Qatari news broadcaster will not be discussed in any negotiations to end blockade against Doha, says foreign minister.

Al Jazeera staff work inside the network’s headquarters in the capital Doha on June 8 [Naseem Zeitoon/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera Media Network is an “internal affair” and there will be no discussion about the fate of the Doha-based broadcaster with nations that imposed a blockade on Qatar, its foreign minister says.

Reports have suggested countries behind the economic sanctions on Qatar – Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and others – are demanding the closure of Al Jazeera, a media group that has been targeted in the Middle East because of its critical reporting.

Speaking at a press conference in Paris, France on Monday, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said he had no idea why the Saudi Arabia-led bloc of nations imposed a blockade on Qatar.

“It’s not about Iran or Al Jazeera,” he said. “We have no clue about the real reasons… Qatar is willing to sit and negotiate about whatever is related to Gulf security.”

But he said Qatar does not accept “foreign dictations”.

“Doha rejects discussing any matter related to Al Jazeera channel as it considers it an internal affair,” Qatar News Agency quoted the foreign minister as saying. “Decisions concerning the Qatari internal affairs are Qatari sovereignty – and no one has to interfere with them.”

After the crisis erupted last week, Saudi Arabia closed Al Jazeera’s bureau in Riyadh and halted its operating license, accusing the network of promoting “terrorist groups” in the region.

Jordanian officials quickly followed announcing the closure of the Al Jazeera bureau in Amman and the withdrawal of its operating license.

Egypt long ago kicked Al Jazeera out of the country after confiscating its Cairo bureau’s equipment.

The government of President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi has locked up several Al Jazeera journalists for months. Producer Mahmoud Hussein has been jailed in Egypt now for 175 days.

Journalist watchdog Reporter’s Without Borders has condemned the crackdown on Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera denounced the Saudis’ restrictions against it saying, “We call upon the government to respect the freedom of press and allow journalists to continue do their job free of intimidation and threats.”

Writing last week in the Hindustan Times, former online Al Jazeera editor Ruben Banerjee said it was clear why some nations are going after the media network during the Qatar crisis.

“To stifle the voice of Al Jazeera, which prides itself for being the ‘voice of the voiceless’, will be criminal,” wrote Banerjee.

“Like every other organisation, Al Jazeera suffers from cliques and cabals… But these blemishes notwithstanding, Al Jazeera remains a beacon in a region where freedom of expression is at a premium.”

Iraqi officials say at least two people have died after falling ill from an iftar meal in an IDP camp outside Mosul.

More than 750,000 people have been displaced from Mosul since October [File: Thaier Al-Sudaini/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least two people have died and hundreds more have fallen ill after suffering food poisoning in a camp for displaced Iraqis east of Mosul, officials said.

People started vomiting and some fainted after eating the fast-breaking iftar meal on Monday, lawmaker Zahed Khatoun, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s committee for displaced people told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

Iraq’s health minister told The Associated Press that a girl and woman died and more than 750 people were affected.

1 child dead; nearly 800 people suffering from food poisoning; the IDPs from #Mosul were served food by a charity pic.twitter.com/waajzB8trm

— Osama Bin Javaid (@osamabinjavaid) June 13, 2017

The food was provided by a non-governmental organisation.

Authorities have launched a formal investigation into the incident, officials said.

The Kurdish news agency Rudaw, citing Erbil’s mayor, said the owner of the restaurant that made the food had been arrested.

The camp is located in al-Khazer on the road linking Mosul and Erbil and houses those displaced due to the ongoing offensive to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

According to the UN refugee agency, more than 6,000 people currently live inside the camp.

A US-backed military operation to retake ISIL’s last three remaining enclaves outside Mosul’s Old City began last month – the latest push in a major operation that began in October.

Aid groups have repeatedly expressed their concerns over the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians who have been forced to flee and are at risk of being caught in the crossfire.

Almost 10,000 people fled from Mosul’s northwest and the Old City every day during the last week of May, the UN said.

More than 750,000 people have been displaced from the city since October.

As diplomatic crisis hits the Gulf, Kuwait urges Qatar to calm tensions with allies and refrain from escalating dispute.

GCC countries Kuwait and Oman have not severed ties with Qatar [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

Kuwait’s ruler will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks with King Salman over a Gulf Arab dispute with Qatar, Gulf Arab officials said.

Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, is acting as a mediator between Doha and other Arab states which have severed diplomatic and transport ties with Doha.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain cut diplomatic relations with Qatar on Monday in a coordinated move, accusing the peninsula of supporting “terrorists” and Iran.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government also cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of working with its enemies in the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, state news agency Saba reported.

The Maldives and Libya’s out-of-mandate Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni later joined the Arab nations in saying they too would cut ties.

Sanctions include shutting down transport links, including closing borders, airspace and maritime territories, which led to fears of supply shortages.

In an interview on Monday with Al Jazeera, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Kuwait’s ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, had asked Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s ruling emir, to hold off on giving a speech about the crisis late on Tuesday night.

“He received a call from the emir of Kuwait asking him to postpone it in order to give time to solve the crisis,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

Sheikh Sabah called on Qatar’s ruler to focus on easing tension and advised against making decisions that could escalate the situation, Kuwait state news agency Kuna said.

Still, the Qatari foreign minister struck a defiant tone, saying his nation rejected those trying to impose their will or intervene in its internal affairs.

Kuwait, Oman ‘fear escalation’

Analyst Giorgio Cafiero of Gulf State Analytics, a geopolitical risk consultancy based in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera: “I think the Kuwaitis as well as Omanis … fear the prospects of these tensions escalating in ways which could undermine the interest of all six members of the GCC.

“There are many analysts who believe that a potential break-up of the GCC has to be considered right now.”

He added that if tension escalates, some have warned of a “military confrontation”.

“If these countries fail to resolve their issues and such tensions reaches new heights, we have to be very open to the possibility of these six Arab countries no longer being able to unite under the banner of one council,” said Cafiero.

The dispute between Qatar and the Arab countries escalated after a recent hack of Qatar’s state-run news agency. It has spiralled since.

As it cut ties on Monday, Saudi Arabia charged that Qatar was embracing “various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilising the region,” including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and armed groups supported by Iran in the kingdom’s restive east.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking an “antagonist approach” towards Cairo and said “all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed”.

Qatar denied the allegations, with a Foreign Ministry statement describing them as “baseless” on Monday.

The group issuing sanctions on Doha “is clearly the imposition of guardianship over Qatar, which is in itself a violation of its sovereignty, and is rejected outright,” the statement said.

The move came just two weeks after US President Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia and vowed to improve ties with both Riyadh and Cairo to combat “terrorism” and contain Iran.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the move was rooted in long-standing differences and urged the parties to resolve them.

“It is true that the current US administration is adopting to have a bit more Saudi position distant from Qatari position,” Richard Weitz, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at Hudson Institute, told Al Jazeera

“But I still think that the US military contacts can play a good role to help resolve, perhaps, some of the difference, since US military particular want an end to this dispute because of the difficulties to find a space and terrorism cooperation and so on.”

The Gulf countries ordered their citizens out of Qatar and gave Qataris abroad 14 days to return home to their peninsular nation, whose only land border is with Saudi Arabia. The countries also said they would eject Qatar’s diplomats.

The nations also said they planned to cut air and sea traffic. Trucks carrying food had begun lining up on the Saudi side of the border, apparently stranded. The Qatar Stock Exchange fell more than seven percent in trading Monday.

Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers, has suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain until further notice.

On its website, the carrier said the suspension of its flights would take effect Tuesday and customers are being offered a refund.

The route between Doha and Dubai is popular among business travellers and both are major transit hubs for travellers between Asia and Europe.

Abu Dhabi:  Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has said that it would suspend flights to Qatar after the United Arab Emirates was among major Gulf states to sever ties with Doha in an unprecedented regional crisis, said a report from AFP on Monday.

Etihad said flights would stop on Tuesday, after the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said they would cut all air, land and sea links with Qatar within 24 hours.

Etihad, which operates four return flights to Doha daily, said the measure will be in place “until further notice”.

Other carriers from the three Gulf countries, including Dubai’s Emirates, are likely to announce similar measures.

The unprecedented measures against Doha include ordering Qatari citizens to leave within 14 days and banning citizens of the three Gulf states from travelling to Qatar.

Doha airport, along with airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have become major hubs after Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways seized a significant chunk of transcontinental travel on routes linking Western countries with Asia and Australasia.

(Agencies)

The Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (Credit: Reuters)

Cairo: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terror groups including the Muslim Brotherhood and interfering in its internal affairs.

“Qatar’s policy threatens Arab national security and sows the seeds of strife and division within Arab societies according to a deliberate plan aimed at the unity and interests of the Arab nation,” Al Ahram news quoted an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement as saying.

The four countries announced they would withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar, and also the closure of its airspace and borders severing land, sea and air contact within the next 24 hours.

According to Saudi state news agency SPA, authorities announced that Qatari troops would be pulled from the ongoing war in Yemen due to Doha’s “practices that strengthen terrorism” and its support to groups “including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, as well as dealing with the rebel militias”, reports the BBC.

In an official statement, Bahrain said Qatar has interfered with its internal affairs, engaged in negative media coverage against it, and supported terrorist activities and armed groups, as well as financed Iranian-backed groups that are responsible of vandalism and violence in the country, reports Xinhua news agency.

The country has asked Qatari diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.

The UAE has also accused Qatar of “supporting, funding and embracing terrorism, extremism and sectarian organisations”, according to state news agency WAM.

Monday’s move comes after Qatar alleged that hackers last month took over the site of its state-run news agency and published what it called fake comments from its ruling emir about Iran and Israel, Al Ahram reported.

Its Gulf Arab neighbours responded with anger, blocking Qatari-based media, including the Doha-based satellite news network Al Jazeera.

In March 2014, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain had recalled their ambassadors from Qatar its alleged backing of then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member.

However, eight months later they returned their ambassadors as Qatar forced some Brotherhood members to leave the country and quieted others.

(Agencies)

US military reports 484 civilian deaths by US-led coalition strikes, but outside monitors put the number much higher.

Nearly 200,000 civilians are caught in an area of about eight-square kilometres in Mosul [Karim Sahib/AFP]

by Al Jazeera

The US military said that coalition attacks on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq have killed more than 480 civilians since mid-2014 – a tally that is far below those of outside monitors.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Friday that it added an additional 132 civilians deaths to its April report, a sharp increase from 352 it previously reported in late April.

However, that total, which only includes civilian deaths through April, was still far short of what non-governmental organisations and monitors have estimated.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, estimated more than 3,800 non-combatants have been killed since the US-led coalition’s operations began in August 2014.

Mosul offensive

CENTCOM’s estimate includes 105 civilians killed in a US-led air raid in March against a building in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the single deadliest incident for civilians arising from a coalition strike since anti-ISIL operations began in Iraq and Syria nearly three years ago.

Separately, Al Jazeera’s sources recently said more than 120 civilians were killed in less than a week as Iraqi forces – backed by coalition air power – move to take the remaining pockets of territory held by ISIL in Mosul.

In a statement emailed to Al Jazeera earlier on Friday by the Operation Inherent Resolve press office, the coalition said it “is aware of allegations of civilian casualties”.

It added that the “coalition and Iraqi security forces are making every attempt to safeguard civilians as they liberate the city from ISIS terrorists who are using snipers to target civilians trying to flee the city … The coalition takes all allegations of civilian casualties serious and will assess the allegations”.

The battle to recapture the last stronghold of ISIL in Iraq has now entered its eighth month.

Iraqi government forces, backed by US advisers, artillery and air support, have cleared the east and most of western Mosul and are now focused on controlling the Old City with Iraqi civilians paying a heavy price.

“We moved out and got frightened by heavy air strikes,” one civilian who escaped the fighting in western Mosul told Al Jazeera. “We fled after our house was destroyed by mortar shelling.”

The close-quarter fighting has intensified with reports that ISIL fighters have gathered at the historic al-Nuri Mosque – a centuries-old structure famous for its leaning minaret – to make a last stand as Iraqi forces encircle the armed group in its de facto capital after capturing the city in 2014.

Nearly 200,000 civilians are caught in an area of about eight-square kilometres.

Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Erbil, just east of Mosul, said observers are pushing the Iraqi military and the US-led coalition to take care of civilians, despite the intensity of combat against ISIL.

“Saving people is proving to be easier said than done,” Javaid said. “Aid workers and rights groups have been repeating their concerns that in the process to push ISIL out, Iraqi forces must make sure that civilians are not caught in the crossfire.”

Dozens of women and children killed while trying to escape west Mosul, as Iraqi army seeks to close in on ISIL fighters.

by Al Jazeera

More than 140 civilians have been killed in less than a week while trying to flee western Mosul, according to military sources, as the Iraqi army seeks to close in on ISIL fighters in the armed group’s last stronghold in Iraq.

According to the military on Thursday, most of the fatalities were women and children.

More than seven months into a massive US-backed operation to retake Iraq’s second city, security forces have recaptured all but a handful of areas of Mosul from ISIL.

Yet, hundreds of thousands of civilians may be trapped in those still held by the group, which seized Mosul in the summer of 2014.

Six days into a new assault on ISIL’s remaining pockets of territory, the Iraqi army and their allies have progressed slower than what they expected, Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Erbil in northern Iraq, said.

“They are facing fierce resistance from ISIL fighters,” he said, adding that the civilian death toll had risen to 140 as of 1300 GMT on Thursday, amid the heavy clashes.

“It has just become more gruesome,” he said. “It’s becoming a tough fight. Iraqi forces are trying to hit ISIL targets shielding behind civilian homes, among densely populated areas.”

“Seventy civilians were reported to have died due to an air strike on Tuesday. It was not clear if it was Iraqi army or coalition forces who conducted the air strike.”

Our correspondent also reported that ISIL fighters are using mobile mortar squad backed by snipers and suicide car bombs.

“It is a complicated battlefield that Iraqi forces are trying to navigate, and the highest price being paid is by the civilians of Mosul,” he said.

750,000 displaced

Most of the civilians are in the Old City which lies immediately south of where the current fighting is taking place.

The area, a warren of narrow streets and closely-spaced buildings, has posed a major challenge for security forces, and the coming battle to retake it poses a major threat to civilians.

“There are densely populated neighbourhoods,” Javaid said.

“Streets upon streets of people who are living in the besieged areas of Mosul. Around 200,000 people live there and ISIL uses them as human shields.”

More than 750,000 people have been displaced since the start of the Mosul operation in October, according to the UN, and that figure could increase sharply in the final stages of the battle for the city.

Around 150,000 of the displaced have since returned to their homes.

The Mosul offensive has taken much longer than expected, with Iraqi government advances slowed by the need to avoid civilian casualties.

The fall of the city would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the ”caliphate” declared in 2014 over parts of Iraq and Syria by ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in speech from a landmark mosque in Mosul’s old city.

In Syria, Kurdish forces backed by US air raids are besieging ISIL forces in the city of Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital in that country.

Two attacks in the space of 12 hours roil Iraqi capital, with ISIL claim of first explosion at a busy ice cream parlour.

In the second blast near Al-Shahada Bridge, 11 people were killed [Khalid al-Mousily/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Two blasts ripped through the Iraqi capital of Baghdad just days into the holy month of Ramadan, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 100.

ISIL claimed the first and deadliest suicide car bomb attack, which took place shortly after midnight at a busy ice cream parlour in Karrada, killing at least 16 people and injuring at least 75 – with children among the victims.

Scenes of panic and carnage followed the explosion in the Shia district, where last July ISIL bombed close to 300 people to death in the worst attack in 13 years of war.

ISIL considers members of Iraq’s Shia Muslim majority to be heretics and frequently carries out attacks against them.

A number of wounded lay on the ground, others propped themselves up on the colourful park benches outside the ice cream shop.

One young girl, wearing a ribbon and bow in her hair, wandered the scene dazed.

During Ramadan, people stay up late and many eat out to prepare for the fast the next day.

“Families were out and the place was crowded,” Hayder al-Khoei, a London-based Middle East expert, told Al Jazeera.

Al-Khoei explained that the armed group “timed Tuesday’s attack to cause maximum impact”.

“The suicide bomber detonated himself just after midnight. It was a hot day and he targeted a popular ice cream parlour in Baghdad,” he said.

Second explosion

A second deadly explosion struck the Al-Shahada Bridge area later in the morning, killing at least 11 people and wounding 41, according to security sources and witnesses.

A car bomb there exploded near the country’s main pension office close to the River Tigris.

Ibrahim al-Zararee, writing on Twitter, said he was close to both attacks.

“I was near the site of the explosion [in Karrada a] few hours before it happened and it was full of life. Now it’s full of death and horror,” he said. “Today I was few seconds away from [the blast Al-Shahada Bridge]. The explosion today was near the General Retirement Department. A walking distance from the famous Mutanabi Street.”

Video posted to social media showed plumes of black smoke rising from a building.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the second bombing, though it also bore the hallmarks of ISIL.

Brett McGurk, US special envoy to the anti-ISIL coalition, tweeted after the first attack: “ISIS terrorists tonight in Baghdad target children and families enjoying time together at an ice cream shop. We stand with Iraq against this evil.”

ISIL in focus

The attacks in Baghdad come as Iraqi forces fight to retake the last ISIL-held areas of Mosul, a city that was the group’s most emblematic stronghold.

Iraqi commanders say the offensive, which recently entered its eighth month, will mark the end of ISIL in Iraq, but concede the group will likely increase attacks in the wake of military defeats.

Michael Pregent, former US army officer and Iraqi government adviser with the Hudson Institute think tank, told Al Jazeera: “[Tuesday’s attack is] meant to stoke a sectarian flame to get some sort of response from Shia militias from the government. It’s also meant to discredit the Baghdad government.

“That’s something that Shia militias, recently criticised by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, can also use to criticise the current government ahead of the 2018 elections.”

Three neighbourhoods north of Mosul’s Old City – Al-Shifaa, Al-Saha and Al-Zinjili – are now the target of a broad assault by Iraqi soldiers, police and special forces that was launched last week.

On Tuesday, an Iraqi army officer said that security forces were proceeding slowly in Al-Shifaa in a bid to protect infrastructure.

“Attacks like this demonstrate ISIL’s desperation,” Iraqi analyst Ali Hadi Al-Musawi told Al Jazeera. “They’re being thoroughly routed on the battlefield, they’re no longer able to function as a proto-state in Iraq, so they have to resort to attacking soft targets at an ice cream parlor in order to maintain some sort of perverse relevance.”