Iraqi army losing hold on north to Sunni and Kurdish forces as troops desert

Iraqi army losing hold on north to Sunni and Kurdish forces as troops desert

    Monday, April 29, 2013   No comments

Iraq

Soldiers are deserting a beleaguered Iraqi army as it struggles to keep its hold on the northern half of Iraq in the face of escalating hostility from Sunni Arabs and Kurds who dominate in the region.

Around the oil city of Kirkuk Kurdish troops have advanced south to take over military positions abandoned by the army, while in Baghdad senior Iraqi politicians say that for the first time there is talk of partitioning the country.

The current crisis was sparked on 23 April when the Iraqi army attacked a sit-in protest in the Sunni Arab town of Hawijah, killing at least 50 people and injuring 110. Outraged Sunni Arab protesters have since stepped up their demonstrations against the Shia-led government. Demonstrators are increasingly protected by armed men, some of whom are accused of dragging five military intelligence soldiers in civilian clothes from a car that came near a protest in Ramadi and killing them.

read more >>

Syria nerve gas claims undermined by eyewitness accounts

Syria nerve gas claims undermined by eyewitness accounts

    Sunday, April 28, 2013   No comments

New questions have emerged over the source of the soil and other samples from Syria which, it is claimed, have tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, amid apparent inconsistencies between eyewitness accounts describing one of the attacks and textbook descriptions of the weapon.

As questions from arms control experts grow over evidence that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons on a limited scale on several occasions, one incident in particular has come under scrutiny.

While the French, UK and US governments have tried to avoid saying where the positive sarin samples came from, comments by officials have narrowed down the locations to Aleppo and Homs.

Last week the Obama administration suggested that Syrian government forces may have used the lethal nerve gas in two attacks. Opposition fighters have accused regime forces of firing chemical agents on at least four occasions since December, killing 31 people in the worst of the attacks.

A letter from the British government to the UN demanding an investigation said that it had seen "limited but persuasive evidence" of chemical attacks, citing incidents on 19 and 23 March in Aleppo and Damascus and an attack in Homs in December, suggesting strongly that samples were taken at these locations.

A US defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Los Angeles Times, appeared to confirm that one of the samples studied by the US was collected in December – suggesting that it too originated in Homs

read more >>

Gold as a decorative art in the Muslim Near East

Gold as a decorative art in the Muslim Near East

    Saturday, April 27, 2013   No comments

Niki Gamm

In Islam hoarding gold and silver is denounced in the Qur’an and willyet artists have long used these metals in a variety of artistic forms

Gold has a long history of decorative use in the Middle East starting with Egypt and continuing through Sumer, Babylon, Greece and Rome. In Islam, hoarding gold and silver is denounced in the Qur’an [Chap. 7, V. 34 and 35] and will result in punishment in the afterlife; accumulating it to use in God’s way was not and Islamic traditions [hadith] reinforced this. In spite of this, the prohibition seems never to have stopped the use of these two precious metals. It was impossible to totally ban the conspicuous use of the two luxury metals although not many examples from prior to the 12th century have survived. Many items would have been carried off as plunder or destroyed in the pillaging of cities and towns during the interminable wars and invasions that wracked the Near East. Gold and silver would also have been melted down to produce coinage.

 read more >>

PKK does not support to Kurdish state plans in northern Iraq

PKK does not support to Kurdish state plans in northern Iraq

    Friday, April 26, 2013   No comments

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) would not support an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, according to Murat Karayılan, a senior leader of the outlawed group which announced yesterday that it would withdraw from Turkish soil starting from May 8.

The PKK “would not say anything” about the foundation of such a state, but it would also not lend its support as it was against the “nation-state,” Karayılan told a group of journalists on the evening of April 25, after making the withdrawal plans public at a press meeting in the Kandil Mountains, the PKK’s base.

Karayılan said yesterday that the withdrawing militants would be deployed to northern Iraq, adding that the PKK expected understanding from the Iraqi authorities, and particularly from the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The KRG is at odds with the central government in Baghdad, particularly on oil exports issues, with the latter opposing the autonomous Arbil government’s direct trade, largely via Turkey.

“We support [the idea of] all Middle Eastern peoples living together equally in a democratic environment and in fraternity. This is possible with democratic confederalism and federation. Dictators emerge in nation-states,” Karayılan said.
read more >>

500 Europeans fight against Assad in Syria – EU anti-terror chief

500 Europeans fight against Assad in Syria – EU anti-terror chief

    Thursday, April 25, 2013   No comments

About 500 Europeans are now fighting for the rebels in Syria against Bashar al-Assad's regime, the EU's anti-terror chief told the BBC. He added the majority of those fighters are from the UK, Ireland and France.

“Not all of them are radical when they leave, but most likely many of them will be radicalized there, will be trained," Gilles de Kerchove said. "And as we have seen this might lead to a serious threat when they get back."

Intelligence agencies are now concerned that some of those currently in Syria could join Islamists groups linked to al-Qaeda and when they return to Europe may launch terrorist attacks.

In March, the Netherlands raised its terror threat level to "substantial", citing an increase in the number of Islamist militants travelling to Syria, as well as the radicalization of Dutch youth.

"Close to a hundred individuals have recently left the Netherlands for various countries in Africa and the Middle East, especially Syria," National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) said in a statement in mid-March.

read more >>

Gunmen seize control of Iraqi town, officials say

Gunmen seize control of Iraqi town, officials say

    Thursday, April 25, 2013   No comments

Rebel gunmen took control of Sulaiman Bek, a town north of Baghdad, after defeating government forces, security officials told the AFP on Wednesday. The surge in militant unrest comes a day after Iraqi forces raided a Sunni protest camp.

Gunmen seized control of Sulaiman Bek, a town north of Baghdad, following deadly fighting with Iraqi security forces on Wednesday, officials said.

Security forces have completely withdrawn from the area, which is now under the control of the gunmen, Shalal Abdul Baban, a local administrative official responsible for the area, told AFP.

Niyazi Maamar Oghlu, a member of the provincial council in Salaheddin province, where Sulaiman Bek is located, also said authorities had lost control of the town.

read more >>

A conversation with Olivier Roy on the nature of the alleged Marathon terrorists

A conversation with Olivier Roy on the nature of the alleged Marathon terrorists

    Wednesday, April 24, 2013   No comments

Olivier Roy has a different view of radical Islam from many of the experts you find writing in the American press. Roy, now 63, first went to Central Asia as a 19-year-old high school dropout, but eventually become a leading expert on Islamic politics. He has been a consultant to the French Foreign Ministry and United Nations and is currently a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Several of his books are landmarks in the field, including The Failure of Political Islam and Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah.  

Roy’s view is relevant in understanding the alleged Boston marathon bombers. A decade ago, Roy was pointing out that al Qaeda was drawing many of its recruits from Western Europe rather than from Saudi Arabia or Palestine or Pakistan. He saw al Qaeda as a product of the failure of Arab nationalism and Marxism-Leninism to establish viable popular societies. Its tactics and outlook derived from the Red Army Faction or Red Brigades or the secular Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine rather than from the Koran or from religious factions within Islam. Al Qaeda, Roy wrote in The Illusions of September 11, is “a junction of a radicalized Islam with a shrill anti-imperialism reshaped by globalization.”

read more >>

Erdoğan’s compromise: I will go to Gaza with Abbas

Erdoğan’s compromise: I will go to Gaza with Abbas

    Wednesday, April 24, 2013   No comments

Will what U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said about the delay of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s trip to Gaza change his travel schedule? This was the question the journalist asked Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on board the night plane carrying them to Brussels for a NATO meeting on Syria the next day, April 23. Davutoğlu’s answer was a simple “No.”

“The main parameter of Erdoğan’s visit to Gaza is not what Kerry said,” Davutoğlu carried on. “It is the reconciliation talks between the Palestinians.” If the two rival Palestinian factions – Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas lead by Khaled Mashaal – would come to an agreement in talks expected early in May in Egypt, the current picture will change as Ankara believes. “If the Palestinians agree, it may be possible [for Erdoğan] to go to Gaza with Abbas,” Davutoğlu said. So that is Erdoğan’s formula for his Gaza trip, which has great symbolic importance for his foreign policy especially in the Middle East. “We have been talking about this both with Abbas and Mashaal,” Davutoğlu added.

The power base of Abbas is the West Bank and Mashaal’s is Gaza, which has been under Israeli embargo since 2006, the reason being shown as rocket attacks from there on Israeli towns. Israeli military operations on Gaza, which caused civilian losses of life caused Erdoğan’s outburst during the Davos meetings in 2009, the famous “one minute” incident with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

read more >>

Families of Lebanese hostages believe Turkey can secure release of captives

Families of Lebanese hostages believe Turkey can secure release of captives

    Tuesday, April 23, 2013   No comments

The families of Lebanese pilgrims currently being held hostage in Syria believe that the Turkish government can play an effective role in securing the release of the Lebanese nationals, Turkish diplomatic sources have said.
Syrian opposition forces abducted 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in May of last year as they were returning from a pilgrimage to Iran, apparently to use them in a prisoner swap with the Syrian government. Two of them were later released, reportedly thanks to Turkish efforts.

Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon Süleyman İnan Özyıldız has stated that the families believe Turkey has strong influence among the Syrian opposition and therefore, according to them, Turkey can solve the hostages issue if it makes a greater effort.

read more >>

Immigrant Kids, Adrift

Immigrant Kids, Adrift

    Tuesday, April 23, 2013   No comments

By MARCELO M. SUÁREZ-OROZCO and CAROLA SUÁREZ-OROZCO
THE alleged involvement of two ethnic Chechen brothers in the deadly attack at the Boston Marathon last week should prompt Americans to reflect on whether we do an adequate job assimilating immigrants who arrive in the United States as children or teenagers.

In 1997, we started a large-scale study of newly arrived immigrants, ages 9 to 14, in 20 public middle and high schools in Boston, Cambridge, Mass., and the San Francisco Bay Area. Our participants came from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean; many fled not only poverty but also strife, in countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti. Over five years, we interviewed more than 400 students, as well as their siblings, parents and teachers. We gathered academic records, test scores and measures of psychological well-being.

The two brothers accused in the Boston bombings — Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed on Friday, and his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, who was captured later that day — were around 15 and 8, respectively, when they immigrated. Both attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin, that city’s only public high school. They were not part of our study, but they fit the demographic profile of the subjects of our research: birth to families displaced by war or strife, multiple-stage (including back-and-forth) migration, language difficulties and entry into harsh urban environments where gangs and crime are temptations.

When asked “what do you like most about being here?” an 11-year-old Haitian boy in Cambridge told us, “There is less killing here.” His response was notably succinct, but not unique.

A Salvadoran 10-year-old whose family had narrowly escaped death squads recounted intense loneliness. When a firecracker was set off in his working-class Cambridge neighborhood, he plunged into the arms of a stunned researcher.

read more >>