Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

How family and Libya conflict radicalised Manchester Arena bomber

Posted on by

Parents’ extremist views and civil war in the country of their birth set Salman Abedi on path to terrorism

Although Salman Abedi was born in Manchester, on New Year’s Eve in 1994, his path to becoming one of the UK’s most deadly terrorists began in Libya, the country of his parents’ birth.

It was from there that Ramadan Abedi and Samia Tabbal fled in 1993, claiming asylum in the UK on the basis that they faced persecution under the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. The couple went on to establish new lives in Fallowfield, south Manchester, with their children attending local schools.

Continue reading...

Christian Aid claims it was subject to act of ‘lawfare’ by pro-Israel group

Posted on by

The charity was taken to court for its work in the Middle East by the US body, whose director justifies litigation against NGOs that ‘cross the line’

A leading NGO has broken its silence on a bruising legal battle with a pro-Israeli advocacy group, describing it as an act of “lawfare” aimed at inflicting financial and reputational damage on organisations that do charitable work with Palestinians.

Christian Aid, the UK-based charity, was forced to spend about £700,000 defending itself against accusations that it had provided “material support” to terrorists, chief executive Patrick Watt has said.

Continue reading...

Israeli police arrest five over settler rampage in West Bank

Posted on by

Officers says they expect to make more arrests over violence described by Israeli general as ‘pogrom’

Israeli police have arrested five suspects over a Jewish settler rampage in the occupied West Bank earlier this week that an Israeli general described as a “pogrom” and which followed a deadly Palestinian gun attack.

Shops in the Palestinian village of Huwara remained closed on army orders on Wednesday amid a heavy Israeli military presence, residents said. A Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli brothers there on Sunday, prompting assaults by settlers on houses and cars during which one Palestinian was killed.

Continue reading...

Dozens of schoolgirls in Iran taken to hospital after poisoning

Posted on by

Suspected attack on students in city east of Tehran is latest in spate of incidents over past three months

Dozens of schoolgirls in Iran were admitted to hospital on Tuesday after a mysterious poisoning, an Iranian news agency has reported, in the latest in a spate of suspected attacks.

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among Iranian schoolgirls, mainly in the city of Qom, south of Tehran, with some needing hospital treatment.

Continue reading...

Last of Iran’s endangered Asiatic cheetah cubs in captivity dies

Posted on by

Authorities announce death of cub named Pirouz from kidney failure at veterinary hospital in Tehran

The last survivor of three critically endangered Asiatic cheetah cubs born in captivity in Iran has died in hospital from kidney failure.

Pirouz, who was admitted to the Central veterinary hospital due to kidney failure last Thursday, died after undergoing dialysis, the official IRNA news agency said.

Continue reading...

UN raises $1.2bn from donors towards $4.3bn Yemen aid plan

Posted on by

Number falls well short of target to respond to one of world’s biggest humanitarian disasters

The United Nations has raised about $1.2bn (£996m) from crisis-strained donors towards its $4.3bn aid plan for Yemen, one of the world’s biggest humanitarian disasters despite a no-war, no-peace stalemate that has largely stopped fighting.

Underfunding has seen agencies scale back Yemen aid projects, including food rations, in the past couple of years. Last year donors gave $2.2bn of the $4.27bn sought, UN data shows.

Continue reading...

Iranian officials to investigate ‘revenge’ poisoning of schoolgirls

Posted on by

The attacks on female students – called an act of ‘biological terrorism’ – are thought to be retaliation for protests against hijabs in the country

Iranian authorities have confirmed they are investigating reports that several schoolgirls have been poisoned as “revenge” for the role young women played in recent protests against the mandatory hijab.

Iran’s deputy education minister, Younes Panahi, told reporters yesterday: “After the poisoning of several students in [the city of] Qom … it was found that some people wanted all schools, especially girls’ schools, to be closed.”

Continue reading...

Biden administration under pressure as Israel-Palestine violence escalates

Posted on by

Advent of Israel’s most right-wing government, and spiralling violence, expose dangers of light-touch diplomacy

With an in-tray bulging with the war in Ukraine, the Chinese threat to Taiwan and the potential collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, the US state department has tried to avert its gaze from the clouds gathering over Israel and Palestine, but has now found it impossible to do so.

Since John Kerry, as secretary of state, expended diplomatic muscle trying to revive the Middle East peace process in the final year of the Obama administration, US Democrats have gently welcomed the rapprochement symbolised by the Abraham accords, but have not done much else. However, the advent of the most rightwing government in Israel’s history, and violence spiralling out of control, have shown the dangers of light-touch diplomacy.

Continue reading...

Iran protests are at do-or-die moment, says son of former shah

Posted on by

Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in 1979, urges west to give active support and proscribe Revolutionary Guards

The Iranian revolution is at a do-or-die moment, requiring western governments to give their full, active support or risk seeing the movement’s impact wane, Reza Pahlavi, the oldest son of the former Shah of Iran who was deposed in 1979, has said in a Guardian interview.

Pahlavi said there were signs that if the west imposed maximum pressure, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and some reformist politicians would desert the regime.

Continue reading...

Israeli settlers rampage after Palestinian gunman kills two

Posted on by

One man killed and four wounded in apparent worst outburst of settler violence in northern West Bank in decades

Scores of Israeli settlers have gone on a violent rampage in the northern West Bank, setting alight dozens of cars and homes after two settlers were killed by a Palestinian gunman.

Palestinian medics said one man was killed and four other people were badly wounded in what appeared to be the worst outburst of settler violence in the area in decades.

Continue reading...

Israeli and Palestinian officials express ‘readiness’ to work to stop violence

Posted on by

Jordan hosts first such high-level talks in years aimed at defusing tensions in region before Ramadan

Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs have met in Jordan for the first such high-level talks in years aimed at defusing tensions in the volatile region ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which it is feared could act as the catalyst for a wider escalation.

In a joint statement released at the close of the summit in the port city of Aqaba on Sunday, which was also attended by US, Jordanian and Egyptian officials, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) expressed “readiness and commitment to work immediately” to prevent further violence.

Continue reading...

Tunisia forces arrest senior opposition figure as crackdown escalates

Posted on by

Jaouhar Ben M’barek is most prominent opposition figure to be rounded up in president’s campaign of detentions

Tunisian security forces have arrested Jaouhar Ben M’barek, the most prominent opposition figure to be rounded up in an escalating campaign of detentions targeting rivals of the president, Kais Saied.

“Jaouhar was arrested late last night and we haven’t seen the charges against him,” his sister Dalila Msaddek, a lawyer, told AFP on Friday.

Continue reading...

Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza after militants fire rockets in wake of West Bank raid

Posted on by

Region braced for escalation in violence as attacks from both sides follow deadliest Israeli army raid in decades in Nablus

Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip have exchanged fire just hours after the deadliest Israeli army raid in decades killed 11 Palestinians and wounded more than 100 more in the occupied West Bank, leaving the region braced for an escalation in violence.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said early on Thursday morning that it carried out airstrikes on two military sites operated by Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the strip, after the launch of six rockets from the blockaded enclave towards southern Israel.

Continue reading...

Tunisia’s president calls for halt to sub-Saharan immigration amid crackdown on opposition

Posted on by

Kais Saied claims migrants are part of campaign to make country ‘purely African’ in move critics say is to distract from economic crisis

Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, has told a meeting of security officials that migrants are part of a wider campaign to change the demographic makeup of the country and make it “purely African”.

The president’s comments come alongside an extensive crackdown on critics and opposition figures in a campaign that human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have labelled a witch-hunt.

Continue reading...

Israeli troops kill 11 in West Bank raid

Posted on by

Palestinians decry ‘massacre’ after daytime operation in Nablus that Israel says targeted three militants

Israeli troops killed 11 Palestinians, including a teenager, and wounded dozens more, in a raid on a city in the occupied West Bank city that threatens further bloodshed.

The daytime operation targeted three militants who were near the centre of the old city of Nablus, the Israeli military said. All three wanted men were killed along with seven others, including a 72-year-old man. Palestinian officials said at least 103 people were injured, with many of them sustaining gunshot wounds.

Continue reading...

Shamima Begum loses appeal against removal of British citizenship

Posted on by

Special immigration appeals commission decides revocation of her citizenship was lawful

Shamima Begum, who left Britain as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State (IS), has lost an appeal against the decision to remove her British citizenship.

Describing it as a case of “great concern and difficulty”, the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) ruled that although there was “credible suspicion” that Begum was trafficked for sexual exploitation, the decision was ultimately one for the home secretary.

Continue reading...

Tens of thousands of refugees flee from Somaliland clashes

Posted on by

Somalis arrive in Ethiopia from disputed town of Las Anod, where at least 82 people have died in fighting

More than 60,000 Somali refugees have fled to Ethiopia after an escalation in fighting in the town of Las Anod, in the Sool region, where tensions between local people and the governing Somaliland authorities have been building for weeks.

The UN said the refugees had arrived in part of Ethiopia that had been badly hit by drought after five consecutive failed rains, and that many people were sleeping in the open, or sheltering in schools and other public buildings.

Continue reading...

Death toll from latest earthquakes in Turkey reaches eight

Posted on by

Casualties relatively low since few remain in region devastated by twin earthquakes two weeks ago

The toll from two earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday – two weeks after powerful quakes killed more than 47,000 people – has risen to eight, with up to 300 recovering from injuries and up to a dozen buildings toppling on both sides of the border.

The widespread anxiety and panic sparked by the latest tremors has rattled a region that is still coming to terms with the devastation caused earlier this month.

Continue reading...

Turkey hit by two more powerful earthquakes two weeks after disaster

Posted on by

Three killed and 213 injured, government says, after quakes of 6.4 and 5.8 magnitude shake southern province of Hatay

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake and a second measuring 5.8 have hit Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, terrifying those left in a region devastated by twin earthquakes two weeks ago.

Turkey’s interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, said that at least three people were killed and 213 wounded by the latest quakes, after a large government hospital in the city of İskenderun in the north of Hatay province declared it was evacuating patients.

Continue reading...

Benjamin Netanyahu accuses protesters of ‘trampling democracy’

Posted on by

PM vows to press ahead with legislation to restrict judicial powers as upwards of 100,000 protesters take to streets

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has accused protesters of “trampling democracy”, vowing that his far-right coalition will move ahead with controversial legislation to restrict the power of the judiciary.

Upwards of 100,000 people gathered outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday in protest against an initial plenum vote on bills that would give politicians control over appointments to Israel’s supreme court, and limit its ability to overturn laws. Protesters blocked major roads across the country, and prevented some politicians from leaving their homes.

Continue reading...