Region

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories —  Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, and a suspected car-ramming attacker was killed after wounding an Israeli soldier, Israeli medics and the army said.

Israeli forces confirmed its troops had fired on "rioters" who attacked soldiers in two separate incidents in the West Bank overnight.

A 20-year-old woman soldier was "moderately injured and evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment" following a suspected car-ramming north of Jerusalem, according to Israeli forces. Medics confirmed the alleged attacker had been killed.

The West Bank has suffered spiralling violence this year, with near daily Israeli raids leading to scores of deaths.

In Kafr Ein, near Ramallah, two brothers were killed by Israeli fire, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

A third man died of bullet wounds to the head fired by Israeli forces in Beit Ummar, while a fourth Palestinian died after being shot in the chest by Israeli soldiers on Tuesday afternoon during confrontations north of Ramallah, the ministry said in separate statements.

Palestinian news agency Wafa named the man killed near Ramallah as Raed Ghazi Al Naasan.

On Monday, the United Nations envoy for Middle East peace, Tor Wennesland, warned the situation in the West Bank was “reaching a boiling point”.

“High levels of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel in recent months, including attacks against Israeli and Palestinian civilians, increased use of arms and settler-related violence, have caused grave human suffering,” he told the Security Council.

The UN says more than 125 Palestinians have been killed across the West Bank this year.

Tuesday’s violence came as veteran hawk Benjamin Netanyahu continued negotiations to form what could be the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, following a general election earlier this month.

On Friday, Netanyahu signed an agreement with lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir that promised the far-right firebrand the new post of national security minister, with responsibility for the border police in the West Bank.

Ben-Gvir, known for anti-Arab rhetoric, has repeatedly called on soldiers to use more force when confronting Palestinian unrest.

PARIS, France — Iranian security forces have killed at least 448 people in a crackdown on protests that began in mid-September, over half in ethnic minority regions, a rights group said on Tuesday.

Of the 448 people confirmed to have been killed, 60 were children aged under 18, including nine girls, and 29 women, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said.

It said 16 people were killed by security forces in the past week alone, of whom 12 were slain in Kurdish-populated areas where protests have been particularly intense.

The toll has also risen after the deaths of people killed in previous weeks were verified and included, it added. The toll only includes citizens killed in the crackdown and not members of the security forces.

Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier Tuesday said more than 300 people had been killed, the first time the authorities have acknowledged such a figure.

The UN Rights Council last week voted to establish a high-level fact-finding mission to probe the crackdown in a move angrily rejected by Iran.

"Islamic republic authorities know full well that if they cooperate with the UN fact-finding mission, an even wider scale of their crimes will be revealed," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

"That's why their non-cooperation is predictable," he added.

The protests erupted after the September 16 death of Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini who had been arrested by the Tehran morality police and have become the biggest challenge to the regime since the 1979 revolution.

Amiry-Moghaddam said more than half the deaths were recorded in regions populated by the Sunni Baluch or Kurdish ethnic minorities.

The most deaths were in the southeastern region Sistan-Baluchistan where 128 people were killed after protests which had a separate spark but have fed into the nationwide anger, IHR said.

After that the most deaths were recorded in the western Kurdish-populated Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces where 53 and 51 people were killed respectively, it said.

TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast doubt on Baghdad’s commitment to secure their common border during talks on Tuesday in Tehran with new Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani.

Ties between the two neighbours have lately been strained by tensions over Iran carrying out cross-border strikes against exiled Kurdish opposition groups it accuses of fomenting unrest at home.

Responding to a pledge by Sudani that he would not allow Iraqi territory to be used to undermine Iran’s security, Khamenei said: “unfortunately, this is currently occurring in some parts of Iraq”.

Sudani’s meeting with the supreme leader followed talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during which they identified fighting “terrorism”, mutual security and economic cooperation as key priorities.

Sudani was on his first official visit to Tehran after becoming prime minister last month, following a year-long tussle between political factions over forming a government following an October 2021 general election.

“From our perspective and that of the Iraqi government, security, peace, cooperation and regional stability are very important,” Raisi told a joint news conference.

Sudani said that “our government is determined not to allow any group or party to use Iraqi territory to undermine and disrupt Iran’s security”.

Since nationwide protests erupted in Iran more than two months ago, officials have accused Kurdish opposition groups exiled in northern Iraq of stoking the unrest and the Islamic republic has repeatedly launched deadly cross-border strikes.

Strikes targeting Iranian-Kurdish groups in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region resumed this month, even after Iraq’s federal government summoned Iran’s ambassador in late September to complain about cross-border missile and drone hits that killed at least seven people.

On Tuesday Khamenei urged Sudani to take a tougher line.

“The only solution is for the Iraqi government to extend its authority” to regions that are undermining Iran’s security, he said, referring to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iraq has announced in the past week that it will redeploy federal guards on the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, rather than leaving the responsibility to Kurdish peshmerga forces — a move welcomed by Tehran.

On Tuesday, Sudani said that Iraqi and Iranian national security advisers would hold consultations to “establish a working mechanism for on-the-ground coordination to avoid any escalation”.

He also thanked Iran for its continued deliveries of gas and electricity, which have been in short supply in Iraq.

Raisi said banking, finance and wider business topics were also discussed and that talks between the two allies “will help to resolve bilateral problems”.

BEIRUT — Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria have called on Russia to dissuade Turkey from launching a threatened ground offensive against them, their commander said on Tuesday.

Turkey has carried out air strikes against semi-autonomous Kurdish zones in north and northeastern Syria, as well as Iraq, since a deadly Istanbul bombing it blames on Kurdish groups.

It has also threatened a ground offensive in those areas of Syria.

“We urged them [the Russians] to stop the Turkish attacks,” said Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF], the Kurds’ de facto army in northern Syria.

“The Turks insist on launching an operation on the ground. They are preparing for it... for us, it will be a battle for our existence,” he added.

Turkey accuses Kurdish groups of being behind the bombing that killed six people in Istanbul on November 13, including the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which dominates the SDF.

Kurdish groups and authorities have denied responsibility for the Istanbul attack.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that Turkey was more determined than ever to secure its border with Syria from attacks by Kurdish forces, threatening a ground operation “at the most convenient time”.

Both Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, and the United States have called for de-escalation.

Abdi called on foreign powers to respect a 2019 Russian-brokered agreement that saw Syrian government forces deploy along the northern border in exchange for Turkey halting an earlier offensive.

“We have no problem increasing the number of government troops,” said the SDF commander, who met with the chief of Russian forces in Syria at the weekend.

The Syrian government does not recognise the US-backed Kurdish administration’s self-rule in the country’s north.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched several incursions against Kurdish forces in northern Syria that have allowed it to control areas along the border.

Erdogan has vowed to protect Turkey’s southern frontier and has long sought to establish a “safe zone” with a depth of 30 kilometres inside Syria.

Abdi, who has long criticised the “weak” response of SDF ally Washington, appealed for a “stronger stance from all parties involved to stop the attack”.

If Turkey carries out its threats, “we will be forced to expand the scope of the war” to include the entire Syrian border, he said.

US troops support the SDF, which led the battle that dislodged the Islamic State group from the last scraps of Syrian territory held by the jihadist group in 2019.

Around 75 people, most of them SDF and allied fighters but also civilians and Syrian soldiers, have been killed in Turkey’s latest strikes, said the Syrian Observatory for Human rights, a Britain-based war monitor.

THE HAGUE — Police have smashed a huge drugs “super-cartel” that controlled a third of Europe’s cocaine trade, arresting 49 people in various countries including six kingpins in the gang’s hub in Dubai, Europol said on Monday.

The international operation codenamed “Desert Light” seized more than 30 tonnes of the white powder and led to arrests in Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Spain, the European Union’s police agency said.

The crackdown in Dubai netted a “big fish” from The Netherlands, who reportedly had links to alleged Dutch crime boss Ridouan Taghi, who was himself seized in the Gulf emirate in 2019.

“The drugpins, considered as high-value targets by Europol, had come together to form what was known as a ‘super cartel’ which controlled around one third of the cocaine trade in Europe,” Europol said.

“The scale of cocaine importation into Europe under the suspects’ control and command was massive”.

The Dutch suspect had allegedly formed an alliance in Dubai with the leaders of Irish and Italian drug gangs who were also arrested, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said.

A video released by Europol showed agents including some from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Spanish Guardia Civil arresting suspects and seizing luxury cars and hidden stashes of cash.

‘Extremely big fish’ 

Dubai arrested two “high-value” suspects who are linked to France, two connected to The Netherlands and another two linked to Spain, Europol said.

Europol spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth said it was a “textbook example of an international operation into the most dangerous organised crime groups”.

“The Emirates were a safe haven for criminals... but this time is over,” he told AFP in The Hague. “We have excellent cooperation with Dubai police so criminals have to look for some different spot to hide.”

The seizure of 30 tonnes of cocaine in one fell swoop would have a “big impact”, he said. European authorities had seized 240 tonnes in total across the continent in 2021, he added.

Ten people were arrested in Belgium, six in France and 13 in Spain during the operation from November 8 to 19. Another 14 people were arrested last year in The Netherlands as part of the same operation, Europol said.

They are the latest in a series of arrests around Europe that followed a police hack of sophisticated encrypted telephones used by organised crime networks last year, Europol said.

For the most part the cocaine came from South America through the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, although some had passed through South Africa.

Dutch prosecutors said they would request the extradition of the two Dutch nationals arrested in Dubai.

One is a 40-year-old dual Dutch-Bosnian national, named by Dutch media as Edin G., who was reportedly wanted by the US DEA for his links to Ridouan Taghi.

Moroccan-born Taghi was arrested in Dubai in 2019. He is now on trial in the Netherlands on charges of murder and running a huge Amsterdam-based cocaine smuggling group.

The other suspect is a 37-year-old dual Dutch and Moroccan national, whom Dutch media named as Zouhair B..

“One of the Dutch suspects is an extremely big fish,” a Europol source told AFP on condition of anonymity. “He was just as important as Taghi, if not more important.”

‘Torture and barbarism’ 

Two Belgian-Moroccans in their 40s suspected of amassing “enormous riches” running a Dubai-based network for trafficking cocaine into France were among those arrested, a French judicial source told AFP.

The investigation revealed “barbaric methods, of extreme violence”, with “acts of torture and barbarism” practised by the armed members of the group, the source said.

Three people arrested in France were placed in detention for crimes including kidnapping and torture, after one gang member in Antwerp was tortured after the theft of some drugs.

Spain’s Guardia Civil said a total of 13 people had been arrested in Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga.

The head of the smuggling operation, a British national, fled to Dubai after an attempted arrest in Spain and was continuing to direct operations from there, it said in a statement.

The cocaine was imported from Panama in central America and his supplier, a Panamanian, also lived in Dubai, it said.

Belgian prosecutors said the investigation had already led to raids in Antwerp in August, in which local media said around 900,000 euros had been seized.

AL-MESSAHAG, Iraq — Jamil Al Juburi, 53, has never left his village in northern Iraq, where his family has worked the land for generations — but a dam will soon swallow his home, forcing them out.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis are threatened by the Makhoul Dam, which the government hopes will be operational on the mighty Tigris in five years.

"I was born here and I grew up here," said Juburi, whose village of Al Messahag is set in pasture land on the banks of the river.

"It's difficult to leave for somewhere else. It is a whole past that we leave behind us."

Once the dam is erected, Juburi's whole region will be under three billion cubic metres of water.

In a country highly vulnerable to climate change,  and buffeted by three consecutive years of drought, authorities have defended the project, which will boost water stores and help prevent shortages.

However, activists decry the impact on more than 30 villages, home to about 118,000 people, and the threats to biodiversity and archaeological sites.

Employed at a state-run oil refinery, Juburi leaves his sons to work the family land, where they plant wheat and citrus trees.

He would agree to move, he said, to put "the national interest above personal interest", on condition that the dam "will serve Iraq" as a whole.

Juburi also demanded "adequate damages" in order to safeguard his and his family's future.

Iraq already has eight dams, but it complains that construction of the facilities upstream, mainly in neighbouring Turkey, has impacted its river volumes.

Plans for the Makhoul facility can be traced back to 2001, in the twilight of dictator Saddam Hussein’s rule.

His downfall in a US-led invasion and chaotic subsequent occupation saw the project shelved for years.

Work finally got underway in 2021, with drilling, soil analysis and a bridge spanning the river.

Riad al-Samarai, deputy governor of Salaheddin province, lists a 250MW hydroelectric power plant and an “irrigation canal that will serve agricultural areas and contribute to the nation’s food security” as among the project’s benefits.

“The public interest requires the construction of this dam to guarantee water reserves for Iraq,” he said.

Five villages are located on the site of the future reservoir, he added, and “a commission has been formed by the provinces and relevant ministries to ensure adequate damages for residents” and to relocate them.

But civil society is up in arms, not only about the human impact.

There are also repercussions for flora and fauna, warn environmental groups Save the Tigris and Humat Dijlah, who say the ancient city of Ashur, a UNESCO world heritage site, is also at risk.

In August, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) noted that “there has been no official attempt to speak or engage” with local communities.

“Respondents who are farmworkers and landowners saw Makhoul Dam as a severe threat to their livelihoods,” IOM said in a report, sharing the findings of a study by Iraqi organisation Liwan for Culture and Development.

Lack of trust 

“Nobody has come to see us. Nobody has asked us anything,” said Jamil’s father, Ibrahim Al Juburi, who is in his 80s.

“My ancestors, my father, then I, all stayed in this region,” the farmer said, his body hunched.

Liwan researcher Mehiyar Kathem said the real problem was the “reduction of water that is coming in” from upstream beyond Iraq’s borders.

“Iraq doesn’t need a new dam,” he added. Instead, “the Tigris needs to keep flowing” because of the increase in salinity.

Kathem also pointed to the impact on vulnerable women-led households.

“There is a higher number of women in the area who rely on the agriculture and on the land. We don’t know what is going to happen to female-headed households.”

The study found that 39 villages, each home to between 200 and 8,000 residents, risk being submerged.

According to Liwan, 67 square kilometres of “fertile farmland, estates and orchards” will also disappear if the Makhoul dam reaches full capacity, and more than 61,000 livestock will have to be “sold or relocated”.

“The dam can disrupt the everyday life of some 118,412 individuals,” said Liwan, noting an “absence of trust with decision makers” among the local communities.

Residents “commonly stated that any expression of discontent with Makhoul dam would fall on deaf ears, and their voices would be ignored”, it added.

QAMISHLI,  Syria — Thousands of Kurds protested on Sunday in the Syrian city of Qamishli against days of deadly Turkish cross-border strikes targeting Kurdish groups in the country’s northeast.

Turkey announced last Sunday it had carried out air strikes against semi-autonomous Kurdish zones in north and northeastern Syria, and across the border in Iraq. It has also threatened a ground offensive in those areas of Syria.

Demonstrators in Kurdish-controlled Qamishli, in Hasakeh province, brandished photos of people killed during recent strikes in the semi-autonomous region, an AFP correspondent said.

“Only the will of the Kurdish people remains,” said protester Siham Sleiman, 49. “It will not be broken and we remain ready. We will not leave our historic land.”

After a three-day lull, Turkish fighter jets heavily bombed Kurdish-controlled areas north of Aleppo early on Sunday, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.

A separate Turkish drone strike killed five Syrian government soldiers near Tal Rifaat, also north of Aleppo, the observatory added, reporting an exchange of shelling between Kurdish combatants and Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies.

Protesters in Qamishli also chanted in favour of the resistance in “Rojava” — the name Kurds in Syria give to the area they administer.

“The message that we want to convey to the world is that we are victims of eradication,” said Salah El Dine Hamou, 55.

“How long will we continue to die while other countries watch?”

The Turkish strikes come after a November 13 bombing in Istanbul that killed six people and wounded 81. Ankara blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which it and its Western allies consider a terrorist group.

The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. Turkey alleges that Syrian Kurdish fighters are the PKK’s allies.

Kurdish groups denied any involvement in the Ankara blast.

Some protesters on Sunday carried Kurdish flags alongside photos of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan — jailed in Turkey since 1999 — and shouted slogans against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish raids have killed at least 63 Kurdish and allied fighters and Syrian regime soldiers, as well as a Kurdish journalist, according to the observatory, which relies on an extensive network of sources in Syria.

Eight people have been killed in retaliatory artillery fire, three of them across the Turkish border.

Since 2016, Turkey’s military has conducted three offensives mostly targeting Kurdish fighters, and captured territory in northern Syria, which is now held by Ankara-backed proxies.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurds’ de facto army in the area, led the battle that dislodged Daesh group fighters from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.