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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 THULHIJJA 23, 1437 AH www.kuwaittimes.net

Aleppo reels from deadly Min 25º Max 43º air strikes, dozens killed High Tide 05:07 & 20:22 Syrian troops advance Water cut off across city Low Tide • 13:16 40 PAGES NO: 17001 150 FILS BEIRUT: The Syrian army and militia allies seized ground north of Aleppo yesterday, tightening a siege of the city’s OCA sets up 5 rebel-held east while warplanes bombed it relentlessly in a Russian-backed offensive that has left Washington’s Syria new offices as policy in tatters. The capture of Handarat, a Palestinian refugee camp a few kilometers north of Aleppo, marked row rumbles the first major ground advance of the offensive, which the government announced on Thursday. The camp, on ele- DANANG, : The Olympic Council of vated ground overlooking one of the main roads into (OCA) has decided to set up five new sub offices to Aleppo, had been in rebel hands for years. enable it to function effectively while the row with “Handarat has fallen,” an official with one of the main the Kuwait government continues over its head- Aleppo rebel groups told Reuters. An army statement con- quarters in the state. Kuwait was suspended by the firming the advance said “large numbers of terrorists” had International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Oct 2015 been killed. The assault on Aleppo, where more than after the government was accused of interference in 250,000 civilians are trapped in a besieged opposition sec- its national Olympic Committee, which has subse- tor, could be the biggest battle yet in a civil war that has quently been dissolved. A month later, the long- killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven 11 mil- term agreement for the OCA to have its headquar- lion from their homes. ters in Kuwait City was unilaterally torn up by the Two weeks after Moscow and Washington announced a government. ceasefire, President Bashar Al-Assad and his Russian and The OCA Executive Board met yesterday and Iranian allies appear to have launched a campaign for a decided to set up regional offices in , decisive battlefield victory that has buried any hope for , Delhi and Nansha, China as well as in diplomacy. Dozens of people have been reported killed in Lausanne, Switzerland, the home of the IOC. “We are eastern Aleppo since the army announced the new offen- committed to not only continuing with our services sive. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who hammered out but to improve them further,” OCA Director General the truce over the course of months of intensive diploma- Husain Al-Musallam said in a statement. “We hope for cy, was left this week pleading in vain this week with the (Kuwait) government to finalize what is the direc- Russia to halt air strikes. tion. (They) terminated the diplomatic agreement in Residents say air strikes on eastern Aleppo have been November last year and we are looking forward to more intense than ever, using more powerful bombs. finalizing all the related issues officially with them. Rebel officials said heavy air strikes yesterday hit at least But now, with these five offices, plus Lausanne, the four areas of the opposition-held east, and they believe the strikes are mostly being carried out by Russian war- OCA and the is well protected.” ALEPPO: Syrians receive treatment at a makeshift hospital following air strikes on the rebel-held eastern areas planes. Continued on Page 13 of this city yesterday. — AFP Continued on Page 13 NEWS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

The silhouettes of statues and buildings are seen from the Charles Bridge early morning yesterday in Prague. — AFP Aleppo reels from deadly air strikes... Police hunting gunman Continued from Page 1 Hama province, an area that is strategically important and close to the coastal heartland of Assad’s Alawite minority Video of the blast sites shows huge craters several sect. meters wide and deep. A Syrian military source said the army was “fighting who killed 5 at US mall “There are planes in the sky now,” Ammar Al-Selmo, the fierce battles” around the two villages, Maan and Al- head of the Civil Defense rescue service in the opposition- Kabariya. A rebel commander told Reuters he expected BURLINGTON, Washington: A manhunt was underway b**** to justice.” held east, told Reuters from Aleppo yesterday morning. fighters would receive more weapons from sponsoring yesterday in northwest Washington state for a gunman Authorities offered no information about a possible The group draws on ambulance workers and volunteers countries to counter the government’s latest advance, who opened fire with a rifle in a shopping mall and killed motive for the attack, which followed a series of violent who dig survivors and the dead out of the rubble, often although there was no sign they would get advanced arms five people before disappearing under the cover of dark- outbursts at shopping centers across the United States, with their bare hands. It says several of its own headquar- like anti-aircraft missiles they have long sought. “There are ness, authorities said. The suspect entered the Cascade including the stabbing of nine people at a Minnesota cen- ters have been destroyed in the latest bombing. “Our indications and promises” of more weapons, though he Mall in Burlington, around 105 km north of Seattle, and ter last weekend. “We have no indication that we have a began shooting at about 7 pm local time on Friday in the terrorism act,” said Michael Knutson, assistant special agent teams are responding but are not enough to cover this only expected “a slight increase”, said Colonel Fares Al- cosmetics section of a Macy’s department store, police in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Seattle amount of catastrophe,” Selmo said. Bayoush, head of the Northern Division rebel group. He said. office. “I can’t discount that, but I can’t conclude it either.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least expected more “heavy weapons, such as rocket launchers The unidentified suspect, who police described on After the shooting, police and rescue workers worked 45 people, among them 10 children, were killed in eastern and artillery”. Twitter as an Hispanic male, initially walked into the shop- their way through the mall, clearing stores and evacuating Aleppo yesterday. Rescue workers said Friday’s death toll Damascus and its allies including Shiite militia from ping center without the rifle but surveillance video later shoppers, some of whom locked themselves in dressing was over 100. The army says it is only targeting militants in Iran, and Lebanon have encircled rebel-held areas of caught him brandishing the weapon, said Lt Chris rooms. The mall remained closed on Saturday as investiga- the campaign announced on Thursday evening. The war Aleppo gradually this year, achieving their long-held Cammock of the Mount Vernon Police Department at brief- tors sifted for evidence and attempted to recreate the has ground on for nearly six years, with all diplomatic objective of fully besieging the area this summer with ing yesterday. The rifle was later recovered at the mall, said crime scene. Cammock said police had no clues about the efforts collapsing in failure. Half of Syria’s population has Russian air support. A pro-government Iraqi militia com- Cammock, who is commander of the Skagit County Multi- identity or whereabouts of the suspect, and asked the pub- been made homeless, the war has drawn in world powers mander in the Aleppo area told Reuters the aim was to Agency Response Team. lic for help in tracking him down. and regional states, and Islamic State - the enemy of all capture all of Aleppo within a week. A Western diplomat Four women were killed in the rampage, which police Authorities released a grainy photo of the suspect taken other sides - seized swathes of Syria and neighbouring said on Friday the only way for the government to take the believe was carried out by a lone gunman. Later a man by a surveillance camera. It shows a young male in his late Iraq. area quickly would be to totally destroy it in “such a mon- who was seriously wounded in the shooting died at a local teens or mid-20s with short dark hair, dressed in dark shorts For most of that time, world powers seemed to accept strous atrocity that it would resonate for generations”. hospital. None of the victims were identified. Steve Sexton, and T-shirt and carrying a rifle. Local authorities searched that neither Assad nor his opponents was likely to be capa- UNICEF, the UN children’s charity, said a pumping sta- the mayor of Burlington, described the shooting as a through the night for the gunman and warned residents to ble of decisive victory on the battlefield. But Russia’s appar- tion providing water for rebel-held eastern Aleppo was “senseless act”. “It was the world knocking on our doorstep remain indoors, though later said the area was safe. The sus- ent decision to abandon the peace process this week destroyed by bombing, and the rebels had responded by and it came to our little community here,” he said before pect was last seen walking toward an interstate highway could reflect a change in that calculus and a view that vic- shutting down a station supplying the rest of the city, leav- acknowledging the response by law enforcement. “I know that runs past the mall, which is 45 miles south of the tory is in reach, at least in the Western cities where the ing 2 million people without access to clean water. Tarik now our support goes with them to bring this son of a Canadian province of British Columbia. — Reuters overwhelming majority of Syrians live. Jasarevic, spokesman for the World Health Organisation, Assad’s fortunes improved a year ago when Russia said yesterday the water system was working “in around 80 joined the war on his side. Since then, Washington has percent of the city - both sides”. OCA sets up 5 new offices as row rumbles worked hard to negotiate peace with Moscow, producing A Syrian military source told Reuters its operation was two ceasefires. But both proved short-lived, with Assad, continuing according to plan, but declined to give further Continued from Page 1 Olympics but Asia for soccer, have also been invited to possibly scenting chances for more battlefield success, details. The source said on Friday the operation could go participate at the 2017 , but without showing no sign of compromise. Moscow says Washington on for some time. Asked about the weapons being used, The board meeting in Danang, Vietnam also agreed to the chance of winning medals. “ is a neighboring failed to live up to its side of the latest deal by separating the source said the army was using precise weapons “suit- limit the number of athletes at the Asian Games to two per confederation for Asia and we welcome not only mainstream insurgents from hardened jihadists. able for the nature of the targets being struck, according country per sport. “This decision has been made to reduce but all Oceania to take the opportunity to enter for the Outside Aleppo, anti-Assad fighters have been driven to the type of fortifications”, such as tunnels and bunkers, the participants at the Asian Games, which now involve first time, as a guest but with no medals,” the statement mostly into rural areas. Nevertheless, they remain a potent and “specifically command centers”. In New York, Syrian 15,000 athletes and officials from the 45 countries and added. “We will evaluate the situation after that.” Oceania fighting force, which they demonstrated with an advance Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem told the United Nations regions, 4,000 technical staff, 8,000 media and 30,000 vol- does not organize a Winter Games. The next Asian Winter of their own yesterday. The Syrian Observatory for Human General Assembly the Syrian government’s belief in victory unteers and workforce, meaning some 60,000 people are games are in , in February, while the next Rights monitoring group said rebels, including the jihadist is even greater now that the Syrian army “is making great involved every day of the Games,” read an OCA statement. Summer version of the continental gathering takes place Jund Al-Aqsa group, had seized two villages in northern strides in its war against terrorism”. — Reuters Australia, who are in the Oceania confederation for the in in 2018. — Reuters