after the funeral of a 41-year-old Tunisian man who was stabbed to death on Monday in an altercation between locals and migrants, which led to the arrests of three suspects from Cameroon.

"We are going to avenge his death!" young people were heard chanting at the victim's funeral in video footage published online.

Sfax, the North African country's second-largest city, is a departure point for many migrants hoping to reach EU member Italy by sea, often the island of Lampedusa about 130 kilometres away.

Hundreds of angry residents massed in the streets of Sfax late Tuesday demanding the eviction of all illegal migrants, said an AFP correspondent. Some blockaded streets and set car tyres ablaze.

Videos shared on social media showed police chasing dozens of migrants from their homes to the cheers of city residents, before loading them into police cars.

On the Facebook page of community group Sayeb Trottoir, the medic Lazhar Neji, working in the emergency room of a city hospital, deplored "an inhumane... bloody night that makes you tremble".

He said the hospital had received between 30 and 40 injured migrants, including women and children, and said "some were thrown from terraces, others attacked with swords".

Fear and 'psychosis' 

Tunisia has seen a rise in racially motivated attacks following President Kais Saied's comments in February accusing "hordes" of illegal migrants of bringing violence and alleging a "criminal plot" to change the country's demographic make-up.

With a population of 12 million, Tunisia hosts an estimated 21,000 migrants from other parts of Africa, representing 0.2 per cent of the population.

Europe has offered funding to help assist Tunisia's efforts against illegal migration and boost its ailing economy.

Saied on Tuesday visited the interior ministry and stressed that Tunisia "does not accept that anyone who does not respect its laws stays on its territory, or uses it as a transit country or to resettle nationals of certain African countries".

Tunisia's violence is once more spreading fear and "psychosis" among migrants, said Franck Yotedje, director of the Afrique Intelligence group, in a Facebook comment, urging the Tunisian state to fulfil its duty to "ensure the safety of the residents of Sfax, Tunisians and foreigners".

'Radical solution' 

In the Sfax unrest, dozens of migrants rushed to the railway station to take trains to other Tunisian cities, said an AFP photographer.

Other online footage showed migrants lying on the ground, their hands on their heads, surrounded by residents armed with sticks who waited for police to arrive to hand them over.

Police took some migrants to the site of the Sfax International Fair, from where they were to be transferred elsewhere, said Romdane Ben Amor, head of the non-government group Forum for Economic and Social Rights.

He told AFP that some migrants were taken to an area near the Libyan border, without being able to give precise numbers.

The Sfax branch of the powerful UGTT trade union accused the government of having aggravated illegal immigration "by playing the role of the Mediterranean policeman, intercepting the boats of illegal sub-Saharan African migrants and transporting them to Sfax".

It called on Saied's government to "find a radical solution" to the presence of "thousands of illegal sub-Saharan migrants", and said the Sfax region must not be "transformed into a place of assembly or resettlement for these migrants in a desire to please Italy and Europe".

MOSUL, Iraq — Medical charity Doctors Without Borders(MSF) announced on Wednesday the suspension of "vital" medical activities in two hospitals in the war-scarred city of Mosul, blaming Iraq's bureaucracy of delaying the delivery of supplies.

"Essential medical activities have been suspended at two health facilities... after stocks of medicines and supplies ran critically low," according to an MSF press release.

The group's activities are crucial for the major city in northern Iraq, where the healthcare sector is struggling to recover from years of war and neglect.

Six years after Iraq declared victory over the Daesh group, much of Mosul, where the jihadists declared their "caliphate", remains devastated and public services are slowly being rebuilt.

MSF attributed the suspension to the "lengthy, complicated, and opaque official procedures which have hampered MSF from ensuring a reliable supply to the projects through Baghdad International Airport and from transporting them within Iraq".

The charity said it is halting its activities at two out of three MSF-run hospitals in Mosul — Al Wahda hospital, where 220 patients received specialist orthopaedic surgeries or postoperative care, and Al Amal Maternity Hospital, where 2,496 deliveries took place.

"It is unfortunate that we have had to suspend vital activities since 1 June in both facilities," MSF head of mission in Iraq Fernando Galvan said in the statement.

MSF said one shipment was held up at Baghdad's airport for five months and when it finally took possession of some items many had "expired".

Iraq's transport ministry, the airport director, and the Civil Aviation Authority did not respond to AFP's request for comment on the matter.

Galvan told AFP that MSF continues to provide some services at the two Mosul hospitals, including emergency maternity care.

"We will only be able to resume our activities when we can receive the necessary supplies," he said.

WASHINGTON — The US military said Wednesday it had blocked two attempts by the Iranian navy to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman, including one case in which the Iranians fired on the tanker.

Tehran has stepped up actions against tankers in the region since the United States tightened sanctions on Iran's own oil exports and other sections of its economy.

The Iranians sought to seize the Marshall Islands-flagged TRF Moss and hours later the Bahamian-flagged Richmond Voyager, in both cases fleeing after a US destroyer appeared on the scene, the US Central Command said in a statement.

It said that at 1:00am Wednesday local time, one Iranian naval vessel approached the TRF Moss in the Gulf of Oman.

"The Iranian vessel departed the scene when US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived on station," the statement said.

Around three hours later, the US Navy received a distress call from the Richmond Voyager, which was positioned more than 32 kilometresoff the coast of Muscat, it said.

Another Iranian naval vessel was close to the tanker and messaged it to stop.

Before the arrival of the USS McFaul, "Iranian personnel fired multiple, long bursts from both small arms and crew-served weapons," Central Command said.

Several rounds hit the hull of the tanker but there were no casualties or significant damage, it said.

Central Command said that since 2021 Iran has "harassed, attacked or seized" nearly 20 internationally flagged merchant ships, "presenting a clear threat to regional maritime security and the global economy".

The tightened US sanctions, which aim to cut into Iran's export earnings, have led to the United States seizing Iranian-controlled tankers and shipments of crude to other countries.

But seizures come as the United States has sought to engage Tehran on some of the issues dividing them, the largest of which is restoring the 2015 agreement in which Iran accepted limitations on its nuclear program.

Most recently Oman initiated indirect talks between the two sides that were believed to focus largely on the release of Americans held by Iran.

In April Iran seized two tankers within a week in regional waters.

In one of the incidents, helicopter-borne Iranian navy commandos abseiled onto the deck of a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker, the Advantage Sweet, in the Gulf of Oman.

In 2019, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz for allegedly ramming a fishing boat, and released it two months later.

In 2021, Iran released a South Korean oil tanker it had held for months amid a dispute over billions of dollars seized by Seoul.

And in May 2022, Iran seized two Greek tankers after a Russian-flagged tanker carrying Iranian crude was seized a month earlier near Athens. The two vessels were both released in November.

• Thousands of Palestinian mourners join Jenin funeral procession 
• Camp residents met with widespread destruction

JENIN, Palestinian Territories — Israeli forces on Wednesday declared the end of a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank that killed 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier over the previous two days.

The raid, involving hundreds of forces, drone strikes and armoured bulldozers, targeted the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a centre for multiple armed Palestinian groups.

Thousands of Palestinian mourners joined a Jenin funeral procession for those killed, where fighters fired gunshots into the air and the crowd chanted "With our souls and blood, we will sacrifice for you, martyr!"

Amid the days of violence, a Palestinian attacker in Tel Aviv on Tuesday wounded seven Israelis in a car ramming and stabbing attack before an armed civilian shot him dead.

Overnight, Israel carried out air strikes on targets inside the blockaded Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian coastal enclave, with no deaths reported.

As the army pulled out of Jenin, much of the city’s crowded refugee camp was left charred and in rubble from the incursion which displaced at least 3,000 residents.

“All this bloodshed is considered a sacrifice for the homeland and for our cause. All this destruction can be fixed, God willing,” a resident from Jenin camp told AFP as crowds of people holding Palestinian and militant flags marched through the city for the funerals.

The camp, a small urban area home to about 18,000 people, has long been a stronghold of militant groups including Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Among the dead Palestinians was 16-year-old Abdulrahman Hassan Ahmed Hardan, who was shot in the head by Israeli forces while unarmed on Tuesday, according to the non-government group Defence for Children International.

The army has not yet commented on the group’s claim.

Islamic Jihad praised its fighters on Wednesday for what it labelled a “heroic” victory and vowed that, for Israel, “Jenin and its camp will remain a terror that haunts you”.

‘Open war’ 

Jenin residents inspected the widespread destruction in the camp, where gaping holes were torn into buildings, cars were crushed and the ground was littered with bullet casings and broken glass.

Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled Jenin’s refugee camp a “terrorist nest”.

The Palestinians labelled the escalation an act of “open war against the people of Jenin”.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 June War and built many settlements, considered illegal under international law, in the area Palestinians regard as the core of the independent state they are seeking.

Excluding occupied East Jerusalem, the territory is home to about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements — a number that hard-right nationalist groups within Netanyahu’s coalition government are working to increase.

The Palestinians want Israel to withdraw from all land seized in 1967 and to dismantle all Zionist settlements.

Netanyahu, however, has pledged to “strengthen settlements” and expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, which have been moribund since 2014.

The army, after a number of deadly attacks early last year inside Israel, started to launch almost daily raids in the West Bank.

The violence has further escalated since Netanyahu’s government took over late last year, with clashes concentrated in the northern West Bank.

During this week’s raid, the army said it had uncovered militant hideouts, arms depots and bomb-making facilities.

“Our troops operated at dozens of sites where terrorists produced ammunition, explosives and various types of weapons,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.

“Anyone who attempt to harm the children and the citizens of Israel will experience the full force” of the military, he warned.

The army said troops had also “confiscated” a large sum of “terrorist funds” during its operation.

‘Crimes against 

our people’ 

The Jenin clashes sparked renewed international concern, and the United Nations decried the violence in both Tel Aviv and Jenin.

“The killing, maiming and the destruction of property must stop,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the Tel Aviv attack “an initial response to crimes against our people in the Jenin camp”.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders condemned Israeli forces for firing tear gas inside Jenin’s Khalil Suleiman hospital.

Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al Kaila accused the army of shooting at Palestinians in the Jenin public hospital courtyard, saying this had marked a moment when “Israel’s aggression reached its climax”.

The army said reports on the incident are “not currently known to security forces” and added that “terrorist organisations have exploited civilian areas as a hideout”.

SARMADA, Syria — A UN official visiting Syria's Idlib on Tuesday urged a 12-month extension of a cross-border aid mechanism to the rebel-held, quake-hit region, just days before the current six-month period expires.

"There is no substitute in size and scope to the UN cross-border resolution if we want to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people in northwest Syria," said David Carden, the United Nations deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis.

"It's a joint message that you're hearing from the UN, the NGOs and the communities themselves in northwest Syria about the need for a 12-month renewal of the cross-border resolution," he told a press conference at a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Sarmada.

The mechanism, which is renewed by a vote of the Security Council, allows vital UN assistance to reach people in rebel-held northwest Syria without navigating areas controlled by government forces.

It was last renewed in January and is set to expire on July 10.

Carden said a 12-month extension of the resolution would "ensure that aid will continue to flow during the desperate winter months. It will ensure that early recovery programmes can be implemented.

The UN largely delivers the relief via neighbouring Turkey through the Bab Al Hawa crossing, which is controlled on the Syrian side by extremist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS).

After a February 6 earthquake devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, Damascus agreed to open two more crossings from Turkey — Bab Al Salama and Al Rai — for three months, and in May extended that access for another three-month period.

“There are 4.1 million people in need in northwest Syria,” Carden said, adding that “the needs are immense. They’ve got more severe since the earthquake”.

“The United Nations and its partners have been reaching 2.7 million people with aid every month,” he added, noting that “about 75 to 80 per cent of the trucks that cross the border through Bab Al Hawa into Idlib contain food”.

Syria’s war has killed more than half-a-million people and displaced millions since erupting in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

The number of UN-approved crossings has shrunk from four in 2014 after years of pressure from regime allies China and Russia at the UN Security Council.

For years, Moscow has pressured international organisations to pass exclusively through regions under the control of Damascus to distribute aid throughout the country — going as far as vetoing cross-border extensions that exceeded six months.

PARIS — Iran has hanged at least 354 people in the first six months of 2023, a rights group said on Monday, adding that the pace of executions was much higher than in 2022.

Rights groups have accused Tehran of increasing the use of the death penalty to spread fear across society in the wake of the protest movement that erupted last September over the death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating strict dress rules for women.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights said the 354 people figure for the first six months up to June 30 was up 36 per cent on the same period in 2022, when 261 people were executed.

Emphasising concerns that non-Persian ethnic groups are disproportionately affected by executions in Iran, it said 20 per cent of all executions were of members of the Sunni Baluch minority.

It said 206 people were executed for drug-related charges, a 126 per cent rise compared to the same period last year.

Six women were among those executed in the period while two men were publicly hanged, it added.

“The death penalty is used to create societal fear and prevent more protests,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

“The majority of those killed are low-cost victims of the killing machine, drug defendants who are from the most marginalised communities.”

IHR earlier this year had reported that Iran carried out 582 executions in 2022, the highest figure in the Islamic republic since 2015.

Iran is the world’s second biggest executioner after China for which no data is available, according to Amnesty International.

Iranian authorities have executed seven men in cases related to the protests, with rights groups warning at least seven more arrested over the demonstrations are at imminent risk of execution.