About 440,000 people displaced within the country returned to their homes since January, UN refugee agency says.

An estimated 260,000 refugees have returned to Syria from neighbouring countries since 2015, according to the UN [FILE: EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Nearly half a million displaced Syrians have returned to their homes since the beginning of the year, mainly to find family members and check on property, the UN refugee agency said.

The agency said it had seen “a notable trend of spontaneous returns to and within Syria in 2017”.

Since January, about 440,000 people who had been displaced within the war-ravaged country had returned to their homes, mainly in Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus, Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the agency, known as the UNHCR, told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

In addition, around 31,000 refugees in neighbouring countries had also returned, he said, bringing to 260,000 the number of refugees who have returned to the country since 2015.

But Mahecic said this is a mere “fraction” of the five million Syrian refugees hosted in the region.

He said the main factors prompting the displaced to return home were “seeking out family members, checking on property, and, in some cases, a real or perceived improvement in security conditions in parts of the country.”

He said it was too early to say if the returns might be directly linked to a palpable drop in violence since Turkey agreed at talks in Astana in May with Russia and Iran, allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to establish four safe zones across Syria to ban flights and ensure aid drops.

But this week, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Security Council that since the May 4 deal, “violence is clearly down. Hundreds of Syrian lives continue to be spared every week, and many towns have returned to some degree of normalcy”.

Mahecic nonetheless cautioned that “while there is overall increased hope linked to the recent Astana and Geneva peace talks, UNHCR believes conditions for refugees to return in safety and dignity are not yet in place in Syria”.

“The sustainability of security improvements in many return areas is uncertain, and there remain significant risks of protection thresholds for voluntary, safe and dignified returns not being met in parts of the country,” he said.

“Access to displaced population inside Syria remains a key challenge,” he added.

But “given the returns witnessed so far this year and in light of a progressively increased number of returns”, the agency had begun scaling up its operations inside Syria to better be able address the needs of the returnees, he said.

Syria’s war has killed more than 320,000 people and forced millions from their homes since it began in March 2011.

Joint exercises, expected to start after Eid al-Fitr, could eventually draw up to 1,000 Turkish soldiers to Qatar.

The Turkish military base in Qatar is a first for Turkey in the Arab World [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Qatar’s ministry of defence has announced the arrival of a new group of Turkish armed forces to the military base where Turkey began its training mission last week.

The forces are set to take part in joint exercises within the framework of a defence agreement signed between Doha and Ankara aimed at raising Qatar’s defence capabilities, supporting “counter-terror” efforts, and maintaining security and stability in the region.

Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah arrived on Thursday to Ankara where he is scheduled to meet with his Turkish counterpart Fikri Ishik as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s parliament on June 8 approved 2015 deal with Qatar aimed at strengthening military cooperation between the two states, which gave Turkey the right to establish military bases in Qatar and deploy military forces.

The deal’s approval came three days after Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries severed diplomatic ties with Qatar over allegations that it supports “terrorism” and is too close to Iran – charges Doha has repeatedly denied.

Five armoured vehicles and 23 military Turkish military personnel arrived to Doha on June 18. At the time, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported there were already at least 88 Turkish soldiers in Qatar.

The number of Turkish soldiers sent to the Gulf state could eventually reach 1,000, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported, adding that an air force contingent was also envisaged.

Joint exercises were expected to start after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

The Turkish military base in Qatar is a first for Turkey in the Arab World.

Saudi-led bloc could take further action against Qatar by ‘imposing conditions on trade partners’, UAE envoy says.

Saudi Arabia and its allies cut ties with Qatar on June 5 [Tamila Varshalomidze/Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

A Saudi-led bloc is considering fresh sanctions against Qatar that may include asking trading partners to choose between them or Doha, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ambassador to Russia said.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, envoy Omar Ghobash said the expulsion of Qatar from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was “not the only sanction available” for the UAE and its allies.

“There are certain economic sanctions that we can take which are being considered right now,” Ghobash said in the interview, which was published on Wednesday.

“One possibility would be to impose conditions on our own trading partners and say: you want to work with us then you have got to make a commercial choice,” he added.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed sanctions on the country on June 5, accusing it of supporting “terrorism”.

The four countries have not provided any evidence for their claim, while Qatar has repeatedly rejected the allegation.

Ghobash said that if Qatar “was not willing to accept the demands, it is a case of ‘Goodbye Qatar’ we do not need you in our tent any more”.

‘We don’t claim to have press freedom’

On Thursday, the Saudi-led bloc issued a 13-point demand list in exchange for the end of the anti-Qatar measures and gave a 10-day deadline.

The demands included, among others, that Qatar shut down the Al Jazeera media network, close a Turkish military base and scale down ties with Iran.

When asked if the closure of Al Jazeera was a valid demand, Ghobash told The Guardian that the UAE does not “claim to have press freedom”.

“We do not promote the idea of press freedom. What we talk about is responsibility in speech,” he said.

He added that speech in the Gulf “has particular context, and that context can go from peaceful to violent in no time simply because of the words that are spoken”.

Ghobash also said that the UAE was willing to hold itself to the same standards it was asking of Qatar.

He echoed previous statements by UAE officials that the Gulf states do not wish to escalate the conflict with military action.

“We can escalate with more information, because we are not going to escalate militarily. That is not the way we are looking at things.”

Court in The Hague confirms 2014 ruling that held state partly responsible for the deaths of about 300 Muslims.

by Al Jazeera

A Dutch appeals court has confirmed that the Netherlands was partly liable for the deaths of about 300 Muslims who were expelled from a Dutch UN base after the surrounding area was overrun by Bosnian Serb troops.

The ruling by the Hague Appeals Court upholds a 2014 decision that Dutch peacekeepers could have known that the men seeking refuge at the base in the village of Potocari would be murdered by Bosnian Serb troops if forced to leave – as they were.

The Muslims seeking shelter were among about 8,000 people killed in the July 1995 massacre, which the UN International Court for Justice, in a 2007 verdict, ruled a genocide.

Tuesday’s ruling is seen as exceptional as the UN enjoys immunity from prosecution.

However, the Dutch case is almost unique in holding a state participating in a UN peacekeeping mission liable for its actions.

Many of the Muslim victims had fled to the UN-declared “safe zone” in Srebrenica only to find the outnumbered and lightly-armed Dutch troops there unable to defend them. They then headed to the nearby Dutch base.

Reading the complex ruling, Presiding Judge Gepke Dulek-Schermers said that Dutch soldiers “knew or should have known that the men were not only being screened … but were in real danger of being subjected to torture or execution”.

The ruling relates only to the 300 men who had sought safety on the Dutch-controlled base.

In a departure from the earlier ruling, it said the Netherlands should pay only 30 percent of damages, as it estimated the odds at 70 percent that the victims would have been dragged from the base and killed regardless of what the Dutch soldiers did.

The amount of damages is determined in a separate procedure unless the victims and the state can reach a settlement.

Dutch state lawyers left the court building without commenting on the ruling.

The Dutch government resigned in 2002 after acknowledging its failure to protect the refugees, though the Netherlands maintains that the Bosnian Serbs, not Dutch troops, bear responsibility for the killings.

Mladic is on trial for genocide with a verdict expected later this year.

The court rejected an appeal from relatives of other Srebrenica victims, who argued the Dutch government should be held responsible for the protection of thousands more Muslims who had gathered outside the base.

“This is a great injustice,” said Munira Subasic of the ‘Mothers of Srebrenica’ group.

“The Dutch state should take its responsibility for our victims because they could have kept them all safe on the Dutchbat (Dutch battalions’) compound.”

Qatari FM says Gulf states have to lift blockade before Doha takes part in any talks on ending Gulf diplomatic crisis.

Qatar said it would rely on other states like Iran and Turkey if the embargo continues [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Qatar will not negotiate with Arab states that have cut economic and travel ties with it unless they reverse their measures and lift a blockade against it, its foreign minister has said.

“Qatar is under blockade, there is no negotiation. They have to lift the blockade to start negotiations,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told reporters on Monday, ruling out discussions over Qatar’s internal affairs, including the fate of the Doha-based Al Jazeera Media Network.

“Until now we didn’t see any progress about lifting the blockade, which is the precondition for anything to move forward,” he added.

Speaking from the capital, Doha, the minister said Qatar had still not received any demands from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, who severed relations with two weeks ago, triggering the worst Gulf Arab crisis in years.

Anything that relates to the affairs of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council is subject to negotiation, he said, referring to the body comprising Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

“Anything not related to them is not subject to negotiation. No one has the right to interfere in my affairs. Al Jazeera is Qatar’s affairs, Qatari foreign policy on regional issues is Qatar’s affairs. And we are not going to negotiate on our own affairs,” he said.

The minister said Kuwait’s ruler was the sole mediator in the crisis and that he was waiting for specific demands from Gulf states in order to take resolution efforts forward.

“We cannot just have (vague) demands such as ‘the Qataris know what we want from them, they have to stop this or that, they have to be monitored by a foreign monitoring mechanism.'”

The crisis hit civilian travel and some food imports, ratcheted up tensions in the Gulf and sowed confusion among businesses. However, it has not affected energy exports from Qatar, the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The minister said Qatar would rely on other states if the boycott continued, including Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran.

“We have a backup plan which depends mainly on Turkey, Kuwait and Oman,” he said.

“Iran has facilitated for us the sky passages for our aviation and we are cooperating with all countries that can ensure supplies for Qatar.”

Russia’s defence ministry says Baghdadi was present at an ISIL meeting in Syria that was struck by Russian air force.

The last public video footage of Baghdadi dates back to 2014 [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Russia has claimed killing the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group in an air strike targeting a meeting of ISIL leaders just outside the fighters’ de-facto capital in Syria.

The Russian defence ministry said it was checking claims that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian strike in May along with other senior group commanders.

There had been previous reports of Baghdadi being killed but they did not turn out to be true.

The air strike was launched after the Russian forces in Syria received intelligence that an ISIL meeting was being planned, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Facebook page on Friday.

“On May 28, after drones were used to confirm the information on the place and time of the meeting of [ISIL] leaders, between 00:35 and 00:45, Russian air forces launched a strike on the command point where the leaders were located,” the statement said.

“According to the information which is now being checked via various channels, also present at the meeting was [ISIL] leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was eliminated as a result of the strike.”

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said the information was being verified.

“The Russians are certainly not 100 percent confident that the information they believe to be true is actually true,” he said.

“The information is being verified. But if it true, it would be a huge PR coup for the Russians.”

The US-led coalition fighting ISIL said it could not confirm the Russian report.

“We cannot confirm these reports at this time,” said US Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition’s Operation Inherent Resolve.

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syrian border, said “it has been claimed before [that Baghdadi was killed]”.

“It’s [also] been claimed that he’s been injured before, which is why everyone always treats these reports with extreme caution,” she said.

“But it is the first time that we’re hearing this from the Russian defence ministry, and we also had Syrian state media announce this last week.”

The last public video footage of Baghdadi is from 2014 where, dressed in black robe, he is declaring his “caliphate” from the pulpit of Mosul’s medieval Grand al-Nuri mosque.

Born Ibrahim al-Samarrai, Baghdadi, 46, broke away from al-Qaeda in 2013, two years after the capture and killing of the group’s leader, Osama bin Laden.

Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), cast doubt on the report Baghdadi may have been killed.

He said that according to his information, Baghdadi was based in another part of Syria towards the end of May.

“The information is that as of the end of last month, Baghdadi was in Deir Az Zor, in the area between Deir Az Zor and Iraq, in Syrian territory,” Reuters news agency quoted Abdulrahman as saying.

Questioning what Baghdadi would have been doing in that location, he said: “Is it reasonable that Baghdadi would put himself between a rock and a hard place of the [US-led] coalition and Russia?”

The strike is believed to have killed several other senior leaders of the group, as well as about 30 field commanders and up to 300 of their personal guards, the Russian statement said.

Arrival of two vessels for joint exercise comes just days after US President Trump accused Qatar of ‘funding terrorism’.

It was unclear if the arrival of the two warships was planned before the Gulf rift [File: AP]

by Al Jazeera

Two US Navy vessels arrived in Doha to take part in a joint military exercise with the Qatari Emiri Navy just days after US President Donald Trump accused Qatar of being “a funder of terrorism at a very high level”.

Qatar hosts the biggest US military base in the Middle East with more than 11,000 troops deployed or assigned to al-Udeid Air Base. More than 100 aircraft operate from there.

Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported the arrival of the vessels on Wednesday, the same day that Qatar signed an agreement for the purchase of F-15 fighter jets from the US with an initial cost of $12bn.

The aircraft purchase was completed by Qatari Minister of Defence Khalid Al Attiyah and his US counterpart Jim Mattis in Washington, DC, according to QNA.

The sale “will give Qatar a state-of-the-art capability and increase security cooperation and interoperability between the United States and Qatar”, the defence department said in a statement.

It was unclear if the arrival of the two warships to Doha was planned before the Gulf rift or if it was a sign of support from the Pentagon.

Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and a number of other countries severed relations with Qatar earlier this month, accusing it of supporting armed groups and Iran – allegations Qatar has repeatedly rejected.

Riyadh also closed its border with Qatar, the only land border the emirate has. In addition, the closure of Saudi, Bahraini, and Emirati airspace to Qatar-owned flights has caused major import and travel disruptions.

The Pentagon last week renewed praise of Qatar for hosting the US airbase and for its “enduring commitment to regional security”.

The Pentagon reassurance differed from Trump’s comments that applauded the decision who seemed to take credit for the blackade on Qatar and the cutting of diplomatic ties.

“The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” Trump said earlier this month.

“We have to stop the funding of terrorism. The time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding.”

Washington: US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that the United States is still “not winning” the longest war in Afghanistan.

“We are not winning in Afghanistan right now,” Mattis here on Tuesday at a congressional hearing, adding: “And we will correct this as soon as possible,” Xinhua news agency reported.

According to Mattis, the Pentagon defines the winning in Afghanistan as a situation where the Afghan government, with international help, would be able to handle the violence and drive it down to a level that local security forces can handle it.

“It would probably require residual force doing training and maintaining the high-end capability,” said Mattis. “It’s going to be an era of frequent skirmishing and it’s going to require a change in our approach from the last several years if we’re to get it to that position.”

Mattis was not the first senior official of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to publicly warn of a dire prospect for the security situation in Afghanistan.

US National Intelligence Director Dan Coats also warned last month that the security situation in Afghanistan would most likely deteriorate in the future even if the United States and its allies offer more military aid.

The warnings came as Trump was reportedly considering whether or not to send additional hundreds of US troops to Afghanistan.

Former US President Barack Obama had planned to reduce the current number of 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan to some 5,500 by the end of 2015 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2016 when his presidency came to an end.

However, given the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Obama administration repeatedly postponed the withdrawal.

Currently, there are about 8,400 US troops and another 5,000 forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the ground in Afghanistan to train and assist the Afghan forces against the Taliban, and conduct counter-terrorism missions.

(IANS)