Region

BAGHDAD — More than 2,000 families have fled from the Iraqi city of Ramadi, an official said Thursday, as Daesh terror group advanced on the provincial capital of the western Anbar province, clashing with Iraqi troops.

The extremist group, which has controlled the nearby city of Fallujah for more than a year, captured three villages on Ramadi's eastern outskirts on Wednesday. The advance is widely seen as a counteroffensive after Daesh lost the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, earlier this month.

Hundreds of US troops are training Iraqi forces at a military base west of Ramadi, but a US military official said the fighting had no impact on the US soldiers there, and that there were no plans to withdraw them.

Sattar Nowruz, from the Ministry of Migration and Displaced, said those fleeing Ramadi have settled in southern and western Baghdad suburbs.

Tents, food and other aid are being sent to them, he said. The ministry is also assessing the situation with the provincial government in order "to provide the displaced people, who are undergoing difficult conditions, with better services and help," Nowruz said.

Sporadic clashes were still underway Thursday, according to security officials in Ramadi. Government forces control the city centre, while Daesh has had a presence in the suburbs and outskirts for months. They described Ramadi as a ghost town, with empty streets and closed shops.

US-led coalition airstrikes targeted Daesh in Sjariyah, Albu-Ghanim and Soufiya, the three villages the extremists captured Wednesday, the officials added. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.

Anbar's Deputy Gov. Faleh Al Issawi described the situation in Ramadi as "catastrophic" and urged the central government to send reinforcements.

"We urge the Baghdad government to supply us immediately with troops and weapons in order to help us prevent the city from falling into the hands of Daesh," he told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Al Bayan, Daesh's English-language radio station, claimed the fighters were in complete control of at least six areas and most of a seventh to the east of Ramadi since Wednesday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a US group that monitors militant websites.

American troops fought some of their bloodiest battles in Anbar during the eight-year US intervention, when Fallujah and Ramadi were strongholds of Al Qaeda in Iraq, a precursor to Daesh. Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to the Daesh group, in January 2014.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, who was visiting Washington on Wednesday, made no mention of the events in Ramadi. Instead he spoke optimistically about recruiting Sunni tribal fighters to battle the extremists, saying about 5,000 such fighters in Anbar had signed up and received light weapons.

The Daesh-run Al Bayan station also reported that an attempt by Iraqi troops to advance on the Beiji oil refinery in Salahuddin province, about 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, was pushed back and that fighters “positioned themselves in multiple parts of the refinery after taking control of most of it,” according to SITE.

Iraqi officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the fighting around Beiji. On Monday, Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said that Iraqi forces, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, had repelled a Daesh attack on Beiji over the weekend.

Meanwhile, a senior US military official told The Associated Press that there were no plans to evacuate US troops from the Ain Al Asad air base, about 110 kilometres west of Ramadi — and stressed that the current fighting around Ramadi had no impact on the base. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

Since January, hundreds of US forces have been training Iraqi troops at the base. An attack on the base by a suicide bomber in February was repelled.

BEIRUT — The conflict in Syria has left more than 220,000 dead since it began four years ago with an uprising against President Bashar Assad, a key monitoring group said Thursday.

“We have counted 222,271 deaths since the start of the revolt in March 2011,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

Based in Britain, the observatory uses a broad network of sources on the ground in Syria to gather information about the conflict.

Abdel Rahman said more than 67,000 of the dead were civilians, including more than 11,000 children.

Among dead combatants, nearly 47,000 were from pro-regime forces, including more than 3,000 foreign fighters. Nearly 700 were fighters with Lebanon’s Shiite Hizbollah movement, a key backer of Assad.

Nearly 40,000 anti-regime fighters and about 28,000 foreign jihadists have been killed in the conflict, the observatory said.

Foreign jihadists have flocked to join the conflict in Syria, fighting for Daesh terror group or other groups such as Al Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra Front.

The toll does not include some 20,000 people listed as missing.

The observatory says the full death toll is likely to be much higher than the deaths it has been able to count.

SANAA — The UN envoy to Yemen has resigned after failing to avert large-scale violence, dealing a blow to hopes of a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Shiite rebels and Saudi-backed government forces.

The announcement from the United Nations came as a Saudi-led coalition pressed its air war against the Iran-backed rebels into a fourth week, promising "no half measures" in its campaign to restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

UN envoy Jamal Benomar had tried to avert all-out conflict as the Houthi rebels seized the capital last September and then placed Hadi under effective house arrest in January.

But Hadi's escape to second city Aden the following month to rally opposition to the rebels effectively brought negotiations to an end and Benomar's efforts to revive them came to nothing as the rebels advanced on the president's last refuge, triggering his flight to Saudi Arabia.

Benomar retained the support of UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who has repeatedly called for a return to the negotiating table, but he lost the confidence of Riyadh and its allies.

Last month, a Gulf diplomatic official accused the UN envoy of appeasing the rebels and their allies as they overran Saudi Arabia’s impoverished but strategically important neighbour.

The Moroccan diplomat had been instrumental in negotiating a peace deal that eased former president Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office in February 2012 after a year of bloody protests against his three-decade rule.

Envoy ‘failed his mission’ 

Among the candidates to replace him is Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who currently heads the UN Ebola mission in Accra, a UN official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

London-based analyst Abdulwahab Badrakhan said that Benomar resigned after he “failed in his mission”, especially after the Houthis overran Sanaa in September.

The UN envoy had been unable to convey “the reality and goals of the Houthis to the Security Council and the international community”, Badrakhan told AFP.

This led to the “deteriorating security and political situation” that finally “called for a regional intervention and plunged the country into civil war”, he said.

Benomar’s resignation came hot on the heels of the adoption by the UN Security Council of a resolution that the Saudi-led coalition saw as support for its bombing campaign.

The resolution — the first formal action taken by the Security Council since air strikes started on March 26 — demands that the rebels withdraw from Sanaa and all other areas they have seized.

It also slapped an arms embargo on the rebels and army units still loyal to Saleh who have allied with them, providing crucial support as they have advanced out of their stronghold in the northern mountains into mainly Sunni areas.

Hadi’s newly appointed vice president, Khaled Bahah, urged those army units to drop their support for the Houthis.

“I call on all troops and security force personnel to accept the command of the legitimate government and protect the country,” he told reporters in Riyadh, where he is exiled along with the president.

Plea for aid 

As the air campaign entered its fourth week, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States vowed that it would continue until all its objectives were achieved.

“There can be no half measures,” Adel Al Jubeir told reporters in Washington.

Jubeir said the first three weeks had been “very successful” and had “been able to degrade and destroy much of the military infrastructure that Houthis and Saleh possess”.

Troops and militia loyal to Hadi have been battling the rebels in Aden and other southern provinces.

Overnight, coalition aircraft carried out fresh air strikes on rebel positions in Aden, killing at least eight rebels, a military source said.

The World Health Organisation says at least 736 people died in the conflict up to April 12 and more than 2,700 been wounded.

Coalition member states have not ruled out sending ground forces to Yemen, but Bahah said he hoped that would not be needed.

“We are still hoping that there will not be a ground campaign” to avoid a higher casualty toll, he said.

Bahah, who also serves as prime minister, appealed for emergency aid.

“The Yemeni people are suffering from a difficult humanitarian situation and a shortage in food and medicine as well as... electricity, water and fuel.”

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Iran's drive to find a solution in talks over its disputed nuclear programme had spurred his decision to renew a contract to deliver S-300 missile defence systems to Tehran.

Moscow's move to provide the advanced surface-to-air missile system to Tehran, which irked the West and drew protests from Israel, followed an initial agreement with world powers under which Tehran would curb its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting of international economic sanctions.

"With the progress of the Iranian nuclear track — and that is obviously positive — we do not see any reason to continue to keep the ban [on the delivery of the S-300] unilaterally," Putin told his annual marathon call-in show with Russians.

A final deal on Tehran's nuclear programme is due by the end of June but Moscow has moved quickly to try to secure contracts in Iran before sanctions are lifted and has urged engaging Tehran more in attempts to solve regional crises.

Speaking at a Moscow security conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the preliminary deal meant Iran's "vicious" international isolation should come to an end.

Russia has been Iran's key ally in the talks with world powers. But Putin also said Russia would still work "as one" with its partners over Iran, and that deliveries of the S-300 would work as a deterrent in the Middle East.

Speaking at the security conference, Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan said the two countries had agreed the sales and were discussing the timing of deliveries.

Moscow and Tehran hold similar views on many Middle Eastern conflicts. They criticise the United States for leading air strikes against Daesh in Syria and Iraq without close cooperation with Damascus.

They also denounce strikes led by Saudi Arabia, a US ally, against Iran-allied Houthi fighters in Yemen.

Dehghan also played to Russia's own concerns by offering to work with Moscow, Beijing and New Delhi to prevent expansion of NATO and deployment of an anti-missile shield in Europe.

Lavrov said plans for the US-led NATO missile shield should now be altered given that the system had originally been meant as protection against rogue states such as Iran. Moscow suspects the system, though defensive, is aimed against itself.

"If plans for a global anti-missile shield continue to be implemented without any corrections, even given progress in talks over Iran's nuclear programme... the real motives for building the shield in Europe become clear to all," he said.

OUARZAZATE, Morocco — "QUIET!" The cry rings out in English, French and Arabic across the cobblestoned streets of Jerusalem, as filming begins for a scene in the series "A.D. The Bible Continues".

But while the arched doorways, balconies and furnishings all say Roman-era Israel, the real-life setting is southern Morocco.

Viewers in America and elsewhere in the world may not know it but they have seen a lot of Morocco in the past year. It has served as the Baghdad of "American Sniper", the Tehran seen in TV series "Homeland", the Mali of "American Odyssey" and the Egypt that will appear in the miniseries "King Tut". Morocco has also been Somalia numerous times, including in the 2001 film "Blackhawk Down", and more recently in the 2013 "Captain Philips". And it will be Saudi Arabia in this year's "Hologram for a King" starring Tom Hanks.

All in all, it has been a banner year for Morocco's status as a gigantic film-set — with $120 million spent by foreign film productions in the country last year, more than in the past five years put together.

The North African kingdom is riding high on its reputation for stability and exotic locales, but industry officials say that Morocco needs to do more — and offer more incentives — to realise its potential as a filming destination. It is contending with increasingly stiff competition from South Africa and other countries that offer deep tax rebates.

For Morocco's film industry, the future depends on the right package of sweeteners to persuade studios to do more than just film exteriors here but also use local facilities. The ultimate goal is to get Hollywood to film entire movies in Morocco, said Sarim Fassi-Fihri, head of the Moroccan Centre for Cinematography, which oversees the industry.

"The day tax incentives come to Morocco, the whole industry will move here," he said, cutting a cinematic figure himself, sporting a fedora and puffing on a cigar. "If we make $120 million today, with tax incentives we could go up to $200-$250 million."

He pulled out a sheaf of publicity brochures from competitors in Turkey, Colombia, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Ireland, even the Canadian province of Manitoba, with promised tax rebates of 20-40 per cent plastered across the covers to entice film companies.

Ever since 1962, when David Lean filmed scenes from "Lawrence of Arabia" in Morocco, film companies have been using its deserts, mountains and cities as stand-ins for exotic locations. At the vast Atlas Studios complex in Ouarzazate — Morocco's desert Hollywood perched between the High Atlas and the Sahara — there are sets from dozens of movies from the past decades.

Here, it's possible to ride the camel used by Nicole Kidman in the upcoming "Queen of the Desert" past the pharaonic sets from 2002 French film "Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra" to the fortifications Ridley Scott built to recreate medieval Jerusalem for the 2005 crusader film "Kingdom of Heaven".

Morocco has fallen in and out of fashion as a movie set over the decades. One mainstay has been biblical films, and that business is booming now with the bible-craze taking off in America. At one point over the winter, there were three actors playing Jesus in different productions staying at the main hotel in Ouarzazate.

The new boom comes off some lean years, beginning with the 2008 global financial crisis and exacerbated by the 2011 Arab Spring unrest that led insurers to pull film companies out of the Middle East. But in the case of Morocco, they came back.

Morocco stands out for being blessed with the people and landscapes needed to satisfy renewed interest in the Middle East, while having none of the agitation common elsewhere.

"The Arab Spring did help us, actually, when everyone was more worried to come to Tunisia and everywhere else, they were coming to Morocco because it was a lot safer," said Khadija Alami, head of one of Morocco's several local production companies that partner with international companies.

Alami first worked on the 1985 Chevy Case comedy "Spies like Us", soon followed by "Ishtar", before founding her own production company in 1998. It organises crews, permissions and filming locations for shoots.

The industry has also been boosted by official support. While the state has yet to approve tax rebates, it does make it easy to work in Morocco and is happy to lend the services of the Moroccan army for a reasonable fee.

Aside from the helicopters, the military equipment used in "Blackhawk Down" largely came from the Moroccan army. Soldiers also often play extras when huge crowd scenes are called for.

The government even allowed the main highway between Marrakech and the seaside town of Agadir to be closed for three weeks last year for "Mission Impossible 5". Local media later credited the closure for a drug bust — when a car full of cocaine ran afoul of a police checkpoint in the detour.

Most important is Morocco's reputation for tolerance regarding themes other Muslim countries might find unpalatable. Biblical stories are out of the question in some conservative countries and the current vogue for thrillers set in the Middle East is too political for many Islamic countries.

"There is a big boom here because of its nature as the most liberal of the Muslim countries," said Eamon Patrick, a line producer for “A.D.”

"So any filming that uses a contemporary Middle East setting, they do a lot of it here", Patrick said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — More than a dozen European governments have called for the labelling of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Diplomats from 16 countries, including some of Israel's closest allies, signed a letter calling on EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to start the process. Signatories include the UK, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

Israel's Haaretz daily published the letter on Thursday. A European diplomat confirmed the authenticity of the letter. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal EU affairs.

Israel occupied the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war. Palestinians demand the territory as part of their future state. The international community views settlements as illegitimate.

The European Union is Israel's largest trading partner.

This week Israel's supreme court rejected a petition by Arab and pro-Palestinian groups to overturn a law prohibiting boycotts against Israel and West Bank settlements.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli forces said on Thursday a Palestinian whose car struck people at a Jerusalem bus stop, killing an Israeli, appeared to have driven into them deliberately.

Israeli forces had said earlier it was unclear whether the incident late on Wednesday was an attack or a traffic accident.

"The interrogation and initial findings strengthen suspicion this was a terrorist incident," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The car's driver, a 37-year-old Palestinian from Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, was treated in hospital for light injuries and then taken for questioning.

Two Israelis were struck by the vehicle and one of them, a 26-year-old man, died later in hospital, Rosenfeld said. The other, a woman, was badly injured.

The attack took place on the opposite side of an intersection in East Jerusalem where last year a car slammed into commuters waiting at a tram stop, killing three people, including a baby. Its Palestinian driver was shot dead by security forces.

Along the same main route through the city last month, a Palestinian motorist rammed his vehicle into a group of people standing near a tram stop, injuring at least five. He was shot and wounded by Israeli forces.

RAMLE, Israel — "Where will we go," asks eight-year-old Tiba Qeren, saying goodbye to the family home that, like those of many other Arab Israelis, is condemned to demolition for failing to meet planning rules.

"I'm afraid," she tells AFP. "I know that they are going to destroy our home as they have others in Ramle," the mixed Arab and Jewish town where they live, about 18 kilometres from Tel Aviv.

"I'm annoyed because I tell myself: who gives them the right to destroy our house," she says, her young voice shaking with anger.

"The land is not theirs, it belongs to my family and the house is not theirs because it is my family who built it! "

The Arab Israeli community has its roots in the 160,000 Palestinians who stayed on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948.

Today they and their descendants number around 1.3 million.

While Israeli law guarantees them full equality with other citizens, in practice there are claims of discrimination in government funding and a raft of other issues.

Arab Israeli rights group Adalah says only 4.6 percent of new homes built in Israel are in Arab towns and villages although Arabs make up 20 per cent of the population.

Jewish settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, who number around 580,000, receive four times as many housing units as Arabs in Israel, the group's website says.

On Wednesday, five apartments in the Arab village of Dahmash, between Ramle and Lod, were demolished for having been built without construction permits, a villager told AFP.

On Monday, a home in the Galilee village of Kfar Kana — biblical Cana — was razed for the same reason.

In Ramle, 11 families last week received demolition notices.

Arab community leaders Wednesday called for a general strike in protest

Across the country the potential threat is huge, Arab former MP Hana Sweid said.

"About 25,000 Arab homes fall under the scope of demolition orders," he told AFP.

"Police came a week ago and told us that he must leave the house quietly, without resistance," said Tiba's father, Yusef Qeren, 49.

"I told them, there are 12 people living here."

He said that four times he submitted applications for building permits and four time he was rejected.

His son Abdelrahman, 14, does not believe his home could soon be rubble.

"If they destroy it, we shall rebuild it!" he vows.

Yusef Qeren is convinced that the local authorities are anti-Arab in their policy on planning permission.

"In Ramle the law only applied to Arabs," he said.

A local committee opposing the planned demolitions has set up a protest tent, with a large banner in Arabic and Hebrew.

"They are destroying Arab homes and building houses for settlers," it reads.

NABLUS — Israeli security forces arrested 29 Hamas activists overnight during a major sweep in the northern West Bank, the army said on Wednesday.

A Palestinian security source confirmed that "around 30 people" had been detained in and around the northern city of Nablus, most of whom were Hamas members.

Among those arrested were university students and a journalist. Troops also confiscated computers and mobile phones, the source said.

The Israeli army confirmed arresting 29 people, among them senior figures within the movement and former prisoners detained for involvement in Hamas activity, in a joint operation which involved soldiers, police, border police and the Shin Bet internal security service.

"The arrests took place following an increase of Hamas activity in the Nablus area with the aim of carrying out terror activity against Israel. The detainees that were involved in funding and direction of Hamas branches overseas were sent to the Shin Bet for interrogation," a statement said.

The sweep raised to 49 the number of Hamas activists arrested by Israel since April 1, the army said.

Since the kidnapping and subsequent murders of three Israeli teenagers in the southern West Bank last June, there has been a rise in the number of Hamas activists arrested by the army, with hundreds now behind bars.

Hamas, which is the de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip, has also faced a crackdown in the West Bank by the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by the rival Fatah movement.

In March, between 40 and 60 Hamas activists were arrested by Palestinian security forces.

LONDON — At least five merchant vessels carrying food are stuck off Yemen, shipping data showed on Wednesday, as warships from a Saudi-led coalition search them for weapons bound for Iran-allied Houthi rebel forces, with delays adding to a humanitarian crisis.

Yemen imports more than 90 per cent of its food, including most of its wheat and all its rice, to feed a population of 25 million.

Much of its needs had been serviced by foreign ships, although shipping lines have now reduced or stopped port calls.

Ship tracking data showed at least five cargo ships were anchored off Yemen unable to enter Yemeni waters.

"Disruption of navigation in Yemen's territorial waters will adversely affect food security," UN humanitarian agency OCHA said. "Even before the current escalation in conflict, almost half of all people in Yemen were short of food."

Saudi Arabia and Arab allies have launched air strikes against Houthi rebels, who have taken most of the country and forced President Abed  Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

The coalition has deployed naval vessels to intercept ships carrying arms to the rebels, although merchant ships are meant to have free passage once they are inspected. Nonetheless, this has already meant delays for food deliveries by sea.

"It is more difficult now to find ship owners willing to provide vessels and you face your shipment being held up for an unknown amount of time by warships before even bringing it into Yemen," one international food trader said.

A cargo vessel, the Lycavitos, carrying 47,250 tonnes of wheat, waited outside Yemeni waters for nearly a week before Egypt's navy on Tuesday cleared it to sail to Al Saleef Port, the ship owner's agent said.

"Even after clearance was given, as the vessel approached Yemeni waters it was approached by another coalition warship asking what it was doing in the area before the captain clarified it had clearance to enter," Helikon Shipping Enterprises Ltd. said.

"We now expect another six to seven days berthing delay prior to discharge commencing at Saleef. Owners will be monitoring daily the Saleef port situation regarding safety and security and can invoke rights under the charter party to refuse entry to Saleef if the port becomes unsafe."

Saleef is close to the bigger Red Sea port of Hodaida, which is controlled by Houthis.

The impact of the delays is likely to add to growing logistical problems with the delivery of food.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned on Wednesday that with a rapid escalation of the conflict "the food security situation is expected to deteriorate significantly", with food reserves shrinking.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, Adel Al Jubeir, said the Arab military coalition is "committed to facilitaing and supporting" humanitarian relief but will inspect ingoing and outgoing vessels for banned cargo.

"We have to ascertain that any ships do not contain weapons," Al Jubeir told a Washington news conference.

The Hayel Saeed Anam Group, which owns the Yemen Company for Flour Mills and Silos, said it had allocated flour from its mills in Hodaida especially for Aden — the scene of heavy fighting — because of "severe suffering" there.

The company called on all sides not to attack trucks carrying in the flour.

Ship diverted

In another example of the difficulties, a container ship, the Andre Rickmers, was initially unable to discharge at Hodaida for safety reasons, but then it was stopped because coalition naval forces were not allowing entry to Yemeni ports, the vessel's owner said.

The vessel drifted outside Yemeni waters for a few days before being ordered back to the port of Jeddah, a spokeswoman for owner Rickmers Group said.

Yemen's Foreign Minister Reyad Yassin Abdulla told Reuters on Tuesday: "All ships should have permission from the coalition forces before entering Yemeni waters.

"They should be searched. There is a ban for military things to go into Yemen. The zone is to protect Yemen and Yemenis from Iran delivering weapons to the Houthis and [ex-president] Ali Abdullah Saleh's forces. Any other civilian things are allowed in."

Shipping associations said the maritime zones had not been clearly defined and they were seeking clarity.

"All vessels are advised to transit the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea outside Yemeni territorial waters, 12 nautical miles, where possible," the world's largest shipping association, BIMCO, said.

On Tuesday, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo targeting Houthis.

"The combination of the Yemeni and UN measures gives the Saudi coalition warships much better legal standing to stop ships, and shields their actions from being interpreted as an act of unilateral aggression," said Michael Frodl, of US based consultancy C-Level Global Risks.