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Japanese journalist missing in Syria appears in video

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Junpei Yasuda is reportedly being held by al-Nusra Front after he entered Syria from Turkey last summer.

Yasuda, a freelance journalist, was seen in the video reading a message to his family and country [Reuters]

Yasuda, a freelance journalist, was seen in the video reading a message to his family and country [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A video has surfaced online showing a missing Japanese journalist, reportedly held by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, reading a message to his family and country.

Dressed in a dark sweater with a scarf, Jumpei Yasuda mostly seemed calm as he spoke in English in the one-minute video, which was posted on Thursday.

Yasuda, sitting at a table in front of a white wall, said he missed his family but could not be with them.

“Hello, I am Jumpei Yasuda. Today is my birthday, 16 March,” he said.

Japanese media said Yasuda was captured by al-Nusra Front after entering Syria from Turkey in June.

Public broadcaster NHK said it had spoken by phone with the man who posted the video, who said he had received it from someone seeking Yasuda’s release.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the man in the video appeared to be Yasuda but he would not confirm the authenticity of the footage.

“The safety of Japanese citizens is one of our most important duties and we are gathering information and making all possible efforts to respond,” Suga told a news conference, declining to give details.

He added that the government was not aware that any ransom request had been made.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group beheaded two Japanese nationals – a self-styled security consultant and a veteran war reporter – early last year.

The gruesome executions captured the attention of Japan but the government said at the time it would not negotiate with the fighters for their release.

 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came under fire for his handling of hostage cases, something he would like to avoid with an election looming this summer. Critics say his more robust security stance risks getting Japan involved in more international conflicts.

The journalist in the video did not give any information about who was holding him or any demands they had. He said “they” allowed him to say what he wanted.

After saying he wished he could hug his wife, father, mother and brother, he said: “I have to say to something to my country: When you’re sitting there, wherever you are, in a dark room, suffering with the pain, there’s still no one. No one answering. No one responding. You’re invisible.”

Yasuda, a freelance journalist since 2003, was held in Baghdad in 2004 and drew criticism for drawing the Japanese government into negotiations for his release.

Thousands may have starved to death in Syria: UN

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As UN prepares to roll out aid in besieged areas, official says “thousands” cut off may have already starved to death.

Residents work on fixing a house in the town of Darat Izza, province of Aleppo on Sunday [Reuters]

Residents work on fixing a house in the town of Darat Izza, province of Aleppo on Sunday [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The United Nations human rights chief warned on Monday that thousands of people may have died of starvation during sieges affecting nearly half a million people in war-torn Syria.

The comments by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein came as the first major ceasefire in the five-year conflict entered its third day, and as the UN prepared to deploy trucks loaded with humanitarian aid into the country during the lull in fighting.

“The deliberate starvation of people is unequivocally forbidden as a weapon of warfare. By extension, so are sieges,” said Hussein.

He added: “Thousands of people may have starved to death.”

Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from the Turkish border town of Gaziantep, noted that US Secretary of State John Kerry had accused the Syrian government of using food as “a weapon of war”.

“This war in recent months hasn’t just been fought with weapons – it has also been fought through the use of food,” he said. “The guns here haven’t gone totally silent, so it’s still dangerous for aid workers.”

The UN and its partner organisations were planning to start delivering aid to Syrians in several besieged areas previously cut off by the violence.

A UN spokesman told Al Jazeera that trucks bound for Mouadamiya in the southern outskirts of Damascus were loaded and were planning to move shortly.

Aid deliveries were also planned to arrive in the towns of Zabadani, Kefraya, Fouaa and Madaya by Wednesday.

The deliveries are part of humanitarian aid planned for 1.7 million people in hard-to-reach areas in the first quarter of 2016, Yacoub El Hillo, UN Resident Coordinator in Damascus, said in a statement on Sunday.

The UN estimates there are almost 500,000 people living under siege of a total of 4.6 million who are hard to reach with aid.

“It is the best opportunity that the Syrian people have had over the last five years for lasting peace and stability,” El Hillo said.

“But we all know that without a meaningful political process and a political solution, both cessation of hostilities and entry of humanitarian assistance will not be enough to end the crisis in Syria.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on the phone on Sunday at the initiative of Moscow on the progress of the ceasefire, Russia’s foreign ministry reported on Monday.

Syria’s main opposition grouping, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), on Sunday described the ceasefire as “positive”, but lodged a formal complaint with the UN and foreign governments about breaches on the first day.

A HNC letter to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, accused Bashar al-Assad’s government and its allies of committing “24 violations with artillery shelling and five ground operations … in 26 areas held by the moderate opposition”.

The letter, signed by HNC head Riad Hijab, also criticised Russia for conducting “26 air strikes on areas falling within the ceasefire”.

It said continued breaches of the ceasefire would make peace talks unattainable.

Syria’s ally Russia has said it has only targeted areas under the control of  al-Nusra Front, which is linked to al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Nusra and ISIL are excluded from the terms of the international pact.

Syria government willing to accept cessation deal

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Damascus accepts terms of US-Russia agreement, as opposition raises concerns about armed groups not included in deal.

bashar-al-assad

by Al Jazeera

Syria’s government has said it will accept a halt to “combat operations”, after the US and Russia agreed on a plan for the cessation of hostilities to begin this weekend.

Several parties to the conflict, however, were sceptical that any peace deal would actually take effect.

In a statement on Tuesday, President Bashar al-Assad’s government said it would coordinate with Russia to decide what other groups – along with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Nusra Front – should be excluded from the plan.

The government stressed the importance of sealing its borders, halting foreign support to armed groups and “preventing these organisations from strengthening their capabilities or changing their positions, in order to avoid what may lead to wrecking this agreement”.

The announcement from Damascus came after the US and Russia said on Monday that the International Syria Support Group had agreed to terms for a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

The agreement called on all sides to sign up to the agreement by midday on Friday, February 26 and to stop fighting by midnight.

Hours after the agreement was announced, the Syrian Opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) – the major opposition bloc involved in negotiations – said it would accept the terms of the deal.

It added, however, that it does not believe Assad’s regime and its allies would do the same.

“Our main concern in the opposition is that both Russia and the regime are not serious about their commitments to the cessation of hostilities,” said HNC spokesman Riyad Naasan Agha.

“Excluding ISIL and Nusra can be a ploy by the regime and their allies to keep slaughtering our civilians and trying to finish off the real Syrian opposition.”

Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays, reporting from New York, said some critics believed the timing of the deal would allow different sides in the conflict to push for more territory in the lead-up to the truce on Friday.

“Given everything that is happening in Syria, there is not a great deal of optimism about the proposed cessation of hostilities, particularly as many observers fear there will be an increase in the violence – with the warring sides trying to make gains in the days before it is due to start,” he said.

Underscoring those concerns, Russian air strikes continued to pound rebel-held areas of Aleppo city on Monday night, as the government’s offensive continued in the province.

Elsewhere, fighting took place on Tuesday between Syrian rebels and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units in rural areas in the north and west of the province.

Syria’s civil war started five years ago when initially peaceful protests against Assad’s rule gave way to a war that has killed at least 250,000 people and forced millions from the country.

Turkey pushes for ground operation in Syria

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turkish_military

by Al Bawaba

Turkey has announced it is in favor of a military deployment on the ground in Syria but on the condition that its allies participate in the operation, according to a statement released by a senior Turkish official said on Tuesday.

“We want a ground operation with our international allies,” the official told reporters in Istanbul.

“There is not going to be a unilateral military operation from Turkey to Syria,” the official remarked, before adding that: “Without a ground operation it is impossible to stop the fighting in Syria.”

Turkey considers the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as essential to ending the protracted war in Syria which is currently in its fifth year. The Turkish state is also highly critical of the involvment of Iran and Russia and their support for the Assad regime.

“We are asking the coalition partners that there should be a ground operation,” the official said.

Turkey has attacked Kurdish militia targets in Syria over the past few days, a move which has strained relations between Ankara and Washington. The United States has been supportive of Syrian Kurds fighting Daesh, but Turkey fears this will embolden Kurds living within Turkish borders to push for independence.

Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz previously stated on Sunday that Turkey had no plans of intervening on the gound in Syria.

Deadly air strikes hit hospitals in northern Syria

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At least 21 people killed in suspected Russian raids on two hospitals and a school in provinces of Aleppo and Idlib.

MSF's destroyed hospital in Idlib [Syria Civil Defence]

MSF’s destroyed hospital in Idlib [Syria Civil Defence]

by Al Jazeera

At least 21 people have been killed and dozens others injured in air strikes and rocket attacks on a school and two hospitals in separate locations in northern Syria, Al Jazeera has learned.

In the deadliest incident, at least 14 people were killed and about 30 injured when air strikes and rocket artillery damaged parts of a hospital in the town of Azaz in Aleppo province, the media office at the rebel-controlled Aleppo local council said on Monday.

In the same raid, a school where refugees were sheltering was also hit. No death toll has been confirmed.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a news conference in Kiev on Monday that a Russian balistic missile hit the school and hospital in Azaz.

The head of the media office, Abu Thaer al-Halabi, told Al Jazeera that a section of a highway that facilitates the main supply line for humanitarian aid to the region was destroyed in the raids.

Halabi also said the strikes were carried out by Russian fighter jets.MSF hospital hit

MSF hospital hit

Meanwhile, air strikes also targeted a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, killing at least seven people, the charity’s France president said on Monday.

“There were at least seven deaths among the personnel and the patients, and at least eight MSF personnel have disappeared, and we don’t know if they are alive,” Mego Terzian told Reuters, adding that he believed Russia or Syrian government forces were behind the attack.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine people, including a child, had been killed in the “presumambly Russian” raids.

A spokesman for the Syria Civil Defence in Idlib confirmed that the hospital was hit but said four people were killed.

“At least four people have been killed while several others have been injured. We expect the death toll to rise. There are doctors and MSF staff missing,” Radi said, without stating his full name.

At least 13 people were reportedly injured in the strikes, as rescue workers were trying to reach several people buried under the rubble.

“Extreme damage has been caused to the hospital. Six floors have been almost reduced to rubble. This hospital is located in an area previously surrounded by restaurants and has no rebel strongholds. It has been functioning for over a year now,” Radi said.

MSF condemned the attack in a report released on Monday.

“This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms,” said Massimiliano Rebaudengo, MSF’s head of mission.

“The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict,” Massimiliano said.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Turkish town of Gaziantep near the Syria border, said:

“This is not the first time a hospital or a health facility has been targeted in Syria.

“What we understand is the facility in Idlib that was hit this morning was serving up to 40,000 people who live in what MSF called an active zone of conflict, so they will be denied health services,” she added.

“The health system in Syria as a whole really has all but collapsed and undoubtedly a very grim situation.”

Report: Death toll from Syrian conflict now 470,000

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Syrian girls react following a reported Syrian regime air strike in a rebel-controlled area in the northern city of Aleppo on February 8, 2016. (AFP/Ameer al-Halbi)

Syrian girls react following a reported Syrian regime air strike in a rebel-controlled area in the northern city of Aleppo on February 8, 2016. (AFP/Ameer al-Halbi)

by Andolu Ajansi

A report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research has said that nearly 12 percent of the Syrian population have been killed or injured in civil war.

According to the report released on Thursday, 470,000 Syrians were killed and 1,900,000 others injured in the war which has entered in its fifth year, following the involvement of other actors such asRussia, Iran and Hezbollah.

This is far above the United Nation’s last death-toll figure of 250,000. The UN stopped collecting statistics about the casualties of Syrian stalemate 18 months ago.

In addition, the conflict-hit country’s infrastructure and health system were nearly decimated, researchers said. It added that 400,000 people were killed directly by the violence and another 70,000 lost their lives due to lack of food and medicine plus disease and sanitation problems.

Thursday’s report also said life expectancy had dropped from 70 to 55.4.

The report said that 45 percent of the Syrian population had been displaced, more than four million have become refugees in other countries and six million others were internally displaced. The report also touched upon economic losses in Syria, saying the war had cost $255 billion and that almost 14 million people had lost their livelihoods.

It also added that poverty increased by 85% in 2015 and health, education and income standards have sharply deteriorated.

Syria: Russian PM warns of world war if troops sent in

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Dmitry Medvedev tells German paper proposal to send Arab ground forces to fight ISIL “draws everyone” into war.

Dmitry Medvedev

by Al Jazeera

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the deployment of foreign ground troops in the Syrian conflict could result in a world war.

Medvedev was quoted as saying in an interview published late on Thursday by the German newspaper Handelsblatt that “a ground operation draws everyone taking part in it into a war”.

When asked about a recent proposal from Saudi Arabia to send in ground troops to Syria, the Russian prime minister answered that “the Americans and our Arab partners must consider whether or not they want a permanent war”.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said Medvedev’s comments were an explicit warning to the United States and its regional allies, including Saudi Arabia.

“He basically told them to back off on sending troops because if they did, this might result in some sort of interminable or even a world war,” Challands said.

Medvedev also criticised Western powers’ refusal to collaborate with Russia in Syria. The prime minister said ties at the level of defence departments were only sporadic.

US defence chief Ashton Carter, meanwhile, welcomed a commitment from Saudi Arabia to expand its role with ground troops in Syria against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

At a gathering of more than two dozen defence ministers at NATO headquarters, Carter said on Friday key ally the United Arab Emirates agreed to send special forces soldiers to Syria to assist in the development of local Sunni Arab fighters focused on recapturing Raqqa, ISIL’s de facto capital.

Carter declined to say how many Emirati commandos would go to Syria. He said they would be part of an effort led by the US and bolstered by Saudi special forces to train and enable local Arab fighters who are motivated to recapture Raqqa.

Saudi Arabia’s Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said his country was ready to send troops into Syria if there was a consensus in the anti-ISIL coalition. But he declined to elaborate, saying: “It is too early to talk about such options. Today we are talking at the strategic level.”

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intends to meet with his Saudi counterpart Adil al-Ahmad al-Jubayr in Munich, Germany on Friday, a Russian news report said.

Vyacheslav Matuzov, a former Russian diplomat, told Al Jazeera that Russia was not fuelling the Syrian conflict, rather it had prevented it from spreading.

Matuzov said he understood that a “cessation of hostilities” pact that world powers had arrived at in Munich on Thursday meant the only solution for the conflict had to be political.

“I think all groups would understand there is no solution but a political solution. Those who do not agree to stop fighting will be enemies, and will be destroyed, as I understand to be the result of Munich,” he said.

Ceasefire talk as 50,000 Syrians flee Aleppo fighting

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Russia reportedly has proposed a March 1 truce as the Syrian government ramps up its military offensive on Aleppo.

Syrian refugees wait for food near a refugee camp in Bab Al-Salama city, in northern Syria, on February 6 [Sedat Suna/EPA]

Syrian refugees wait for food near a refugee camp in Bab Al-Salama city, in northern Syria, on February 6 [Sedat Suna/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Russia is ready to discuss a possible ceasefire in Syria, an official said on Thursday, before a crucial meeting of major powers in Germany on how to end the five-year-old Syrian civil war.

“We are ready to discuss the modalities of a ceasefire in Syria,” Gennady Gatilov, the deputy foreign minister, was cited by the TASS news agency as saying. “This is what will be talked about in Munich.”

Citing an unnamed Western official, the Reuters news agency reported late on Wednesday that Russia proposed a ceasefire to begin on March 1.

International powers, including Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Iran, were to meet on Thursday in Germany in a bid to resurrect Syrian peace talks inGeneva that were postponed earlier this month.

A Syrian government offensive around the city of Aleppo – backed by Russian air strikes – has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing to the Turkish border, putting the Geneva talks in jeopardy.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said that the US and its allies would probably view Russia’s truce offer with scepticism.

“The US concerns are that this gives the offensive that’s currently ongoing in the Aleppo region more time to push the rebels back, possibly going so far as a full military victory,” said Challands.

Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry lashed out at the US-led coalition in Syria for refusing to provide intelligence on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets there.

Major-General Igor Konashenkov, the defence ministry spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday that Russia has shared its own intelligence with the US that has “gratefully taken” it – but has not reciprocated.

Konashenkov said Moscow has repeatedly asked Washington and its allies for intelligence in response to the accusations that Russians are targeting the “wrong objects”.

At least 50,000 Syrians have fled the fighting in Aleppo, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday, adding that water supplies have been disrupted in some parts of the province.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday that at least 500 people have been killed since the Syrian government, backed by Russian air strikes,  launched a major offensive  from the north of Aleppo on February 1.

The Observatory said  that among those killed were “89 civilians, including 23 children, 143 pro-government fighters, 274 rebels and foreign fighters”.

Russian air strikes that began in September have tilted the war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Syrian government holds the west of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, while the rebels hold the east, but the situation is largely reversed in the countryside.

The latest diplomatic efforts to end the Syrian conflict through peace talks were suspended in Geneva earlier this month until February 25, after UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said that more work was needed to make progress.

The Syrian opposition has said that it will not attend the scheduled talks unless the government ends its air strikes and lifts the sieges on cities and towns.

The peace talks are meant to develop a “road map” to end the conflict of almost five years that has resulted in more than 250,000 Syrians being killed.

The conflict has also displaced millions more and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing as refugees to Europe.

NATO chief: Russian airstrikes in Syria undermine peace talks

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg presents the 2015 NATO annual report during a press conference in Brussels, January 28, 2016. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg presents the 2015 NATO annual report during a press conference in Brussels, January 28, 2016. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

by Al Bawaba

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that Russia’s increase in airstrikes is undermining Syria peace talks in Geneva, Reuters reported.

“The intense Russia airstrikes, mainly targeting opposition groups in Syria, is undermining the efforts to find a political solution to the conflict,” Stoltenberg told Reuters upon arriving for a meeting of EU defense ministers in Amsterdam.

Stoltenberg also defended claims that Russia had again violated airspace in Turkey, a NATO member.

“The increased Russia presence, the air activity in Syria, is also causing increased tensions and violations of Turkish airspace … violations of NATO airspace,” he said. “This creates risks.”

Since Monday, the Syrian army and forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad have made advances in a push to encircle and rout out rebels in the eastern part of Aleppo. The assault has been backed by Russian airstrikes and has also cut off a key supply route to the Turkish border.

Syrian army encircles Aleppo as ceasefire talks fade

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Government offensive intensifies around Syria’s largest city, threatening to cut off rebel supply routes in the north.

A man rides a motorcycle past damaged buildings in al-Myassar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria January 31, 2016. Picture taken January 31, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

A man rides a motorcycle past damaged buildings in al-Myassar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria January 31, 2016. Picture taken January 31, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

by Al Jazeera

A Syrian military offensive backed by heavy Russian air strikes threatened to cut critical rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo, as peace talks in Switzerland appeared to be in jeopardy on Wednesday.

The government attack north of Aleppo that began in recent days is its first major offensive there since Russian air strikes began on September 30.

Rebels described the assault as the most intense yet, with activists reporting that 45 civilians have been killed. One commander said that opposition-held areas of Syria’s largest city were at risk of being encircled entirely by the government and allied militia, appealing to foreign states that back the rebels to send more weapons.

Chances of achieving a ceasefire at talks in Geneva appears to be receding as the government, supported by Russian air power, advances against rebels, some of them US-backed.

The refugee crisis and spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group through large areas of Syria, and from there to Iraq, had injected a new urgency to resolve the five-year-old Syria war.

On Tuesday, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, called on Moscow to stop the bombing during the peace process. “We are beginning the talks, we are at the table and we expect a ceasefire,” he said after a meeting in Rome of countries opposed to ISIL.

But Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister,  said at a news conference from Oman on Wednesday that Russia would not stop its air strikes on Syria “until we defeat terrorist organisation like al-Nusra [Front]”.

The area around Aleppo safeguards a rebel supply route from Turkey into opposition-held parts of the city and stands between government-held parts of western Aleppo and the Shia villages of Nubul and al-Zahraa, which are loyal to Damascus.

“The supply routes were not cut but there is heavy bombardment of them by the jets,” said a commander in the Levant Front rebel group who gave his name as Abu Yasine. “The Russian jets are trying to hit headquarters and cut supply routes.”

The Russian jets had been working “night and day” for three days, he added, and reiterated the rebels’ long-held demand for anti-aircraft missiles to confront the assault.

“If there is no support, the regime could besiege the city of Aleppo and cut the road to the north,” said Abu Yasine, whose group is one of the rebel movements that have received military support from states opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, funnelled via Turkey.

Advancing government forces seized the village of Hardatnin some 10km northwest of Aleppo, building on gains of the previous day, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring body.

Another rebel commander said that he had sent reinforcements to the area.

“We sent new fighters this morning, we sent heavier equipment there. It seems it will be a decisive battle in the north, God willing,” said Ahmed al-Seoud, head of a Free Syrian Army group known as Division 13.

The Russian intervention has reversed the course of the war for Damascus, which suffered a series of major defeats to rebels in western Syria last year before Moscow deployed its air force as part of an alliance with Iran.

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