Region

MOGADISHU — Three people were killed and six wounded in a car bomb blast outside a popular restaurant in the centre of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, police said.

The attack is the latest in a string of bombings in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation, where Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabab Islamists are fighting to topple the government.

"There are at least three dead, and six others have been injured," police officer Ahmed Warhere told AFP.

"A vehicle loaded with explosives was parked outside the restaurant."

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the restaurant is located in the centre of Mogadishu, where the Shabab Islamists have carried out repeated attacks.

UN envoy to Somalia Nick Kay, who was visiting colleagues in the northeastern town of Garowe a day after Al Shabab killed six people in an attack on a UN bus there, condemned "another atrocity".

He said the "killing needs to stop".

Four staff from the UN children's agency UNICEF were killed in the bus attack, including two Kenyans, an Afghan and a Ugandan. Two Somali security guards were also killed in that attack.

Al Shabab, meaning "youth", emerged out of a bitter insurgency against Ethiopia, whose troops entered Somalia in a 2006 US-backed invasion to topple the Islamic Courts Union that was then controlling the capital Mogadishu.

Al Shabab rebels continue to stage frequent attacks in their fight to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government, as well as to counter claims that they are close to defeat due to the loss of territory, regular US drone strikes against their leaders and defections.

In other recent attacks Al Shabab gunmen shot dead a Puntland lawmaker, Adan Haji Hussein, on Saturday and on Sunday killed three African Union troops in an ambush in the south of the war-ravaged country.

BAGHDAD — Daesh terror group claimed to have executed 11 pro-government fighters in Iraq, in a series of photographs shared online on Tuesday.

The first picture shows masked men armed with assault rifles marching a line of orange jumpsuit-clad prisoners across a field.

The captives are then shown kneeling in front of the gunmen with their hands bound.

The final photographs show a row of bodies face-down in front of the militants with blood pooling on the ground.

Text accompanying the photographs said the men were killed in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad, the scene of fierce fighting last month in which government forces recaptured its capital Tikrit.

Captions identified them as members of the Popular Mobilisation paramilitary units which have been fighting against the jihadists alongside the army.

The Daesh group led an offensive last June that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad, sweeping security forces aside.

Baghdad turned to the Popular Mobilisation units — which are dominated by Iranian-backed Shiite militias — to bolster its flagging forces, and has since been able to regain significant ground from Daesh.

Daesh has carried out a string of atrocities including videotaped beheadings and mass executions, rape and enslavement in areas it controls in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

CAIRO/BENGHAZI — Libya's official government has so far failed to sell oil on its own via an account and middlemen in Dubai, as customers continue to buy crude directly from a state oil firm under the control of a rival government, oil sources said.

Libya's internationally recognised Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni said this month that oil sales would be routed though a Dubai bank account belonging to a new state oil company reporting to his government in the east.

His government wants to get hold of vital oil revenue as it fights the rival government controlling the capital Tripoli, in the west, for power and territory four years after the ousting of Muammar Qadhafi.

The United Arab Emirates is one of the biggest political allies of Thinni.

Several oil shipments from the eastern Hariga and Zueitina ports controlled by forces loyal to Thinni have left since his announcement, but oil officials said all were paid for via the established payment routes through the state oil firm and central bank in Tripoli.

The bank, which is trying to stay out of the conflict, keeps most of the revenue, paying out only public salaries and subsidies. "We're getting our orders still from Tripoli," said an official in an eastern state oil firm.

A spokesman for Thinni's government declined to comment.

An oil insider said Thinni's new oil company had also put out feelers to prospective buyers via middlemen and firms in Dubai and the Gulf region but legal concerns over ownership of the oil, given the duelling governments, had prevented any deal.

State oil firm NOC Tripoli, loyal to the Tripoli government, also said the official government, which works out of hotels in a small eastern city, was courting middlemen in Dubai.

It said on its website that middlemen who said they represented Libya had met the partners in Libya's Ras Lanuf refinery "with the goal to negotiate the current contract relations".

While it did not identify the partners, Dubai-based Al Ghurair Group is the only partner the refinery has. Via a subsidiary, it owns half of Ras Lanuf, Libya's biggest.

A spokeswoman for Dubai-based Ghurair Investment declined to respond to requests for information.

Oil officials say a Ghurair subsidiary called Trasta Energy signed a deal in the Qadhafi-era to invest $2 billion to upgrade the 220,000 barrels refinery but a separate legal case with NOC over crude supplies has held back the payment.

In a strongly worded statement, NOC Tripoli warned that the legal conflict with Ghurair rested with an international court which has been dealing with it for years, adding that talks through middlemen were "outside the legitimacy".

The refinery based in the east in an area controlled by forces loyal to Thinni is currently not working.

CAIRO — Daesh’s executions of Christians show the group is exploiting Libya's lawlessness but tribal and political loyalties and the absence of a sectarian divide mean it is unlikely to grow as rapidly there as in Iraq or Syria.

On Sunday, the militant group published a video purportedly showing the execution of 30 Ethiopian Christians in two locations in eastern and southern Libya, two months after it beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts there.

The video suggests Daesh, which controls much of Syria and Iraq, has managed to further expand in the North African country after establishing a limited presence in the eastern town of Derna as well as in western and central Libya.

It is benefiting from chaos in oil-producing Libya, where two governments allied to armed factions are fighting each other on several fronts four years after the fall of Muammar Qadhafi. With neither side able to dominate, a security vacuum exists.

But Daesh may struggle to expand as it has in Syria and Iraq because Libya has no Sunni-Shiite divide the group could exploit to draw in supporters. Libyans are Sunni Muslims.

The militant group also lacks strong ties to large Libyan tribes, and must compete with former anti-Qadhafi rebel groups that have carved out their own fiefdoms based on regional, tribal, ethnic and political ties.

"These groups are ultimately self-serving and self-interested," said Geoffrey Howard, Middle East and North Africa analyst at Control Risks.

"IS's [Daesh’s] advances are likely to pose a threat to their own political and economic agendas, as well as their control over territory and strategic assets."

That has left Daesh splintered into small units that can launch high-profile attacks but whose grip on territory is not firm enough to build up social services, as the group has done to win over local people in places like Iraq's Mosul.

Unlike in Iraq and Syria, Daesh insurgents have not occupied any oilfields in Libya to generate revenues, and selling oil outside official channels would anyway be more complicated in Libya than in the two other Arab countries.

With oil storage facilities located in coastal areas, Libyan oil is exported by sea. Some Libyan warring factions have tried to sell oil independently from ports under their control but a UN embargo has deterred foreign shippers.

Cross-border oil smuggling would also be difficult as Daesh controls no Libyan land border.

Foreigners joining

Videos showing executions and portraying Christians as "crusaders" could help Daesh attract more fighters from abroad or from local militant groups such as Ansar Al Sharia.

"They want to send a signal to Libyan jihadists that they are the really tough guys," Mattia Toaldo, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told the Reuters Global Oil Forum. "The attraction of Tunisian and Sudanese jihadists gives Islamic State [Daesh] a big potential."

But the biggest security headache for Western powers would be a Daesh expansion into Libya's southern Sahara, the apparent location for part of Sunday's video.

Neither Libyan government holds much sway in the remote area bordering Niger, Chad, Sudan and Algeria, which has been long neglected. Qadhafi made local tribesmen promises of citizenship and development projects but never delivered.

Southern tribes make a living by smuggling anything from subsidised petrol, flour and weapons to African emigrants heading for Europe across Libya's porous sub-Saharan borders.

In January, Daesh posted a recruitment video in a Tuareg language, calling on aggrieved tribesmen to join with their promised “caliphate”.

Analysts say recruiting in the south would help Daesh co-operate with other militant groups, such as Tuaregs fighting in Mali or Nigeria's Boko Haram as it tries to take its battle to Libya's neighbours Chad and Niger.

The militants also benefit from the reluctance of Libya's warring governments to tackle them, analysts say, as each wants Daesh to keep the other busy.

War planes belonging to the internationally recognised premier Abdullah Al Thinni have made air strikes near the central city of Sirte on forces loyal to the rival government, which controls Tripoli. But they have spared militants inside Sirte, where Daesh has taken over government buildings.

Forces loyal to Tripoli have meanwhile moved heavy guns to the outskirts of Sirte but not launched a full assault on the Islamists fighting Thinni's forces in the east, although there have been smaller clashes outside the city.

While Thinni misses no opportunity to warn about Daesh’s expansion, Tripoli officials tend to downplay the group as Qadhafi loyalists with little power.

"The terrorist groups cannot terrorise the main cities. They only sneak into small towns," said Amina Mahjoub, an Islamist member of the Tripoli-based rival parliament.

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian criminal court has sentenced ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison over the killing of protesters in 2012, the first verdict to be issued against the country's first elected leader.

The Cairo Criminal Court issued the verdict Tuesday as Morsi and other defendants in the case stood in a soundproof glass cage inside a makeshift courtroom at Egypt's national police academy.

The case stems from violence outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Morsi's supporters attacked opposition protesters, sparking clashes that killed at least 10 people.

Morsi faces several other trials along with thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members following the military overthrowing him in 2013. He has been held at a high-security prison near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

BAGHDAD — Some pushed wheelbarrows piled high with their belongings across the only bridge to Baghdad. Others balanced battered suitcases on their heads, or held babies aloft so they would not be crushed in the exodus from Iraq's western province of Anbar.

More than 90,000 people have fled their homes in Anbar since April 8, when Daesh militants began gaining ground around the provincial capital Ramadi, about 90km  from Baghdad, the United Nations said on Sunday.

The latest migration compounds an intensifying humanitarian crisis in Iraq, where 2.7 million people have been displaced within the country since January 2014.

Aid agencies expect hundreds of thousands more to be uprooted if Iraqi forces move to take on the insurgents in their remaining strongholds of Anbar and Nineveh in the north.

Mosques in the capital have opened their doors to shelter hundreds of families arriving from the Sunni heartland, although some are stuck outside Baghdad at the Bzaibiz bridge checkpoint.

A weary-looking Ahmed Abdulrahman, who had just crossed the bridge, said he left his home in Sofiya, east of Ramadi, several days ago, due to power cuts and food and water shortages rather than fighting.

"Everything ran out except air," said the 56-year old government employee, dragging a suitcase and with dust on his face. "Even the sounds of life around us stopped. The situation became unbearable."

The insurgents said whoever wished to leave was free to do so, and showed Abdulrahman and his family a safe way out of Sofiya. Entering Baghdad proved harder, because authorities require some migrants to provide a guarantor inside the capital to prevent infiltration by militants.

"When we reached Bzaibiz Bridge we found that the government had obstructed our advance in Iraq, and is discriminating between this person and that," Rahman said.

More than half a million people from Anbar were displaced even before Daesh overran the northern city of Mosul last summer and took control of roughly a third of Iraq. Since then, the figure has almost doubled.

Anbaris account for at least 30 per cent of those displaced within the country since the beginning of last year — the second highest level for any single governorate, according to data from the International Organisation for Migration.

"Our neighbours came and told us they were leaving because the situation was bad and ISIS [Daesh] might enter at any moment," said 37-year old Umm Sabah, who hurriedly stuffed some clothing into a bag, snatched up her identity papers and joined them.

"It's is my destiny to move from place to place in my country and not possess a plot of land or home of my own".

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi announced two weeks ago that Anbar would be the next battleground after Daesh militants were routed in the city of Tikrit to the north.

But the new campaign to reclaim the vast desert terrain had hardly got underway when the militants attacked Ramadi and took control of areas to the north and east, leading local officials to warn the city was about to fall.

Reinforcements reached Ramadi over the weekend and the militants' advance appeared to stop. The crowds of people leaving thinned on Monday, and a few families were already returning to some areas, even though the militants are still in control of the city's periphery.

"All the provincial officials have fled to Baghdad and elsewhere, so why should we stay?" said engineer Mohammed Al Fahdawi, who left the Sijariya area east of Ramadi on Saturday.

The majority of those recently displaced have headed to Baghdad, with smaller numbers moving within Anbar, most of which is under Daesh control. A minority have gone south to Kerbala and Babel, or north to the Kurdistan region.

Fahdawi was sceptical Anbar could be liberated by the army alone, and said he welcomed any force that would fight Daesh, including Shiite paramilitary groups that have played a leading role in reversing the insurgents' advances elsewhere.

But 42 year-old teacher Saad Jaber Karim said that if what he had heard about Shiite militia abuses against Sunnis in areas retaken from Daesh was true, he would rather the insurgents stayed in control.

Abdulrahman said it would make little difference to the people of Ramadi which force took control.

"Liberation and occupation are two sides of the same coin," he said.

GAZA — Palestinian Cabinet ministers from the occupied West Bank cut short a visit to Gaza on Monday over disputes between their Western-backed Fatah movement and the Islamist group Hamas which dominates the territory, officials said.

The truncated visit reflected tensions threatening a year-old "unity" government, harming internationally backed efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip after a war with Israel and complicating Palestinian statehood ambitions.

Palestinians in Gaza had hoped Fateh, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas could resolve a crisis over salaries owed to about 40,000 public servants hired by Hamas in the past eight years it has dominated the Gaza Strip.

Resolving the issue is crucial to Western hopes of Abbas's government taking control of Gaza crossings and facilitating an effort to rebuild tens of thousands of buildings destroyed during the five-week July-August war.

An official close to the 11-member West Bank delegation accused Hamas-controlled security officers of barring ministers from heading from a Gaza beach-front hotel to their offices during what was to have been a week-long stay, that was cut to 24 hours.

"Hamas has thwarted the visit, they didn't allow ministers to implement the plan they came for and help alleviate problems in Gaza," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denied the allegations and countered that the West Bank ministers had sought to meet with senior employees at the hotel instead of going to their offices.

Abu Zuhri also said his group had not been consulted over the make-up of the committee set up to resolve the salaries issue, which he said was dominated by Fatah.

"We urge the government to continue to bear its responsibility towards Gaza employees without discrimination," he said.

Talal Okal, a Gaza political analyst, said the sides also differed over a decision by Hamas lawmakers to tax goods imported through Israel. "Only ministers should levy taxes and not Hamas," he said.

Abu Zuhri said the tax was needed to make up for a revenue shortfall and "prevent a total collapse of services" in Gaza.

In a related development, Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bshara said revenue Israel was expected to transfer later this week would enable Palestinians to complete disbursement of salaries for the past four months to civil servants.

Israel had withheld tax revenue to the Palestinians after Abbas signed up to the International Criminal Court, then renewed the payments earlier this month after international pressure.

CAIRO — An Egyptian criminal court on Monday sentenced 22 people to death after convicting them of storming a police station outside Cairo and killing an officer on July 3, 2013 — the day the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist president.

The ruling was the latest action against alleged supporters of the ousted Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood group has faced a violent government crackdown. After Morsi's one-year rule ended, the Brotherhood was banned and declared a terrorist organisation.

Morsi himself faces a verdict on Tuesday over accusations he was responsible for the killing of protesters while president. The ruling will be the first in several ongoing trials against him.

The Giza court said eight of the condemned were sentenced in absentia on charges that included murder, attempted murder, possession of unlicensed firearms, destruction of property and vandalism. The ruling, which can be appealed, also sentenced a minor involved in the case to 10 years.

The attack took place in Kerdasa, a restive town on the western outskirts of Cairo near the Giza Pyramids. Kerdasa is considered a militant stronghold, and gunmen and rampaging crowds have killed policemen there in other acts of violence. In the largest incident, 11 policemen were killed and their bodies mutilated in August 2013. That September, gunmen killed a police general during a raid.

Egypt has been sharply criticised for issuing mass death sentences largely targeting Islamists. Over 22,000 people have been arrested since Morsi's ouster, including most of the Brotherhood's top leaders, as well as large numbers of others swept up by police during pro-Morsi protests.

Also Monday, a roadside bomb hit an armoured vehicle in the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing three soldiers, Egypt's official news agency said. MENA reported that the attack was carried out by Islamic extremists early in the day near the border town of Rafah. The team in the armoured vehicle was searching for explosives.

Militant attacks, mainly targeting Egyptian security forces, have spiked since Morsi's overthrow, which came after massive protests against his rule.

Most of the largest attacks have been carried out in northern Sinai and were claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group. At least 14 people, mostly soldiers, were killed in a wave of attacks in northern Sinai last week.

Later Monday, the Brotherhood condemned Morsi’s trial, accusing the government of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who led Morsi’s overthrow, of “exploiting the judiciary as a weapon”. In a statement from its press office in London, the Brotherhood also called on Egyptians to demonstrate in the streets in Morsi’s defence.

“If the military junta and its loyal judges do not stop trampling the will of the people and their right to choose their leaders, disastrous consequences may indeed push the country into a dark tunnel,” the statement said.

BEIRUT — Lebanon on Monday received the first French weapons in a $3 billion Saudi-funded programme intended to bolster its army to take on jihadist threats, particularly along its border with Syria.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accompanied the first tranche of weapons, including anti-tank guided missiles, which were handed over at an air force base in Beirut.

"France and Lebanon have a fraternal relationship that has been marked over the past three years by a sharp deterioration in the security situation in the Levant, which has become an existential threat to the region," Le Drian said.

"Lebanon is under unprecedented pressure [from jihadist groups]... and this makes border control vital for its security," he added.

"In this critical context, it is therefore essential that Lebanon's friends and allies mobilise to contribute to its security and stability."

Over the next four years, France is expected to deliver to Lebanon 250 combat and transport vehicles, seven Cougar helicopters, three small warships and a range of surveillance and communications equipment.

The entire $3 billion (2.8 billion euro) cost of the programme is being borne by Saudi Arabia, which has close ties with some of Lebanon's leading political figures.

The contract also promises seven years of training for the 70,000-strong Lebanese army and 10 years of equipment maintenance.

Common battle 

At the ceremony on Monday, Lebanon’s Defence Minister Samir Mokbel welcomed the delivery, saying the country’s fight against extremism was a common battle.

“A victory for Lebanon against terrorism is a victory for all countries, near and far, who are threatened by terrorism,” he said.

He thanked Saudi Arabia for financing the weapons delivery and France for “its deep understanding of all the threats that Lebanon faces, whether militarily at the border, or internally with the influx of refugees that threatens general stability”.

Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri said the kingdom’s financing came as “Lebanon faces more challenges than ever”.

“The kingdom’s gift will support the Lebanese army and legitimacy in Lebanon,” he said.

“It is support for a legitimate army that ensures stability at a time when Lebanon faces security challenges.”

Despite being on the frontline against jihadist groups along the border, Lebanon’s army remains significantly less well armed than the country’s powerful Hezbollah movement, which is backed by Riyadh’s regional rival Tehran.

Saudi Arabia has also donated another $1 billion to Lebanon through its key ally, former prime minister Saad Hariri, that is intended to support the army and police.

In recent months, Lebanon’s army has waged multiple battles against jihadists from the Daesh group and Al Qaeda off-shoot Al Nusra Front.

Last August, extremist fighters from the two groups briefly overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal, seizing several dozen Lebanese soldiers and police.

The groups have since executed four of the hostages, with a fifth dying of wounds he sustained during the fighting. They are still holding 25 Lebanese.

The conflict in Syria has exacerbated sectarian tensions in Lebanon, and the influx of more than one million refugees has tested its limited resources.

Former colonial power France is actually a latecomer to the conflict, with almost all Lebanon’s international support coming from the United States and Britain in recent years.

Washington has provided around three-quarters of Lebanon’s foreign military aid over the past decade — some $700 million — as well as special forces teams to train its elite units, according to IHS Jane’s, a London-based think tank.

Britain has provided training facilities as well as watch towers and forward operating bases along the border with Syria.

SANAA — At least 15 people were dead and there were fears for dozens more Monday after air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition set off explosions that tore through Yemen's rebel-held capital.

The two strikes on a missile depot in the Fajj Attan area of Sanaa sparked explosions that flattened nearby houses, shook faraway neighbourhoods and sent clouds of thick smoke billowing over the capital.

Medics said at least 15 civilians were killed and dozens wounded and there were fears of a much higher death toll.

The hilltop base belongs to the missile brigade of the elite Republican Guard, which remained loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who has been accused of siding with Houthi rebels in their fight against the government.

Fires had broken out at the base and a nearby petrol station, witnesses said, and the scorching heat could be felt from a distance.

The Shiite rebels have seized control of large parts of the Arabian Peninsula nation, including Sanaa, and fought fierce battles with pro-government forces.

A coalition of Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia launched the air campaign against the rebels last month, vowing to restore the authority of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to Riyadh as the militiamen advanced on his southern stronghold of Aden.

Riyadh has accused Iran, the main Shiite power, of backing the rebels and fears a Tehran-friendly regime taking control of the country on its southern border.

The coalition says it has carried out more than 2,000 strikes since the start of the campaign, gaining complete control of Yemeni airspace and knocking out rebel infrastructure.

Iran mediation rejected 

The United Nations says the fighting and air strikes have left hundreds dead and thousands wounded, and there has been increasing concern of a huge humanitarian crisis.

Calls have been growing for peace talks to end the conflict, but authorities on Monday rejected an Iranian offer to mediate talks.

“Any mediation effort coming from Iran is unacceptable because Iran is involved in the Yemen issue,” Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said on the sidelines of an economic meeting in Kuwait City.

“The Houthis and Saleh forces must withdraw from all cities and villages of Yemen, including Sanaa and Aden, return to [their northern stronghold of] Saada as civilians, and lay down their arms,” Yassin said.

“After that we can talk about dialogue and a political solution. But now there is no room for negotiations,” he said.

The exiled authorities were given a boost on Sunday when the commanders of a vast military district vowed their loyalty to Hadi’s government.

The military command of 25,000 troops in Yemen’s Hadramawt province, the country’s largest and on the border with Saudi Arabia, expressed their support for Hadi and his “constitutional legitimacy”.

‘Will never give in’

But rebel leader Abdul Malik Al Houthi vowed his forces would never surrender.

“Our Yemeni people will never give in — it will resist in the face of the savage aggression,” Houthi said in televised statement on Sunday.

He promised to fight back using “all means and options” and said Riyadh “has no right to interfere” in the country.

Houthi also slammed as “unfair” a UN Security Council resolution on Tuesday imposing an arms embargo on the rebels and demanding that they return to their highland stronghold.

But in what will be seen as another welcome sign for Hadi, Saleh — forced out after a 2011 Arab Spring-inspired uprising — on Sunday welcomed the Security Council resolution as a “positive” step, with his party backing calls for a ceasefire and UN-mediated talks.

Yemen has long struggled with deep tribal divisions and an insurgency by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), considered by Washington as the jihadist network’s most dangerous branch.

Al Qaeda militants have taken advantage of the chaos to seize territory including an army camp in Hadramawt, an airport and provincial capital Mukalla.