| Shiite rebels call for Yemen offensive; US troops evacuate Posted: 21 Mar 2015 04:28 PM PDT  ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's Shiite rebels issued a call to arms Saturday to battle forces loyal to the country's embattled president, as U.S. troops were evacuating a southern air base crucial to America's drone strike program after al-Qaida militants seized a nearby city.
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| Nine British medical students believed to be in Syria: report Posted: 21 Mar 2015 02:54 PM PDT Nine British medical students have traveled to Syria, apparently to work in hospitals controlled by Islamic State, Britain's Observer newspaper reported on Saturday. The group of four women and five men crossed into Syria from Turkey last week, having traveled from Sudan where they had been studying, said the story, published on the website of the Observer's sister paper, the Guardian. It quoted Turkish opposition politician Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, who had met members of the students' families who were trying to persuade the students to return. Britain's security services estimate that some 600 Britons have gone to Syria or Iraq to join militant groups, including the man known as "Jihadi John", who has appeared in several Islamic State beheading videos. |
| Tunisia arrests more than 20 in crackdown since museum attack Posted: 21 Mar 2015 02:46 PM PDT  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian authorities have arrested more than 20 suspected militants in a nationwide security crackdown since gunmen killed 23 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Wednesday's attack in the capital, the government said. Hundreds of people gathered for a mass in the cathedral in Tunis on Saturday, lighting candles to remember the victims, who included three Tunisians, in a ceremony attended by government ministers. Wednesday's assault, the deadliest involving foreigners in Tunisia since a 2002 suicide bombing on the island of Djerba, came at a fragile moment for a country just emerging to full democracy after a popular uprising four years ago. The government said the two gunmen had trained in jihadi camps in Libya before the attack at the Bardo museum inside the heavily secured Tunisian parliament compound.
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| Western powers pledge unity in Iran nuclear talks Posted: 21 Mar 2015 02:28 PM PDT  Western powers on Saturday played down reports of discord in their ranks and affirmed their "unity of purpose" in the Iran nuclear talks, urging the Islamic Republic to take "difficult decisions". "We will all continue to work together with unity of purpose," read a joint statement following the talks in London, adding: "Now is the time for Iran, in particular, to take difficult decisions". Iran and six world powers are in negotiations to clinch a landmark deal that would have the country scale back its controversial nuclear programme in return for relief from sanctions. The foreign ministers' gathering in London comes a day after the latest talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany -- ended without a breakthrough.
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| Iraqi Sunnis accuse Shi'ite paramilitaries of burning homes outside Tikrit Posted: 21 Mar 2015 02:21 PM PDT  Two Iraqi local officials and a police officer accused Shi'ite paramilitary forces on Saturday of burning and looting homes in the town of al-Dour after capturing the area during a military campaign to oust Islamic State fighters. A spokesman for the armed faction, Kataib Hezbollah, denied the allegations, while a security commander in the area also said there had been no incident in al-Dour. Salahuddin Provincial Council member Sahar Mawlood, parliament member Dhia al-Douri and a local policeman said that Kataib Hezbollah fighters, who have been battling Islamic State, had looted, blown up or set fire to houses in the town. Iraqi security forces backed by Shi'ite paramilitary groups have paused their push to drive Islamic State out of the city of Tikrit, which it seized last June in a lightning advance across central Iraq, although they have captured al-Dour and nearby communities.
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| Iraq Kurd leader vows to avenge beheaded fighters Posted: 21 Mar 2015 02:08 PM PDT  Massud Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, vowed on Saturday to avenge three peshmerga fighters beheaded by the Islamic State jihadist group. "We promise the families of these martyrs that their blood will not be wasted and that we will avenge them," Barzani said in an online statement. "Those who martyr the peshmerga in this way, before, now and in the future, will see how the hand of the heroic peshmerga will reach them," he said.
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| Islamic State calls on backers to kill 100 U.S. military personnel Posted: 21 Mar 2015 02:00 PM PDT  Islamic State has posted online what it says are the names, U.S. addresses and photos of 100 American military service members, and called upon its "brothers residing in America" to kill them. In the posting, a group referring to itself as the "Islamic State Hacking Division" wrote in English that it had hacked several military servers, databases and emails and made public the information on 100 members of the U.S. military so that "lone wolf" attackers can kill them. The Times quoted officials as saying the list appeared to have been drawn from personnel mentioned in news articles about air strikes on Islamic State. The posting, addressed to disbelievers, Christians and "crusaders" in America, included what the group said were the names, military service branch, photos and street addresses of the individuals.
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| 45 dead in attacks on Syria Kurds celebrating new year Posted: 21 Mar 2015 01:09 PM PDT  Forty-five people, including five children, were killed in attacks on Syrian Kurds as they celebrated their new year, a monitor said Saturday, accusing the Islamic State group of responsibility. The attacks occurred Friday in what was one of IS's bloodiest days in Syria, as the Sunni Muslim extremist group killed more than 120 people across the war-ravaged country. "There are now 45 dead from last night's attacks in Hasakeh, as most of those who were in critical condition passed away," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating its toll after initially reporting 33 dead. Two explosions struck as members of Syria's Kurdish minority took part in festivities on the eve of Nowruz, the Kurdish new year, in the northeastern city of Hasakeh.
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| Judge orders US release of military detainee abuse photos Posted: 21 Mar 2015 12:23 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge has ruled in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners.
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| Ahead of U.S. visit, Afghan leader warns of Islamic State threat Posted: 21 Mar 2015 11:40 AM PDT  By Kay Johnson and Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - President Ashraf Ghani publicly acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that Islamic State was gaining influence in Afghanistan, as he prepared to leave for the United States to seek to slow the withdrawal of American troops. Reports have been growing that some commanders of the Islamist Taliban forces fighting the Afghan government are swearing allegiance to the radical Islamist network that controls swathes of Syria and Iraq, sometimes called "Daesh". It is the network effect." The United Nations mission to Afghanistan said recently there was no indication of widespread or systematic direct support for Afghan fighters from IS leaders in the Middle East.
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| Queiroz stopped from leaving Iran over tax Posted: 21 Mar 2015 11:09 AM PDT  Iran's outgoing coach Carlos Queiroz was stopped from flying out of the country Saturday over tax matters, media reports said, forcing his players to leave Tehran for Europe without him. He is due to finish his tenure at the end of March after friendlies against Sweden and Chile, but as he and the team were heading out of Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport for those matches Queiroz was prevented from boarding the plane. "Mr Queiroz was told he is subject to a prohibition on leaving the country for non-payment of taxes. "The federation is trying to put him on the first plane," said Alireza Assadi, general secretary of the Iranian Football Federation (IFF).
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| US judge orders release of Iraq prisoner abuse photos Posted: 21 Mar 2015 10:52 AM PDT  A United States judge has ordered the government to release a trove of photos depicting abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan in the latest twist to a long-running legal battle over the images. In a ruling issued in New York on Friday, US federal judge Alvin Hellerstein gave the government two months to decide how to respond to his order before the photos could be released. The US government has opposed the release of the photos on the grounds they could provoke a violent backlash and place US forces and personnel overseas at heightened risk of attack.
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| Yemeni president demands Houthis quit Sanaa amid new fighting Posted: 21 Mar 2015 10:31 AM PDT  By Mohammed Mukhashaf ADEN (Reuters) - Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Saturday accused the Iranian-allied Houthi militia that controls the capital Sanaa of staging a coup against him, and said he would "raise Yemen's flag" in the Houthis' northern stronghold. In a call to arms from the southern city of Aden, where he fled last month after escaping house arrest by the Houthis, Hadi called on them to pull their forces out of state ministries, return weapons seized from the army, and quit Sanaa. "We shall deliver the country to safety and raise Yemen's flag on Mount Marran in Saadeh instead of the Iranian flag," he said in a televised speech, his first since reaching Aden. The Houthis, in a statement from their Supreme Revolutionary Committee, did not directly respond to the speech but called for a "general mobilization" of the armed forces against a "dirty war" they said was being waged by militias loyal to Hadi.
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| Iran coach Queiroz banned from leaving country over taxes Posted: 21 Mar 2015 10:19 AM PDT TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Authorities stopped Iran coach Carlos Queiroz from leaving the country Saturday over accusations of an unpaid tax bill, an Iranian football federation official said. The travel ban was lifted later in the day after talks with tax officials. |
| Iran's top leader rejects U.S. 'bullying' in nuclear talks Posted: 21 Mar 2015 09:52 AM PDT By Sam Wilkin and Babak Dehghanpisheh DUBAI/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the United States on Saturday of using economic pressure and "bullying" to try to turn his countrymen against Islamic rule, underscoring his long-held mistrust of Tehran's main negotiating partner in nuclear talks. Amid shouts of 'Death to America', Khamenei, who has the last word on all matters of state, reiterated in a speech in northeastern Iran that Tehran would not be pressured into giving in to Western demands in the negotiations with major powers. |
| Kurdish chief calls for congress to end Turkey rebellion Posted: 21 Mar 2015 09:33 AM PDT  Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. In an eagerly-anticipated message for the traditional Kurdish New Year, Ocalan however stopped short of setting out a clear road map for disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels as had been anticipated in some quarters. In the message read out by a pro-Kurdish lawmaker to hundreds of thousands of supporters in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Ocalan said that the armed struggle had been "painful" and could no longer be maintained. "A congress should be organised to bring an end to the 40-year struggle against the Turkish Republic," Ocalan said in the message read out by Sirri Sureyya Onder of the People's Democratic Party (HDP).
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| Yemen’s Civil War Forges Unholy Alliance Between al-Qaeda and ISIS Posted: 21 Mar 2015 09:00 AM PDT Over the last six months, the world watched helplessly while Yemen descended from a country with a legitimate government into a civil war caused by an unlawful occupation of the country's capital and several other provinces by the Houthi rebels. Today, with Sunni tribes fighting alongside al-Qaeda against the Houthis, the Yemen 24 is actually in a state of sectarian civil war, opening the door to a surge of both al-Qaeda and ISIS and their nefarious activities. Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, which is called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP, is considered the most dangerous and active branch of the terror organization. Yemen was one of the six Arab nations that witnessed revolutions as part of the Arab Spring. |
| Iran's leader rules out regional cooperation with US Posted: 21 Mar 2015 08:54 AM PDT  Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday ruled out any cooperation with the United States in the troubled Middle East, saying talks with Washington are confined to nuclear issues. In a closely watched speech marking the Persian new year festival of Nowruz, Khamenei took steps to quell speculation that any nuclear deal with the West could lead to a wider rapprochement. "No way," he told a raucous crowd in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, on the chances of an agreement on Iran's atomic programme having other policy implications. "Negotiations with the United States are on the nuclear issue and nothing else," he said.
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| U.S., allies conduct air strikes in Syria and Iraq against Islamic State: task force Posted: 21 Mar 2015 08:00 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its coalition allies staged three air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and seven in Iraq since early Friday, the Combined Joint Task Force overseeing the operations said in a statement on Saturday. All three air strikes in Syria targeted Islamic State fighting positions near Kobani. In Iraq, the strikes hit targets near Mosul, Kirkuk and Ramadi, among other locations, the statement said. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Frances Kerry) |
| Jailed Kurdish leader Ocalan urges fighters to abandon arms Posted: 21 Mar 2015 07:39 AM PDT DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AP) — Imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday renewed a call for his fighters to end their armed struggle against Turkey, part of efforts toward a peaceful resolution of a decades-long insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people. |
| Kurdish militant leader says armed struggle with Turkey 'unsustainable' Posted: 21 Mar 2015 07:24 AM PDT  By Daren Butler DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said on Saturday his militant group's three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state had become "unsustainable" but stopped short of declaring an immediate end to its armed struggle. In a message relayed by Kurdish politicians to tens of thousands gathered in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) urged his militant group to hold a congress on laying down its weapons. President Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, launched talks with Ocalan in late 2012 to end an insurgency that has killed 40,000 people, ravaged the region's economy and tarnished Turkey's image abroad. "History and our people are demanding from us a democratic solution and peace in line with the spirit of the age," he said, calling for the congress to determine the PKK's "political and social strategy in harmony with the spirit of the new period".
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| Afghan president to embark on landmark Washington visit Posted: 21 Mar 2015 06:51 AM PDT  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — As the Afghan president heads to the United States on his first trip to Washington as head of state, the landmark visit offers a chance for both sides to start afresh and wipe the slate clean on the legacy of troubled U.S-Afghan relations.
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| Blatter tells politicians to 'leave sport alone' Posted: 21 Mar 2015 01:19 AM PDT  By Brian Homewood ZURICH (Reuters) - FIFA president Sepp Blatter told politicians to leave football alone on Friday and said the 2018 World Cup could stabilise the situation in host nation Russia. "There has been increasingly more interference (in football) with cases in Africa, in Europe, in South America... and that is why I made the executive committee take a decision which means, in a nutshell, stop this political interference in sport," Blatter told a news conference. His comments came after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday called on his allies on to boycott the tournament if Russia did not pull its troops out of his country's territory.
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| U.S. fears Islamic State is making serious inroads in Libya Posted: 21 Mar 2015 01:00 AM PDT  By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is increasingly concerned about the growing presence and influence of the Syria-based Islamic State movement in Libya, according to U.S. officials and a State Department report. The officials said what they called "senior" Islamic State leaders had travelled to the country, which is whacked by civil war, to help recruit and organize militants, particularly in the cities of Derna and Sirte. Since late January, Islamic State militants have carried out attacks, including a car bombing and siege at the Corinthia, a luxury hotel in Tripoli, and an attack on the Mabruk oilfield south of Sirte, according to a report circulated this week by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Bureau. The State Department document said estimates of the number of Islamic State fighters operating in Libya ranged from 1000 to 3000.
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| With Yemen attack, IS 'aims to eclipse Qaeda' Posted: 20 Mar 2015 05:56 PM PDT  By claiming its first attack in Yemen the Islamic State group is seeking to exploit the chaos gripping the country and siphon support from the world's most fearsome Al-Qaeda branch, analysts say. Suicide bombings at two mosques frequented by members of the Shiite Huthi militia in control of the capital killed 142 people and wounded 351 on Friday in one of the deadliest extremist attacks in Yemen's history. IS claimed responsibility, warning it was "the tip of the iceberg" for Yemen. In contrast, the country's Al-Qaeda branch, AQAP, issued a statement saying that it avoided "targeting mosques and markets" to protect "innocent Muslims".
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