Region

ADEN — At least 12 civilians were killed on Saturday in a blast near the airport of Aden, the Yemeni government’s interim capital, a senior security official told AFP.

“Twelve civilians were killed in an explosion” in the vicinity of Aden airport and “there are also serious injuries”, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that the cause of the blast was unknown.

Another security official confirmed the toll.

The explosion comes almost three weeks after six people were killed in a car-bomb attack that targeted Aden’s governor, who survived.

AFP footage on Saturday showed people pulling out a body from a vehicle that had been completely destroyed, as firefighters put out flames nearby.

The internationally recognised government relocated to Aden from the capital Sanaa in 2014, forced out by the Houthis, who are fighting Saudi-backed Yemeni government loyalists.

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for Saturday’s blast, which is the deadliest in the area since December last year, when an attack targeting cabinet members ripped through Aden’s airport.

At least 26 people, including three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, were killed and scores were wounded when explosions rocked the airport as ministers disembarked from an aircraft.

All Cabinet members were reported to be unharmed, in what some ministers charged was a Houthi attack.

Children killed in Taez 

Also on Saturday, three children were killed and three more were critically wounded in a neighbourhood of Yemen’s third city Taez, by what state media said was rebel mortar fire.

“The Iranian-backed Houthi militia targeted the Al Kamp neighbourhood with... shells, which led to the death of three children,” the Saba new agency said.

One of the wounded children has had his legs amputated and all three “are in a critical condition”, it added.

A security official told AFP that the three children killed were brothers.

A doctor at Taez Hospital confirmed the report to AFP, and said the toll could rise.

Taez is a city of 600,000 people under government control in the southwest of Yemen, a country that has been at war for the last seven years.

In recent weeks, fighting has intensified around the government’s sole remaining northern stronghold — the city of Marib in the oil-rich province of the same name.

The coalition has said it has killed a total of some 2,000 rebels around the city in almost daily strikes since October 11.

Yemen is also home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which launches periodic attacks against both fighters aligned with the country’s authorities and the insurgents.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced in Yemen’s conflict, which the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

DAMASCUS — An Israeli missile strike wounded two Syrian soldiers near Damascus on Saturday, the official SANA news agency reported after explosions were heard in the Syrian capital.

"The Israeli enemy fired a salvo of surface-to-surface missiles from northern occupied Palestine targeting positions near Damascus," SANA said, quoting an unnamed military official.

"Our anti-aircraft defences were activated and were able to hit some of the enemy missiles," the source said, adding that the attack wounded two soldiers and caused damage.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has routinely carried out air strikes inside Syria, mostly targeting the Syrian army troops as well as allied Iranian and Lebanese forces.

It is rare for Israel to carry out strikes on Syrian targets during daylight hours.

The Israeli forces rarely acknowledges individual strikes but has said repeatedly that it will not allow Syria to become a stronghold of its arch-foe Iran.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Saturday's raid destroyed arms and ammunition depots belonging to Iranian forces and allied militias in Qudsaya and Dimas.

Israel has targeted these positions in the past.

On October 14, an Israeli air strike on Iranian positions in central Syria killed nine fighters allied to the Syrian government.

KHARTOUM — Thousands of Sudanese anti-coup protesters took to the streets on Saturday to support the country's democratic transition which a military takeover and deadly crackdown derailed.

The protests came almost a week after the military last Monday detained Sudan's civilian leadership, dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency, leading to a chorus of international condemnation.

"No, no to military rule", and "We are free revolutionaries and we will continue the road" of democratic transition, protesters carrying Sudanese flags chanted in Khartoum.

Earlier demonstrations against the coup were countered by a security response that has left at least nine protesters dead and wounded around 170.

Despite the bloodshed, organisers on Saturday aimed to stage a "million-strong" march against the military's power grab, similar to mass protests that led to the toppling of autocrat Omar Al Bashir in 2019.

The growing demonstrations occurred throughout the Khartoum area including in its twin cities of Omdurman and Khartoum-North, while in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan protesters in their hundreds blocked a street, according to witnesses and AFP correspondents.

Protesters also gathered in the eastern state of Kassala.

“We want a civilian rule, and this time will not accept to share it with the military. It has to be civilian 100 per cent,” said Hashim Al Tayib, a protester in southern Khartoum.

Sudan had been led since August 2019 by a civilian-military ruling council which was supposed to last three years and lead to full civilian rule. The arrangement came under increasing strain prior to the coup, which analysts said aimed to maintain the army’s traditional control over the northeast African country.

Other protesters held posters of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok ousted by the military and effectively held under house arrest, with slogans saying, “Don’t back down”.

In east Khartoum, protesters set car tyres on fire and held posters reading, “It’s impossible to go back”, while in the city’s southern district banners expressed concern that the country might return to Washington’s state sponsors of terrorism list.

That designation, accompanied by years of crippling sanctions, was lifted only last December which opened the way to debt relief and renewed largesse from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

After the coup, the World Bank suspended aid to Sudan in a heavy blow to a country already mired in a dire economic crisis that began under Bashir.

Other protesters called for “freedom to the members of Cabinet” who have been detained since the putsch.

Several pro-democracy activists have also been arrested following the takeover led by General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, Sudan’s de facto leader since the ouster of Bashir which came at the cost of more than 250 lives.

Warnings on violence 

On the eve of Saturday’s rallies, a US official put this week’s death toll at between 20 and 30, and called on the security forces “to refrain from any and all violence against protesters and to fully respect the citizens’ right to demonstrate peacefully”.

A similar call came from Britain’s special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Robert Fairweather

“The security services and their leaders will bear responsibility for any violence towards any protesters,” he said on Twitter.

On Friday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the military “to show restraint and not to create any more victims”.

Phone lines were largely down by Saturday morning, as security forces deployed in large numbers and blocked bridges connecting the capital, Khartoum, with its sister cities.

Before the protests began Sudan’s information ministry, which backs a civilian government, warned in a statement that coup authorities were planning to engineer “instances of destruction to justify its excessive violence”.

Protesters during the week were in some cases met with tear gas, rubber-coated bullets, and live rounds.

Shops have largely been shuttered, and government employees have refused to work as part of a campaign of civil disobedience.

Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim, who leads an ex-rebel group aligned with the military, emphasised protesters’ right to demonstrate but suggested they were the ones prone to violence.

“Destroying sidewalks, electricity poles, and damaging properties which were built by the people has nothing to do with peaceful expression,” he said in a tweet.

Prior to Saturday’s rallies Sudan state TV aired testimonies from military men alleging that protesters wounded them during clashes, and showed ordinary Sudanese hailing the army.

Burhan, a senior general under Bashir’s three decades of iron-fisted rule, has insisted the military takeover “was not a coup” but only meant to “rectify the course of the Sudanese transition”.

One of the world’s least developed countries, Sudan has enjoyed only rare democratic interludes since independence in 1956 and spent decades riven by civil war.



KHARTOUM — Security forces clashed with protesters on Thursday furious over a military coup that derailed a fragile transition to democracy and sparked an international outcry.

At least one protester was killed, according to medics, on the fourth day of street violence in Khartoum, as the UN Security Council called on the military to restore the civilian-led government they toppled on Monday.

The council in a unanimously passed statement expressed "serious concern" about the army power grab in the poverty-stricken Northeast African nation and urged all sides "to engage in dialogue without pre-conditions".

General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan -- Sudan's de facto leader since the 2019 ouster of veteran autocrat Omar Al Bashir after huge youth-led protests -- on Monday dissolved the country's fragile government.


While the civilian leader, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, has been under effective house arrest, the capital has been rocked by days of unrest and is bracing for major demonstrations on Saturday.

Roads have been blocked by barricades of rocks, debris and burning car tyres that have sent black smoke billowing into the sky, while most shops have been shuttered in a campaign of civil disobedience.

"We do not want military power, we want a free democratic life in this country," said one protester, who asked not to be named.

Generals' grip on country 

The latest street clashes on Thursday rocked the restive eastern Khartoum district of Burri and the Khartoum-North suburb, AFP reporters said.

At least one protester was killed in the clashes in Khartoum-north, a doctor's committee linked to the protest movement said.

That takes to eight the number of protesters killed since Monday's coup, up from a toll of seven given by health officials earlier in the day. Some 170 have been wounded.

Tear gas and rubber-coated bullets were fired at the demonstrators on Thursday and witnesses reported several injuries.

The coup was the latest to have hit the country which has experienced only rare democratic interludes since independence in 1956.

The World Bank and the United States have frozen aid and denounced the army's power grab, while the African Union has suspended Sudan's membership over what it termed the "unconstitutional" takeover.

The US, EU, Britain, Norway and other nations in a joint statement stressed their continued recognition of the "prime minister and his Cabinet as the constitutional leaders of the transitional government".

Sudan had been ruled since August 2019 by a joint civilian-military council, alongside Hamdok's administration, as part of a transition to full civilian rule.

Recent years saw the country -- formerly blacklisted by the US as a "state sponsor of terrorism" -- make strides toward rejoining the international community, with hopes of boosting aid and investment.

But analysts had said the civilians' role receded before the coup, which the experts view as the generals' way of maintaining their long-held grip on the country.

Tear gas, rubber bullets 

Recalling the mass protests of 2019, Sudan's pro-democracy movements have called for "million-strong protests" on Saturday, further heightening tensions.

One protester on Thursday described the cat-and-mouse game with security forces, saying that they "have been trying since yesterday morning to remove all our barricades, firing tear gas and rubber bullets".

"But we go and rebuild them as soon as they leave," added the activist, Hatem Ahmed, from Khartoum. "We will only remove the barricades when the civilian government is back."

Burhan, a senior general during Bashir's three-decade-long hardline rule, has sacked six Sudanese ambassadors -- including to the US, EU, China and France -- who have been critical of his actions.

Foreign Minister Mariam Al Sadiq Al Mahdi -- whose father was the prime minister ousted by Bashir's 1989 coup -- is one of the few civilian leaders not in detention and has become a leading voice of criticism.

On Thursday, she praised the diplomats -- 68 according to one of them -- who have opposed the takeover, saying that "every free ambassador who opposes the coup is a victory for the revolution".



BAGHDAD — Residents of an Iraqi village have killed 11 people in retaliation for a deadly attack claimed by the Daesh group, an Iraqi security official said.

The inhabitants of the majority Shiite village of Al Rashad in the eastern Diyala province killed 11 people on Wednesday in the predominantly Sunni neighbouring hamlet of Nahr Al Imam, the security official who preferred to remain anonymous said.

The assailants accused the residents of Nahr Al Imam of being behind an attack on Al Rashad the day before in which 15 people were killed, an increase from an initially reported toll of 11.

Another 26 people were injured in the Tuesday attack on Al Rashad, according to the latest figures from security sources.

The Sunni militant Daesh group -- which considers Shiites to be "heretics" -- claimed the Al Rashad attack on Wednesday night.

Al Rashad is known to have many members of security forces among its residents and is populated mostly by members of the Bani Tamim tribe, from which the governor of Diyala hails.

The Iraqi Fiqh Council, the authority on Islamic jurisprudence for Sunnis in the country, condemned the "terrorist attack" on Al Rashad, as well as the "horrific revenge" on Nahr Al Imam.

The Daesh group took over large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring itself a new "caliphate" for Muslims.

Iraq declared the defeat of Daesh in December 2017, but a low-level insurgency has persisted in the country, flaring up at various points.

A UN report early this year estimated that around 10,000 Daesh fighters remained active across Iraq and Syria.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel advanced plans for building more than 3,000 settler units in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, a military spokesman said, a day after the US forcefully criticised such construction.

The Civil Administration's high planning committee gave the final green light to 1,800 units and initial approval for another 1,344, a spokesman for the military body that oversees civilian matters in the Palestinian territories told AFP.

The approvals come after the United States criticised Israel on Tuesday for its policy of building settlements, with President Joe Biden's administration saying it "strongly" opposed new construction on the West Bank.

His administration's position on the matter stands in stark contrast to that of his predecessor Donald Trump, whose presidency saw the US offer a green light to Israel's activity on occupied Palestinian land.

"We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government's plan to advance thousands of settlement units," State Department spokesman Ned Price had said on Tuesday, ahead of Israel's announcement on final and preliminary approvals.

Price stopped short of saying the matter would jeopardise relations with Israel, a major US ally.

But he said that the Biden administration would "raise this issue directly with senior Israeli officials in our private sessions".

The locations of the units — some proposed, others already built — that were approved on Wednesday were spread across the West Bank, from the suburbs of Jerusalem to new neighbourhoods of settlements deep inside the territory.

Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has been a policy of every Israeli government since 1967, when it occupied these areas in the June War of 1967. It later occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel's housing ministry had separately on Sunday published tenders to build 1,355 new settler units in the West Bank.

The Civil Administration is, meanwhile, scheduled on Sunday to advance plans for the construction of 1,301 homes for Palestinians in Israeli-controlled parts of the West Bank.

Critics say that move is an attempt to allay criticism from Israeli allies around the world and the anger of leftwing partners in an unwieldy coalition government headed by right-wing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

It is the first time that the Civil Administration, the military rulers of the West Bank, has approved settlement construction under Bennett’s government.

He came to power in June as the head of an ideologically disparate eight-party coalition with members ranging from the Jewish religious far-right to Israel’s Islamist party.

The former head of a settler lobby group, he opposes Palestinian statehood.

Bennett has ruled out formal peace talks with the Palestinian Authority during his tenure, saying he prefers to focus on economic improvements.

Israeli anti-occupation group Peace Now accused the government of “violating the status-quo” over the settlements, and accused proponents of the two-state solution within Bennett’s coalition of “falling asleep on their shift.”

About 475,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law, on land Palestinians claim as part of their future state.

KHARTOUM — Sudanese security forces launched sweeping arrests of anti-coup protesters on Wednesday, tightening the regime's grip while the international community ramped up punitive measures.

The World Bank froze aid and the African Union suspended the East African country over this week's military takeover.

Armed forces deployed in large numbers after overnight protests saw clashes in the capital Khartoum, when officers fired tear gas and arrested several leading pro-democracy activists, including from Sudan's largest political party, the Umma Party.

“Police forces have removed all the barricades since Wednesday morning and arrested all the people who stood near them,” said Hady Bashir, a protester, after AFP correspondents saw security forces clear rocks and tyres blocking major streets in Khartoum.

Beyond the capital, protesters have stood their ground to decry the country’s latest military coup, setting up blockades in Port Sudan in the east, Wad Madani to the south, and Atbara to the north.

“Sporadic protests erupt every now and then demanding the government’s return,” said Osama Ahmed, a witness from Wad Madani, about 186 kilometres south of Khartoum.

 Since top General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan on Monday announced the dissolution of the government and declared a state of emergency, thousands of citizens have maintained protests, chanting “No to military rule”.

Shops have remained closed following calls for a campaign of civil disobedience, and pro-democracy movements ratcheted up calls for “million-strong protests” on Saturday.

On Wednesday, the AU called the military takeover in Sudan “unconstitutional” and suspended its membership within the continent wide bloc.

The World Bank later suspended aid to the East African country over the coup.

Analysts had warned that the putsch could put at risk much-needed international assistance unlocked under Hamdok’s government to rescue Sudan’s economy, battered by decades of US sanctions and by mismanagement.

The blows came after Burhan allowed home Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was detained by the military on Monday along with his ministers and civilian members of Sudan’s ruling council, following intense international pressure.

But Hamdok and his wife were returned “under close surveillance,” his office said on Tuesday, while other ministers and civilian leaders remain under full military arrest.

In a joint statement, Western diplomats called for an urgent face-to-face meeting with Hamdok.

“We continue to recognise the prime minister and his Cabinet as the constitutional leaders of the transitional government,” read a joint statement by US, UK and Norway, the European Union, and Switzerland.

‘Vengeful’ attacks 

The coup comes after a rocky two-year transition outlined in an August 2019 power-sharing deal between military and civilians. Their joint rule followed the ouster of autocrat Omar Al-Bashir on the back of mass protests against his regime.

It was the latest putsch in one of the world’s most underdeveloped countries, which has experienced only rare democratic interludes since independence in 1956.

Burhan who has been Sudan’s de facto head of state since Bashir’s ouster was also a senior general during Bashir’s three-decade long hardline rule, and has the support of Sudan’s much feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Tensions had long simmered between the civilian and military sides, but divisions peaked after a September 21 “foiled” coup.

Four people were killed and scores wounded on Monday when soldiers opened fire on protesters, according to an independent doctors’ union.

Violence against protesters has mounted in a “vengeful” crackdown by security forces, said the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), an umbrella of unions which were instrumental in the anti-Bashir protests.

Late Tuesday, security forces arrested Sedeeq Al Sadiq Al Mahdi, the Umma party deputy, and took him to “an unidentified location”, his family said.

Internet services have largely been blocked. But Khartoum airport, which has been closed to flights, is set to reopen on Wednesday afternoon, the civil aviation authority said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Hamdok on Tuesday, the State Department said, welcoming the prime minister’s return home from custody but expressing “deep concern” about the takeover and reiterating US support for a civilian-led democracy.

Washington has suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in aid over the coup.

The EU has also threatened “serious consequences” for Sudan’s rulers, including suspension of financial support.

Bashir has been jailed since his ouster in 2019 and convicted of corruption. He is separately on trial for the 1989 Islamist-backed coup which brought him to power, and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide in the civil war in Darfur.