Region

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait’s parliament, reacting to a suicide bombing last week that killed 26 people, adopted a law Wednesday requiring mandatory DNA testing on all the country’s citizens and foreign residents.

The legislation, requested by the government to help security agencies make quicker arrests in criminal cases, calls on the interior ministry to establish a database on all 1.3 million citizens and 2.9 million foreign residents. 

Under the law, people who refuse to give samples for the test face one year in jail and a fine of up to $33,000 (29,700 euros). Those who provide fake samples can be jailed for seven years.

Parliament also approved a $400 million emergency funding for spending required by the interior ministry.

“We have approved the DNA testing law and approved the additional funding. We are prepared to approve anything needed to boost security measures in the country,” independent MP Jamal Al Omar said.

A suicide bomber blew himself up during Friday prayers last week at a Shiite mosque in the capital, also wounding 227 people, in an attack claimed by the Daesh terror group.

Daesh’s Saudi affiliate, the Najd Province, claimed the bombing and identified the assailant as Abu Suleiman Al Muwahhid. Kuwaiti authorities said his real name was Fahd Suleiman Abdulmohsen Al Qabaa, saying he was a Saudi born in 1992.

Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khaled Al Sabah told parliament Tuesday security agencies had busted the “terror cell” behind the bombing.

“We are in a state of war. Yes, we have busted this terror cell but there are other cells we are going to strike,” Sheikh Mohammad said.

He said the emirate has revised “all security measures, especially around mosques and all places of worship”.

Of an unspecified number of suspects arrested, five have been referred to the public prosecution service. They include the driver who took the bomber to the mosque and the owner of the car.

Justice and Islamic Affairs Minister Yacoub Al Sane told parliament the supreme judicial council has decided to create a special court to try the case.

Daesh considers Shiites to be heretics. 

In May, the group claimed responsibility for two similar bloody attacks against Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia and has carried out several deadly anti-Shiite attacks in Yemen.

In Shiite-majority Bahrain, the interior ministry was recruiting “security volunteers” to protect places of worship in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, the official BNA news agency reported. 

So far, there have been no attacks on Shiite mosques in the tiny kingdom.

ISMAILIA, Egypt/CAIRO — Daesh insurgents attacked several military checkpoints in Egypt’s North Sinai on Wednesday in a co-ordinated assault that killed more than 100 people —one of the biggest militant strikes in Egypt’s modern history. 

Soldiers, policemen, civilians and militants were among the dead.

Daesh’s Egyptian affiliate, Sinai province, claimed responsibility and said that it had attacked more than 15 security sites and carried out three suicide bombings.

Egypt’s armed forces said that at least 100 militants and 17 soldiers had been killed. One security source said about 300 militants, armed with heavy weapons and anti-aircraft weaponry, had taken part in the attacks while the army said five checkpoints were hit and the fighting had raged for more than eight hours.

The assault — a significant escalation in violence in the Sinai Peninsula that lies between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal — was the second high-profile attack in Egypt this week. On Monday, a bomb killed the prosecutor-general in Cairo.

The insurgents, who have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, want to topple the Cairo government and have stepped up their campaign since 2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi removed president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood after mass protests against his rule.

Sisi, who regards the Brotherhood as a threat to national security, has since overseen a harsh crackdown on Islamists.

Security sources said the militants had planned to lay siege to the town of Sheikh Zuweid.

“But we have dealt with them and broke the siege on Sheikh Zuweid,” one of the sources said.

Army F-16 jets and Apache helicopters strafed the region. Soldiers had destroyed three SUVs fitted with anti-aircraft guns, the army said.

Booby traps at Sheikh Zuweid

Security sources said militants had surrounded a police station in Sheikh Zuweid and had planted bombs around it to prevent forces from leaving.

The militants also planted bombs along a road between Sheikh Zuweid and Al Zuhour army camp to prevent the movement of any army supplies or reinforcements. They also seized two armoured vehicles, weapons and ammunition, the sources said.

“We are not allowed to leave our homes. Clashes are ongoing. A short while ago I saw five Land Cruisers with masked gunmen waving black flags,” said Suleiman Al Sayed, a 49-year-old Sheikh Zuweid resident.

Ambulance medic Yousef Abdelsalam said he was at the entrance to Sheikh Zuweid but could not enter because of warnings that the road was rigged with bombs.

Witnesses and security sources also reported hearing two explosions in the nearby town of Rafah, which borders Gaza. The sources said all roads leading to Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid were shut down. The interior ministry in the Gaza Strip, run by the Islamist Hamas group, reinforced its forces along the border with Egypt.

“It is a sharp reminder that despite the intensive counter-terrorism military campaign in the Sinai over the past 6 months, the Daesh ranks are not decreasing — if anything they are increasing in numbers as well as sophistication, training and daring,” Aimen Dean, a former Al Qaeda insider who now runs a Gulf-based security consultancy, said in a note.

Cairo carnage

In Cairo, security forces stormed an apartment in a western suburb and killed nine men whom they said were armed, security sources said.

The sources said authorities received information the group was planning to carry out an attack. Among those dead was Nasser Al Hafi, a prominent lawyer for the Muslim Brotherhood and a former lawmaker. The Brotherhood denied the group was armed.

Daesh had urged its followers to escalate attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which started in mid-June, though it did not specify Egypt as a target. In April, the army extended by three months a state of emergency imposed in parts of Sinai.

The army has taken several measures to crush the insurgency. Besides bombardments in the region, they have destroyed tunnels into the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip and created a security buffer zone in northern Sinai. The army is also digging a trench along the border with Gaza in an effort to prevent smuggling.

Under the terms of Egypt’s 1979 peace accord with Israel, the Sinai is largely demilitarised. But Israel has regularly agreed to Egypt bringing in reinforcements to tackle the Sinai insurgency, and one Israeli official signalled there could be further such deployments following Wednesday’s attacks.

“This incident is a game-changer,” an official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The courts have sentenced hundreds of alleged Brotherhood supporters to death in recent months. Mursi himself, and other senior Brotherhood figures, also face the death penalty.

Sisi’s government does not distinguish between the now-outlawed Brotherhood — which says it is committed to peaceful activism — and other militants.

The cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft anti-terrorism law, which it said would “achieve quick and just deterrence”.

“Any terrorist or criminal attacks that aim to sow chaos ... will be confonted,” the cabinet said, citing the interior minister.

KUWAIT — Kuwait's first-ever legislation on the rights of domestic helpers is a "major step" that other Gulf states should follow, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday.

Kuwaiti authorities should rigorously implement the law, passed last week, and address remaining legal and policy gaps that discriminate against domestic workers and put them at risk, the New York-based rights group said.

The new law grants domestic workers the right to a weekly day off, 30 days of annual paid leave, a 12-hour working day with rest, and an end-of-service benefit of one month a year at the end of the contract, among other rights, HRW said.

"Kuwait's parliament has taken a major step forward by providing domestic workers with enforceable labour rights for the first time," said Rothna Begum, Middle East rights researcher at HRW.

"Now those rights need to be made a reality in Kuwait, and other Gulf states should follow Kuwait's lead and protect the rights of their own domestic workers," she said.

Mainly Asian domestic helpers form around a third of Kuwait's 2 million foreign workers, and rights groups have criticised their exclusion from the labour law.

HRW has previously documented many abuses against domestic workers, including non-payment of wages, long working hours with no rest days, physical and sexual assault, and no clear channels for redress.

BAGHDAD — At least 1,466 Iraqis were killed by armed conflict in June, up more than 40 per cent from the previous month as security forces suffered mounting casualties battling the Daesh group, according to UN figures released Wednesday.

The monthly death toll was the highest since last September, and the rise from last month appeared to be almost entirely due to higher casualties among security forces. Some 800 Iraqi security forces and pro-government militiamen were killed in June, more than twice the 366 killed in May, according to the UN

The UN mission said those killed in June include at least 665 civilians. It put the total number of wounded at 1,687. Baghdad was the worst-affected province, with 324 civilians killed and 650 wounded.

In May at least 1,031 people were killed across the country, including 665 civilians. The latest casualty count was the highest since last September, when 1,420 Iraqis were killed.

The UN said the latest figures are an “absolute minimum” as it has not been able verify causalities in conflict zones or count those who have died from the secondary effects of violence after fleeing their homes.

“The terrorists of the so called ISIL and sectarian extremists are largely responsible for this violence which has affected all aspects of life in Iraq,” UN envoy Jan Kubis said.

He called on Iraq’s leaders to “come together and find a peaceful political solution to the existential problems that are facing Iraq and its people”.

Four bomb attacks in and around Baghdad on Wednesday killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 33, police officials said. The deadliest was a roadside bomb that exploded on a commercial street in southeast Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounded 11 others.

On the capital’s western outskirts, clashes erupted between Daesh group fighters and Iraqi forces, leaving two soldiers and two Shiite militiamen dead, the officials said. Separately, authorities found three dead bodies, including that of a policeman, dumped in the streets of Baghdad. All had gunshot wounds, and their legs and hands were tied, they said.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information.

VALLETTA — The internationally recognised prime minister of Libya said he hoped to reach a power-sharing peace agreement on Thursday with his rivals during UN-backed talks that seek to end a conflict that threatens to break up the country.

Libya has two governments and parliaments, with the recognised government operating out of the country’s east since an armed alliance known as Libya Dawn took over the capital Tripoli, in the west, and declared its own government last year.

Abdullah Al Thinni, who leads the government based in the eastern city of Tobruk, flew to Malta on Wednesday for talks with the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat. He said he was hopeful an agreement would be reached.

“It goes without saying that there will be a lot of discussions tomorrow and there are people in favour and against. We aspire to realise this agreement,” Thinni said.

Libya has been sliding deeper into chaos, worrying Western powers who fear it will become a failed state just over the Mediterranean from mainland Europe. Militants allied to Daesh have also gained ground in the chaos four years after from the overthrow of Muammar Qadhafi.

The latest round of talks has been under way in the Moroccan coastal town of Skhirat since Friday.

Nearly three weeks after the UN special envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon, handed them a final draft of the deal, the negotiating teams have been trying to hammer out amendments while fighters on the ground battle for a military victory.

Leon said earlier in the week they would try to “initialise the agreement” on Thursday, after both sides had held consultations.

There was no immediate comment from the Tripoli side, but the rivals sat the same table for the first time on Sunday, raising hopes a deal could be finalised after both sides agreed in principle to the draft, with several caveats.

The UN proposal calls for a year-long government of national accord in which a council of ministers headed by a prime minister and two deputies would have executive authority.

Thinni said that once a unity government was set up, it would continue to fight against Daesh.

“Any sane government would fight terror and we have been fighting this for some time. This is a paramount importance for the safety and stability of Libya and the rest of the world. This is a fight we all must fight together,” he said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli forces have arrested dozens of Hamas members suspected of planning attacks and trying to build up the Palestinian group in the occupied West Bank, Israel's Shin Bet security service said on Wednesday.

The Islamist group dismissed the accusations against its members, saying Israel was just trying to sabotage its relationship with other Arab powers.

Shin Bet's announcement followed the roadside shooting of a Jewish settler on Monday, though his killing was not claimed by any faction and Israeli officials said it looked like an attack by a lone Palestinian.

Around 40 Hamas members, some of them senior, were detained around the city of Nablus in recent months on suspicion of "working to renew Hamas activity in Samaria [northern West Bank], including through preparing the groundwork for terrorist activity", the Shin Bet said in a statement.

It said the detained militants had received instruction from Hussan Badran, a Hamas spokesman in Qatar, as well as funds that were "laundered" through a gold dealer active in Jordan.

Hamas, which controls the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, has been regularly accused of trying to take over the West Bank, controlled by the US-backed administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

While Abbas formally reconciled with Hamas last year to form a unity government, distrust remains.

Hamas said on Wednesday it was committed to holy war against Israel. "But at the same time we deny any connection between the brother Hussam Badran and resistance in the West Bank," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Shin Bet said the detainees would be indicted in an Israeli military court soon. There was no information on how the Hamas suspects might plead in court.

Briefing Israeli lawmakers on Tuesday, Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen gave a mixed assessment of Hamas.

Since last year's Gaza war, which devastated much of the impoverished Palestinian enclave, Hamas has been in "strategic distress" and "currently has no willingness to take action against Israel" even though it is arming itself for the next conflict, Cohen said, according to a parliamentary spokesman.

In the West Bank, Hamas has limited clout, Cohen added.

"Israeli preventive operations, a relatively stable economy, the public's desire to preserve personal prosperity — all of these and other factors significantly and effectively counter-act destabilising elements like the absence of a diplomatic horizon, international triggers or Hamas efforts," he said.

VIENNA — The global nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday its boss would fly to Tehran to discuss one of the biggest sticking points that need to be resolved so that Iran and world powers can reach a breakthrough final nuclear deal by a new deadline of next week.

Iran and six world powers gave themselves an extra week on Tuesday to reach an accord that would curb Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions, after it became clear that a June 30 deadline would not be met. Despite the lapsed deadline, diplomats have given upbeat assessments of the prospects for a deal.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held one-on-one talks on Wednesday.

“We have some very difficult issues, but we believe we are making progress and we are going to continue to work because of that,” Kerry told reporters. Zarif said the talks were making progress and would continue to do so.

Western countries suspect Iran of seeking the capability to make a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its programme is peaceful. The effort to resolve the dispute has led to the most intense diplomacy between the United States and Iran since Iranian revolutionaries stormed the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Among the main sticking points that remain to be resolved are issues that involve the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The powers want guaranteed access by IAEA inspectors to Iranian military sites and a response to IAEA queries about Tehran’s past activities that may have been related to weapons research.

The global body said in a statement that its chief Yukiya Amano would meet Iranian President Rouhani and other senior officials on Thursday in Iran.

A senior Western diplomat said possible military dimensions of Iran’s past nuclear work — known to negotiators as “PMD” — was the focus of his trip.

“He is going especially for PMD,” the diplomat said. “We can imagine that this is a positive sign. The Iranians invited him.”

A final accord to resolve the stand-off would be a major policy achievement for both US President Barack Obama and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, but both presidents face scepticism from hardliners at home.

Obama said on Tuesday no deal would be agreed unless it blocked all Iranian pathways to developing a nuclear bomb, and ensured a robust monitoring system was in place.

Ministers and officials from the five UN Security Council permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany have been negotiating with Iran in Vienna at late night sessions.

Red lines

A senior Iranian negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, said of the Vienna talks: “There are still some issues that we have not been able to resolve but the atmosphere of the talks is positive.”

Western diplomats say they are nearing a resolution on access for the inspectors. Iranian officials maintain that military sites are off-limits due to a red line set by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields more power than Rouhani, the elected president.

Iran has been accused of stonewalling the IAEA probe on its past activities, and Western officials have said some of the sanctions relief would depend on Iran’s cooperation.

But diplomats say Iran will be reluctant to open up to IAEA investigators until the punitive sanctions are lifted.

Rouhani said on Tuesday Iran would resume suspended atomic work if the West broke its promises.

In a positive sign for the talks, the IAEA reported that Iran had complied with a preliminary deal to reduce its low-enriched uranium stockpile. An IAEA report in May said the stockpile had increased above the required level, but the agency said Tehran had met a June 30 deadline to reduce it.

Deadline missed

Tuesday was also the official deadline to reach a long-term deal that would build on the preliminary agreement. With the prize tantalisingly close and the atmosphere seemingly positive, the week-long extension came as no great surprise.

A successful negotiation could help ease decades of hostility between Iran and the United States. But many US allies in the region, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, are sceptical.

The French and Chinese foreign ministers are due back in Vienna on Thursday, a French diplomatic source said. All the ministers are expected to meet on Thursday to take stock.

Several diplomats said most ministers would then depart Vienna hoping to reconvene over the weekend in a final push to secure an agreement before next Tuesday. Kerry and Zarif were expected to stay in Austria.

Diplomats have said the real deadline is not June 30 but July 9. If a deal is presented after that date, the US Congress would have the power to review it for 60 days rather than 30 days, adding to the risk a deal could unravel.

LONDON — A British family of 12, including a baby and two grandparents one aged 75, are believed to have gone to Syria after the family reported them missing, police said on Wednesday.

The family, from Luton in Bedfordshire, central England, have not been seen since mid-May when they failed to return home after a holiday in Bangladesh.

Police said they had flown to Turkey and were then due to travel on to Britain, but were instead reported missing by a relative.

"There is a suggestion that the family may have gone to Syria, however police have so far been unable to corroborate that information," Bedfordshire Police said in a statement.

Some 700 Britons are thought to have gone to Syria, many to join Daesh militants who have taken control of large areas of the country and neighbouring Iraq.

Last month, 12 members of another family, three sisters and their nine children from northern England, were suspected of travelling to Syria to join the militant group.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said Britain needed to confront the ideology that was luring Britons to Syria and has said his government would step up measures to confront those who espouse extremism at home.

"We are devastated by the disappearance of these 12 and are very concerned for their safety," the family of the missing Luton family said in a statement.

"This is completely out of character and we are very worried of the danger they may now be in. This just does not make any sense. We can only think they have been tricked into going there, it is no place for elderly or young people."

The grandparents, Muhammed Abdul Mannan, 75, and his wife Minera Khatun, 53, both had health issues, police said. The BBC said it understood Mannan had diabetes and his wife had cancer.

The group included the couple's daughter and sons, and three children aged between one and 11.

BEIRUT — Supporters of rival Lebanese factions clashed early on Wednesday in a coastal town south of Beirut, leaving several people wounded, the country's state news agency and a security official said.

The National News Agency said the fighting in the town of Saadiyat was between supports of the Sunni Future Movement and the Resistance Brigades, which is close to the Shiite Hizbollah group.

Sectarian tensions have increased in Lebanon since the start of Syria's crisis four years ago. The civil war has spilled over into Lebanon in the past, killing and wounding dozens.

According to a Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, seven people were wounded.

The Lebanese army said one soldier was lightly wounded in the shooting, adding that troops are patrolling the area.

Also Wednesday, the military said in a statement that Lebanese troops killed five gunmen overnight. The gunmen were on the move between the Lebanese border town of Arsal and nearby fields, close to the Syrian border, the military said.

Hizbollah has been conducting military operations for weeks on the outskirts of Arsal and the Syrian side of the border against members of the Daesh terro group and Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, Al Nusra Front.

Arsal has been tense since August last year when Daesh and Al Nusra Front fighters crossed into Arsal and captured more than 20 soldiers and policemen. They have killed four of them and are still holding the rest.

Since then, the army has fortified its positions in the town and almost daily shells suspected militant positions inside Lebanon.

RAMALLAH — Palestinian leaders have asked Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah for a "temporary" Cabinet reshuffle, officials said Wednesday, as in-fighting between political factions further dampened chances of a unity government.

"During the night, an agreement was reached that Hamdallah enact a reshuffle to his government that will not affect more than five ministries," Ahmed Majdalani, a senior Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) official, told AFP.

"It's a temporary reshuffle," he added, saying the line-up would remain "whilst negotiations are ongoing between all parties, including Hamas, to form a national unity government".

An aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said last month that Hamdallah had presented his resignation, but other officials denied it, as rumours swirled over the disbanding of an ineffectual Cabinet that has had more than a year in office.

Officials say the move has been under discussion for several months because of the Cabinet's inability to operate in Hamas-dominated Gaza.

In April 2014, Abbas' Fateh Party, which dominates the PLO and by extension the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, signed a unity deal with Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

The deal was meant to end a years-long split, and the two sides approved a government of independent technocrats to take over administration of Gaza and the West Bank.

But disputes over the payment of Hamas-appointed employees in Gaza, and control of the territory, mean Hamas remains in control of the strip.

A brutal war in July-August 2014 between Israel and Hamas also set back any efforts at reconciliation.

After reports of Hamdallah's resignation several weeks ago, Hamas warned it would not accept any "one-sided change in the government without the agreement of all parties".