Region

PARIS — France's government urged the nation to remain vigilant Saturday, as thousands of security forces try to thwart new attacks and hunt down a suspected accomplice in a rampage by terrorists linked to Al Qaeda in Yemen that scarred the nation and left 20 dead.

Three attackers were among those killed after three days of bloodshed at the offices of a satirical newspaper, a kosher supermarket and other sites around Paris. But the sense of relief Saturday was tinged with worry and sorrow, as the nation mourned slain hostages and cartoonists.

Security forces are deployed around the capital, guarding places of worship and tourist sites, and preparing for what's likely to be a huge demonstration Sunday to show unity against extremists. World leaders including Germany's Angela Merkel and Britain's David Cameron are among the many expected to join.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve insisted Saturday that authorities will do everything to ensure security at the event. Speaking after an emergency security meeting called by French President Francois Hollande on Saturday morning, he called for "extreme vigilance", saying that "given the context, we are exposed to risks".

Cazeneuve said the government is deploying hundreds of troops in addition to thousands of police and other security forces and maintaining its terror alert system at the highest level in the Paris region.

He said investigators are focusing on determining whether the attackers were part of a larger extremist network. Five people are in custody as part of the investigation, and family members of the attackers are among several given preliminary charges so far.

Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen said it directed Wednesday's attack against the publication Charlie Hebdo to avenge the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, a frequent target of the weekly's satire.

The two brothers behind that attack, Said and Cherif Kouachi, were known to authorities: One had a terrorism-related conviction for ties to a network sending fighters to battle American forces in Iraq, and both were on the US no-fly list.

French radio RTL released audio Saturday of the attacker who seized hostages in the kosher supermarket, Amedy Coulibaly, in which he lashes out over Western military campaigns against extremists in Syria and Mali. He describes Osama Bin Laden as an inspiration.

Coulibaly's common law wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, remains at large. Police named her as an accomplice and think she is armed.

"You must consider her as the companion of a dangerous terrorist who needs to be questioned," Christophe Crepin, spokesman for UNSA police union, told The Associated Press. "Since 2010, she has had a relationship with an individual whose ideology translates into violence and the execution of poor people who were just doing their shopping in a supermarket."

This week's drama, which played out on live TV and social media, began with the brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi coldly and methodically massacring 12 people Wednesday at the Charlie Hebdo offices before fleeing.

They eluded police for two days, robbing a gas station and stealing a car. Cherif Kouachi was wounded in the throat by police at one point, the Paris prosecutor said, but the brothers got away. They went on to take a hostage at a printing house in Dammartin-en-Goele near Charles de Gaulle Airport on Friday, prompting a daylong stand-off with police

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Coulibaly shot a policewoman to death south of Paris. He, too, fled. Police later determined he was linked to the Kouachi brothers.

Then Friday he attacked the Paris kosher market, killing four hostages and threatening more violence unless the police let the Kouachis go.

It all ended at dusk Friday with near-simultaneous raids at the printing plant and the kosher market in eastern Paris.

As scores of black-clad security forces surrounded both sites, booming explosions, heavy gunfire and dense smoke heralded the news that the twin sieges had ended.

The three gunmen were dead — but the authorities also discovered four dead hostages at the market. Sixteen hostages were freed, one from the printing plant and 15 from the store.

The attackers epitomised Western authorities' greatest fear: Islamic radicals who trained abroad and came home to stage attacks. France counts at least 1,200 citizens in the war zone in Syria — headed there, returned or dead. Both the IS group and Al Qaeda have threatened France, home to Western Europe's largest Muslim population.

A member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula gave a statement in English to The Associated Press saying the group's leadership "directed the operations and they have chosen their target carefully".

The attack on the kosher market came before sundown on the Jewish Sabbath, when the store would have been crowded with shoppers, and Hollande called it "a terrifying anti-Semitic act".

According to a Yemeni security official, Said Kouachi is suspected of having fought for Al Qaeda in Yemen. Another senior security official added that Said was in Yemen until 2012.

Both officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation into Kouachi's stay in Yemen.

The attacks in France, as well as a hostage siege last month in Sydney and the October killing of a solder near Canada's parliament, prompted the US State Department to issue a global travel warning for Americans. It also cited an increased risk of reprisals against US and Western targets for the US-led intervention against IS militants in Syria and Iraq.

The publication Charlie Hebdo had long drawn threats for its depictions of Islam, although it also lampooned other religions and political figures. Charlie Hebdo plans a special edition next week, produced in the offices of another paper.

TRIPOLI — Libya's factions have agreed to a new round of UN-backed negotiations to attempt to end the conflict destabilising the North African country three years after its civil war ousted Muammar Qadhafi.

The meeting, announced after United Nations envoy Bernardino Leon met with rival parties in Libya, will take place next week at the United Nations office at Geneva, the United Nations mission said in a statement on Saturday.

Since the overthrow of Qadhafi, the major oil producer has slipped deeper into division, with two rival governments and two parliaments, each backed by competing groups of heavily armed former rebel fighters.

"In order to create a conducive environment for the dialogue, Special Representative Leon has proposed to the parties to the conflict a freeze in military operations for a few days," the UN said.

The statement did not make clear who would attend the talks or give an exact date. But it said the meeting would seek to address formation of a unity government, drafting the new constitution and ending of hostilities.

After weeks of fighting in the summer, an armed faction, Libya Dawn, allied to the western city of Misrata, took over Tripoli, driving out fighters from the city of Zintan who had set up in the capital after the fall of Qadhafi.

Libya's internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni and the elected parliament now operate out of the east. Most governments pulled their diplomats out of Tripoli after the capital fell to Libya Dawn forces.

Each faction claims the mantle of true liberators of Libya, each brands its fighters the real army and each seeks international recognition in a conflict Western powers and African neighbours worry will fracture Libya.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities say two separate bombings on commercial streets have killed eight people in and around Baghdad.

Police officials say a bomb exploded Saturday at a wholesale market in Baghdad’s western district of Baiyaa, killing five people and wounding 11 others.

Later on, a bomb blast on a commercial street killed three people and wounded nine others in the town of Madian, about 20 kilometres southeast of the capital. 

Medics confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

Iraq is facing its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops as the Islamic State group is in control of about a third of the country.

UNITED NATIONS — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) can immediately start examining allegations of war crimes against Israel if she chooses, the Palestinian UN ambassador said Thursday.

Riyadh Mansour told a group of reporters that Palestine's formal acceptance of the court's jurisdiction starting June 13, 2014 gives prosecutor Fatou Bensouda a green light to take up the question of alleged war crimes on Palestinian territory without waiting for Palestine to formally become a member of the court on
April 1.

"It is within her discretion that she can do that," Mansour said.

Fadi El Abdallah, a spokesman for the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, confirmed that the prosecutor can now in theory begin a "preliminary examination" of potential cases in the Palestinian territories. Bensouda has not announced any such examination yet.

The potential cases could include allegations of war crimes by Israel during last summer's Gaza war where the Palestinians suffered heavy civilian casualties. Israel's settlement construction on occupied Palestinian lands could also be examined.

The cases could also include alleged war crimes by Hamas, which controls Gaza, including the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory.

"Given past practice we would expect the prosecutor to begin a preliminary examination during which she would decide if she will take the next step and open an actual investigation," said Richard Dicker, director of international justice at Human Rights Watch.

The ICC stressed on Monday that accepting its jurisdiction "does not automatically trigger an investigation". It said the prosecutor must determine whether the criteria have been met under the Rome Statute, which established the court.

The prosecutor is currently conducting eight preliminary examinations in Honduras, Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea and Nigeria.

Dicker said the court's acceptance of Palestine's declaration of court authority would enable the prosecutor to look back at events.

"If they hadn't filed a declaration, or it hadn't been accepted, then she would be limited to events subsequent to April 1, 2015," he told AP.

President Mahmoud Abbas submitted the declaration to the ICC registrar on January 1, accepting the court's jurisdiction over its territories, going back to June 13, 2014. That's the day after three Israeli settlers were abducted and killed by Hamas fighters in the West Bank, an attack that set off events that culminated in the Gaza war.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that the state of Palestine has the right to join the ICC and other treaties, but getting the Palestinians and Israelis to return to negotiations and reach a peace deal is "much more important".

BENGHAZI, Libya — The official Libyan government has banned Palestinians, Syrians and Sudanese from entry because their countries are undermining Libya's security, the interior minister said.

The decision came as forces loyal to Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni launched a new air strike on Misrata, a western city linked to a rival government which seized Tripoli in August with the help of an armed group called Libya Dawn.

Thinni, Libya's internationally recognised premier, has been forced into an eastern rump state since he lost Tripoli but is trying to regain territory by launching air strikes on opposing forces. On Sunday, a warplane hit a Greek-run tanker off the eastern port of Derna, killing two crewmen.

Fighting was also reported near the eastern oil port of Es Sider, which Dawn has tried to take with an offensive that started last month. 

The terminal and the adjacent Ras Lanuf port have been closed since then.

“We’ve decided to ban nationals from Sudan, Syria and Palestine after the intelligence services and police established that some Arab countries are involved in undermining Libya’s security and sovereignty,” Thinni’s interior minister, Omar Al Sanki, told Reuters late on Monday.

With his rule limited to the east, Thinni would be able to enforce the ban only at Tobruk and Labraq airports and the land crossing with Egypt. The country’s main crossing to Tunisia and airports in Misrata and Tripoli-Mitiga are out of his control.

Thinni’s main military partner, former army general Khalifa Haftar, has accused Sudanese, Palestinians and Syrians of having joined Ansar Al Sharia and other Islamist groups which are battling pro-government forces in the eastern city of Benghazi.

In September, Thinni said Sudan had attempted to airlift weapons and ammunition to the new rulers in Tripoli. Khartoum denied this, saying the weapons were meant for a joint border force under a bilateral agreement.

The Tripoli government has accused Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, two countries worried about the spread of Islamism, of helping Haftar militarily. Haftar denies this but analysts have wondered how the outdated and tiny Libyan air force is able to fly daily sorties.

Libya’s conflict has drawn in former rebels who helped oust Muammar Qadhafi in 2011 but who are now fighting each other for control of Africa’s largest oil reserves.

The United Nations has tried to mediate but a new round of peace talks has been repeatedly delayed due to the fighting.

Saqer Al Joroushi, Haftar’s airforce commander, said there would be daily air strikes on Misrata from now on. War planes attacked the city’s airport on Tuesday but caused no damage, said airport spokesman Suleiman Al Jehaimi.

On Monday, Turkish Airlines said it had stopped its Misrata flights for security reasons, the last foreign carrier to abandon Libya. It had already stopped flying to Tripoli, Benghazi and Sabha.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli government on Tuesday claimed Qatar had expelled the leader of Hamas, in what would be a significant diplomatic victory for Israel. Hamas officials denied the claims as "baseless".

The Israeli foreign ministry issued a statement saying it "welcomes Qatar's decision to expel the head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Mishaal, to Turkey". It said the Qatari decision came after heavy diplomatic pressure from Israel.

"We expect the Turkish government to act responsibly in a similar way," it added.

Hamas officials in both Qatar and Gaza angrily dismissed the Israeli claims.

Izzat Rishq, a top aide to Mishaal, said the claim was wrong. "There is no basis of truth about brother Khaled Mishaal leaving Doha. We are in Doha now," he told The Associated Press.

Hamas spokesman Hossam Badran in Qatar and Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official in Gaza, also told the AP the report was false.

In Turkey, the foreign ministry said it had no information on a Qatari decision or plans by Mishaal to relocate to Turkey.

Israel and Hamas, an Islamist group sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state, are bitter enemies. The sides fought a 50-day war last summer that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians in Gaza and 72 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

If the claim is true, the expulsion would mark a major setback for Hamas. In recent years, Hamas has faced growing isolation in the region after disputes with its longtime sponsors, Syria and Iran, and the downfall of its close ally, former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who was overthrown by the military. Mishaal moved to Qatar after the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.

Facing diplomatic isolation and deep financial problems, Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, reluctantly agreed to the formation of a unity government led by its rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, last year. But the group remains in firm control of the seaside territory.

Asked about the Hamas denial, an Israeli official said the government had received “serious and reliable information” from “official channels” that the expulsion order had been granted. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter, refused to say whether Qatar had delivered the news directly. Israel used to have a diplomatic office in Qatar and still maintains low-level relations with the country.

There was no immediate comment from Qatar, a wealthy Gulf state that has allowed Mishaal to set up a base there.

Under a deal reached with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia late last year, Qatar agreed to a number of foreign policy directives that are largely believed to be related to its support of Islamist groups throughout the region. The details of the Gulf reconciliation agreement have not been made public.

A number of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members were forced to leave Qatar last year after the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain withdrew ambassadors from Doha. The three Gulf countries had accused Qatar of interfering in their domestic affairs and of failing to uphold a security pact. Ambassadors were reinstated after a deal was reached in November.

The following month Al Jazeera’s live channel dedicated to coverage of Egypt was shut down. Egypt had accused the Qatar-based-and-funded Al Jazeera news network of bias against the new government and of supporting the Brotherhood. The network has denied the charges and demanded Egypt free three journalists imprisoned there from its English-language channel.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Palestinians have moved into uncharted territory by bidding to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), analysts say, with the decades-old conflict with Israel now set to play out on the world stage.

After years of threats, the Palestinians finally turned to the ICC last month after the UN Security Council rejected a resolution setting a deadline for ending Israel's occupation of their lands.

A furious Israel responded by freezing the transfer of tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian leadership and threatening further punitive measures.

The moves dashed hopes of a return to peace talks that have failed time and again, including in last year's aborted bid led by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Analysts say the Mideast conflict has moved into a new chapter, with the Palestinians pursuing a fresh strategy of putting pressure on Israel through the international community.

“The peace process born at Oslo is dead and buried, and we’re now at the start of a new phase,” said Karim Bitar, a Middle East analyst based in Paris, referring to the 1993 peace accords.

How far Israel will take its response to the ICC bid will be a key question, analysts say, as it will fear going too far in undermining the Palestinian Authority.

“Israel has a dilemma — we want to have leverage against the Palestinians, to prevent them from referring [cases] to the ICC,” said Robbie Sabel, a former legal adviser to the Israeli foreign ministry.

“However, we don’t want to undermine them. It’s in our interest that they be in effective control of the West Bank.”

Under the 1993 Oslo Accords which established the Palestinian Authority PA, the two sides agreed to coordinate on security issues in the occupied territories.

The Palestinians have threatened to halt that cooperation, raising fears of increased security risks to Israel.

Following the ICC move, Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz threatened “severe” steps in response, even referring to a “gradual dissolution” of the PA.

But analysts said such a step would be unlikely.

No ‘clear advantage’ yet 

“Its dismantling would cause instability and an explosion in the region. The PA is banking on the international community to put pressure on Israel to avoid this,” Gaza-based political analyst Naji Sharab said.

Even the United States, Israel’s key ally, has denounced its freezing of the transfer of some $127 million (106 million euros) in tax money to the PA, with the State Department urging both sides “to avoid actions that raise tensions”.

But Washington also said it was “deeply troubled” by the Palestinian move to become party to the ICC, describing it as “counterproductive” and warning it would “only push the parties further apart”.

The Palestinians, who became an observer state at the UN in 2012, say they will turn to the court to seek the prosecution of Israeli officials for alleged war crimes, including during last summer’s 50-day war in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to put up a vigorous defence of his troops, while officials have warned Israel was ready to counter with its own lawsuits against senior Palestinian officials.

Bitar said both sides seemed to be struggling with how to adjust to this new phase.

The Palestinians, he said, had demonstrated “amateurism” in going to the UN Security Council “without doing the groundwork in terms of lobbying and negotiating”, while the Israelis were “rigid and inflexible” in their reaction.

“This new chapter, of a power struggle in the international arena, is still in its early stages and it’s not yet clear how it will play out,” Bitar said.

“So far no one appears to have a clear advantage.”

BAGHDAD — A suicide blast targeting Iraqi security forces and subsequent clashes with Islamic State (IS) extremists on Tuesday killed at least 23 troops and pro-government Sunni fighters in the country's embattled western province of Anbar, officials said.

The day's heavy toll for the Iraqi forces came as they struggle in battles against IS and try to claw back territory lost to the extremists during the militants' blitz last year. Iraq's prime minister vowed on Tuesday to dislodge IS militants from all areas under their control.

Police officials said a suicide bomber first struck a gathering of pro-government Sunni fighters near the town of Al Baghdadi, about 180 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, in the morning hours.

Soon after, IS militants attacked nearby army and police positions, setting off hours-long clashes. Police and hospital officials said 23 were killed and 28 were wounded in all on the government side. They did not give the death toll on the militants' side, saying only that the attackers "sustained some casualties" and declining to provide further details. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

In Baghdad, Prime Minister, Haider Al Abadi pledged that Iraq's forces would retake all areas that fell to IS during last summer's stunning blitz.

"We will emerge as victorious and the day our lands are liberated is nearing," Al Abadi told a group of newly graduated army officers, speaking at the Military Academy as Iraq marked Army Day. "Our goal ... is that peace and prosperity prevail in Iraq and end this dark period in Iraqi history."

A parade was also staged to mark the day, complete with jet fighters, helicopters and transport planes flying overhead.

Meanwhile, IS announced killing eight men in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad for allegedly cooperating with government forces and airstrikes by the US-led coalition targeting the militant group.

The group posted photographs showing eight blindfolded and bearded men in orange jumpsuits, their hands tied behind their backs. Five were identified as police officers and two as informants, but no information was provided on the eighth victim. The photos show the men by a riverbank next to masked gunmen, under what looks like a bridge. They are on their knees as the gunmen appear to be readying to shoot them. Other photos show bloodied bodies of seven of the men, lying on the ground.

The IS group provided no details on the purported killings. The authenticity of the photos could not be independently verified but they were posted late Monday on a Twitter account frequently used by the militant group.

However, a provincial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for his safety, offered a different account on the photos, saying Tuesday that the men depicted in the images were army officers who had abandoned the military before the militants’ takeover of their area last year. The official said the men did not cooperate with Iraqi government forces.

The Salahuddin provincial capital, Tikrit, and other nearby towns have been in militant hands since June, when the IS group expanded with lightning speed across Sunni-dominated regions of northern and western Iraq as government forces collapsed.

Since then, the IS group has declared a self-styled caliphate over about a third of Iraq and neighbouring Syria. But there has been growing resentment among some residents fueled by the militant group’s enforcement of its extremist interpretation of Islamic law, economic stagnation and a lack of public services.

Seeking to squash any potential uprising, the militants have started killing policemen and soldiers living in areas of Iraq under their control — especially after the US-led coalition air campaign began supporting ground offensives by Iraqi government forces, Kurdish fighters and Shiite militias.

PARIS — Syria is facing a "medical and humanitarian disaster" after nearly four years of war have gutted the country's healthcare system, leading to a return of eradicated diseases, a group of Syrian doctors said in Paris Monday.

A lack of doctors, supplies and drugs have plunged the country back into the medical dark ages, with polio and scabies back with a vengeance as many children are no longer vaccinated, while the majority of births take place at home.

"The situation is unbearable, catastrophic and many in Syria no longer have access to medical care," said Oubaida Al Moufti, a French-Syrian doctor and member of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations (UOSSM).

He was speaking to journalists late Monday at the foreign ministry in Paris which lends support to the organisation.

A doctor from Aleppo, a former economic hub ravaged by fighting, said the city has only five hospitals — three only partially functioning — in the eastern rebel-controlled section where 360,000 people live surrounded by government forces.

"There are no more than 30 doctors, from a variety of specialities. Aside from war injuries we are seeing the resurgence of diseases like polio, tuberculosis, scabies or typhoid," said the doctor, who gave his name only as Abdelaziz.

Another doctor described the "intolerable" situation in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus which has been under siege by loyalist forces for two years where "it is not possible to get humanitarian aid in”.

And in the IS stronghold Raqqa, home to 1.6 million people, one doctor said there were "no obstetrics, gynaecological or pediatric services”.

Moufti said that 80 per cent of births in Syria were taking place at home.

The UOSSM doctors try and work in all zones, whether held by government forces, rebels or IS jihadists.

"We are neutral, but we experience violence from all sides, and no one has any guarantees from anyone," said the association, which has a list of 250 doctors killed in Syria since war broke out in March 2011.

Tawfik Chamaa, a UOSSM representative in Switzerland, condemned what he called an international "silence" on the daily suffering of Syrians.

"All the media talks about now is extremism and Daesh [an alternative name for IS]. But not the women and children who are killed, the bodies torn to shreds, open stomachs, that which we deal with daily as doctors," he said.

More than 200,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-regime protests that spiralled into a war after a government crackdown.

LONDON — British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has disputed a story reporting how Egyptian officials warned her she risked arrest last year if she released a report in Cairo critical of the judiciary.

In an article for the Huffington Post, Clooney said it was "experts in Egyptian affairs" who issued the warning over a February 2014 report for the International Bar Association, not the authorities, as was reported in The Guardian.

The Guardian has not changed its story, however, which was based on an interview with Clooney last week following an appeal hearing for one of her clients, one of three Al-Jazeera journalists detained in Cairo.

Clooney, a leading barrister who married Hollywood actor George Clooney last year, is on the defence team for Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy.

The Huffington Post article, written with her co-counsel Mark Wassouf, said the warning delivered over the IBA report was "entirely unrelated" to Al-Jazeera case.

"This incident arose before Mrs Clooney's involvement in the Fahmy case, before the current [Egyptian] president was in office and in a context entirely unrelated to this case," they wrote.

The Guardian story reported how Clooney helped compile a report that raised questions about the independence of judges and prosecutors in Egypt.

"When I went to launch the report, first of all they stopped us from doing it in Cairo," she was quoted as telling the newspaper.

"They said: 'Does the report criticise the army, the judiciary, or the government?' We said: 'Well, yes.' They said: 'Well then, you're risking arrest.'"

The newspaper said the warnings were from the Egyptian authorities, but interior ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif had challenged this assertion.

"We have nothing against her," Latif told AFP this week.

Egypt's top court last week ordered a retrial of Fahmy and the other Al Jazeera journalists, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed.

But Fahmy's defence team are hoping to get their client deported.

"The focus today should not be on the risks that lawyers or journalists faced in the past. The focus should be on the risks of free speech in today's Egypt," Clooney and Wassouf wrote.

"We consider it a promising sign that President Sisi has stated that he would consider pardoning Mr Fahmy. It would be a promising sign if the authorities agreed to transfer him to Canada."