INTERNATIONAL WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2014 UN highlights hardships for lone female Syrian refugees

AMMAN: Thousands of Syrian refugee women are caught in a Many of those interviewed said they were receiving food “spiral of hardship, isolation and anxiety,” widowed or separat- vouchers from the World Food Programme, but some said ed from their husbands and struggling to survive, the UN they were selling the vouchers to pay for rent or other expens- warned yesterday. In a new report, the UN agency for refugees es. Living without men contributed to many women being UNHCR highlighted the plight of some 145,000 Syrian refugee harassed, the report said. One woman living in an apartment women who are fending for themselves and their families in in Lebanon described “frequent verbal harassment” from local dire circumstances across the Middle East. men. Another woman living in a tent outside of Lebanon’s “Forced to take sole responsibility for their families after northern city of Tripoli said a man came into the tent and their men were killed, captured or otherwise separated, they “tried to persuade her to be with him.” are caught in a spiral of hardship, isolation and anxiety,” said She fought him off and moved to another tent, but was the report, unveiled by UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres at a caught in the crossfire of clashes in Tripoli that terrified her Amman news conference. children. An aid group eventually moved her into a house and Guterres said Syrian refugee women “are suffering enor- paid three months of her rent.Lack of money also forces the mously” and appealed for more funds to help them. “We need women to make tough choices on issues of education and to enhance our direct cash support to vulnerable families and healthcare, with many unable to afford to educate all their that is a very important instrument... unfortunately this is a children or to pay for medications. very expensive protection and assistance instrument,” he said. The report urges host governments to keep borders open “We are still lacking $200 million (147 million euros) until and limit entry restrictions, noting that one in five women the end of the year to be able to extend this programme of were separated from their husbands because of visa or similar BAGHDAD: A handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister’s media office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki cash assistance to families in the way that covers the needs of issues. It calls on aid groups to take into account the particular (C-L) attending the funeral of Iraqi army commander of the 6th division, Major General Najm Abdullah Al-Sudani, who was the most vulnerable ones.” The primary difficulty facing challenges of lone female refugees and make sure women are killed by “hostile shelling” west of the Iraqi capital yesterday. Maliki issued a statement offering his condolences on the refugees women is lack of resources, with most struggling to protected, as well as to make support available for host com- death of Sudani, who was “martyred on the field of battle”. The premier attended a funeral for Sudani on Monday along pay rent and buy food, resorting to selling possessions, includ- munities. And it urges donors and citizens to increase funding with acting defence minister Saadun Al-Dulaimi and various senior officers, the defence ministry said.— AFP ing wedding rings, and sending children out to work. to agencies supporting Syrian refugees, nothing that Syria is Most are unable to work because they are the sole care- the largest forced displacement crisis in the world. givers for their children, and a third of the 135 women sur- At least 2.8 million Syrians have fled the conflict that began Islamic State veyed by UNHCR in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt said they do in their country in March 2011, with more than a million tak- not have enough to eat. ing refuge in tiny neighbouring Lebanon. Others are in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Iraq, which have all struggled with Tough choices the influx of arrivals. One woman interviewed in Cairo said she would not eat The UN has regularly appealed for more funding to help claims Baghdad until her granddaughters were full. “I’m happy to eat a toasted those fleeing the conflict, which is estimated to have killed piece of bread to make sure they get enough to eat,” she said. more than 162,000 people. — AFP bombsParliament to meet Sunday

BAGHDAD: Islamist militants claimed responsibility for sui- Baghdad suburbs and cities to the north. Clashes have also cide bombings in Baghdad, and there were signs the deadlock erupted to the south. The Iraqi military, backed by Shi’ite mili- paralysing Iraq’s parliament might finally be loosening in the tias and volunteers, has yet to take back any major city but is face of the threat from the “Islamic State” that has seized much trying to advance on Tikrit, the late dictator Saddam Hussein’s of the country. hometown in Salahuddin province. The Sunni Muslim group, which has taken over large areas The army said yesterday it had “cleansed” the road from of Syria and Iraq, posted web photos of two men with scarves Baghdad to Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) to the north, but covering their faces, posing in front of its black and white flag attacks are still being launched on security forces on the road. and machineguns. It identified them as the Baghdad bombers Yesterday a suicide bomber killed three policemen and and said they were Lebanese and Libyan. two civilians 15 km south of Samarra, a local security source Five people were killed in the first blast at a cafe in the and a medic said. The United Nations said last week more than Washash district on Sunday night. Four police and three civil- 2,400 Iraqis had been killed in June alone. ians were killed the next day at a checkpoint in Kadhimiya, a Backed by Shi’ite militias and volunteers, the military has northern neighbourhood. Both districts are predominately been trying since June 28 to advance into Tikrit and defeat Shi’ite Muslim, raising fears the capital could return to the opponents including the Naqshbandi Army, a group led by days of sectarian bloodletting from 2006-2007. former army officers and Baathists like Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Baghdad had seen few attacks compared to the violence in Saddam’s feared deputy and lifelong confidante. other areas hit by the Islamic State’s lightning offensive last month. Hopes that political paralysis in Baghdad may be bro- ‘Popular uprising’ ken with the formation of a new government to confront the Douri is also from the Tikrit area, and is the most senior of insurgency were dashed on Monday when parliament Saddam’s aides still at large. Staunchly opposed to what they delayed its next meeting for five weeks - only to reverse its see as an exclusionary Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad, decision 24 hours later. veterans of the Baath party that ruled Iraq before 2003 found Yesterday the acting speaker of the new parliament Mehdi common cause with Islamic State militants when they overran DAMASCUS: Residents of Syria’s Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, collect aid food yesterday. Forces al-Hafidh said parliament would bring forward the session to Tikrit and Mosul, the north’s largest city. loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad have been laying siege to Yarmuk since last year. Yarmuk is now devastated, and only Sunday, instead of August 12. “Any delay in this could jeopard- The prime minister’s military spokesman said however on around 40,000 people remain of the 150,000 Palestinian and Syrian people who lived at the camp before the conflict ize the security of Iraq and its democratic course and increase Tuesday “ex-army officers and tribesmen” in Sunni majority erupted in March 2011. — AFP the suffering of the Iraqi people,” the speaker said. areas like Mosul and Tikrit were rallying against the Islamic State. “(They) are getting ready for a popular uprising against “DIRE SITUATION” the Islamic state,” Lieutenant General Qassim Atta told The postponement had been criticised by the lawmakers reporters. “Our security forces are ready to provide tribesmen themselves, who also blamed each other, and by Washington. with the help they need,” he said. The U.S. State Department said the “dire situation on the The army has intensified its air raids on militant-held posi- ground” made progress to resolve the impasse all the more tions in northern provinces including Salahuddin and urgent. With no sign that Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Nineveh, where Mosul is located, in an effort to drive out the will abandon his bid for a third term, his Sunni, Shi’ite and insurgents. The Islamic State posted photos and a statement Kurdish opponents warn there is a risk that Iraq will fragment on social media late on Monday showing the bloodied corpse along ethnic and sectarian lines. of an army officer the group identified as Brigadier General The reasons for the deadlock over the nomination of the Ibrahim Abdullah Hussein, saying it had executed him. top three posts in government - prime minister, president, and Hussein was one of the officers the government said had speaker - mirror the broader divisions in the country. fled Tikrit at the beginning of last month’s offensive, which The Islamic State, an offshoot of al Qaeda, until recently saw army and police flee in the wake of the onslaught. There called itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). It is was no way to independently confirm the claim. Residents of spearheading a patchwork of insurgents who hold territory the city say the militants are holding prisoners at Saddam’s grabbed in a blitzkrieg across the north and west of Iraq and former palace there. Thirty “terrorists” were killed in a govern- have threatened to move on Baghdad. ment air strike on the town of Sharqat north of Tikrit on yes- The city of 7 million faces threats from militants on three terday, Atta said. A doctor at the local hospital told Reuters sides. Islamic State and other Sunni insurgents - ranging from five civilians were wounded when a helicopter gunship fired tribal fighters, more moderate Islamists, ex-military officers on the hospital, where the doctor said some wounded Islamic and members of the banned Baath party - are in the western State fighters were being treated. — Reuters US urges countries to combat fighters going to Syria

WASHINGTON/OSLO: US Attorney Washington. In May a 22-year-old from counterterrorism efforts. General Eric Holder urged countries in Florida carried out a suicide bombing in Holder’s remarks came amid a week- Europe and elsewhere yesterday to do Syria’s Idlib province. long trip to Europe, which includes more to keep their own citizens from Earlier yesterday, Holder told another stop in London during which traveling to Syria to fight, saying the reporters that federal prosecutors had the Syrian foreign fighter issue is world cannot allow Syria to become a opened fewer than 100 investigations expected to dominate. training ground for violent extremists. into American citizens who may have In Norway, Holder also held up a new In a speech in Norway, Holder said traveled to Syria or Iraq to fight. plan in the country to try to prevent its other countries could learn from US A Denver woman accused of trying citizens from turning to extremism, and efforts to conduct undercover sting to fly to Syria to support insurgents told reporters he would consider imple- operations and use laws against prepar- there was arrested last week, and two menting something similar in the ing to commit attacks, tactics he said men in central Texas were arrested on United States. have helped confront the threat in the similar charges last month. Last week, reports surfaced of a United States. One of the Texas men was charged Norwegian citizen who was earlier Speaking at the US ambassador’s res- with “attempting to provide material accused of threatening Norway’s royal idence in Oslo, Holder also urged support to terrorists,” a law that Holder family traveling to Syria and appearing Europeans to share information about urged other countries to copy as vital to in a jihadist video. — Reuters travelers to Syria with the United States, which does not require visas for travel- ers from European Union countries. “We have a mutual and compelling interest in developing shared strategies for confronting the influx of US- and European-born violent extremists into Syria,” Holder said, according to pre- pared remarks. The suggestions come as Islamic State militants have taken control of most of eastern Syria and built on the momentum of their advance through Sunni Muslim provinces of neighbour- ing Iraq. US intelligence agencies esti- mate around 7,000 of the 23,000 violent extremists operating in Syria are foreign fighters, including dozens of Americans, Holder said. US officials have been focused on the security threat posed by fighters heading to Syria from the United States, Canada and Europe. Extremists have tried to recruit Westerners and send them back to their home countries with a mission. “Syria has become a matter of homeland secu- KHANAQIN: In this Monday photo, a displaced Iraqi family who fled from rity,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Baqouba after advances by Islamic militants, eats breakfast in their tent at a Johnson said in a February speech in camp in Khanaqin, 90 miles (140 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. — AP