Region

TRIPOLI — A Libyan Islamist militant alliance said it had largely driven Daesh fighters out of their stronghold city of Derna on Sunday after declaring war on the rival group last week.

Street fighting has raged for several days between members of the local Islamist umbrella group Majlis Mujahedeen and Daesh loyalists, who have been trying to increase their influence in the port city for more than a year.

Derna, a conservative city where Islamist hardliners resisted Muammar Qadhafi before his 2011 fall, was the first place Daesh tried to gain support in Libya.

A Majlis spokesman told local Libyan Nabaa TV that more than 70 Daesh militants had surrendered during the fighting, in which some were severely wounded.

"Ninety per cent of Derna city is now under the control of Majlis," he said. "Majlis forces are dealing carefully with the snipers around the city."

Confirming details on the ground is complicated in places like Derna where there is little state presence. But local residents said on Saturday that armed locals had joined with Majlis forces to push back Daesh militants and retake parts of the city.

Islamist militants including those loyal to Daesh have profited from the security vacuum in Libya, where two rival governments and their armed forces are battling for control four years after the fall of Qadhafi.

An internationally recognised government works in the east and is backed by some former Qadhafi army loyalists. Another self-declared government has governed Tripoli since a group called Libya Dawn, an alliance of former rebels and Islamist-leaning brigades, took over the capital last summer.

Forces from both governments have been fighting Daesh but also each other in a conflict where military alliances are often fluid and based on local interests.

Majlis, a hardline Islamist outfit linked to former rebel groups who fought Qadhafi, enjoys some local support in Derna going back to the revolution.

Fighting erupted in the city last week when a Majlis commander was killed and the group declared a holy war against Daesh militants. It also captured Daesh’s Yemeni commander in the city, residents said.

BAGHDAD — Daesh militants have set up giant television screens in the Iraqi city of Ramadi and are using them to proclaim that they will seize more Iraqi territory after capturing the provincial capital last month, residents said.

Efforts by the Shiite Muslim-led government and its American allies to break the hardline group's control of about a third of Iraq are currently focused on Ramadi, in Sunni Muslim heartland Anbar province.

"They have started to show videos of their military operations in Iraq and also show confessions by captured soldiers," said the owner of a small food shop near one of the screens in central Ramadi.

"Some programmes are encouraging young men to abide by Islamic norms and also show military training of young men on carrying arms and how to fight," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Iraqi government, whose army has largely proven ineffective against the insurgents, relies heavily on Iranian-backed Shiite militias as well as on US-led airstrikes to slow the momentum of Daesh, which it describes as terrorists.

Daesh has resorted to killing anyone it deems an opponent as it tries to create a sustainable caliphate in territory it holds in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of 450 more US troops to Anbar to assist Iraqi forces in retaking territory lost to Daesh.

The group has used social media sites and videos to gain followers, distributing footage of its fighters killing Iraqi government soldiers and religious minorities.

"It seems that they are trying to use media methods as a weapon to polish their image and also encourage young people to join them," said a civil servant in Ramadi.

Residents said compact discs of the broadcasts were being distributed at stalls near the two screens, which the militants set up by the central market and in northern Ramadi.

Iraq has descended into a second sectarian civil war since the last US troops withdrew in 2011, exacerbated by Daesh's suicide bombings and territorial gains.

The Islamist fighters are also battling government forces for control of Iraq's biggest refinery near the town of Baiji north of Baghdad. The facility has changed hands before.

On Sunday, government forces and Daesh militants exchanged fire but neither side advanced.

TUNIS — Eight Tunisian citizens working in Libya's capital Tripoli have been kidnapped not far from the city, a local politician told Tunisian state radio on Sunday, two days after gunmen snatched 10 staff from the Tunisian consulate.

Libya is in turmoil, with two rival governments and their armed factions battling for control. Armed groups have kidnapped foreign nationals and diplomats in the past year to try to pressure their governments to release jailed Libyan militants.

"Eight young Tunisians were kidnapped... close to Tripoli," local lawmaker Hussein Yahyaoui told state Tataouin Radio. Tunisian officials did not immediately confirm the abduction.

No group has claimed responsibility for kidnapping the consular staff, but Tripoli's self-declared government said it hoped they would be freed soon after making contact with the captors and hearing the hostages were in good condition.

Tunisian authorities last month arrested Walid Kalib, a member of Libya Dawn, the armed group that took over Tripoli last summer. On Thursday, a Tunisian court refused to free Kalib, who faces kidnapping charges in Tunisia.

Libya Dawn, a loose alliance of former rebel brigades and Islamist-leaning groups, seized power in Tripoli, expelling the existing government, which now operates from the east of the country and setting up its own. It also reinstated a previous parliament.

PARIS — French President Francois Hollande heads to Algeria on Monday as the two nations, once bitter foes, work ever closer to resolve the political turmoil and jihadist threat in Mali and Libya.

The trip will be Hollande's second to Algiers since a 2012 visit during which he recognised France's century of "brutal" rule over the Algerian people which ended in a bloody independence war.

While some prickly issues remain between the two countries — such as Hollande's refusal to apologise for crimes under colonial rule — the mutual concern over rampant jihadism in north Africa has taken the upper hand.

Algeria shares a border with Mali's north, which is still fragile after a French-led operation in 2013 ousted jihadists who had seized the upper half of the west African nation.

While French troops patrol northern Mali, Algiers has mediated a peace accord between Mali's main Tuareg-led rebel groups and Bamako which will be signed on June 20 and is aimed at bringing some stability to the region.

Algeria has also hosted talks between rival political factions from chaos-torn Libya — with which it also shares a long border.

The energy-rich north African nation is eager to see peace in its neighbourhood, and with France running counter-terrorism Operation Barkhane in five countries in the Sahel region — three of which border Algeria — Hollande and his Algerian counterpart will have plenty to discuss.

The French leader will hold talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal on his visit. 

"Clearly, for France, security issues have taken the upper hand," said Pierre Vermeren, a specialist on the Maghreb region. 

"Algeria is also one of the main actors in stabilising the situation in Libya along with the UN, and obviously France is counting on its capacity for mediation," he said.

Ties 'unrivalled' 

The defrosting of ties between Paris and Algiers in recent years comes half-a-century after French forces brutally cracked down on Algerians fighting for independence in a 1954-62 war that left some 1.5 million Algerians dead.

The topic has remained a deep wound between the countries who — despite their troubled past — remain closely linked with more than half a million Algerians living in France.

However, French ambassador to Algiers Bernard Emie recently said that Bouteflika described the current relations with Paris as "unrivalled".

Algeria is still dealing with the fallout from a civil war between the military and Islamist militants in the 1990s that left tens of thousands dead.

During that time it was the birthplace of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat which later became an Al Qaeda affiliate — carrying out attacks and kidnappings both in Algeria and across the border in Mali and Mauritania.

The group, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb played a key role in the takeover of northern Mali in 2012.

Politically, Paris steers clear of commenting on 78-year-old Bouteflika's ill-health and the accusations his recent re-election for a fourth term was riddled with fraud.

France — whose economy is sorely in need of a boost — is also keen to win back the title of Algeria's main trade partner, which China won in 2013.

CAIRO — Egypt's public prosecutor on Sunday referred the case of 58 suspected Muslim Brotherhood supporters accused of committing "terrorist acts" to the military prosecutor, a step that could lead to a military trial even though they are civilians.

Thousands of Islamists have been jailed and hundreds sentenced to death since the government launched a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, saying they pose a threat to Egypt's national security.

"Public Prosecutor Hesham Barakat ordered the referral of 58 defendants belonging to the Magholoon [Anonymous] group..., who committed terrorist acts within Giza province from August 2013 until October 2014, to the military public prosecutor," the statement said.

The Brotherhood swept to power after an uprising toppled long-time autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011. But after a troubled year in office and mass protests against his rule in 2013, Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the army and former army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi took the helm after being elected in 2014.

The group of 58 was directed by Brotherhood leaders abroad and is charged with "founding and financing a terrorist group, espionage, attempted murder of policemen, and sabotaging public facilities", the statement said.

Of the defendants, 37 were in custody and the rest at large, the statement said.

A law passed last year enabled civilians to be referred to military courts, a move that was criticised by rights organisations at home and abroad. The crackdown on political opponents has widened to include liberal activists.

Authorities deny allegations of abuse.

Also on Sunday, the board of Zagazig University, in the eastern Nile Delta, expelled Morsi from his post of professor at the Faculty of Engineering, after a court sentenced him in April to 20 years in prison without parole, state news agency MENA reported. The case related to the killing of protesters during his rule.

Morsi is in jail facing a possible death sentence. 

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel's Cabinet approved on Sunday a proposed law that would enable authorities to force-feed Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike, a practice opposed by the country's medical association.

Israel has long been concerned that hunger strikes by Palestinians in its jails could end in death and trigger waves of protests in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

But Israel's Medical Association, which considers force-feeding a form of torture and medically risky, has urged Israeli doctors not to abide by the law if it is passed.

Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who sponsored the bill, said the Cabinet's support for the legislation would allow him to re-submit it to parliament for two final votes in the near future. It already passed a preliminary vote in the legislature before Israel's parliamentary election in March.

"Hunger strikes by imprisoned terrorists have become a weapon with which they are trying to threaten the State of Israel," Erdan wrote on Facebook. "The Cabinet's decision today sends a clear message: We will not blink in the face of any threat."
  Qadoura Fares, the chairman of the Palestinian Prisoners Club that advocates on behalf of Palestinians in Israeli jails, called the legislation racist and a violation of international law. Under existing Israeli law, patients cannot be treated against their will, although an ethics committee can be asked to intervene.

Demanding an end to his detention without trial, a Palestinian prisoner, Khader Adnan of the Islamic Jihad group, has been on a hunger strike in jail for the past 41 days, refusing solid food and drinking only water.

Adnan went on hunger strike for 66 days during a previous detention period in 2012, the longest such Palestinian protest. It ended when Israeli authorities promised to release him.

He was jailed again in July 2014 under so-called "administrative detention".

Israel's use of a decades-old policy of detaining some Palestinians without formal charge has drawn international criticism. Israel says the procedure is necessary to avoid exposing confidential information in trials.

QAFR MALIK, West Bank — An Israeli army jeep struck and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, with the military and locals giving conflicting accounts of the circumstances.

A military spokeswoman said the jeep, which was in the village of Qafr Malik as part of an operation to arrest suspected fighters, accidentally hit the Palestinian after he threw a petrol bomb at it.

"The driver was startled and swerved, hitting the man," she said, adding that a military investigation would be launched.

Local resident Nail Abdul Latah Al Hajj denied the Palestinian had attacked the jeep, saying the man was walking to work at a chicken farm when he was run down and then crushed as the vehicle crashed into a wall and overturned.

Speaking to Reuters, Hajj said the man's death sparked confrontations between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli troops. The military spokeswoman said the disturbances were already under way when the collision happened.

In a separate incident, the army said it was investigating soldiers who were filmed beating an unarmed Palestinian during a protest in a West Bank refugee camp on Friday.

The video posted on social media showed the Palestinian being hit with a rifle butt and wrestled to the ground, where he was punched further and a soldier's knee was pressed against his head. He was then handcuffed and taken away.

"If necessary, disciplinary action will be taken against [the soldiers]. Based on preliminary investigation, it appears that the conduct displayed in the incident is inconsistent with that expected of IDF [Israel Defence Forces] soldiers," the military said in a statement.

Israeli forces regularly mount raids in the West Bank in search of suspected fighters, often touching off clashes with local residents. On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers shot dead a member of the Islamist group Hamas in the town of Jenin in one such operation.

BEIRUT — Al Qaeda's Syria affiliate said on Saturday it would prosecute members involved in an shoot-out in northwest Idlib province that killed at least 20 members of the country's Druze minority.

In an official statement published on Twitter, Al Nusra Front sought to allay fears of further attacks on minorities, saying that some of its members acted "in clear violation of the leadership's views". 

On Thursday, residents of the village of Qalb Lawzah protested after a Tunisian Al Nusra leader tried to seize a Druze man's home, accusing him of being loyal to the Syrian regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The Tunisian leader gathered his men and accused the Druze residents of the village of blasphemy and opened fire on them killing at least 20 people, among them elderly people and at least one child," said observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
In its statement, Al Nusra said it had immediately despatched a committee to Qalb Lawzah to "reassure the residents that what happened was unjustifiable". 

WASHINGTON — Washington has transferred six Yemeni inmates from its Guantanamo Bay prison to Oman, the Pentagon said Saturday, as part of a drive by President Barack Obama to close the controversial jail.

"The United States is grateful to the government of Oman for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," a statement said.

It named the six men as Idris Ahmad Abd Al Qadir Idris, Sharaf Ahmad Muhammad Masud, Jalal Salam Awad Awad, Saad Nasser Moqbil Al Azani, Emad Abdallah Hassan and Muhammad Ali Salem Al Zarnuki.

They arrived in the sultanate on Saturday for a "temporary stay", said an Omani foreign ministry statement carried by the official ONA news agency. It did not elaborate on their subsequent travel plans.

The Pentagon said that the United States had "coordinated with the government of Oman to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures".

The interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force "conducted comprehensive reviews of each of these cases", and a number of factors, including security issues, had been examined, it said.

"The decision to transfer a detainee is made only after detailed, specific conversations with the receiving country about the potential threat a detainee may pose after transfer and the measures the receiving country will take in order to sufficiently mitigate that threat and to ensure humane treatment," said Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins, a Pentagon spokesman.

"The measures taken must be tailored to mitigate the specific threat that the detainee may pose. If we do not receive adequate assurances, the transfer does not occur."

The transfer means 116 inmates remain at the prison at a US naval base in southeastern Cuba.

It marked the second Guantanamo prisoner transfer this year, after the Pentagon announced in January that it had moved four men to Oman and one to Estonia.

A total 28 inmates were transferred out of Guantanamo in 2014. 

Twarted by Congress in his effort to close the prison, Obama has had to rely on a handful of countries that have agreed to accept detainees.

The prison was set up to hold alleged terror suspects after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
But human rights groupws have condemned the jail as a "legal black hole", where inmates languish for years without being tried in court.

Caggins said the Pentagon took any attempt by the freed detainees to reengage with violent extremists "very seriously", insisting that few former Guantanamo inmates have attempted to do so.

"More than 90 percent of the detainees transferred under this administration are neither confirmed nor suspected by the intelligence community of re-engagement," Caggins said.

BEIRUT — The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it began an advance towards a Daesh-held town at the Turkish border on Saturday, thrusting deeper into the militants’ stronghold of Raqqa province in a campaign backed by US-led air strikes.

Redur Xelil, the YPG spokesman, told Reuters the YPG and smaller Syrian Arab rebel groups fighting alongside it had begun the move towards Tel Abyad after encircling the Daesh-held town of Suluk, 20km to the southeast.

The advance raises the prospect of a battle at the Turkish border between the well-organised YPG militia and Daesh. Tel Abyad is important to Daesh as the nearest border town to its de facto capital of Raqqa city.

Fighting near the border has already forced more than 13,000 people to cross into Turkey from Syria. 

Some 1,500 more are waiting to cross. Turkish soldiers sprayed water and fired into the air when some of them approached the border fence on Saturday, a security source said.

The YPG has made a determined push into Raqqa province from neighbouring Hasaka where, with the help of the US-led alliance, it has driven Daesh from wide areas of territory since early May.

“The move towards Tel Abyad from the east began today after the completion of the Suluk blockade,” Xelil said. “Many of the Daesh militants have fled [Suluk], apart from a group of suicide attackers inside the town and the booby traps, so we are very cautious about entering the town centre,” he added via Skype.

Daesh is an Arabic name for Islamic State.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organisation that tracks the war, said the YPG fighters were now half-way between Suluk and Tel Abyad, situated across the border from the Turkish town of Akcakle.

Turkey’s worries

For the YPG, seizing Tel Abyad would help them link up Kurdish-controlled areas in Hasaka province and Kobani.

The expansion of Kurdish influence in Syria near the border with Turkey is a concern for Ankara, which has long been worried about separatism among its own Kurdish population.

The Turkish authorities have closed Akcakle to vehicles and it has been months since they allowed anyone to cross from Tel Abyad into Turkey. However, Turkey still allows people with a valid passport to cross into Syria from Akcakle.

The Turkish military has dug trenches in the border area.

With the help of US-led air strikes, the YPG fended off a Daesh attack on the border town of Kobani, or Ayn Al Arab, in January. Since then, the YPG has emerged as the most significant partner on the ground in Syria for the US-led alliance that is trying to roll back Daesh.

Washington has ruled out the idea of partnering with President Bashar Assad, who last month lost the city of Palmyra in central Syria to Daesh — the first time the jihadists seized a city directly from government control.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused the West of bombing Arabs and Turkmens in Syria while supporting Kurdish “terrorist” groups he said were filling the void left behind.

Xelil said: “The help of the alliance forces has been very effective and accurate in its target selection.”
The YPG is affiliated to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and European Union.