Mexico arrests drug lord Beltran Leyva posing as businessman

By Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hector Beltran Leyva, one of the most notorious Mexican drug lords still at large, was captured on Wednesday by soldiers at a seafood restaurant in a picturesque town in central Mexico popular with American retirees.

The government's announcement it had snared the boss of the Beltran Leyva cartel is a serious blow to a gang named after a group of brothers who became infamous for the bloody turf war they waged with their former ally, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

Beltran Leyva was caught in the picture postcard town of San Miguel de Allende, a three-hour drive northwest of Mexico City, and had been living in the nearby city of Queretaro posing as a businessman dealing in art and real estate, the government said.

The 49-year-old Beltran Leyva and an associate were carrying military-issue handguns, but like his adversary Guzman, he was arrested without a shot being fired. Guzman, who was the world's most wanted drug boss, was captured in Mexico in February.

Beltran Leyva shunned luxury cars, passing himself off as a well-off businessman, said Tomas Zeron, director of criminal investigations at the Attorney General's office.

"(Beltran Leyva) kept his operations away from his home so as not to alter his discreet, low-key lifestyle, avoiding attracting the attention of neighbors or friends or the authorities," Zeron said.

Beltran Leyva now faces charges of trafficking cocaine from Mexico and South America to the United States and Europe and a host of other crimes. In November, the U.S. Treasury Department said the Beltran Leyva gang was responsible for "countless murders" of Mexican anti-drugs and military personnel.

Hector's capture is a major victory for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has sought to shift focus away from the violence that fighting the drug gangs has spawned in recent years and onto the economic reforms he has pushed through Congress.

Pena Nieto on his Twitter account touted the capture of Beltran Leyva, who had bounties on his head of $5 million in the United States and 30 million pesos ($2.2 million) in Mexico.

Hector, who Zeron said had likely branched out into selling synthetic drugs, was the only one of the gang's brothers known to be involved in drug trafficking not dead or behind bars.

BLOODY WAR

When Mexican special forces arrested Alfredo Beltran Leyva in early 2008, the brothers reportedly believed Guzman had sold out their sibling, sparking a war with the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel based in the northwestern state of the same name.

Over the next three years, the rupture ushered in a new brutality to the violence that overshadowed the 2006-2012 administration of then-President Felipe Calderon.

By 2010, the Beltran Leyvas had lost several leaders and Hector, alias "The Engineer," was in control.

The Beltran Leyva gang has had a reputation as one of the most vengeful and ruthless in the business.

When Hector's older brother Arturo was killed by Mexican marines in December 2009, the government honored one of the young marines slain in the raid and images of the family funeral were broadcast around the country.

The next day, gunmen swept into the family home and killed the marine's mother, sister, brother and an aunt.

For years, the Beltran Leyva brothers had worked with other Sinaloan gangsters, notably Guzman, helping to manage his network of hitmen. The brothers and Guzman hailed from the same region of Sinaloa, and marriages also linked the two clans.

Guzman reportedly tasked the Beltran Leyva organization with infiltrating Mexico's security and political apparatus.

Security experts went as far as to credit Hector Beltran Leyva with having an informant inside the office of then-President Vicente Fox a decade ago. The official, Nahum Acosta, was arrested in 2005 but later released for lack of evidence.

At its peak, the Beltran Leyva cartel dominated drug-trafficking in western Mexico. After the break with Guzman, the brothers forged alliances of convenience with former rivals in the Gulf Cartel as well as the ruthless Zetas.

After Arturo's death, the Beltran Leyva organization was weakened by infighting as a split emerged between Hector and a faction led by U.S.-born Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias "La Barbie," whom Mexican authorities arrested in August 2010.

Lately, however, U.S. officials said that the Beltran Leyva cartel had begun to expand after rebuilding itself.

(Additional reporting by Dave Graham and Michael O'Boyle; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Simon Gardner)

• Organized Crime
• Crime & Justice
• Mexico
• Alfredo Beltran Leyva
• Mexico City

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

At least 10 killed in shelling of school and mini-van in Ukraine

By Maria Tsvetkova

DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - At least 10 people were killed on Wednesday when shells hit a school playground and a public transit mini-van in a nearby street in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, underscoring the fragility of a ceasefire between separatists and government forces.

Teachers managed to lead pupils at school No. 57 into a cellar for safety when shelling started and there were no children among those killed, municipal authorities and witnesses said.

The shelling occurred at 10 a.m. on the first day of the new school year after the 50-60 pupils aged from eight to 10 had already entered the school. The dead included a male biology teacher and the father of one of the children at the school, teachers said.

Apart from those bodies and that of a third person who was identified as a separatist fighter, Reuters correspondents saw a further six bodies in the burnt-out mini-van and on streets nearby.

The regional administration said a total of 10 people had been killed in the shelling in the city, a stronghold of Russian-backed rebels waging a separatist rebellion against the pro-Western government in Kiev. Rebels put the number of dead at 12, saying two victims had been removed from the scene.

Nine others were wounded, seven of whom were taken to hospital, the municipality said in a statement on its website.

City authorities blamed the shelling on the rebels and the separatists blamed it on government forces. It interrupted a fragile ceasefire in a conflict in which about 3,500 people have been killed, according to U.N. figures.

BROKEN GLASS

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said last week there were clear signs that the ceasefire that came into force on Sept. 5, the cornerstone of his peace plan to end six months of conflict, was working.

But it has begun to fray with the deaths on Monday and Tuesday of nine Ukrainian servicemen in clashes with separatists.

The school is in a city district a few kilometres from the city's main airport where separatists have been trying to dislodge government forces for some days.

Since the rebellions erupted in eastern Ukraine in April and shelling began in Donetsk, authorities have introduced distance-learning courses for children to allow them to stay at home. School No. 57 has capacity for 400 children although only the 50-60 assembled for classes on Wednesday.

There were pools of blood inside the school and the floor was strewn with broken glass and overturned school tables.

Lidia Sheiko, who teaches Russian at the school, said: "It was a nightmare. There was glass flying everywhere. The children got frightened and began to cry."

Near the shelled school, a Reuters team saw two charred bodies in the mini-van, two more on the pavement and another two on the street about 20 metres (yards) away.

A car had also been hit and destroyed. Rebels at the scene said two people had been killed in it and their bodies had been taken away.

A commander of a rebel unit, Viktor Khalyava, said the school was hit by five Uragan rockets fired by the Ukrainians. "It was a targeted strike on the school," he said.

The municipal authorities however blamed the attack on the school and on the minibus on forces of the rebel "Donetsk People's Republic."

(Additional reporting by Lina Kushch; Writing by Richard Balmforth Editing by Timothy Heritage and Alison Williams)

• Politics & Government
• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• DONETSK Ukraine

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hong Kong leader plays waiting game, protesters demand he resigns

By John Ruwitch and Donny Kwok

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's leader is willing to let pro-democracy demonstrations blocking large areas of the city go on for weeks if necessary, a source close to him said, while defiant protesters vowed they would not budge.

The city's streets were calm early on Thursday while police largely kept their distance from the thousands of mostly young people keeping up protests, now nearly a week old, in several areas of the global financial hub.

The protesters want Hong Kong's leader, Leung Chun-ying, to step down by the end of Thursday and have demanded China introduce full democracy so the city can freely choose its own leader. Leung, appointed by Beijing, has refused to stand down, leaving the two sides far apart in a dispute over how much political control China should have over to Hong Kong.

The popular "Occupy Central" movement presents one of the biggest political challenges for Beijing since it violently crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Leung, Hong Kong's chief executive, is prepared to allow the protests to subside and will only intervene if there is looting or violence, said a government source with ties to Leung.

"Unless there's some chaotic situation, we won't send in riot police ... We hope this doesn't happen," the source said. "We have to deal with it peacefully, even if it lasts weeks or months." Leung could not be reached for comment.

Riot police used tear gas, pepper spray and baton charges last weekend to quell unrest, the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule of the former British colony in 1997.

The protests have calmed considerably since then, and the numbers on the streets have fallen sharply from the tens of thousands seen at the weekend, although an air of tension remains and the demonstrations appear far from over.

However, a crowd of about 100 protesters had blocked the main road leading to Leung's office in the Central business district, some chanting, "Leung Chun-ying, Step Down!"

U.S. President Barack Obama told visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who earlier met Secretary of State John Kerry, that Washington was watching the protests closely and urged a peaceful solution.

View gallery

Student protesters shout slogans outside the Golden Bauhinia Square, venue of the official flag-rais …

"The United States has consistently supported the open system that is essential to Hong Kong's stability and prosperity, universal suffrage, and the aspiration of the Hong Kong people," the White House said in a statement about the meeting, also attended by national security adviser Susan Rice.

Universal suffrage is an eventual goal under the "one country, two systems" formula by which China rules Hong Kong. Under that formula, China accords Hong Kong some autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China.

However, protesters calling for free elections reacted angrily when Beijing decreed on Aug. 31 that it would vet candidates wishing to run in Hong Kong's 2017 election.

Wang said before an earlier meeting with Kerry that countries should not meddle in China's internal affairs.

"The Chinese government has very formally and clearly stated its position. Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs. All countries should respect China's sovereignty," Wang said.

"WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?"

National Day, a public holiday marking the Communist Party's foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, passed on Wednesday without the police crackdown many in Hong Kong had feared, although some people booed while the national anthem was played at a ceremony.

Protesters across the city have dug in, setting up supply stations with water bottles, fruit, disposable raincoats, towels, goggles, face masks and tents. Even so, some in the crowds wondered how long the status quo could last.

"I don't think we can stay like this for more than two weeks," said Moses Ng, a 26-year-old who works in sales and marketing, gesturing towards young people milling around barricaded streets in Causeway Bay, a major shopping district.

"(If so) this action would have totally failed, so we are thinking about what else we can do."

View gallery

Protesters gather around the Golden Baihinia Square during an official flag raising ceremony to comm …

Others, like 17-year-old secondary school pupil Wong Chi Min, were more defiant.

"People will keep coming back every day," he said. "We will wait for CY (Leung) to step down so we can choose our own leader. If he doesn't, we will continue to wait here."

The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the protest organizers, urged people to surround more government buildings from Friday unless the authorities accepted their demands.

But Leung has said Beijing would not back down and that Hong Kong police would be able to maintain security without help from People's Liberation Army troops from the mainland.

BEIJING'S DILEMMA

China has dismissed the protests as illegal, but in a worrying sign for the Communist Party leadership in Beijing, the demonstrations have spread to neighboring Macau and Taiwan.

China now faces a dilemma.

Cracking down too hard on the movement could shake confidence in market-driven Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system from the rest of China. Not reacting firmly enough, however, could embolden dissidents on the mainland.

An editorial in the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official organ, said the "Occupy Central" protests were confrontational and that some protesters wanted to make trouble.

"(They) will eventually suffer the consequences of their actions," it said on Wednesday.

Rights groups said a number of China-based activists supporting the Hong Kong protests had been detained or intimidated by police on the mainland.

Around 5,000 people crowded into Taipei's Liberty Square on Wednesday in a show of solidarity with Hong Kong. Events are being watched closely in Taiwan, which has full democracy but is considered by Beijing as a renegade province that must one day be reunited with the mainland.

In the world's largest gambling hub of Macau, a former Portuguese colony and like Hong Kong a Chinese "special administrative region", organizers said around 1,200 people gathered in Friendship Square to show their support.

In London, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Chinese embassy, some carrying umbrellas that have become the symbol of the Hong Kong demonstrations. About 100 people also gathered in New York's Times Square in support of the protest, many holding aloft open umbrellas.

Turmoil in Hong Kong has begun to affect the economy.

Hong Kong radio RTHK quoted Joseph Tung, executive director of the city's Travel Industry Council, as saying China's tourism authorities had suspended approval of tourist groups from the mainland to Hong Kong, citing safety issues.

Some banks and other financial firms have begun moving staff to back-up premises on the outskirts of Hong Kong to prevent growing unrest in the financial hub from disrupting trading and other critical functions.

(This story was corrected to say thousands of protesters, not tens of thousands, in paragraph 2)

(Additional reporting by Charlie Zhu, Yimou Lee, James Pomfret, Irene Jay Liu, Farah Master, Diana Chan, Twinnie Siu, Kinling Lo, Clare Baldwin, Diana Chan and Anne Marie Roantree in HONG KONG，Sui-Lee Wee in BEIJING, Stephen Addison in LONDON and Lesley Wroughton, Arshad Mohammed, Jeff Mason and Steve Holland in WASHINGTON, Jonathan Allen in NEW YORK, and Ahmed Aboulenein in LONDON; Writing by Mike Collett-White and Paul Tait; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Hong Kong
• Leung Chun-ying
• China

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

Israel's Netanyahu to Obama: Don't allow Iran deal that leaves it at nuclear threshold

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly told U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday that he must make sure that any final nuclear deal with Iran does not leave it at the "threshold" of being able to develop nuclear weapons.

Even as Netanyahu pressed Obama over Iran in White House talks, the president urged the Israeli leader to help find ways to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties like those inflicted in the recent Gaza war between Israel and Hamas militants.

Netanyahu's visit was clouded by word of Israel's approval of the planned construction of more than 2,600 settler homes in mostly Arab East Jerusalem.

The White House said the matter came up in the leaders' closed-door talks and warned that it would draw international condemnation, "poison the atmosphere" with the Palestinians as well as Arab governments and call into question Israel's commitment to peace.

Meeting for the first time in eight months, the two leaders, who have a history of strained relations, avoided any direct verbal clash during a brief press appearance and even seemed in sync over the fight against Islamic State militants.

But they were unable to hide their differences on some of the issues that have stoked tension between them.

Underscoring Israeli misgivings at a critical juncture in nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, Netanyahu made clear that he remains at odds with Obama about the course of international negotiations with Israel's regional arch-foe.

"As you know, Mr. President, Iran seeks a deal that would lift the tough sanctions that you worked so hard to put in place and leave it as a threshold nuclear power," Netanyahu said. "I firmly hope under your leadership that would not happen."

The crux of the U.S.-Israeli disagreement is that Netanyahu wants Tehran completely stripped of its nuclear capability, while Obama has suggested he is open to Iran continuing to enrich uranium on a limited basis for civilian purposes.

View gallery

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Ova …

While Netanyahu put the emphasis on Iran, Obama was quick to focus on the bloody 55-day Gaza conflict, which ended in August with no clear victor. This followed the collapse of U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israel and Palestinians in April.

"We have to find ways to change the status quo so that both Israeli citizens are safe in their own homes and school children in their schools from the possibility of rocket fire, but also that we don't have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed as well," Obama said.

The Obama administration had backed Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas cross-border rocket fire, but also voiced rare criticism of Israeli military tactics as Palestinian civilian casualties mounted.

The conflict killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.

THINKING 'OUTSIDE THE BOX'

Netanyahu said he remained "committed to a vision of peace for two states for two peoples," but he did not offer any path toward restarting negotiations.

Instead, he suggested there was a need to "think outside the box" and recruit moderate Arab states to advance peace in the region, though he offered no specifics. Palestinians have dismissed this approach as a bid to circumvent direct talks.

Within hours of the talks, both the White House and State Department blasted Israel's housing decision, reported by the anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now, to move forward on the settler housing project slated for construction since 2012.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to speculate whether disclosure of the settlement plan was timed for Netanyahu's Washington visit.

The Obama administration has repeatedly urged a halt to settlement expansion.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem after its capture in the 1967 war, when the West Bank and Gaza were also seized. Citing Biblical roots, Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognized internationally.

The leaders showed no outward tension as they sat side-by-side in the Oval Office. Both were cordial and businesslike. The last thing the White House wanted was a repetition of a 2011 visit when Netanyahu lectured Obama on Jewish history.

But even with calm words, there was little doubt about the lingering differences.

Netanyahu was expected to use the Oval Office meeting to reiterate the warning he issued in his speech at the United Nations this week – that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a far greater threat than Islamic State fighters who have seized swathes of Syria and Iraq. An Iranian U.N. delegate accused Netanyahu of "propagating Iranophobia and Islamophobia."

Though Israel backs Obama's efforts to forge a coalition to confront Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, some Israelis fear that world powers could go easy on Shi'ite Iran's nuclear program so it will help in the fight against the Sunni Islamist group.

"The president made clear to the prime minister that regional events, including the need to destroy ISIL, won't change our calculus on this issue," said White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan. "We must see concrete, verifiable steps that Iran's program is exclusively peaceful."

Netanyahu has cast Iran's nuclear ambitions as an existential threat to Israel. Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons. Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal.

Iran and six world powers ended 10 days of talks in New York last week that made little progress toward a long-term agreement by a November 24 deadline.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Lesley Wroughton in Washington and Dan Williams and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Ken Wills and Dan Grebler)

• Politics & Government
• Foreign Policy
• Barack Obama
• Benjamin Netanyahu
• Iran
• Israel
• nuclear weapons
• White House

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

Palestinians draft U.N. resolution on ending Israel occupation

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Palestinians have drafted a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an end to Israeli occupation by November 2016, which they have shared informally with Arab states and some council members, U.N. diplomats said on Wednesday.

The text has not been formally circulated to the full 15-nation Security Council, a move that can only be done by a council member, said the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity. As a result, it remains unclear when, and if, it will be put to a vote.

It calls for "the full withdrawal of Israel ... from all of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, as rapidly as possible and to be fully completed within a specified timeframe, not to exceed November 2016."

The draft, which was obtained by Reuters, is likely to be met with opposition from veto-wielding member the United States, a key ally of Israel.

"We are aware of President Abbas' plan and we continue to believe, to strongly believe, that the only way to a negotiated solution is through negotiations between the two parties," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told reporters on Tuesday.

Israel accepts the idea of a "two-state solution" of an independent and democratic Palestinian state living alongside Israel, but has not accepted the 1967 borders as the basis for final negotiations, citing security and other concerns.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday there was no value in peace talks with Israel unless the goal is ending its 47-year occupation within a "firm timetable."

In the same speech, Abbas also accused Israel of genocide during the 50-day conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which ended in late August with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. Hamas controls Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily during his U.N. address on Monday, describing the allegations as "shameless." He expressed his support for a "historic compromise" with the Palestinians, but offered no new details of what such a compromise would envisage. 

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Peter Cooney)

• Politics & Government
• Foreign Policy
• Israel

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kurds seize Iraq/Syria border post; Sunni tribe joins fight against Islamic State

By Isabel Coles and Jonny Hogg

ARBIL Iraq/MURSITPINAR Turkey (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish troops drove Islamic State fighters from a strategic border crossing with Syria on Tuesday and won the support of members of a major Sunni tribe, in one of the biggest successes since U.S. forces began bombing the Islamists.

The victory, which could make it harder for militants to operate on both sides of the frontier, was also achieved with help from Kurds from the Syrian side of the frontier, a new sign of cooperation across the border.

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took control of the Rabia border crossing in a battle that began before dawn, an Iraqi Kurdish political source said.

"It's the most important strategic point for crossing," the source said.

The participation of Sunni tribal fighters in the battle against Islamic State could prove as important a development as the advance itself.

Members of the influential Shammar tribe, one of the largest in northwestern Iraq, joined the Kurds in the fighting, a tribal figure said.

"Rabia is completely liberated. All of the Shammar are with the Peshmerga, and there is full cooperation between us," Abdullah Yawar, a leading member of the tribe, told Reuters.

He said the cooperation was the result of an agreement with the president of Iraq's Kurdish region after three months of negotiation to join forces against the "common enemy".

View gallery

Islamic State flags flutter on the Mullah Abdullah bridge in southern Kirkuk September 29, 2014. REU …

Gaining support from Sunni tribes, many of which either supported or acquiesced in Islamic State's June advance, would be a crucial objective for the Iraqi government and its regional and Western allies in the fight against the insurgents.

WINNING OVER SUNNI TRIBES

Winning over Sunni tribes was a central part of the strategy that helped the U.S. military defeat a precursor of Islamic State during the "surge" campaign of 2006-2007. Washington hopes the new Iraqi government can repeat it.

Rabia controls the main highway linking Syria to Mosul, the biggest city in northern Iraq, which Islamic State fighters captured in June at the start of a lightning advance through Iraq's Sunni Muslim north that jolted the Middle East.

Twelve Islamic State fighters' bodies lay on the border at the crossing after the battle, Hemin Hawrami, head of the foreign relations department of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the main Iraqi Kurdish parties, said on Twitter.

Syrian Kurdish fighters said they had also joined the battle: "We are defending Rabia ... trying to coordinate action with the Peshmerga against Islamic State," said Saleh Muslim, head of the Syria-based Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

If Rabia can be held, its recapture is one of the biggest successes since U.S.-led forces started bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq in August.

It is one of two main border crossings between militant-held parts of the two countries, control of which has allowed Islamic State to declare a single Caliphate on both sides.

View gallery

Abu Ismail (front R), the owner of a plastics factory that was targeted on Sunday by what activists  …

The ability to cross the frontier freely has been a major tactical advantage for Islamic State fighters on both sides. Fighters swept from Syria into northern Iraq in June and returned with heavy weapons seized from fleeing Iraqi government troops, which they have used to expand their territory in Syria.

Washington expanded the campaign to Syria last week in an effort to defeat the fighters who have swept through Sunni areas of both countries, killing prisoners, chasing out Kurds and ordering Shi'ites and non-Muslims to convert or die.

The United States hopes the strikes, conducted with help from European allies in Iraq and Arab air forces in Syria, will allow government and Kurdish forces in Iraq, and moderate Sunnis in Syria, to recapture territory.

But a wave of car bomb and mortar bomb attacks in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad, suspected to be the work of Islamic State fighters, were a reminder of risks. Iraqi police and medical sources said at least 35 people were killed.

Britain said its Tornado warplanes had launched their first attacks against Islamic State in Iraq since parliament approved combat operations last Friday, targeting a heavy weapons position that was endangering Kurdish forces and subsequently attacking an IS armed pick-up truck in the same area.

In Iraq, a coalition of Iraqi army, Shi'ite militia fighters and Kurdish troops known as Peshmerga have been slowly recapturing Sunni villages that had been under Islamic State control south of the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk. 

Peshmerga liberated two villages 40 km south of Kirkuk from Islamic State on Tuesday, an Iraqi security official said.

GROUND SHAKING BENEATH OUR FEET 

View gallery

Militant Islamist fighters on a tank take part in a military parade along the streets of northern Ra …

Peshmerga secretary-general Jabbar Yawar estimated the Iraqi Kurds had now retaken around half the territory they lost when the militants surged north towards the regional capital Arbil in early August, an advance that helped to prompt the U.S. strikes.    Peshmerga fighters, Iraqi army troops and pro-government militia were advancing north from the Peshmerga-held city of Tuz Khurmatu to drive Islamic State fighters out of the countryside that surrounds Kirkuk, the official said. He credited U.S.-led air strikes with helping the Peshmerga clear the two villages. 

"This area witnessed intense air strikes from U.S.-led strikes and Iraqi air strikes overnight and at dawn," the official said.

The explosions shook Kirkuk itself: "We felt the ground shaking beneath our feet, and then we heard that there were air strikes outside Kirkuk," said a policeman in the city.

In addition to aiding the Kurds in the north, U.S. air strikes have targeted fighters west of Baghdad and on its southern outskirts.

"We believe the U.S. air strikes have helped in containing Islamic State's momentum," said lawmaker Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a former head of Iraq's advisory security council.

Iraqi officials said U.S. air strikes, along with strikes by Iraq's own aircraft, had killed dozens of Islamic State fighters the previous day south of the capital.

"It appears that 67 (Islamic State) militants were killed in Fadiliya," said an Iraqi security source, referring to a town south of the capital.

The U.S. military said it had conducted 11 air strikes in Syria and the same number in Iraq in the previous 24 hours, on Islamic State tanks, artillery, checkpoints and buildings.

Islamic State fighters have laid siege to Kobani, a Kurdish city on Syria's border with Turkey. Sporadic gunfire could be heard from across the frontier, and a shell could be seen exploding in olive groves on the western outskirts of town.

A steady stream of people, mostly men, were crossing the border post back into Syria, apparently to help defend the town.

Ocalan Iso, deputy commander of the Kurdish forces defending the town, told Reuters Kurdish troops had battled Islamic State fighters armed with tanks through the night and into Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a body that monitors the war with a network on the ground, said U.S.-led strikes had hit Islamic State positions west of Kobani.

The Observatory said Islamic State now controls 325 out of 354 villages on the rural outskirts of Kobani.

Turkey is likely to gain parliamentary approval for cross-border military operations in Syria and Iraq this week as Islamic State insurgents threaten its territory, but it will be hesitant to send in troops without an internationally enforced no-fly zone.

Islamic State insurgents are advancing on a tomb in northern Syria regarded by Turkey as sovereign territory and guarded by Turkish soldiers, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama met with his National Security Council advisers to discuss strategy to counter the Islamic State, the White House said in a statement.

He was briefed about attacks on the group by U.S. and allied forces, and discussed progress on non-military aspects of the strategy, including organizing contributions from partner nations. The president was also told about the effects of U.S. air strikes in Syria on the Khorasan group of militant Islamists.

(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy, Raheem Salman and Ned Parker in Baghdad, Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Eric Walsh in Washington; Writing by Ned Parker and Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood and Ken Wills)

• Politics & Government
• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Islamic State
• Syria
• Iraq

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

In al Qaeda attack, lines between Pakistan military, militants blur

By Syed Raza Hassan and Katharine Houreld

KARACHI Pakistan/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Months after Owais Jakhrani was sacked from the Pakistan navy for radical Islamist views, he led an audacious mission to take over a warship and turn its guns on a U.S. naval vessel in the open seas.

The early September dawn raid at a naval base in the southern city of Karachi was thwarted, but not before Jakhrani, two officers and an unidentified fourth assailant snuck past a patrol boat in a dinghy and engaged in an intense firefight on or around the ship.

Four people were killed in the attempt to hijack the warship Zulfiqar, including Jakhrani and two accomplices, who were serving sub-lieutenants, according to police reports seen by Reuters.

Officials are divided about how much support the young man in his mid-20s had from inside the navy. They also stress that Jakhrani and his accomplices were a long way from achieving their aim when they were killed.

But the attack, claimed by al Qaeda's newly created South Asian wing, has highlighted the threat of militant infiltration into Pakistan's nuclear-armed military.

The issue is a sensitive one for Pakistan's armed forces, which have received billions of dollars of U.S. aid since 2001 when they joined Washington's global campaign against al Qaeda.

According to a statement from al Qaeda, the intended target in this case was a U.S. navy vessel, meaning potential loss of American lives and a blow to relations between the two nations.

A naval spokesman said an inquiry was still ongoing when Reuters contacted the military with detailed questions about the incident. The military typically does not publish its inquiries.

"The Reuters story is not based on facts," he said. "All the facts will be ascertained once the inquiry is finalised."

Most Pakistani military officials deny infiltration is a significant problem.

Yet Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told parliament the attackers could only have breached security with inside help.

One navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, said at least eight navy personnel had been arrested based on the attackers' phone records, including four aboard the ship.

Three serving mid-level lieutenant commanders from Karachi were also arrested in the western city of Quetta, allegedly trying to flee to Afghanistan two days after the botched raid, officials said.

Further arrests were made in Karachi, Peshawar, and northwestern Pakistan, they added.

THE "MASTERMIND"

The plot's mastermind was sub-lieutenant Jakhrani, either 25 or 26 years old, whose father is a senior police officer in Karachi, officials said.

He was fired several months ago during his probationary training period, according to a senior naval officer.

"He used to ask questions about why there is no break for prayers given during the course of training sessions," the officer said. "He used to question seniors."

Earlier this year, Jakhrani traveled to Afghanistan to meet militant leaders and receive combat training, according to two officials. They said that he had told his bosses before departing that he needed to take leave to study for exams.

But Jakhrani failed his exams and alarmed colleagues with his militant views.

"We found literature and material on his person that no one can be allowed to have. His colleagues reported his views and he was then closely watched and monitored and finally dismissed," one official said.

Once he left the navy, information on his movements and plans was patchy.

Intelligence officials tipped off the navy days before the attack that a raid was imminent, according to two officials. But Jakhrani, who had an insider's knowledge of the Karachi base, did not appear to be closely monitored.

Imtiaz Gul, head of the Islamabad-based think-tank the Centre for Research and Security Studies, said senior generals were aware of a long-standing weakness in surveillance of military officials dismissed for extremism.

"They don't have a tracking system for officers who are dismissed or asked to leave the service (for radical views)," said Gul. "That makes it very difficult to track if they have joined extremist groups."

Chris Rawley, vice president of the Washington D.C.-based think tank the Center for International Maritime Security, said the attack never looked likely to succeed.

But underlining one of the United States' biggest fears, he added: "The fact that maybe there are some collaborators in the navy is worrying because maybe there are collaborators among others that have purview over nuclear weapons."

Similar fears about militant infiltration and the sympathies of junior officers were raised after sophisticated attacks penetrated a Karachi naval base in 2011 and the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009.

THE ATTACK

The Karachi attack came two days after al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri announced the formation of a new wing, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. The region, stretching across India to Bangladesh, is home to more than 400 million Muslims.

"The Target was the American Fleet!" the group said in a statement carried by SITE intelligence group, which monitors jihadi communications.

Militants have launched attacks on top Pakistani security installations before, but this plot sought to strike at the heart of the alliance between Pakistan and the United States.

At least four attackers wearing navy uniforms snuck past the patrol boat, arriving at the Zulfiqar as the dawn shift change was due, a navy official said.

A sailor on board challenged them, leading to a shootout that ended when the ship's gunner fired anti-ship guns at the attackers, according to the navy official and a police report.

"The special services group commandos arrived from their nearby base and eliminated at least one attacker who had taken position below the deck," said a naval officer who worked on the base.

"Meanwhile, reinforcements of naval commandos came from the nearby (unit) Iqbal. The commandos came in with their gadgetry of jammers and a lab which absorbed all the data being transmitted from the ship at that moment."

In total three attackers and one sailor were killed, police reports and autopsies showed.

A policeman said he raced to the dockyard when he heard a blast, but the military told him it was part of celebrations for Pakistan Defense Day, which fell on the day of the attack.

The navy official said it was not clear what caused the blast, but it could have been either a grenade or suicide vest.

Witnesses' statements differ in some aspects to an account given by another security official, who said Jakhrani and five attackers were killed by a gunner on the ship who fired on their dinghy before they boarded.

One Pakistani security official said the threat posed by the plot to a U.S. ship in the region should not be exaggerated.

"It was not a success and trying to make it look like it was is unfair propaganda. Hijacking a navy ship isn't a joke," the official said. "We can all be alarmists if we want but this is not some Hollywood film."

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Islamabad, Gul Yousufzai in Quetta, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

• Politics & Government
• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• al Qaeda
• Pakistan

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

Wave of attacks in Shi'ite parts of Baghdad kill 35

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 35 people were killed in a wave of car bomb and mortar attacks in mainly Shi'ite Muslim districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi police and medical sources said.

It was one of the most violent days the capital has witnessed since U.S.-led forces began bombing Islamic State insurgents in Iraq last month.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but Islamic State, ultra-radical Sunni Muslim militants who seized swathes of northern Iraq in June, claimed several suicide bombings in the capital earlier this year.

Two car bombs exploded in busy streets in the al-Horreyya district, killing 20 people and wounding 35, according to the police and medical sources. There was also a mortar attack in the Sab al-Bour neighbourhood of northern Baghdad that killed five people and wounded 15.

Later on Tuesday, at least seven people were killed and 18 wounded when a car bomb exploded in the mainly Shi'ite Zaa'faraniya district of southeast Baghdad, police said.

Three mortars also landed in the Shi'ite al-Shula district in the capital's northwest, killing three people and wounding 12, police said.

Baghdad has witnessed relatively few attacks compared to the violence in other areas hit by Islamic State's offensive though bombs still struck the capital on a fairly regular basis. Mortar rounds have a short range compared to rockets, indicating the assailants fired from near the districts.

Security sources say Islamic fighters have tried to use farmland northwest of Baghdad to approach Shi'ite districts.

There were also several small-scale attacks in predominantly Shi'ite areas across the country. In the southern oil hub of Basra, a parked car bomb exploded in a parking lot, setting ablaze five cars but causing no casualties, police said.

In the town of Kifil, near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, at least one person was killed and three wounded by a car bomb. And in Kerbala, a car bomb blast on a busy street wounded at least seven people and torched a police car, police said.

In the Kurdish-controlled town of Khanaqin, 140 km (100 miles) northeast of Baghdad, at least four Kurdish security members were killed and 12 wounded in a bomb attack on their patrol, police and medics said.

U.S.-led forces started bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq in August and Washington expanded the campaign to Syria last week in an effort to defeat the well-armed insurgents who have swept through Sunni areas of both Iraq and Syria.

Washington hopes the air strikes, conducted with help from European allies in Iraq and Arab air forces in Syria, will allow government and Kurdish forces in Iraq, and moderate Sunnis in Syria, to recapture territory.

(Reporting by Kareem Raheem and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Dominic Evans)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Baghdad

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

U.S. says wants Syria's Assad out despite focus on Islamic State

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is focusing its efforts on defeating Islamic State militants wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria but has not changed its position that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The United States and five Arab allies began bombing Islamic State positions in Syria this month. The group, which is also known as ISIL and ISIS, has seized vast areas of Syria and Iraq and is accused of massacres and beheadings of civilians and soldiers.

"We continue to believe that the Assad regime is a magnet for terrorism," Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters. "The moderate Syrian opposition provides the best alternative to the Assad regime and the best counterweight to ISIL."

"We did not see over these last years anywhere near the same effort by the regime to take on ISIL that we have seen by the moderate opposition groups at great expense for them, at great sacrifice," she added.

Power said the moderate opposition has "engaged in pitched battles against ISIL" since December. She noted that Washington has concluded that Assad's government is neither willing to nor capable of defeating Islamic State, which she said had enjoyed a safe haven in Syria for a long time.

Despite the U.S. position that Assad must go, the current priority, Power said, is defeating the hard-line Sunni Islamist militants of Islamic State, an operation that diplomats and analysts say will benefit Assad's government in the short term.

"We are focused now on the monstrous threat posed by ISIL," Power said. "This is a threat that has cost not only the lives of two American journalists but an untold number of Syrian and Iraqi lives, also by summary execution and by beheading and so forth."

So far, air strikes by the United States and allies have failed to halt the militants' expansion into new territory.

Islamic State militants have beheaded two U.S. journalists and one British aid worker and distributed videos of the killings on line.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by James Dalgleish)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Islamic State
• Syria
• Samantha Power

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hong Kong protests approach potential National Day flashpoint

By Donny Kwok and Irene Jay Liu

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Thousands of pro-democracy protesters thronged the streets of Hong Kong early on Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on the pro-Beijing government that has called the action illegal, with both sides marking uneasy National Day celebrations.

There was little sign of momentum flagging on the fifth day of a mass campaign to occupy sections of the city and to express fury at a Chinese decision to limit voters' choices in a 2017 leadership election.

That was despite widespread fears that police may use force to move crowds before the start of celebrations marking the anniversary of the Communist Party's foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The crowds have brought large sections of the Asian financial hub to a standstill, disrupting businesses from banks to jewelers.

Overnight thunder, lightning and heavy rain failed to dampen spirits as protesters sought shelter under covered walkways, while police in raincoats and hats looked on passively nearby. At dawn on Wednesday, protesters awoke to blue skies.

Riot police had used tear gas, pepper spray and baton charges at the weekend to try to quell the unrest but tensions have eased since then as both sides appeared prepared to wait it out, at least for now.

View gallery

Student protesters shout slogans outside the Golden Bauhinia Square, venue of the official flag-rais …

Protests spread from four main areas to Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the city's most popular shopping areas for mainland Chinese, which would normally do roaring trade during the annual National Day holiday.

Underlining nervousness among some activists that provocation on National Day could spark violence, Hong Kong University students made an online appeal not to disturb the flag-raising ceremony that began at 8 a.m. (Tuesday 30, September 20:00).

Proceedings went ahead peacefully, although scores of students who ringed the ceremony at Bauhinia Square on the Hong Kong waterfront booed as the national anthem was played.

Hundreds of protesters lined up to view the ceremony, with some organizing a human chain to create a buffer between about 100 police at the site and other demonstrators.

A beaming Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying shook hands with supporters waving the Chinese flag even as protesters who want him to stand down chanted "We want real democracy".

View gallery

Protesters gather around the Golden Baihinia Square during an official flag raising ceremony to comm …

The Hong Kong and Chinese flags billowed in the wind at the completion of the ceremony but one of the main protest groups said they marked the occasion "with a heavy heart".

"We are not celebrating the 65th anniversary of China. With the present political turmoil in Hong Kong and the continued persecution of human rights activists in China, I think today is not a day for celebrations but rather a day of sadness," said Oscar Lai, a spokesman for the student group Scholarism.

SOLIDARITY

Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered outside luxury stores and set up makeshift barricades from the early hours of Wednesday in anticipation of possible clashes. As in most parts of Hong Kong, the police presence was small.

M. Lau, a 56-year-old retiree, said he had taken to the streets of Hong Kong to protest in the 1980s and wanted to do so again in a show of solidarity with a movement that has been led by students as well as more established activists.

View gallery

Policemen stand next to metal fences as protesters gather around the Golden Baihinia Square during a …

"Later this morning I will come back," he said.

"I want to see more. Our parents and grandparents came to Hong Kong for freedom and the rule of law. This (protest) is to maintain our 160-year-old legal system for the next generation."

The protests are the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule of the former British colony in 1997. They also represent one of the biggest political challenges for Beijing since it violently crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Cracking down too hard could shake confidence in market-driven Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system from the rest of China. Not reacting firmly enough, however, could embolden dissidents on the mainland.

China rules Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" formula that accords the former British colony a degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, with universal suffrage set as an eventual goal.

View gallery

Student protesters gesture outside the Golden Bauhinia Square, venue of the official flag-raising ce …

However, protesters reacted angrily when Beijing decreed on Aug. 31 that it would vet candidates wishing to run for Hong Kong's leadership.

Leung failed to meet an ultimatum from student leaders to come out and address them by midnight on Tuesday but has said Beijing would not back down in the face of protests.

He also said Hong Kong police would be able to maintain security without help from People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops from the mainland.

Communist Party leaders in Beijing worry that calls for democracy could spread to the mainland, and have been aggressively censoring news and social media comments about the Hong Kong demonstrations.

Hong Kong shares fell to a three-month low on Tuesday, registering their biggest monthly fall since May 2012. Markets are closed on Wednesday and Thursday for the holidays.

View gallery

Hundreds of protesters block the main road at Causeway Bay shopping district in Hong Kong September  …

The city's benchmark index <.HSI> has fallen 7.3 percent over the past month, and there are few indications that the protests are likely to end any time soon. Protesters have set up supply stations with water bottles, fruit, crackers, disposable raincoats, towels, goggles, face masks and tents.

"Even though I may get arrested, I will stay until the last minute," said 16-year-old John Choi. "We are fighting for our future."

MAINLAND CHINESE VISITORS WATCH ON

Mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong had differing views on the demonstrations, being staged under the "Occupy" banner.

"For the first time in my life I feel close to politics," said a 29-year-old Chinese tourist from Beijing who gave only her surname, Yu. "This is a historic moment for Hong Kong. I believe something like this will happen in China one day."

View gallery

Protesters walk along a street as they block an area near the government headquarters building in Ho …

A woman surnamed Lin, from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, however said the protesters' demands for a democratic election were "disrespectful to the mainland".

"Even though the government has brought a lot of development to Hong Kong, they don't acknowledge this," Lin said.

The message from Beijing has been clear.

The deputy director of China's National People's Congress Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee, Li Shenming, wrote in the People's Daily: "In today's China, engaging in an election system of one-man-one-vote is bound to quickly lead to turmoil, unrest and even a situation of civil war."

The outside world has looked on warily.

British finance chief George Osborne urged China to seek peace and said the former colony's prosperity depended on freedom. Washington urged Hong Kong authorities "to exercise restraint and for protesters to express their views peacefully".

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will discuss the protests with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during talks in Washington on Wednesday, U.S. officials said.

The events have also been followed closely in Taiwan, which has full democracy but is considered by Beijing as a renegade province that must one day be reunited with the mainland.

(Additional reporting by Farah Master, Diana Chan, Twinnie Siu, Yimou Lee, Kinling Lo, Charlie Zhu, John Ruwitch, Clare Baldwin, Diana Chan and Anne Marie Roantree; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Hong Kong

11.01 | 0 komentar | Read More