Syrian army denounces ‘aggression’ after US launches nearly 60 missile strikes following suspected gas attack in Idlib.

The US blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles in fiery retaliation for this week’s chemical attack [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The United States on Friday fired dozens of cruise missiles at a government-controlled airbase in Syria, in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town that killed scores of civilians.

The Pentagon said 59 Tomahawk missiles hit Shayrat airfield in Homs province, from where US officials believe the Syrian jets that dropped the chemicals in Khan Sheikhoun this week had taken off.

At least six people were killed in the strikes in the early hours of Friday, according to the Syrian army, which denounced the US “aggression” as a violation of international law.

In a statement carried by the state-run SANA news agency and read on television, the military said the US strikes were done on a “pretext” of the Khan Sheikhoun attack, without the full facts being disclosed.

It also said the missile strikes, which inflicted heavy damage on the base, made the US a partner of “terrorist groups”.

The strikes, launched from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea, targeted the base’s airstrips, hangars, control tower and ammunition areas, officials said.

It was the first direct military action the US has taken against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the six-year war.

“There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council,” US President Donald Trump said.

Syria’s opposition National Coalition hailed the US strike, saying it puts an end to an age of “impunity” and should be just the beginning.

Russia, a key military ally of the Assad government, strongly condemned the strikes, saying Washington’s action would “inflict major damage on US-Russia ties”, according to Russian news agencies.

At least 86 people, including 27 children, were killed after a suspected poison gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The attack drew widespread international condemnation and public revulsion, prompting the United Nations to pledge it would investigate it as a possible war crime.

The Syrian govenment denied carrying out the raid.

Russia has blamed the opposition, saying a government shell hit a building where rebels were producing chemical weapons. The rebels deny this.

UN weighs possible war-crime probe as medical workers in rebel-held Idlib province struggle to cope with casualties.

This photo provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Edlib Media Center, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian doctor treating a child following a suspected chemical attack, at a makeshift hospital, in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria. The suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people on Tuesday, Syrian opposition activists said, describing the attack as among the worst in the country’s six-year civil war. (Edlib Media Center, via AP)

by Diana Al Rifai, Al Jazeera

Hospitals across Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province are overwhelmed with casualties from a suspected chemical attack that has killed scores of people and wounded hundreds more, a local health official has told Al Jazeera.

The attack in the early hours of Tuesday morning in Khan Sheikhoun drew widespread international condemnation, with the UN saying it would investigate the bombing raid as a possible war crime.

Air raids targeted Khan Sheikhoun again on Wednesday morning, Hamid, a local official of the Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue group that operates in rebel-held areas, told Al Jazeera.

Munzir Khalil, head of Idlib’s health directorate, said on Wednesday that medical workers were struggling to cope as the number of victims was expected to increase.

“We can confirm the names of 74 people killed,” he said, “but the hospitals expect the number to rise to 107 because many have gone missing and we suspect they have been killed in the attack.”

Khalil said at least 557 people were wounded in the attack and transferred to medical centres and field hospitals across Idlib, in Syria’s northwest.

“I can say almost all of Idlib’s medical facilities include victims of yesterday’s attack. Not to forget, air strikes destroyed a central hospital in Maaret al-Numaan on Monday, a facility that once took care of up to 30,000 patients a month.

“That hospital is now out of service and we are in a state of shock.”

Khalil said al-Rahma hospital in Khan Sheikhoun was also targeted by an air raid shortly after the suspected chemical attack.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting later on Wednesday.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the monitoring organisation, on Wednesday put the death toll at 99 people, including 37 children.

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which runs several field hospitals in Idlib, had earlier said that at least 72 people, including 11 children, were killed in the attack.

SAMS doctors on the ground said the attack caused people to vomit and foam from the mouth. Others lost consciousness and suffered muscles spasms.

The group said the symptoms, which also included constricted pupils and slow heart rates, were indicative of an organo-phosphorus compounds agent – a category of toxic gases which includes sarin.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) also said some survivors had symptoms consistent with exposure to a category of chemicals that includes nerve agents.

“The images and reports coming from Idlib today leave me shocked, saddened and outraged. These types of weapons are banned by international law because they represent an intolerable barbarism,” Peter Salama, executive director of the UN agency’s Health Emergencies Program has said.

The Syrian National Coalition, an opposition group, said a gas similar to sarin was used in the attack, which it said was carried out by government fighter jets.

Syria’s military rejected the accusation, saying in a statement on Tuesday that the army “denies using any toxic or chemical agents in Khan Sheikhoun today, and it did not and never will use it anywhere”.

Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said on Wednesday that Syrian aircraft did carry out a raid, but the chemicals were part of a “terrorist” stockpile of “toxic substances” that had been struck on the ground.

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Tuesday said that it was in the process of gathering and analysing information from all available sources.

If it is confirmed, it would be the deadliest chemical attack in Syria since sarin gas killed hundreds of civilians in Ghouta, just outside of the capital Damascus, in August 2013.

Opposition says government or Russian jets pounded the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib.

The attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some to foam at the mouth [Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

At least 58 people, including nine children, were killed in an air raid that released “toxic gas” on the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, a monitor said.

The attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some had foam coming from their mouths, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing medical sources who described the symptoms as possible signs of a gas attack.

Locals said the attack began in the early morning, when they heard planes in the sky followed by a series of loud explosions after which people very quickly began to show symptoms. They said they could not identify the planes. Both Syrian and Russian jets have bombed the area before.

Russia’s defence ministry denied it carried out the raids, telling the State-run RIA news agency that it carried out no bombing runs in the area on Tuesday.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using such weapons and the Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment.

Opposition activtists and the AFP news agency, citing one of its journalists on the scene, later said a rocket had slammed into a hospital where the victims were being treated, bringing rubble down on medics as they struggled to deal with victims.

The Observatory monitoring group, which tracks the war through a network of contacts on the ground, was unable to confirm the nature of the substance used.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Beirut, said locals on the ground expected that the number of dead would increase and that many of the wounded were children.

“There were people fainting, they were vomiting, they were foaming at the mouth,” Fisher said.

“In that situation, the treatment tends to be to try and strip people off, to get the chemicals away from their bodies, to hose them down as quickly as possible. But even then some of the pictures that have been posted on social media in the last couple of hours show very young people struggling for breath, many people dead where they fell.”

‘Disgusting act’

Fisher reported that hospitals in the area were overwhelmed with the scale of the apparent attack and that footage showed them struggling to cope with the number of victims.

“Al Jazeera has no way of independently confirming the stories that are coming from there but the reality is there are a number of sources who are saying so many similar things,” Fisher said.

“It appears that what we’re being told is a fair reflection of the current events in Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province in Syria.”

The Edlib Media Centre (EMC), a pro-opposition group, posted images that were widely shared on social media, showing many people being treated by medics and what appeared to be dead bodies, many of them children.

The national opposition in Syria called for an immediate United Nations investigation and for the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting and condemn those behind the attack. The French government also called on the Security Council to meet.

“A new and particularly serious chemical attack took place this morning in Idlib province. The first information suggests a large number of victims, including children. I condemn this disgusting act,” France’s foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said in a statement.

“In the face of such serious actions that threaten international security, I ask for everyone not to shirk their responsibilities,” he added.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the “inhuman” attack could endanger peace talks, AFP reported, citing sources.

Hospitals bombed

On Sunday, suspected Russian fighter jets bombed a hospital in a city in Idlib, wounding several people, a rescue group said.

At least ten people were wounded when three air raids targeted the main hospital in Maaret al-Numan, destroying the building, a White Helmets group official told Al Jazeera.

The White Helmets, also know as the Syrian Civil Defence, are volunteer rescuers that operate in rebel-held territory.

“For the past week, Idlib has been targeted by ongoing air strikes, and after yesterday’s attack, one of its main hospitals has been mostly destroyed and can no longer function,” Majid, another member of the White Helmets, said.

Over the past year, Doctors Without Borders has received reports of at least 71 attacks on at least 32 different health facilities, which it runs or supports in Syria.

Fearing assassination, Al Jazeera’s Ahmad Zaidan and independent journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem file US legal complaint.

Bilal Abdul Kareem has been reporting from rebel-held northern Syria since 2012 (Twitter).

by D. Parvaz, Al Jazeera

Washington DC – Two journalists who say they have been targeted by the United States have filed a complaint against the American government, accusing it of putting them on a “kill list” and demanding to be taken off it.

The complaint was filed in the US District Court of the District of Columbia on Thursday on behalf of Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan – a dual Pakistani-Syrian citizen who works for Al Jazeera and Bilal Abdul Kareem, an American who has freelanced for Al Jazeera.

It accuses the US government of using information gathered via its Skynet surveillance programme, which has been used to guide drone strikes on “terror suspects”.

The plaintiffs accuse the United States of conspiracy to commit murder outside its borders and violating international law on targeting civilians.

Filed by UK-based rights group Reprieve and the Washington DC-based law firm Lewis Baach, the complaint asks the court to declare the journalists’ inclusion on the list illegal, and issue an injunction removing their names until they can review the secret evidence against them. It also asks the US to cease any planned strikes against the plaintiffs.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s founder and director, said the timing of the filing is linked to information his organisation has received from a secret source in Turkey who claims an attempt on Abdul Kareem’s life is imminent.

“We know they’re targeting Bilal and we’ve got to intimidate them enough, through publicity, to prevent them from doing this,” said Stafford Smith.

He told Al Jazeera there is no doubt the men are on the list of targets the US government is going after.

“When you look at Ahmad Zaidan … we have a copy of their [US] leaked Power Point saying he’s on the list. So that’s pretty powerful,” Stafford Smith said.

He said the case of Abdul Kareem is “even stronger”, as the US has allegedly targeted him several times before.

“The reason we know that is that three of those strikes, at least, maybe more, were drones, and the only country that had weaponised drones at the time was the US,” said Stafford Smith.

According to Reprieve’s research, it is not uncommon for the United States’ drone programme to require several attempts before killing a target, even ones such as Abdul Kareem or Zaidan who are not in hiding.

“The US misses on average three times for each person they’re trying to target. And with some people as many as nine or 10 times… Even a cat has only nine lives,” Stafford Smith said.

Named after the artificial intelligence system in the Terminator movies, Skynet uses metadata – such as geolocation and social media activity – to flag individuals as potential “terrorist” threats, placing them on the so-called kill list – also referred to as the ” disposition matrix ” in the complaint.

“When you use an algorithm, it sounds very fancy, but an algorithm carries with it all the biases of the person who wrote it… This is the same problem with Skynet,” said Stafford Smith.

“The people who are really the ‘bad dudes’ out there, like Osama bin Laden, are not tweeting to anyone – they’re not sending text messages to [current al-Qaeda chief] Ayman al-Zawahiri.”

The sort of activities carried out by reporters in the normal course of doing their job, he said, is essentially what landed both men on the kill list.

Over the course of his career, Zaidan has interviewed senior leaders of groups listed as “terrorist” organisations by the US, including former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, head of the group formerly known as al-Nusra Front in Syria. He served as Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in Pakistan for many years, and is now an executive producer of programmes.

In a document leaked in 2015, the US National Security Agency alleged that Zaidan was a member of al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood – allegations that he countered in an op-ed detailing his meetings with members of al-Qaeda and other groups.

Abdul Kareem was one of the few independent journalists reporting from the ground during the battle for Syria’s Aleppo last year for a number of outlets, including Al Jazeera. He has also interviewed members of the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate in rebel-held areas.

The complaint filed on Thursday stated: “Neither Zaidan nor Kareem pose a continuing, imminent threat to US persons or national security. Neither Zaidan nor Kareem is a member or supporter of any terrorist group. Inclusion of Zaidan and Kareem on the kill list under these circumstance was arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”

In Abdul Kareem’s case, being targeted also violates his constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment – prohibiting illegal seizure of evidence, in this case, data – as well as the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees US citizens due process.

The complaint has been filed against President Donald Trump, the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, the CIA, as well as several security-related agency and department heads.

Requests for comment were not responded to by the time of publication.

SDF take military airport from ISIL in northern Syria, close to country’s largest dam that may be in danger of collapse.

Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces forces are now within 10km of Raqqa from the north [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters has captured a strategic airbase from ISIL in northern Syria in the first major victory for the group since the US airlifted the forces behind enemy lines last week.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Sunday that they captured the Tabqa airbase, 45km west of Raqqa, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group’s de facto capital in Syria.

SDF forces were also battling for the nearby Tabqa dam, held by ISIL, which was forced out of service on Sunday after its power station was damaged.

Earlier this week, US forces airlifted SDF fighters behind ISIL lines to allow them to launch the Tabqa assault, and on Friday the alliance reached one of the dam’s entrances.

SDF forces were within 10km of Raqqa from the north, and aimed to effectively surround the city before launching an assault.

Tabqa airbase was captured by ISIL fighters from the Syrian government in August 2014.

Shortly afterwards, the group announced it had killed about 200 government soldiers at the base, in a mass killing recorded and distributed on video over social media.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported the SDF advance.

Meanwhile there were conflicting reports over whether civilians had begun evacuating Raqqa due to concerns over the stability of the nearby Tabqa Dam.

ISIL fighters said US-led coalition air strikes had locked up the dam’s gates, causing the water level behind it to rise.

The activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported that ISIL had ordered Raqqa residents to evacuate the city.

Fear of collapse

The director of the Syrian government’s General Authority of Euphrates Dam that formerly operated the huge project blamed US air raids for disrupting internal control systems and putting the dam out of service, and warned of growing risks that could lead to flooding and future collapses.

“Before the latest strikes by the Americans, the dam was working. Two days ago, the dam was functioning normally,” Nejm Saleh told Reuters news agency.

“God forbid … there could be collapses or big failures that could lead to flooding,” Saleh said.

An SDF spokesman denied that coalition strikes hit the dam structure and said the airdrop landing last week was conducted to prevent any damage to the main structure by engaging the rebels away from the dam.

“The capture of the dam is being conducted slowly and carefully and this is why the liberation of the dam needs more time,” Talal Silo said, adding that ISIL fighters had dug inside the dam knowing they would not be hit for fear of damaging the dam.

The Syrian Observatory said it had also learned from its own sources that the dam had stopped functioning, but that ISIL remained in control of its main operational buildings and turbines.

US-backed Kurdish forces were in control of a spillway north of the dam “which can be used to alleviate pressure on the dam if need be,” the coalition said in a letter to AP news agency.

The coalition said the dam had not been structurally damaged, to its knowledge, and that it has not targeted the dam.

The SDF announced that it would “suspend its operations” in the vicinity of the dam on Monday for four hours so that engineers could access it and carry out much needed repairs.

The UN warned this year of the risk of catastrophic flooding from the dam.

The Syrian Observatory and the activist-run Raqqa 24 media centre reported that as of Sunday there were no evacuations in Raqqa.

The reports from Raqqa came as a leading Syrian opposition group called on the US-led coalition to stop targeting residential areas in and around the city.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) said in a statement that it was “increasingly concerned” about civilian casualties in the campaign against the group. The exiled opposition coalition is taking part in UN-mediated talks in Geneva.

The SNC said it believed coalition forces were behind an air strike that killed at least 30 civilians sheltering in a school in the countryside outside Raqqa on March 21. The coalition has said it is investigating.

The Syrian Observatory said coalition air strikes had killed 89 civilians in Raqqa province in the past week.

Passengers decry US, UK ban on laptops and tablets in hand luggage on some flights from Middle East and North Africa.

US, UK ban prohibits electronic devices larger than smart phones in cabins for flights coming from the Middle East and North Africa [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

The US and British ban on laptops and tablets in carry-on luggage on some flights from the Middle East and North Africa has come into force, immediately drawing complaints from passengers at several airports.

The ban requires that personal devices larger than a mobile phone – such as tablets, laptops and cameras – be placed in checked baggage for US and Britain-bound flights.

The US restrictions apply to flights originating from 10 airports in countries including Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The British restrictions do not include the UAE or Qatar but do affect Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

The affected airports had until Saturday to implement the new rules.

The ban s have already led to discontent and complaints from passengers at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, which is one of those listed.

“This airport is so secured. The security level is so high compared to other airports in the rest of this part of the world. So why doing that from here?” Haggai Mazursky, a traveller, told Reuters news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said the airlines were trying to limit passengers’ frustrations while holding talks with the US to lift the ban.

“They [Turkish airlines] believe that if the comfort of passenger is affected, it will impact the industry as a whole and the company as well,” she said.

“In efforts to make it easier for the passengers, they [Turkish Airlines] are offering free wifi during flights and will also launch a special mobile application in April.”

US and British officials said the decision to implement the security measures was a result of intelligence showing an increased risk for “terrorist activity” involving commercial aviation.

However, many observers in the Middle East and North Africa said the ban amounted to discrimination, while others questioned the basis for the electronics ban, saying they were a ploy to undermine the aviation industry of the countries affected.

“If you say it like this, you are saying everybody can be a terrorist. It’s not respectful. I think it’s not good,” said one passenger at Ataturk International Airport.

Geoffrey Thomas, the editor-in-chief of A irlineratings.com, said the UK joining the ban gave it some credibility that there might be an evolving threat, “but at the same time UK has not banned UAE and Qatar, which raises a lot of concern as to what this is all about”.

“Some suggest that the ban on UAE and Qatar has more to do with the Trump administration’s desire to curb the power of Middle East carriers, because one of the crazy parts about this ban is that Emirates from Dubai to Athens, and on to the US, is not included in the measures.

“And then you have cities that actually have security challenges, such as Lagos and Islamabad, which are also not included in the ban. So, there are questions about this that leave a lot of experts perplexed,” Thomas said.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that talks were underway to try to persuade the US and Britain to exclude Turkish Airlines and Istanbul airport from the ban s.