Region

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Months after the collapse of US-led efforts to advance Middle East peace, experts say Palestinians and Israelis have finally agreed on at least one thing — further talks would be futile.

And, as has so often been the case in the intractable conflict, neither side looks set to propose any kind of meaningful alternative.

Over the past week, speeches by the two leaders at the UN General Assembly have laid bare how far apart the two sides remain, six months after Washington's latest peace push fell apart.

President Mahmoud Abbas fired the first volley, telling UN delegates on Friday it was impossible to return to "the cycle of negotiations that failed to deal with the substance of the matter and the fundamental question" of Palestinian statehood.

In strong language reserved normally for an Arab audience, Abbas accused Israel of waging a "war of genocide" during the recent conflict in Gaza, which killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 on the Israeli side.

Experts said the 79-year-old Abbas, who has led the Western-backed Palestinian Authority for nearly a decade, made clear he has no more patience for Washington's longstanding peace efforts.

"The most important point from the speech is that the Palestinians are now rejecting American supervision of the negotiations, which for years have led to nothing," said Wasel Abu Yussef, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, famed for his bombastic speeches at the Assembly, also left no doubt during his address on Monday that he saw no future in pursuing talks in their current format.

Accusing Abbas of spreading "brazen lies", Netanyahu said it was time to move on from the framework of direct peace talks — as laid out nearly 20 years ago in the Oslo Accords.

"The old template for peace must be updated," he said.

That template — meant to deal with so-called "final status" issues like the return of Palestinian refugees, the border of a Palestinian state and the fate of Jerusalem — was revived during the nine months of US-backed negotiations that collapsed in April.

No more illusions 

Following intensive diplomatic efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agreed to sit down in July 2013 for their first direct talks in three years.

But as the months wore on with little progress, Washington tempered its expectations, first giving up on hopes of a comprehensive peace deal to focus on a framework agreement, then simply trying to keep the two sides talking.

Although the talks eventually collapsed following a dispute over Israel’s failure to free Palestinian prisoners and Israeli fury over a unity deal between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fateh, the main stumbling block was the ongoing construction of Jewish settlements.

A few months later, a bloody seven-week war between Israel and Hamas fighters in Gaza put paid to any remaining illusions about a resumption of talks.

The Palestinians are now focusing on other diplomatic avenues to achieve their promised state, including moves to secure a UN Security Council resolution setting a timeframe for ending the occupation.

They are also mulling a war crimes case against Israel at the International Criminal Court, though they have not yet joined the body despite being able to do so since winning the rank of UN observer state in 2012.

Abbas is even said to be considering breaking off crucial political, economic and security agreements with Israel, including his forces’ coordination with the Israeli army in the West Bank — a source of much Palestinian criticism.

‘Palestinian hands tied’

But analysts say alternative strategies can only work if Abbas has the will to follow through — and so far there is no sign of that.

“Abbas’s threats have always been empty because the Palestinian Authority has its hands tied by agreements signed with Israel, is politically dependent on the United States and is economically dependent on Europe and international organisations,” said Karim Bitar, a Middle East expert based in Paris.

Abbas is meanwhile struggling with his own falling popularity, with a recent post-war poll showing he would come second to Hamas’ former Gaza premier Ismail Haniyeh if presidential elections were held now.

The same poll also found only 29 per cent of Palestinians believed talks were the best way to obtain a Palestinian state, with 44 percent saying they believed armed struggle was more effective.

On the Israeli side, the suggestions of a new way forward are even more vague.

In his speech, Netanyahu suggested the combined threats posed by Iran’s nuclear programme and the Islamic State jihadist group would create “new opportunities” for Israel to work with “Arab partners”.

But he offered no details and Israel’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper said any talk of a new partnership with the Arab world was “imaginary”.

Still, some analysts say Abbas may not have given up entirely on the peace process.

Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha Centre said the “hyperbolic and exaggerated” language of Abbas’s speech was mainly meant to “express the frustration” felt by many Palestinians.

“Does it close the door to peace? No,” Shaikh said. “Abbas tried to put pressure on the US and the international community.”

NEAR JALAWLA, Iraq — A truck lies stranded on its side in a no man's land between Kurdish fighters and jihadists ensconced behind minefields, a stalemate the Kurds hope US-led air strikes can break.

Crouched behind a wall of sandbags with a finger on the trigger, an Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighter has the truck in his sights, and the strategic town of Jalawla behind it.

The Islamic State (IS) jihadists seized Jalawla, at the gateway to Iraqi Kurdistan and on the road to Baghdad on August 11.

The peshmerga fighters have since failed to make headway in efforts to recapture it.

A trench dug in the ochre earth leads to a forward Kurdish outpost, where some 30 peshmerga in uniforms ranging from camouflage to traditional baggy trousers and large belt are sheltered behind bottle-green sandbags.

"Beware of IS snipers," one of them warns.

Under a scorching sun, a call to prayer sounds from a mosque inside Jalawla. Behind the sandbags, the attitude ranges from vigilance to boredom.

The buffer zone is riddled with mines laid by the jihadists, deterring any Kurdish advance, says Colonel Ali Abdullah.

The Jalawla front is also of strategic importance for its proximity to Iran, with the border a mere 20 kilometres to the east.

"If we don't retake Jalawla, the whole region will be in danger, right up to the Iranian border," says General Jafar Sheikh Mustapha, a military and political chief of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of regional President Massud Barzani.

Two months ago, the IS militants advanced to an intersection of roads leading to Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

But by the end of August, the Kurds had forced the jihadists to pull back to Jalawla, 130 kilometres from Baghdad, and the frontline has been frozen ever since.

The retreating IS fighters blew up a bridge, reducing it to a mass of concrete and metal rods. The Kurds built a crossing with boulders and rocks for their 4x4 vehicles.

Entrenched behind the minefield, the jihadists have posted snipers to keep out any sappers.

The only way to break the deadlock is for the US-led coalition to send in its warplanes. "They must bomb here," insists Colonel Abdullah.

'Not stronger than Saddam' 

Under fire, they open up with two heavy machineguns, newly delivered by France as part of the coalition's efforts to back up its air campaign with boots on the ground provided by local forces.

Some of the peshmerga are battle-hardened fighters, while others are new to the front, like 20-year-old Sakar who broke off his biology studies to sign up.

A Russian assault rifle slung over his shoulder and four magazines in the pockets of his bullet-proof vest, Sakar says he received no formal training but in any case knows how to use guns.

A few kilometres away, another Kurdish post dominates the valley but is penned in on three sides by IS-held territory.

"That's an IS car," says one fighter, pointing to a speeding vehicle which leaves behind a trail of dust.

Between exchanges of gunfire, the Kurds are waiting for the coalition to soften up the IS position with air strikes. But the peshmerga, whose name translates as "those who confront death" and with their renown for prowess in battle, are determined to hold on.

"I have fought all my life," says an ageing peshmerga with a heavily creased face. "I fought against [toppled leader] Saddam Hussein and the IS is not stronger than Saddam.”

UNITED NATIONS — The Palestinians are asking the UN Security Council to set November 2016 as the deadline for ending the Israeli occupation, according to a draft resolution obtained by AFP on Wednesday.

The draft, circulated to council members, follows Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' address last week to the UN General Assembly in which he called for a fast-track to statehood.

The text, put forward by the Arab group, calls for "the full withdrawal of Israel, the occupying power, from all the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, as rapidly as possible and to be fully completed within a specified timeframe, not to exceed November 2016”.

It calls for the world body to respect "the independence and sovereignty of the state of Palestine and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people".

UN diplomats said the draft resolution stood little chance of being adopted, but the move presents the Security Council with a challenge on how to advance the Middle East peace track if the Palestinian demand is rejected.

European countries and the United States have steadfastly maintained that the best path to Palestinian statehood is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and not by imposing a deadline.

"We are aware of President Abbas' plans and we continue to believe — to strongly believe — that the only way to a negotiated solution is through negotiations between the two parties," US Ambassador Samantha Power said Tuesday.

Palestinian diplomats said they were aware of US opposition to setting a deadline, but that they hoped to garner strong support for the text from other countries.

"The resolution itself is based on the parameters that have been constantly reiterated by the EU, the General Assembly itself and the Security Council," said a diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In the four-page text, the Security Council would assert "its vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side-by-side in peace within secure and recognised borders”.

It demands the "complete cessation of all Israeli settlement activities in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem”.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel is to press ahead with the planned construction of 2,610 settler housing units in occupied East Jerusalem, a watchdog said Wednesday, with the move angering Palestinian leaders.

The housing units, which have been slated for construction since 2012 in the neighbourhood of Givat Hamatos, were given final approval last week, Peace Now said in a statement.

Hagit Ofran, spokeswoman for the Israeli non-governmental group, told AFP the government could now publish tenders for the project, but that it would be months before building actually began.

The settlements watchdog said the plans damaged prospects for peace and an eventual independent Palestinian state.

"Givat Hamatos is destructive to the two state solution," it said.

"It divides the potential Palestinian state... [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu continues his policy of destroying the possibility of a two state solution."

The timing was a political decision, Ofran said, but the exact reason was unclear.

Housing Minister Uri Ariel, who himself lives in a settlement, insisted on army radio it was part of "the normal process of authorisation necessary before any construction project in Jerusalem".

Hanan Ashrawi, a leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, slammed the Givat Hamatos plans, saying in a statement the Israeli government was more interested in "stealing land than making peace".

Israel's settlement building in the occupied West Bank and annexed Arab East Jerusalem, which is illegal under international law, has caused the breakdown of several rounds of peace talks.

The settlements are built on land the Palestinians want for their future state.

Some 200,000 settlers live in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, as well as some 306,000 Palestinians, according to Jerusalem's municipality.

TUNIS — The United Nations plans to hold talks with the militias that have seized control of vast parts of Libya, hoping to persuade them to withdraw from major cities and avert civil war, the UN envoy there said.

On Monday, initial UN-brokered talks began between Libya's parliament — which has been forced out of the capital — and elected members who have boycotted the assembly and who have links to a rival parliament that has set up in Tripoli.

Bernadino Leon, the UN special envoy to Libya, said a second step would be to seek talks with the militias that now run the desert nation three years after the uprising that ended the 42-year-rule of Muammar Qadhafi.

"The United Nations will start talking to the militias in order to try and solve the problems provoked by the presence of these militias on the ground," Leon told Reuters in an interview in Tunis.

He said the talks that started on Monday, in Ghadames, a southern town near the Algerian border, were aimed at getting a political process started, but the lawmakers involved did not directly represent the militias who control Tripoli and other parts of the country.

"The goals will be getting militias out of the main cities as a first step... and of course eventually to reorganise the security in the country with an army," he said, adding: "Of course, we are very far from that."

After Monday's talks, Leon said both sides had agreed on the need for a ceasefire, for humanitarian aid for victims of clashes in Tripoli, and to work to reopen airports closed by fighting.

There was no immediate reaction from Operation Dawn, an alliance of brigades which now controls Tripoli, led by militiamen from the western city of Misrata.

But, in a blow to the peace process, Libya's top Islamic authority, Dar Al Ifta, which is close to the Misrata side, urged a halt to the talks to wait for a supreme court ruling on whether the house of representatives was legitimate.

The court is supposed to rule next month but diplomats fear it will not be able to issue an independent verdict as it is based in Tripoli, controlled by the Misrata forces that oppose the House.

Mohammed Rayed, elected to the assembly from Misrata but who has boycotted its sessions, told Reuters he would abide by the call of the Islamic authority. "We have to comply to what the Dar Al Ifta has called for," he said.

The fluid situation in Tripoli has been worsened by a separate battle in Benghazi where pro-government forces are fighting Islamist militants.

One person was killed and three wounded when clashes broke out between residents and the Ansar Al Sharia Islamist group in the port city late on Tuesday, witnesses said.

CAIRO — Sudan has arrested scores of activists, lawyers and journalists over the past two weeks in a crackdown coinciding with the anniversary of massive protests against the lifting of fuel subsidies, activists and rights groups said Wednesday.

Nearly 200 people were killed during the demonstrations a year ago, according to rights groups, in the worst violence in the capital since President Omar Bashir came to power in 1989. Some of the protests called for Al Bashir's ouster, while the president accused the demonstrators of using "recent economic decisions" as a pretext to topple the government.

The government flooded the capital with security forces in the days leading up to the anniversary of the demonstrations, and no major protests were held. A senior official from Sudan's ruling party told state media that the security forces deployed in order to provide "reassurance" and that last year's killings were "made by mistake".

WASHINGTON — US aircraft renewed bombing raids against Islamic State jihadists in northern Syria on Wednesday, the Pentagon said, in a bid to prevent the militants from overrunning Kurdish fighters trying to defend the strategic town.

American fighter jets and robotic drones carried out three air strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday near the border town of Ain Arab, known as Kobane in Kurdish, US Central Command said in a statement.

The three raids destroyed an IS armed vehicle, an artillery piece and a tank, said Central Command [Centcom], which oversees American forces across the Middle East.

The border area has become a pivotal battleground as the IS group has steadily closed in on outgunned Kurdish forces in Kobane, with fierce fighting and tens of thousands of refugees fleeing across the border into Turkey.

According to Centcom press releases, the US-led coalition has attacked the IS group around Kobane in at least seven air raids since Saturday.

In Iraq, US and allied forces carried out five bombing raids against the IS group on Tuesday and Wednesday, employing fighter jets and drone aircraft, according to Central Command. British fighter jets took part.

The attacks included three air strikes northwest of Mosul, destroying two IS armed vehicles and an IS-controlled building, it said.

There was also a bombing run targeting an IS vehicle near the Haditha dam in the west, and another raid northwest of Baghdad that took out two armed vehicles, it said.

There have been more than 300 coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria since the campaign was launched on August 8, according to Central Command.

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly told US President Barack Obama on Wednesday that he must make sure that any final nuclear deal with Iran does not leave it at the "threshold" of being able to develop nuclear weapons.

Even as Netanyahu pressed Obama over Iran, the president urged the Israeli leader to help find ways to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties like those inflicted in the recent Gaza war between Israel and Hamas militants.

Meeting for the first time in eight months, the two leaders, who have a history of strained relations, avoided any direct verbal clash during a brief press appearance at the White House and even seemed in sync over the fight against Islamic State militants.

But they were unable to hide their differences on some of the issues that have stoked tension between them.

Underscoring Israeli misgivings at a critical juncture in nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, Netanyahu made clear that he remains at odds with Obama about the course of international negotiations with Israel's regional archfoe.

"As you know, Mr President, Iran seeks a deal that would lift the tough sanctions that you worked so hard to put in place and leave it as a threshold nuclear power," Netanyahu told Obama. "I firmly hope under your leadership that would not happen."

The crux of the US-Israeli disagreement is that Netanyahu wants Tehran completely stripped of its nuclear capability under any comprehensive accord, while Obama has suggested he is open to Iran continuing to enrich uranium on a limited basis for civilian purposes.

Obama spoke in only vague terms about Iran as the leaders began their private discussions, saying "progress was being made" in dealing with Tehran's nuclear programme.

While Netanyahu put the emphasis on Iran, Obama was quick to focus on the bloody 55-day Gaza conflict, which ended in August with no clear victor. This followed the collapse of US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and Palestinians in April.

"We have to find ways to change the status quo so that both Israeli citizens are safe in their own homes and schoolchildren in their schools from the possibility of rocket fire, but also that we don't have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed as well," Obama said.

The Obama administration had backed Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas cross-border rocket fire during the conflict, but also voiced rare criticism of Israeli military tactics as Palestinian civilian casualties mounted.

The conflict devastated some Gaza districts and killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.

Thinking 'outside
the box'

Netanyahu said he remained "committed to a vision of peace for two states for two peoples" based on arrangements for Israel's security. But he did not offer any path towards restarting negotiations with the Palestinians.

Instead, he suggested there was a need to "think outside the box" and recruit moderate Arab states to "build a positive programme" to advance peace and security in the region, though he offered no specifics.

Palestinians have dismissed this approach as an attempt to circumvent direct talks.

The two leaders showed no outright tension as they sat side-by-side in the Oval Office. Both were cordial and businesslike, even shaking hands after Obama delivered his statement.

The last thing the White House wanted was a repetition of a 2011 Oval Office visit when Netanyahu lectured Obama on the long struggles of the Jewish people.

But even with calm words, there was little doubt about the lingering differences.

Netanyahu was expected to use the Oval Office meeting to continue sounding the warning he issued in his speech at the United Nations this week — that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a far greater threat than Islamic State fighters who have seized swathes of Syria and Iraq. An Iranian UN delegate accused Netanyahu of "propagating Iranophobia and Islamophobia”.

Though Israel backs Obama's efforts to forge a coalition to confront Islamic State, some Israelis fear that world powers could go easy on Shiite Iran's nuclear programme so it will help in the fight against the Sunni Islamist group.

In Wednesday's talks, Netanyahu was clearly intent on keeping the focus on Iran, whose nuclear programme he considers an existential threat to Israel. Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons capability.

Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal.

An Israeli official said earlier that Netanyahu wanted "reassurances" from Obama that he would hold to his pledge that he would rather have no deal than a "bad deal" with Iran.

Iran and six world powers ended 10 days of talks in New York last week that made little progress in overcoming disagreements on issues such as the future scope of Tehran's nuclear programme and the speed of lifting sanctions. The talks are aimed at getting a long-term agreement by a November 24 deadline.

ERBIL, Iraq/MURSITPINAR, Turkey — Iraqi Kurdish troops drove Islamic State fighters from a strategic border crossing with Syria on Tuesday and won the support of members of a major Sunni tribe, in one of the biggest successes since US forces began bombing the Islamists.

The victory, which could make it harder for militants to operate on both sides of the frontier, was also achieved with help from Kurds from the Syrian side of the frontier, a new sign of cooperation across the border.

Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters took control of the Rabia border crossing in a battle that began before dawn, an Iraqi Kurdish political source said.

“It’s the most important strategic point for crossing,” the source said.

The participation of Sunni tribal fighters in the battle against Islamic State could prove as important a development as the advance itself.

Members of the influential Shammar tribe, one of the largest in northwestern Iraq, joined the Kurds in the fighting, a tribal figure said.

“Rabia is completely liberated. All of the Shammar are with the peshmerga and there is full cooperation between us,” Abdullah Yawar, a leading member of the tribe, told Reuters.

He said the cooperation was the result of an agreement with the president of Iraq’s Kurdish region after three months of negotiation to join forces against the “common enemy”.

Gaining support from Sunni tribes, many of which either supported or acquiesced in Islamic State’s June advance, would be a crucial objective for the Iraqi government and its regional and Western allies in the fight against the insurgents.

Winning over Sunni tribes

Winning over Sunni tribes was a central part of the strategy that helped the US military defeat a precursor of Islamic State during the “surge” campaign of 2006-2007. Washington hopes the new Iraqi government can repeat it.

Rabia controls the main highway linking Syria to Mosul, the biggest city in northern Iraq, which Islamic State fighters captured in June at the start of a lightning advance through Iraq’s Sunni Muslim north that jolted the Middle East.

Twelve Islamic State fighters’ bodies lay on the border at the crossing after the battle, said Hemin Hawrami, head of the foreign relations department of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the main Iraqi Kurdish parties, on Twitter.

Syrian Kurdish fighters said they had also joined the battle: “We are defending Rabia... trying to coordinate action with the Peshmerga against Islamic State,” said Saleh Muslim, head of the Syria-based Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

If Rabia can be held, its recapture is one of the biggest successes since US-led forces started bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq in August.

It is one of two main border crossings between militant-held parts of the two countries, control of which has allowed Islamic State to declare a single caliphate on both sides.

The ability to cross the frontier freely has been a major tactical advantage for Islamic State fighters on both sides. Fighters swept from Syria into northern Iraq in June and returned with heavy weapons seized from fleeing Iraqi government troops, which they have used to expand their territory in Syria.

Washington expanded the campaign to Syria last week in an effort to defeat the fighters who have swept through Sunni areas of both countries, killing prisoners, chasing out Kurds and ordering Shiites and non-Muslims to convert or die.

Washington hopes the strikes, conducted with help from European allies in Iraq and Arab air forces in Syria, will allow government and Kurdish forces in Iraq, and moderate Sunnis in Syria, to recapture territory.

Britain said its Tornado warplanes had launched their first attacks against Islamic State in Iraq since parliament approved combat operations last Friday, targeting a heavy weapons position that was endangering Kurdish forces and subsequently attacking an IS armed pickup truck in the same area.

In Iraq, a coalition of Iraqi army, Shiite militia fighters and Kurdish troops known as Peshmerga have been slowly recapturing Sunni villages that had been under Islamic State control south of the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk.

Peshmerga liberated two villages 40km south of Kirkuk from Islamic State on Tuesday, an Iraqi security official said.

Ground shaking beneath our feet

Peshmerga secretary general, Jabbar Yawar, estimated the Iraqi Kurds had now retaken around half the territory they lost when the militants surged north towards the regional capital Erbil in early August, an advance that helped to prompt the US strikes.

Peshmerga fighters, Iraqi army troops and pro-government militia were advancing north from the peshmerga-held city of Tuz Khurmatu to drive Islamic State fighters out of the countryside that surrounds Kirkuk, the official said. He credited US-led air strikes with helping the peshmerga clear the two villages.

“This area witnessed intense air strikes from US-led strikes and Iraqi air strikes overnight and at dawn,” the official said.

The explosions shook Kirkuk itself: “We felt the ground shaking beneath our feet, and then we heard that there were air strikes outside Kirkuk,” said a policeman in the city.

In addition to aiding the Kurds in the north, US air strikes have targeted fighters west of Baghdad and on its southern outskirts.

“We believe the US air strikes have helped in containing Islamic State’s momentum,” said lawmaker Mowaffak Al Rubaie, a former head of Iraq’s advisory security council.

Iraqi officials said US air strikes, along with strikes by Iraq’s own aircraft, had killed dozens of Islamic State fighters the previous day south of the capital.

“It appears that 67 [Islamic State] militants were killed in Fadiliya,” said an Iraqi security source, referring to a town south of the capital.

The US military said it had conducted 11 air strikes in Syria and the same number in Iraq in the previous 24 hours, on Islamic State tanks, artillery, checkpoints and buildings.

Islamic State fighters have laid siege to Kobani, a Kurdish city on Syria’s border with Turkey. Sporadic gunfire could be heard from across the frontier, and a shell could be seen exploding in olive groves on the western outskirts of town.

A steady stream of people, mostly men, were crossing the border post back into Syria, apparently to help defend the town.

Ocalan Iso, deputy commander of the Kurdish forces defending the town, told Reuters Kurdish troops had battled Islamic State fighters armed with tanks through the night and into Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a body that monitors the war with a network on the ground, said US-led strikes had hit Islamic State positions west of Kobani.

The observatory said Islamic State now controls 325 out of 354 villages on the rural outskirts of Kobani.

Turkey is likely to gain parliamentary approval for cross-border military operations in Syria and Iraq this week as Islamic State insurgents threaten its territory, but it will be hesitant to send in troops without an internationally-enforced no-fly zone.

Islamic State insurgents are advancing on a tomb in northern Syria regarded by Turkey as sovereign territory and guarded by Turkish soldiers, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

ALGIERS — Algeria's justice minister said Tuesday that some of the members of the group that kidnapped and beheaded a French hiker have been identified.

Tayeb Louh told state TV that the initial investigation has resulted in the identification of "certain members of the terrorist group behind the crime", without any further elaboration.

Ministry spokeswoman Amina Haddad told The Associated Press that the case was being handled by the Algiers Tribune and arrest warrants had been issued on charges of kidnapping, illegal detention and murder.

French mountain guide Herve Gourdel was kidnapped while hiking on Algeria's Djurdjura mountain range on September 21 by a splinter group from the Algerian branch of Al Qaida pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

The group calling itself Jund Al Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, demanded France end its participation in US-led airstrikes against the Islamic State group. On Thursday, a video surfaced on social network sites showing Gourdel's decapitation.

Algerian army and police have scoured the mountainous region where Gourdel was kidnapped searching for the group and his remains.

The group released a new video on Tuesday showing dozens of its members swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group.

Previously most Algerian extremist groups had recognised the authority of Al Qaeda.

Algerian extremist groups have been largely confined to the mountainous Kabylie region focusing their attacks on local security forces.