Region

BEIRUT — Government shelling and air strikes with makeshift barrel bombs have killed about 400 people in Syria’s largest city so far this month, activists said Thursday, as US and Russian envoys met in Geneva to try to revive deadlocked peace talks.

The bombings in Aleppo are part of a campaign by President Bashar Assad’s forces to wrest control of neighbourhoods that were seized by rebels in the northern city since mid-2012.

They come as a cease-fire in the central city of Homs has been extended for three days as of Thursday in order to allow more people to leave besieged rebel-held parts of the city, the Homs governor said.

Gov. Talal Barrazi said that as long as there are people who want to leave rebel-held areas in Homs the truce will be extended.

An official at Barrazi’s office said there were no evacuations from Homs on Thursday, adding that officials were working on clearing some 70 men of fighting age who left over the past days. Those already evacuated excluded men between the ages of 15 and 55 in case they were fighters. Despite that dozens crossed into government areas and passed after questioning.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said evacuations are expected to resume on Friday. It was the second extension since the truce went into effect last week.

Hundreds of civilians have been evacuated from Homs since Friday when a rare ceasefire went into effect. Aid workers took advantage of the temporary truce that was implemented by the warring sides before the second round of peace talks started in Geneva this week. The ceasefire expired on Wednesday night.

Khaled Erksoussi, the head of operations with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent told The Associated Press that since Friday, 1, 500 people have been evacuated from the besieged areas.

Before the aid effort began last Friday, the SARC estimated that up to 3,000 people were trapped in the rebel-held district that had been under government blockade for more than a year, causing hunger and widespread suffering of civilians in Syria’s third largest city.

Violence, meanwhile, continued in Aleppo.

The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights said at least 51 people were killed Wednesday, mainly by barrel bombs, shrapnel-packed explosive devices dropped on eight rebel-held districts from helicopters. The observatory said that raised the total killed in the city to some 400 since the beginning of this month.

There is no way to independently verify the figure.

The observatory, which has been documenting Syria’s conflict since its start in March 2011 through a network of activists on the ground, released its report on the latest Aleppo casualties on Thursday, ahead of a trilateral meeting between senior US and Russian officials and UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, and Syrian government and opposition representatives in Geneva.

A second round of talks started in Switzerland on Monday but the discussions quickly became mired in acrimony as government and opposition delegates hurled accusations for the bloodshed taking place back home, failing to even agree on the talks’ agenda.

From the outset, the talks have been accompanied by a sharp rise in violence on the ground.

The observatory said that overall at least 4,959 people have died in Syria in the three-week period since January 22, when the government and opposition delegates sat down for the first round of face-to-face meetings in Geneva. The observatory said in a report Wednesday that the period has seen the highest death toll since the uprising against Assad started nearly three years ago.

More than 130,000 people have died in the conflict since then, activists say. Millions of Syrians have been driven from their homes, some seeking shelter in neighbouring countries and others in safe parts of their homeland.

Those include 400 families that have crossed into Lebanon since the Syrian army launched on offensive on rebel stronghold of Yabroud earlier this week, said Dana Sleiman, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Beirut.

Yabroud is the last rebel stronghold in Syria’s mountainous Qalamoun region, located about 16 kilometres from the Lebanese border. Backed by Lebanon’s Hizbollah fighters, the Syrian army has been on a crushing offensive there since early December.

CAIRO — Gunmen shot dead three policemen near the Suez canal city of Ismailia and seized their weapons, bringing to five the number of policemen killed in 24 hours in Egypt.

Attacks on security force personnel have surged since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July and the military-installed authorities launched a deadly crackdown on supporters of the deposed leader.

CAIRO — Army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who is likely to become Egypt’s next president, headed to Russia accompanied by Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy on Wednesday to discuss bilateral cooperation, the army said.

Field Marshal Sisi, who is also Egypt’s defence minister and deputy prime minister, and Fahmy would hold “2+2” talks with their Russian counterparts, army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement.

The talks would focus on “bilateral relations and aspects of cooperation between the two countries”, the statement said.

Egypt foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty told AFP the two men had Wednesday left Cairo for a visit to Russia that would last two days.

The trip comes “in response to the historic visit of the Russian defence and foreign ministers to Cairo” last November, the army statement said.

Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Cairo for two days mid-November to discuss weapons sales as well as political and economic ties.

That visit came amid tension between Egypt and its longtime ally the United States, which has suspended some of its military aid to Cairo after Sisi toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July.

Egypt had close ties with Russia before then-president Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel in 1979, bringing in roughly $1.3 billion in annual US military aid over the subsequent decades.

Since Morsi’s ouster, the military-installed government has been waging a deadly crackdown on his supporters that has left more than 1,400 people dead according to Amnesty International and thousands others jailed.

Sisi, who is hugely popular after ousting the unpopular Morsi, is expected to stand in upcoming presidential elections, which he is likely to win by a landslide.

GENEVA — The Syrian opposition called on Wednesday for a transitional governing body to oversee a UN-monitored ceasefire across Syria and expel foreign fighters, in a paper that avoided any mention of President Bashar Assad.

The confidential paper, seen by Reuters, lays out a vision of post-conflict Syria with all ethnic groups participating in a transition process aimed at restoring peace and stability.

Opposition and diplomatic sources said it deliberately does not refer to Assad, in line with a text agreed by world powers in June 2012 which calls for a transitional body with full executive authority, including over the security apparatus and the army, but which leaves the Syrian ruler’s fate open.

“I think that the opposition has come to the obvious conclusion that the best way to deal with Assad is to avoid mentioning him,” one Middle Eastern diplomat said.

The memorandum was presented to mediator Lakhdar Brahimi and a Syrian government delegation at a joint session at talks in Geneva aimed at halting three years of bloodshed that has killed more than 130,000 people and driven millions from their homes.

The transitional authority will be “the only legitimate body that represents the sovereignty and independence of the Syrian state and is the only one that represents the Syrian state internationally,” the paper said.

The Syrian government delegation said on Wednesday that negotiations must focus first on fighting terrorism and rejected parallel track talks on the opposition’s priority of a transitional government as a “fruitless” idea.

Senior US and Russian officials, backing opposing sides, are to meet Brahimi on Thursday to bolster support for his efforts to keep the faltering talks on track. “Once again, the opposition has shown a seriousness of purpose in their approach to these talks. They continue to outline their vision for the future of Syria and we commend them for that,” a US State Department official in Geneva said.

“Their vision is one which respects the freedom and dignity of all Syrians.”

They have shown that they are willing to engage constructively for the sake of the Syrian people. We have seen no such engagement from the [Assad] regime,” the official said.

The opposition document says the transitional body would “prepare and oversee a total ceasefire by taking immediate measures to stop military violence, protect civilians and stabilise the country in the presence of UN observers”.

It urges all parties to cooperate in stopping the violence, withdrawing all troops and working to decommission weapons of armed groups and demobilising their members or integrating them into the army or civilian public sectors.

The transitional authority will seek to halt violence by all armed groups on both sides, including those which “follow political, religious or sectarian ideology”, it said, referring to Sunni and Shiite Muslim militants fighting in Syria.

The body would seek to “guarantee the protection and participation” of all Syrian groups, including Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Syriacs, Assyrians and others, in the transition.

The Syrian government delegation did not reply directly to the proposal, opposition spokesman Louay Safi said.

“At this point we have not heard any response...I would like to hear some positive response,” he added.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad indicated later that Damascus was willing to discuss the opposition proposal to evict foreign fighters — a rare sign of common ground.

Asked about the idea, he told Reuters: “We are not closed to discussing any issue. But we have to discuss them one by one.”

Mekdad, an influential figure said by diplomats to be closely linked to the security apparatus, told reporters the peace talks must follow the order of the 2012 Geneva communique agreed by world powers, which called for a halt to violence and formation of a transitional governing body by mutual consent.

“It is necessary to stick with the structure of the document. Completing the first article is necessary to move on to the next articles,” he said. “Any estrangement from this order is a recipe to kill Geneva conference.”

BAGHDAD — Violence in Iraq’s Anbar province, where militants control all of one city and parts of another, has displaced up to 300,000 people in six weeks, the United Nations has said.

The province has been hit by a surge in fighting between pro- and anti-government forces that began at the end of last year, as Iraq suffers its worst violence since 2008.

“Over the last six weeks up to 300,000 Iraqis — some 50,000 families — have been displaced due to insecurity around Fallujah and Ramadi” in Anbar, a UN refugee agency statement released on Tuesday said.

“Most of the displaced have fled to outlying communities in Anbar province to escape the fighting, while 60,000 persons have fled to more distant provinces,” according to the statement summarising remarks by spokeswoman Melissa Fleming in Geneva.

The displaced Iraqis join more than 1.1 million compatriots who fled violence in past years and have still not returned to their homes.

The UN said last month the number of people displaced by the fighting in Anbar was already the highest since the brutal sectarian violence of 2006-2008.

The crisis in the western desert province erupted in late December with clashes in the Ramadi area when security forces dismantled Iraq’s main Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp, which was near the city.

Anti-government fighters subsequently seized parts of Ramadi, the provincial capital, and all of Fallujah to its west, just a short drive from Baghdad.

It is the first time anti-government forces have exercised such open control since the peak of the deadly violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.

Anbar Governor Ahmed Al Dulaimi at the weekend gave fighters in Fallujah a week to surrender, but said authorities would not negotiate with jihadists involved in the violence.

While government forces have made steady progress in retaking areas of Ramadi, they have largely stayed out of Fallujah for fear that an incursion would spark a drawn-out urban conflict with high numbers of casualties.

Fallujah was a bastion of the Sunni insurgency following the invasion, and American forces there saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam war.

The Anbar stand-off comes amid a protracted surge in violence, with security forces also grappling with near-daily attacks nationwide.

There have been calls for the Shiite-led government to address Sunni grievances in order to undermine support for militants, but with April elections looming, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has taken a hard line.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A municipal planning committee on Wednesday advanced a plan to build a Jewish seminary in the heart of an Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, triggering angry Palestinian accusations that Israel was undermining already troubled Mideast peace efforts.

The move came amid deadlocked negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians over the outlines of a final peace deal. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is mediating, is expected to present his vision for a proposed agreement in the coming weeks.

The fate of East Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues in the peace efforts. The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as the capital of a future independent state. Israel considers East Jerusalem to be part of its capital and says it will never relinquish control of the area and its sensitive religious sites.

In Wednesday’s vote, the city planning council gave preliminary approval for a nine-storey Jewish seminary in the Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Brachie Sprung, a Jerusalem municipality spokeswoman, said the vote was only a recommendation to build the seminary, and that the project needed more approvals before it can be built.

But in East Jerusalem, even discussions about changing the sensitive landscape can set off tensions. Nimr Hamad, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the move “a new obstacle on the road to peace and a new obstacle in front of Mr John Kerry’s mission”.

“This also proves that the Israeli government indeed flouts the position of the international community and the international public opinion, thinking they can impose facts on the ground,” he added.

In addition to East Jerusalem, the Palestinians also seek the adjacent West Bank and Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for their state. They say that continued Israeli settlement construction is a sign of bad faith that makes it increasingly difficult to partition the land. More than 550,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The international community opposes settlement construction, and Kerry has said it raises questions about Israel’s commitment to peace. Despite the criticism, Israel has announced plans to build thousands of new settlement homes since peace talks resumed last July.

Pepe Alalo, a member of the planning committee, said the seminary project had been delayed when Kerry was in the region to advance peace talks. He said he voted against the plan, calling it a “provocation”.

Kerry has set an April target date for reaching the outlines of a peace deal. With few signs of progress so far, the Palestinians have threatened to resume their campaign seeking recognition of their independence. In 2012, the UN General Assembly recognised Palestine as a non-member state, opening the way for them to seek membership in dozens of international organisations.

Israel opposes the campaign, calling it an attempt to bypass peace talks.

GAZA CITY — The Israeli authorities have blocked 70 patients from Gaza from entering Israel to receive medical treatment because their transfer documents were marked “State of Palestine”, officials told AFP on Wednesday.

Until recently, official stationery has used the term “Palestinian territories”.

But the logo was changed in mid-December, a year after the Palestinians won recognition as a UN observer state, despite fierce Israeli opposition.

“The Israelis have prevented 70 sick people who need to go to Israeli hospitals from crossing Erez because it said ‘State of Palestine’ on their transfer request,” said a senior Palestinian official at the Gaza district coordination office.

“It was only this week that they informed me personally that Israel refuses to deal with this document,” he told AFP.

“This is a political decision from the Israelis to exert pressure in the negotiations,” he charged, referring to US-led peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

There was no immediate response from COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit responsible for coordinating civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.

A senior official from the Ramallah-based health ministry, who is in charge of external treatment requests, confirmed it was the first time since mid December that patients had been refused a permit on the basis of the logo on the medical transfer request.

“The Israeli side informed us that following a decision from COGAT, they won’t give any permits to any patients with that logo,” he said.

Since mid-December, between 40 and 70 patients a day had crossed for medical treatment in Israel or the West Bank, he said, saying all of the transfer requests had been marked with the “State of Palestine” logo.

In January, Haaretz newspaper said a Gaza woman had been barred from travelling to the West Bank to care for her cancer-stricken mother because the medical report describing her condition was marked “State of Palestine”.

Initially her request was ignored, then it was denied but no reason was given. Following the intervention of Israel NGO HaMoked, it emerged that her request was denied because of the problematic logo.

In January 2013, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered that work begin to ensure that all official documents, including passports, ID cards and driving licences, be marked “State of Palestine” in a move to strengthen Palestinian sovereignty.

Until now, official documents issued by Abbas’ government have been labelled as issued by the Palestinian Authority.

Gaza is ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement, which has no official contact with Israel, so all requests must be processed through officials from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, some of whom are stationed in the coastal enclave.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s army on Wednesday arrested a commander of a group loyal to Al Qaeda that in November claimed a twin suicide attack against the Iranian embassy in Beirut, killing 25 people.

“After careful follow-up and monitoring, the [army] intelligence directorate in Beirut arrested the terrorist Naim Abbas, a commander of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades,” the army said in a statement.

Shortly afterwards, the National News Agency said soldiers were defusing a car bomb in a western neighbourhood of the capital Beirut.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw troops examining a car.

“The Lebanese army is dismantling a car bomb parked in a parking lot in Corniche Al Mazraa,” the official news agency said.

“Naim Abbas admitted the existence of the car, which was intended to head to the southern suburbs of Beirut,” strongholds of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbollah.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which describes itself as loyal to Al Qaeda, has been listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation since 2009.

The arrest of its Saudi leader Majid Al Majid was announced in early January. He died days later from poor health.

Abbas’ detention also follows the indictment of a Sunni Muslim sheikh, Omar Ibrahim Al Atrash, in connection with two suicide bombings in southern Beirut that killed at least six people.

In a late January statement on Atrash, the army had said Abbas was among three “wanted men” loyal to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades and Al Nusra Front, Syria’s Al Qaeda branch.

Lebanon has seen a string of deadly attacks linked to Syria’s war, claimed by Al Qaeda-linked groups including the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.

Although officially neutral in Syria’s conflict, Lebanon is deeply divided over the rebellion against President Bashar Assad.

Shiite Hizbollah supports his regime and has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to back his troops.

Sunnis support the anti-Assad revolt, and Sunni jihadists have carried out numerous car bomb and suicide attacks against Hizbollah-dominated areas, killing civilians.

TEHRAN — Armed forces chief of staff, General Hassan Firouzabadi, has warned the Islamic republic’s archfoes that Iran is prepared for a “decisive battle” if attacked, Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

“We are ready for the decisive battle with America and the Zionist regime [Israel],” Fars quoted Firouzabadi as saying.

He also warned neighbouring nations not to allow any attack to be launched on Iran from their soil.

“We do not have any hostility towards regional states, but if we are ever attacked from the American bases in the region we will strike that area back,” he said.

Washington has many military bases in the region, including in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said late last month that if diplomacy with Iran fails, “the military option of the United States is ready and prepared to do what it would have to do”.

But Firouzabadi accused the US of bluffing.

“Over the past decade, they brought their forces but came to the conclusion that they can’t attack us and left,” he said, dismissing the US military threat as nothing but a “political bluff”.

President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday the West should not have and delusions about using a military option.

“I say explicitly, if some have delusions of having any threats against Iran on their tables, they need to wear new glasses. There is no military option against Iran on any table in the world,” he said.

Iran is due to resume talks on Monday in Vienna with the P5+1 — Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China plus Germany — aimed at reaching a comprehensive nuclear accord following a landmark interim agreement struck in November.

Western nations have long suspected Iran of covertly pursuing nuclear weapons alongside its civilian programme, allegations denied by Tehran which insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.

Neither the United States nor Israel has ruled out military action to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, if diplomacy fails.