Obama Says Tackling Iraq Insurgency Will Take Time
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SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2014 SHAWWAL 14, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Shooting at Brotherhood Gazans struggle Ali leads MP’s house stages massive with rising another revives gun pro-Hamas prices as England rout control 4debate rally in Jordan8 bombs21 fall of20 India Obama says tackling Iraq Max 46º Min 33º insurgency will take time High Tide 10:37 Low Tide Islamic State looks to repair seized dam 04:55 & 18:08 40 PAGES NO: 16250 150 FILS BAGHDAD: President Barack Obama said yesterday US airstrikes had destroyed arms that Islamic State mili- tants could have used against Iraqi Kurds, but warned there was no quick fix to a crisis that threatens to tear Iraq apart. Speaking the day after US warplanes hit militants in Iraq, Obama said it would take more than bombs to restore stability, and criticised Prime Minister Nouri Al- Maliki’s Shiite-led government for failing to empower Sunnis. “I don’t think we’re going to solve this problem in weeks. This is going to take some time,” Obama told a news conference in Washington. Islamic State has captured wide swathes of northern Iraq since June, executing non-Sunni Muslim captives, displacing tens of thou- sands of people and drawing the first US air strikes in the region since Washington withdrew troops in 2011. After routing Kurdish forces this week, the militants are just 30 minutes’ drive from Arbil, the Iraqi Kurdish capi- tal, which up to now has been spared the sectarian bloodshed that has scarred other parts of Iraq for a decade. The US president said Washington would continue to provide military assistance and advice to Baghdad and Kurdish forces, but stressed repeatedly the importance of Iraq, which is a major oil exporter, forming its own inclusive government. Maliki has been widely criticised for authoritarian and sectarian policies that have alien- ated Sunnis and prompted some to support the insur- gency. “I think this a wake-up call for a lot of Iraqis inside of Baghdad recognizing that we’re going to have to rethink how we do business if we’re going to hold our country together,” Obama said, before departing on a two-week vacation. Employees of foreign oil firms in Arbil have been leaving, and Kurds have snapped up AK-47 assault rifles in arms markets for fear of imminent attack, although Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters look on as smoke billows from the town Makhmur, about 280 km north of the capital Baghdad, during clashes with Islamic State these had been ineffective against the superior firepow- (IS) militants yesterday. Makhmur, is one of the areas that had been attacked by jihadist fighters in recent days. (Inset) US President Barack Obama delivers a state- er of the Islamic State fighters. ment before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House yesterday in Washington. — AFP Continued on Page 15 Interior Ministry to Israel pounds Gaza, destroys mosques GAZA CITY: Israeli warplanes pummelled mosque was attacked. “I couldn’t tell all my grenades. issue teachers visas Gaza with 50 air strikes that killed seven neighbours, so I evacuated myself and my The 72-hour truce collapsed after mediators Palestinians yesterday as militants slammed 23 neighbour and after five minutes an F-16 fired in Cairo failed to extend a ceasefire when it By A Saleh tion channels between the two min- rockets into Israel, defying international efforts one rocket and after that a bigger rocket expired on Friday morning as Israel accused istries, said sources familiar with the to find a fresh ceasefire. Britain, France and destroyed the mosque,” he said. Hamas of breaching the quiet with predawn KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and decision. Germany yesterday called in a joint statement The army said 23 rockets rained on Israel, rocket attacks. The conflict has now killed at Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al- Meanwhile, the sources who spoke for Israel and Hamas to agree a truce “immedi- bringing to 61 the number of projectiles least 1,913 Palestinians and 67 people on the Khalid Al-Sabah gave orders to issue on the condition of anonymity denied ately”. Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian launched at the Jewish state since a 72-hour Israeli side, almost all soldiers, since July 8. The visas for teachers recruited by the reports that the Interior Ministry had demonstrators marched through central truce ended on Friday. One Israeli civilian and United Nations says at least 1,354 of the Ministry of Education for the upcoming rejected visa applications of at least 350 London and Cape Town, condemning Israel’s a soldier were wounded on Friday. Israel said it Palestinian dead were civilians, including 447 school year. Sheikh Mohammad teachers. The Interior Ministry had one-month military assault into Gaza. had carried out more than 100 strikes in Gaza children. demanded measures to prevent stalling merely returned the documents to the Gaza emergency services said seven men since Friday morning, 49 of them yesterday, In London, up to 150,000 protesters packed applications that meet all legal require- Education Ministry to complete some were killed in Israeli raids - two in a car driving targeting those responsible for the rocket fire. Oxford Street, marching to the US embassy ments, and speed up the visa issuance missing information before issuing the in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, two trav- In the occupied West Bank, 15 Palestinian and on to Hyde Park, many of them chanting process through the normal coopera- visas, the sources explained. elling by motorcycle through Al-Maghazi youths were injured in clashes with Israeli “Free, Free Palestine” and holding up banners refugee camp and three pulled from the rub- troops, who used rubber bullets and live fire to saying “UK - Stop Arming Israel”. Tens of thou- ble of Al-Qassam mosque in the middle of the disperse stone throwers in the town of sands of demonstrators also marched through enclave. The Palestinian interior ministry said Hebron, medics told AFP. The trouble broke Cape Town to protest the Israeli military opera- Egypt court dissolves Israeli jets destroyed three mosques. At least out after the funeral of a Palestinian man shot tion, one of the biggest rallies in the city since two of them were considered close to Hamas. dead by Israeli troops during protests against the end of apartheid. Demonstrators carried Gazan Ibrahim Taweel said the Israeli military the Gaza operation on Friday, witnesses said. placards stating “Israel is an apartheid state” Brotherhood party telephoned him at 3 am, warning him to evac- Similar clashes also erupted in Ramallah. Israeli and “Stop Israeli murder”. Library books burned uate his nearby home five minutes before the troops responded with tear gas and stun Continued on Page 15 CAIRO: An Egyptian court yesterday appeal. “The legal reasons given do not ordered the dissolution of the Freedom justify this ruling but this is a political and Justice Party (FJP), the political wing decision to get rid, not just of the of the already banned Muslim Freedom and Justice Party, but of all the Brotherhood movement. The decision parties that were established after the follows the designation of the revolution of January 25, 2011,” lawyer Brotherhood as a “terrorist organisation” Mahmoud Abou Al-Aynayn told Reuters. in December, after the military over- “I expect other parties to be dissolved threw Islamist president Mohamed too.” In a statement, the FPJ said the dis- Morsi. The FJP came out on top in every solution won’t succeed in uprooting the election in Egypt between its creation in group’s ideals. “We affirm that while the the wake of the country’s Arab Spring military coup, the counterrevolution uprising in 2011 and Morsi’s removal in judiciary may be able to dissolve the July 2013. party, they will not be able to dissolve its The Supreme Administrative Court, in principals or besiege its civilized peace- its ruling yesterday, ordered “the dissolu- ful thought,” it said. tion of the Freedom and Justice Party The court, headed by Judge Fareed because it broke the law regarding polit- Tanaghu, said the party’s affiliation with ical parties”. “The party and the Muslim a supra-national group - the Muslim Brotherhood are the same thing” and “its Brotherhood and its international members have committed deeds of vio- branch undermined “national unity, lence and acts of terror against the social peace, the democratic system and nation,” state news agency MENA quot- threatened Egypt’s national security”. ed the prosecution case as stating. The court also said that by calling the According to media reports, the decision military overthrow of Morsi a “coup” is final and not open to appeal. rather than a popular revolution, the The FJP’s lawyer called the ruling party was breaking with national unity political and said it was unconstitutional and worked to destabilize the country. Protesters march against Israel’s military operations in Gaza and in support of the Palestinian people yesterday in Marseille, southern to deprive the defence of the right to Continued on Page 15 France (left) and London (right) yesterday. — AFP SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2014 LOCAL Speaker pays tribute to the late Mohammad Al-Bahar KUWAIT: Parliament Speaker Marzouq Al- The deceased, born in 1919, was the Ghanim paid tribute to the late Chairman of the National Bank of Kuwait Mohammad Abdulrahman Al-Bahar, who (NBK). He was also the founder of Al-Bahar passed away Thursday after living a long Group, a well-known chain of companies in life of philanthropic work and patriotic Kuwait and the GCC countries. devotion. Al-Bahar, who was appointed as With the passing away of Chairman of the Board of NBK in Al-Bahar, who passed away at 1993, also played a role in estab- the age of 95, Kuwait has lost lishing companies the likes of one of its first generation of Al-Ahleia Insurance Company, men, who helped building Kuwait Pipe Industries and Oil Kuwait as he was also a promi- Services Company (KPIOS) and nent figure in charity work, Al- Kuwait National Cinema Ghanim said in a press state- Company (KNCC).