October 8 air strike, which killed more than 140 people in Sanaa, was based on incorrect information, says inquiry team.

by Al Jazeera

The Arab coalition battling Houthi fighters in Yemen has admitted one of its warplanes had “wrongly targeted” a funeral in Sanaa that killed more than 140 people, and announced disciplinary proceedings.

The October 8 strike in the Yemeni capital prompted an international outcry and strong criticism even from Saudi Arabia’s closest Western allies.

“Because of non-compliance with coalition rules of engagement and procedures, and the issuing of incorrect information, a coalition aircraft wrongly targeted the location, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries,” said an inquiry team of the Arab coalition assembled by Saudi Arabia.

“Appropriate action … must be taken against those who caused the incident, and … compensation must be offered to the families of the victims.”

The UN released a statement saying the organisation’s humanitarian coordinator as well as the community of non-governmental organisations in Yemen were outraged and shocked by the strikes.

Funeral reception

In addition to the more than 140 deaths, more than 500 people were wounded in the strikes on the funeral reception for the father of Brigadier Jalal al-Ruweishan, interior minister in the self-proclaimed Houthi-led government.

Hundreds of mourners had gathered in the grand hall of ceremonies on al-Khamseen Street afternoon to take part in the ceremony.

The death toll was one of the largest in any single incident since the Arab coalition began military operations to try to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power following his removal by the Houthis in March 2015.

The Arab coalition initially denied that it was responsible for the strikes.

“Absolutely no such operation took place at that target,” a source within in the coalition told Reuters news agency on the day of the attack.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said the coalition’s admission could jeopardise the peace process and put more pressure on Saudi Arabia.

Ruweishan had sided with the Houthi group when Hadi fled Yemen after the Iran-allied fighters advanced on his headquarters in the southern port city of Aden in March 2015.

The Arab coalition has been providing air support for Hadi’s forces in a civil war that has killed an estimated 6,700 people since March 2015 and displaced more than three million.

Intense fighting

Fighting has intensified since August when UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement.

The Arab coalition had been blamed for several attacks on medical centres, including some run by international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF), schools, factories and homes in the past 18 months that has killed scores of civilians.

In August, MSF said it was evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after a coalition air strike hit a health facility operated by the group, killing 19 people.

The coalition, which says it does not target civilians, has expressed deep regret over the decision and said it was trying to set up “urgent meetings” with the medical aid group.

The coalition’s admission came a day after Britain announced it was planning to put forward a draft Security Council resolution calling for an immediate truce in Yemen and a resumption of peace talks.

The 15-member body this week failed to agree on a statement condemning the October 8 air strike. Russia dismissed the statement as too vague and diplomats said Russia refused to engage any further on it.

Security Council statements must be approved by consensus.

Madaya Mom Comic. (GalleyCat)

by Al Bawaba

Marvel Comics teamed up with ABC News to shed light on the devastating reality of life under siege in the form of a ‘Madaya Mom’ – a superhoero inspired from a real life Syrian mother.

The inspiration for the superhero chronicles was a woman living in Madaya, who remains anonymous for her own safety, and who chronicled her struggle to survive the horrific conditions brought on by the Syrian civil war in a series of blog posts.

Since Madaya — a city home to some 40,000 people near the border with Lebanon — was under total siege in mid-2015, more than 60 victims have died of famine and malnutrition.

The collaboration between Marvel and ABC journalists (namely reporters Xana O’Neil and Rym Momtaz, Croatian artist Dalibor Talajic, and colorist Miroslav Mrva) have been in regular contact with the ‘Madaya Mom’ to create a free digital comic chronicling survival dispatches as the characters face snipers, disease and starvation within the setting of the Syrian humanitarian crisis.

The illustrated panels are less bloody than they are heartbreaking as they depict a mother’s fears for her family and children which includes a new born baby boy. ‘Madaya Mom’ is shown as she and her husband gather their children together at night for warmth and to keep their spirits strong. Yet, even when the prospect of school reopening starts to lift the children’s spirits, an errant mortar shell rips their peers apart.

Artist Dalibor Talajic – best known for his work on Deadpool – said he preferred a character anchored in reality. From there came the idea of conveying the grim daily life of besieged Syrians from the perspective of a normal, human civilian.

This is not Marvel’s first portrayal of real life heroes: the company also depicted Pope John-Paul II, St Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa.

ABC was able to deliver some of Talajic’s images to the mother: “she found that he really nailed the features of the people, the ambiance, the town,” ABC News Producer Rym Momtaz said.

“If she ever gets out,” artist Talajic said, “the pictures will go to her.”

At least six killed and 19 wounded after two blasts hit passenger train in southwestern province, officials say.

by Al Jazeera

At least six people have been killed and 19 wounded after two explosions targeted a passenger train in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, according to officials.

Friday’s twin blasts hit the Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express as it passed near the village of Mach, about 65km southeast of the provincial capital of Quetta.

“The explosions damaged two passenger carriages and killed six people besides wounding 19 others,” Imtiaz Ahmad, a senior local Pakistan Railways official, told AFP news agency, updating an earlier toll of three deaths.

The attack was claimed by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army, according to AFP.

A spokesman for the group said the bombing had targeted “military personnel who travel to Rawalpindi by this train”.

Kashif Akhtar, a senior railways official, told Reuters that security forces foiled a similar attack on Thursday as an attacker laid explosives on a railway track near Quetta.

Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique denounced the bombing as “an act of terrorism” and said authorities were still trying to determine how the bomb was planted on the train.

For more than a decade, Balochistan has been the scene of low-intensity attacks by separatist Baloch groups who want autonomy or outright independence.

Al Olayan also appears on Forbes’ list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women”. (World Economic Forum)

by Al Hilal

Saudi Arabia’s Lubna Al Olayan, who’s at the head of a family empire, tops the Forbes Middle East’s list of “The Most Powerful Women in the Arab World” this year.

The list, released for the fifth consecutive year, highlights the region’s most influential and inspiring businesswomen.

Al Olayan also appears on Forbes’ list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women”.

Of the 100 women on the “The Most Powerful Women in the Arab World” list, 54 are corporate executives, 23 are at the helm of family businesses, 12 are entrepreneurs, and 11 work in government organisations.

In addition, Forbes has two smaller rankings, 10 each, of women who hold ministerial posts, and women of Arab origin who have made a mark on the world stage.

To rank the leaders, the magazine applied the following metrics: position, size of company or organization, and sphere of impact.

Egypt, Arab World’s most populous country, continued to lead with the highest number of entries with 18, followed by the UAE with 17 and Kuwait and Lebanon with 11 entries each.

The top 10 on the list are:

1. Lubna Al Olayan, CEO, Olayan Financing (Saudi Arabia);

2. Lobna Helal, deputy governor, Central Bank of Egypt (Egypt);

3. Raja Easa Al Gurg, managing director, Al Gurg Group (UAE);

4. Fatima Al Jaber, Group CEO, Al Jaber Group Construction (UAE);

5. Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, Chair, Qatar Museums (Qatar);

6. Maha Al Ghunaim, vice chair and Group CEO, Global Investment House (Kuwait);

7. Shaikha Al Bahar deputy group CEO, NBK (Kuwait);

8. Mona Almoayyed, managing director, YK Almoayyed & Sons (Bahrain);

9. Nezha Hayat, chair, Moroccan Capital Market Authority (Morocco);

10. Khawla Al-Asadi, director general, Rafidain Bank (Iraq).

Khuloud Al Omian, editor-in-chief of Forbes Middle East, said: “In the past four years we have seen a constant increase in women holding senior level positions in businesses. This is contrary to the popular perception about Arab women in the business world. Such recognition will further boost encouragement and inspire more women to break the norm and achieve great successes in their line of business.”

There have been a lot of major developments for these iconic Arab Women. For example, Eaman Al Roudhan, who was the chief regulatory officer of Zain Group last year, has been promoted to CEO. In June Khawla Al-Asadi was appointed director general of Iraq’s biggest bank, Rafidain Bank.

“This is our small way of supporting women with high ambitions to achieve great heights in their careers,” added Omian.

Pictures show attack was result of an air raid, UN says, as intense battle for key province sees more children killed.

More than 400 people have been killed in Aleppo less than a month [Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Analysis of satellite imagery of a deadly attack on an aid convoy in Syria last month showed that it was an air strike, a UN expert said on Wednesday.

At least 20 people were killed in the attack on the UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy at Urm al-Kubra near the northern city of Aleppo which destroyed 18 of 31 lorries, a warehouse and clinic.

The United States blamed two Russian fighter jets that it said were in the skies above the area at the time of the incident. Moscow denies the charge and says the convoy caught fire.

“With our analysis we determined it was an air strike and I think multiple other sources have said that as well,” Lars Bromley, research adviser at UNOSAT, told a news conference.

“For air strikes, what you are usually looking out for is the size of the crater that is visible and the type of crater,” he said. A giant crater on the ground was caused “almost certainly [by] air dropped munitions” as opposed to artillery or mortars, he said.

The United Nations has so far referred only to an “attack”, which led to a brief suspension of its land convoys in Syria, while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies initially referred to “air strikes” in a statement.

Battle for Aleppo

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Friday that he would establish an internal UN board of inquiry to investigate the attack and urged all parties to fully cooperate.

UNOSAT, which reviews only commercially-available satellite images, has not been asked to share its analysis with the UN inquiry, but is prepared to do so, UNOSAT manager Einar Bjorgo said. “Our images are from time to time used in order to brief Security Council members,” he told the briefing.

The UN’s claim about the Aid convoy attack in Aleppo came as the battle for the key province intensified.

Three children were among at least 19 civilians killed in an air strike on a village held by the Islamic State or Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in northern Aleppo province on Wednesday, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was unclear whether the strike was carried out by the US-led coalition fighting ISIL, or Turkey, which is leading an operation against the group in the area with support from Syrian rebel forces.

The strike hit the village of Thalthana, in northern Aleppo province, the Britain-based monitor said.

The government in the Himalayan region bans Kashmir Reader newspaper as anti-India protests continue to take place.

The statement orders a ban on the printing and publishing of the newspaper “till further orders so that disturbance of public tranquillity is prevented” [Kashmir Reader]

The Jammu and Kashmir state government has banned local newspaper Kashmir Reader accusing the daily of publishing material that “tends to incite acts of violence”, the editor of the newspaper has told Al Jazeera.

Hilal Mir, editor of the newspaper, on Monday said that a group of police officers entered the publication’s premises late on Sunday with an order from the Srinagar District Magistrate to halt publishing.

“Yesterday evening five or six policemen came to our office and handed over the order to stop publication of the newspaper. We don’t know why, the situation is not our creation. Whatever is happening we are reporting that [and] we are reporting like any other newspaper.

“For now we have a meeting of Editors and publishers in the evening, then we will proceed accordingly. We can take the legal course as well. We want to know why it happened,” he said.

According to the court order, a portion of which was published on Kashmir Reader’s website, the newspaper was banned because it contained “such material and content which tends to incite acts of violence and disturb public peace and tranquillity”.

“Therefore, it has become expedient in the interest of prevention of this anticipated breach of public tranquillity to forthwith take necessary precautionary measures,” the order said “and asked printing presses to stop printing Kashmir Reader with immediate effect”.

The ban on Kashmir Reader comes as the people’s uprising against Indian rule in Indian-administered Kashmir continues unabated since the killing of popular rebel leader Burhan Wani in July. At least 83 people have been killed and 12,000 others injured since theuprising began.

Another English language local newspaper, Greater Kashmir, reported on Monday that 100 protesters were injured in clashes between protesters and Indian armed forces over the weekend. On Monday, an Indian soldier was killed when armed fighters attacked an Indian military camp in Baramulla, a town 50km northwest of the state capital, Srinagar.

The attack comes three days after the Indian army said it had carried out a “surgical strike” in the region and destroyed “terrorist launching pads” used by the fighters with support from Pakistan.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, said that Pakistan government continues to refute claims that any such “surgical strike” took place.

Tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir have also reached extraordinary levels with the killing of 18 Indian soldiers in September, blamed on Pakistan-based armed groups.

The attempt to gag Kashmir Reader comes after a series of attempts by the state government to clamp down on media and communication in the valley. Since July, mobile phone services have been intermittently cut, the internet has been blocked and newspapers have been routinely raided by police.

In July, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) held a protest in New Delhi against the “clampdown” on the media in Kashmir after the state government were found to be prohibiting publicaiton of newspapers and confiscating printed materials.

“The J&K Police action in the name of volatile situation in the Valley is an attack on the freedom of the media and unacceptable in a democracy … The IJU demands that the police should desist from such illegal and unconstitutional actions immediately and allow the press to function unhindered,” the IJU statement said.

Al Jazeera was unable to reach the Jammu and Kashmir State government or the ruling People’s Democratic Party for comment.

Kashmir is divided into two parts, one administered by India and the other one by Pakistan.

India claims Pakistan has been supporting a violent secessionist movement in Kashmir – a charge Islamabad has consistently denied. It calls Kashmiri rebels freedom fighters.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.

Additional reporting by Rifat Fareed in Srinagar

US law that would allow families of victims to sue Saudi government a matter of “great concern”, foreign ministry says.

The US Congress voted to allow relatives to sue for damages related to the September 11, 2001 attacks [EPA]

Saudi Arabia has condemned a recently passed US law allowing the families of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue the Saudi government.

The US Congress voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to override President Barack Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) on relations between states.

JASTA allows attack survivors and relatives of victims to pursue cases against foreign governments in US federal court and to demand compensation if such governments are proved to bear some responsibility for attacks on American soil.

In a statement on Thursday, the Saudi government said the enactment of the law was a matter “of great concern” and called on the US Congress “to avoid the serious unintended consequences that may ensue”, without elaborating on what the consequences might be.

“The erosion of sovereign immunity will have a negative impact on all nations, including the United States,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in the statement, which was carried on state news agency SPA on Thursday.

Fifteen of the 19 men who carried out the 2001 attacks were Saudi nationals, but Saudi Arabia, a major US ally, has long denied any involvement in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

In opposing the law, Obama said it would harm US interests by undermining the principle of sovereign immunity, opening up the US to private lawsuits over its military missions abroad.

The erosion of sovereign immunity is also a concern among the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member.

Saudi Arabia’s Gulf allies have lined up beside Riyadh to criticise the law.

Analysts said a successful lawsuit against the Saudi government would be unlikely at best, but speculated that the uncertainty surrounding the legal implications could negatively affect bilateral trade and investment with an ally.

“It will be very difficult for Saudi Arabia to continue in intelligence cooperation when they take such a hostile position,” Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist and analyst, told AFP news agency.

He said Saudi officials are probably debating whether to act now or “wait until the first suit is filed”.