Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Iran admits it fired two missiles at Ukrainian passenger jet

Posted on by

Tehran issues first acknowledgement of precise number of rounds fired at plane

Iran says its armed forces mistakenly launched two surface-to-air missiles at a Ukrainian passenger jet that crashed with 176 people onboard earlier this month, its first acknowledgement of the precise number of rounds fired at the airliner.

Assessments by western intelligence agencies and video footage from the launch site had pointed to two missiles being fired at the Boeing 737-800 on the morning of 8 January, but Iranian officials had so far referenced only one until the release of preliminary report on Tuesday by the country’s civil aviation authority.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu calls for sanctions over ICC war crimes investigation

Posted on by

Israeli PM condemns ‘travesty’ after court said it intended to look at alleged incidents

Benjamin Netanyahu has called for sanctions against the international criminal court and people who work for it, a month after its chief prosecutor announced she intended to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes.

“I think that everybody should rise up against this,” the Israeli prime minister said in an interview with Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world’s largest Christian television network.

Continue reading...

Teenage boy the latest to die in Libyan refugee detention centre

Posted on by

The 16-year-old, from Eritrea, had been in the facility for more than a year and died of an unknown illness and lack of medical care

A 16-year-old is the latest person to die in a network of Libyan detention centres where refugees and migrants are locked up indefinitely after they are returned to the war-torn north African country by the EU-funded coastguard.

Fellow detainees in Sabaa detention centre, Tripoli, named the boy as Adal Debretsion, an Eritrean who had reportedly been locked up for more than a year. They said the teenager died on 12 January of an unknown illness and a lack of medical care.

Continue reading...

Jailed British-Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert rejected Iran’s offer to work as a spy

Posted on by

Melbourne University academic rebuffed bid to recruit her in exchange for her release, letters reveal

Iran tried to recruit the British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert as a spy for Tehran in exchange for her release, but the overture was furiously rebuffed, letters smuggled out of Evin prison reveal.

Moore-Gilbert, a Cambridge-educated academic specialising in Middle East politics, is currently being held in Ward 2A, an isolated Revolutionary Guard-run wing of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, serving a 10-year sentence for espionage, a charge she, and the Australian government, rejects as entirely false.

Continue reading...

Isis founding member confirmed by spies as group’s new leader

Posted on by

Officials piece together profile of Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi

The new leader of Islamic State has been confirmed as Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi, according to officials from two intelligence services. He is one of the terror group’s founding members and has led the enslavement of Iraq’s Yazidi minority and has overseen operations around the globe.

The Guardian has learned that Salbi was named leader hours after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October. The name that the group gave for Baghdadi’s replacement at the time, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, was a nom de guerre not recognised by other senior leaders or intelligence agencies.

Continue reading...

Libya oil production nosedives as Haftar ignores calls to end war

Posted on by

Increasingly erratic general shows no sign of relenting despite international pressure

Libya’s oil production and exports have almost ground to a halt as the increasingly unpredictable Gen Khalifa Haftar, the military leader in the country’s east, ignores international calls to seek a negotiated political settlement to the civil war.

World leaders had convened in Berlin on Sunday to endorse plans to entrench, monitor and enforce a ceasefire intended as a precursor to the disarming of militias and political talks in Geneva to build a reunified government, and a fair distribution of oil revenues between the east and west of the country.

Continue reading...

‘Passengers of light’ visit Iran-Iraq war memorials – a photo essay

Posted on by

Pilgrimages made by loved ones of those who died in combat are also supported and organised by the regime, which sees in them the opportunity to spread its doctrine

In Iran, every spring, thousands of families travel to the battle sites of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). Many of those who make these pilgrimages – called Rahian-e Noor in Persian (the passenger of light) – lost loved ones in the war, which caused more than half a million deaths on the Iranian side.

But they are also supported and organised by the regime, which sees the opportunity to disseminate its doctrine.

Continue reading...

Libya: Sanctions threatened against countries who break arms embargo

Posted on by

Johnson says international peacekeeping force could monitor the proposed ceasefire

World leaders seeking an enduring ceasefire in Libya have agreed at a summit to impose sanctions on those breaking an arms embargo and are considering whether to send a multinational force to the country.

The conference in Berlin of 11 countries is aimed at bringing an end to the fighting between the UN-recognised government in Tripoli led by the prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the Libyan National Army in the country’s east led by Gen Khalifa Haftar.

Continue reading...

Hundreds injured in Lebanon as violence flares in ‘week of anger’

Posted on by

Pitched battles between police and demonstrators as leaders fail to form new government

Protesters hurled fireworks and ripped branches from trees to use against security forces who fired rubber bullets and teargas during the most violent weekend of protests in Beirut since the beginning of mass anti-government demonstrations across Lebanon three months ago.

Lebanese medical groups said at least 377 people were injured on Saturday, including 80 who were taken to hospital, during the culmination of days of unrest that organisers called a “week of anger” after a relative lull.

Continue reading...

Houthi rebels kill at least 70 Yemeni soldiers in missile attack on mosque

Posted on by

Military sources say the attack came during evening prayers at a military base in Yemen’s Marib province

Houthi rebels have killed at least 70 Yemeni soldiers in a missile attack on a mosque in the central province of Marib, according to medical and military sources.

The Houthis attacked a mosque in a military camp in Marib – about 170km (105 miles) east of Sanaa – during evening prayers on Saturday, military sources said.

Continue reading...

Fireworks flew as protesters clashed with security forces in Beirut – video

Posted on by

Fireworks were let off as protesters clashed with the security force in Lebanon’s capital on Saturday 18 January.

Officers used water cannon and fired teargas at demonstrators who were protesting the economic crisis the country has faced in decades after politicians failed to agree on a new cabinet following prime minister Saad al-Hariri’s resignation in October

Continue reading...

Iran’s supreme leader calls Trump ‘clown’ in rare Friday sermon

Posted on by

Remark came as US revealed 11 of its troops had been injured in 8 January missile attacks

Iran’s supreme leader has delivered a rare sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran in which he described Donald Trump as a “clown” who pretended to support the Iranian people but would push a poisonous dagger into their backs.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei struck a defiant tone following weeks of domestic and international turbulence, including the US killing of a top general, missile attacks on US military bases in Iraq and the accidental downing of an airliner that killed 176 people.

Continue reading...

Iran’s supreme leader says missile strikes against US were ‘a day of God’ – video

Posted on by

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iran's missile strikes on US targets in Iraq earlier this month show it has divine support in delivering a 'slap on the face' to a 'bullying' world power. Addressing Friday prayers, Khamenei added that the killing of general Qassem Suleimani showed the US's 'terrorist nature'

Continue reading...

Iran: Khamenei to lead Friday prayers for first time since 2012 amid US tensions

Posted on by

Supreme leader will deliver sermon in Tehran as anger continues over downing of passenger plane

Iran’s supreme leader will deliver a Friday sermon in Tehran for the first time since 2012 as the Islamic republic grapples with the fallout from the killing of its top general in a US airstrike and popular anger at its accidental shooting down of a passenger plane.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has held the country’s top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions.

Continue reading...

Iran missile strike: US now says 11 troops were treated for concussion symptoms

Posted on by

Trump and military initially said no service members were hurt in retaliatory strike over Suleimani killing

The United States treated 11 of its troops for symptoms of concussion after an Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base where US forces were stationed, the US military said on Thursday, after initially saying no service members were hurt.

The attack was retaliation for a US drone strike in Baghdad on 3 January that killed Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the elite Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Continue reading...

Syrian airstrikes in Idlib leave at least 18 dead despite ceasefire

Posted on by

Children and rescue workers among those killed after market and industrial zone hit

At least 18 civilians have been killed in airstrikes as an offensive by Bashar al-Assad’s forces presses ahead, burying a supposed ceasefire in Syria’s last opposition-held province.

Airstrikes carried out by the Syrian air force and its Russian allies hit a market and industrial zone in Idlib city in a ferocious attack on Wednesday, destroying several buildings and setting cars on fire, leaving the torched corpses of motorists trapped inside.

Continue reading...

One in four countries beset by civil strife as global unrest soars

Posted on by

Researchers predict worldwide turmoil will continue in 2020, with Venezuela, Iran and Libya at greatest risk

A quarter of all countries experienced a dramatic surge in civil unrest last year in a worrying trend that is likely to continue into 2020, researchers have found.

Verisk Maplecroft, a leading risk analysis and strategic forecasting company, said in a report published on Thursday that 47 countries experienced a significant rise in the number of protests over the course of the past year. Hong Kong, Chile, Nigeria, Sudan, Haiti and Lebanon were among the states affected.

Continue reading...

The Guardian view on Trump’s folly: racing to war | Editorial

Posted on by

If the 2015 nuclear pact cannot be rebuilt or a new one struck, then the choice will be to let Iran have the bomb or to bomb Iran

Next week the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will unveil the current time on its Doomsday Clock, meant to convey the nuclear dangers facing the world. The closer the clock is to midnight, the greater the existential threat. If the stand-off between Iran and Donald Trump persists, or takes a frightening turn for the worse, then the clock’s hands may be closer to the bell tolling than they have ever been. This would mean the danger to the planet was judged greater than at any time since the first H-bomb tests.

The drumbeat of war reverberates around the Middle East. On Tuesday, Britain, France and Germany said that they had been “left with no choice” but to trigger a dispute mechanism in the six-nation nuclear deal with Iran after Tehran declared, in the aftermath of the US assassination of its top general, that it would no longer observe the pact’s “operational restrictions”. Iran’s president then warned that European soldiers in the Middle East “could be in danger”, a clear indication that if the continent stood with Mr Trump then its forces could expect to be treated as enemy combatants.

Continue reading...

European troops may be at risk after dispute process triggered – Iran

Posted on by

Hassan Rouhani’s threat to western allies comes amid fears of reimposition of sanctions

Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani has warned that European soldiers in the Middle East could be in danger after the UK, France and Germany triggered a dispute mechanism in the nuclear agreement that could lead to the reimposition of international sanctions on the country.

Rouhani’s remarks on Wednesday were the first direct threat he has made against European powers as tensions have grown between Tehran and Washington since Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the nuclear deal more than 18 months ago.

Continue reading...