Region

TEHRAN — Iran said a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship was ordered to dock in its Gulf Port of Bandar Abbas on Tuesday because of a commercial dispute.

US defence officials said at least five Iranian ships demanded that the Maersk Tigris head towards Iran's Larak Island while it was in the Straight of Hormuz.

"The ship confiscation order was issued by a court and is linked to the Maersk company," Hadi Haghshenas of the Iran Ports and Maritime Organisation was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.

"Generally speaking, if a shipping company has debts and does not pay, the owners of the goods turn to the competent authorities," he said.

The Fars news agency, citing "an informed source", reported that the ship "had a dispute with the Iranian port administration, which obtained a court order to impound" it.

Tasnim said the Maersk Tigris was headed for Shahid-Bahonar, part of Iran's port complex at Bandar Abbas.

Iranian state television said sailors from Britain, Bulgaria, Myanmar and Romania make up the 24-strong crew, under the command of a Bulgarian.

Earlier, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said the captain "declined" the demand to alter course and one Iranian naval vessel "fired shots" across the bow of the Maersk Tigris.

It then "complied with the Iranian demand and proceeded into Iranian waters in the vicinity of Larak Island", he said.

The US military's Central Command ordered a naval destroyer to the area and military aircraft were monitoring the situation, Warren said.

The destroyer was directed "to proceed at best speed to the nearest location of the Maersk Tigris", he said.

The incident occurred at about 0900 GMT in the Strait of Hormuz in Iranian territorial waters.

It came amid heightened tensions in the region as Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies wage a campaign of air strikes in Yemen against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

The United States is providing intelligence and aerial refuelling for the Saudi-led coalition.

Iran regularly boards fishing boats accused of violating its territorial waters.

In 2013, the navy held for a month the Indian-government owned tanker MT Desh Shanti that Iran said had polluted Gulf waters.

But at the time, media reports in India suggested Iran may have detained the ship out of "displeasure" because it was carrying crude oil from rival Iraq.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel invited bids on Monday to construct 77 new settler units in two settlements on occupied land in East Jerusalem, drawing a swift Palestinian condemnation.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Malki said the planned projects were a violation of international law and showed Israel was not interested in peace.

Peace Now, an Israeli group that monitors and opposes settlement-building on land Palestinians seek for a state, said only tenders for 18 of the 77 units were new, and the others were reissued after previous offers were not taken up.

The Israel Lands Authority said 41 of the homes are to be built in Pisgat Ze’ev and 36 in Neve Yaakov, where 63,000 Israelis already live.

The two settlements comprise mainly apartment blocs and are defined by Israel as integral neighbourhoods of Jerusalem.

Malki told reporters in Ramallah: “Israel’s measures aim to hinder the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian state that is geographically connected and to prevent the realisation of the two-state solution.”

Most countries consider settlements that Israel has built on territory occupied in a 1967 war illegal and obstacles to Palestinian statehood. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed a year ago, partly over the settlement issue.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is trying to form a governing coalition after his March election victory, has pledged to pursue settlement in East Jerusalem and other occupied areas which Israel says it intends to keep in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, a position that has not won international recognition.

United Nations, United States — A United Nations inquiry on Monday blamed the Israeli military for seven attacks on UN schools in Gaza that were used as shelters during the 2014 war.

"I deplore the fact that at least 44 Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli actions and at least 227 injured at United Nations premises being used as emergency shelters," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a letter to the Security Council.

"It is a matter of the utmost gravity that those who looked to them for protection and who sought and were granted shelter there had their hopes and trust denied," Ban added.

The UN chief vowed to "spare no effort to ensure that such incidents will never be repeated".

The board of inquiry investigated the attacks on the schools run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA from July 8 to August 26 last year, but it also shed light on the discovery of weaponry at three schools.

The schools were vacant at the time but Ban noted that "the fact that they were used by those involved in the fighting to store their weaponry and, in two cases, probably to fire from, is unacceptable".

Israel has repeatedly maintained that Hamas fighters were using civilians as human shields and UN premises as storage sites for weapons during the 50-day war.

In response to the report, Israel’s foreign ministry said criminal investigations have been launched against those linked to the attacks on shelters.

“Israel makes every effort to avoid harm to sensitive sites, in the face of terrorist groups who are committed not only to targeting Israeli civilians but also to using Palestinian civilians and UN facilities as shields for their terrorist activities,” said foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.

The Gaza war ended with a Egyptian-brokered truce after about 2,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.

BAGHDAD — A week of heavy fighting between security forces and Daesh militant group in the Ramadi area of Anbar province killed 30 police, a top officer said on Monday.

"The city of Ramadi witnessed heavy confrontations and fighting last week between security forces" and Daesh, Anbar police chief Staff Major General Kadhim Al Fahdawi said, putting the toll at 30 police killed and 100 wounded.

Parts of the capital of Anbar province have been out of government control since early 2014, and Daesh seized more territory in the Ramadi area this month.

Major attacks also hit other areas of Anbar last week, including three suicide bombings claimed by Daesh targeting the Iraqi side of the Treibil border crossing with Jordan on Saturday that officials said killed seven people.

And 13 soldiers, among them two senior officers, were killed in a bombing and clashes east of Ramadi on Friday, Defence Minister Khalid Obeidi said.

Obeidi on Sunday rejected reports that more than 100 soldiers were killed in the violence, which was originally said to have taken place in the Nadhim Al Tharthar area, but which he said was actually 30 kilometres to the south.

Rumours of the massive death toll sparked calls for a demonstration in Baghdad and for Obeidi to be questioned by parliament or resign.

Iraqi security forces control pockets of territory in Anbar, a vast desert province that stretches from the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approaches to Baghdad.

But much of the province is held by Daesh, which spearheaded an offensive last June that overran swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad.

SANAA — A coalition of Arab states vowed to coordinate political and military efforts to restore order in Yemen as Saudi-led warplanes Monday launched new air strikes on Houthi Shiite rebels.

The raids killed at least 12 Houthi insurgents and allied forces as fighting continued across several provinces, military and local sources said.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahayan, the Abu Dhabi crown prince and armed forces chief of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said the coalition is now working on military and political fronts to re-establish the legitimate authority in Sanaa.

The campaign’s new phase is based on a “multilayered strategy, including military, as well as politics and development, to reestablish the legitimacy,” he said on a visit to his troops in Saudi Arabia taking part in the coalition.

“We have no other choice but to succeed in the test of Yemen,” Sheikh Mohammed said, quoted in UAE daily Al Ittihad, ahead of another UN Security Council meeting Monday on efforts to halt the conflict.

He stressed the UAE’s determination to act alongside other Arab countries to confront “regional agendas that reflect greed”, an apparent reference to Gulf neighbour Iran which supports the rebels but denies having armed them.

On the other side of the Gulf, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief said Saudi Arabia was verging on collapse as Tehran’s position strengthened, comparing Riyadh to Israel because of its intervention in Yemen.

The remarks by General Mohammad Ali Jafari were a further sign of deteriorating relations between Tehran and Riyadh, after recent heavy criticism by Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials.

“Today, treacherous Saudi Arabia is stepping in the footsteps of Israel and the Zionists,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Jafari as saying.

Saudi ‘decline and fall’ 

“Today the Saudi dynasty is on the verge of decline and fall,” he said, asserting that Iran was in the ascendancy.

The Saudi government said Monday the nine Arab countries that make the coalition want to help Yemen “reinstate security and stability, away from any hegemony or foreign meddling that aims to foment sedition and sectarianism”.

Yemen is expected to be the focus of a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers on Thursday, ahead of a leaders’ summit on May 5.

The latest air raids hit five schools converted by the Houthis into military bases in Ataq, the capital of the southern province of Abyan, military sources said.

The raids killed at least 12 insurgents and troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has allied himself with the northern rebels against the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the sources said.

Also in Abyan, warplanes targeted rebel positions on the outskirts of Loder, the province’s second largest city, witnesses said.

Clashes were ongoing southwest of Loder between rebels and southern forces that have sided with Hadi, they added.

Fierce fighting also raged in the central city of Taez, with the warring parties using tanks and rocket-propelled grenades inside residential areas, officials said.

At least 16 civilians were killed in Taez on Sunday, before coalition warplanes reportedly hit rebel positions east of the city overnight.

The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed in fighting in Yemen since late March, when Riyadh assembled the coalition in support of Hadi.

The embattled leader asked for Gulf intervention after the rebels closed in on his refuge in the southern port city of Aden after they had overrun several provinces since September, including the capital.

Hadi has since fled to Riyadh.

Air strikes have continued despite a coalition announcement last week of an end to its air campaign dubbed “Operation Decisive Storm”.

Saudi Arabia says it has started deploying National Guard troops on its border with Yemen, joining members of the Saudi border guard and army who have reinforced the frontier since late March.

SANAA — Yemen's exiled government on Monday declared three areas in the country engulfed in fighting between Shiite rebels, their allies and pro-government forces as "disaster" zones, including the southern port city of Aden, and said that the month of violence has claimed 1,000 civilian lives.

The crisis in Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished country, has deepened since March 26, when a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes aimed at rolling back territorial gains by the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies, loyalists of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The country's internationally recognised President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled last month to Riyadh and his government now operates from the Saudi capital.

On Monday, the government raised the alarm for Aden as well as the cities of Taiz and Dhale, saying there is no electricity or water there and that these cities have run out of fuel, medical supplies and food.

"These cities are on verge of collapse," said Minister of Communications Nadia Saqqaf.

The three cities have also been the focus of a pressing offensive by the Houthis and Saleh's forces. While they have resisted the rebels' assault, pro-government forces, consisting mainly of poorly armed and lightly equipped militias, have failed to protect civilians caught in the cross-fire.

Saqqaf said nearly a quarter million Yemenis, out of a population of 25 million, have been displaced. On average, 15 people are killed by sniper fire or random shelling daily in Aden, he said.

The exiled government also set the civilian casualty toll for the past month at 1,000 — nearly double the number that UN agencies announced days ago.

Last week, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said 551 civilians have been killed and 1,185 wounded in the violence between March 26 and April 22. The total death toll, including both combatants and civilians is 1,080, the UN said.

The deaths, the agency said, resulted from both air strikes and fighting on the ground. The discrepancies in the casualty figures provided by the exiled government and the UN agencies could not immediately be reconciled.

Another minister in exile, Ezz Eddin Al Asbahi, said the Houthis and Saleh's forces are turning hospitals, clinics and schools into weapons caches, which makes them target of Saudi-led air strikes. Asbahi, who is the human rights minister, said 9 million Yemenis are in need of some form of medical intervention.

The Houthis have imposed a siege of Aden, cutting off fuel supplies, leaving large parts of the city in darkness. And because there is no fuel, hospital generators cannot work, Asbahi added.

A total of 365,000 houses have been destroyed across Yemen and the number of displaced nationwide has reached 250,000, he said.

"It's miserable," Asbahi said. "Yemen has gone back 100 years."

Also Monday, Saudi-led air strikes targeted Shiite rebels across Yemen, killing at least at least five people in Aden and striking a weapons depot in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, officials and witnesses said.

The five victims in Aden were buried in the rubble when an air strike hit two houses. The air strikes in Aden also targeted a hill where the presidential palace is located and a separate gathering of Houthis and Saleh's forces.

The air strikes in Sanaa hit the Fag Atan mountain, where major arms depots are located, including those officials have said were used to store ballistic missiles. At least 38 people were killed when similar air raids last week flattened nearby homes, burying residents under the rubble.

Saudi-led warplanes also carried out raids in the northern city of Saada, stronghold of the Houthis, and the western city of Taiz.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. The witnesses insisted on anonymity, fearing for their own safety.

Also Monday, the UN's outgoing special envoy to Yemen said the parties there had been "very close" to reaching a political agreement before the current violence and that the main sticking point had been who would lead the country.

Speaking just after his final briefing to the UN Security Council, Jamal Benomar warned that the conflict is "becoming a confrontation with competing local and regional agendas".

Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government there accuse Iran of arming the Houthis. Both the rebels and Tehran deny this, although they admit Iran provided aid and political support.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said he will use a meeting with his Iranian counterpart later in the day Monday to urge Iran to push the rebels back to the negotiating table.

BAGHDAD — A series of car bombings targeting busy commercial areas in Iraq's capital killed at least 20 civilians Monday, officials said.

The deadliest attack took place Monday night when a car bomb exploded on a commercial street in Baghdad's western district of Mansour, killing 10 people and wounding 25, police said. Security forces sealed off the area, which is often packed with nighttime shoppers.

At least 20 cars were set on fire by the blast, which damaged several shops and restaurants. Police said four children were among the wounded.

An hour later, a car bombing on a commercial street killed three people and wounded 12 in Baghdad's Amil neighbourhood, police said.

Earlier Monday, another car bomb exploded in Baghdad's Bayaa district near a real estate office in an area where dozens gather every day. A police official said that blast killed seven people and wounded at least 16.

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

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attacks. Baghdad has seen near-daily attacks as security forces struggle to dislodge Daesh terror group from vast areas in northern and western Iraq seized by the extremists during a stunning blitz last summer.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Daesh militants have slit the throats of five journalists working for a Libyan TV station in the eastern part of the country, an army commander said on Monday.

The reporters had been missing since August, when they left the eastern city of Tobruk after covering the inauguration of the country's elected parliament to travel to Benghazi. Their route took them through Derna, a militant Islamist hotspot.

Faraj Al Barassi, a district army commander in eastern Libya, said militants loyal to Daesh were responsible for killing the journalists, whose bodies were found outside the eastern city of Bayda.

"Five bodies with slit throats were found today in the Green Mountain forests," Barrasi told Reuters, referring to a sparsely populated area east of Benghazi. He did not say when the five journalists were believed to have been killed.

The reporters — four Libyans and one Egyptian — had been working for Barqa TV, an eastern television supporting federalism for eastern Libya, other journalists said.

Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a group promoting press freedom, said the reporters had been kidnapped at a Daesh checkpoint and were killed recently.

"We are deeply shocked by this brutal slaughter," said IFJ president Jim Boumelha. "ISIS [Daesh] aims to horrify but we can only feel great sorrow and further resolve to see the killers held responsible for their crimes."

Militants loyal to Daesh terror group have exploited a security vacuum in Libya, where two governments and parliaments allied to host of armed groups are fighting each other on several fronts four years after the ousting of Muammar Qadhafi.

The internationally recognised government has been based in the east since losing control of the capital Tripoli in August to a rival faction, which has set up its own administration.

The house of representatives, Libya's elected parliament, has also been based in the east since its inauguration in August.

Daesh, the group which has seized parts of Syria and Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the killing of 30 Ethiopian and 21 Egyptian Christians as well as an attack on a Tripoli hotel, embassies and oilfields.

Two people were killed and seven wounded in Benghazi on Monday when rockets hit residential buildings, said Fadhl Al Hassi, an army commander.

Forces allied to the recognised government have been battling Islamist fighters for almost a year in Libya's second largest city. Hassi said Islamist fighters fired the rockets to stop army forces, backed by aircraft, approaching their bases.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli armed forces on Sunday killed four people when they tried to plant bombs near the Golan Heights on the country's border with war-torn Syria, a security source said.

The incident occurred at night near the town of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli occupied Golan, the source told AFP.

The army said on its official Twitter account that the operation targeted "terrorists" armed with explosives who "were en route to imminent attack on our forces. Our air force neutralised threat".

It made no mention of any casualties, however.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement praised "the vigilance" of Israeli troops.

"Every attempt to attack Israeli soldiers or civilians will be met with a decisive response like this operation which thwarted an attack," the statement from his office said.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres of the Golan from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.

There has been repeated shooting across the ceasefire line since the uprising in Syria erupted in March 2011, some of it stray.

Syria and Israel are still officially in a state of war.

AL BEGRAWIYA, Sudan — The small, steep pyramids rising up from the desert hills of northern Sudan resemble those in neighbouring Egypt, but unlike the famed pyramids of Giza, the Sudanese site is largely deserted.

The pyramids at Meroe, some 200 kilometres north of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, are rarely visited despite being a UNESCO World Heritage site like those in Egypt. Sanctions against the government of longtime President Omar Al Bashir over Sudan's long-running internal conflicts limit its access to foreign aid and donations, while also hampering tourism.

The site, known as the Island of Meroe because an ancient, long-dried river ran around it, once served as the principle residence of the rulers of the Kush kingdom, known as the Black Pharaohs. Their pyramids, ranging from 6 metres to 30 metres tall, were built between 720 and 300 BC. The entrances usually face east to greet the rising sun.

The pyramids bear decorative elements inspired by Pharaonic Egypt, Greece and Rome, according to UNESCO, making them priceless relics. However, overeager archaeologists in the 19th century tore off the golden tips of some pyramids and reduced some to rubble, said Abdel Rahman Omar, the head of the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum.

On a recent day, a few tourists and white camels roamed the site, watched by a handful of security guards. Sudan's tourism industry has been devastated by economic sanctions imposed over the conflicts in Darfur and other regions. Bashir's government, which came to power following a bloodless Islamist coup in 1989, has struggled to care for its antiquities.

Qatar has pledged $135 million to renovate and support Sudan's antiquities in the last few years. But Omar said Sudan still receives just 15,000 tourists per year.