Region

WASHINGTON — Violence in Iraq could delay the delivery of American F-16 fighter jets to the Baghdad government after contractors had to be evacuated from a key air base, the Pentagon said Monday.

Although the United States is moving to expedite the delivery of weapons and ammunition to the Iraqi government as it battles Sunni extremists, volatile conditions on the ground threaten to disrupt preparations for the F-16 jets, spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.

Private contractors working on the F-16 programme at Balad Airbase were recently moved to a safer location in Baghdad because of the threat posed by advancing Sunni militants.

“They [contractors] are no longer operating in Balad. So it will have an impact. It’s too soon to tell exactly what that impact is,” Warren said.

His comments came as Iraq took delivery of a first batch of Sukhoi Su-25 fighter aircraft from Russia, but the Pentagon insisted Moscow’s move would not derail Washington’s arms sales to Baghdad.

“The Iraqi purchase of Russian military equipment does not affect the Iraqi purchase of American military equipment,” said Warren, adding: “We are continuing with our foreign military sales programme to Iraq.”

He rejected criticism from some Iraqi leaders that the United States was purposely stalling the delivery of badly needed weapons or aircraft, including the F-16s.

“We are very aware of the critical need that Iraq has for advanced weapons. We are working as quickly as possible to ensure that they receive all the foreign military sales that they have requested and that they paid for,” he said.

“We don’t believe our process is any slower and more deliberate than it needs to be.”

“However, all arms sales have to be vetted to comply with rules about safeguarding the transfer of some sensitive military technology,” he said.

“The United States has provided 400 out of 500 Hellfire missiles recently purchased by Iraq and the final 100 missiles would arrive in Baghdad with a few weeks,” he said.

And the Pentagon continues to supply Iraqi forces with small arms and ammunition that are of “immediate” use, he added.

The Defence Department plans to sell Iraq up to 24 Apache attack helicopters as well, but Baghdad has not yet paid for the choppers, according to Warren.

“The key to resolving the conflict in Iraq was not supplying Baghdad with weapons but instead forging a political settlement addressing the country’s sectarian tensions,” he said.

“The solution to this problem is an inclusive government, not firepower,” he said.

ANKARA — Turkey opposes independence for a Kurdish state in northern Iraq and wants a unity government in Baghdad to counter the threat by Islamist Sunni rebels who have seized large swathes of territory in recent weeks, Turkish officials said.

Iraqi Kurds have benefited from the recent turmoil sweeping the country by occupying territory abandoned by government forces fleeing the advance of Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which took Iraq’s second city Mosul earlier this month.

Turkey has good relations with the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq but would not support moves to push for independence from Baghdad, a Turkish government official said in response to questions from Reuters on Monday.

“Turkey’s position is for the territorial integrity and political unity of Iraq, that’s it,” the official said anonymously, in order to speak more freely.

“[We] are not in favour of any independence, that would be detrimental to that unity. Nothing like that could be discussed,” the official stated, adding that Ankara is backing calls for the creation of a consensus or unity government to represent the interests of all Iraqis.

There has been mounting speculation over the past few weeks that Ankara’s poor relations with the central Shiite-led government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki could lead to Turkey accepting or supporting a Kurdish breakaway from Baghdad.

Comments in the Financial Times on Saturday by Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling AK Party, have been interpreted as suggesting Ankara would tolerate an independent Kurdish state if Iraq were to fall apart.

“If Iraq is divided and it is inevitable, they are our brothers... Unfortunately the situation in Iraq is not good and it looks like it is going to be divided,” Celik was quoted as saying.

However another Turkish official at the prime minister’s office last week appeared to pour cold water on the idea, telling Reuters that “the integrity of Iraq is very important to Turkey”.

Turkey has in the past been cool to efforts for greater autonomy for Iraqi Kurdistan for fear of stirring up separatist feelings among its own Kurds, who fought a decades-long insurgency in which an estimated 40,000 people were killed.

Peace talks led to a ceasefire in that conflict last year.

This year, Turkey allowed Iraqi Kurds to pipe oil to export for the first time, pumping it to a Turkish port over Baghdad’s objections.

The first tankers of Kurdish oil were bought in recent weeks by Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for Kurdish statehood on Sunday, taking a position that appeared to clash with the US preference to keep Iraq united.

The Kurds have seized on the recent sectarian chaos in Iraq to expand their autonomous northern territory to include Kirkuk, a city they consider their ancestral capital, perched on vast oil deposits that could support an independent state.

Kurdish officials say the ISIL advance has transformed Iraq, requiring a renegotiation of the settlement in place since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, under which they rule themselves but remain within Iraq in return for a fixed percentage of its overall oil revenue.

Iraq’s five million Kurds have ethnic compatriots in Iran, Syria and Turkey, and have so far hesitated to declare full independence, in part to avoid angering neighboring countries.

Turkey has in recent years pursued deeper ties with Iraqi Kurds, partnering up in the exploration and production of oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan, and signing multibillion-dollar oil and gas deals last November.

NOUAKCHOTT — Mauritania’s highest court on Sunday confirmed the victory of incumbent leader Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz in presidential polls and rejected an appeal calling for the results to be annulled.

“The candidate Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was elected President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in the first round of the presidential election,” the chairman of the constitutional council, Sgheyir Ould M’barek, said during an official ceremony.

The chairman added that 57-year-old Abdel Aziz had won “an absolute majority of votes cast” in the June 21 election.

Final results released by the council gave Abdel Aziz 81.94 per cent of the vote, slightly higher than the provisional figure of 81.89 per cent given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) a week ago.

Abdel Aziz triumphed over anti-slavery candidate Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, who received 8.72 per cent of the vote.

Ould Abeid challenged the result, but his request was dismissed by the council.

None of the other three candidates in the race polled above 5 per cent.

Boidiel Ould Houmeid, the head of the moderate El Wiam Party, received 4.41 per cent of the vote, while Ibrahima Moctar Sarr, the only candidate from the black African south, received 4.43 per cent.

The only female candidate in the race, Lalla Mariem Mint Moulaye Idriss, received 0.48 per cent.

Calls from opposition groups for a boycott of the election appeared to have little effect, with the council putting turnout at 56.55 per cent, compared to 64 per cent in 2009.

The National Forum for Democracy and Unity — an opposition coalition of 11 parties including a moderate Islamist movement — rallied to denounce Abdel Aziz’s “dictatorial power” and were counting on a high abstention rate.

Abdel Aziz, a former general, seized power in the northwest African nation in an August 2008 coup and won disputed elections the following year. He campaigned strongly on his success in fighting armed groups linked to Al Qaeda at home and in neighbouring Sahel nations.

Following his victory, Abdel Aziz pledged “to be the president of all Mauritanians and to guarantee the rights of all citizens”, according to a text read out by his campaign director Sidi Ould Salem on Monday.

GAZA — When Palestinians in the Gaza Strip seek some relief from the grind of life in an enclave plagued by conflict and hardship, they usually need to look no further than their sandy beaches.

But this summer, access to the cooling waters of the Mediterranean is gradually being closed off to Gaza’s 1.8 million residents, due to pollution stemming from fuel shortages that have halted work at sewage treatment facilities.

Baha Al Agha of the Gaza Environment Quality Authority said about 100,000 cubic metres of untreated waste water are being pumped into the Gaza shore daily.

“Swimming is prohibited” signs have gone up at several beaches. But at one of Gaza’s most popular beaches, dozens of people, including children, splashed in the water over the weekend despite the posted warning.

“Things are getting worse day by day in the absence of real and quick solutions,” Agha told Reuters. He called on the Palestinian unity government formed earlier this month to act immediately “before Gaza beaches are declared a disaster area”.

Egypt’s closure of most of the estimated 1,200 cross-border smuggling tunnels run by Islamist group Hamas has virtually stopped cheap Egyptian fuel coming into Gaza.

Egypt’s military-backed government fear the tunnels are used to take weapons into the Sinai Peninsula, and accuses Hamas of backing the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas denies it helps militants in Egypt.

Israel has its own blockade on Gaza, allowing in fuel and restricted imports since Hamas took control in 2007. But the Israeli fuel costs twice as much as Egyptian imports.

Garbage piling up

Gaza residents said they had little to celebrate at the start on Sunday of the Muslim month of Ramadan — traditionally a time for worship but also for family feasts in the evening at the end of a daily daytime fast.

Garbage has been piling up on the streets, with some 75 per cent of sanitation trucks idled by the Gaza municipality’s inability to pay high fuel prices.

“Tunnels are closed, crossings are closed, there is no sea port... and now they are telling us the beaches are closed? Wouldn’t it be easier if they just let us die in peace?” asked Ali Abu Hassan, a 46-year-old taxi driver.

Driving along Gaza’s coastal road, the smell of sewage is sharp and waves hitting the beach are yellowish and brown.

Many in the Gaza Strip are also feeling the pinch of a salary dispute that could test the resilience of the new unity government formed under Hamas’s reconciliation pact with Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas.

Some 40,000 public servants hired by Hamas since it seized the Gaza Strip seven years ago from forces loyal to Abbas have not been paid in full for months due to a cash crunch caused by Egypt’s tunnel crackdown.

Hopes of receiving wages quickly under the unity government were dashed when the new administration said it must first vet the employees before paying them — a process that could take months.

Hamas-hired workers, who held a one-day strike on Thursday, are particularly resentful that Abbas’s Palestinian Authority has been paying its Gaza-based staff regularly, even though they have not reported to work since 2007.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved a $90 million socio-economic development plan for occupied East Jerusalem which focuses on increased security presence in the area, the municipality said.

“One of the main goals of the plan that was approved is to bring about a significant decline in violence by means of integrated activity to reduce gaps in infrastructure, employment, education and social welfare and by boosting enforcement and personal security,” said a statement from city hall.

The plan involves an increase in the number of security personnel as well as a greater number of security cameras.

“According to Israel police assessments, the plan will lead to a significant decline in the short- and medium-term of over 50 per cent in displays of violence,” it said.

Security figures quoted by the municipality indicate that in March and April, there were 390 incidents of stone-throwing at the security forces and vehicles in East Jerusalem, as well as dozens of cars stolen and break-ins.

“These are offences with nationalist characteristics that are not perpetrated in a similar scope in other parts of the country,” it said.

“The basic assumption for the civic aspects of the plan is the existence of a deep link between the scope and level of violence by residents of eastern Jerusalem and the standard of living in neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the city.

The plan includes improvements in infrastructure, the education system and improved social assistance, it said without saying how such objectives would be achieved.

Figures provided by the municipality said there were about 306,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, whose civil status is that of residents, not citizens. They account for 38 per cent of the city’s overall population.

Israel seized control over the Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem during the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

It refers to the entire city as its “united, undivided” capital.

But the Palestinians want the eastern sector of the city as capital of their promised state, with the city’s future one of the biggest issues of the conflict.

By choice, almost all Palestinians living in East Jerusalem hold permanent residency status, meaning they have Israeli IDs but not passports.

They are entitled to all the insurance benefits of Israeli citizens and can vote in municipal — but not national — elections.

They enjoy complete freedom of movement within the country, unlike their compatriots in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, who cannot enter Israel without special permits that are hard to obtain.

The left-leaning Haaretz newspaper said the move was aimed at “tightening Israeli control of East Jerusalem and strengthening the connection between the 300,000 Palestinians living there and the State of Israel”.

The action plan was put together by an inter-ministerial committee which did not make any connection between the rise in violence and the deadlock in peace moves, Haaretz said.

There are more than 200,000 Israelis living in settlement neighbourhoods in annexed East Jerusalem and the Israeli government does not see construction there as settlement building.

WASHINGTON — A Libyan militia leader pleaded not guilty in a US federal court on Saturday to a terrorism charge in the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans.

Ahmed Abu Khatallah was transferred to the US District Court in Washington on Saturday morning from a navy warship where he had been held since his June 15 capture by US special operations forces in Libya.

He was charged at an afternoon hearing with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists resulting in death in the attack that killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi.

The September 11, 2012, attack triggered a political firestorm for President Barack Obama, with Republicans accusing his administration of misrepresenting the circumstances and of lax protection for diplomats.

The charge against Khatallah includes malicious damage to and destruction of US property by fires and explosives. It carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, the Justice Department said. The department said it intended to file additional charges shortly.

Khatallah was not shackled when he appeared before Magistrate Judge John Facciola and kept his hands behind him as he gave answers through an interpreter. He wore a dark hoodie and black trousers and had long gray hair and a gray beard.

“You conspired, that is to say, you agreed with other people, to provide material support and resources to terrorists, including yourself, knowing that that support and those resources would be used in killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility involving the use of firearms and dangerous weapons,” Facciola told the defendant.

The judge appointed a public defender and Khatallah was taken out of the courthouse in a motorcade after the 10-minute hearing. US officials did not say where he would be held.

Federal charges filed against him in July 2013 but kept under court seal until this month also included killing a person on US property and a firearms violation.

There was heightened security around the federal courthouse building, which is blocks from the US Capitol and across the street from the National Gallery of Art, prime tourist destinations in Washington. Two or three armed US marshals patrolled the perimeter of the building.

Khatallah was taken aboard the USS New York, an amphibious transport ship, after his seizure in a raid on the outskirts of Benghazi. At the time of Khatallah’s capture, a US official said he was expected to be questioned by an interrogation team at sea. The unit seeks information from suspects that might prevent future attacks.

Khatallah was in US military custody for nearly two weeks before being transferred into the American civilian court system. He was transferred to US soil by helicopter, a US official said.

“Now that Ahmed Abu Khatallah has arrived in the United States, he will face the full weight of our justice system,” said US Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement. “We will prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant’s alleged role in the attack that killed four brave Americans in Benghazi.”

Khatallah denied in a Reuters interview in October 2012 that he was a leader of Ansar Al Sharia, an Islamist group Washington accuses of carrying out the assault on the consulate.

His capture was a victory for Obama, who has been accused by Republicans of playing down the role of Al Qaeda in the Benghazi attacks for political reasons and of being slow to deliver on promises of justice.

Republicans said then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton failed to take steps to ensure the safety of American diplomatic personnel, an issue that is still resonating as Clinton considers running for US president in 2016.

Khatallah’s capture also led to Republican criticism, with some lawmakers calling for him to be taken to the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for military prosecution. Obama has sought to close down the Guantanamo prison and his policy has been to try terrorism suspects caught abroad in the US justice system.

TRIPOLI — A Tunisian diplomat and a fellow embassy staffer abducted in Libya earlier this year were freed by their abductors on Sunday after months in captivity, an embassy source said.

“They have been freed and should be returning to Tunisia soon,” the source, who declined to be identified, told AFP, adding that the pair were in good health.

Diplomats in Tripoli say militias which fought to topple the Muammar Qadhafi regime in the 2011 uprising often carry out kidnappings to blackmail other countries into releasing Libyans they hold.

Embassy employee Mohamed ben Sheikh was kidnapped in Tripoli on March 21 while diplomat Al Aroussi Kontassi was seized April 17.

At the time Tunis said a jihadist group was behind the abductions and was demanding the release of Libyans jailed in Tunisia for their role in a deadly “terrorist operation” that took place three years ago.

On Sunday the Tunisian embassy source said the pair were freed “thanks to negotiations” but that his government did give in to the demands of the kidnappers. 

Their abductions come during a string of attacks targeting diplomats in the Libyan capital.

Jordan’s ambassador to Libya has also been kidnapped and Portugal’s embassy was attacked by gunmen.

BAGHDAD — The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group, which spearheaded a sweeping militant assault that overran swathes of Iraq, is now claiming leadership of the world’s Muslims.

Known for its ruthless tactics and suicide bombers, ISIL has carried out frequent bombings and shootings in Iraq, and is also arguably the most capable force fighting President Bashar Assad inside Syria.

But it truly gained international attention this month, when its fighters and those from other militant groups swept through the northern city of Mosul, then overran major areas of five provinces north and west of Baghdad.

ISIL is led by the shadowy Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and backed by thousands of Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq, some of them Westerners, and it appears to be surpassing Al Qaeda as the world’s most dangerous jihadist group.

In a sign of the group’s confidence, it has now expanded its claim of leadership to encompass all the world’s Muslims.

In an audio recording distributed online Friday, ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammad Al Adnani declared Baghdadi “the caliph” and “leader for Muslims everywhere”.

“The Shura [council] of the Islamic State met and discussed this issue [of the caliphate]... The Islamic State decided to establish an Islamic caliphate and to designate a caliph for the state of the Muslims,” Adnani said.

He was referring to a system of rule last used to govern a state almost 100 years ago, before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Western governments fear ISIL could eventually emulate Al Qaeda and strike overseas, but their biggest worry for now is its sweeping gains in Iraq and the likely eventual return home of foreign fighters attracted by ISIL and Baghdadi.

Among them are men like Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old Frenchman who allegedly carried out a deadly shooting on a Jewish museum in Belgium after spending a year fighting with ISIL in Syria.

12,000 foreign fighters 

The Soufan Group, a New York-based consultancy, estimates that 12,000 foreign fighters have travelled to Syria, including 3,000 from the West.

And ISIL appears to have the greatest appeal, with King’s College London professor Peter Neumann estimating around 80 per cent of Western fighters in Syria have joined the group.

Unlike other groups fighting Assad, ISIL is seen working towards an ideal Islamic emirate. And compared with Al Qaeda’s franchise in Syria, Al Nusra Front, it has lower entry barriers.

ISIL has also sought to appeal to non-Arabs, publishing English-language magazines, after having already released videos in English, or with English subtitles.

The jihadist group claims to have had fighters from the Britain, France, Germany and other European countries, as well as the United States, and from the Arab world and the Caucasus.

Much of the appeal also stems from Baghdadi himself — the ISIL leader is touted as a battlefield commander and tactician, a crucial distinction compared with Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri.

“Baghdadi has done an amazing amount — he has captured cities, he has mobilised huge amounts of people, he is killing ruthlessly throughout Iraq and Syria,” said Richard Barrett, a former counter-terrorism chief at MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service.

“If you were a guy who wanted action, you would go with Baghdadi,” Barrett told AFP.

At the time Baghdadi took over what was then known as the Islamic State of Iraq, or ISI, in May 2010, his group appeared to be on the ropes, after the “surge” of US forces combined with the shifting allegiances of Sunni tribesmen to deal him a blow.

But the group has bounced back, expanding into Syria in 2013.

Baghdadi sought to merge with Al Nusra, which rejected the deal, and the two groups have operated separately since.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for Kurdish statehood on Sunday, taking a position that appeared to clash with the US preference to keep sectarian war-torn Iraq united.

Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, seeing in the minority ethnic group a buffer against shared Arab adversaries.

The Kurds have seized on recent sectarian chaos in Iraq to expand their autonomous northern territory to include Kirkuk, which sits on vast oil deposits that could make the independent state many dream of economically viable.

But Iraqi Kurds, who have ethnic compatriots in Iran, Turkey and Syria, have hesitated to declare full independence, one reason being the feared response of neighbouring countries.

“We should... support the Kurdish aspiration for independence,” Netanyahu told Tel Aviv University’s INSS think tank, after outlining what he described as the collapse of Iraq and other Middle East regions under strife between Arab Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Kurds, Netanyahu said, “are a fighting people that has proved its political commitment, political moderation, and deserves political independence”.

Washington wants Iraq’s crumbling unity restored. Last Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Iraqi Kurdish leaders and urged them to seek political integration with Baghdad.

GAZA — Israeli forces attacked targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing a Hamas gunman and wounding two others after a spate of rocket launches from the Palestinian territory, officials on both sides said.

The Hamas casualties were caused by a strike that the Israeli military said targeted a group of Palestinians spotted about to fire a rocket across the border.

Palestinian medics said two other people were wounded in air strikes on at least six other Gaza targets.

The Israeli military said two rockets fired from Gaza earlier on Sunday were shot down by its Iron Dome missile interceptor defence system.

On Saturday, rockets set a factory on fire in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, wounding three people, officials said.

“Over the weekend, the Israel Defence Forces attacked multiple targets in response to firing at Israel from the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in public remarks to his Cabinet on Sunday. “We are ready to expand this operation, if necessary.”

Palestinian officials said targets hit in the Israeli air strikes belonged to Hamas’ armed wing — the Izz el-Deen Al Qassam Brigades — Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees.

Hamas, an Islamist movement that seized the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, signed a reconciliation deal with him in April under which a unity government was formed on June 2.

Since the beginning of June, militants in the Gaza Strip have fired at least 62 rockets at Israel in attacks that have caused few injuries, the Israeli military said.

In Gaza, Israeli air strikes have totalled more than 80 this month and killed three fighters and wounded more than a dozen other people, Palestinian officials said.