Region

BRUSSELS — US forces and their Iraqi counterparts have trained about 2,000 Sunni fighters in Iraq as part of efforts to defeat the Islamic State (IS)  extremist group, a senior US official said Tuesday.

Iraq’s Shiite-led government, trying to reverse the marginalisation of Sunnis, is seeking to form a “bridging entity” where Sunnis tribesmen defend their provinces before they are brought into an Iraqi national force, the State Department official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The official disclosed the information as US Secretary of State John Kerry prepared Wednesday to host talks in Brussels with foreign ministers from scores of countries which are trying to help defeat IS  in Iraq and Syria.

The official said the training was occurring at Al Asad airbase in Anbar province and elsewhere.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, a Shiite whose more inclusive government was formed in September, “is committed ultimately to bringing the Sunnis into the mainstream,” the official said.

IS proclaimed a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in June after making dramatic advances across a swathe of Iraq, partly as a result of appealing to a marginalised Sunni population.

The members of Iraq’s government “are working to empower Sunni fighters. They are already graduating Sunni fighters out in Al Asad in the Anbar province,” the official said.

Citing figures from Abadi, he said some 2,000 fighters had graduated from Al Asad and elsewhere and they will eventually form a national guard.

He confirmed the US forces, along with their Iraqi counterparts, were training the Sunnis from tribes in Anbar province, while the Iraqi troops were providing them with equipment.

The government is also aiming to form Shiite national guards in Shiite areas as well as mixed forces in areas where both sects live, he added.

Ahead of building up a national force that defends Iraq’s territory, “it recognises there needs to be a middle tier that can respond to terrorism and criminality at the provincial level,” he said.

“That is the concept behind the national guard,” he said.

The official said foreign ministers from European, Arab and other states that are part of the 60-member coalition against IS will discuss strategy Wednesday at their first ministerial meeting.

Besides discussing the military aspect, they will discuss how to stem the flow of thousands of foreign fighters, delegitimise the IS “brand”, disrupt IS finances, and provide humanitarian aid to people affected by the violence, the official said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Tuesday for early elections as he fired two key ministers in his coalition for opposing government policy.

The sackings were the latest move in a political crisis that will come to a head on Wednesday when lawmakers vote on a bill to dissolve the parliament, or Knesset.

That would set the stage for a vote expected in March or April, in what would be Israel’s second general election in just over two years.

“I will not tolerate any opposition in my government,” Netanyahu said of the sacking of Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.

“I won’t accept ministers attacking the policy and head of the government from within,” he said in a statement.

Netanyahu said he would call for parliament to be dissolved “as soon as possible to go to the people and get a clear mandate to lead Israel”.

Cracks in Netanyahu’s right-leaning coalition emerged over the 2015 budget and a contentious bill aimed at enshrining Israel’s status as the Jewish state in law, a move critics say could harm its Arab minority.

The Jewish state bill was strongly opposed by Lapid, a crucial coalition partner who heads the centrist Yesh Atid Party, and by Livni who chairs HaTnuah, also centrist.

The two parties account for 25 of the coalition’s 68 seats.

The coalition was pieced together after a January 2013 general election, with the next poll theoretically not due until November 2017.

To pass, the vote on dissolving parliament will need an absolute majority within the 120-member Knesset, requiring support from members of the ruling coalition.

Netanyahu likely to return 

Sources in Netanyahu’s Likud Party told AFP that members of the coalition were likely to support the bill.

“The trend within Likud and within the coalition in general is to vote in favour,” said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The political tensions peaked on Monday after Netanyahu-Lapid talks aimed at heading off the crisis collapsed.

Netanyahu demanded Lapid give in to five demands for the government to continue — including agreement to freeze his own flagship initiative for zero per cent value-added tax on first home purchases, and to support the Jewish state bill.

Lapid refused, accusing Netanyahu of “irresponsibly” pursuing personal interests over those of the public, saying he “decided to take Israel to unnecessary elections”.

Abraham Diskin, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said recent polls showed strong support for rightwing parties.

“They have a majority in public opinion polls, and that means that there is a very good chance Netanyahu will continue to be prime minister.”

Should the right chalk up gains in a new election, it would diminish even further the chances of resuming dialogue with the Palestinians after the collapse of US-led peace talks in April.

The political crisis comes amid increasing tensions with the Palestinians, with a growing wave of unrest and deadly “lone wolf” attacks.

With peace talks firmly off the agenda, Israel has seen a steady slide to the right. And as chatter has grown about the possibility of early elections, Netanyahu has taken an increasingly hardline stance, throwing his weight behind controversial rightwing initiatives, notably the Jewish state bill.

Critics say that law, which has yet to be put to a vote, would come at the expense of democracy and would institutionalise discrimination against minorities.

Analysts say Netanyahu’s support for the bill is a gesture to Likud hardliners ahead of party primaries in January.

In the last election, Likud ran on a joint ticket with the hardline Yisrael Beitenu, securing a narrow victory of 31 seats, followed by Yesh Atid with 19.

But the alliance was dismantled earlier this year, leaving Likud with just 18 seats and Yesh Atid the largest party.

PARIS — French lawmakers voted Tuesday in favour of recognising Palestine as a state, sparking an immediate angry reaction from Israel, which said such “unilateral measures” would harm efforts towards Middle East peace.

Following hot on the heels of similar votes in Britain and Spain, French MPs voted 339 to 151 in favour of a motion urging the government to recognise the state of Palestine as a way of achieving a “definitive resolution of the conflict”.

The vote — which is non-binding on the government but highly symbolic — comes as European countries seek alternative ways to restart the stalled Middle East process.

Sweden’s government has gone even further, officially recognising Palestine as a state in a controversial move that prompted Israel to recall its ambassador.

But the French vote result still prompted a swift and angry response from Tel Aviv, which said it would send the “wrong message” to the region and would be counterproductive to the drive towards peace.

“Israel believes that the vote in the National Assembly... will reduce the possibility of achieving a deal between Israel and the Palestinians,” its embassy in Paris said in a statement.

A solution to the conflict will be achieved “only with honest and direct talks between the parties and not by unilateral measures taken by one of the parties or by third parties,” it said.

The Palestinian leadership, meanwhile, expressed its “gratitude” for the vote and urged Paris to “translate its parliament’s vote into action”.

France will ‘do its duty’ 

Palestinians are seeking to achieve statehood in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank with east Jerusalem as the capital.

With little progress on reaching a settlement, they have been lobbying foreign powers for international recognition.

The Palestinian Authority estimates that 135 countries have now recognised Palestine as a state, although that number is disputed.

During a debate on the issue Friday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris would recognise Palestine if diplomatic efforts failed again and urged a resolution to the Middle East conflict within two years.

France is spearheading a drive at the United Nations to unfreeze the moribund peace process and the Palestinian envoy to the UN said earlier Tuesday a draft resolution could be submitted to the Security Council by mid-December.

Riyad Mansour told AFP the text was set to lay out a timeframe for negotiations on a final peace deal and possibly a deadline for Palestinian statehood.

It would also pave the way for a last-ditch international conference that France has offered to host.

This European initiative was expected to be discussed in Brussels when US Secretary of State John Kerry holds talks with European ministers during this week’s NATO meeting.

“If these efforts fail. If this last attempt at a negotiated settlement does not work, then France will have to do its duty and recognise the state of Palestine without delay and we are ready to do that,” Fabius told MPs on Friday.

‘Momentum will grow’ 

At a pan-European level, the European Parliament is expected to hold a vote later this month on recognising Palestine and EU foreign policy supremo Federica Mogherini is also pushing for the creation of a Palestine state.

“Governments and parliaments are taking action. That momentum will grow,” said United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon last month.

However, lawmakers in Paris were more divided on the issue than their British and Spanish counterparts, reflecting the sensitivity of the debate in France, which is home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities.

Senior lawmaker Christian Jacob of the opposition UMP Party told MPs ahead of the vote: “Who are we kidding? We are kidding the French people if we think that the parliament will have any influence at all” on the peace process.

France was the scene of several pro-Palestinian demonstrations during this summer’s 50-day offensive by the Israeli army in Gaza that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and dozens of Israelis.

Some of these turned violent with looters in July destroying Jewish businesses and shouting anti-Israel obscenities in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles — sometimes known as “Little Jerusalem” for its large community of Sephardic Jews.

DUBAI — An Islamic State-linked media group has released a video claiming to show the shooting of a Danish national by its "supporters" in Saudi Arabia last month, US-based monitoring group SITE said.

Denmark has confirmed that one of its nationals was shot and wounded in the Saudi capital Riyadh on November 22.

A nearly three-minute video distributed on social networks Monday by Al Battar Media Foundation opens with a title reading: "Supporters of the Islamic State in the Land of the Two Holy Mosques," a name used to refer to Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines.

It carries an audio recording allegedly by IS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi telling Saudis: "You have the head of the snake and the source of the disease, so do not forget to sharpen your swords."

Saudi rulers will see "no more security or rest," he threatens, and "there is no longer a place for polytheists" in the Arabian Peninsula.

His speech is followed by another recording attributed to IS spokesman Abu Mohammed Al Adnani urging Muslims to attack Westerners by any means, even if only to "spit on their faces".

The video then shows a clip of an individual shooting from the backseat window of a vehicle at the driver of a white car on a highway in a desert area.

It identifies the driver of the white car as Danish citizen "Thomas Hopner”.

The Dane was driving away from work at a company in Riyadh's Al Kharj Road area when he was shot in the shoulder from "an unknown source", according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

General Mansour Al Turki, spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry, told AFP on Tuesday that no suspect has been arrested but the investigation into the shooting continues.

"We never excluded that the motive could be terrorist-related," he said.

The rare incident came as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain are taking part in US-led air strikes against the IS extremist group in Syria, raising concerns about possible retaliation in the kingdom.

Denmark is among Western countries taking part in a similar campaign against IS in Iraq.

Last Saturday, an attacker stabbed and wounded a Canadian while he shopped at a mall in Dhahran on Saudi Arabia's Gulf coast.

And in October, a Saudi-American former employee of a US defence contractor shot dead an American colleague and wounded another in Riyadh.

The suspect had recently been fired from his job, officials said.

That was the first deadly attack on Westerners in Saudi Arabia since several were killed in a wave of Al Qaeda violence between 2003 and 2007.

BEIRUT — It's aimed at children, but instead of princes and princesses, fairies and magicians, the heroes of Lebanon's "Mahdi" magazine are the "fighters who fell resisting the Israeli enemy".

Produced by Lebanon's Hizbollah movement for the last 11 years, Mahdi aims to teach a new generation the militant Shiite group's ideology of "resistance" to Israel.

Packed full of stories inspired by the lives of Hizbollah militants, its cartoons represent bearded fighters and its puzzles teach children how to avoid Israeli landmines.

Critics accuse it of glorifying violence, but its publishers insist the monthly magazine is not about indoctrination or military propaganda.

"What we want to do is teach children the values of the resistance," the magazine's general manager Abbas Charara told AFP.

"We don't encourage carrying of weapons, we're just making sure they know about the exploits of the resistance," he added.

"We tell them: 'Just as these great people resisted and were victorious, so too can you resist and be victorious, and that starts with your education'."

The magazine is part of broad youth outreach — schools, scout troops and summer camps — for Hizbollah, the powerful movement that detractors accuse of being a "state within a state" in Lebanon.

Established in 1982 by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hizbollah has been a key nemesis for Israel.

The group carried out numerous attacks against Israeli forces during their 22-year occupation of Lebanon, which ended in 2000 with a withdrawal that Hizbollah claimed as a victory.

'It's something really dangerous' 

In 2006, Hizbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers prompted a massive military response by Israel, but it failed to deal a death blow to the militant group.

The group is the only party in Lebanon that failed to disarm after the country's 1975-1990 civil war, and it remains a powerful political and military institution, with supporters revering its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

Mahdi is named after the ninth-century Imam Al Mahdi, the last of 12 imams venerated by Shiite Muslims who believe he will reappear as a saviour at the end of the world.

One recent edition of the magazine featured stories set in the three decades when Israel occupied southern Lebanon.

One told of a fighter who detonated a bomb against an Israeli patrol in his occupied village, another of a "hero" Amer, who confides in his mother that he will participate in "a martyrdom operation".

Amer blows himself up, killing and wounding 25 Israeli officers and soldiers, and his name is not revealed until 2000, when Nasrallah praises his bravery.

Hizbollah's strong Iranian influence is also reflected in the magazine, with the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Khomeini hailed in its pages in a feature on "the best leaders".

Critics have said the magazine exposes children to violence and teaches them that their identity as Shiite Muslims takes precedence over being Lebanese.

"It goes too far in making guns and violence part of the kids' imagination. It's something really dangerous," said Fatima Charafeddine, an author of children's books.

The magazine also emphasises "religious identity with virtually no mention of their Lebanese identity," she told AFP.

'Resistance
and fun games'

Charara said Mahdi is not exclusively focused on religious and political issues, noting its articles on figures like Alexander the Great, Victor Hugo, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.

Still, there is little ambiguity to a game encouraging children to colour in grenades and automatic weapons, nor to a puzzle in which readers draw a route around mines and bombs left by the Israelis in south Lebanon.

The magazine's monthly circulation of 30,000 issues includes three editions — one aimed at four- to seven-year-olds, one at eight- to 12-year-olds, and one for 13- to 17-year-olds.

Eight-year-old Zahraa, who was born while her father was fighting in Hizbollah's ranks against Israel in 2006, told AFP she enjoyed Mahdi's "stories on the resistance and fun games".

"I like the stories about imams, and especially those talking about victory," the veiled girl added, a smile on her thin face.

TRIPOLI — Seven people were killed, including five African migrant workers, as pro-governmental forces carried out air strikes Tuesday on the coastal city of Zuara in western Libya, a local official said.

"There were three raids today [Tuesday]... targeting a food depot, a chemical goods factory and a small port," the official told AFP, asking not to be named.

He said seven people were killed, including five African workers, and 25 wounded, a casualty toll which could not immediately be confirmed.

Forces loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar, who is allied to Libya's internationally recognised government and has vowed to expel Islamist militias from main cities, carried out the raids, the official said.

He said the warplane that launched the raids had taken off from an air base in Al Woutia, also in western Libya, that is controlled by factions loyal to Haftar.

More than three years after dictator Muammar Qadhafi was toppled and killed in a NATO-backed revolt, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and has rival governments and parliaments.

In an interview published last week, Haftar said he has given himself two weeks to take the eastern city of Benghazi and three months to recapture the capital Tripoli.

The strongman has been battling Islamist militias who took control of the country's biggest cities this summer after their defeat in elections.

Forces loyal to Haftar and Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thani are fighting for control of Benghazi and have also launched an offensive west of the capital.

"For Tripoli we are only at the beginning," Haftar told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "I have given myself three months, but maybe we will need less."

BEIRUT — Gunmen killed at least six Lebanese soldiers when they attacked an army patrol near the border with Syria on Tuesday, a Lebanese security source said.

The source said the gunmen crossed from Syria to the mountainous border town of Ras Baalbek after dark and ambushed the patrol. Clashes between gunmen and a special army unit erupted after the attack and the army was able to retrieve the bodies of six of its soldiers.

"The army is now shelling the area using artillery. Six bodies just arrived at the local hospital of the town of Ras Baalbek," he told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack which occurred on the day Lebanese security sources said that a wife and one of the daughters of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, leader of the ultra-hardline group Islamic State, were detained in the country as they crossed from Syria.

Lebanese security forces have cracked down on the group's sympathisers and the intelligence services have been particularly vigilant on the borders with Syria.

Spillover from the Syrian conflict has repeatedly jolted neighbouring Lebanon. Militants from Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front and Islamic State attacked and briefly seized in August the Lebanese border town of Arsal, which is also close to Ras Baalbek, and took a group of soldiers prisoner when they pulled out.

The militants are demanding the release of Islamists held by the Lebanese authorities in exchange for the captured members of the Lebanese security forces.

TUNIS — Tunisia's new parliament held its inaugural session on Tuesday, a landmark in the country's often fraught transition to democracy since the 2011 revolution which sparked the Arab Spring.

Lawmakers took their seats following the first parliamentary election in the North African nation since the overthrow of long-time strongman Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali nearly four years ago.

"Tunisia has managed to secure a peaceful power transfer in a fluid and civilised manner that will ensure the gradual introduction of democratic traditions," Mustapha Ben Jaafar, speaker of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), a transitional body, told deputies.

After the singing of the national anthem, Ben Jaafar opened the gathering of 217 members of the new parliament who were elected in October.

He then made way — in a symbolic handover and in keeping with tradition — for the oldest member of the new parliament, Ali Ben Salem, who was cheered by fellow lawmakers and the political party leaders invited to attend.

Overcome with emotion, Ben Salem wiped away tears as he presided over the session, in which deputies were to vote for a new parliamentary speaker.

The secular Nidaa Tounes Party won 86 seats in the October 26 legislative polls, beating moderate Islamist movement Ennahda into second place with 69 seats.

Under Tunisia's electoral system, the party with the largest number of votes has a mandate to form a coalition government.

Media reports have suggested a possible grand coalition between the top two parties.

Nidaa Tounes has said it will not form a government before the second round of voting in a presidential election is completed at
the end of December.

Nidaa Tounes leader Beji Caid Essebsi faces incumbent Moncef Marzouki in a runoff, after neither candidate secured an absolute majority in voting on November 23.

December 21 is "the most probable date" for the second round, according to Tunisia's electoral commission, after all judicial appeals have been examined.

Both Essebsi and Marzouki issued statements hailing the opening of parliament, although the latter was surprisingly absent.

His campaign manager said that Marzouki, who was elected president at the end of 2011 by the NCA under a coalition deal with the then-ruling Ennahda, had not been formally invited to attend.

Tunisia has avoided the bloodshed ravaging other Arab Spring states such as Libya and Yemen. But it faces significant challenges, including a jihadist threat, a weak economy and social unrest.

CAIRO — President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said Egypt will never return to the corrupt ways of the past, after a court dismissed murder charges against former leader Hosni Mubarak.

"The new Egypt, which emerged from the January 25 [2011] and June 30 [2013] revolutions, is on a path to establish a modern democratic state based on justice, freedom, equality and a renunciation of corruption," he said in a statement late Sunday.

Sisi was referring to the uprising which toppled president Mubarak in 2011 and the military's overthrow of his Islamist successor, Mohamed Morsi, following mass protests two years later.

"It is on an aspirational path to the future and can never go back to the past," said Sisi.

A Cairo court on Saturday dropped murder charges against Mubarak over the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended three decades of his autocratic rule.

Seven of his security commanders, including feared ex-interior minister Habib Al Adly, were also acquitted over the deaths.

Corruption charges against Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal were likewise dropped.

Sisi said he had instructed Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab to review the provisions for compensation for the families of "martyrs and those wounded in the revolution".

During the 2011 uprising, hundreds of thousands of people protested daily, demanding Mubarak step down. After he resigned they continued to stage demonstrations, insisting he face trial.

Relatives of those killed voiced dismay at Saturday's verdict.

More than 1,000 people demonstrating against the verdict at an entrance to Cairo's Tahrir Square, hub of the anti-Mubarak revolt, were dispersed by police firing tear gas.

Dozens of people were briefly detained.

Sisi, who was Mubarak's intelligence chief, won a landslide victory in a May presidential election after crushing Islamist and secularist opponents.

As army chief he removed Morsi in July 2013.

Since Morsi's ouster, a crackdown on his supporters has left at least 1,400 dead and seen more than 15,000 people imprisoned.

Dozens have also been sentenced to death after speedy mass trials.

On Monday, leftist leaders condemned Saturday's verdict, on which Sisi said he could not comment because it was a judicial matter.

It was a "black day in Egypt's history", said Hamdeen Sabbahi, who lost the May presidential election to Sisi.

"The president must decide who he is siding with at this critical moment," Sabbahi told a press conference.

"Is he with the people, the revolution and its demands, or is he with those in the media calling for the return of Mubarak and his regime?"

TUNIS —  “Terrorists” in Tunisia have abducted and decapitated an off-duty policeman, media reports on Monday cited the interior ministry as saying.

The officer and his brother were in a car in the Kef area of the northwest when gunmen seeking to rob them immobilised the vehicle.

During the robbery, the attackers discovered that the man was in the police and they kidnapped and later killed him, radio stations Mosaique and Express-FM quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.

The man’s brother was not harmed in Sunday’s attack.

Security forces are now engaged in a mopping up operation in the mountainous area, which is close to the frontier with Algeria.

Farther south but still in the border area a soldier on another operation was killed when a mine exploded on Monday, the defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

“Today men in a terrorist group were tracked to Mount Sammama near Kasserine,” Belhassan Oueslati said.

“Aircraft were used and commando forces made a ground assault. A soldier on board a Hummer was killed when a mine exploded,” he said, adding that the operation was still under way.

Since the revolution of January 2011, Tunisia has seen a rise in Islamist extremism. For the past two years, the army has been hunting jihadists in the border area.

Deadly ambushes by gunmen on the police and army are common in the region, where cross-border smuggling of fuel and food is also rife.