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Death toll rises in deadly 24 hours in Afghanistan

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Attacks on military base and other areas in Kabul kill at least 40, including NATO soldier

Afghan security staff inspect the site of a truck bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, August 7, 2015. (Photo: Rahmat Gul/AP)

Afghan security staff inspect the site of a truck bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, August 7, 2015. (Photo: Rahmat Gul/AP)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

As of Saturday, a deadly 24 hours in Afghanistan has seen more than 44 people killed and hundreds wounded in a wave of attacks on a military base and other sites in Kabul.

Among those killed were dozens of civilians and service members, including one NATO soldier. The attacks targeted a police academy, a residential area, and the military base Camp Integrity, all in Kabul.

The nationality of the NATO soldier has not yet been released. One international service member and eight Afghan contractors were killed in the attack on Camp Integrity, with several others wounded. The bombing of the police academy killed at least 20 and wounded 24, when a man dressed in a police uniform reportedly detonated an explosive vest as recruits lined up for classes.

The Guardian reports:

While the truck bomb exploded outside a Ministry of Defence base, the exact purpose remains unclear, and the timing of the attack [at 1am] was unusual. According to a security source speaking to the Guardian, the US military frequently visits the Afghan army base in Shah Shaheed, which also contains a facility housing several high-level detainees.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, said the group was responsibile for the attack on the police academy, but no one has yet claimed the truck bomb attack or the assault on Camp Integrity.

Reuters adds:

Previously seen as open to reviving peace talks, the Taliban have since pledged to press on with the insurgency that has killed and wounded thousands this year.

….The conflict between the Western-backed government and the Taliban has intensified since the NATO combat mission ended last year, but Afghan security forces and civilians have borne the brunt of the violence.

There have been almost 5,000 civilian casualties in Afghanistan in the first half of the year, U.N. figures show.

Palestinian baby’s father also dies from settler attack

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Saad Dawabsheh, the father of Ali, dies from severe burns caused by firebomb attack, his brother tells Al Jazeera.

The UN says at least 120 attacks by Israeli settlers have been documented in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2015 [Reuters]

The UN says at least 120 attacks by Israeli settlers have been documented in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2015 [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The father of the Palestinian 18-month-old baby boy who died in last week’s settler arson attack in the occupied West Bank has also died from his wounds.

Saad Dawabsheh, the father of Ali, died early on Saturday, his brother told Al Jazeera.

The 32-year-old died in Soroka hospital, where he had been treated for second-degree burns to more than 80 percent of his body.

Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from West Jerusalem, said Saad’s wife, Riham, and four-year-old son Ahmad remain in critical condition, in Tel Hashomer hospital.

“His mother and brother also remain at the hospital. They both remain in very serious condition.

“In fact the mother’s condition for several days was thought to be worse than the father’s so the fact that he succumbed to his wounds raises alot of concern about her,” Tyab said.

Early last Saturday morning, a firebomb was thrown into the family’s bedroom in a suspected settler arson attack, setting the house alight.

A funeral is expected to be held later on Saturday in Duma, where last week’s attack took place.

The Palestine Liberation Organization has said it holds Israel’s government “fully responsible” for the death of the 18-month-old baby and will lodge a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The attack was roundly condemned around the world, including by Israeli leaders, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ringing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and saying they must fight “terrorism” together.

The US state department condemned the “vicious terrorist attack” in “the strongest possible terms”, urging Israel to “apprehend the murderers” and calling on both sides to “avoid escalating tensions”.

According to the UN, at least 120 attacks by Israeli settlers have been documented in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2015.

A recent report by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation, showed that more than 92.6 percent of complaints Palestinians lodge with the Israeli police go without charges being filed.

World Food Program to cut funding for Syrian refugees in Lebanon

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Lebanon is home to some 1.2 million Syrian refugees. (AFP/File)

Lebanon is home to some 1.2 million Syrian refugees. (AFP/File)

by Press TV

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has been forced to cut in half its assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon over a budget shortfall.

The agency slashed its economic funds for Syrian refugees, leaving them with a monthly salary of only $13.50, due to a lack of funds.

“Starting January this year, we had to reduce the value of the assistance we give by 30 percent to make funds stretch over a longer period of time. But in July, the funding shortfall became so severe that we had to decrease the value of the assistance we give by 50 percent,” World Food Program spokesperson Dina el-Kassaby told Press TV.

The WFP, which was forced to briefly halt its assistance to Syrians in Lebanon last December, said it was able to keep the program operating after receiving new funds.

“We do need to continue to have help because basically until a political solution is found and refugees can safely go back home, they will continue to need our assistance,” Kassaby added.

The UN agency provides the refugees with an electronic voucher which allows them to purchase food products at various stores in Lebanon.

Syrian refugees, many living in tents and unable to legally work, say the recent cut in assistance has made their situation worsen significantly.

Lebanon, which has a population of nearly 4.5 million, is currently home to almost 1.2 million refugees.

Millions of Syrians have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the ongoing unrest in their country, fueled by ISIL militants.

More than 240,000 people have lost their lives since the unrest in Syria started in 2011.

Series of gruesome child murders shocks Bangladesh

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Within weeks of a 13-year-old boy being lynched, another child was found tortured and murdered, sparking public anger.

Rakib's father said that he sent his son to work to supplement the family's income [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera]

Rakib’s father said that he sent his son to work to supplement the family’s income [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera]

by Syed Tashfin Chowdhury, Al Jazeera

Dhaka: As air was being pumped into Rakib Hawlader’s body, around the evening of August 3, the boy pleaded to his tormentor to stop, or else he would die.

But his pleas fell on deaf ears, as motor garage owner Omar Sharif, Sharif’s mother Beauty Begum and a man Mintu Mia, continued to pump air into his body.

Although the 12-year-old was rescued and taken to the Khulna Medical College and Hospital, 250km southwest of the capital Dhaka, he succumbed to his injuries on the same night, leaving behind his bereaved family.

Enraged locals who learned of the Rakib’s death broke into Sharif’s garage that night, caught the three suspects and handed them over to the police. People came out on the streets of Khulna demanding justice for Rakib.

The incident was the latest in a series of child murders in Bangladesh, which have shocked the nation and forced the government to take measures to stop them.

“We have arrested all the accused,” Nibash Chandra Majhi, Khulna Metropolitan Police Commissioner, told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

“[The] investigation is still going on. We hope to file the charge-sheet against the accused by end of this month,” he added.

The details of Rakib’s murder were told to the local media by one of his friends, who was passing the motor garage near the Tutparha graveyard in the Khulna division of Bangladesh.

In an interview with a local news website, the witness recalled how the victim pleaded for mercy from his tormentors.

“When air was being forced into his body [via his anus] with the pump, I heard him saying, ‘Uncle, please stop now, or else, I am going to die,'” the witness said.

Reports said the three suspects tortured the boy after he quit his job at their garage to work for another employer.

The doctor who treated Rakib at the hospital emergency unit said the boy’s intestines were torn apart and his lungs burst due to the pumping of an “abnormal amount” of air into his body.

Rakib’s day-labourer father, Nurul Alam Hawlader, had filed a case with police against the three suspects.

He said that one of the suspects, Begum, used to beat and swear at his son, “for any and every reason”.

Hawlader had moved his family to Khulna from Satkhira three years ago. The impoverished family lived in a shanty along a road in the city. Rakib, a student, was sent to work to supplement the family’s income.

‘Drastic measures necessary’

Child rights experts in Bangladesh pointed out that the deterioration of law and order and the failure to prosecute murder cases of children are sowing the seeds of violence in the country.

According to the Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF), a child rights group, at least 154 children were killed in the South Asian country between January and June, this year. In 2014, 292 children were murdered while the number was 180 in 2013.

On August 4, just a day after Rakib’s death, three-year-old Sumaiya Akhter died after being beaten by her father and mother, who tried to prove to locals that they are experts at exorcism.

Then on Wednesday, a madrassa student Robiul Awal was beaten to death, after he was suspected of stealing fish.

Children in Bangladesh also become victims of torture, rape, sexual assaults and other violations, according to BSAF.

“We believe that the tendency of torture and killing will decrease in the future, if the accused persons in past incidents are tried under special crimes tribunals and [receive proper] punishment,” Emranul Huq Chowdhury, BSAF chair, told Al Jazeera.

Recently, authorities were forced to act after public outrage was sparked over the killing of a 13-year-old boy in Sylhet district on July 8.

The lynching of Sheikh Mohammad Samiul Alam Rajon prompted protests and activists called for the guilty to be held accountable.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Meher Afroze Chumki, state minister for women and children affairs, said the government is working to “ensure justice” for the victims.

“Drastic measures are necessary now to bring about a positive change in this regard.”

Deadly explosion rocks Afghanistan’s capital Kabul

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At least 15 killed and hundreds injured after truck bomb explodes near military base in the city’s District 8.

Cars parked on roads in the vicinity of the blast were damaged for at least 100 metres, a witness said [AFP]

Cars parked on roads in the vicinity of the blast were damaged for at least 100 metres, a witness said [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

A truck bomb has killed at least 15 people and injured about 400 more in central Kabul, near an Afghan army base in the city’s District 8, police sources have told Al Jazeera.

The explosion occurred early on Friday morning, rattling nearby homes.

“Moments ago there was a car bomb in the Shah Shahid area. Civilian casualties are feared,” Deputy Interior Minister General Mohammad Ayub Salangi wrote on Twitter.

Al Jazeera’s Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, said: “The police suspect that the [casualty] numbers will go higher,” he said, adding that sources said that the target of the attack had been an Afghan military base.

“A truck bomb detonated close to an army compound,” Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told the Reuters news agency.

Officials said 400 people had been wounded in the blast.

Dozens of the wounded were hurt by debris and glass shattering in the heavily populated area. Cars parked on roads in the vicinity of the blast were damaged for at least 100 metres, a witness said.

Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul, said the explosion was heard from miles around the city in the middle of the night.

“Those injured and killed were hurt by flying glass as windows shattered, buildings collapsed – the damage was very significant from this explosion,” Glasse said.

A local hospital official said their facility had been flooded with patients, including many women and children. Most were arriving on foot, the official said, and were being treated for superficial injuries.

The explosion follows a number of attacks carried out in Kabul over the past two months, all claimed by the Taliban.

A Taliban suicide bomber struck a military convoy on July 7, injuring nearby civilians.

The attack followed a Taliban car bomb attack on NATO soldiers in late June, which killed two Afghan civilians and injured 26 others, including women and children.

On June 22, the armed group launched an attack on Afghanistan’s parliament, killing five people and losing seven of its own members.

The Taliban launched its annual spring offensive in April.

A surge in attacks has taken a heavy toll on civilians, according to the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan.

In the first four months of 2015, civilian casualties jumped 16 percent from the same period last year, it said.

Suicide attack targets security forces at Saudi mosque

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At least 13 killed after suicide bomber blows himself up in southwest region bordering Yemen, interior ministry says.

Saudi mosque

by Al Jazeera

Saudi Interior ministry has said that 13 people were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in the country’s southwest region bordering Yemen.

Thursday’s attack in a mosque belonging to the emergency forces in the city of Abha in Asir province also injured at least nine others, the ministry added.

Earlier, state media said 17 people were killed.

Saudi Television said initial information indicated that the blast occurred after a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt.

It was too early to say who may have carried out the attack, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP news agency.

There was also no immediate claim of responsibility, but groups affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been blamed for recent attacks in Saudi.

Thursday’s bombing was the most serious in recent months against Saudi security forces, who have been targeted in attacks blamed on the Islamic State group.

In mid-July, a car bomb exploded at a security checkpoint near a prison in the capital Riyadh. It killed the 19-year-old driver and wounded two policemen, the interior ministry said.

In the southwestern city of Taif on July 3, a policeman was gunned down during a raid in which three people were arrested and flags of the ISIL group found, police said earlier.

On successive Fridays in May suicide bombings at mosques of the minority Shiite community in Eastern Province killed a total of 25 people.

A group affiliated with ISIL calling itself Najd Province — which takes its name from the region around Riyadh — claimed those attacks as well as another suicide bombing that killed 26 people at a Shia mosque in Kuwait in June.

Cafe built over Jerusalem Islamic graves sparks anger

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For centuries, the area housed the Maaman Allah cemetery, the oldest and largest Muslim graveyard in the country.

The owner of the restaurant said he did not know there was a grave under the cafe [Al Jazeera]

The owner of the restaurant said he did not know there was a grave under the cafe [Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

The opening of a cafe in Jerusalem built over a revered Islamic cemetery has sparked condemnation and anger from the Muslim community.

The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said on Tuesday that the construction of the site was part of an Israeli plan that aims to demolish “everything related to Arabic Islamic history on this land”.

Landwer Cafe’s Independence Garden branch opened on Sunday on part of an area of land located between occupied East Jerusalem, which is predominantly Arab, and West Jerusalem. The area was being transformed into a park.

For centuries, the land housed the Maaman Allah cemetery, the oldest and largest Muslim graveyard in the country, and is believed to contain the remains of some of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad.

The owner of the restaurant told Al Jazeera that he did not know there was a grave under the cafe, but refused to make further comments.

“It’s not just the loss of the cemetery that angers the Palestinians. The cafe’s selling of alcohol [forbidden in Islam] is seen as a grave violation of the sanctity of the Islamic site,” Al Jazeera’s Elias Karram, reporting from Jerusalem, said.

The cafe is just one part of a plan that includes the construction on the site of 192 housing units, a 480-room hotel, commercial spaces, parking and other elements, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

A Museum of Tolerance is also being built in the area.

The construction began in 2011, but after skeletal remains were found, the Islamic Movement, which aims to advocate Islam among Israeli Arabs, along with other entities, filed a petition to the High Court of Justice.

The work was interrupted but soon resumed after the court eventually granted permission.

“All these projects are being constructed over the skulls of Muslims buried in the cemetery … cemeteries are supposed to be protected in all religious beliefs and international conventions,” Amir Khatib, the head of the Umm al-Fahm-based Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage, said.

Maaman Allah cemetery has a historic and religious significance because it includes the remains of a number of revered Islamic figures who participated in the conquest of Jerusalem in the seventh century.

Clashes break out in Al Aqsa after Israeli flag is raised at holy site

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Israeli police regularly escort right-wing settlers through the Al Aqsa compound, violating the peace accord. (AFP/File)

Israeli police regularly escort right-wing settlers through the Al Aqsa compound, violating the peace accord. (AFP/File)

by Ma’an

Clashes broke out between Palestinian worshipers and and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Tuesday after an Israeli extremist attempted to raise the Israeli flag over the holy site, witnesses said.

Witnesses said that Palestinian worshipers asked Israeli police to stop the extremist but they were ignored.

Palestinian worshipers and compound security guards then stopped the extremist themselves and tore up the flag, witnesses said.

They added that the Israeli extremist assaulted the worshipers with a sharp implement, injuring two Palestinians identified as Muammad Badran and Suliman abu-Mayyala.

During subsequent clashes, Israeli police reportedly assaulted worshipers near the Chain Gate and detained Radwan Amr, Fadi Bakir, Raed Zughaier, Husam Sedir, and Majdi Abbasi.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has seen rising tensions in recent days, with Jewish organizations seeking to celebrate unconfirmed reports that Israel is negotiating the reopening of the compound to non-Muslim worship.

At the end of June, International Crisis Group reported discussions between Israel and the Islamic Endowment that controls the mosque compound on allowing non-Muslim worship at the site, although the move has not yet been confirmed.

On Sunday, right-wing Jewish organizations were reported to have called for a “return to the Temple Mount,” urging participants to wear their Israeli army uniforms as they stormed the holy site.

Violent clashes the week before saw Israeli forces enter the mosque itself, causing the UN to issue a warning against “religious provocations” at the site.

Following Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has maintained an agreement with the Islamic Endowment not to allow non-Muslim prayer in the area.

Jewish prayer is allowed at the neighboring Western Wall, which is the last remnant of the Second Temple.

However, Israeli forces regularly escort Jewish visitors to Al-Aqsa, leading to anger among Muslim worshipers.

Pakistan hangs Shafqat Hussain despite appeals

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Defenders say convict was a teenager when he killed a boy in 2004 and that he was tortured into confessing.

Shafqat Hussain

by Al Jazeera

Pakistan has executed a man whose case triggered an international outcry after his lawyers said he was arrested as a juvenile and tortured into confessing to a murder.

Shafqat Hussain was hanged on Tuesday at a jail in Karachi for allegedly killing a seven-year-old boy in 2004.

His lawyers and family say he was only 15 years old at the time of the killing but according to a federal investigation, he was 23.

“Despite opposition from within the country as well as Amnesty International, Pakistan went ahead with the execution,” said Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

Prison officials handed the body over to his brothers, who alleged the execution was not carried out properly.

“There is a cut mark on his neck and half of his neck is separated from his body,” Abdul Majeed, his brother, told AFP.

Family outrage

At Hussain’s hometown in the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir, his family was distraught.

“Why did they hang my innocent brother, only because we were poor?” said his sister Sumaira Bibi, beating her chest and weeping.

“My son was innocent, only Allah will prove his innocence in his court,” his mother Makhni Begum told AFP.

“We can’t do anything but they [executioners] will face Allah on the day of judgement,” she said.

United Nations rights experts have said Hussain’s trial “fell short of international standards” and urged Pakistan to investigate claims he confessed under torture, as well as his age.

Lawyers for Hussain said school records showed he was 17 in 2004 when he was burned with cigarettes and had fingernails removed until he confessed to killing a child.

Hussain was originally due to face the noose in January but won four stays of execution as his lawyers fought to prove he was under 18 at the time of his offence and could therefore not be executed under Pakistani law.

Pakistan has hanged nearly 200 people since December, when a massacre by the Taliban at an army-run school in Peshawar prompted the government to lift a de facto ban on capital punishment.

Only Iran and China have executed more people than Pakistan this year, says Amnesty International.

Anti-Houthi forces recapture Yemen’s largest army base

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Backed by Saudi-led air strikes, forces fighting on the side of President Hadi recapture southern al-Anad base.

Spread over 40 square kilometres, al-Anad houses a military airport, a war college, and an arms depot [Reuters]

Spread over 40 square kilometres, al-Anad houses a military airport, a war college, and an arms depot [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Forces battling Houthi rebels in Yemen say they have captured the country’s largest military base following intense clashes which left dozens killed.

In a statement on Monday, the exiled government claimed the complete control of al-Anad base, which is in Lahej province in southern Yemen.

“With the help and back-up of the Arab-led coaltion, this achievement was possible,” the statement said.

Troops were also supported by Popular Resistance Committees who have sided with the government in the fight against the Houthis.

The Houthis’ loss of the base deals a significant blow to the Shia rebel group, which has seized large parts of the country but recently lost control of the southern port city of Aden.

Nasser Hadour, an officer in the Popular Resistance, told Al Jazeera that their forces were also able to enter another military base between al-Sader and al-Madina al-Khadra in Lahej province.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, who has covered Yemen extensively, explained that while the Popular Resistance Committees are against the Houthis, they form a loose umbrella group whose members do not necessarily back exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

“They have been forced together by the Houthi threat but they have different agendas. Many of them are southern secessionists who in fact see Hadi as a threat,” he said.

The Yemeni army has been split since the Houthis’ advance last year. Some units backing deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh are fighting alongside the Houthis, while others remain loyal to Hadi.

“The Saudi-led coalition is training anti-Houthi forces, providing them with new weapons to build a new army from scratch,” our correspondent said. “Their aim is to maintain Yemen united under one leader and a professional army. But that aim will depend on how the different factions get along. Yemen remains divided along regional and sectarian ties.”

Houthi rebels and its allies had been in control of al-Anad since March.

Spread over 40 square kilometres, the base houses a military airport, a war college, and an arms depot.

It was previously used by US forces as an intelligence gathering hub and base for drone attacks on al-Qaeda in Yemen.

The assault by anti-Houthi forces began after new weapons, including armoured vehicles that had been supplied by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, arrived to reinforce fighters.

At least 50 Houthis and troops loyal to Hadi were killed in fighting for the base, military sources told Al Jazeera. At least 23 Popular Resistance fighters were also killed, the sources added.

There was no word from the Houthis on the outcome of the battle, but the Houthi-run Saba news agency said earlier that Saudi-led air raids had repeatedly struck the military base.

Al-Anad lies on road to Taiz, the next target for the coalition after their recapture of Aden.

The military says controlling al-Anad will help the push to recapture Taiz and the southern provinces.

Hadi remains in Saudi Arabia, where he fled in March as the Houthis closed in on his refuge in Aden.

The Houthis broke out of their northern strongholds and seized control of the capital Sanaa in September, plunging Yemen into another bout of conflict.

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