| Middle East - Voice of America |
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| Lebanese President Asks ex-PM Hariri to Form New Government |
| Thu, 03 Nov 2016 14:30:54 -0400 Lebanon's prime minister-designate vowed on Thursday to work swiftly to put together a "national unity government that overcomes political divisions'' that have plagued the Mideast nation for years. The pledge by Saad Hariri, who already served as prime minister for 14 months until early 2011, came shortly after the country's newly elected president, Michel Aoun, asked him to form a new Cabinet. That process can go on for weeks or even months, and usually involves much bargaining among Lebanon's notoriously fragmented politicians. The government must then win parliament's approval. Aoun's office made the announcement about Hariri after two days of talks with lawmakers over their choice of prime minister. The statement didn't say how many lawmakers supported the 46-year-old Hariri for the post. A Christian leader and strong ally of the Shiite Hezbollah group, Aoun was elected by parliament as president on Monday, ending a 29-month presidential vacuum in Lebanon. His election was made possible after Hariri endorsed him for president, based on an understanding that Aoun would then appoint him as prime minister. "It is a new era,'' a beaming Hariri told journalists gathered at the Baabda presidential palace, repeating the phrase three times. "I have great hope -in this positive moment that ends the suffering of the country and its citizens that lasted for two-and-a-half years of vacancy and paralysis,'' he said. According to Lebanon's sectarian-based power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Muslim Sunni and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim. The Aoun-Hariri deal is an unlikely partnership between rivals: Aoun, a longtime Syria foe now allied with pro-Syrian forces, and Hariri, a vocal opponent of President Bashar Assad and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Many Lebanese are skeptical Aoun's election would make a difference or that the country's perpetually divided politicians and dysfunctional politics would change. Still, most have breathed a sigh of relief that the country's top post has been filled following a two-year vacuum that brought state institutions dangerously close to collapse. That the country was able to execute a peaceful election in a region wracked by violence and conflict, however, was seen as a small victory for Lebanon. "We owe it to the Lebanese to start working as soon as possible to protect our country from the flames burning around it, to reinforce its immunity in the face of terrorism, to help it deal with the difficulty of the refugees' issue,'' Hariri said. Hariri is the son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a billionaire businessman and influential politician who was assassinated in a massive seaside bombing in 2005 in Beirut. Several Hezbollah members are being tried in absentia for the killing by a Netherlands-based U.N.-backed tribunal. Hariri, who holds a Georgetown University degree in international business, was a political novice thrown into politics when he took over his father's political mantle after the senior Hariri was killed. He headed a 14-month national unity government from late 2009 until early 2011, which collapsed after Hezbollah and its allies resigned from the Cabinet in a dispute over upcoming indictments in Rafik Hariri's assassination. |
| IS Showing No Signs of Panic as Leader Calls for ‘Total War’ |
| Thu, 03 Nov 2016 13:36:24 -0400 Fewer than 5,000 Islamic State fighters trying to hold onto the Iraqi city of Mosul are being urged to fight to the death. "Know that holding your ground with honor is a thousand times easier than retreating in shame," the terror group's leader and self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi exhorted in an audio recording released via social media late Tuesday. "Do not retreat," he said. "This total war and the great jihad only increased our firm belief, God willing, and our conviction that this is all a prelude to victory." The message from Baghdadi is the first since last December and comes nearly three weeks into the Iraqi and Kurdish campaign to retake Mosul, which has been under IS control for two years. U.S. intelligence sources say there is no reason to doubt the audio's authenticity and agree, based on the content of the remarks, it was likely made recently. IS command and control A U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said officials there were not yet ready to verify that the voice on the recording was that of the IS leader but acknowledged the message was clearly "an effort to rally the troops." "This is the type of thing that a leader who's losing command and control and ability to keep everybody on the same page says," Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, Col. John Dorrian told reporters via a video conference from Baghdad. "We don't believe that it's going to work," he added. But intelligence officials believe the recording may also be intended to dispel any notions or rumors the reclusive Baghdadi has been killed. Some analysts examining the pacing and the rhetoric in the audio message think the significance of the recording could be even greater, suggesting a key shift in the way IS has been fighting up until now. "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's statement is the fastest in tempo and strongest among his speeches," according to a Tweet by Hassan Hassan, a resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy who has written extensively about IS. "The new tone/message tells us clearly that ISIS wants the remaining strongholds to be a big show," Hassan added in another tweet. "It won't withdraw as it did before." Choosing their fights There are indications that IS fighters are prepared to make such a stand in spite of overwhelming odds. "They don't seem to be panicking," a U.S. official told VOA. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said despite the faster than expected advance of Iraqi and Kurdish forces, IS fighters in and around Mosul were showing no signs of abandoning their training or giving up their well-known tactics. U.S. defense officials also say it appears IS is picking its fights carefully. "In some villages, they slice through them like butter, and there's very little resistance at all, and ISIL up and leaves," Pentagon spokesman, Capt. Jeff Davis said Wednesday when asked about the type of resistance Iraqi and Kurdish forces were encountering around Mosul. "There are others that put up quite a fight," he added. Even civilians who have been rescued from IS say there are few signs the terror group is ready to fall apart. "I spoke to this large group of civilians who had been marched by ISIS north," said Human Rights Watch senior Iraq researcher Belkis Wille after visiting with civilians at Jeddah camp, near Qayyarah airfield south of Mosul. "They made it sound fairly organized," she said. "ISIS came door to door, knocked on each door, told people they had to leave. They had vehicles kind of patrolling the group as they were walking." How long£ The question is just how long the group will be able to maintain that type of coherence, with the toughest and bloodiest fighting still ahead. And while in the past IS fighters have often fled in the face of overwhelming force, that may not be the case for those forces left in Mosul. "If they're still in Mosul, given that they've known there's a massive buildup of troops in that area, that means they probably want to fight till the end," said former CIA analyst Aki Peritz, now with George Washington University's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. And with the number of likely escape routes shrinking, IS fighters may not have much of a choice. |
| In Photos: Khazir Camp Kurdistan, Northern Iraq |
| Thu, 03 Nov 2016 10:31:00 -0400 Iraqi families who fled the front-lines of the battle against Islamic State in trucks are finding shelter in the desert countryside outside Mosul. |
| Protests Over Fishmonger's Death Test Moroccan Monarchy's Nerves |
| Thu, 03 Nov 2016 09:42:42 -0400 Grainy video images and the screams of a young fishmonger who was crushed to death in a garbage truck while trying to stop police destroying his stock have shocked Moroccans and brought thousands on to the streets to protest. Five years after pro-democracy protests shook Morocco, this week's unrest is a reminder of pent-up frustrations the monarchy has managed to tame in the past with limited constitutional reforms, heavy welfare spending and tough security. With a rallying cry against the Makhzen - a term used to describe the royal establishment - protesters have vowed to stage more demonstrations over Mouhcine Fikri's death in the northern city of Al-Hoceima, which was captured on video by witnesses and widely shared on social media. They say he is a symbol of abuses against Moroccans and has revived the spirit of the February 20 movement which led the pro-democracy demonstrations that swept the country. The political and social stability of Morocco is closely watched by Western governments as it is the only country in North Africa where jihadist groups have failed to gain a foothold, and is an important partner against Islamist militancy in terms of intelligence-sharing. The public anger over the death has echoes of how Tunisia's own 2011 uprising began, when a young street vendor set himself on fire after police confiscated his fruit and vegetables. That uprising swept Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali from power and triggered "Arab Spring" revolts across the region. But there are fundamental differences with Morocco, where now and even five years ago calls for greater freedoms and reform have not been directed at toppling the king. Morocco has a deeply rooted monarchy - the Muslim world's longest-serving dynasty - while Tunisia's autocracy was based around Ben Ali, who came to power in 1987, and his family. Preventing a repeat of 2011 The political protests - rare in Morocco - will nevertheless test the nerves of a kingdom that presents itself as a model for economic stability and gradual change and a haven for foreign investment in a region torn by violence and political upheaval. The monarchy wants to prevent the unrest from escalating to the level of the 2011 protests, which lasted about a year and forced King Mohamed to cede some of his absolute powers to the elected government. Protest organizers say the anger at Fikri's death, which shocked even staunch royalists, has rekindled the broader resentment at the establishment over joblessness and the big gap between rich and poor that drove those pro-democracy protests. "People learned from February 20 movement to not let themselves to be fooled, so we will fight with all our strength for the dignity that Fikri died for," said Nasser Zafzafi, one of the organizers. "We do not want scapegoats, but for the truly responsible to be punished, including high officials." Most of the kingdom's 34 million people follow a moderate form of Islam and the country has long acted as a bridge for Westerners to Islamic and African culture. The king holds executive powers but also claims religious legitimacy as the commander of the faithful. Royal condolences In an attempt to calm tensions, King Mohamed, currently touring Africa, ordered the interior minister to visit the victim's family and present royal condolences - a rare gesture of conciliation by the monarchy at a time of public protests. The minister said Fikri did not deserve what happened to him and promised the investigation would punish those responsible. Just like other governments in North Africa, Moroccan authorities often heavily police protests, nervous over popular unrest since 2011. Tunisia has seen rioting twice this year in its south over jobs and unions are warning over austerity plans. But the security forces appear to have taken a more low-key, hands-off approach this week, waiting in side streets and staying away from where demonstrations rallied. The authorities' more conciliatory approach this week, compared with in 2011 and during other more minor unrest since, could be partly down to the timing, according to political analysts. The protests erupted at a sensitive moment as the kingdom prepares to host the 2016 United Nations climate change conference in November (COP22) and the prime minister begins to form a coalition government after elections last month. "The Moroccan regime knows how to buy peace, especially now that the country is hosting COP22," said Mohammed Larbi Ben Othmane, a political scientist in Rabat university. "They know how to adapt, you would even see members of the royal cabinet protesting with people if they need to do so, but they will never show weakness." Ultimate authority Fikri's death last week prompted thousands of people to take to the streets for four days of protests in Al-Hoceima and major cities across the country including the capital Rabat and Marrakesh, among the biggest rallies Morocco has seen since 2011. Moroccan authorities have charged 11 people, jailing eight of them, over the death of Fikri who was crushed in a trash truck while trying to stop police from destroying 500 kilograms of swordfish they say he purchased illegally. The general prosecutor said on Tuesday those charged on involuntary manslaughter were two interior ministry officials, two local fisheries officials and a veterinary chief. Activists accused police officers at the scene of ordering garbage men to "grind" Fikri but the police denied those accusations. The involvement of local officials has fueled anger at the establishment and a frenzy of postings on social media blaming the Makhzen, reminding many of the February 20 movement calls to curb the monarchy's absolute powers. When protests erupted in 2011, the king called a referendum which backed constitutional reforms that saw him cede some of his powers to the government and guarantee more rights, including freedom of speech. He remains the ultimate authority in Morocco, however. Many February 20 activists were disappointed by the reforms, which they believe did not go far enough to bring democracy, and any suggestion of a resurgence of the movement is sensitive for a monarchic political system that critics describe as a medieval and archaic. "What happened shows that all the people who thought the February 20 movement was dead were wrong," said Ben Othmane. "Moroccans did not lose that capacity to resist." |
| House-to-House Battle in Mosul as Iraqis Press Islamic State |
| Thu, 03 Nov 2016 06:00:29 -0400 Iraqi troops were moving cautiously Thursday in a neighborhood just inside the city limits of Mosul, going from house-to-house to ensure the safety of civilians. The soldiers had to be wary of booby-trap bombs as well as ambushes and sniper fire from Islamic State militants, who are being urged by their leader to remain and resist losing the last major city they hold in Iraq. The breach into the city of Mosul, which IS seized more than two years ago, triggered an exodus of hundreds of families. They started to stream out of Mosul, some carrying white flags, others flashing victory signs at elite government troops with Iraq’s U.S.-trained Golden Division, which spearheaded victories this year at Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq against the jihadists. Fears of retaliation While locals in the eastern district of Gogjali welcomed their liberation from the jihadists, fears are mounting that, as neighborhoods in the more pro-IS western parts of the city fall to government troops, a cycle of retaliation and revenge will be triggered, both by locals who suffered under the jihadists’ two-year reign over Mosul and by Sunni militiamen, who have already been accused of carrying out revenge attacks on men and boys in nearby villages suspected of having ties to IS. Rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday it had received reports of alleged jihadist sympathizers being publicly humiliated, tortured and beaten as fighters with a militia called the Sabawi Tribal Mobilization swept through villages to the south of the city. Lynn Maalouf from Amnesty said there was a "dangerous culture of impunity in which perpetrators of such attacks feel they have free rein to commit crimes and go unpunished.” Retaliation wasn’t visible Thursday as the elite Iraqi counter-terrorism forces wearing their trademark black combat fatigues sought to consolidate their hold on the Gogjali district and nudge into neighboring ones. Their commanders and a Kurdish peshmerga general overseeing a battle on the outskirts of the Mosul say they are only at the first stage in a prolonged and fierce urban battle, and they are ready for weeks of house-to-house fighting. Weeks of fighting ahead “At best it will take a month, at worst two months,” Peshmerga Gen. Nuraddin Tatarkhan told VOA. Booby-trap bombs triggered mainly by pressure pads are among the biggest danger for advancing forces, as well as sniper fire. “They keep changing the designs of their bombs,” he said. A veteran of Saddam Hussein’s army, Gen. Tatarkhan recognizes the military tacticians among the IS leadership as former Baathists and veterans like him of the Iran-Iraq and Gulf wars. Their tactics, he says, will be to drag out the resistance, copying what they did to attack U.S. forces after the ouster of Saddam Hussein. He also warns there are many foreign IS fighters in Mosul — among them battle-hardened and highly fanatical Chechens and Kazakhs who will fight to the bitter end. The foreign fighters, he says, will likely heed the call by their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who on Wednesday broke a nearly yearlong silence with a 31-minute audio recording urging his forces to remain firm in the face of the offensive on Mosul. “Know that the value of staying on your land with honor is a thousand times better than the price of retreating with shame,” he said, adding: “This war is yours. Turn the dark night of the infidels into day, destroy their homes and make rivers of their blood.” For those IS fighters who do want to flee Mosul, their escape route has been made much harder. Shi’ite militiamen with the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units working on the west of the city said Thursday they have control of a large portion of the Aleppo-Mosul Highway that runs to the terror group's main Syrian stronghold at Raqqa. To escape west into Syria, IS militants will have to navigate much more difficult roads, which as the rains come will be much harder to move along to enter the Syria’s eastern provinces of Deir Ezzor and Al-Hasakah. Civilians flee On Thursday, civilians could be seen leaving Mosul, heading for camps to the east of the city, trudging along roads with toddlers and helping elderly family members. Many of the women wore niqabs covering their faces. Some men still wore the short trousers and long beards demanded by the jihadists, but others had quickly shaved, saying they were relieved to be able to do so. Some men relished smoking their first cigarettes in public in two years. Iraqi officials estimate that more than a million civilians remain in the city and fears are growing for their safety. The Norwegian Refugee Council aid agency has warned their lives are “in grave danger” due to the fighting. IS has tried to add to the city’s population; as its fighters withdrew from outlying villages it forced some families to accompany them as human shields. One family of nine — toddlers among them — now at the Khazir camp for displaced people told VOA they had had to run for 20 minutes to escape IS and that the militants shot at them as they fled. “The children lost their shoes and we had to stop and hide and then start to run again,” said Zainab. Twenty-year-old Abbas said he was happy to be leaving Mosul. He said the four-day battle for control of the neighborhood had been terrifying and fierce. “Daesh fighters wouldn’t leave. They were mainly Chechens, Turks and Tunisians,” he told VOA. As he spoke, flocks of sheep passed by. Many families refused to leave Gogjali without their prized livestock and they grouped together to herd sheep, mules and cows away and headed towards Kurdistan. Fearing mines, they avoided wasteland and the fields on the outskirts, clogging the main road into the neighborhood. Livestock and military vehicles competed for priority as they moved in opposite directions past wrecked shops, shattered masonry and over a carpet of broken glass and spent and live rounds, testimony to the ferocity of the conflict. Civilians left Gogjali in a variety of vehicles, some with their windscreens blown out and bullet holes peppering their sides. They used cars, tractors, trucks, SUVs, tractor-trailers and motorized tricycles, most sporting white flags. Some families had no choice but to trudge along on foot, carrying belongings and cradling babies in their arms. Others helped the hobbling elderly. Reporters leaving Mosul Thursday evening offered rides to families with young children or frail relatives, piling them in their pickups and SUVs. Many families said they hadn’t wanted to leave their homes, fearing they would be pillaged. Death, destruction and new life A family of 14 — part of an extended family of 40 — hitched a ride on VOA’s pickup. The weight blew out a tire. The head of the family, 45-year-old Tareq, said they had endured days of fighting. Their house is near Mosul’s main TV tower, the scene this week of some of the most vicious combat. “We all stayed in one room for four days. There were heavy bombardments and lots of mortar exchanges. The most terrifying were the airstrikes; one hit the house next door, killing a woman. The children screamed and cried but we didn’t dare go out. It was horrible, but thank God, we are all safe now,” he says. On the first day of battle, in the cramped room where his extended family were crowded, his niece gave birth to a baby girl. They named her Huriyah, or Virgin. IS fighters withdrew Wednesday, he added. He said life under IS for the past two years had been difficult. “They killed many people, especially those who had been in the Iraqi army or were policemen or who refused to join IS,” he said. By Thursday, 40,000 civilians had fled Mosul and its outskirts - far fewer than had been expected and much less than the 800,000 who left when IS overran the city in 2014. But hundreds left Thursday from just one small outer district, suggesting that when the fight moves deeper into the city, many thousands more could be heading out when they get the opportunity. Video contributed by Kawa Omar. |