Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Islamic State leader killed during raid by US special forces in Syria

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Joe Biden says military has removed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi from the battlefield

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of Islamic State and one of the world’s most wanted men, has been killed during an overnight raid by US special forces in north-west Syria.

The pre-dawn attack on a house in the village of Atme, just south of the Turkish border, led to up to 13 casualties, among them women and children. It also resulted in the destruction of a US helicopter, which had been used to carry special forces troops from Erbil in Iraq.

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Trump risked disaster with Abbas praise in key Israel meeting, ambassador says

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In new book, David Friedman recounts private meeting with Israeli president in which Trump also knocked Netanyahu – and how he says he turned his man around

Meeting then-Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem in May 2017, Donald Trump stunned advisers by criticising the then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for being unwilling to seek peace while Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, was “desperate” for a deal.

The comment “knocked everyone off their chairs”, David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, writes in a new book.

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Allegations of worker exploitation at ‘world’s greatest show’ in Dubai

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Migrant workers employed at Expo 2020 allege confiscated passports, racial discrimination and withheld wages

Security guards, cleaners and hospitality staff at Dubai’s Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are allegedly working in highly abusive conditions that may amount to forced labour, according to a human rights group.

Migrant workers employed at the international fair in the UAE – taking place now after being delayed by Covid – allege they have been forced to pay illegal recruitment fees, suffered racial discrimination and had wages withheld and passports confiscated, said the report by Equidem.

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Israeli police find ‘legally debatable’ use of spyware by investigators

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Admission follows allegations of snooping on mobile phones of protesters, politicians and criminal suspects

Israel’s national police force has found evidence pointing to improper use of spyware by its own investigators to snoop on Israeli citizens’ phones.

The announcement on Tuesday came two weeks after an Israeli newspaper reported a string of allegations that the police had used the NSO Group’s Pegasus software to surveil protesters, politicians and criminal suspects without authorisation from a judge.

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Amnesty International calls Israel’s actions against Palestinians apartheid

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Israel calls for report to be withdrawn and accuses human rights group of antisemitism

Amnesty International has joined other leading human rights groups in stating that Israel’s “system of oppression and domination” over the Palestinians amounts to the international definition of apartheid.

The report immediately prompted fury among Israeli politicians who called for it to be withdrawn.

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Israel military officers dismissed over death of Palestinian-American at checkpoint

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Antony Blinken pressed to investigate West Bank death of 78-year-old who was handcuffed, gagged and left by soldiers last month

Israel’s military has said it is dismissing two officers and would reprimand a battalion commander over the death of a Palestinian-American at a West Bank checkpoint after he was stopped by Israeli troops.

The death of Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, who had lived in Milwaukee before retiring to his native village of Jiljilya, resulted from “a moral failure and poor decision-making”, it added.

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My support for sports projects in Israel is not ‘sportswashing’ | Letter

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Sylvan Adams, co-owner of the Israel Start-Up Nation pro cycling team, says his sports initiatives look to build bonds of coexistence and understanding

Jonathan Liew’s decision to attack my support for sports projects in Israel as “sportswashing” is perhaps the most ringing endorsement of why such bridge-building efforts are needed (Sportswashing is associated with certain countries – why not Israel?, 24 January).

When our liberal and open country holds its massive annual Gay Pride parade – the largest (if not the only one) in the Middle East, Israel is accused of “pinkwashing”. When Israel leads in environmental issues and breakthroughs in climate change technologies, Israel is accused of “greenwashing”. When our generous and supremely capable NGOs like IsraAid or Save a Child’s Heart provide support to communities in need around the world, we are accused of “aidwashing”.

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Libya elite told to end ‘game of musical chairs and focus on elections’

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UN special adviser Stephanie Williams warns of resurgence of Islamic State if country is divided

Libya’s political class should stop conducting musical chairs to stay in power and focus instead on preparing for nationwide elections to be held by June, the special adviser to the UN secretary general has said.

Stephanie Williams also warned of a possible resurgence of Islamic State if Libya were to fall back into total division.

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Expansionist private schools need a lesson in morality | David Mitchell

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British schools with branches in the Middle East are abandoning principles for profit and it’s simply wrong

The private education system, I’m beginning to suspect, just isn’t that into me. I blame myself – I’ve been playing hard to get. Pointing out the divisions in British society that having private schools causes, mentioning how the fees have gone up hugely ahead of inflation and questioning their charitable status in light of that. But still, in my heart I was up for being seduced.

I went to private schools and was generally fond of those institutions. As a left-leaning centrist but also a conservative with a small “c” (a woolly position that makes me a massive “c” in the eyes of some), I’m uncomfortable with abolishing, or otherwise driving out of existence, non-profit-making educational institutions. I don’t like banning things in general. I can see the logic that these schools, which undoubtedly provide something good for thousands of children, might nevertheless be causing societal harm overall. But I’m squeamish about taking that logic and commissioning some politicians to turn it into a great big illiberal bunch of laws. So the truth, private education system, is that I was still fluttering my eyelashes at you.

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‘More than wonderful’ … Gaza bookshop to reopen after unexpectedly successful global campaign

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After it was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, Samir Mansour’s beloved book store has been rebuilt and restocked, as tens of thousands of books flood in from around the world

Tens of thousands of donated books have started to arrive at the new location of a Gaza bookshop that was destroyed by Israeli air strikes last year, and owner Samir Mansour now plans to reopen its doors next month.

The two-storey Samir Mansour bookshop, which was reduced to rubble last May, had been founded by the Palestinian Mansour 22 years ago and was a beloved part of the local community. Its destruction during the 11-day conflict, which killed more than 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel, prompted a campaign that raised $250,000 (£187,000) to help rebuild it, plus donations of 150,000 books. The Israeli military has said that the store was not its target, claiming that the building that housed it also contained a Hamas facility for producing weapons and intelligence-gathering.

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Qatar in talks to supply gas to Europe if Russia cuts supplies

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Emir expected to tell US president Qatar can provide short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any loss of supplies

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, is expected to tell the US president, Joe Biden, that his country will provide some short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any shortages if Russia cuts off supplies to Germany.

Qatar is looking to supply Europe through transferring excess gas in storage in east Asia. It is also hoping to return to the European market on a bigger scale as its own production levels rise, but wants to see an end to a European Commission anti-trust investigation.

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Former Irish soldier was prepared to die for Islamic State, court hears

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Lisa Smith ‘enveloped’ herself in the ‘black flag of IS’ in Syria, prosecutor says

A former Irish soldier accused of joining Islamic State was prepared to die a martyr, a court in Dublin has heard.

Lisa Smith, 39, from Dundalk, County Louth, has pleaded not guilty to being a member of the terrorist organisation between October 2015 and December 2019.

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Hundreds of boys ‘human shields’ in Islamic State prison breakout

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Siege in Kurdish-run prison in Syria ‘deeply distressing’, says Save the Children

The fate of more than 700 boys and teenage detainees has become central to the siege of a Kurdish-run prison in Syria that was overrun on Friday by jihadists, who are accused of using the boys as human shields.

As the siege around the Ghwayran prison in the Kurdish-run northern city of Hasakah entered a fifth day, Islamic State prisoners inside moved into a dormitory housing the boys, some of whom are as young as 12, in an attempt to prevent an assault by Kurdish forces stationed outside.

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‘We’re next’: Prisoner’s secret filming appears to show torture in Cairo police station

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Human rights groups claim the violent abuse of detainees is widespread in Egypt and perpetrators are seldom punished

A video obtained by the Guardian appearing to show Egyptian police torturing detainees in a Cairo police station confirms the extent to which officers appear able to inflict violence on civilians with near total impunity, according to human rights groups.

The video, covertly recorded by a detainee through a cell door, appears to show two inmates hung in stress positions. The detainees are naked from the waist up and suspended from a metal grate by their arms, which are fastened behind their backs.

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There Will Be No More Night review – chilling meditation on modern warfare

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Éléonore Weber’s documentary, air-strike footage of pilots on night missions, could work well in a gallery

This hypnotic meditation on modern warfare from Éléonore Weber is an experimental cine-essay that feels closer to a gallery installation than a documentary. Watching it is a bit of a test of concentration: 75 minutes of helicopter airstrike footage from American and French missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clip after clip of pilots following what’s on the ground hundreds of metres below. Who is that in their crosshairs: a Taliban fighter holding a Kalashnikov or a farmer with a rake? Farmers know that they get mistaken for fighters, so run and hide their tools when they hear helicopters. Which of course makes them look suspicious.

In the cockpit, we hear American voices: “Request permission to engage.” “We got a guy with an RPG.” This is the notorious video WikiLeaks dubbed Collateral Murder, a US airstrike filmed from an Apache helicopter in 2007. The rocket-propelled grenade launcher turned out to be a camera tripod belonging to a Reuters photographer, who was one of a dozen civilians killed in the attack. It’s impossible to watch and not think of computer games. “Kill! Kill! Kill” we hear in another video – you can almost feel the itch to shoot everything that moves.

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Anoosheh Ashoori to start hunger strike in protest against Iran hostage-taking

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The British-Iranian dual national is staging a strike in solidarity with Barry Rosen who is campaigning outside Vienna nuclear talks

A British-Iranian man imprisoned in Iran is to start a hunger strike on Sunday in support of a 77-year-old American who is protesting outside nuclear talks in Vienna against Iranian hostage taking.

Anoosheh Ashoori, who is being held in Evin prison in Tehran, is staging the strike in an act of solidarity with Barry Rosen, who started his own four days ago. He told the Guardian he was humbled by the support, as well as other messages being sent to him by Iranians in jail.

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UN condemns airstrike in Yemen that leaves more than 80 dead

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Hundreds also wounded as Saudi-led coalition denies reports it bombed detention centre in Sa’ada

The UN has condemned an airstrike on a detention centre in northern Yemen as the death toll rose to more than 80.

The airstrike in the rebel-held Sa’ada province on Friday morning followed a Houthi drone attack on the United Arab Emirates on Monday that killed three people. It marks an intensification of violence in the seven-year civil war between the government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Iranian-backed rebels.

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Former Qatar 2022 employee facing fresh legal action over loan payments

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  • Abdullah Ibhais cannot pay loan because of withheld money
  • Ibhais did not go along with official line over workers’ strike

A former employee of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising committee, jailed on contested corruption charges, faces fresh legal action after his former bosses withheld his severance pay meaning he will default on a loan, his family say.

Abdullah Ibhais, a former media manager, was last year given a three-year sentence for misappropriating state funds – a charge that he insists was concocted as punishment for him criticising the handling of a migrant workers’ strike.

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Yemen: Saudi-led airstrike on rebel-run prison kills at least 60 and wounds 200

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Hospitals overwhelmed in Sa’ada after attack levels buildings in Houthi northern heartland

An airstrike on a prison in northern Yemen killed at least 60 people and wounded 200 more, while a separate attack shut down the country’s internet, as Saudi-led reprisals to a Houthi drone attack on the United Arab Emirates intensified.

The violence marked an especially deadly day in the seven-year war, leaving bystanders searching through rubble with their bare hands to rescue those trapped in two locations: a prison in the city of Sa’ada and a telecommunications centre in the port city of Hodeidah, where three children playing football nearby were reported to have been killed.

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Islamic State attacks prison in Syria and military base in Iraq

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‘Dozens of IS fighters’ were freed from the jail and the attacks raise fears of the terror group’s resurgence

Islamic State has attacked a Syrian prison housing its suspected members and a military base in Iraq in near-simultaneous deadly operations that have revived fears of the terror group’s resurgence.

IS has yet to comment on the attacks and there is no indication that these were coordinated, but according to analysts they strongly suggest IS is trying to boost its ranks and arsenal in an attempt to reorganise across both countries.

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