Region

BAGHDAD — Reinforcements were rushed to Iraq's key Beiji refinery amid heavy fighting with Daesh militants who have been trying to capture the facility for months, Iraqi officials said Tuesday.

But Brig. Gen. Saad Maan, an interior ministry spokesman, denied that the extremists had taken over major parts of the refinery, the country's largest, as some Iraqi media reported.

Aside from its commercial significance, Beiji is on the road to Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the centre of Daesh terror group's power in Iraq. If Iraqi forces hope to retake Mosul, they must secure Beiji.

Ammar Hikmat, the deputy governor for Salahuddin province, where the refinery is located, told The Associated Press that the troops holding the refinery have been battered since Monday by a wave of suicide bombings.

Provincial government spokesman Adel Al Samaraie said militants are in control of at least half the refinery and are seeking to cut the main supply line to the embattled troops.

"They are advancing and taking over many areas," Samaraie told the AP, referring to the militants.

Iraqi state television devoted an hour-long programme Tuesday to assert that the refinery was still in government hands. Maan asserted that “it is impossible for the militants to take over the refinery”.

In recent days, the Iraqi government has decried what it describes as a propaganda war by Daesh to exaggerate their advances. The extremist group has issued statements online that it controls most of the refinery.

The Iraqi government said Tuesday that a joint force of federal police and militias, known as popular mobilisation units, are working to clear the road to the refinery. Beiji is north of Tikrit, which Iraqi forces captured last month.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in the central Karrada commercial area, killing six people, police and medical officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information.

Baghdad, especially Karrada, which is popular for families at night, has been pounded by car bombs in recent weeks.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's King Salman Bin Abdulaziz said Tuesday that Gulf leaders must stand up to Iran, as Yemeni rebels backed by Tehran attacked a Saudi border town with mortar shells.

King Salman's call came at a meeting of Gulf monarchs in Riyadh that was also attended by French President Francois Hollande, who said his country was "by the side" of Gulf nations.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit came amid mounting international concern about the impact on civilians of Saudi-led air strikes targeting Yemeni rebels.

In a clear reference to Iran, King Salman spoke of the need to confront an external threat that "aims to expand control and impose its hegemony", threatening regional stability and creating "sectarian sedition".

Soon afterwards, the Saudi-led coalition carrying out air raids in Yemen said mortar shells fired by Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels from across the border had struck the Saudi town of Najran.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri told Saudi television that hospitals, schools and houses had been hit.

“Air and ground forces will respond in the right way to these hazardous acts and will not allow them to be repeated,” Assiri said.

The Saudi military had already deployed Apache combat helicopters to target the rebels in the border area, he added.

Hollande, the first Western leader to attend a GCC summit, said France shared the dangers facing the region and he had come “to affirm the commitment of France to be by your side”.

The Riyadh summit brought together leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

All but Oman are in the Saudi-led Sunni coalition that on March 26 launched air strikes in Yemen against the Houthi rebels and their allies who have seized large parts of the country including Sanaa.

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled to Riyadh when the rebels advanced on his southern refuge Aden.

Concern has mounted over the air campaign, which has continued despite the coalition announcing late last month it was moving on to a new phase.

Humanitarian crisis 

The United Nations says at least 1,200 people have been killed in Yemen since March 19, and has repeatedly warned that the already impoverished Arabian Peninsula state faces a major humanitarian crisis.

Saudi Arabia has said it is considering temporary halts in air strikes to allow aid deliveries.

Hollande told the summit France supports coalition efforts “to ensure the stability of Yemen”.

His visit comes as Paris strengthens its political and economic relations with the oil- and gas-rich Gulf monarchies.

He arrived in Riyadh from GCC member Qatar after attending the signing of a 6.3-billion-euro ($7-billion) deal between French aerospace firm Dassault and Qatari defence officials.

The agreement includes an order for 24 Rafale fighter jets, with an option on a further 12.

On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris and Riyadh are also discussing 20 economic projects worth “tens of billions of euros”.

Hollande’s visit comes as US President Barack Obama prepares to host GCC leaders for talks next week.

Most GCC countries are also part of a US-led air coalition targeting Daesh terror group in Iraq and Syria.

Tight security 

Security was high in Riyadh Tuesday after Daesh threats to attack the kingdom, with green-bereted Royal Guards manning checkpoints and a sniffer dog checking vehicles.

Both Paris and Washington have sought to reassure the Gulf states about an international accord being finalised over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Gulf fears Iran could still develop an atomic bomb under the deal that would limit its nuclear capabilities in return for lifting crippling international sanctions.

Tehran denies trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

“I know that Iran is at the heart of your preoccupations,” Hollande said.

The only other foreign leader invited to a GCC summit was Iran’s then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2007.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Saudi Arabia this week before security talks in France.

On Monday after Hollande met King Salman, a joint French-Saudi declaration “stressed the need to achieve by June 30, a robust [nuclear] agreement that is lasting, verifiable, indisputable and binding for Iran” which must “ensure” it would not develop an atomic bomb.

On Yemen, they stressed the importance of implementing a UN Security Council resolution calling on the rebels to withdraw from all areas they have seized since July 2014.

A source familiar with the situation said France has provided the Saudi-led coalition with satellite imagery of Yemen.

Jakarta — Indonesia will stop sending new domestic workers to 21 Middle Eastern countries, reports said Tuesday, after the recent execution of two Indonesian women in Saudi Arabia angered Jakarta.

The ban affects countries including Saudi Arabia — a major destination for Indonesian maids — United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Egypt, and will come into effect in three months' time, Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri was cited as saying in local media.

Jakarta, which has long complained about the treatment of Indonesian maids in the Middle East, had already placed a moratorium on sending new helpers to Saudi Arabia in 2011 following the beheading of a worker.

The new move is meant to be permanent. Maids already working in the affected countries will be allowed to stay and continue in their positions.

Indonesia's anger at the executions of its citizens abroad comes despite the fact that Jakarta last week executed seven foreign drug convicts, drawing a storm of international protest.

"According to the law, the government has the right to stop the placement of migrant workers in particular countries if it is believed that their employment degrades human values and the dignity of the nation," Dhakiri was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Antara.

He said there were "many problems" with Indonesians working abroad related to "labour norms and human rights violations".

Dhakiri cited the execution of Indonesian domestic workers Siti Zainab and Karni Binti Medi Tarsim, who were both put to death for murder just days apart in April.

The foreign ministry summoned the Saudi ambassador to Indonesia after both executions, complaining Jakarta had not been informed beforehand.

Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Dhakiri also said Indonesia will tighten placement of helpers to countries in the Asia-Pacific through measures such as auditing training centres and blacklisting rogue agencies.

President Joko Widodo, who took office last year, vowed in February that maids would no longer be sent abroad in future, although he did not mention a date. Previous Indonesian governments have made similar pledges.

As well as the Middle East, Indonesia also sends domestic workers to many parts of Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and has often complained about the treatment of its workers in those countries.

A Hong Kong woman was jailed for six years in February for beating and starving her Indonesian maid and keeping her prisoner, in a high-profile case that drew attention to the abuse of domestic helpers in the financial hub.

TEHRAN — Iran's president denounced western countries for taking pride in arms sales Tuesday, after France signed a warplanes deal with Qatar, saying weapons agreements add to Middle East instability.

Although he did not name France, Hassan Rouhani's comments came after it agreed a 6.3-billion-euro ($7-billion) contract with Qatari defence officials in Doha.

French President Francois Hollande was at the signing ceremony prior to a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders' meeting in Riyadh, the first time a western head of state has attended a GCC summit.

"Good choice," Hollande said on Monday as the deal, which includes an order for 24 Rafale fighter jets with an option on a further 12, was signed.

However Rouhani, in a speech carried live on state television, said that given the turmoil wracking the region, large military equipment or arms deals would not help the situation.

"The world should not smile at the problem of our region. Some American or European nation should not be proud of selling more weapons to this or that country," he said.

"They create insecurity in the region and unjustly make regional countries scared of each other, preparing the ground for a weapons market."

The France-Qatar deal involves the French aerospace firm Dassault. Having struggled for years to sell any Rafales abroad, Dassault has recently scored lucrative high-profile contracts with Egypt, India, and now Qatar.

However, Rouhani, again not naming France or Hollande, criticised arms deals involving foreign countries that will end up being used in conflicts elsewhere.

"They come to the region and are proud of having sold billions of dollars or euros of weapons to these countries," he said.

"Is this the way to create employment in western countries? For someone to be employed in an arms factory while people are killed in Baghdad, Damascus or Sanaa?"

The last city Rouhani named — the Yemeni capital — is at the centre of Iran's dispute with Saudi Arabia, which for more than one month has been bombing Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Iran, the region's dominant Shiite power, which provides military aid and support to several Palestinian groups and Hezbollah in Lebanon, supports the Houthis and opposes the daily raids by Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies, including Qatar.

Iran has denied arming the Houthis and has called for peace talks in Yemen. The conflict there is increasingly seen as a proxy war between Tehran and Riyadh.

The Riyadh summit brings together the leaders of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

While Yemen is expected to dominate, Gulf leaders are also likely to voice concern over a potential final nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers led by the United States.

GAZA CITY — The ruling Hamas group launched a crackdown Tuesday on radical Salafi groups following a series of unclaimed bombings in the Gaza Strip, arresting dozens of people and setting up military-type checkpoints.

Hamas, an Islamist group that has ruled Gaza for the past eight years, considers the more radical Salafists, who identify ideologically with Daesh terror group, a threat. The Salafists, believed to number several hundred, seek the establishment of an Islamic caliphate and accuse Hamas of being too soft on Israel and failing to adequately impose religious law.

On Monday morning, a bomb damaged a wall at a security site run by Hamas' armed wing. There were no casualties, but after a series of similar blasts on Hamas security posts in recent weeks, suspicion fell on the Salafists.

Monday afternoon, local media showed images of masked Hamas security officers surrounding the house of a wanted Salafist in Gaza City. Later, police said they foiled an attempted car bombing elsewhere.

Eyad Bozoum, spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, said the situation was under control.

"Some slight violations take place from time to time and the security services follow them," he said.

Salafist activists told The Associated Press that Hamas authorities have rounded up several dozen members in recent weeks. The activists spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared Hamas reprisals.

Hamas also deployed masked gunmen in Salafi strongholds in the central and southern Gaza Strip, set up checkpoints and destroyed a makeshift mosque that it says was used by Salafists to launch attacks.

In a statement published this week, a group calling itself "Supporters of the Islamic State in Bait Al Maqdes" gave Hamas until Thursday to release all detained Salafists.

"If they [Hamas] decline, all options are open to respond," it said.

Tensions between the Islamist rivals have ebbed and flowed for years. The current round started in April after Hamas arrested a prominent Salafi cleric who praised Daesh terror group in a sermon.

WASHINGTON — Daesh terror group took responsibility on Tuesday for a failed attack on a Texas exhibit of caricatures of Prophet Mohammad in which two gunmen were killed, with US investigators probing the veracity of the claim.

The Syria- and Iraq-based Daesh terror group said on its official online radio station that "two soldiers of the caliphate" carried out the attack on Sunday in Garland, a suburb of Dallas.

US officials said while Daesh’s claim of responsibility for the failed Texas attack was being examined closely, investigators at this point did not know whether the dead militants launched the attack under instructions from the group or whether Daesh was opportunistically claiming credit for an attack in which it had little or no direct or indirect involvement.

One US official said investigators believed it was possible, if not likely, that Daesh played an "inspirational" rather than "operational" role in the attack.

That would mean the shooters may have immersed themselves in items posted online by Daesh and other groups like Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula intended to incite violence, but that the group played no role in directing an attack on the Mohammad cartoon event.

US investigators were going through the shooters' computers and communications devices, officials said.

Authorities said roommates Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi of Phoenix were fatally shot by a police officer when they opened fire with assault rifles in a parking lot outside the cartoon exhibit and contest. An unarmed security guard suffered a minor wound.

Court documents showed Simpson had been under federal surveillance since 2006 and was convicted in 2011 of lying to FBI agents about his desire to join violent jihad in Somalia.

"I believe that perhaps he might have just snapped when he heard about the cartoon contest," Kristina Sitton, a Phoenix attorney who defended him in the case, told CNN.

Sitton said Simpson had never shown any desire to join violent jihad.

Soofi was a popular student at an elite school in Pakistan but struggled to adjust to life after moving to the United States as a teen, friends said on Tuesday.

Soofi's story appeared to trace a familiar arc for some Western Islamists — disappointment, alienation, and a search for belonging that ended with the embrace of militancy.

The shooting in Garland, an ethnic melting pot in a city of about a quarter million people, was an echo of attacks or threats in other Western countries against images depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

In another Dallas suburb, Richardson, police were investigating an attack by two men on a worshippers leaving evening prayers at a mosque on Monday.

"It is too early to say whether this was a hate crime or an attempted robbery," said Richardson Police Sergeant Kevin Perlich, a spokesman.

The man was treated on the scene for minor injuries.

Police and federal agents had planned security for months ahead of the Garland event, organised by American Freedom Defence Initiative, a free-speech organisation that the Southern Poverty Law Centre has described as a hate group.

In January, gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what was said to be revenge for its cartoons. Such portrayals are considered offensive by Muslims.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian soldiers battled a small group of insurgents, including a suicide bomber, who attacked a Syrian military logistics facility in the capital Monday, militants and activists said.

The relatively rare Damascus attack took place in the Rukneddine neighbourhood and was claimed by the Al Qaeda branch in Syria. Syrian state media said all the militants were killed, but provided no further details.

The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman, said the bombing appeared to target a general who is responsible for army logistics and supplies. He said the general was wounded in the blast, while three of his guards were killed in the ensuing clashes with the militant attackers.

The Observatory relies on a network of activists inside Syria for its information.

The Al Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front posted a claim of responsibility on a Twitter account associated with the group, saying three of the group's fighters were involved.

Syrian state television later broadcast video of what it said was the scene of the attack, showing the bodies of two men dressed in camouflage sprawled in the street. The legs of the suicide bomber were visible on the pavement nearby.

Attacks such as Monday's have been rare in the capital, which remains under the firm grip of President Bashar Assad.

COPENHAGEN — A Danish group on Monday vowed to expand an advertising campaign urging people to boycott products from Israeli settlements after the ads were dropped from Copenhagen buses.

"It's a clear attempt to deny us our freedom of speech," Fathi Al Abed, chairman of the Danish Palestinian Friendship Association, told AFP after bus operator Movia last week pulled the campaign.

"There is nothing whatsoever about this campaign that is harmful, discriminatory or hateful in any way," he added.

The advertisements on 35 buses in the Copenhagen area pictured two women beside the quote: "Our conscience is clean! We neither buy products from the Israeli settlements nor invest in the settlement industry."

But they were dropped by Movia within just four days after the company "received a significant number of inquiries regarding the Danish Palestinian Friendship Association's campaign against Israeli settlements”.

The company declined to comment when contacted by AFP but said in a statement that the campaign was "unnecessarily offensive."

Abed said his group would respond by expanding a national advertising campaign on the same subject.

"Nobody can understand why they [the bus company] decided to do this," he said.

"Our support has grown because of all this attention because people are outraged, even those who've never had anything to do with the Palestinian cause," Abed said.

GAZA CITY — A bomb blast targeted Hamas' security headquarters in Gaza City on Monday, witnesses said, after radical Islamists issued a threatening message calling for the release of prisoners.

The explosion just before dawn damaged the building's perimeter wall, witnesses told AFP.

The security forces, run by de facto Gaza rulers and Islamist movement Hamas, were not immediately available for comment.

An online statement just hours before the blast, apparently issued by anti-Hamas radical Islamists, threatened to "act against chosen targets" if jihadist prisoners were not freed within 72 hours.

It was unclear if the statement and the explosion were linked, but radical Islamists in Gaza have issued similar threats in the past.

"Hamas and its security forces have 72 hours from the release of this statement to free all Salafist [jihadist] prisoners," said the statement from a group calling itself the Supporters of the Daesh in Jerusalem.

"Our soldiers are ready to act against chosen targets at the end of this ultimatum," it said.

Hamas security forces arrested a Salafist leader last month, alleging that he was a supporter of Daesh terror that holds vast swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.

Hamas, which is ideologically aligned with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, has previously cracked down on radical Islamists.

Gazan jihadists have pledged allegiance to Daesh in the past, but there has been no confirmation from the group itself that it has a presence in Gaza.

RIYADH — French President Francois Hollande sought to boost ties in the Gulf Monday as he oversaw the signing of a warplanes deal with Qatar and arrived in Saudi Arabia for a summit.

Hollande was to be the first Western head of state to attend a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) annual gathering when it meets in Riyadh on Tuesday.

The summit comes at a crucial time for the six-nation GCC, with a Saudi-led coalition bombing rebels in Yemen, concern over the rise of Islamist militants and regional worries over a potential final nuclear deal with Iran.`

With Hollande in attendance, the CEO of French aerospace firm Dassault, Eric Trappier, signed the 6.3-billion-euro ($7-billion) deal with Qatari defence officials in Doha.

The agreement includes an order for 24 Rafale fighter jets, with an option on a further 12.

"Good choice," Hollande said as the deal was signed.

"If we are present here in Qatar... it is because there has been a long tradition, and because France is seen as a reliable country which a partner country can have confidence in."

Having struggled for years to sell any Rafales abroad, Dassault has recently scored several lucrative high-profile contracts with Egypt, India, and now Qatar.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said recently that talks with the United Arab Emirates on buying Rafales were also headed in the "right direction".

 'Sign of friendship' 

At the signing ceremony, Hollande hailed France's ties with Gulf countries and his invitation to the GCC summit.

"It is an honour for France, a sign of friendship and of confidence," he said.

Hollande met Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani before flying to Saudi Arabia for the GCC summit and separate talks with Saudi King Salman.

He was also to meet Yemen's exiled President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Tuesday's GCC summit will bring together leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

All but Oman are members of the Saudi-led coalition that launched air strikes in Yemen in late March against Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels and their allies after they seized control of large parts of the country including the capital Sanaa.

Hadi fled Yemen as the rebels advanced on his southern refuge of Aden, and anti-government forces have refused to concede territory or down arms despite international pressure.

On Sunday, Yemeni sources said the coalition had sent a "limited" ground force of several dozen soldiers to assist pro-government fighters in Aden.

The GCC is expected to discuss what steps can be taken as the rebels hold out despite weeks of air strikes.

International concern has been growing over the conflict, which has seen at least 1,200 people killed since late March and thousands wounded.

Deepening Gulf ties

The UN has repeatedly warned that already impoverished Yemen faces a major humanitarian crisis, and Action Against Hunger on Monday urged Hollande to push for a ceasefire.

"Faced with the current disaster, there is now a humanitarian imperative that must take precedence over any political or military objective," said the French aid group.

It called on Hollande "to do everything possible to obtain a ceasefire and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance".

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said meanwhile the kingdom was considering temporary halts in coalition air strikes against rebels in Yemen to allow for aid deliveries.

Most GCC nations are also members of the US-led coalition bombing Daesh group jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and Tuesday's summit will lay the groundwork for talks between the group's leaders and US President Barack Obama at the White House later
this month.

Obama is expected to reassure GCC members on the framework accord reached on Tehran's contested nuclear programme.

Saudi Arabia and other GCC nations fear that regional rival Iran will continue efforts to develop an atomic bomb after the sanctions that are strangling Iran's economy are lifted under the deal.

Tehran denies any attempt to develop a nuclear weapon.

Hollande's visit comes as Paris deepens political and economic relations with the energy-rich Gulf monarchies, in particular Qatar.

Qatari investors have taken stakes in major French companies including oil firm Total and luxury goods giant LVMH, and also own French football club Paris Saint-Germain.