Region

MURSITPINAR, Turkey — Islamic State militants closed in on Syria's third-largest Kurdish town on Sunday as tens of thousands fled in terror across the border into Turkey.

The UN refugee agency said as many as 70,000 Syrian Kurds had poured into Turkey since Friday, and solidarity protests by Turkish Kurds on the border prompted clashes with security forces.

Syrian Kurdish fighters backed by reinforcements from Turkey are battling to hold off a jihadist advance on the strategic border town of Ain Al Arab, known as Kobane by the Kurds.

The IS group has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring a "caliphate", imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law and committing widespread atrocities including beheadings and crucifixions.

Local officials have warned of potential massacres should IS extremists advance on Ain Al Arab and pleaded for an international intervention.

But despite promises by Washington to expand its air campaign against IS in Iraq to Syria, there were no signs yet of US strikes in the country.

UNHCR said it feared the massive influx of refugees would only grow and said authorities were preparing for the possibility of hundreds of thousands of additional arrivals.

‘Waiting for a miracle’ 

IS fighters have been advancing on Ain Al Arab since late Tuesday, hoping to cement their control over a large part of Syria’s border with Turkey.

On Sunday, they were within some 10 kilometres of the town, after capturing more than 60 villages in the area, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said.

The fighting has killed at least 27 Kurdish militants and 39 IS jihadists, and Kurdish fighters from Turkey have crossed into Syria to join the fray.

There were tense scenes at the border on Sunday after Turkish security forces used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a solidarity protest by Turkish Kurds.

After the clashes, security forces closed most of the border crossing points in the area, including one used by Kurdish fighters heading to Syria.

Only two posts remain open, and the interior ministry will now register new arrivals.

Mustefa Ebdi, a Kobane resident, local journalist and activist, said the streets of the town — once home to about 50,000 people — were virtually empty.

“Most of the women and children have left Kobane, but there are thousands of Kurdish men who have taken up arms and are ready to defend the city,” he told AFP by telephone, adding that the fighters would have a hard time matching the heavy weapons of IS.

“We need one US airplane to strike those barbarians, where is this international coalition?” he said. “We are waiting for a miracle.”

The Syrian opposition National Coalition has urged foreign air strikes to “stop mass atrocities” if IS advances into Ain Al Arab.

Washington has assembled a coalition of more than 40 countries to fight IS, and has already carried out 183 air strikes against the jihadist group in Iraq.

It has expressed willingness to target the group in Syria, despite warnings from Damascus against violating its airspace.

In Iraq on Sunday, government forces launched an operation to rescue an army battalion that has come under repeated attack by militants near the western city of Fallujah.

“Forces from the interior and defence ministries, counterterrorism forces and volunteers are advancing to clear the Al-Sijr area,” Iraqi military spokesman Qassem Atta told AFP, adding that the operation was backed by US air support.

No ‘bargain’ for Turkish hostages 

International outrage has grown over the group’s atrocities including the on-camera beheadings of two US journalists and a British aid worker.

The wife of a British taxi driver being held hostage by the jihadists released a statement on Saturday urging his captors to free him.

Alan Henning, a 47-year-old father of two, volunteered to drive a humanitarian aid convoy to Syria for a Muslim charity but was captured 10 months ago by IS.

In the statement his wife Barbara Henning urged his captors to “see it in their hearts to release my husband”.

“I cannot see how it could assist any state’s cause to allow the world to see a man like Alan dying,” she said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that dozens of Turkish hostages held by Islamic State militants in Iraq had been freed as a result of negotiations and no ransom had been paid for their release.

Forty-six Turks abducted by IS militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were freed and returned to Turkey on Saturday after more than three months in captivity.

“A bargain for money is totally out of the question. There were only diplomatic and political negotiations. And this is a diplomatic victory,” Erdogan told reporters at Ankara’s Esenboga Airport before departing for New York for a UN General Assembly meeting.

SANAA — Yemen's prime minister submitted his resignation to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Sunday amid chaos over reported advances by Shiite Muslim Houthi rebels on some military buildings and government offices in the capital.

The move by Mohammed Salem Basindwa added to the confusion in Sanaa, where Houthi rebels were due to sign a deal, brokered by UN special envoy Jamal Benomar, intended to end the fighting and pave the way for a new government within two weeks.

Sanaa residents said the Houthis had taken over several government sites including the prime minister's buildings, an army command centre and the state television compound after security forces withdrew — although TV broadcasts continued.

The fighting in Sanaa threatens a UN-backed transition to democracy that began after veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step down in 2012 after months of protests against his 30 years in office.

"I have decided to tender my resignation from the government [of national reconciliation] out of my concern to pave the way for any agreement reached between the brother leaders of Ansarullah [the Houthis] and brother Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the president of the republic," Basindwa wrote in the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

There was no immediate word from Hadi’s office about the resignation. Basindwa took office as head of a national unity government in 2011 under a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal that saw Saleh agree to step down.

The Houthis, who stayed out of Basindwa’s government, have pressed for a new administration. Last month, they began a wave of demonstrations in Sanaa to protest against a raise in fuel prices, a move that had been taken to curb the rising budget deficit. The protests later escalated into armed clashes.

Advance

Yemeni officials estimate that more than 100 people have died in the fighting, which has largely been concentrated in northern Sanaa near the headquarters of the First Armoured Division, a force loyal to an army general viewed by the Houthis as linked to hardline Sunni Islamists hostile to them.

One resident in the area said on Sunday he had counted at least 10 bodies — six Houthi fighters and four uniformed soldiers — killed in the fighting.

Benomar, who held talks with Houthi leader Abdulmalek Al Houthi in his home province of Saada on Wednesday and Thursday, announced late on Saturday that an agreement had been reached and was to be signed on Sunday.

The accord calls for the creation of a new national unity government which will bring in the Houthis and mostly reverse the unpopular decision to increase fuel prices.

Yemeni officials said Houthi’s representatives flew to Sanaa to sign the deal at a ceremony expected to be attended by Hadi, who continues to support the deal despite the latest fighting.

The picture appeared murky but residents said Houthis gained control of some vacant government buildings, including the prime minister’s building and a building belonging to the army general command after security forces vacated them.

The interior ministry’s website said the minister has instructed security forces to avoid clashing with Houthis.

One Houthi rebel leader told Reuters late on Saturday his group had stepped up shelling of government forces and had driven soldiers out of the state television headquarters.

“We controlled a military unit east of the First Armoured Division... and we continued heavy shelling of the division headquarters and the nearby Iman university in all directions,” Ali Al Emad said.

Curfew

Students and security guards at the university run by Abdel-Majeed Al Zindani, a prominent cleric who is on a US terrorism blacklist, were later forced to quit the campus due to the Houthi attacks, a university official told Reuters on Sunday.

Fighting raged throughout Saturday on the outskirts of Sanaa and the rebels said they had taken control of the headquarters of state television, though broadcasting continued from a different location.

Yemen’s higher security committee announced a curfew in four areas of the capital from 9pm until 6am and schools have been shut until further notice.

Insecurity and political turmoil have grown since Saleh was ousted by Arab Spring protests. The Houthi insurrection is only one of several threats to the stability of Yemen, which borders oil exporter Saudi Arabia and is struggling with a secessionist movement in the south and a spreading Al Qaeda insurgency.

Houthis have been struggling for a decade against the Sunni-dominated government for more territory and autonomy in the north.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Soldiers and police have clashed in the last few days in southern Libya, near the country's biggest oilfield, with ethnic Tibu fighters who had been trying to smuggle in fellow tribesmen from Algeria, medics and residents said.

Up to 12 people have been killed in the fighting, which broke out on Wednesday and is symptomatic of the anarchy in Libya, where the government is almost powerless to control former rebel militias who helped oust Muammar Qadhafi in 2011 but now fight each for control and a share of oil revenues.

The fighting started in Ubari, near El Sharara oilfield, which was shut last week because of damage to a storage facility at the Zawiya Refinery in the north, which it feeds.

Residents said gunmen had attacked a police station in the town, not far from the main southern city of Sabha, after the border smuggling attempt failed. Around 27 people were wounded, hospital medics said.

Some commentators on Libyan social media websites linked the fighting to attempts by an armed opposition group from the western city of Misrata to get access to El Sharara field after taking the capital Tripoli last month.

Libyan media have reported that envoys from Misrata-based groups have visited several areas in western and southern Libya in the past few weeks to sound out the possibility of cooperation with local groups and tribes.

Misrata, Libya's third city, is home to some of the most experienced rebel militias, as well as Libya's biggest non-oil port.

But the city lacks access to oil, Libya's only source of revenue for the $47 billion annual budget. Rival militias from Zintan, who have been expelled from Tripoli by Misrata's forces, control pipelines coming from the two southern oilfields of El Sharara and El Feel.

Members of the Tibu minority, which has complained of neglect, have blocked the El Sharara field in the past to demand financial assistance or guarantees of citizenship for Tibu who come from neighbouring Algeria or Niger.

El Sharara is jointly operated by Libya's state-run National Oil Corp. (NOC) and Spain's Repsol. El Feel, which has also been blocked on occasion by other protesters, is operated by NOC and Italy's ENI.

Since a Misrata-led rebel alliance took control of Tripoli earlier this year, forcing the elected parliament and officials to move to Tobruk in the east, Western powers and Libya's neighbours have become increasingly worried that the OPEC member is sliding into civil war.

The Misrata alliance has set up a rival parliament and government, which have not been recognised by the international community.

El Sharara field was pumping around 200,000 barrels of oil per day until the shutdown last week, and Libya as a whole was producing 870,000 bpd, according to a senior oil official.

On Sunday, Ibrahim Al Awami, head of the inspection and measurement department at the oil ministry, said Zawiya and El Sharara remained shut, and Libya's output was down to 700,000 bpd.

WASHINGTON — The United States says other countries are willing to launch air strikes in Syria against Islamic State militants and its UN ambassador predicted on Sunday: "We will not do the air strikes alone."

Washington is trying to build an international military, political and financial coalition to defeat the radical Sunni Muslim group that has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power was asked on CBS' "Face the Nation" if the United States had any indication other countries were willing to launch air strikes in Syria.

"We do," Power said. "But we're going to leave it to other nations to announce for themselves what their specific commitments to the coalition are going to be."

Power highlighted US efforts to build a coalition against Islamic State on television news shows as world leaders gathered in New York for this week's UN General Assembly.

The United States has launched air strikes against Islamic State within Iraq and President Barack Obama has authorised strikes in Syria aimed at denying Islamic State fighters safe havens in either country. Washington has also committed $500 million to arm and train Syrian rebels and 1,600 US troops into Iraq to fight the group.

Power refused to identify any of the countries that might join air attacks in Syria, but told CBS, "we do indeed have the support along the lines that I've described".

Power told the ABC programme "This Week" there was universal support for "degrading and destroying" Islamic state.

"I will make you a prediction," Power said on ABC. "We will not do the air strikes alone if the president decides to do the air strikes."

France last week launched air strikes inside Iraq, but its President Francois Hollande ruled out action in Syria.

Obama will give a speech at the General Assembly on Wednesday to make the case again for world action against Islamic State.

Islamic State has vowed to pursue a "direct confrontation" with the United States and made public its beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff as retaliation for US air attacks in Iraq.

While Americans support air strikes, there is little appetite for a long campaign against the group, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

Congress last week approved Obama's request for $500 million to arm and train Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State, but some lawmakers expressed reservations.

"The risk is that the United States begins getting involved in what may be a very long-term commitment to a messy civil war in Syria," Senator Chris Murphy, a Foreign Relations Committee Democrat who voted against the aid, told NBC's "Meet the Press".

Republican committee member Ron Johnson, who approved the aid, said he did not think aid and air strikes would be enough to defeat Islamic State. "I'm just not seeing the strategy that's actually going to work," he told NBC.

BEIRUT — A suicide bomber killed a number of people Saturday at a Hizbollah checkpoint near Lebanon's border with Syria Saturday, hours after news that the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda had executed a Lebanese soldier.

Lebanon has long been on edge over the three-and-a-half-year civil war in Syria. Violence frequently spills over into the country and troops have been battling jihadists in eastern Lebanon sporadically since August.

Hizbollah 's fighters have been supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a war against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels.

A security official in the Lebanese city of Baalbek said Saturday a suicide bomber blew himself up near a Hizbollah checkpoint in the Khraybeh area in the Bekaa Valley.

"The Hizbollah fighters at the checkpoint were all killed" and a number more nearby were wounded, he added, without saying how many there were in total.

Lebanon's National News Agency said three people had been killed at the checkpoint, without specifying that they were fighters.

Earlier, the government announced that a soldier had been executed by Al Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda.

The soldier "was killed by terrorist groups who threatened to kill other hero soldiers in captivity", Defence Minister Samir Moqbel said after meeting security officials.

One of Al Nusra's Twitter accounts announced that the group had killed the soldier it was holding hostage.

First execution by Nusra

The soldier "Mohammed Hammiya, first victim of the Lebanese army's stubbornness", the Tweet read.

It was the first claim of its kind made by Al Nusra since around 30 soldiers and policemen were kidnapped in the town of Arsal near the border with Syria, during fighting between the Lebanese army and jihadists from Syria.

The fighting in Arsal was the most serious border incident since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.

In late August and early September, two Lebanese soldiers — one Sunni and one Shiite — were beheaded by the extremist Islamic State group, which had been holding a number of the hostages.

Hammiya was a Shiite.

In the same Tweet, Al Nusra accused the army of having "become a puppet in the hands of the Iranian party", a reference to Hizbollah, which is backed by Shiite-majority Iran and is loathed by jihadists and Syrian rebels for supporting Assad.

The kidnappers had been demanding the withdrawal of Hizbollah fighters from Syria and a prisoner swap for Islamist prisoners held in Lebanon.

The fighting erupted on August 2 and ended five days later with a truce, as jihadists took shelter in the mountainous areas along the Syrian border.

Since then the army has clashed sporadically with the jihadists, and on Friday two Lebanese soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on their vehicle in the Arsal area.

Lebanese forces resumed their shelling of jihadist positions in retaliation, and launched a widespread campaign of arrests.

On Saturday, soldiers stepped-up artillery fire, a security source said, and the government stressed the need to "continue the confrontation" with "extremist forces".

At least 11 members of Al Nusra and other Islamist rebel groups were killed overnight in the bombardment of the Arsal region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

On September 5, Al Nusra broadcast a new video of nine Lebanese soldiers and policemen, saying that they could "pay the price" for Hizbollah's involvement in the Syrian conflict.

The war in neighbouring Syria has destabilised Lebanon, which has taken in more than 1 million refugees, and split the country's inhabitants between those who are sympathetic to the Syrian regime and those who back the rebels battling for its overthrow.

TEHRAN — Iran's judiciary has issued a one-month ultimatum for the government to ban applications WhatsApp, Viber and Tango, in a move that could boost existing restrictions on Internet use in the country.

Iran has a policy of filtering online content, which leaves popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube inaccessible without the use of illegal software.

"After the order given by the head of the judicial authority, you have one month to take technical measures to ban and to monitor" Viber, Tango and WhatsApp, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejeie, the second-ranking member of Iran's judiciary, said in a letter to Telecommunications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi.

Mohseni-Ejeie criticised "messages against the founder of the Islamic republic [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] that have been widely circulated on the Viber, Tango and WhatsApp networks" in recent weeks.

In the letter published by local news agencies on Saturday, he stressed that the messages constitute "crimes".

Local media said similar messages had been sent through the applications about current officials in the Iranian government, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

If the telecommunications ministry does not take the measures the judiciary will intervene to "ban the social networks that have criminal content", Mohseni-Ejeie said. The ministry did not immediately react to the letter.

Deputy police chief General Hossein Ashtari has said that police were determining the origins of messages that contained "insults against the holy values of the imam Khomeini".

Conservatives have accused "counter-revolutionary groups" of circulating the "insults" under the guise of jokes.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has been calling for greater social freedoms in the country. Tehran's decision to approve faster 3G mobile Internet licences for two Iranian companies last month was seen as a first step toward making Internet access easier.

But the licenses decision caused controversy with conservative clerics and officials arguing that video call functions on smartphones could expose youngsters to "immoral content".

Iran's ministry of telecommunications, technology and information later stated that video calling would not be available, despite such services — including FaceTime and Skype — being accessible on regular Internet connections.

WhatsApp is a mobile messaging application available that allow users to swap text, picture and video messages. Viber and Tango let users call other people who have the applications installed on their mobiles.

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed US concern Sunday over the use of chlorine gas against civilians in Syria and warned President Bashar Assad's regime that it would be held to account.

Kerry pointed to a report by the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that concluded with "a high degree of confidence" that chlorine has been used systematically and repeatedly as a weapon in northern Syria.

His comments came as Damascus said it had turned over all its chemical weapons, had cooperated fully with the OPCW and adhered to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Kerry noted that the OPCW report had cited witness reports that helicopters were used in the chlorine gas attacks, which he said "strongly points to Syrian culpability" because the rebels do not have helicopters.

The report also mentioned that there were additional attacks in August which witnesses said resembled those in which chlorine gas use was confirmed, Kerry said.

"This finding, coupled with deep concerns regarding the accuracy and completeness of Syria's declaration to the OPCW, raises especially troubling concerns that continued chemical attacks on the Syrian people by the regime could occur," Kerry said.

ANKARA — Turkey said Sunday that dozens of hostages held by Islamic State militants in Iraq had been released without ransom, ending a crisis that has hindered Ankara's ability to combat jihadism on its borders.

"A bargain for money is totally out of the question. There were only diplomatic and political negotiations. And this is a diplomatic victory," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters at Ankara's Esenboga Airport.

The 46 Turks abducted by IS jihadists in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul returned Saturday after more than three months in captivity, in what Erdogan described as a "secret rescue operation" by Turkey's spy agency.

Asked whether hostages had been released in exchange for IS militants, Erdogan said: "It doesn't matter whether there was a swap or not. The most important thing is they [the hostages] are back and reunited with their families."

Diplomats and their children were seized from the Turkish consulate in Mosul along with special forces officers on June 11 as IS militants overran swathes of northern Iraq.

IS also kidnapped 31 Turkish truck drivers in early June from the city, but released them a month later.

IS has declared an Islamic "caliphate" across parts of northern Iraq and Syria, committing widespread atrocities and instituting a brutal interpretation of Islamic law.

Turkey, a NATO member and Washington's key ally in the region, has been reluctant to take part in combat operations against IS or allow a US-led coalition to use its airbases for strikes, citing concern for the safety of its hostages.

Ankara has also faced criticism that it allowed the formation of Islamic State through its support of Islamist elements within the Syrian rebellion against President Bashar Assad.

Reconsidering coalition demands

Erdogan signalled that Turkey may reevaluate its cooperation with the anti-IS coalition now that the hostages have been released.

"We could have said 'yes' to some coalition demands immediately. But we couldn't have done it at the time. We said we had 49 lives and that we can't take any step without resolving this issue," he said.

"We said we cannot play a role in the coalition... But we need to engage in intensive negotiations with coalition members to map out a roadmap. After that we will decide what kind of attitude to take," he said.

Erdogan also said he hopes to revisit discussions over setting up a buffer zone along its Iraq-Syria border when he meets US Vice President Joe Biden at an upcoming UN summit.

Earlier Sunday, Erdogan told the hostages that while "our top priority was the security of your lives... it is also our duty to think about our country's reputation".

"There are things that have talked about, we will talk about and we cannot talk about," Erdogan said.

"Running a state is different than running a grocery store. We have to protect sensitive issues, otherwise there would be a heavy price to pay."

He said the hostages had been rescued by Ankara's spy agency MIT, which had carried out a "covert" rescue operation together with the Turkish army and police to secure their release.

"No other countries were involved in the operation," Erdogan said.

Turkish media reported that the MIT failed five times to rescue the hostages because the IS militants moved them each time tensions in the area escalated.

BEIRUT — A Lebanese soldier has been executed by Al Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, the government said on Saturday.

The soldier "was killed by terrorist groups who threatened to kill other hero soldiers in captivity", Defence Minister Samir Moqbel said after meeting security officials.

One of Al Nusra's Twitter accounts announced that the group had killed the soldier it was holding hostage.

The soldier "Mohammed Hammiya, first victim of the Lebanese army's stubbornness," the Tweet read.

It was the first claim of its kind made by Al Nusra since around 30 soldiers and policemen were kidnapped in the town of Arsal near the border with Syria, during fighting between the Lebanese army and jihadists from Syria.

The fighting in Arsal was the most serious border incident since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.

In late August and early September, two Lebanese soldiers — one Sunni and one Shiite — were beheaded by the extremist Islamic State group, which had been holding a number of the hostages.

Hammiya was a Shiite.

RAMALLAH — Indirect talks between Israeli and Palestinian delegations on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will resume on Wednesday in Cairo, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said Saturday.

On August 26, both sides agreed a truce that ended 50 days of deadly conflict in the enclave and provided for a resumption of negotiations within a month to discuss unresolved issues.

These include the construction of a seaport and restoring the territory’s airport, and exchanging Palestinian prisoners for the remains of Israeli soldiers.

The indirect talks between Israel and a delegation of all Palestinian groups will be preceded by talks between the two heavyweights of Palestinian politics, Fateh Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Islamist Hamas.

“Egypt has invited Palestinian and Israeli delegations to resume talks in Cairo on September 24,” a Palestinian official said.

An Egyptian official confirmed the date and added that Fateh and Hamas had been invited to meet on Monday.