Region

RIYADH — The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Sunday it had killed more than 260 Houthi rebels in the past three days near the strategic city of Marib.

"Thirty-six military vehicles were destroyed and more than 264" rebel fighters were killed in strikes in the past 72 hours in Al Jawba, some 50 kilometres south of Marib, and Al Kassara, 30 kilometres to the northwest, the coalition said, quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.

The Iran-backed Houthis rarely comment on losses, and AFP could not independently verify the toll.

The coalition has for the past two weeks reported almost daily strikes around Marib, the internationally recognised government's last bastion in oil-rich northern Yemen.

It says it has killed hundreds of Houthi rebels in the fighting.

The Houthis began a major push to seize Marib in February, and have renewed their offensive since September after a lull.

The Yemeni civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, 120 kilometres west of Marib, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced, in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel plans to build more settler units for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, a government ministry said Sunday, adding to those announced in August by the new ruling coalition.

"Tenders for 1,355 units in Judea and Samaria have been published," a construction ministry statement said, referencing the biblical names used widely in Israel for the West Bank.

The new accommodation adds to the more than 2,000 settler units which defence sources said in August would be authorised for settlers in the West Bank.

Final approval is expected from the defence ministry this week for those units.

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

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the June War of 1967 and exercises full administrative control across much of the territory, where more than two million Palestinians live.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the former head of a settler lobby group, opposes Palestinian statehood and has ruled out formal peace talks with the Palestinian Authority during his tenure, saying he prefers to focus on economic improvements.

The tenders come after Israel last week gave approval for 4,000 Palestinians to register as residents of the West Bank, the first such move in the Israeli-occupied territory in 12 years.

The new units are to be built in seven settlements, according to the ministry statement.

Israeli colonisation of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem has continued under every Israeli government since 1967.

Construction accelerated, however, in the last few years under former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since mid-June his successor Bennett has led a coalition of parties, ranging from the far right to leftist.

DOHUK, Iraq — Archaeologists in Iraq revealed on Sunday their discovery of a large-scale wine factory from the rule of the Assyrian kings 2,700 years ago, along with stunning monumental rock-carved royal reliefs.

The stone bas-reliefs, showing kings praying to the gods, were cut into the walls of a nearly 9 kilometre-long irrigation canal at Faida in northern Iraq, the joint team of archaeologists from the Department of Antiquities in Dohuk and colleagues from Italy said.

The carvings — 12 panels measuring 5 metres wide and 2 metres tall showing gods, kings and sacred animals — date from the reigns of Sargon II (721-705BC) and his son Sennacherib.

"There are other places with rock reliefs in Iraq, especially in Kurdistan, but none are so huge and monumental as this one," said Italian archaeologist Daniele Morandi Bonacossi.

"The scenes represent the Assyrian king praying in front the Assyrian gods," he said, noting that the seven key gods are all seen, including Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, who is depicted on top of a lion.

Ancient 'propaganda scene' 

The irrigation canal was cut into limestone to carry water from the hills to the fields of farmers, and the carvings were made to remind people of the king who ordered its construction.

"It was not only a religious scene of prayer, it was also political, a sort of propaganda scene," Morandi Bonacossi added.

"The king, in this way, wanted to show to the people living in the area that he was the one who has created these massive irrigation systems, so... the people should remember this and remain loyal."

At Khinis, also near Dohuk, the team unearthed giant stone basins cut into white rock that were used in commercial wine making during the reign of Sennacherib, in the late 8th or early 7th century BC.

"It was a sort of industrial wine factory," said Morandi Bonacossi, professor of Near Eastern archaeology at Italy's University of Udine, adding it was the first such discovery in Iraq.

"We have found 14 installations that were used to press the grapes and extract the juice, which was then processed into wine."

Some of the most famous carvings that have survived from the Assyrian period are the mythical winged bulls, with examples of the monumental reliefs seen in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, as well the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London.

Iraq was the cradle of some world's earliest cities. It was once home to Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians, and to among humankind's first examples of writing.

But it is also now a location for smugglers of ancient artefacts.

Looters decimated the country's ancient past, including after the 2003 US-led invasion.

Then, from 2014 and 2017, the Daesh group demolished dozens of pre-Islamic treasures with bulldozers, pickaxes and explosives, but also used smuggling to finance their operations.

By Guillaume Lavallee
Agence France-Presse

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — The Gaza Strip might be off-limits for foreign foodies but the coastal Palestinian enclave is brimming with seafood restaurants, many owned by one local family whose culinary hook is their matriarch's spicy fish tajine.

Munir Abu Hasira arrives at the Gaza port's fish market at daybreak, but holds back as traders snatch up sardines and other fish caught during the night.

He is angling for more discerning catches like grouper, sea bream and large shrimp, which can go for around 70 shekels ($22) a kilo — a small fortune in the impoverished enclave, under Israeli blockade since 2007.

"It's expensive because of the economic situation, but we buy the fish to supply restaurants and to export" to the occupied West Bank, he says, as workers pile fresh fish into a van.

For decades, the Abu Hasira family were all fishermen, but since opening their first restaurant in the 1970s, they have gradually traded their fishing kit for chef's tools.

Gaza fishermen say they struggle to eke out a living, snared by Israeli restrictions on the enclave's fishing zone and on importing equipment into the enclave, from boat motors to sonar devices for finding shoals.

Problems like overfishing and pollution blight the local industry.

Some 4,200 tonnes of fish and seafood were netted from Gaza's waters last year, according to the Israeli authorities. Just 300 tonnes were exported to the West Bank.

Sitting on a chair in a Gaza courtyard, Eid Abu Hasira, in his 80s, said he was the last of the family's fishermen.

"I sold everything in 2013," said the head of the family, sporting a white moustache and wearing a traditional robe and headdress.

"Today, we are in the fish trade, and have 13 Abu Hasira restaurants," he said, clutching Muslim prayer beads as he leaned on a wooden cane.

No Michelin stars 

One of his ancestors was a prominent Jewish Moroccan rabbi, who died during a trip to Egypt in the 19th century.

A descendent in Egypt had a vision that "they had to go to Gaza", Eid Abu Hasira said.

"So we came here. My grandfather chose to live off the sea," he said, adding that a Jewish branch of the family lives in Israel, while those in Gaza are Muslim.

As a young boy, his mother would cook up a seafood tajine that has become the Abu Hasira family chain's signature dish.

Moeen Abu Hasira, 56, paid homage to his family's culinary heritage, from their signature shrimp and tomato tajine, known as "zibdiyit", to a fish tajine made with tahini, herbs and pine nuts, to grilled grouper.

"The secret of Gaza cuisine is strong chili," he said from the kitchen of his restaurant, which he opened earlier this year.

The Abu Hasira family's clientele has changed over time.

"Until the start of the first intifada, our restaurants were packed. Israelis came to eat here and so did tourists," Moeen Abu Hasira said, referring to the first Palestinian uprising in 1987.

Since the Israeli blockade began in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas took control of the enclave, few international tourists, foodies or gastronomic guide writers have visited.

Now, the family's restaurants cater to a well-off Palestinian clientele, but Moeen Abu Hasira said times were hard as unemployment in Gaza hovers around 50 per cent.

"Nobody will give you a star" in recognition of your restaurant, said the chef, who trained in French cuisine in a restaurant in the Israeli city of Jaffa.

"We did not learn in cooking schools or universities. There is none of that in Gaza," he said. "We all learn from each other."

WASHINGTON — A senior Al Qaeda leader was killed in a US drone strike in Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday.

The strike comes two days after a base in southern Syria, used by the US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group, was assaulted.

"A US air strike today in northwest Syria killed senior Al Qaeda leader Abdul Hamid Al Matar," said Central Command spokesman Army Major John Rigsbee in a statement.

There were no known casualties from the strike, he said, adding it was conducted using an MQ-9 aircraft.

"The removal of this Al Qaeda senior leader will disrupt the terrorist organisation's ability to further plot and carry out global attacks," he said.

At the end of September the Pentagon killed Salim Abu-Ahmad, another senior Al Qaeda commander in Syria, in an air strike near Idlib in the country's northwest.

He had been responsible for "planning, funding, and approving trans-regional Al Qaeda attacks", according to Centcom.

"Al Qaeda continues to present a threat to America and our allies. Al Qaeda uses Syria as a safe haven to rebuild, coordinate with external affiliates, and plan external operations," Rigsbee said.

The ongoing war in Syria has created a complex battlefield involving foreign armies and militias.

The war has killed around half a million people since starting in 2011.

By Layal Abou Rahal
Agence France-Presse

BEIRUT — Two years after a now-defunct protest movement shook Lebanon, opposition activists are hoping parliamentary polls will challenge the ruling elite's stranglehold on the country.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese took to the streets from October 17, 2019, in an unprecedented countrywide and cross-sectarian uprising.

Their demands were for basic services and the wholesale removal of a political class they accused of mismanagement and corruption since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

But as the country sank further into economic turmoil, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic, what demonstrators called their "revolution" petered out.

Many then saw a probe into the cataclysmic 2020 Beirut port blast as the best chance to bring down Lebanon's hereditary political barons, but even intense international pressure in the explosion's aftermath failed to make them change their ways.

Last week, feuding parties turned Beirut into a war zone, with heavy exchanges of fire killing seven people in a flare-up sparked by a rally against the main investigating judge.

Lawyer and activist Firas Hamdan is one of many to say that the elections, set for next year, will be a new opportunity for people to raise their voices against the authorities.

“We tried everything — protests in a single location and across regions, demonstrations outside the central bank and near the homes of officials, following lawmakers and officials into restaurants and coffee shops, and blocking roads — but all to no avail,” he said.

Instead now “the parliamentary elections will be a pivotal moment in confronting the system — even if not the final battle,” he added.

Hamdan said the polls would allow people to choose between those who want to actually “build a state”, and a tired ruling class “that only knows the language of arms, destruction and blood”.

‘Move on’ 

It will be a “face-off between thieves and murderers, and citizens who deserve a chance at state building”, said the lawyer, who was hit in the heart by a lead pellet at a demonstration last year demanding justice over the port blast.

The protest movement has given birth to a clutch of new political parties, as well as attracting support from more traditional ones such as the Christian Kataeb Party.

Each has its own vision of how to achieve change, but all largely agree on the importance of the upcoming elections.

Zeina Al Helou, a member of new political party “Lana” (For Us), said it was time to “move on from the nostalgia of throngs of people in the streets chanting” for change.

Activists needed instead to work on “managing frustrations and expectations” for the future, she said.

The political battle would be tough, as it opposed two sides of “unequal means”, she said, referring to her side’s limited financing or access to the traditional media for campaigning, and to gerrymandering giving establishment parties the advantage.

The various opposition groups have yet to decide how they will take part in the upcoming polls, and some observers have criticised them for failing to coordinate their efforts effectively.

Voters, meanwhile, are busy battling to get by on deeply diminished incomes, amid endless power cuts, price hikes and shortages of everything from medicine to petrol.

‘First step’ 

Maher Abu Chakra, from the new grouping “Li Haqqi” (For My Right), said the polls would likely not change a thing but it was “important to take part”.

“It’s a first step on the path to lasting change.”

But he too acknowledged the challenges.

“When people’s priority becomes making sure they can provide basic needs, they’re less ready for confrontation” in politics, he said.

Tens of thousands have been laid off or have taken pay cuts since the start of the crisis, and many people have been deprived of their own life savings, which have become trapped in the banks.

In some cases, traditional parties have managed to wheedle their way back into voters’ homes by giving them food, fuel or medication, or even paying their electricity or water bills.

Hilal Khashan, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut (AUB), said the old political system was “still alive and well”.

The people, however, were suffering from “social fatigue” and had “understood change wouldn’t be so easy,” he said.

Rima Majed, assistant professor of sociology at AUB, said people were leaving the country because they had lost hope in any political change.

Fed up with constant blackouts and shortages, thousands of fresh graduates and better-off families have packed their bags and quit Lebanon in recent months in search of a better life abroad.

“It’s deluded to believe that elections can change the system,” she said.

KHARTOUM — Mass protests in Sudan show strong support for a civilian-led democracy, but analysts warn street demonstrations may have little impact on powerful factions pushing a return to military rule.

Under a 2019 power-sharing deal after the ouster of long-time dictator Omar Al Bashir, Sudan is ruled by a sovereign council of civilian and military representatives tasked with overseeing a transition to a full civilian government.

But cracks in the leadership are growing wider.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of Sudanese marched in several cities to back the full transfer of power to civilians, and to counter a rival days-long sit-in outside the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum demanding a return to "military rule".

The two sides represent opposing factions of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), the civilian umbrella group which spearheaded demonstrations that led to the army's overthrow and jailing of Bashir.

"The protests were an explicit rejection of the prospect of a military rule, and an emphasis that the transition to civilian rule remains the goal," Sudanese analyst Othman Mirghani told AFP.

But, “despite their size, they have little impact on the political reality at play,” he added.

‘Divisions’ 

Critics have charged that the rival sit-in has been orchestrated by senior figures in the security forces, Bashir sympathisers and other “counter-revolutionaries”.

But it has drawn support from some of those hit hard by tough International Monetary Fund-backed economic reforms implemented by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, a former UN economist.

Sudan’s precarious transition has been marred by political splits and power struggles among factions at the helm of the transition.

“The FFC’s own divisions, that detract from their ability to govern, are making it easy for the military and the FFC breakaway group to point to poor performance as reason to dissolve the government,” said Jonas Horner of the International Crisis Group.

Even ministers within Hamdok’s Cabinet have expressed support for rival camps.

On Thursday, Industry Minister Ibrahim Al Sheikh joined in Thursday’s mass rallies backing civilian rule.

On Friday, Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim — an ex-rebel leader from Darfur, who joined the government after a landmark 2020 peace deal — took part in Friday prayers at the pro-military sit-in.

Volker Perthes, UN Special Representative to Sudan, stressed “the need to maintain the constitutional partnership between the military and civilian component” after meeting Thursday with the leader of Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council, military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Burhan.

Perthes urged for a “return to dialogue and [to] build on achievements of the transitional period”.

‘Keep the military at bay’ 

Tensions between the two sides have long simmered, but divisions ratcheted up after a failed coup on September 21.

Popular support for the government led by Hamdok, who was picked in 2019 by a once-united FFC, has also waned over a tough raft of economic reforms that took a toll on ordinary Sudanese.

Delays in delivering justice to the families of those killed under Bashir, and even during the 2019 protests following his ouster, have left Hamdok vulnerable to criticism.

And since mid-September, the government has been criticised for its handling of anti-government protests in the east — resulting in a blockade of the country’s key maritime trade hub of Port Sudan, triggering shortages nationwide.

“Hamdok and the FFC have failed to meet people’s expectations,” said Mirghani.

“Thursday’s protests were not particularly backing them, as much as simply asserting revolutionary goals.”

The security forces — including the regular Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the much-feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — have maintained a powerful hold, and are heavily involved in everything from outlining foreign policy to running lucrative companies.

“The military — both SAF and RSF — are newly determined not to relinquish their political and economic power,” said Horner, but added that the main protests can still be a counterweight to their strength.

“Popular opposition has, and can continue, to keep the military at bay,” Horner said.


KHARTOUM — Tens of thousands of supporters of Sudan's transition to a civilian-led democracy took to the streets on Thursday, as rival demonstrators kept up a sit-in demanding a return to military rule.

Both sides appealed to their supporters to keep apart and refrain from any violence, and there was a heavy police and troop presence around potential flashpoints.

Security forces fired tear gas as pro-civilian rule protesters rallied outside parliament in Omdurman, across the Nile River from the capital Khartoum, witnesses and an AFP correspondent said.

The two sides represent opposing factions of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), the civilian umbrella group which spearheaded demonstrations that led to the army's overthrow of longtime president Omar Al Bashir in 2019.

The mainstream faction backs the transition to civilian rule, while supporters of the breakaway faction are demanding the military take over.

Demonstrators joined the march organised by the mainstream faction across Sudan, including Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman, Port Sudan in the east, and Atbara to the north.

Banners proclaimed "Civilian [rule] is the people's choice", while the marchers chanted slogans against Islamists and the military, the two main pillars of the former Bashir regime.

"Give up power, [Abdel Fatta] Burhan," they chanted in reference to the general who chairs the Sovereign Council, the joint civilian-military body overseeing the transitional government.

"Burhan is dirty, and was installed by the Islamists."

'In the right' 

The Sudanese Professionals Association, a group of trade unions which were key in the anti-Bashir protests, criticised the use of tear gas as a show of "hostility" by current authorities to demonstrators supporting a civilian rule.

Jaafar Hassan, spokesman of the mainstream FFC faction, said supporters backed two key agreements -- the 2019 power-sharing deal between the civilians the military, and a 2020 peace deal with rebel groups.

The two deals stipulate power will be handed over to civilian rule by the end of a three-year transition period in 2023.

"Our main goal is to have the military hand over the chairmanship of the Sovereign Council to the civilians," Hassan told AFP. "We also want the armed groups to be integrated in the Sudanese army."

Their rivals, the pro-military faction, have been holding a sit-in outside the presidential palace since Saturday.

It has drawn support from some of the many Sudanese who have been hit hard by the tough International Monetary Fund-backed economic reforms implemented by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, a former UN economist.

"We are in the right," said protester Hamada Abdelrahman, standing outside the presidential palace. "This government has not offered the Sudanese people anything for two years."

The sit-in's opponents charge it has been orchestrated by leading figures in the security forces with the support of Bashir sympathisers and other "counter-revolutionaries".

The same groups were blamed for a September 21 coup attempt that was thwarted by the government.

Ahead of the demonstrations, leaders of the rival factions had appealed for calm.

On Thursday, security forces sealed off roads leading to the large open space outside army headquarters, where tens of thousands of protesters camped out for weeks before and after Bashir's ouster.

'Dangerous' divisions 

Hamdok has described the deep divisions over Sudan's transition as "the worst and most dangerous" since Bashir's overthrow.

The prime minister has made his top priorities addressing the chronic economic woes inherited from the Bashir regime, and making peace with the multiple rebel groups that took up arms during its three decades in power.

A sharp improvement in relations with the United States has led to the lifting of sanctions giving some help to the economy.

But a package of painful structural reforms, including the slashing of fuel subsidies and a managed float of the Sudanese pound, has proved widely unpopular and has cost Hamdok's government much of its support.

In October 2020, the government signed a peace deal with multiple rebel groups in Sudan's far-flung regions with a view to ending the ethnic conflicts that have dogged the country since independence.

The deal was widely hailed as a step forward, but its focus on the three battleground regions of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan left minority communities in other parts of Sudan feeling sidelined.

Resentment has been particularly strong among the Beja people of the Red Sea coast, who have mounted protests across the east since mid-September, including a blockade of the key trade hub of Port Sudan.