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KHARTOUM — Sudanese security forces fired tear gas on Thursday at protesters rallying against the killing of dozens in a post-coup crackdown, as US diplomats pressed for an end to the violence.

The demonstrations were the latest since the October 25 coup led by General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, which derailed a civilian-military power-sharing deal painstakingly negotiated after the 2019 ouster of autocrat Omar Al Bashir.

In a tactic used repeatedly, security forces fired tear gas at protesters who rallied in the capital's twin city of Omdurman, according to witnesses.

At least 72 people have been killed -- including many by live rounds -- during the crackdown against the regular anti-coup protests, according to a count by a pro-democracy group of medics.

The latest rallies came with US diplomats in a bid to bolster UN-led efforts to cajole the military into restoring a transition to full civilian rule.

On Wednesday, US Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee and special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, held meetings in Khartoum with the bereaved families of those killed during the protests.

The US officials "strongly condemned the use of disproportionate force against protesters, especially the use of live ammunition and sexual violence and the practice of arbitrary detention", Washington's embassy in Khartoum said in a statement on Thursday.

They also warned that the US "will not resume paused assistance to the Sudanese government absent an end to the violence and a restoration of a civilian-led government that reflects the will" of Sudan's citizens.

The US suspended $700 million in assistance to Sudan after the coup, as part of wider international punitive measures.

'Back to the barracks' 

Thursday's protests came following calls by Sudan's main civilian bloc -- the Forces for Freedom and Change -- for demonstrations "in tribute to the martyrs".

Protesters converged from several parts of the capital onto a main artery in east Khartoum, according to an AFP correspondent.

In Wad Madani city to the south, protesters chanted "blood for blood, we will not accept compensations", according Adel Ahmed, a witness.

"The military should go back to the barracks," protesters hollered at one Khartoum rally.

Others gathered outside the United Nations headquarters in Khartoum with banners reading: "No to external solutions."

They also called on the UN special representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes, "to leave".

Last week, Perthes launched consultations with Sudanese factions in a bid to resolve Sudan's political crisis .

The ruling Sovereign Council -- formed by Burhan following the coup with himself as chairman -- has welcomed the UN-led dialogue, as have the United States, Britain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The FFC also joined consultations "to restore the democratic transition".

Pro-democracy activists on Tuesday began a civil disobedience campaign that has seen many shops closed, streets barricaded and people rallying across the oountry, which is among the world's least developed.

That came after at least seven people were killed during violence against protesters on Monday, one of the deadliest days since the coup.

On Wednesday, the UN children's agency, UNICEF, said it had verified more than 120 violations against children in the coup violence.

"Nine children were killed during demonstrations mainly in Khartoum while another 13 were injured," it said in a statement.

"Boys and girls as young as 12 were detained. Children were impacted as a result of frequent attacks on medical facilities."

Sudan's authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition against demonstrators, and insist scores of security personnel have been wounded during protests.

A police general was stabbed to death a week ago.

On Wednesday, players of the Sudanese national football team knelt to the ground in prayer for those killed, ahead their last match in the African Cup of Nations in the Cameroon.

Phee and Satterfield met with members of the Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella of unions which were instrumental in the protests leading to the ouster of Bashir in April 2019.

They also met with members of the FFC as well as the military leaders.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli occupation forces demolished the home of a Palestinian family and arrested at least 18 people as they carried out a forced displacement order in the sensitive East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah early Wednesday.

The looming displacement of other families from Sheikh Jarrah in May last year fuelled an 11-day unrest between Israel and armed Palestinian factions in Gaza.

Before dawn, Israeli fores went to the home of the Salhiya family, who were first served with an eviction notice in 2017.

Jerusalem authorities have said the land will be used to build a school for children with special needs, but the eviction is likely to raise tension in a neighbourhood that has become a symbol of Palestinian opposition to Israeli occupation.

Jerusalem deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum has said the dispute surrounding the Salhiya home is "totally different" from the events in May, when Palestinians risked being forced to hand over plots of land to Jewish settlers.

Israeli forces said they had "completed the execution of an eviction order of illegal buildings built on grounds designated for a school for children with special needs".

"Members of the family living in the illegal buildings were given countless opportunities to hand over the land with consent," a statement from Israeli 

forces said.

A bulldozer raked through rubble hours after the home was destroyed.

A spokesman of Israeli forces  told AFP 18 family members and supporters were arrested for "violating a court order, violent fortification and disturbing public order," but no clashes took place during the eviction.

When Israeli forces arrived to carry out the order on Monday, Salhiya family members went up to the building’s roof with gas canisters, threatening to set the contents and themselves alight if they were forced out of their home.

Occupation forces had eventually backed off, but returned early on Wednesday amid heavy rainfall in Jerusalem.

Salhiya family lawyer Walid Abu-Tayeh told AFP troops had arrested 20 people during the operation, six of them Israeli citizens, with the latter being released, adding that “the Arab detainees were assaulted”.

He also confirmed reports that the Palestinian father Mahmud Salhiya is married to an Israeli Jew, named Meital.

In an audio recording distributed to local Arab-language media, Meital, who speaks Arabic, said the family was woken early on Wednesday by the sound of loud booms and Israeli forces had cut the electricity.

“They took me out of the house with my daughter and children who were crying and arrested my husband and all the young men,” she said.

‘Two-time refugees’ 

Deputy Mayor Hassan-Nahoum said on Tuesday the plot that the Salhiya family claim as theirs belonged to private Palestinian owners who then sold it to the city, which allocated it for classrooms for special needs Palestinian children.

A delegation of European diplomats visited the site during the stand-off. “In occupied territory, forced displacements are a violation of international humanitarian law,” the head of the European Union’s mission to the Palestinian territories, Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, told AFP.

Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir called the eviction “cruel” and stressed that the Salhiya family had previously been forced from their west Jerusalem home during Israel’s creation in 1948.

Wednesday’s eviction made them “two-time refugees”, he said.

Hundreds of Palestinians face forced displacement from homes in Sheikh Jarrah and other occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhoods. Circumstances surrounding the eviction threats vary.

In some cases, Jewish Israelis have lodged legal claims to plots they say were illegally taken during the war that accompanied Israel’s creation in 1948.

Israeli law allows Jewish Israelis to file such claims, but no equivalent law exists for Palestinians who lost land during the conflict.

Palestinians facing eviction say their homes were legally purchased from Jordanian authorities who controlled East Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the June War of 1967.

More than 200,000 Jewish settlers have since moved into the city’s eastern sector, fuelling tensions with Palestinians, who claim it as the capital of their future state.

BAGHDAD — Long uprooted from his native Iraq, Naseer Shamma, an icon of the Arabic oud, has returned home to help rekindle the flame of Iraqi music, snuffed out by decades of conflict.

"When you are in your own country, you feel very high emotions with the audience," the master string player said in an interview with AFP.

At nearly 60, the virtuoso who studied under late Iraqi oud legend Munir Bashir still appears in awe of his instrument, as well as those that accompany it.

"All those instruments are Iraqi — you have the santur for example. Each one is from 2,000 BC," he said at the national theatre orchestra packed with Iraqi instruments.

"They are very historic instruments and the sound is a very special sound."

Speaking between rehearsals, he added: "There is nostalgia here, with friends. I studied in Baghdad for six years and I always feel more comfortable when I play here."

But such nights in Baghdad have become more of an exception than the rule for Shamma, a native of Kut, in the country's southeast.

Exiled in 1993 under Saddam Hussein, he only returned to Iraq for the first time in 2012.

In the interim, he spent time in Cairo, as well as launching schools of Arabic oud across the Middle East, before settling in Berlin, where he lives now.

'Education first' 

Aside from his musical mission, his latest Baghdad performances come with another purpose.

"Now we're playing to help education. My new project is called 'education first'. We need to help Iraqi schools," Shamma said.

As UNICEF has pointed out, "decades of conflict and under-investment in Iraq have destroyed what used to be the best education system in the region and severely curtailed Iraqi children's access to quality learning".

From the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s to the subsequent international embargoes, the 2003 US-led invasion and the later Daesh group takeover, Iraq has struggled to emerge from bloody turmoil.

"And of course, three or four generations paid the price of this," Shamma said.

Despite the sluggish pace of Iraq's recovery and the political disputes that always threaten to erupt into new violence, the musician is hopeful for change.

"We hope that music... will change the soul of people," he said.

While Iraq is still far from its cultural heyday of the 1970s and 80s, it has recently seen a fledgling renaissance, with art galleries opening and book fairs and festivals being held.

"We need to close the bad past and start again a new life with a new memory and a new vision for the future," Shamma said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, announced a $1.6 billion funding appeal on Tuesday to help counter "chronic" budget shortfalls.

It is the latest in a series of warnings from UNRWA on possible deep cuts if the international community fails to provide more support.

"Chronic agency budget shortfalls threaten the livelihoods and well-being of the Palestine refugees that UNRWA serves and pose a serious threat to the agency's ability to maintain services," agency head Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

UNRWA's funding suffered a blow in 2018 when former US president Donald Trump cut support to the agency.

His administration branded UNRWA as “irredeemably flawed”, siding with Israeli criticisms of the agency founded in 1949, a year after Israel’s creation.

President Joe Biden’s administration has restored some support, but UNRWA has said it is still struggling.

In November, it warned it was facing an “existential threat” over budget gaps.

The agency has a staff of 28,000 and provides services such as education and health care to more than five million Palestinians registered in the Palestinian territories, including occupied East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

KHARTOUM — Sudanese shuttered shops and barricaded Khartoum streets on Tuesday in a civil disobedience campaign to protest one of the bloodiest days since an October coup derailed the country's democratic transition.

Security forces on Monday killed at least seven people during anti-coup protests by thousands, bringing the total fatalities from the crackdown on anti-coup demonstrations to 71, according to medics.

Sudan's main civilian bloc, the Forces for Freedom and Change, called for two days of civil disobedience to begin on Tuesday.

"Shop closed for mourning," said a series of small signs posted on the closed outlets at the sprawling Sajane construction supplies market in Khartoum. One of the merchants, Othman El Sherif, was among those shot dead on Monday.

In several other parts of Khartoum, too, many pharmacies and other shops were shuttered, according to an AFP correspondent.

Sudan's University for Science and Technology suspended all activities as part of the civil disobedience, according to an official statement.

As they do regularly, police on Tuesday fired tear gas at dozens of protesters setting up roadbloacks, this time on the streets of east Khartoum, according to an AFP correspondent.

After Monday's deaths the United Nations special representative Volker Perthes condemned the use of live ammunition and the US embassy criticised "violent tactics of Sudanese security forces", the latest such appeals by world powers, which have not curbed a rising death toll.

Washington's Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee and special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, were expected in Khartoum where they would "reiterate our call for security forces to end violence and respect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly", spokesman Ned Price said.

On Monday, Sudan’s police said they used “the least force” to counter the protests, in which about 50 police personnel were wounded in confrontations.

Authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition against demonstrators, and insist scores of security personnel have been wounded during protests which have occurred regularly since the October 25 coup.

A police general was stabbed to death last week.

On Tuesday, the “Friends of Sudan” group calling for the restoration of the country’s transitional government held talks in Saudi Arabia over the crisis.

“Deep concern about yesterday’s violence. International support and leverage is needed. Support for political process needs to go along with active support to stop violence,” the UN’s Perthes said on Twitter, after attending the meeting virtually.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli forces on Tuesday backed down from attempts to evict Palestinians from their home in a Jerusalem flashpoint district, the family said after they threatened self-immolation, triggering a stand-off.

The Salhiya family has been facing the threat of eviction from their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem since 2017, when the land where their home sits was allocated for school construction.

Anger in Sheikh Jarrah where families battled eviction orders fuelled an 11-day war between Israel and armed Palestinian factions in Gaza last year.

When forces arrived to execute the eviction order on Monday, Salhiya family members went up to the building’s roof with gas canisters, threatening to use them on themselves if they were forced out of their home.

An hours-long standoff ensued.

By Tuesday, forces sent for the eviction had already been removed but children of the Salhiya family remained on the roof with the gas canisters, their father Mahmud told AFP.

According to him, no agreement or understandings had been reached, but lawyers for the family filed a petition to the supreme court on Tuesday to cancel the eviction order.

In a Tuesday statement to AFP, the municipality of Jerusalem stressed the Salhiya family had numerous opportunities to move out of their home, deemed illegal and the city had every intention of taking the plot under a district court decision.

Hundreds of Palestinians are facing evictions from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and other occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhoods. Circumstances surrounding the eviction threats vary.

In some cases Jewish Israelis have mounted legal challenges to claim the plots they say were illegally taken during the war that coincided with Israel’s founding in 1948.

Palestinians say their homes were legally purchased from Jordanian authorities who controlled East Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 June War and later annexed it, in a move not recognised by the international community.

More than 200,000 Jewish settlers have since moved into the area, fuelling tensions with Palestinians, who claim occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

BAGHDAD — As Iraq’s Shiite leaders jostle to secure a majority in the newly-elected parliament, Sunni and Kurdish minorities have been caught up in a spate of warning grenade attacks, analysts say.

In recent days, unknown attackers have hurled grenades at Kurdish and Sunni targets including political party offices and a lawmaker’s home — groups that could help Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr win the critical parliamentary majority needed to make his choice of prime minister.

“It is a way of punishing the forces that have allied with Moqtada Sadr to form a parliamentary majority,” said political scientist Ihsan Al Shammari.

“Their message is political,” he added, calling the attacks “part of the mode of political pressure” adopted by some groups.

In multiconfessional and multiethnic Iraq, the formation of governments has involved complex negotiations since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Horse trading for power 

No single party holds an outright majority, so the next leader will be voted in by whichever coalition can negotiate allies to become the biggest bloc — which then elects Iraq’s president, who then appoints a prime minister.

In previous parliaments, parties from Iraq’s Shiite majority have struck compromise deals to work together and form a government, with an unofficial system whereby the prime minister is Shiite, the president is a Kurd and the speaker of parliament is Sunni.

But Sadr, who once led an anti-US militia and who opposes all foreign interference, has repeatedly said the next prime minister will be chosen by his movement.

So rather than strike an alliance with the powerful Shiite Coordination Framework — which includes the pro-Iran Fateh alliance, the political arm of the former paramilitary Hashed Al Shaabi — Sadr has forged a new coalition.

That includes two Sunni parties, Taqadum and Azm, as well as the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

It has infuriated the Coordination Framework — who insist their grouping is bigger.

In recent days, grenades have been lobbed at the home of a Taqadum lawmaker, as well as at the party offices of Azm, Taqadum and the KDP in Baghdad.

On Sunday, flashbang stun grenades were hurled into the branches of two Kurdish banks in the capital Baghdad — wounding two people.

The heads of both banks are said to be close to political leaders in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan region.

There has already been unrest following the election, with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi escaping unhurt when an explosive-packed drone hit his residence in November during what his office called an “assassination attempt”.

No group has claimed the attack.

While the culprits of the recent grenade blasts have also not been identified, a security source charged that the attacks “convey the messages of the parties that lost in the elections”.

The purpose, the security source claimed, is to “disrupt the formation of the government” —- implicitly pointing to the Coordination Framework, and in particular the Fateh alliance.

‘They threaten violence’ 

Fateh lost much of its political capital in the October 10 polls, having secured only 17 seats, compared to the 48 it had before.

It alleged the vote was rigged, but Iraq’s top court rejected a complaint of electoral irregularities filed by Hashed.

Hashed, which maintains an arsenal of weapons, fighters and supporters, has sought a variety of ways to make itself heard outside parliament, including demonstrations and sit-ins.

“Rather than accepting defeat at the polls, they threaten violence,” said Lahib Higel, of the International Crisis Group.

Sadr has considered striking deals with certain members of the Coordination Framework, such as Fateh chief Hadi Al Ameri, at the expense of other figures in the bloc, such as former prime minister Nuri Al Maliki, Higel said.

But such an arrangement “is not Iran’s preference” Higel argued, adding that Tehran “would rather see a consensus that includes all Shiite parties”.

However, she said Iran could settle for a deal where Shiite parties held sway.

“It is possible that they [Iran] would accept a scenario where not everyone is represented in the next government, as long as there is a sufficient amount of Shiite parties, including some Hashed factions,” she said.

KHARTOUM — Security forces shot and killed three protesters on Monday during rallies against last year's military coup, medics said, ahead of a visit by US diplomats seeking to revive a transition to civilian rule.

The protesters "were killed by live bullets" by "militias of the putschist military council", anti-coup medics said on the Facebook page of Khartoum state's health ministry.

The killings bring to 67 the death toll of protesters killed since the October 25 coup led by General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan.

The military takeover triggered wide international condemnation and derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule following the April 2019 ouster of longtime president Omar Al Bashir.

The latest rallies, in Khartoum and Wad Madani to the south, came as US envoy to the Horn of Africa David Satterfield and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee are expected in the capital this week.

Security officers who deployed in large numbers fired volleys of tear gas at protesters heading toward the presidential palace, an AFP correspondent said.

Several people were seen suffering breathing difficulties and others bleeding due to wounds by tear gas canisters, the correspondent said.

Sawsan Salah, from the capital's twin city of Omdurman, said protesters burnt car tyres and carried photos of people killed during other demonstrations since the October 25 coup.

In Wad Madani, "around 2,000 people took to the streets as they called for civilian rule", said Emad Mohammed, a witness there.

Thousands of protesters demanded that the military return to their barracks and chanted in favour of civilian rule in North Khartoum, witnesses said.

Protesters, sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands,  have regularly taken to the streets despite a deadly security clampdown and periodic cuts to communications since the coup.

On Thursday, Sudanese authorities said protesters stabbed to death a police general, the first fatality among security forces.

Authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition in confronting demonstrators and insist scores of security personnel have been wounded during protests that have often “deviated from peacefulness”.

Diplomatic push 

Starting on Monday in Riyadh, Satterfield and Phee were to meet the Friends of Sudan, a group calling for the restoration of the country’s transitional government.

The meeting aims to “marshal international support” for the UN mission to “facilitate a renewed civilian-led transition to democracy” in Sudan, the US State Department said.

The diplomats then travel to Khartoum for meetings with pro-democracy activists, civic groups, military and political figures.

“Their message will be clear: The United States is committed to freedom, peace and justice for the Sudanese people,” the State Department said.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that a new charges d’affaire Lucy Tamlyn will head the embassy in Khartoum to serve “during this critical juncture in Sudan’s democratic transition”.

The United Nations last week said it will launch talks involving political, military and social actors to help resolve the crisis.

The mainstream civilian faction of the Forces for Freedom and Change, the leading civilian pro-democracy group, has said it would accept the UN offer for talks if revives the transition to civilian rule.

Proposed talks have been welcomed by the ruling Sovereign Council, which Burhan re-staffed following the coup with himself as chairman.

Burhan has insisted that the military takeover “was not a coup” but only meant to “rectify” the course of the post-Bashir transition.

Earlier this month, Sudan’s civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok resigned saying the country was now at a “dangerous crossroads threatening its very survival”.