Region

JEDDAH — Yemen’s exiled president reiterated Tuesday that his government will only discuss with rebels at this week’s UN-sponsored peace talks a Security Council resolution ordering their withdrawal from seized territory.

Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels, who have for months been fighting President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s supporters, arrived Tuesday in Geneva for the talks, to which Hadi has also sent representatives.

In the Saudi city of Jeddah, the president told an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that “our delegation in Geneva will only discuss the terms of applying [Resolution] 2216.”

His comments were carried by Yemen’s official Saba news agency.

The meeting was attended by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, whose predominantly Shiite country is accused of backing the rebels.

A member of the rebel team also placed restrictions on the talks, ruling out dialogue “with those who have no legitimacy”, a reference to the government, and demanded talks with Saudi Arabia.

On March 26, a Saudi-led coalition began bombing the rebels and their allies as Hadi fled to Riyadh.

Late last year the Houthis seized control of Yemen’s capital before advancing on other parts of the country.

In addition to the territorial demands, the April Security Council resolution reaffirmed the legitimacy of Yemen’s government, asked the Houthis to give up seized weapons and imposed an arms embargo and sanctions on them.

It asked all parties, particularly the Houthis, to adhere to measures including the outcome of a previously held “national dialogue” tasked with drawing up a new constitution.

Hadi appealed at the OIC meeting for more humanitarian aid, a call supported by Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Sabah, whose country last week announced $100 million (89.3 million euros) in assistance for Yemen.

The UN has called the humanitarian situation “catastrophic” in the already-impoverished country.

The OIC had summoned the foreign ministers of its 57 member states to “consider the situation in Yemen and ways to ensure the return of security and stability there”.

AKÇAKALE, Turkey — Kurdish fighters seized control Tuesday of a key border town from the Daesh terror group, cutting a major supply line in the biggest setback yet for the militants in Syria.

From across the frontier in Turkey, the Kurds and allied Syrian rebels could be seen raising their banners in place of the black Daesh flag and taking up positions at the Tal Abyad border post.

The capture of Tal Abyad, used by Daesh as a gateway from Turkey to its de facto capital Raqqa city, was "the biggest setback to IS [Daesh] since it announced its caliphate one year ago," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

The frontier town was a key conduit for foreign fighters and supplies into Daesh-held territory in Syria and for exports of black-market oil from jihadist-held fields in eastern Syria.

Tal Abyad's fall to the Kurds was "the most significant loss for IS in Syria yet", said Aymenn Al Tamimi, an expert at the Middle East Forum research group.

The Kurdish forces and Syrian rebel allies launched a two-pronged attack on Tal Abyad on June 11, backed by air strikes by the US-led coalition fighting Daesh in Syria and Iraq. 

The anti-Daesh forces encircled the town from the southwest and southeast before capturing the border crossing just north of it on Monday. 

'An easy win' 

The observatory and Kurdish sources said they had seized full control of the town by early Tuesday.

"IS withdrew without much fight yesterday... It was an easy win," said Ahmed Seyxo, a spokesman for the Democratic Union Party, the political party tied to the YPG.

In a statement, a spokesman for the US-led coalition praised its cooperation with Kurdish forces, noting that five strikes had been carried out near Tal Abyad on Monday.

"Our air strikes are targeting Daesh terrorists throughout Iraq and Syria," said Colonel Wayne Marotto.

"Kurdish successes, enabled by coalition air strikes, are exposing Daesh military capabilities and terrorists for subsequent removal from the battlefield."

The battle for Tal Abyad sent thousands of terrified residents fleeing into Turkey, with the UN refugee agency saying Tuesday that some 23,000 people had sought refuge between June 3 and 15.

Refugee Khalil Al Ahmed, 55, said he was desperate to go home.

“They take good care of us here, but I don’t want any of that. All I think about is returning. It burns in my heart,” he told AFP.

YPG fighters and rebel units were combing through Tal Abyad to clear mines and booby-trapped cars left behind by Daesh fighters, before allowing civilians to return.

“There are mines and car bombs everywhere, and bodies of IS fighters lying in the streets,” said Sherfan Darwish, a spokesman for the Burkan Al Furat rebel group fighting alongside the Kurds.

With the route from Tal Abyad to Raqqa cut, Daesh will have to rely on border crossings much further west in neighbouring Aleppo province, adding several hundred kilometres to their supply lines, Abdel Rahman said.

Daesh still holds the Syrian side of the Jarablus crossing in Aleppo, which is closed on the Turkish side.

Other informal border routes remain open but none to rival Tal Abyad.

Blow to Daesh morale 

Analysts said the loss of the town would be a major blow to Daesh morale, just as the group commemorates the first anniversary of the declaration last year of its self-styled Islamic “caliphate”.

“This is coming at a time of year when IS is trying to look as powerful as possible,” said Charlie Winter, a researcher on jihadism at the London-based Quilliam Foundation. 

The Kurdish victory at Tal Abyad, he said, would undermine Daesh’s “narrative of constant divine momentum”.

While the battle for the Kurdish majority border town of Kobani was in the headlines for months last year, the loss of Tal Abyad was a bigger strategic blow because IS had held the town for over a year, Winter said.

Kurdish forces now control around 400 kilometres of contiguous border territory from Kobani in Aleppo province to northeastern Syria, Abdel Rahman said. 

Their advance has prompted criticism from Turkish officials, who fear the growing power of Kurdish forces in Syria will embolden Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

Turkish officials have accused the YPG of expelling Arab and Turkmen citizens and of seeking to unite the Kurdish-majority areas of Syria.

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait will be installing surveillance cameras in public places such as malls, supermarkets and hotels to boost security because of concerns about crime and terrorism, following parliament's unanimous adoption of a bill Tuesday.

Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khaled Al Sabah said the legislation was needed to boost security and prevent crimes, assuring lawmakers that individual privacy will not be compromised.

During debate of the bill, MP Abdullah Al Turaiji said "we do not rule out the possibility that those who carried out the suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia may have people in Kuwait", to two suicide attacks last month in the neighbouring country.

The law establishes a jail term of up to two years and a fine of $33,000 (29,464 euros) for persons who misuse the cameras.

Parliament also adopted on a final vote legislation stipulating 10-year jail terms and fines of up to $165,000 for online crimes, especially those related to terrorism, despite warnings that this could undermine freedom.

The vote was 33 in favour, including cabinet ministers, with 12 opposed and one abstention.

It stipulates a 10-year sentence for creating a website for a "terrorist" group or publishing news about the group on the Internet that aims to raise funds.

The same penalty applies to money laundering and publishing how to manufacture explosives or other tools that can be used in attacks.

MPs who opposed the law said it suppresses freedoms of expression and speech and stipulates highly exaggerated penalties for online users.

Justice Minister Yacoub Al Sane defended the law as being in line with international standards.

The lowest penalty would be a six-month sentence and a $6,600 fine for illegally "infiltrating a computer or an electronic network".

Kuwaiti courts have handed down prison sentences to several opposition activists, former lawmakers and Twitter users for remarks deemed insulting to the emir or on other charges.

TUNIS — Three of 10 Tunisian consular staff kidnapped in Libya last week have been freed and negotiations over the other hostages are continuing, a Libyan official and a Tunisian source said on Tuesday.

Gunmen stormed the Tunisian consulate on Friday in Tripoli, where armed factions have in the past seized diplomats and foreigners to exert pressure on their governments to free Libyan militants held in jails abroad.

Tunisia is one of the few countries to keep a diplomatic presence in Tripoli since an armed faction called Libya Dawn took over the capital last year and forced the internationally recognised government to flee to the east of the country.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but Tunisian authorities last month arrested Walid Kalib, a member of Libya Dawn. A Tunisian court refused to release Kalib, who faces kidnapping charges in Tunisia.

"Three diplomats have been freed yesterday after they were kidnapped in the capital Tripoli," a Libyan diplomatic police official, Faraj Swhili, told Reuters. "The other seven diplomats will be released when the Libyan detainee in Tunis, Walid Kalib, is released by Tunisian authorities."

A Tunisian government source confirmed the release, but would not give any details about negotiations or conditions set by the captors.

Gunmen have kidnapped Egyptian, Jordanian and Tunisian diplomats and citizens in the past. Most diplomats left the country after Libya Dawn, a loose alliance of former rebel brigades and Islamist-leaning groups, seized power in Tripoli.

Four years after the fall of veteran ruler Muammar Qadhafi, Libya has slowly tumbled into crisis, with former brigades of rebels turning against each in a battle for control. The United Nations is trying to coax the two main factions into a unity government.

BEIRUT — At least 16 people, among them 13 children, were killed in Syrian government air strikes on a town in southern Daraa province on Tuesday, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a centre for study of the Koran in the town of Eastern Ghariyah.

The Britain-based monitor accused Syria’s government of a “massacre”, saying a woman was also among those killed in the strikes.

The group said the toll in the strikes, which hit on Tuesday afternoon, was expected to rise further because a number of those injured were in serious condition.

Eastern Ghariyah lies near the eastern edge of Daraa province, not far from the 52nd Brigade base that a rebel alliance seized from the regime a week ago.

The Southern Front alliance seized the base in a surprise attack, before pushing across the provincial border into Sweida and briefly overrunning Al Thalaa air base.

Regime forces expelled the rebels from A Thalaa on Friday, but fighting has continued in the area.

More than 230,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict, which began with anti-government demonstrations in March 2011 and descended into a civil war after a regime crackdown.

Rights groups have regularly criticised Syria’s government for indiscriminate fire on civilian areas.

Rebel forces have also been accused of targeting civilian areas in parts of the country.

Nearly 11,500 children have been killed in the conflict, according to the observatory.

RAMALLAH — The Palestinian government is considering resigning over its inability to act in the Gaza Strip, with two senior officials telling AFP the move would come within 24 hours.

"The government will resign in the next 24 hours because this one is weak and there is no chance that Hamas will allow it to work in Gaza," said Amin Maqbul, secretary general of the ruling Fateh movement's Revolutionary Council.

The government's intention was confirmed by another senior Palestinian official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Islamist Hamas movement ruled Gaza for seven years but its administration stepped down last June when the Ramallah-based consensus government was sworn in.

Comprised of independent technocrats, the government line-up was agreed by both Fateh and Hamas and was given a mandate to govern both the West Bank and Gaza, ending seven years of separate administrations. 

But in practice, it has been unable to extend its authority to Gaza, which was devastated by a deadly 50-day war with Israel last summer and where Hamas remains the de facto power.

"After the government resigns, we will start consultations to form a new government," Maqbul told AFP, without saying whether the new lineup would be pieced together in consultation with Hamas.

A government source confirmed that the idea had been under discussion for weeks, although he denied it was imminent.

He said it was linked to the government's "inability to act in Gaza".

"There have been discussions inside the government about resigning if they are unable to do anything for Gaza," he told AFP.

He said the move had been under discussion since a government delegation was forced to cut short a trip to Gaza in late April over a long-running and bitter dispute with Hamas over employees.

A 40-strong government delegation, including eight ministers, arrived in Gaza on April 19 for a week-long trip but was forced to leave a day later after Hamas accused the officials of bias in resolving a dispute over salaries.

The formation of the consensus government followed an April 2014 reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fateh which sought to end seven years of bad blood between the two Palestinian nationalist movements. 

DUBAI — Bahrain sentenced opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman to four years in jail on Tuesday on charges of inciting unrest, a decision that an opposition group said could stoke more protests in the Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom.

Salman is the senior figure in Shiite opposition to be jailed since anti-government protests erupted in 2011, at the height of the region's "Arab Spring" uprisings.

"The Higher Criminal Court sentenced the secretary general of one of Bahrain's political societies to four years imprisonment," advocate general Haroon Al Zayani was quoted as telling state news agency BNA.

Salman, who was not named in the statement, was convicted on charges of "publicly inciting hatred, an act which disturbed public peace, inciting non-compliance with the law and insulting public institutions".

Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, has experienced sporadic turmoil since mass protests in 2011 led by majority Shiites demanding reforms and a bigger role in government. That uprising was put down with military help from Saudi Arabia.

The Al Wefaq Islamic Society headed by Salman, a 49-year old Shiite cleric, confirmed he had been sentenced. It condemned the ruling and vowed to keep up pressure on the authorities.

"The sentence gives a new lease on life to the crisis and gives greater legitimacy to mobilise. The people have no choice but to continue in their peaceful popular movement," it said in a statement on its official website. 

"People will not return to their homes and will not relent in their demands." 

Salman was acquitted of the most serious charge, promoting the overthrow of the political system by force, the advocate general said in its statement. He has denied the charges and has dismissed the trial as bid to muzzle dissent.

Amnesty International called on Bahrain on Monday to free Salman, calling him a "prisoner of conscience" and saying his trial was unfair.

The island kingdom says it has made significant political reforms and increased oversight of security forces. Opponents say abuses continue.

With a political accord between the government and opposition remaining elusive, deadly bomb attacks on Bahraini security forces have increased.

In a statement on Monday, the government said the "serious charges" against Salman were rightly regarded as a criminal offence, and that he had received a fair trial.

"Ali Salman's case relates to criminal charges, specifically incitement of hatred, as well as inciting violence. The charges and subsequent trial are wholly unrelated to any political views he may hold," the government statement said.

TABIKA, Tunisia — At least 18 people were killed and 98 injured Tuesday when a train hit a lorry and derailed at a level crossing in one of Tunisia's worst railway disasters, officials said.

Most of the dead were passengers on the morning rush hour train which hit the lorry in the village of Tabika, around 60kilometres south of Tunis, the transport ministry said.

"We received the bodies of 17 people," said Riadh Khlifi, director of El Fahes hospital a few kilometres from the accident scene, "and another dead person was sent to Zaghouan hospital".

He added that among the 98 hurt, three were in a critical condition and had been sent to the capital for treatment.

The interior ministry said the train had been en route to Tunis from Gaafour, 120 kilometres to the southwest.

The collision happened at around 6:30am (0530 GMT).

Transport Minister Mahmoud Ben Romdhane said the accident happened because there was no barrier at the crossing, but this was disputed by the Tunisian National Railway Co. (SNCFT).

"The main cause of the accident is the non-existence of a barrier... and protection at the crossing," he told radio station Shems-FM.

"In Tunisia, there are 1,150 rail crossings. Only 250 are equipped with signal posts and barriers and only 150 have lights. This is insufficient."

 But SNCFT spokesman Hassen Miaad told Tunisian radio there was "a stop sign and a railway crossing sign at the level crossing".

'Bits of flesh everywhere' 

Train crashes are common in Tunisia, where much of the rail network is dilapidated, but Tuesday's accident was the deadliest in recent memory.

The presidency said it had called for an inquiry "to determine the cause of this catastrophe".

Witnesses spoke of mangled wreckage at the scene and dead bodies strewn across the tracks. 

"A very loud noise woke me up. At first I thought it was an earthquake but then I saw this overturned truck and the bodies. Two bodies had their legs ripped off," local resident Habib Fayedh told AFP.

The lorry driver, originally reported to have been killed, survived the collision and was questioned by police before being taken to hospital, Fayedh said.

"He was alive but had head injuries. He didn't remember the crash."

 Another witness described how bodies had been trapped under one of the carriages, which had overturned on impact.

"This is horrible; there is blood and bits of flesh everywhere," one witness told Shems-FM.

Witnesses said some victims were thrown from the open doors of the train as it ploughed into the lorry.

Bloodstains, items of clothing and abandoned footwear left by passengers could be seen on board the train itself. 

One resident said Tuesday's crash was not the first accident to happen at the Tabika crossing, and also blamed a lack of barriers for the collision. 

In July, a train derailed in northwest Tunisia, killing five people and injuring around 40.

DUBAI — Al Qaeda confirmed that its second-in-command and the head of its powerful Yemeni branch was killed in a US drone strike, in the heaviest blow to the jihadist network since Osama Bin Laden's death.

Already struggling with the rise of rival militants from the Daesh terror group, Al Qaeda has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months with several commanders reported killed.

The White House hailed the death as a "major blow" to the group.

In a video statement, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) confirmed that Nasir Al Wuhayshi was dead.

He "was killed in a US drone attack that targeted him along with two other mujahedeen" who were also killed, said the statement read by prominent militant Khaled Omar Batarfi and dated June 15. 

AQAP, which was behind several plots against Western targets including the deadly January attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, said it had named military chief Qassem Al Rimi as its new leader.

Rimi, 41, was an instructor at a training camp in Afghanistan during the 1990s, and his younger brother is in US custody at Guantanamo Bay.

In Washington, National Security spokesman Ned Price said US intelligence had confirmed the militant's death.

Wuhayshi is believed to have been killed in a CIA drone strike on June 9.

Price said his death "strikes a major blow to AQAP, Al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate, and to Al Qaeda more broadly".

It "removes from the battlefield an experienced terrorist leader and brings us closer to degrading and ultimately defeating these groups".

The White House did not confirm that Wuhayshi was killed by a US drone, but Price said the "president has been clear that terrorists who threaten the United States will not find safe haven in any corner of the globe".

A Yemeni official had told AFP that Wuhayshi, in his mid-thirties, was thought to have died in the raid in Al Qaeda-held Mukalla in southeastern Yemen.

Washington had offered a $10-million (8.9-million-euro) reward for information leading to Wuhayshi's capture or killing and set a $5-million bounty for Rimi.

A former aide to Bin Laden, Wuhayshi attended the group's Al Farouk training camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

He is said to have fled Afghanistan in 2002 to Iran, where he was arrested and handed over to Yemen. 

He was held there without charge until he escaped by tunnelling his way out of prison with 22 others in 2006.

A year later, he was named head of AQAP.

Daesh challenging 

Al Qaeda role 

When Bin Laden was killed by US commandos in Pakistan in 2011, Wuhayshi warned Washington not to fool itself that this meant Al Qaeda's demise.

"What is coming is greater and worse, and what is awaiting you is more intense and harmful," he said.

As well as the Charlie Hebdo attacks that killed 12 people, AQAP was also behind an attempt to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day 2009.

Washington has repeatedly targeted AQAP militants in drone strikes in Yemen and killed several commanders in recent months, including Nasser Bin Ali Al Ansi, who appeared in a video claiming responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack.

AQAP has exploited months of fighting between loyalists of Yemen's exiled government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels to consolidate their grip on Hadramawt province and its capital Mukalla — a city of more than 200,000.

Yemen's warring factions were in Geneva on Tuesday for a second day of UN-sponsored talks.

But the rebel delegation said that it would not talk directly with officials from the exiled government, which the Houthis view as illegitimate.

While still a powerful and ruthless force, Al Qaeda has seen its role as the preeminent jihadist group challenged by the rise of Daesh, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Extremist offshoots from Egypt, Libya and elsewhere have sworn allegiance to Daesh, and the two groups have clashed in various countries, most notably in Syria.

Daesh claimed its first attack in Yemen on March 20 — multiple suicide bombings targeting Houthis at Shiite mosques in the capital Sanaa that killed 142 people and wounded more than 350.

A senior Al Qaeda-linked jihadist, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was also reported killed in a US air strike in Libya this week, but extremist group Ansar Al Sharia denied on Tuesday that he had died.

Belmokhtar is the reputed mastermind of a 2013 siege of an Algerian gas plant in which 38 hostages were killed.

Olivier Guitta, managing director of security and risk consultancy GlobalStrat, said that after the two men's deaths "Al Qaeda Central is probably on its last legs".

Akçakale, Turkey — Syrian Kurdish fighters on Monday cut a key supply line to the Daesh terror group's de facto capital Raqqa as they battled to seize the militant-held border town of Tal Abyad.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said their forces and affiliated Syrian rebel fighters approaching from east and west of Tal Abyad had connected and cut the road south to Raqqa.

"Tal Abyad is completely surrounded," said YPG Commander Hussein Khojer.

"There is nowhere Daesh can escape to," he said.

Khojer said Kurdish fighters, backed by Syrian rebel groups, had advanced on Tal Abyad in a two-front offensive from east and west.

Sherfan Darwish, a spokesman for the Burkan Al Furat rebel group fighting alongside the YPG, said the anti-Daesh alliance was now on the eastern and southern outskirts of Tal Abyad.

"There are ongoing clashes and the bodies of 19 Daesh fighters are on the outskirts of Tal Abyad," he said.

The advance is a blow to the jihadist group, which is battling to hold onto Tal Abyad and preserve its main supply line between Raqqa and the Turkish border.

Kurdish fighters and Syrian rebels began their main advance on Tal Abyad on June 11, backed by air strikes from the US-led coalition fighting Daesh.

The clashes have prompted thousands of civilians to flee, with some 16,000 crossing into Turkey since last week, despite sporadic border closures.

The flood of refugees has created chaos at times, with some cutting through the border fence or scrambling over loops of barbed wire in frustration at the delay in crossing.

Parents passed screaming children over one section of trampled fencing, and a mother grasped her baby by one arm, a pacifier dangling from its neck.

‘Lifeblood channel’ for Daesh 

Tal Abyad lies some 85 kilometres north of Raqqa, and analysts say it serves as a primary conduit for incoming weapons and fighters, as well as for outgoing black market oil.

“It has been an IS [Daesh] stronghold for a while now and it has been described as the gateway to Raqqa,” said Charlie Winter, a researcher on jihadism at the London-based Quilliam Foundation.

“Certainly, it’s of strategic importance because it’s a border town through which equipment, recruits, etc can pass.”

Tal Abyad is also just 70 kilometres east of the Kurdish-majority town of Kobane, where Kurdish forces battled for months before expelling invading Daesh forces in January.

Tal Abyad serves as the “main lifeblood channel for Daesh,” connecting Raqqa city to the outside world, said Mutlu Civiroglu, a Kurdish affairs analyst.

“Tal Abyad is a financial and logistical hub for Daesh. Once you cut this hub it is going to be very hard for Daesh to smuggle in fighters, to sell oil and deal in the other goods they deal in.”
Kurdish forces have been chipping away at Daesh territory in Raqqa province — once completely under the jihadist group’s control — for around three months.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, they have seized some 50 towns and villages in the province.

Winter said he expected Daesh to fight hard to keep the strategic town and to mine it heavily.

“I don’t think they’ll give up without a fight.”

Turkey fears of Kurdish rise

The Kurdish advance has prompted criticism from Turkey, where the YPG-linked Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fought a decades-long insurgency and is listed as a “terrorist” group.

Nihat Ali Ozcan, an analyst at the Ankara-based TEPAV think tank, said Ankara was concerned about rising “separatist sentiment” among Kurds in Turkey’s southeast.

“If Tal Abyad is seized by Kurds, after Kobane’s liberation, Kurds might emerge as a fighting force against Turkey,” Ozcan said.

The Kurdish advance has also prompted allegations of “ethnic cleansing” by some Syrian rebel groups who say YPG forces are expelling Sunni Arabs and Turkmen from the area.

Kurdish forces reject those allegations, saying they have only asked civilians to evacuate potential battle zones to avoid casualties.