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Syrian army encircles Aleppo as ceasefire talks fade

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Government offensive intensifies around Syria’s largest city, threatening to cut off rebel supply routes in the north.

A man rides a motorcycle past damaged buildings in al-Myassar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria January 31, 2016. Picture taken January 31, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

A man rides a motorcycle past damaged buildings in al-Myassar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria January 31, 2016. Picture taken January 31, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

by Al Jazeera

A Syrian military offensive backed by heavy Russian air strikes threatened to cut critical rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo, as peace talks in Switzerland appeared to be in jeopardy on Wednesday.

The government attack north of Aleppo that began in recent days is its first major offensive there since Russian air strikes began on September 30.

Rebels described the assault as the most intense yet, with activists reporting that 45 civilians have been killed. One commander said that opposition-held areas of Syria’s largest city were at risk of being encircled entirely by the government and allied militia, appealing to foreign states that back the rebels to send more weapons.

Chances of achieving a ceasefire at talks in Geneva appears to be receding as the government, supported by Russian air power, advances against rebels, some of them US-backed.

The refugee crisis and spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group through large areas of Syria, and from there to Iraq, had injected a new urgency to resolve the five-year-old Syria war.

On Tuesday, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, called on Moscow to stop the bombing during the peace process. “We are beginning the talks, we are at the table and we expect a ceasefire,” he said after a meeting in Rome of countries opposed to ISIL.

But Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister,  said at a news conference from Oman on Wednesday that Russia would not stop its air strikes on Syria “until we defeat terrorist organisation like al-Nusra [Front]”.

The area around Aleppo safeguards a rebel supply route from Turkey into opposition-held parts of the city and stands between government-held parts of western Aleppo and the Shia villages of Nubul and al-Zahraa, which are loyal to Damascus.

“The supply routes were not cut but there is heavy bombardment of them by the jets,” said a commander in the Levant Front rebel group who gave his name as Abu Yasine. “The Russian jets are trying to hit headquarters and cut supply routes.”

The Russian jets had been working “night and day” for three days, he added, and reiterated the rebels’ long-held demand for anti-aircraft missiles to confront the assault.

“If there is no support, the regime could besiege the city of Aleppo and cut the road to the north,” said Abu Yasine, whose group is one of the rebel movements that have received military support from states opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, funnelled via Turkey.

Advancing government forces seized the village of Hardatnin some 10km northwest of Aleppo, building on gains of the previous day, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring body.

Another rebel commander said that he had sent reinforcements to the area.

“We sent new fighters this morning, we sent heavier equipment there. It seems it will be a decisive battle in the north, God willing,” said Ahmed al-Seoud, head of a Free Syrian Army group known as Division 13.

The Russian intervention has reversed the course of the war for Damascus, which suffered a series of major defeats to rebels in western Syria last year before Moscow deployed its air force as part of an alliance with Iran.

Intizar Hussain, leading Urdu writer, dies aged 92

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Author shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2013 was an advocate of what he saw as Pakistan’s ancient traditions of pluralism and tolerance

Intizar Hussain was born on 7 December 1923 in India and migrated to the newly formed Pakistan in 1947.

Intizar Hussain was born on 7 December 1923 in India and migrated to the newly formed Pakistan in 1947.

Lahore: Pakistani author Intizar Hussain, widely recognised as one of the greatest Urdu writers in history, has died aged 92 following a period of illness, according to his doctor.

The prolific author, known for his novels, short stories, columns and poetry, belatedly saw worldwide recognition when he was shortlisted for the Man Booker international prize in 2013 and awarded France’s highly prestigious Ordre des Arts et des Lettres a year later.

Born on 7 December 1923 in India, he migrated to the newly formed Pakistan in 1947 – an experience he wrote about 50 years later in his short story The First Morning.

Hussain’s acclaimed novel Basti, published in 1979 and later translated into English, also addressed the history of Pakistan and the subcontinent.

Hussain, a regular literary columnist for Pakistan’s leading English-language daily Dawn, in later years became known as a voice of moderation and advocate of what he saw as the subcontinent’s ancient traditions of pluralism and tolerance.

Fellow Urdu writer Munnu Bhai said: “Intizar Hussain was a man of letters. His death has left a huge gap in the literary circle of the subcontinent that would be felt of the centuries to come.”

Hussain’s wife, Aliya Begum, died in 2004. The couple had no children.

(AFP)

Syrian army launches Aleppo offensive amid Geneva talks

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Backed by Russian air strikes, government forces capture strategic towns north of Aleppo as talks resume in Switzerland.

Aleppo offensive launched as discussions between Syrian opposition and government kicked off in Geneva [AP]

Aleppo offensive launched as discussions between Syrian opposition and government kicked off in Geneva [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The Syrian government launched a major offensive from the north of Aleppo and captured several strategically important towns, as talks in Geneva on a ceasefire continued on Tuesday.

Monday’s advance opened the way for President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to retake Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, as troops marched through the towns of Hardatnein, Tal Jibbeen, and Deir Zaitoun.

Hundreds of families were reportedly fleeing their homes because of heavy Russian air strikes on the area assisting the Syrian government’s advance.

Opposition leaders in Switzerland condemned the offensive, saying that it shows the government is not committed to finding a peaceful resolution to the civil war.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, also warned on Tuesday that “the situation on the ground for the Syrian people is unfathomable”.

“We haven’t seen a catastrophe like this since World War II, and it’s unfolding before our eyes,” Kerry said at a conference in Rome on countering the advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Talks in Geneva continued on Tuesday as the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was to meet representatives of Assad’s government.

Meanwhile, Syrian opposition leaders were meeting a Russian deputy foreign minister.

Discussions are meant to develop a “road map” to end the nearly five-year conflict that has resulted in more than 250,000 Syrians being killed.

Israel demolishes homes in East Jerusalem

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A Palestinian family stands next to their possessions as they watch their home being demolished. (AFP/File)

A Palestinian family stands next to their possessions as they watch their home being demolished. (AFP/File)

by Ma’an News Agency

Israeli forces on Wednesday tore down two buildings in occupied East Jerusalem, claiming one had been built without permits, while the other stood in the way of a new route connecting Israeli settlements.

Locals said that Israeli forces stormed and closed off an area in the Jabal al-Mukabbri neighborhood early Wednesday before bulldozers moved in and demolished a building under construction along with its surrounding wall.

The building’s owner, Ibrahim Ali Surri, told Ma’an that the building measured 60 square meters and he had been intending to move into it in coming weeks.

He said that Jerusalem’s municipal authorities ordered him to halt construction a month ago and he had been trying to obtain the necessary permits since then.

He said Wednesday’s demolition took place “without prior notice.”

Separately, Israeli forces also demolished a home in Shufat neighborhood, reportedly to clear way for a road — Route 21 — which will run through Shufat to connect the illegal Israeli settlements of Pisgat Zeev, Ramat Shlom and Neve Yaakov.

The plans are expected to divide the neighborhood in two and will require the confiscation of hundreds of dunams of land.

The home’s owner, Kifaya al-Rashq, told Ma’an the the home was built 15 years ago and houses 19 family members.

He said that Israeli forces stormed the home and forced his family to evacuate, despite the cold weather, before they proceeded with the demolition.

Some 579 homes have been destroyed in East Jerusalem over the last twelve years, leaving 2,133 Palestinians homeless in total, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Israeli government policies make it nearly impossible for Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to obtain building permits, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

Boat capsizes off Malaysia, drowning 13 Indonesians

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Boat carrying about 30 people goes down as search-and-rescue operation hampered by rough seas.

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but it was hampered by high tides and choppy seas [Wallace Woon/EPA]

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but it was hampered by high tides and choppy seas [Wallace Woon/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Malaysian police said 13 bodies, believed to be Indonesian migrants, were found washed ashore after their boat capsized in bad sea conditions.

The bodies of four men and nine women were discovered on a beach in southern Johor state by members of the public early on Tuesday, Rahmat Othman, the district police chief, said.

Authorities found an overturned wooden boat not far from the beach, which had probably capsized before dawn.

Rahmat said that the boat was believed to be carrying 30 to 35 people, most probably Indonesians trying to sneak into the country.

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but was hampered by high tides and choppy seas, he said.

Such tragedies are not uncommon in Malaysia. Many Indonesians are willing to risk their lives by travelling on boats believed to be old and unsafe to work in Malaysia illegally, or to return to their hometowns.

Tajikistan shaves 13,000 beards in ‘radicalism’ battle

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Police says more than 160 shops selling headscarves are also closed as part of a fight against “foreign” influences.

Tajikistan has struggled with poverty and instability since independence more than two decades ago [File: Igor Kovalenko/EPA]

Tajikistan has struggled with poverty and instability since independence more than two decades ago [File: Igor Kovalenko/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Police in Tajikistan have shaved nearly 13,000 people’s beards and closed more than 160 shops selling traditional Muslim clothing last year as part of the country’s fight against what it calls “foreign” influences.

Bahrom Sharifzoda, the head of the south-west Khathlon region’s police, said at a press conference on Wednesday that the law enforcement services convinced more than 1,700 women and girls to stop wearing headscarves in the Muslim-majority Central Asian country.

The move is seen as part of efforts to battle what authorities deem “radicalism”.

Tajikistan’s secular leadership has long sought to prevent an overspill of what it sees as unwelcome traditions from neighbouring Afghanistan.

Last week, the country’s parliament voted to ban Arabic-sounding “foreign” names as well as marriages between first cousins.

The legislation is expected to be approved by President Emomali Rahmon, who has taken steps to promote secularism and discourage beliefs and practices that he sees as foreign or a threat to the stability of Tajikistan, Radio Liberty said.

In September, Tajikistan’s Supreme Court banned the country’s only registered Islamic political party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

Rahmon has ruled Tajikistan since 1994 and his current presidential term is expected to end in 2020.

In December, the parliament granted the president and his family life-long immunity from prosecution, giving Rahmon the title “Leader of the nation” and officially designating him “the founder of peace and national unity of Tajikistan”.

The country of 7.1 million people has struggled with poverty and instability since independence from the Soviet Union more than two decades ago. It remains heavily dependent on Russia, where the majority of Tajik people go for work.

According to unofficial estimates, there are more than 2,000 Tajiks fighting in Syria.

Pakistan army says deadly university attack over

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At least 19 people dead after gunmen storm Charsadda university in northwest Pakistan.

At least 25 ambulances were called to the university because of the attack [Reuters]

At least 25 ambulances were called to the university because of the attack [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least 19 people have been killed in an attack that lasted six hours at a university in northwest Pakistan, according to an army spokesperson.

Attackers scaled a wall and cut through barbed wire on Wednesday morning at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, about 140km from the capital Islamabad.

The attack left at least 50 people injured. A security official said the death toll could rise to as high as 40.

“The operation is over and the university has been cleared,” Pakistan Army spokesperson General Asim Bajwa told Reuters news agency.

“Four gunmen have been killed.”

Attackers entered the university complex in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and opened fire at students and teachers in classrooms and hostels, according to police officials.

There were conflicting statements from the Pakistani Taliban, as one commander claimed the attack, but the group’s spokesperson later disassociated the Taliban from the attack, saying it was “un-Islamic”.

Students told local media they saw several young men wielding AK-47 guns storming the university housing where many students were sleeping.

The university has over 3,000 enrolled students and was hosting an additional 600 visitors on Wednesday for a poetry recital on the death anniversary of the Pashtun activist Abdul Ghaffar “Bacha” Khan, the university’s vice-chancellor said.

Abdul Ghaffar ‘Bacha Khan’ was known for his nonviolent protest opposing British rule over India.

“Around 200 students have been safely evacuated from an examination hall in the university,” Provincial Public Health Engineering Minister Shah Farman said.

Local authorities have announced the closure of all education institutions across Charsadda until January 31.

Earlier, as police and soldiers rushed to the campus, the attackers traded gunfire with the troops and several explosions were heard from the area of the university.

The army said the attackers were contained in two university blocks before being killed.

Television footage showed heavy military presence at the university, troops rushing in and people fleeing.

Students spoke of one hero teacher, Syed Hamid Husain, fighting back against the intruders, shooting his weapon in a bid to protect the students.

Geology student Zahoor Ahmed said his lecturer had warned him not to leave the building after the first shots were fired.

“He was holding a pistol in his hand,” said Ahmed.

“Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall.”

Teachers in the province were given permission to carry firearms in the classroom after the December 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up close to a police checkpoint in the Jamrud area of northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 20.

At least 144 people, most of them children, were killed when armed men attacked the 2014 attack on the Peshawar school.

Last month, Pakistan executed four men linked to the school massacre which left more than 130 school children dead.

The executions, which officials said were carried out by hanging at a prison in the city of Kohat, were the first in connection with the December 16 attack.

Smartphone app initiative feeds pregnant women in Homs

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WFP campaign allows app users to provide 2,000 vulnerable women and babies with vital nutrition in Syrian city of Homs.

The free-to-download smartphone app is available globally for iOS and Android users [WFP/Abeer Etefa]

The free-to-download smartphone app is available globally for iOS and Android users [WFP/Abeer Etefa]

by Teo Kermeliotis, Al Jazeera

It costs just $0.50, and all it takes is a simple tap on your smartphone, yet it can have a profound impact on the lives of vulnerable Syrians facing severe hunger and malnutrition.

Just two months after hitting its target of helping feed 20,000 Syrian refugee children for a year, the World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a new mobile funding initiative aiming to help nourish women and newborns in the war-torn city of Homs.

The goal is for users of the ShareTheMeal smartphone app to help provide 2,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers, and their children up to six-months-old, with a year’s worth of vital nutrition.

WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa said the women in the Aoun distribution centre will receive vouchers to buy fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy and meat, which will allow them to improve their dietary diversity.

“This is particularly important for both mother and child during pregnancy and the first few months after giving birth. The balanced nutrition has a crucial influence on the growth and development of their children,” she told Al Jazeera.

Hunger and devastation

Homs, previously the epicentre of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, has been under a ceasefire since December 2015.

Yet, the five-year conflict has left the city in central Syria largely destroyed, with many of its citizens displaced and in dire need of support.

“The city is devastated,” Sebastian Stricker, head of the ShareTheMeal project, told Al Jazeera. “There are food shortages; a lot of people are displaced and are suffering from severe poverty,” he added.

Having a daily meal, Stricker said, does not only help the women and young children avoid irreversible lifelong consequences, but also provides them with a semblance of normality amid the prolonged crisis.

“It’s something that they can rely on,” he said. “It’s something that gives them some sense of living a normal life again.”

Sharing meals 

The free-to-download app, which allows contributors to follow the impact of their donations, is available globally for iOS and Android users. Developers said that a donation of $0.50 can provide women with enough nutrition for a day.

The concept is to allow people around the world to digitally “share” their meals while having dinner or lunch in a fast and easy way.

WFP’s latest campaign comes two months after it first rolled out ShareTheMeal in mid-November in a bid to help nourish Syrian refugee children who had been forced to flee their homes.

Since then, some 400,000 people from 197 countries and territories have used the app, helping the group to raise about $2m – enough to provide school snacks to 20,000 children in refugee camps in Jordan for a full year.

“Some of these children hadn’t eaten in weeks,” said Stricker. “Now they are being fed every day.”

‘Slow death’

The WFP says it must raise $25m each week to meet the basic food needs of people affected by the complex and worsening crisis in Syria, which has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions.

The UN, which has called the use of starvation as a weapon a “war crime“, is struggling to deliver aid to about 4.5 million Syrians who live in hard-to-reach areas, including nearly 400,000 people in besieged areas.

On Thursday, an international convoy carrying food and other necessities entered the famine-struck town Madaya for the second time this week, following devastating reports of starvation and illness.

“We would go for three days without food, then we would go and gather grass to just boil and eat it,” Mubarak Aloush, a Madaya resident who managed to escape to Lebanon told Al Jazeera.

On Monday, a first convoy reached Madaya and truckloads of aid also entered two other towns blockaded by rebel groups.

A new round of Syrian peace talks is scheduled for later this month, and access to humanitarian aid is seen as a key confidence-building measure.

James Denselow, a writer on Middle East politics and security issues and a research associate at the Foreign Policy Centre, said the discussions must place humanitarian relief for besieged or hard-to-reach areas at the top of their agenda.

“The slow death of those starving in areas across the country is a matter of huge urgency and a test for all parties to display their commitment to a peaceful end to the conflict,” he told Al Jazeera.

“If actors on the ground fail to find a consensus on allowing the access of aid to Syria’s beleaguered civilian population then the international community must take responsibility to put an end to such medieval practices being deployed in the modern age.

“The fate of Syrians themselves must be placed at the heart of any discussion on Syria.”

Indonesia names ‘mastermind’ of Jakarta attacks

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Police say Indonesian Bahrun Naim working for ISIL funded deadly attack that killed two civilians and five attackers.

jakarta-attack

by Al Jazeera

Police have named an Indonesian, Bahrun Naim, as the mastermind of Thursday’s deadly attack in Jakarta’s main business district after it arrested three men in a pre-dawn raid.

The arrests on Friday came less than 24 hours after the shooting and bombing rampage, the first such attack in the world’s most populous Muslim nation since 2009, which killed seven people. Five of the dead were the attackers themselves.

Police said Naim, who spent one year in jail for illegal possession of weapons in 2011, funded the attack. He is now believed to be in Syria fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“His vision is to unite all ISIS-supporting elements in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines,” Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said.

The police chief of Depok, where the arrests were made, told Metro TV that the men – which he described as a bomb-maker, a firearms expert and a preacher – were not linked to the Jakarta attack.

Raids were also under way across other parts of the populous island of Java and on other islands to round up suspects behind the attack, Reuters reported.

“Now we are sweeping in and outside Java, because we have captured several members of their group, and have identified them,” National Police spokesman Anton Charliyan told Reuters.

At least 20 people were wounded when at least five attackers opened fire near a Starbucks coffee house in the city. Those killed included an Indonesian and a Canadian.

Officials said the attackers were armed with light weapons and suicide belts. Six blasts occurred about 50 metres apart in the central business district, which also houses a United Nations office.

The attacks were claimed by the ISIL group in a statement on Thursday, in which the group claimed it had killed 15 people.

Al Jazeera’s Sohail Rahman, reporting from Jakarta, said many circumstances surrounding the attacks on Thursday remained unclear.

“There’s not a state of emergency but certainly a heightened level of alert … three individuals are being questioned at the moment. Whether there were any that got away is one line of inquiry.

“Who are they, where did they come from, how did they get into Jakarta, who helped them get in, did anyone house them?

“The munitions that were used, the rifles and the explosives, where did all of that come from? That’s what’s being looked into by investigators.”

Al-Shabab attacks African Union base in Somalia

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Heavily armed fighters from the al-Shabab group launch coordinated assault on the base in the town of El-Ade.

Al-Shabab has in the past year staged multiple attacks against African Union bases in Somalia [Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP/File]

Al-Shabab has in the past year staged multiple attacks against African Union bases in Somalia [Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP/File]



by Al Jazeera

 

Fighters from the al-Shabab group have attacked a base for African Union peacekeepers in southwestern Somalia, blasting their way into the compound and exchanging fire with peacekeepers, a Somali military official told Al Jazeera.

Dozens of al-Shabab fighters on Friday assaulted the military base, which is run by Kenyan troops who are part of the AU force in the town of El-Ade, not far from the Kenyan border.

“The troops are fighting the terrorists to push them back,” Lieutenant Colonel Paul Njuguna, spokesman for the AU mission in Somalia, told Al Jazeera.

“The operation is still ongoing,” Njuguna said.

The assault started with a suicide car bomb, and then heavy gunfire was heard as fighters stormed into the base, he said.

‘Dozens killed’

Al-Shabab said their fighters killed dozens of Kenyan troops in the attack. However, Somali military has denied the claim.

“Everyone is familiar with al-Shabab’s propaganda. They will claim that they have taken over the camp even though they have not,” Njuguna told Al Jazeera.

“Once this battle ends, we will have the correct number of casualties and proper account of what and how this attack happened.”

Al-Shabab reported on its online radio station that its fighters had managed to penetrate the base and were fighting AU troops

Despite being pushed out of Somalia’s major cities and towns, al-Shabab continues to launch deadly guerrilla attacks across the Horn of Africa country.

The group, which has ties with al-Qaeda, has also carried out many deadly attacks inside Kenya.

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