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Jakarta attacks: ISIL claims responsibility

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Police in Indonesia say ISIL behind coordinated bomb and gun attacks in business district that left seven dead.

Police were deployed near the site where one explosion went off, as local media reported more blasts in other parts of the city [Dita Alangkara/AP]

Police were deployed near the site where one explosion went off, as local media reported more blasts in other parts of the city [Dita Alangkara/AP]

by Al Jazeera

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed responsibility for the coordinated bomb and gun attacks in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, a news agency linked to ISIL reported on Thursday.

At least seven people, including five attackers, were killed in the explosions and gun battle between police and the attackers in the central business district of the city.

Tito Karnavian, the Jakarta police chief, said ISIL was “definitely” behind the attack.

Karnavian told Reuters news agency that Indonesian ISIL fighter Bahrun Naim, who is believed to be in Syria, was “planning this for a while. He is behind this attack.”

Earlier, police told Al Jazeera that ISIL had made specific threats before Thursday’s attacks.

Six blasts occurred about 50 metres apart in the central business district, which also houses a United Nations office.

At least 20 people were injured in the security operations at the Sarinah shopping complex on Thamrin Street. Police said the attack had ended and that security forces were in control of the area.

There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties as the police battled the fighters.

Earlier, tweets from the account of Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the UN office on Drugs and Crime for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, described a bomb and “serious” exchanges of gunfire on the street outside his office.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said a police post was destroyed in a grenade blast and that sporadic gunfire was heard in the downtown area of the capital.

“Six gunmen on motorbikes entered the downtown area carrying long rifles, shooting into the crowd, with some carrying explosives,” Vaessen said. “One of the gunman shot a police officer from close range.”

Some gunmen on motorbikes reportedly escaped, police sources told Al Jazeera.

“Witnesses told Al Jazeera that they found nails on the streets near the affected area, indicating that the fragments came from the explosives used in the attacks,” Vaessen said.

The attacks caused panic and prompted a security lockdown and enhanced checks in several areas in the city of 10 million.

“The police are still investigating, so we don’t know how and why the attack happened. There were at least six explosions, and so far it looks like the police was the target,” our correspondent said.

Presidential statement

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who was on a working visit in the West Java town of Cirebon, condemned the brazen attacks.

“This act is clearly aimed at disturbing public order and spreading terror among people,” Jokowi said in statement on television.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has been a victim of several bombing attacks in the past, claimed by Islamic groups.

Thursday’s attacks, however, were the first major incidents in Indonesia’s capital since the 2009 bombings of two hotels that killed seven people and injured more than 50.

The attacks come two days after jailed Islamic leader Abu Bakar Bashir appealed to a court to have his conviction for funding a “terrorist training camp” overturned.

The 77-year-old leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah network filed a judicial review of his 2011 conviction, when he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for setting up the camp in Aceh province. A higher court later cut the sentence to nine years.

Istanbul tourist district hit by deadly blast

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Turkish President Erdogan says “Syria-linked bomber” behind explosion which killed 10 at city’s Sultanahmet Square.

Police are conducting searches outside the cordoned-off area in case a second bomber is involved.

Police are conducting searches outside the cordoned-off area in case a second bomber is involved.

by Al Jazeera

At least 10 people have been killed in an explosion at central Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet Square, the city governor’s office said.

The explosion occurred at about 10.20am local time on Tuesday morning, hitting an area popular with both tourists and locals. In a statement, the Istanbul governor’s office said 10 people were killed and 15 were injured.

Reuters reported that most of those who were killed were German tourists. Meanwhile, at least two of those injured were in “critical condition”.

“Investigations into the cause of the explosion, the type of explosion and perpetrator or perpetrators are under way,” the governor’s office said in a statement quoted by the Dogan news agency.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that foreign tourists were among the casualties.

He said during a speech in Ankara that a Syria-linked suicide bomber was believed to be behind the blast.

“I strongly condemn the terror attack which was carried out by a suicide bomber of Syrian origin,” Erdogan said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But authorities confirmed that the suicide bomber is a 28-year-old Syrian national.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has convened an emergency security meeting of key ministers and officials.

Following the explosion, ambulances rushed to the site.

Police cordoned off the area to protect people against the possibility of a second explosion.

Al Jazeera’s Emre Rende, reporting from Istanbul, said information was scarce immediately after the blast.

“Witnesses have said that the blast was heard from other neighbourhoods,” he said. “Witnesses said that the ground shook.”

Rende said police were conducting searches outside the cordoned-off area in case a second bomber was involved.

Erdem Koroglu, who was working at a nearby office at the time of the explosion, told NTV television that he saw several people lying on the ground following the blast.

“It was difficult to say who was alive or dead,” Koroglu said. “Buildings rattled from the force of the explosion.”

The square sits next to the most popular tourist sites in the city, including the 6th century Greek Orthodox church, the centuries-old Sultan Ahmet mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, and the Roman-era Basilica Cistern, an ancient underground water depot.

The blast comes just over a year after a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a police station for tourists off the same square, killing one officer and wounding another.

Turkey has become a target for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), with two bombings last year blamed on the armed group, in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara. The latter killed more than 100 people.

Violence has also escalated in the mainly Kurdish southeast since a two-year ceasefire collapsed in July between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) armed group, which has been fighting for three decades for Kurdish autonomy.

Aid convoys take off for besieged Syria towns

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Starving residents of Madaya, Foua and Kefraya – towns encircled by government or rebel groups – wait for food supplies.

Madaya Syria

by Al Jazeera

Aid convoys have departed for besieged Syrian towns where thousands are trapped and people are reported to have died of starvation.

Trucks headed for Madaya, near the Lebanese border, and two villages in the northwest of the country on Monday, the Red Cross said, as part of an agreement between rival sides.

The vehicles were to simultaneously enter rebel-held Madaya, which has been blockaded for months by pro-government forces and where aid agencies have warned of widespread starvation, and Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, which are encircled by rebel groups, including the al-Nusra Front.

The blockade of Madaya has become a focal issue for Syrian opposition leaders who told a UN envoy last week they will not take part in talks with the government until it and other sieges are lifted.

A Reuters witness said dozens more ICRC-marked trucks were also preparing to depart from Damascus for Madaya. Vehicles heading for Foua and Kefraya, nearly 300km away, had departed earlier.

The UN said on Thursday that the Syrian government had agreed to allow access to Madaya, where the world body says there have been credible reports of people dying of starvation.

The ongoing Syrian conflict started as a largely unarmed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but morphed into a full-blown civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people and turned more than 4.3 million others into refugees, according to statistics by the UN.

Blockades have been a common feature of the nearly five-year-old conflict.

An estimated 400,000 people are living under siege in 15 areas across Syria, according to the UN.

The UN reported in December that the Syrian government and allied militias had also placed under siege more than 181,000 people in the Damascus outskirts, including Daraya and Ghouta, as well as in Zabadani, near the Lebanon border.

Separately, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has imposed a siege on more than 200,000 in Deir Az Zor in Syria’s east.

Sharif Nashashibi, a London-based analyst of Arab political affairs, says that government-imposed sieges “don’t just wear down the fighters, it also causes them to see the population around them suffering and raises the concern that the population could turn against them”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Nashashibi added: “Besieging Syrian civilians is wrong, whoever the perpetrator. One cannot be selective in one’s outrage over the suffering of Syrian civilians and plausibly claim to have a moral compass.”

The areas included in the latest agreement were all part of a local ceasefire deal agreed in September, but implementation has been halting.

The last aid delivery to Madaya, which took place in October, was synchronised with a similar delivery to the two villages.

Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, says the lack of access has made it impossible to assess the humanitarian needs of the communities in question.

“These are areas that have been under siege by parties to the conflict,” she told Al Jazeera.

“We can’t point a finger to one party and not another because more than one party to the conflict is involved in besieging various communities.”

Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, says the lack of access has made it impossible to assess the humanitarian needs of the communities in question.

“These are areas that have been under siege by parties to the conflict,” she told Al Jazeera.

“We can’t point a finger to one party and not another because more than one party to the conflict is involved in besieging various communities.”

Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of Yemen embassy air strike

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Saudi-led coalition says it is investigating accusation that its jets “deliberately” struck Iran’s embassy in Sanaa.

yemen

by Al Jazeera

Iran has accused the Saudi-led coaliton of an air strike on its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa amid rising tensions between Tehran and Riyadh.

Iran’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that Saudi jets “deliberately” struck its embassy in an air raid that injured staff.

“This deliberate action by Saudi Arabia is a violation of all international conventions that protect diplomatic missions,” foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by state television.

“The Saudi government is responsible for the damage caused and for the situation of members of staff who were injured,” Ansari added, without specifying when the alleged strike took place.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen will investigate Iran’s accusation, coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said, according to a Reuters news agency report.

Asseri said coalition jets carried out heavy strikes in Sanaa on Wednesday night targeting missile launchers used by Houthi fighters against Saudi Arabia.

He added that Houthis had used civilian facilities, including abandoned embassies.

Asseri said the coalition had requested all countries to supply it with coordinates of the location of their diplomatic missions and that accusations made on the basis of information provided by the Houthis “have no credibility”.

 

Tensions between the two regional heavyweights, which support opposite sides in the war in Yemen, have risen in recent days.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran after an attack on its embassy in Tehran following the kingdom’s execution of Shia religious leader Nimr al-Nimr, who was put to death along with 46 other mostly Sunni convicts on terrorism charges.

Muslim anger after Netanyahu threatens to stop call to prayer

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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu © Sebastian Scheiner / Reuters

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu © Sebastian Scheiner / Reuters

by Middle East Monitor

Arabs and Muslims have reacted with anger following remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for a ban on the call to prayer from mosques, the Anadolu Agency reported yesterday.

During the weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that his government decided to enforce a number of laws including those which deal with “noise and incitement made in mosques”, referring to prayer calls.

General Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories and preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Mohamed Hussein said this was a “warning” to mosques.

He stressed that the prayer call is a “subtle supplication addressing the soul, not an incitement call that arouses the interference of the occupation in Muslims’ religious affairs.”

Members of the Arab List warned that the Israeli PM’s remarks “are repeated and dangerous attempts by Netanyahu to get political gains throughout cheap incitement against Arabs.”

Head of the Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi said: “Such remarks feed the atmosphere of racism.”

Aida Touma-Suleiman, another Arab MK, said: “The one who describes the prayer calls as a kind of racism is seeking to divert the eyes from the aggressive policy of the occupation and the ugly discrimination and racist soul being planted among the citizens against Arabs.”

“Netanyahu has to deal with issues as head of a government, not as an autocratic military ruler.”

Refugees, including children, drown off coast of Turkey

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At least 27 bodies have washed up on shore on country’s Aegean coast after boats apparently capsized.

About 850,000 migrants and refugees crossed into Greece last year [AP]

About 850,000 migrants and refugees crossed into Greece last year [AP]

by Al Jazeera

At least 27 people, including three children, have drowned off Turkey’s Aegean coast after their boat capsized in rough seas.

Seventeen of the bodies were discovered on the shoreline in the district of Ayvalik, while ten others were found in the district of Dikili, a gendarmerie official in the local headquarters told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

Twelve people were rescued from the sea and the rocks on the Ayvalik coastline. A coastguard official said three boats and a helicopter were searching for any survivors.

There was no immediate information on the nationalities of the dead.

Refugees are known to set off from the resort town of Ayvalik on boats to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.

On Sunday, a two-year-old boy became the first known refugee to drown in 2016 after the dinghy he was travelling in crashed  on to rocks, the Greek coastguard said.

The other 39 passengers onboard were rescued after fishermen alerted the coastguard, but at least 10 were taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia after the boat got into trouble near the island of Agathonisi.

About 850,000 migrants and refugees crossed into Greece last year, paying smuggling gangs to ferry them over from Turkey in often frail boats.

In a deal struck at the end of November, Turkey promised to help stem the flow of refugees to Europe in return for cash, visas and renewed talks on joining the EU.

Turkey is host to 2.2 million Syrians and has spent around $8.5bn on feeding and housing them since the start of the civil war nearly five years ago.

Outrage follows Saudi Arabia’s execution of nearly 50 prisoners

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Shiite protesters carry posters of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration outside the Saudi embassy in Sana'a on October 18, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

Shiite protesters carry posters of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration outside the Saudi embassy in Sana’a on October 18, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

Saudi Arabia—recently chosen to head a key United Nations human rights panel—on Saturday executed 47 people convicted of “terrorism,” including at least four convicted of offenses related to political protest.

According to Reuters, the executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, with four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading.

Among those killed was prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, whom the Guardian reports “had called for pro-democracy demonstrations and whose arrest in 2012 sparked protests in which three people died.”

“Nimr,” the Guardian added, “had long been regarded as the most vocal Shia leader in the eastern Saudi province of Qatif, willing to publicly criticise the ruling al-Saud family and call for elections. He was, however, careful to avoid calling for violence, analysts say.”

The Associated Press noted that “The execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr is expected to deepen discontent among Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority and heighten sectarian tensions across the region.”

The mass execution comes on the heels of a deadly year that saw Saudi Arabia execute more than 150 people, “many of them for non-violent offenses,” said Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at international human rights organization Reprieve.

“Today’s appalling news, with nearly 50 executed in a single day, suggests 2016 could be even worse,” Foa said on Saturday. “Alarmingly, the Saudi Government is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom, executing at least four of them today.”

What’s more, she added, “there are now real concerns that those protesters sentenced to death as children could be next in line to face the swordsman’s blade.” According to Reprieve, the list of people executed did not include the names of a number of people sentenced to death as children who are still facing execution—including Ali al Nimr, Sheikh Nimr’s nephew; Dawoud al Marhoon; and Abdullah al Zaher, who were also sentenced to death over their alleged involvement in the 2012 anti-government protests, despite having been aged 17, 17, and 15 respectively at the time.

“Saudi Arabia’s allies—including the U.S. and UK—must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities and must urgently appeal to the Kingdom to change course,” Foa concluded.

Many echoed that call on social media, highlighting the apparent hypocrisy of Saudi Arabia’s seat on the UN Human Rights Council.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition that has been dropping bombs in Yemen for more than nine months, killing scores of civilians anddestroying critical infrastructure, announced Saturday the end of a ceasefire that had been in place since December 15.

Saudi Arabia executes 47, including Shia cleric Nimr

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Interior ministry says executed ‘terrorists’ took part in attacks against residential and government buildings.

Nimr-al-Nimr

by Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia has executed 47 “terrorists”, according to the interior ministry, including Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr and al-Qaeda-affiliated Faris al-Zahrani.

In a press release read on state TV on Saturday, the ministry listed the names of all those it said were already convicted on charges of terrorism.

The death sentence of Nimr al-Nimr, who led anti-government protests in the country’s east, was confirmed by the Supreme Court in October.

Al-Zahani, once considered one of Saudi Arabia’s “most wanted terrorists”, was detained in 2004 while allegedly in possession of weapons.

Among those executed were an Egyptian citizen and a Chadian citizen, the ministry said.

It added that those convicted had participated in attacks against residential compounds and government buildings.

The announcement comes just days after Amnesty international said that Saudi Arabia executed at least 151 people in 2015, the most beheadings in 20 years.

“The Saudi Arabian authorities appear intent on continuing a bloody execution spree,” Amnesty’s report released on Monday said, quoting James Lynch, deputy director at the Middle East and North Africa programme.

It is the most people put to death in the kingdom in one year since 1995, when 192 executions were reportedly carried out.

Amnesty said the large number of executions shed further light on what the London-based human rights group referred to as unfair judicial proceedings, with a disproportionate imposition of capital punishment on foreign nationals.

“Of the 63 people executed this year for drug-related charges, the vast majority, 45 people, were foreign nationals,” the report said.

Khalid al-Dakhil, a Saudi political commentator based in Riyadh, challenged “the integrity” of Amnesty’s report, saying it failed to mention Iran’s execution record.

“Iran executes far more people a year than Saudi Arabia, but it does not get the negative publicity Saudi Arabia has. This is something that must be addressed,” Dakhil told Al Jazeera.

Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, the United States, and Iraq are the top five countries with the most executions.

Hundreds evacuated after fire engulfs Dubai tower

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No casualties caused by blaze at the Torch in Marina district, which was brought under control after several hours.

The fire reportedly started on the 50th floor of the Torch, a skyscraper in Dubai's Marina district [AP]

The fire reportedly started on the 50th floor of the Torch, a skyscraper in Dubai’s Marina district [AP]

by Al Jazeera

A huge fire engulfed one of the world’s tallest residential towers in Dubai’s Marina district, sending bright yellow flames several stories high, but there were no reports of casualties, civil defence officials said.

The fire broke out at about 2am on Saturday in the 86-storey Torch tower on the northeast end of the densely populated district, which is packed with multi-storey skyscrapers.

High winds whipped through the area and debris from the fire cluttered nearby streets after the blaze appeared to be extinguished.

The civil defence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were no reports of deaths or injuries.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

The Marina area is home to dozens of towering apartment blocks and hotels, many of them built over the past decade. The apartments are popular with Dubai’s large number of expatriate professionals.

Police blocked off areas around the 336 metre-high Torch tower, which still had power. Lights were on in many of the apartments inside and multiple fire trucks and police vehicles were on the scene.

Residents of at least one neighbouring tower were told to evacuate as a precaution because of strong winds, but they were later allowed back inside.

One witness said the fire started in the middle of the tower before spreading down, describing it as like “the Titanic going down”. Flaming material falling from the initial fire then set a lower part of the building ablaze, witnesses said.

Rescue efforts

Torch tower resident Steve Short, 53, of Liverpool, England, praised the work of firefighters who arrived quickly. He said fire alarms alerted residents to the blaze and building management sent workers knocking on doors to ensure residents got out.

Resident RJ Morlock, 33, of Houston, shot video on his phone that showed bright yellow flames reaching what appeared to be several storeys on two separate parts of the building. He said residents were nervous coming out but fire crews were able to bring the situation under control.

“I was really surprised they got it under control pretty quickly,” he said. “It looked like it was going to go up.”

As daylight broke, residents waiting across the street to be allowed back home were able to see the extent of the blaze: External cladding on the corner of more than two dozen storeys from roughly the 50th floor to the top were mangled and charred black.

Cleanup crews dressed in orange uniforms swept up pieces of shattered glass and other debris covering the street outside the building.

Bomber on motorbike hits government office in Pakistan

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Suicide bomber crashes into government office in northwest, killing at least 18 and wounding many, according to police.

More than 40 people were being treated at the city's main hospital after a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself outside a government office [Khuram Parvez/Reuters]

More than 40 people were being treated at the city’s main hospital after a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself outside a government office [Khuram Parvez/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least 18 people have been killed and many others wounded in a suicide attack outside a government office in Pakistan, police told Al Jazeera.

The attack happened on Tuesday at an office of the National Database and Registration Authority in the town of Mardan, in the country’s northwest.

“A suicide bomber riding an explosives-laden motorcycle hit the Nadra office in Mardan where a large number of people were standing in queues,” police officer Naeem Khan told Reuters.

Jamat Ul Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility, saying the office was a legitimate target as it was a part of the “heathen Pakistan state”.

“God willing, we will target all Pakistani organisations that are either directly or indirectly a part of this war,” Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement.

Pakistan has been battling armed groups since 2004, in a conflict that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and security forces personnel.

Overall levels of violence have decreased in 2015 after a nationwide military-led offensive against the groups, blocking their sources of movement, communication and funding.

The crackdown came after the Taliban school attack in December 2014, in which more than 150 people, mainly school children, were killed.

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