Region

BEIRUT — Two rockets targeted a US patrol base in northeastern Syria late Friday, the third such attack in nine days, US Central Command said.

Centcom did not indicate who fired the rockets but said, in a statement, that they aimed at "coalition forces at the US patrol base in Al Shaddadi, Syria".

The strike at about 10:30 pm (19:30 GMT) caused no injuries or damage to the base or coalition property, said Centcom, which covers the Middle East region.

The US troops support Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are the Kurds' de facto army in the area and led the battle that dislodged the Daesh terror group from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.

Hundreds of American troops are still in Syria as part of the fight against Daesh remnants.

"Syrian Democratic Forces visited the rocket origin site and found a third unfired rocket," Centcom added in its latest statement.

On November 17 rockets targeted the coalition's Green Village base which is in Syria's largest oil field, Al Omar, near the Iraqi border, Centcom said at the time. There were no injuries.

A war monitor, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which has a wide network of sources in Syria, said that strike came from "a base of pro-Iranian militias".

Such groups have significant influence in the Syria-Iraq border region.

In another attack, a Turkish drone strike on Tuesday killed two SDF fighters and posed “a risk to US troops”, Centcom told AFP earlier.

That strike hit a base north of Hassakeh city, also in Syria’s northeast but farther north.

On November 20 Turkey announced it had carried out a series of air and drone strikes in Iraq and Syria, a week after a bomb attack in Istanbul that killed six people and wounded 81.

Turkey says it is targeting rear bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, designated as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States, and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which dominate the SDF.

Both Kurdish groups denied responsibility for the Istanbul attack.

NAIROBI — Somalia’s government has declared “all-out war” against the militant group Al Shabaab and adopted a multipronged counterterrorism effort which — despite some early headline-grabbing military gains — promises to be long and difficult.

The dogged Al Qaeda affiliate was driven from Somalia’s major cities a decade ago but retains swathes of countryside, where a coalition of armed groups have joined forces against the insurgents in recent months.

Who is fighting? 

Two clans in drought-afflicted central Somalia, sick of living under Al Shabaab rule, sparked a revolt against the group in July that quickly spread across the regions of Hirshabelle and Galmudug.

In September, the Somali National Army and US-trained “lightning” commandos joined the fray in support of these clan militias, known as “macawisley” after the traditional sarongs worn by their fighters.

“The government wants to seize the current momentum and encourage these types of uprisings across Al Shabaab-held areas in Somalia,” said Omar Mahmood, a researcher at the International Crisis Group think tank.

Though it isn’t clear how many combatants are involved in this broad offensive, the fighting has reached an intensity not seen in some years, with unconfirmed reports of hundreds killed in skirmishes.

Sources in Somalia suggest the fighting could have involved 2,000 to 3,000 “macawisley”. The terrorists are believed to number 5,000 to 8,000 nationwide.

Supported by US drone strikes and artillery and logistics from the African Union Transitional Force, this combined effort has chased Al Shabaab from the strategic provinces of Hiran and Middle Shabelle.

What’s the strategy? 

In July, the country’s newly elected president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud outlined his administration’s plan for the Islamists: Hit them militarily, choke off their finances and counter their ideology.

“The previous policies were militaristic policies... attacking, destroying. But Shabaab’s problem is more than a military” one, he said.

As a first step he named Mukhtar Robow — one of Al Shabaab’s founders, who left the movement in 2017 — religious affairs minister to challenge the militant’s violent expression of Islam.

In October, the government threatened to revoke the business licences of traders who paid “taxes” to Al Shabaab and contributed to the millions they raise through extortion.

Somalia’s closest foreign ally the United States announced $10 million for information that disrupted cash flows to Al Shabaab.

Washington recommitted troops to Somalia this year, reversing a decision under former US president Donald Trump.

“The government continues to try and build confidence among the public for them to stand up against the group. We’re yet to measure the success of those declarations,” said Samira Gaid of the Hiraal Institute, a Somalia-based security think tank.

Has Al Shabaab responded? 

The militants may have ceded some territory but are playing a long game, said Mahmood.

“Even if they lose in the short term, they will try to find ways to undermine government progress so that they can return.”

The terrorists have returned to some areas abandoned in the face of the offensive, and escalated a campaign of bombing.

On October 29, Somalia witnessed its deadliest attack since 2017, with a double car bombing in the capital Mogadishu leaving 121 dead and 333 injured.

Gaid said the clan uprising was a “huge threat” to Al Shabaab and they were adapting accordingly.

“They are responding heavily to try and push it back and to dissuade other clans to join the fight,” she said.

End in sight? 

President Mohamud told lawmakers in November that “going back or defeat is not an option”.

But retaking territory is only half the objective.

“The hardest part is holding back that territory” and ensuring people can access services to see the benefit of government rule, he added.

Past gains against the militants have been eroded by bitter clan rivalries, which Al Shabaab exploits to its advantage.

Clan clashes have already been reported in some areas recently liberated from the insurgents.

Mahmood said the government seems keen to expand its operation, but doing so could be fraught.

It’s less clear the clans would unite against Al Shabaab in southern Somalia, where the militants have more influence.

Al Shabaab have resisted military aggression for 15 years and Mohamud himself declared in July “there are strong arguments” for negotiating with the militants.

“But we are not right now in a position to negotiate with Al-Shabaab,” he said. “We will, at the right time. We will negotiate with them.”

Gaid said: “It was always clear to the government that negotiation or reconciliation can only happen when you have an upper hand.”

This offensive “will assist giving the government the upper hand to engage in talks further down” the line.

ALGIERS — An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced 49 people to death over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires in August last year, state media reported.

The North African country has, however, maintained a moratorium on carrying out death sentences since the last executions in 1993.

Onlookers had beaten 38-year-old Djamel Ben Ismail to death after he turned himself in at a police station in the Tizi Ouzou region.

He had gone there upon hearing that he was suspected of arson, at the height of blazes which killed at least 90 people nationwide.

It later emerged that Ben Ismail had headed to the region as a volunteer to help put out the fires.

The court in Dar El Beida on Thursday "sentenced 49 people to execution over [Ben Ismail's] murder and mutilation of his body," the APS news agency reported.

The court also handed 28 other defendants jail terms of two years to a decade without parole, APS said. 

Videos posted online at the time showed a crowd surrounding a police van and beating a man inside it, then dragging him out and setting him on fire, with some taking selfies.

The shocking images were widely shared and sparked outrage in Algeria.

Algeria’s LADDH human rights group called for calm and for those responsible for the “despicable murder” to be brought to justice.

“These images constitute yet another trauma for the family and for the Algerian people, already shocked” by the fires, it said.

The victim’s father, Noureddine Ben Ismail, was widely praised for calling for calm and “brotherhood” among Algerians despite his son’s murder.

The fires were spurred by a blistering heatwave, but authorities also blamed arsonists and “criminals” for the outbreaks.

They also blamed the independence movement of the Berber-majority region of Kabylie that extends along the Mediterranean coast east of Algiers.

BEIRUT — Lebanese lawmakers failed for a seventh time on Thursday to elect a successor to former president Michel Aoun, even though the vacancy is hampering efforts to rescue the stricken economy.

Parliament is split between supporters of the powerful Iran-backed Hizbollah movement and its opponents, neither of whom have a clear majority.

Lawmaker Michel Moawad, who is seen as close to the United States, won the support of 42 of parliament's 128 MPs, but his tally fell well short of the required majority and was exceeded by the number of spoilt ballots cast by pro-Hizbollah lawmakers.

Moawad's candidacy is opposed by Hezbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah called this month for a president ready to stand up to the United States.

"This is not an electoral process, it's a process of waiting for compromise that is to the detriment of the country, the people, the economy and the constitution," said Christian MP and Moawad supporter Samy Gemayel.

There have been delays in electing previous Lebanese presidents.

Aoun's own election in 2016 followed a more than two-year vacancy at the presidential palace as lawmakers made 45 failed attempts before reaching a consensus on his candidacy.

But the failure to elect a successor to Aoun before his mandate expired at the end of last month came with Lebanon mired in an economic crisis the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in modern history.

The country has also had only a caretaker government since May, despite warnings from creditors that sweeping reforms need to be enacted to clear the way for the release of billions of dollars in emergency loans.

“An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and critical reform ratification, deepening the woes of the Lebanese people,” the World Bank warned in a statement on Wednesday. 

“Lebanon’s total contraction of 37.3 per cent in real GDP since 2018 — among the worst the world has seen — has already wiped out 15 years of economic growth and is scarring the country’s potential for recovery.”

Parliament will convene for an eighth attempt to elect a new president on December 1.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — At least one person was killed and 14 wounded in two separate explosions in Jerusalem on Wednesday, security and medical officials said, with occupation authorities calling them "attacks".

An explosion at a bus stop at the western exit from Jerusalem killed a man and wounded 11. A separate blast at another stop a short distance away damaged a bus and wounded three people, the hospitals treating the casualties said.

The twin blasts struck half an hour apart, occupation authorities said, noting that explosives experts were at the scene with Israeli forces and forensic scientists "collecting evidence and scanning the area for suspects".

An AFP photographer at the scene said the blast had ripped a hole through a metal fence behind the bus stop, with an electric scooter and a hat lying on the ground.

The photographer said the second blast had torn through the side of a bus.

Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek hospital said a man had died of his wounds from the first explosion. Doctors were treating another person in critical condition, two seriously wounded and two lightly wounded.

Hadassah medical centre said it was treating six people injured in the first blast and another three people lightly wounded in the second.

Palestinian group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, praised the bombings.

"We congratulate our Palestinian people and our people in the occupied city of Jerusalem on the heroic special operation at the bus stop," Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif Al Qanua said.

The European Union's ambassador to Israel said he was "horrified by the terror attacks".

“I express my deepest condolences to the family of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to all injured. Terror is never justified,” Dimiter Tzantchev wrote on Twitter.

Following Wednesday’s bomb attacks, the Israeli military announced two checkpoints near the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin had been closed.

During the second intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s, Palestinian militants repeatedly planted bombs at urban bus stops, including in Jerusalem.

NAIROBI — Amnesty International on Wednesday urged the African Union (AU) to take “long awaited” steps toward creating a promised war crimes tribunal to try atrocities committed during South Sudan’s bloody five-year conflict.

The establishment of an AU-led ‘hybrid court’ to prosecute those responsible for war-time atrocities was first agreed in a 2015 peace deal and again in 2018, but never implemented.

Government and rebel forces were accused of heinous crimes including gang rape, ethnic massacres and enlisting child soldiers during a civil war that left nearly 400,000 people dead in the world’s youngest nation.

Amnesty and the South Sudanese Transitional Justice Working Group, a coalition of civil society and faith-based groups, said the AU must empower a court to investigate “the most serious crimes on the continent”.

“The formation of this Court should not have been delayed for so long. The AU must take long awaited and bold action,” Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty’s director for East and Southern Africa, said in a statement.

“The failure to establish the Hybrid Court reflects a lack of political will in South Sudan’s government to hold those most responsible for serious crimes, which are likely to include senior political and military officials, to account.”

Two years after separating from Sudan in 2011, oil-rich South Sudan plunged into war after President Salva Kiir accused his then-deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

The conflict that followed was marked by ethnic violence on a particularly brutal scale, as battles erupted between people from Machar’s Nuer community and Kiir’s Dinka tribe.

UN investigators warned ethnic cleansing may have occurred in South Sudan, where rape and starvation were used as weapons of war, and civilians murdered wholesale in gruesome attacks.

Kiir formed a power-sharing government with Machar in 2020 after signing a peace deal and recommitting to try the worst abuses in a special court administered with the AU.

But the government has been accused of trying to block such a tribunal, and deliberately frustrating efforts to bring those responsible for possible war crimes to justice.

James Ninrew, chair of the Transitional Justice Working Group, said that given its unwillingness to pursue perpetrators, the AU should not place the court in South Sudan but elsewhere in Africa, and must ensure its judicial independence.

The establishment of a court would “show that the AU stands with survivors and victims of crimes for which impunity cannot be tolerated”, said Mwananyanda.

The AU Peace and Security Council, the bloc’s foremost conflict resolution body, is scheduled to convene on South Sudan on November 30.