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KHARTOUM — Feared Sudanese paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo went from a militia chief in war-torn Darfur to the country's second-in-command — to now battling the regular army for control of the country.

Daglo, leader of the large and heavily-armed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), collaborated with his now arch-rival, army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, in a 2021 military coup that derailed a transition to civilian rule following the 2019 ouster of hardline president Omar Al Bashir.

Often dressed in desert fatigues, the tall and slightly stooped Daglo — widely known by his nickname Hemeti, short for Mohamed — has crafted a distinct image for himself and his troops, positioning the RSF as autonomous from the military.

An experienced battlefield commander, he has in recent months also deployed a savvy use of social media with posts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to address the country's overwhelmingly young population, with two thirds of Sudanese aged under 30.

Darfur upstart to statesman 

Born in around 1975, a camel and sheep trader with little formal education, he rose to prominence when Khartoum's hardline government under Bashir began arming nomadic Arab raiders to counter an ethnic minority rebellion that broke out in the western Darfur region in 2003.

The groups known as Janjaweed were sent to attack villages on camel and horseback as part of a campaign of terror that saw Bashir indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court.

The war in Darfur left hundreds of thousands dead and more than two million displaced.

By 2013, Bashir had appointed him commander of a new force made up of former, mostly Arab, militiamen as Khartoum once again sought to crush the insurgency — the RSF.

But many in Khartoum looked down at the rise of the Darfuri, who hails from the Arab Rizeigat people.

"The old guard, dominated by the old Sudanese elite around Khartoum, very much view Hemeti as an illiterate, upstart thug whom they first armed to do their dirty work in the war in Darfur," said Alan Boswell, Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group.

Closer to power 

For nearly a decade, Daglo used his reputation as a ruthless militiaman and street-smart leader to maneuver his way closer to power, all the while growing richer off lucrative RSF-controlled gold mines.

The RSF were deployed in Yemen when Sudan joined the Saudi-led coalition fighting in the civil war there in 2015, in what proved a major boon for both Daglo and his future coup partner, army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan.

"It allowed him, alongside Burhan, to meet United Arab Emirates officials and Saudi officials and present themselves as possible successors of Bashir," researcher Jerome Tubiana said.

According to experts, the force has also been involved in the conflict in neighbouring Libya.

When the military toppled Bashir in 2019, Daglo became the second most powerful man in the country, but accusations of RSF atrocities continued in the ensuing security crackdown.

When security personnel attacked pro-democracy demonstrators camped out in the heart of the capital in June 2019, it was the RSF that witnesses said were at the forefront of the bloodshed, killing at least 128 people.

Political ambitions 

His sights were set still higher, and experts warned he was a man with massive forces at his disposal and lofty political ambitions, whose actions should be closely watched.

Since the coup, Daglo's power has only grown, as he sought to craft a more palatable image — working on his heavily-accented Arabic, for instance — while building key alliances.

Though experts have long drawn links between the RSF and Russian mercenary group Wagner, Daglo gained new access as second-in-command, landing in Moscow the day after its invasion of Ukraine.

As the rift with Burhan grew, Daglo came to call the coup he had helped lead a "mistake" that had failed to bring about change and invigorated remnants of Bashir's Islamist regime.

After battles erupted on Saturday — with fighting still raging through densely-populated streets of Khartoum — Daglo has portrayed himself and the RSF on social media and international TV as the saviours of Sudan.

In regular posts in both Arabic and English, the RSF claim to be safeguarding democracy against "the putschist forces" led by Burhan, who Daglo slammed as a "criminal" and "a radical Islamist".

In turn, Burhan has called Daglo a "criminal" and the RSF a "rebel militia".

BEIRUT — A US helicopter raid on Monday targeted a senior Daesh terror group leader in Syria suspected of plotting attacks in Europe and the Middle East, US Central Command said.

"US Central Command forces conducted a unilateral helicopter raid in northern Syria in the early morning... targeting a senior ISIS Syria leader and operational planner," Centcom said in a statement, using another acronym for Daesh.

The target of the strike was "responsible for planning terror attacks in the Middle East and Europe", it alleged.

"The raid resulted in the probable death of the targeted individual" while "two other armed individuals were killed", the statement said, without identifying any of them.

No civilians or US troops were hurt, the statement added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike "targeted the building where a Daesh member was present" in Al Suwaydah, a village about 25 kilometres west of the town of Jarabulus on Syria's northern border with Turkey.

The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor that relies on sources on the ground, said the strike killed the main target and two other fighters.

The Daesh member had previously been imprisoned in Kurdish-held Manbij, south of Jarabulus, according to the Observatory.

He had taken refuge in the Al Suwaydah area around six months earlier under the protection of a pro-Turkish group, it added.

Local residents told AFP that the man was killed as he was trying to flee and that his body was handed over to one of his brothers.

A Turkish-backed rebel group deployed in the Al Suwaydah area said in a statement that two of its fighters were killed after they went to the site of the raid.

Many former Daesh militants joined pro-Turkish groups after the extremists lost their last scraps of territory in Syria in March 2019, observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Earlier this month, the US military said it had launched a strike in Syria killing senior Daesh leader Khalid Aydd Ahmad Al Jabouri, who Centcom said was responsible for planning attacks in Turkey and Europe.

In October 2019, Washington announced it had killed Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in an operation in north-western Syria.

His two successors have also been killed: The first in a US operation in north-western Syria and the second in an operation by former Syrian rebels in the country’s south.

Some 900 US troops remain in Syria, most in the Kurdish-administered northeast, as part of a US-led coalition battling remnants of IS, which remains active in both Syria and neighbouring Iraq, operating out of hideouts in desert and mountain areas.

Daesh “remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East”, Centcom chief Gen. Michael Kurilla was quoted as saying in Monday’s statement.

In separate attacks on Sunday, suspected Daesh fighters killed at least 36 truffle hunters and five shepherds in Syria, the observatory reported, with 17 pro-regime fighters among the dead.

TEHRAN — Iran said on Monday it has formally invited Saudi King Salman to visit Tehran, following a reconciliation agreement reached last month between the two sides.

Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran in 2016, after its embassy in Tehran and consulate in the northwestern city of Mashhad were attacked during protests over Riyadh's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr Al Nimr.

The two Middle East powerhouses had held several rounds of dialogue in Iraq and Oman before reaching the agreement to mend ties on March 10 in China.

On Monday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said President Ebrahim Raisi had "invited the Saudi King to visit Iran".

Kanani said the Iranian president had already received an invitation to visit the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

The spokesman also expressed hope that Iran and Saudi Arabia would reopen their respective diplomatic missions by May 9, as scheduled in the China-brokered agreement.

"We and the Saudi side insist on activating the embassies in a very timely manner so that Iranian pilgrims can attend a calm hajj pilgrimage using the services provided by the embassy," he told a weekly press conference.

The annual Hajj pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia, one of the pillars of Islam, is expected to begin this year in late June.

In recent days, delegations from the two countries have visited the embassies in Riyadh and Tehran and consulates in Jeddah and Mashhad to launch the process of their reopening.

On April 6 the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, held talks in Beijing on the implementation of normalisation of ties.

“The foreign ministers of the two countries will meet” again before the reopening of the embassies, the spokesman said.

Before the March deal to restore ties, Shiite Muslim-majority Iran and Sunni Muslim-ruled Saudi Arabia had backed rival sides in conflict zones across the region for years, including in Yemen.

Riyadh led a military coalition that supported the internationally recognised government in the kingdom, while Tehran backed the Huthi rebels who control the capital Sanaa and large areas of the north.

KHARTOUM — Explosions rocked the Sudanese capital Khartoum Monday as fighting between the army and paramilitary forces led by rival generals raged for a third day with the death toll surpassing 100.

The violence erupted Saturday after weeks of power struggles between the two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup, Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict, which has seen air strikes, tanks on the streets, artillery fire and heavy gunfire in crowded neighbourhoods both in Khartoum and other cities across Sudan, has triggered international demands for an immediate ceasefire.

As the fighting showed no sign of abating, Daglo took to Twitter to call for the international community to intervene against Burhan, branding him a "radical Islamist who is bombing civilians from the air".

"We will continue to pursue Al-Burhan and bring him to justice," he said, adding: "The fight that we are waging now is the price of democracy."

In his only statement since the fighting flared, Burhan told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he was "surprised by Rapid Support Forces attacking his home" and that what was happening "should prevent the formation of forces outside the army".

The conflict has claimed the lives of at least 97 civilians and "dozens" of fighters from both sides, medics said, adding about 942 people have been injured.

But the number of casualties is thought to be far higher, with many wounded unable to reach hospitals due to difficulties in movement amid the fighting.

The doctors’ union warned the fighting had “heavily damaged” multiple hospitals in Khartoum and other cities, with some rendered completely “out of service”.

The World Health Organisation had already warned that several of Khartoum’s nine hospitals receiving injured civilians “have run out of blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids and other vital supplies”.

UN Special Representative Volker Perthes, who is in Khartoum, said he was “extremely disappointed” by the failure of both sides to abide by an agreed humanitarian pause on Sunday to evacuate the wounded.

The violence has forced terrified people to shelter in their homes with fears of a prolonged conflict that could plunge Sudan into deeper chaos, dashing hopes for return to civilian rule.

Vital aid suspended 

The RSF was created under former autocrat Omar Al Bashir in 2013, emerging from the Janjaweed militia that his government unleashed against non-Arab ethnic minorities in Darfur a decade earlier, drawing accusations of war crimes.

The fighting broke out after bitter disagreements between Burhan and Daglo over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army — a key condition for a final deal aimed at ending a crisis since the 2021 military coup they orchestrated together.

The two sides accuse the other of starting the fighting, and both claim the upper hand by declaring control of key sites, including the airport and the presidential palace — none of which could be independently verified.

On Monday, the army said it was in control of the state broadcaster in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman.

After being cut for hours, state television went on the air again, showing footage of soldiers filming themselves on military bases claiming they control them.

Three UN staff from the World Food Programme were among those killed in the western region of Darfur, forcing a “temporary halt” to all operations in a country where one-third of the population needs aid.

On Monday morning, loud gunfire and deafening explosions again shook buildings and echoed across the streets of Khartoum as street fighting continued, AFP journalists said.

Power has been off across swathes of Khartoum, and the few grocery stores remaining open warn they will only last a few days if no supplies can enter the city.

Appeals to end the fighting have come from across the region and the globe, including the African Union, Arab League and East African bloc IGAD.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned an escalation in the fighting would “further aggravate the already precarious humanitarian situation”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the warring rivals to agree an “immediate cessation of violence” and start talks.

‘Unprecedented’ violence 

Despite the wide calls for a ceasefire, the two generals have appeared in no mood for talks with each one calling the other “criminal”.

While Sudan has endured since independence decades of multiple bitter civil wars, coups and rebellions, Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair said the level of fighting inside the capital was “unprecedented”.

“This is the first time in Sudan’s history, certainly in its independence history, that there has been this level of violence in the centre, in Khartoum,” she said.

Fighting also raged in other parts of Sudan including the western Darfur region and in the eastern border state of Kassala.

The 2021 coup by the generals derailed a transition to civilian rule following the 2019 ouster of Bashir, triggering international aid cuts and sparked near-weekly protests met by a deadly crackdown.

Burhan, who rose through the ranks under the three-decade rule of now-jailed Bashir, has said the coup “necessary” to include more factions in politics.

Daglo later called the coup a “mistake” that failed to bring about change and reinvigorated remnants of Bashir’s regime ousted by the army in 2019 following mass protests.

KHARTOUM — Three civilians died in battles between Sudanese paramilitaries and the regular army, which said it launched air strikes against them, sparking global concern days after the army warned the country was at a "dangerous" turning point.

The paramilitaries said they were in control of the presidential place as well as Khartoum airport, claims denied by the army, as civilian leaders called for an immediate ceasefire to prevent the country's "total collapse".

The doctors' union reported the three civilian deaths, including at Khartoum airport which is in the city centre, and in North Kordofan state. At least nine others were wounded, the medics said.

The eruption of violence came after weeks of deepening tensions between military leader Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his number two, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, over the planned integration of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) into the regular army.

That was a key element of talks to finalise a deal that would return the country to civilian rule and end the crisis sparked by their 2021 coup, which triggered a deepening economic crisis in what was already one of the world’s poorest countries.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “deeply concerned” and urged both sides to “stop the violence immediately”, a call echoed by the United Nations, African Union, Arab League, regional bloc IGAD and the European Union.

Russia’s foreign ministry said there was “serious concern in Moscow,” which called for urgent steps towards a ceasefire.

The army said it had carried out air strikes and “destroyed” two RSF bases in Khartoum. 

More than 120 civilians had already been killed in a crackdown on regular pro-democracy demonstrations since the coup.

‘Sweeping attack’ 

The RSF said its forces had taken control of Khartoum airport, after witnesses reported seeing truckloads of fighters entering the airport compound, as well as the presidential palace, where Burhan is officially based, and other key sites.

Its claims were quickly denied by the army, who said the airport and other bases remain under their “full control”, publishing a photograph of black smoke billowing from what it said was the RSF headquarters.

The army also accused the paramilitaries of burning civilian airliners at the airport, and Saudi flag carrier Saudia said it had suspended all flights to and from Sudan until further notice after one of its Airbus A330 planes “was involved in an accident”.

RSF chief Daglo vowed no let-up. “We will not stop fighting until we capture all the army bases and the honourable members of the armed forces join us,” he told Al Jazeera. 

Created in 2013, the RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then president Omar Al Bashir unleashed against non-Arab ethnic minorities in the western Darfur region a decade earlier, drawing accusations of war crimes. 

A plan to integrate the RSF into the regular army is one of the main points of contention, analysts have said.

Haggling between the two men has twice forced postponement of the signing of an agreement with civilian factions setting out a roadmap for restoring the democratic transition disrupted by the 2021 coup.

Witnesses also reported clashes around the state media building in Khartoum’s sister city Omdurman.

Outside the capital, witness Eissa Adam said explosions and gunfire had been heard across the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher, where civilians were hunkered down inside their homes.

Witnesses in the South Darfur state capital Nyala also reported clashes.

The two sides traded blame for starting the fighting.

The RSF said they were “surprised Saturday with a large force from the army entering camps”, reporting a “sweeping attack with all kinds of heavy and light weapons”.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah said the paramilitaries launched the fighting, attacking “several army camps in Khartoum and elsewhere around Sudan”.

“Clashes are ongoing and the army is carrying out its duty to safeguard the country”, he added.

Burhan, in a statement to Al Jazeera, said he “was surprised by Rapid Support Forces attacking his home at 9:00 am”, without giving details.

‘Slipping into abyss’ 

The military’s civilian interlocutors called on both sides “to immediately cease hostilities and spare the country slipping into the abyss of total collapse”. 

Their plea was echoed by US ambassador John Godfrey, who tweeted that he “woke up to the deeply disturbing sounds of gunfire and fighting” and was “currently sheltering in place with the embassy team, as Sudanese throughout Khartoum and elsewhere are doing”.

The head of the United Nations mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, called for an “immediate” ceasefire, to “spare the country from further violence”. 

Western governments had been warning of the dangers of all-out fighting between the rival security forces since the army issued its warning to the paramilitaries on Thursday.

Daglo has said the 2021 coup was a “mistake” that failed to bring about change in Sudan and reinvigorated remnants of Bashir’s regime ousted by the army in 2019 following month of mass protests. 

Burhan, a career soldier from northern Sudan who rose the ranks under Bashir’s three-decade rule, maintained that the coup was “necessary” to bring more groups into the political process.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Thousands of Christians attended the thousand-year-old Holy Fire rite in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre Saturday ahead of the Orthodox Easter despite a security clampdown in the holy city.

The ancient church was built on the site where Christian tradition says Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected.

The annual Holy Fire ceremony, during which priests bring a flame from the tomb which they believe sparks miraculously each year, marks the most important event in the Orthodox calendar. 

Clutching candles, so the holy flame can be passed from one hand to another, pilgrims crowded the inside the church this year in reduced numbers.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, and for the second consecutive year Israeli police had told church leaders that access would be considerably restricted.

In the past about 10,000 worshippers would fill the church, with many more crowding into the surrounding alleys of the Old City, before the flame was flown to Orthodox communities internationally.

This year's ceremony also comes after deadly attacks and clashes in Israel, East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, and cross-border fire several days ago between Israeli forces and fighters in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces said attendance inside the church would be limited to 1,800 people including clergy as a safety measure.

Last year there were scuffles between worshippers and police who set up barriers throughout the city's Christian quarter.

"We understand the feeling, the religious feelings of people that want to participate in this Holy Light ceremony. But unfortunately not everyone can enter the church because of the safety regulation," Yoram Segal of the Jerusalem district police said.

He said the ceremony would be broadcast on screens in the Old City.

Father Mattheos Siopis from the Greek Orthodox Church said the Israeli forces were “enforcing unreasonable restrictions”.

“The ceremony has been faithfully taking place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for nearly 2,000 years,” he said.

After talks broke down between Christian leaders and the Israeli forces, Siopis urged “all who wish to worship with us to attend” on Saturday.

Christians made up more than 18 per cent of the population of the Holy Land when the state of Israel was created in 1948, but now they are fewer than two per cent, mostly Orthodox.

TUNIS — A professional footballer in Tunisia has died after setting himself alight earlier this week in what he called a protest against the "police state" ruling the country, his brother said on Friday.

Nizar Issaoui, 35, suffered third-degree burns from his action in the village of Haffouz in the central region of Kairouan, his brother Ryad told AFP.

He was taken from hospital in Kairouan to the specialist burns hospital in the capital Tunis, but doctors were unable to save his life, the brother said.

"He died yesterday [Thursday] and will be buried today."

Issaoui's protest recalled that of street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, who burned himself to death on December 17, 2010, sparking the Tunisian revolution that was the trigger for the Arab Spring uprisings which toppled authoritarian regimes across the Middle East.

News of Issaoui's death sparked protests on the streets of Haffouz on Thursday evening, Tunisian media reported. Young demonstrators hurled stones at police who responded with tear gas.

There was no immediate comment from the authorities.

On Friday, hundreds of mourners gathered outside Issaoui's house awaiting his funeral, shouting: "With our blood and with our soul we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Nizar".

During his funeral, clashes broke out between protesters and the police, who fired tear gas, local media reported.

Issaoui was a free agent at the time of his death, after a career that saw him play for a range of clubs from the lower divisions to the top flight.

In a Facebook post shortly before his fatal action, Issaoui said he had sentenced himself to "death by fire".

"I have no more energy. Let the police state know that the sentence will be executed today," he wrote.

According to Tunisian media, Issaoui decided to make his extreme protest against the police after officers accused him of "terrorism" when he complained that he was unable to buy bananas for less than 10 dinars ($3.30) a kilogramme, double the price set by the government.

A video selfie circulating on social media shows Issaoui screaming: "For a dispute with someone selling bananas at 10 dinars, I get accused of terrorism at the police station. Terrorism for a complaint about bananas."