Region

LONDON — British police said Wednesday they were keeping an open mind about the motive behind the killing of a Syria-born Muslim cleric who was shot dead in London.

The Metropolitan Police said a man in his late 40s was found in a car in the Wembley area Tuesday with gunshot wounds to his chest. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Police did not identify the victim, but family named him as Abdul Hadi Arwani, former imam at the An-noor Mosque in west London.

A statement posted at the building Wednesday read: "We have with great sadness heard of the unfortunate death of Sheikh Abdulhadi Arwani... He will be sadly missed."

The police force said that "detectives retain an open mind regarding the possible motive”.

His daughter, Elham Arwani, told the Evening Standard newspaper that Arwani had been critical of Syria's President Bashar Assad, but the family did not believe that was the motive for his killing.

Son Morhaf Arwani said: "We are at a loss to understand what is behind this."

THE HAGUE — The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said on Wednesday there is evidence of war crimes by Daesh insurgents in Iraq and Syria but little prospect yet that their leaders will be investigated by the ICC.

Crimes attributed to the ultra-radical Sunni jihadist group range from mass executions, sexual slavery, rape and torture to forced recruitment of children and even genocide, Fatou Bensouda said in a statement.

But she said that while she had jurisdiction over crimes committed by fighters who are nationals of ICC member states, Daesh’s leaders appeared mainly to be from Iraq and Syria, which are not ICC members.

"At this stage, the prospects of my office investigating and prosecuting those most responsible, within the leadership of ISIS [Daesh], appear limited," Bensouda said.

The court could exercise "personal jurisdiction" over individuals who were citizens of member states, she added. Wider jurisdiction could also be referred to The Hague by the UN Security Council.

Many citizens of ICC member states are suspected of committing atrocities while fighting for Daesh, including "Jihadi John", notorious for beheading hostages, who is believed to be a British citizen.

Bensouda said the court had received reports of thousands of foreign fighters joining Daesh, many from ICC member states including Tunisia, Jordan, France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia.

"Some of these individuals [from member states] may have been involved in the commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes," she added.

Set up in 2002 to try serious crimes where national authorities are unable or unwilling to act, the ICC can only intervene in non-member countries if it receives a UN Security Council referral, such as in Sudan's case.

The court has been criticised for its inability to act in some of the world's most serious conflicts, including Syria's civil war, now in its fourth year, which has costs hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A Palestinian stabbed two Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, wounding one seriously before being shot dead, the army said.

It was the second knife attack in a week targeting Israeli soldiers and the latest in a wave of lone-wolf attacks which have been on the rise since last summer's 50-day war in the Gaza Strip.

It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu works to piece together a new coalition government after a hard-fought general election which saw him controversially ruling out the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch.

"Earlier today, two IDF soldiers were stabbed by a Palestinian attacker near the Sinjil junction. One soldier was seriously wounded, the second soldier was lightly wounded," a military statement said.

"Forces at the site neutralised the assailant."

The incident took place near the entrance to Shilo settlement, not far from the Palestinian village of Sinjil, on route 60, which is the main road linking the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus.

Military sources told AFP one of the soldiers was in serious condition after being stabbed in the neck.

The incident took place despite heightened security measures as Israelis mark the week-long Passover festival.

Palestinian medics identified the attacker as 27-year-old Mohammed Jasser Karakra from Sinjil village, saying he had been shot twice in the head.

His body was transferred by Israel to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv, they said.

It was the second stabbing in a week targeting soldiers.

On Thursday, at the start of the Passover holiday, a Palestinian lightly wounded an Israeli paratrooper who tried to stop him from crossing the West Bank security barrier in an area west of Nablus.

The attacker was arrested, the army said.

Israel's emergency services confirmed paramedics had responded to a call about a stabbing near the entrance to the Maale Levona settlement near Shilo.

They said that a young man of around 20 had been taken to Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek hospital "in serious condition with a stab wound to his upper body".

The statement did not mention the second soldier who was lightly injured in the attack, who was reportedly the one who managed to shoot dead the attacker.

The website of Haaretz newspaper said the two soldiers belonged to the Home Front Command and were sitting in an ambulance which was on stand-by in the Shilo area during the Passover holiday.

It said the soldier who was lightly wounded had opened fire on the attacker after he stabbed his colleague in the neck.

Naftali Bennett, outgoing economy minister and head of the far-right Jewish Home Party, hailed the soldier for killing the attacker rather than arresting him.

"From Iran to Shilo, our enemies have only one goal: to hurt as many Jews as they can. I congratulate the security forces who killed the terrorist. This must be the fate of anyone who hurts innocent Jews," he said on army radio.

BAGHDAD — Daesh terror group released more than 200 Yazidis on Wednesday after holding them for eight months, an Iraqi Kurdish security official said, the latest mass release of captives by the extremists.

Gen. Hiwa Abdullah, a peshmerga commander in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said most of the freed 216 prisoners were in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect. He added that about 40 children are among those released, while the rest were elderly.

No reason was given for the release of the prisoners who were originally abducted from the area around Sinjar in the country's north. The handover took place in Himera just southwest of Kirkuk, 290 kilometres north of Baghdad.

The freed captives were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment and care. Among them was Jar-Allah Frensis, a 88-year-old Christian farmer, and his wife.

Frensis said the militants broke into his house in Sinjar and arrested him along with his wife and son. Then, the family was separated and the son was taken away. He said he still didn't know what happened to his son.

"The militants took all of our money and jewelry. We have been living under constant fear till our release," Frensis told The Associated Press.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled in August when Daesh captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. But hundreds were taken captive by the group, with some Yazidi women forced into slavery, according to international rights groups and Iraqi officials.

In January, Daesh released some 200 Yazidi prisoners as well. At the time, Kurdish military officials said they believed the extremists released the prisoners as they were too much of a burden.

Daesh, targeted in US-led air strikes and by Iraqi ground forces, still holds about a third of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in its self-declared caliphate. The US launched the airstrikes and humanitarian aid drops in Iraq on Aug. 8, partly in response to the Yazidi crisis.

The Sunni militant group views Yazidis and Shiite Muslims as apostates deserving of death, and has demanded Christians either convert to Islam or pay a special tax. The group has massacred hundreds of captive soldiers and tribal fighters who have risen up against it, publicising the killings in sleek online photos and videos.

In other violence Wednesday, police and hospital officials said a bomb exploded near an outdoor market in Baghdad's southeastern suburb of Nahrwan, killing four people and wounding 10. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.

CAIRO — Egypt's public prosecutor referred a further 379 alleged members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood to court on Wednesday over sit-ins in August 2013 that were broken up by security forces who killed hundreds of protesters.

The 379 are accused of causing the deaths of two policemen at Al Nahda Square in Giza, one of two sites where supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi gathered in the weeks following his overthrow by the military. They face charges including murder and vandalism.

The government accuses the Brotherhood of fomenting an Islamist insurgency since Morsi's removal. Militant attacks have killed hundreds of Egyptians, mostly soldiers and police.

Security forces have killed hundreds and detained thousands of members of the group, which says it is committed to political change through peaceful means only.

Prosecutor Hisham Barakat said in a statement that two police officers had also been referred to court, accused of torturing a lawyer to death at a Cairo police station last month.

Prosecutions against members of the security forces are rare in Egypt where the police have reasserted powers eroded since the 2011 popular uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Critics say the police now act with impunity, an accusation the Interior Ministry denies.

Four policemen were charged last month in separate cases involving the deaths of a female protester and a suspected Brotherhood member.

Foreign governments and rights groups have condemned the use of force to disperse demonstrations at Al Nahda and Rabaa squares, the bloodiest event in Egypt's recent history.

Cairo has defended its actions, saying it had given protesters the opportunity to leave peacefully and that armed elements within the Brotherhood initiated the violence.

Barakat also ordered a former provincial governor to stand trial for violating a strict protest law that has landed many of the leaders of the 2011 uprising behind bars.

TRIPOLI — Libyan forces opposed to the country's internationally recognised government have warned it that any attempts to export oil independently would force them to take military action to seize oil ports and facilities.

The conflict over oil is intensifying in Libya, where two rival governments, each backed by loose coalitions of ex-rebels who once fought together to oust Muammar Qadhafi, are battling for control of the North African OPEC producer.

Forces with Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni's official government hold two key oil ports, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, and he said over the weekend he would seek independent oil sales and open a bank account overseas to hold revenues.

Responding to the announcement, Ismail Shikri, a spokesman for forces allied with the rival Tripoli government, said any attempt by Thinni to sell oil bypassing the central bank and the National Oil Corporation (NOC) would trigger military action.

"Selling of oil beyond the Tripoli-based NOC is considered zero hour for our forces to launch a military operation by using all the means," Shikri said.

Tripoli-allied forces in December tried to retake the two major ports, which have a combined export capacity of 600,000 barrels a day. Fighting closed the ports since then and a force majeure is still in place.

Late last month, an official said Tripoli-allied brigades pulled back from positions around Ras Lanuf and Es Sider to fight Islamist militants, raising hopes the two terminals would soon reopen.

Ras Lanuf and Es Sider are controlled by federalist forces now allied to Thinni. But a year ago, those same forces tried to ship crude independently, leading to a standoff with the government and a US special forces raid to stop a tanker.

Nearly four years after the NATO-backed civil war ousted Qadhafi, Libya is in turmoil, with conflict opening on several fronts. Those include attacks by militants tied to Daesh, which is taking advantage of the chaos.

Until now, oil sales and revenues have gone through Libya's central bank and National Oil Corporation in Tripoli. Tripoli-based NOC has tried to stay out of the conflict between the rival governments.

Thinni's government has already appointed its own NOC chief based in the east.

"What our government has done, in changing the route of the oil revenues, is primarily to help the Libyan people," Thinni said in a statement on Tuesday. "The parallel National Oil Corporation in Tripoli is illegal."

But analysts said Thinni's government may struggle to convince international traders it is legally entitled to claim ownership of Libyan crude, and thousands of contracts, documents and maps are stored in the Tripoli headquarters of the NOC.

Libya is currently producing around 600,000 barrels per day, compared with the 1.6 million the OPEC producer pumped before Qadhafi was ousted. Several oilfields as well as the ports are closed due to fighting.

ABU DHABI — Iran is meddling in Yemen's conflict and elsewhere in the region, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign minister said on Wednesday, and Gulf Arab states had little grounds for hoping they could build normal ties with Tehran.

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed added at a news conference that a Saudi-led coalition now attacking Iranian-allied Houthi fighters in Yemen wanted a UN Security Council resolution requiring all parties to take part in dialogue and imposing a ban on arms purchases by Houthis and other groups "that are out of line".

Asked about evidence to back up allegations by Saudi- and US-backed Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi that Shiite Muslim Iran provided support for Shiite Houthi militia fighters opposed to his rule, Sheikh Abdullah replied:

"Iran is not carrying out this activity only in Yemen, it is doing the same activity in Lebanon, in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and in Pakistan.

"Someone might say that the information provided by Yemen is not accurate, but there is systematic action that has been going for years on the idea of exporting the [Iranian] revolution."

Sunni Muslim Gulf Arabs could have "positive, normal" ties with Tehran, he said, "but Iran is not giving its partners in the region this hope... Each time we try to come close to Iran it starts spoiling the region, making [matters] difficult for our countries."

Iran denies arming the Houthis and has condemned the Saudi-led offensive against the Houthis of which the UAE is a part. It sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, saying they would protect Iranian shipping.

ISLAMABAD — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday Pakistan and Iran should cooperate to solve the deepening crisis in war-ravaged Yemen.

Zarif spoke during a two-day visit to the Pakistani capital in which he was expected to urge Islamabad to reject a Saudi request that it join a military operation against Shiite Muslim Houthi forces in Yemen.

"We need to work together to find a political solution," he said. "It's the Yemenis who should sit at the table to solve the crisis and everybody including Iran and Saudi Arabia should facilitate."

"The people of Yemen should not have to face aerial bombardment," he added, referring to air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition that started last month.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia has asked Pakistan to send planes, boats and troops to the operation.

Pakistani lawmakers have been debating the request for the past three days, and not one has spoken in favour of intervention in Yemen.

"The consensus that is emerging in parliament is that Pakistan should not participate in any military offensive. We should try to mediate, influence and facilitate peaceful dialoge," said Sartaj Aziz, the prime minister's adviser on security and foreign affairs.

Zarif said he favoured a four-part plan for Yemen: to impose a ceasefire, deliver humanitarian assistance, open a broad-based dialogue and finally establish a broad-based government. He recommended this to Pakistani, Turkish and Omani leaders, he said.

Many fear the conflict could become a proxy battleground for a sectarian war. Iran, a Shiite theocracy, has links to some of the rebels being bombed by Saudi Arabia, the centre of Sunni power.

The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday accused Iran of meddling in Yemen and other conflicts in the Muslim world with the aim of "exporting the [Iranian] revolution".

Zarif did not address those comments, but warned that militant Sunni Islamist groups were benefiting from Yemen's chaos.

"Al Qaeda and Daesh are... fighting in order to seize control," he said.

The United Nations says Yemen faces a humanitarian emergency and that schools, hospitals, and water and power infrastructure have been damaged by air strikes.

More than 540 people have been killed in the last two weeks, the UN said. Most were civilians, including 74 children.

So far, Sunni-majority Pakistan has delayed giving a clear answer to Saudi Arabia's request. The two countries are close allies, and last year Saudi Arabia gave Pakistan $1.5 billion. Pakistani workers in Saudi Arabia send home billions of dollars a year in remittances.

But Pakistan does not want to anger neighbouring Iran, with whom it shares a long and porous border in a region roiled by a separatist insurgency.

Damascus — The UN Security Council has demanded humanitarian access to Syria's Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp as residents described fleeing in terror after the arrival of militants from Daesh terror group.

The advance by the extremists into the battered neighbourhood of south Damascus has alarmed the international community and Palestinian officials, with a delegation from the West Bank heading to Syria to discuss the situation.

The Security Council expressed deep concern about the situation on Monday, said Jordan's UN Ambassador Dina Kawar, who chairs the council this month.

It called "for the protection of civilians in the camp for ensuring a humanitarian access to the area including by providing life-saving assistance," Kawar said.

It also stood ready to consider "further measures to provide necessary assistance," she added, without providing details.

The call came after the council held a closed-door meeting on the crisis and heard from the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees about the plight of the camp's 18,000 or so remaining residents.

UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl described the situation as "more desperate than ever”.

He urged countries with influence in Syria to act "for civilian lives to be spared and for humanitarian access to be given”.

“What civilians in Yarmouk are most concerned about right now is bare survival,” he said.

Daesh jihadists began an assault on Yarmouk last Wednesday, and were initially repelled by Palestinian fighters but have since seized large swathes of the district.

Nearly 40 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based group said Daesh forces were present in the south, west and east of the camp, with Palestinian fighters largely confined to the north.

Syrian government forces have dropped barrel bombs on Daesh positions in the camp, it added.

The Daesh attack is just the latest blow for Yarmouk, which was once a thriving, working-class residential district of the capital, home to some 160,000 people — Syrians and Palestinians.

The camp, the largest of its kind in Syria, has suffered repeated bombardment and has been under a government siege for more than 18 months.

The embargo was so tight at one point that there were reports of deaths from shortages of food and medicines. Residents said they survived on wild herbs and plants.

An agreement last year allowed a slight easing of the siege, but humanitarian access has remained limited.

‘Inhuman behaviour’ 

Late last week, several thousand residents were able to escape, with some taking refuge in the government-held Damascus district of Tadamun.

They said they had endured the siege and shelling, but that the advance by Daesh was the last straw.

“I left the camp despite myself,” said Um Usama, a 40-year-old, who lived in Yarmouk for 17 years.

“I’d stayed on despite the bombings and famine,” she said, at a school serving as a shelter.

“Daesh’s arrival meant destruction and massacre,” she added, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

“Their behaviour’s not human and their religion is not ours,” added the thin woman with sunken eyes.

Other residents said Daesh had carried out beheadings and beatings.

At least seven Palestinian fighters were executed by the jihadists, including two who were beheaded, the observatory said.

The plight of the camp’s residents has raised concern in the Palestinian territories, where both president Mahmud Abbas and the rival Hamas movement have called for Yarmouk to be spared.

A delegation led by Palestine Liberation Organisation official Ahmed Majdalani was due to hold talks in Damascus later on Tuesday.

Majdalani told AFP ahead of the trip that he would talk to Syrian officials about securing a corridor to allow aid in and civilians out.

TEHRAN — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Iran Tuesday amid deep differences between the two nations over the conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

Erdogan has publicly backed the Saudi-led air strike campaign targeting Shiite rebels who have overrun the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and forced the Western-backed president to flee the country. Iran, which backs the rebels but denies any military support, has repeatedly called for an end to the coalition campaign.

The two nations are also on opposite sides of the Syrian civil war. Iran strongly supports Syrian President Bashar Assad, including direct military aid, while Turkey openly seeks regime change in Damascus. Last month, Erdogan lashed out at Iran, accusing it of trying to "dominate the region",

On Tuesday, Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani downplayed their differences.

"We had a comprehensive discussion about Yemen," Rouhani said in comments broadcast live on Iranian state television. "We had common points; we have to witness the end of war and bloodshed in Yemen as soon as possible."

Rouhani again called for an end to the Saudi-led air strike campaign in Yemen — now in its 13th day — and called for all Middle Eastern countries to "fight terrorism and extremism" together.

Erdogan said, "the region is burning in a fire", and called for a comprehensive regional approach to end the crises in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

"We discussed Iraq, 100,000 people were killed there... So far, more than 300,000 were killed in Syria. All were Muslim. We do not know who is killing who," Erdogan said. "We have to get united and block the killing and bloodshed. We have to bring those who are fighting each other together and we can reach a conclusion."

Officials from both countries signed eight new agreements for economic, commercial and industrial cooperation. Trade between the nations currently amounts to about $14 billion per year, mostly Iranian goods and petroleum products sold to Turkey, and both presidents said they would like to increase that number to around $30 billion annually. Erdogan also requested that Tehran reduce the prices of the natural gas it exports to Turkey.

Later on Tuesday, Erdogan met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters. Khamenei said Iran opposes foreign intervention in any country including Yemen.

“From our point of view, stopping air strikes and foreign intervention against the Yemeni people is the solution there,” he said.

Khamenei said Iran is open to an exchange of views on how to solve the region’s problem. But he added a harsh rebuke of the “treason” of unnamed Muslim governments who he said are complicit in attacks on other Muslim nations.

“Governments of some Islamic countries commit treason and put their money and capabilities in the service of the enemy,” Khamenei said.

He did not elaborate.