Ex-president, recently acquitted for role in protester deaths during 2011 uprising, is free after six-year detention.

Mubarak supporters gathered outside the military hospital where he is staying [Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak left a military hospital on Friday where he had spent much of his six-year detention, his lawyer said.

Mubarak had been cleared for release earlier this month after a top court finally acquitted him of involvement in protester deaths during the 2011 revolt that ousted him.

“Yes,” his lawyer Farid al-Deeb told AFP news agency when asked if Mubarak had left the hospital on Friday.

Mubarak was accused of inciting the deaths of protesters during the 18-day revolt, in which about 850 people were killed as police clashed with demonstrators.

He was sentenced to life in 2012 in the case, but an appeals court ordered a retrial which dismissed the charges two years later.

Egypt’s top appeals court on March 2 acquitted him of involvement in the killings.

In January 2016, the appeals court upheld a three-year prison sentence for Mubarak and his two sons on corruption charges.

But the sentence took into account time served. Both of his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were freed.

On Thursday, a court ordered a renewed corruption investigation into Mubarak for allegedly receiving gifts from the state owned Al-Ahram newspaper.

Meanwhile several key activists in the 2011 uprising are now serving lengthy jail terms, and rights groups say hundreds of others have been forcibly disappeared.

“As Hosni Mubarak goes free in Egypt, thousands of prisoners still languish in horrific prison conditions. Many face the death penalty on charges relating to protests, in mass trials that make a mockery of due process,” said Harriet McCulloch, a deputy director at human rights organisation Reprieve.

Since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power after the 2013 ouster of democratically-elected Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood – Mubarak’s successor, Egyptian authorities have cracked down on freedom of expression.

“Some were arrested as children – people like Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa, who has suffered terrible abuses in jail. The Sisi Government must now show that Egypt’s justice system is worthy of the name and release Ibrahim, and the hundreds like him,” said McCulloch.

Activists say a suspected US-led coalition air raid struck a school sheltering displaced people near ISIL-held Raqqa.

The US-led coalition says its air raids have killed 220 civilians in Iraq and Syria since 2014 [File: EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Dozens of people were killed earlier this week in a suspected US-led coalition air raid that hit a school sheltering displaced people near Raqqa, ISIL’s self-declared capital in Syria, according to a monitoring group.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Wednesday that its activists had counted at least 33 bodies at the site near the village of al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa.

The group, which monitors Syria’s war via a network of contacts on the ground, said it believed the air raid at the school-turned-shelter had been carried out by the US-led coalition fighting ISIL, which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and is also known as ISIS.

The air raid took place on Monday night, SOHR head Rami Abdulrahman told the Reuters news agency.

The attack was also reported by the activist-run Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently group, which said dozens of civilians were dead or still missing after the air raid.

The US-led coalition has escalated its aerial campaign against ISIL around Raqqa this month, causing numerous civilian casualties.

Earlier this month, the coalition said its raids in Syria and Iraq had unintentionally killed at least 220 civilians since 2014. But critics say the number is far higher.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Beirut, said the school in al-Mansoura housed many refugees who had fled the fighting in Raqqa.

“This is an area where the US-led coalition has been launching air strikes to break the defence lines of ISIL in Raqqa,” he said.

“Some say that more than 30 people were killed in the strikes, other suggest that this number could be even higher.”

A spokesman for the US-led coalition has previously said that it does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties and that it investigates those that are reported as a result of its air raids.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led group of militias backed by the US-led coalition, is fighting to isolate Raqqa ahead of an anticipated assault on the city, which the ISIL group has used as a command node to plan attacks abroad.

The head of the YPG militia, the strongest in the SDF, said last week that the offensive to retake Raqqa would begin in early April but a spokesman for the US Pentagon said no decision had yet been made.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

The conflict has since escalated into a multi-front war that has facilitated the rise of armed groups and drawn in international powers, including the US.

An African Union soldier from Uganda looks out over Mogadishu’s harbor. [AFP]

by The New Arab

Turkey will join the fight to defeat Somalia’s al-Qaeda faction by building its largest ever military base abroad in the East African country.

The $50 million base in Mogadishu will open in April and will help the Somali government train 500 new troops a year to fight al-Shabaab rebels.

An on-going war with the Islamist group, al-Shabaab, coupled with a nearly three-year drought has almost crippled the country’s economy – leading to the present day’s famine.

The facility is reported to be around 400 hectares in size and will house three military camps close to Mogadishu’s airport and the Port of Mogadishu.

Turkey has reportedly invested massively in Somalia through reconstruction and infrastructure development – including roads and hospitals – and has helped provide military aid since 2011.

Turkey had planned to train and rebuild the Somali army at the Mogadishu base for years, as troops have reportedly not been professionally trained or routinely received salaries – leading to major security problems in the country.

Turkey faces regional competition in the region from the UAE, which also wants to build up its military presence in the region.

The UAE signed a deal with the Somaliland parliament in February, allowing them to open a military base in the port town of Berbera.

“The military deal with UAE is a clear sovereign matter to reach international agreements with countries and will help our long running bid for recognition as an independent country,” said chairman of the political party UCID, Faysal Ali Warabe Warabe.

The UAE recently expanded its military presence in neighbouring Eritrea, to allow more military ships and aircraft to be based in the port of Assab.

There has been plenty of help for Somalia coming from Turkey in recent weeks.

Turkish Airlines announced on Friday it would send a plane filled with aid to help the millions of people that are facing starvation.

Celebrities and social media users, united under the hashtag #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia, raised money in support of famine victims in the country.

“As the only airline that connects Somalia to the world, we’ll be more than happy to deliver your love and assistance to Somalia on your behalf,” one Turkish Airlines pilot said in a video message posted on Twitter on Friday.

A lingering drought has caused widespread food shortages across the south of Somalia, leading to an impending famine status.
UNICEF warned last month that a potential 270,000 children were at risk of severe acute malnutrition due to the drought.

The Somali prime minister tweeted on 2 March that his “priority and first emphasis” was to “assist the people affected by the severe drought and build resilience”.

Devices larger than cell phones to be banned from carry-on luggage on flights from eight Muslim-majority countries.

The ban on cary-on electronic devices will affect at least nine airlines, including Emirates and Qatar Airways [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The US is barring passengers on flights originating in eight Muslim-majority countries from carrying any electronic device bigger than a mobile phone, the Department of Homeland Security said.

Senior US officials told reporters that nine airlines from countries in the Middle East and North Africa had been given 96 hours, beginning at 7:00 GMT on Tuesday, to ban the devices from the cabin.

Laptops, e-readers, cameras, tablets, printers, electronic games and portable DVD players are affected by the ban – which applies to direct flights to the United States – but they may still be stowed in the hold in checked baggage.

The DHS said the ban was necessary as “terrorist groups continue to target commercial aviation and are aggressively pursuing innovative methods to undertake their attacks, to include smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items.

“Based on this information, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Transportation Security Administrator Acting Administrator Huban Gowadia have determined it is necessary to enhance security procedures for passengers at certain last point of departure airports to the United States,” the statement said.

The ban will apply to nonstop flights to the US from 10 international airports serving the cities of Cairo in Egypt; Amman in Jordan; Kuwait City in Kuwait; Casablanca in Morocco; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; Istanbul in Turkey; and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, until the threat changes.

“DHS, in close cooperation with our intelligence community partners, selected these airports based on the current threat picture,” read the statement, adding that new airports could be added to the list.

“The new procedures remain in place until the threat changes.”

The procedures will affect nine airlines: Royal Jordanian Airlines, EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Saudi Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Etihad Airways.

Electronic devices will continue to be allowed on all flights originating in the US, whether domestic or international, according to the statement. Approved medical devices may be brought into the cabin after additional screening.

The move comes a week after President Donald Trump’s second bid to curb travel from a group of Muslim-majority nations was blocked by the courts .

US officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the ban was to be implemented in response to an unspecified threat the US government learned of several weeks ago.

The DHS also cited the 2015 downing of an airliner in Egypt, the 2016 attempted airliner downing in Somalia, and the 2016 armed attacks against airports in Brussels and Istanbul as evidence of groups seeking to target commercial aviation, including by attempting to smuggle explosive devices in various consumer items.

“Terrorist propaganda has highlighted the attacks against aircraft in Egypt with a soda can packed with explosives in October 2015, and in Somalia using an explosives-laden laptop in February 2016,” the DHS statement said.

“Terrorists have historically tried to hide explosives in shoes in 2001, use liquid explosives in 2006, and conceal explosives in printers in 2010 and suicide devices in underwear in 2009 and 2012. Within the last year, we have also seen attacks conducted at airports to include in Brussels and Istanbul.”

‘Baggage theft to skyrocket’

Brian Jenkins, an aviation-security expert at the Rand Corp., said there was concern about inadequate passenger screening or even conspiracies involving insiders – airport or airline employees in some countries.

Trevor Jensen, an aviation consultant and former airline captain, told Al Jazeera that keeping a large number of computers with lithium batteries in the hold also presented safety issues.

“I hope that we are not just knee-jerking here and that this is a credible threat – that the safety issues have also been very carefully thought through.”

Jensen questioned why, from a security standpoint, only some airports had been included in the measures.

“If this was a credible threat, I think they would be looking at other airports. Because, why couldn’t you fly from Doha, for example, into Zurich, and from Zurich across [to the US] … there are ways to get around it,” he said.

“Looking at some of these legs, the passengers flying on board are business people who do want to work in-flight. Security is first, but it’s got to be credible. And we’re not getting any more information to support that at the moment,” Jensen added.

Another aviation-security expert, professor Jeffrey Price of Metropolitan State University of Denver, said there was another disadvantage to having everyone put their electronics in checked baggage.

Thefts from baggage would skyrocket, as when Britain tried a similar ban in 2006, he said.

Pakistan has decided the to reopen its crossing with Afghanistan as a ‘goodwill gesture’.

The crossings were at first closed in February following attacks in Pakistan which authorities claim have links to Afghanistan [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered the immediate reopening of border crossings with Afghanistan, more than a month after they were closed.

Pakistan sealed the Torkham and Chaman crossings on February 16, after a string of suicide attacks killed more than 130 people across the country, blaming the violence on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other armed groups.

The closure left hundreds of thousands of people and lorries carrying food and other goods to Afghanistan stranded at the two major crossings of Torkham and Chammans.

“We have taken this decision on humanitarian grounds,” a statement from Sharif’s office said on Monday.

The statement said that, while the government had evidence that “anti-Pakistan elements” were present on Afghan soil, keeping the border closed was against the interests of ordinary people.

“We hope that the Afghan government will take all necessary steps to prevent the reasons why we undertook these steps [of closing the border] from recurring,” it said.

Pakistan had temporarily reopened the border crossings for two days in early March to allow visitors with valid visas on both sides to return home.

Afghanistan has long blamed Pakistan for giving sanctuary to Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network leaders on its soil. Pakistan, though, accuses its northwestern neighbour of allowing Pakistani Taliban elements to operate in Nangarhar and other provinces.

Pakistan’s Minister of Defence Khwaja Asif said the border was being used “as a thoroughfare” by Pakistani Taliban fighters.

But Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Omar Zakhilwal, argued that closing it served no purpose “except to harm ordinary people and traders on both sides”.

The Torkham and Chaman crossings are major arteries for $1.5bn in trade and commerce between the two neighbours. The Torkham crossing alone is used by about 15,000 Afghans every day.

Russian leader cautiously optimistic on Syria peace deal, hails Ankara’s ‘exceptional cooperation’ in keeping truce.

Erdogan’s apologies for the downing of a Russian fighter plane helped rebuild ties with Russia [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said a truce in Syria is on the whole being observed, as he welcomed his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow, adding that he is cautiously optimistic about the prospects of a deal to end the six-year Syrian conflict.

Russia and Turkey, which back opposing sides in Syria’s war, co-brokered a ceasefire in December that helped reduce the scale of fighting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition.

They also supported two rounds of talks this year between the government and the rebels, while a third set is scheduled for next week.

“Due to the active action of Turkey and Russia, we managed to bring the rival forces together and, due to our joint effort, the Syrian ceasefire continues,” Putin told reporters on Friday, hailing Ankara’s “exceptional cooperation” in keeping the truce.

For his part, Erdogan said that there are “no doubts” about the “very successful” Syria talks sponsored by the two countries, adding that Turkey was cooperating with Russia’s military.

“All parties need to work out towards a good resolution,” he said at the joint press conference in the Russian capital.

Erdogan also praised the two countries’ friendship, saying it is “strong enough to overcome their differences”, even as he urged Russia to lift all sanctions it imposed on Ankara following the downing of a Russian plane in 2015.

The increasingly close cooperation on Syria between Russia and Turkey marks a sharp turnaround for the two nations, which have also coordinated their operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group in Syria.

Russia has an active military presence in Syria in support of Assad’s forces, while Turkey, which backs anti-Assad groups, launched a military operation in August to create a safe zone along its border inside Syria.

A Russian air raid last month accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers, but the incident did not derail military coordination between the two countries.

Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was also killed during an event in Ankara in December.

Earlier this week, the chief military officers from Russia, the US and Turkey met in the Turkish city of Antalya, in an apparent attempt to work out additional steps to prevent incidents.

Rebuilding ties

Relations between Moscow and Ankara had soured after Turkey downed the Russian jet, putting the two countries on the verge of a direct military conflict.

Moscow responded by barring the sales of package tours to Turkey and halting imports of agricultural products, moves that squeezed the Turkish economy.

Erdogan’s apologies for downing the plane helped rebuild ties, and Putin offered firm support to the Turkish leader in the wake of a failed coup attempt last July.

Despite the rapprochement, Russia has moved gradually to lift economic restrictions, keeping some in place as an apparent motivator for Turkey.

On the eve of the Kremlin talks, the Russian cabinet allowed the imports of Turkish cauliflower, broccoli and other produce.

Erdogan, who called the Russian leader his “dear friend”, urged Russia to lift all restrictions on Turkish business, restore visa-free travel and increase the number of commercial flights between the two countries.

The talks in Moscow also focused on how to help assuage mutual mistrust between Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces, US-backed Kurdish forces, and Russian-allied Syrian government forces – all fighting their way towards ISIL’s de-facto capital, Raqqa.

Putin scheduled a meeting of his security council, including top military and intelligence officials, later on Friday to follow the talks with Erdogan.

Former president acquitted of complicity in killings of hundreds of protesters during 2011 uprising that ended his rule.

Mubarak supporters gathered outside the military hospital where he is staying [Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Six years after the uprising that ended his rule, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been acquitted over his alleged involvement in the killings of hundreds of protesters in 2011.

The Court of Cassation’s final ruling on Thursday could see Mubarak walk free.

After an all-day hearing, Judge Ahmed Abdel Qawi announced: “The court has found the defendant innocent.”

The Cairo-based court rejected demands by lawyers of the victims to reopen civil suits, leaving no remaining option for appeal or retrial.

Mubarak was accused of inciting the deaths of nearly 900 protesters in an 18-day uprising that ended when he stepped down on February 11, 2011.

He had been sentenced to life in 2012 but an appeals court ordered a retrial, which dismissed the charges two years later.

Mubarak, 88, has spent most of his time in a military hospital since his arrest in 2011.

He arrived to court on Thursday on a stretcher.

In January 2016, the appeals court had upheld a three-year prison sentence for Mubarak and his two sons on corruption charges.

But the sentence took into account time served. Both his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were freed.

Uprising aftermath

Most of the charges brought against Mubarak’s government members have been dismissed while the country still recovers from the aftermath of the uprising.

Mubarak’s successor, democratically elected Mohamed Morsi, served for only a year before the military ousted and detained him in 2013, launching a deadly crackdown on his supporters.

Morsi and hundreds of his supporters have been sentenced in mass trials, although many of them are appealing the verdicts.

A former air force chief and vice president, Mubarak became president after fighters who had infiltrated the army shot dead president Anwar Sadat during a military parade in 1981, also wounding Mubarak.

He remained defiant throughout his trial.

Mubarak may be acquitted by the Egyptian Court of Cassation, but a release is no small matter. It would mean the military was wrong in 2011.

— Dr H.A. Hellyerد.إتش (@hahellyer) March 2, 2017

“I did nothing wrong at all,” he told a private broadcaster after receiving the life sentence in 2012. “When I heard the first verdict I laughed. I said: ‘Ha!’.”

Apparently referring to economic growth, he said: “The last 10 years showed more results than the 20 years before, including telephones and so on, and then they turned against us.”

Joint operation involving Russian air power and Shia militia forces ISIL to retreat again from historic city.

Syrian soldiers recaptured Palmyra from ISIL once before in April, 2016 [File: Omar Sanadiki/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The Syrian army said it has recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from ISIL for the second time in a year with help from allied forces and Russian warplanes.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group seized Palmyra in a surprise advance in December after having been driven out eight months before.

“With backing from the Syrian and Russian air forces, units of our armed forces recaptured the city of Palmyra, in cooperation with the allies,” the military said in a statement.

The army and Iranian-backed militia advanced inside Palmyra on Thursday as ISIL withdrew completely, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said.

ISIL retreated to areas in the east, the Syrian Observatory reported. Government forces took control of swathes of Palmyra and conducted combing operations to clear land mines, it said.

During ISIL’s first occupation, which ended in March last year, the armed group destroyed some of Palmyra’s priceless archaeological heritage. It is believed to have razed other parts of the historical ruins after regaining control in December.

The Syrian army is also fighting ISIL east of Aleppo city, where it is pushing to reach the Euphrates River, and in the city of Deir al-Zor, where it controls an enclave besieged by fighters.

ISIL is on the back foot in Syria after losing territory in the north to an alliance of US-backed Kurdish-led militias, and to Turkey-backed Syrian rebel groups.

Government and opposition delegations are attending UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, where the government’s chief negotiator hailed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for keeping his promise to retake Palmyra.

The Syrian opposition, however, declined to congratulate Assad on capturing Palmyra and suggested the city changing hands again was possible.

Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

Syrian state television broadcast footage showing troops near the town’s archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the historic citadel on Friday.

Archeologists have decried what they say is extensive damage to Palmyra’s treasured ruins.

Drone footage released by Russia’s Defence Ministry last month showed new damage ISIL had inflicted to the facade of Palmyra’s Roman-era theatre and the adjoining Tetrapylon – a set of four monuments with four columns each at the centre of the colonnaded road leading to the theatre.

ISIL has destroyed scores of ancient sites across its self-styled caliphate in Syria and Iraq, viewing them as monuments to idolatry.

Maamoun Abdu-Karim, the head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Syria, told The Associated Press on Thursday this time around the damage to the ruins seemed less in magnitude.

“We had expected the worst. However, the damage, according to the available photos, appears limited,” he said.

But ISIL is not the only side in Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year, that has damaged Palmyra.

A 2014 report by a UN research agency disclosed satellite evidence of looting while the ruins were under Syrian military control. Opposition fighters have also admitted looting the antiquities for funds.

At least 32 people killed – including army’s top spy – after brazen attacks on security offices in third-largest city.

by Al Jazeera

A series of suicide attacks on military installations in Syria’s government-held city of Homs have killed at least 32 people, including the army’s intelligence chief – a close confidante of President Bashar al-Assad.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that loud explosions and gunfire were heard following the assault in the western city.

“There were at least six attackers and several of them blew themselves up near the headquarters of state security and military intelligence,” Syrian Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency.

The governor of Homs province, Talal Barzani, said there were three blasts in total killing 32 people and wounding more than 20 others.

The Syrian Observatory said 42 people had been killed.

The attacks hit the heavily guarded Ghouta and Mahatta neighbourhoods and security forces locked down the city centre.

Syrian state television said the army’s intelligence chief General Hassan Daabul died and it paid tribute to the “martyrs” in Saturday’s bombings.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syria border, said it was unclear how the assailants could have pulled off such an audacious assault.

“Both areas are heavily guarded by the state police and also military so it was a really big and organised twin attack,” said Simmons.

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We’re also hearing that Jabhat Fateh al-Sham – that is the new name for the al-Nusra Front – is claiming responsibility. That’s according to state TV, which has not been confirmed anywhere else,” Simmons reported.

Homs has been under the full control of the government since May 2014 when rebels withdrew from the city centre under a UN-brokered truce.

But the city has seen repeated bombings since then. Twin attacks killed 64 people early last year.

The attacks come as peace negotiators continue talks for the second day in Geneva over Syria’s six-year-old civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.