Gulf / Middle East / Africa Friday, October 25, 2019 07

Kurdish forces start Trump lifts sanctions, -Turkey border quits ‘long blood-stained’ Syria pullback amid deal AFP nent of the SDF -- remained Qamishli in many positions along the President’s speech has 440 km border, he added. formalised the ceding of Kurdish forces in north- The Observatory also eastern Syria left several po- reported clashes near the power in northern Syria sitions along the long border town of Tal Tamr between to Ankara and Moscow, with Turkey on Thursday, SDF fighters and some of complying with a deal that the Syrian former rebels and added he didn’t sees Damascus, Ankara and paid by Turkey to fight want the US troops Moscow carve up their now- ground battles. caught in the middle of defunct autonomous region. SDF commander Ma- The Syrian Observatory zloum Abdi on Twitter ac- a Turkish-Kurdish war for Human Rights reported cused the Turkish-led forces that the Kurdish-led Syr- of violating the truce on the AFP ian Democratic Forces had eastern front of Ras al-Ain. Washington pulled out of some areas at “The guarantors of the the eastern end of the bor- ceasefire must carry out President der on Thursday. their responsibilities to rein ended sanctions against Tur- “The SDF have with- in the Turks,” he added on key on Wednesday, drawing a drawn from positions be- Twitter. line under American involve- tween Derbasiyeh and The events were set to ment in blood-stained Syria, Amuda in the Hasakeh provoke “forceful” discus- as Turkish and Russian troops countryside,” the Britain- sion at a NATO defence seized territory previously based war monitor’s head, minister meeting in Brus- held by US troops and their Rami Abdel Rahman, said. sels on Thursday and Friday beleaguered Kurdish allies. Fighters of the Kurdish but Ankara risked little be- “Let someone else fight People’s Protection Units cause of its strategic posi- over this long blood-stained (YPG) -- the main compo- tion, diplomats said. sand,” Trump said in a White House speech that formalised the ceding of power in north- ern Syria to Ankara and in- creasingly influential Moscow. Trump said he was lifting A man watches as a Russian military police armoured vehicle passes through a street in the northeastern Syrian town of Amuda in Hasakeh the sanctions because a cease- province on Thursday. (AFP) fire was holding in the area, which Turkey invaded to drive Kurdish military groups from Russia demands that remaining NATO slams Turkey over Syria their strongholds. operation, but no punishment Trump called the cease- US soldiers pull out from Syria fire, which allowed the Turk- Moscow: Russia demanded on Thursday that any remaining US Brussels: Turkey’s military operation in Syria was expected ish takeover to proceed soldiers in Syria leave the country, denouncing the to spark “forceful” discussion at a NATO defence ministers’ A fighter from the (SDF) stands guard largely unopposed, a “major as an occupying force in the war-torn Middle Eastern state. meeting on Thursday but Ankara risks little from its allies as a US military vehicle pulling out of a US forces base in the breakthrough.” Rejecting ac- “As for the presence of American soldiers in Syria, our posi- because of its strategic position, diplomats said. Northern Syrian town of Tal Tamr drives by, recently. (AFP) cusations that he betrayed tion is well known. Only the Russian units are present in Syria The issue dominated the two-day gathering in Brussels, the Syrian Kurds -- who suf- legitimately at the invitation of the Syrian leadership,” Kremlin with Turkey isolated among the 29 member states because of fered thousands of casualties spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by state its incursion this month against Kurdish fighters. Regime fire kills seven civilians in fighting alongside US troops news agency TASS. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has refused to northwest Syria market: Monitor against the Islamic State (IS) The US abruptly withdrew forces from northern Syria earlier condemn Turkey, saying it has “legitimate security concerns” jihadist group -- Trump said this month, days before NATO ally Turkey began an offensive along its border with Syria. He confirmed the ministers “will ad- Beirut: Syrian regime rocket fire killed seven civilians in an they were happy. against Kurdish militants in the region whom the US had been dress the situation in northeast Syria” where he said a Turkey- market for olives in an opposition bastion in the country’s The president said the protecting. US “ceasefire” accord struck last week had reduced fighting. northwest on Thursday, a war monitor said. Kurdish commander in the President Donald Trump, who had ordered the partial US Diplomats described exchanges with Ankara’s representa- The bombardment fell on a village north of the town of Jisr country, Mazloum Abdi, had withdrawal, said in a televised address this week that a “small tives as “frank”. But they admitted that Turkey’s location at the al-Shughur in the jihadist-controlled Idlib region, the Britain- just told him he was “extreme- number of US troops would remain” in Syria, particularly to gates of the Middle East and next to Russia gave it a strategic based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. ly thankful.” Ankara ordered protect oil facilities. (AFP) value weightier than the objections. (AFP) The Idlib region, which has about three million residents a cross-border operation into -- half of them displaced from other parts of the country -- is Syria on October 9 because it controlled by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate. said it wanted to create a se- the exit of the small, but po- Accused both by Republi- order a brief ceasefire. called in a Wednesday letter President Bashar Al Assad’s forces launched a blistering curity cordon free of Kurdish litically significant US military cans and Democrats of aban- In a tweet from a spokes- for US Secretary of State Mike campaign against Idlib in April, killing around 1,000 civilians armed groups that it consid- force which had until then been doning the Kurds, Trump im- man, Abdi thanked Trump “for Pompeo to expedite a visa for and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. ers to be terrorists, linked to closely allied with the Kurds. posed sanctions on Turkey on his tireless efforts that stopped Abdi so the government could But a ceasefire announced by key government ally Russia Kurdish rebels inside Turkey. Trump said he didn’t want October 14 and sent a delega- the brutal Turkish attack and “hear directly... about the situ- has largely held since late August, though the Observatory The long-planned operation the US troops caught in the mid- tion to persuade Turkish Pres- jihadist groups on our peo- ation on the ground and the says skirmishes persist. (AFP) started after Trump announced dle of a Turkish-Kurdish war. ident Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ple.” A group of US senators fight” against IS.

News in brief ‘I am ready to meet you’: Lebanese president to protesters its responsibilities,” Aoun said. porter said. 29 people die in As demonstrations enter 2nd week, President Aoun Hariri on Monday pre- Among them, Rabah Shah- Kenya floods says he is ready to hear the demands of his people, sented a package of reforms, rour said he was fed up with including cutting ministerial hearing the same public ad- Nairobi: Twenty-nine people and find solution to the country’s economic crisis salaries, but the rallies have dresses for years. have died in Kenya due to continued, crippling Beirut “The street was looking for flooding, authorities said on AFP a proposed tax on calls made and other major cities. a little hope from him,” he said Thursday, as the country’s Beirut through messaging apps, the “The reform paper that was of the president’s speech. meteorological department protests have morphed into a approved will be the first step “But sadly the president warned that more heavy Lebanon’s president offered cross-sectarian street mobilisa- to save Lebanon and remove today spoke in generalities. rains are expected. on Thursday to meet the pro- tion against a political system the spectre of financial and We’ve being hearing these The East African country testers whose week-old mobi- seen as corrupt and broken. economic collapse,” Aoun said. generalities for three years, is experiencing the second lisation demanding a complete “I am ready to meet your “It was your first achieve- and they haven’t led to any- of its two annual rainy overhaul of the political and representatives... to hear your ment because you helped re- thing,” he said. seasons, but the rainfall in sectarian system has brought demands,” Aoun said. move obstacles in front of it Jad al-Hajj, a mechani- October has been above the country to a standstill. He suggested that a gov- and it was adopted in record cal engineering student, said average in most parts of Michel Aoun’s first speech ernment reshuffle might be speed,” the president told the he would also remain in the Kenya, James Muhindi of since the start of the unprec- needed, an option that Prime protesters. street after what he described the meteorological depart- edented protest movement was Minister Saad Hariri also hint- But dozens of demonstra- as the president’s “meaning- ment said. met with disdain by demonstra- ed he was open to. tors listening to the speech less” speech. Almost 12,000 people tors who see him and the en- “It has become necessary on loudspeakers outside par- “We want him to go and have been displaced due to tire political class as part of the to review the current govern- liament booed it and resume for this era to end -- for all of A young boy walks with a Lebanese flag past protesters during a rally flooding, which has particu- problem and not the solution. ment situation so that the ex- their calls for an end of the them to go, including him,” he on the eighth day of protest against tax increases and official corrup- larly affected the north and Sparked on October 17 by ecutive authority can pursue current system, an AFP re- told AFP. tion, in Zouk Mosbeh, north of the capital Beirut, on Thursday. (AFP) east of Kenya. (DPA) 2 dead in protests TV INTERVIEWS JAILED ‘ZOMBIE’ INSTAGRAMMER against Ethiopian Iraqi PM replaces PM Abiy: Media Iraqis stockpile food as senior security Addis Ababa: At least two officials ahead of people have been killed and they gear up for demos anti-govt protests dozens injured in violent protests in Ethiopia against AFP restricted internet access. Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Nobel Peace Prize laureate Baghdad Demonstrations often de- Adel Abdel-Mahdi has replaced and Prime Minister Abiy volved into violence, with the several security officials on Ahmed, state media report- Scarred by a week of dem- government saying more than Thursday, one day ahead of ed Thursday. onstrations, curfews and street 150 people were killed be- planned anti-government pro- Tensions remained high closures, Iraqis flocked to su- tween October 1 and 6. tests. in parts of the country after permarkets and petrol stations But activists have called for One of the main staff chang- supporters of a high-profile on Thursday to prepare for renewed protests this Friday, es made by Abdel-Mahdi is ap- opposition activist took to An image grab from footage obtained from Iranian State TV IRIB shows a reproduction of pictures posted the following day’s anticipated prompting many to stockpile pointing Qais Khalaf Rahima to the streets Wednesday, burn- by Iranian Intagrammer Sahar Tabar of herself before and after numerous plastic surgeries. The social protests. food, petrol and other supplies. head the Baghdad Operations ing tires and blocking roads media celebrity known as Sahar Tabar was arrested on the orders of Tehran’s Islamic guidance court on A wave of anti-government “People prefer to prepare Command, to replace Jalil Jabar following rumours of his mis- October 5 after “numerous requests from the public” for her to be detained, the broadcaster said. demonstrations swept Iraq some supplies in advance in al-Hassan. treatment by state forces. The 22-year-old faces charges including blasphemy, inciting violence, gaining income through inappro- earlier this month, with thou- order to be ready for whatever A government committee in- Jawar Mohammed, priate means and encouraging corruption among the young. sands taking to the streets comes,” said Abu Hamid, a re- vestigating this month’s deadly a member of the Oromo Tabar resembles Hollywood star Angelina Jolie in the picture, but her face is gaunt, her nose sharply against rampant corruption, tired army officer. unrest recommended this week ethnic group who has been turned up and cheeks sunken. She denied reports she sought to look like Jolie, saying instead that she mass unemployment and fail- “We’re afraid the roads the dismissal of al-Hassan and a public critic of Abiy, had was inspired by a zombie-like character from the animated fantasy film ‘Corpse Bride’. ing services. will be closed, the internet and other senior security officials for accused security forces of Her Instagram account, which she said had 486,000 followers, no longer appears to be active. Voic- Authorities imposed a other communications will be losing control over their forces. trying to orchestrate an at- ing regret, Tabar said her mother had tried to stop her from changing her appearance, but the fame curfew in the capital and sev- cut, so we’re mobilising,” said It also named other security of- tack against him. (AFP) and Instagram likes made her go on. (AFP) eral southern cities, shut down the 61-year-old Hamid, who ficials, recommending that they several key roads and severely sported a dark moustache. be put on trial. (DPA)