In the ruins of Mosul, a hunt for the missing

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Iraqi civil defence search and rescue workers search for the bodies of victims under the rubble of buildings in western Mosul's Zanjili district on July 26, 2017. (AFP)
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Iraqi civil defence search and rescue workers search for the bodies of victims under the rubble of buildings in western Mosul's Zanjili district on July 26, 2017. (AFP)
Updated 27 July 2017
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In the ruins of Mosul, a hunt for the missing

IRAQ: In Mosul, the missing are everywhere, their families hunting through the ruined Iraqi city for traces of lost husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters.
Squatting on the edge of a crater under the burning sun of an Iraqi summer, Khaled Fizaali watches as a digger of the Civil Defense service pulls up a jumble of iron bars, concrete and wood.
The smell of decay rises as the excavator reveals human remains and Fizaali quickly descends from his perch of rubble in west Mosul.
But it’s not his wife Sarah, 31, or his seven-year-old girl Touqa, who he has been desperate to find for the last two months.
“It’s a neighbor, I recognize the clothes,” he says. “I know they’re under there. My brother was with them when it was bombed.”
Nineteen members of Fizaali’s family died in the May 19 air strike on the building, where jihadist fighters had taken up positions on the roof. Only his brother survived.
Seventeen bodies were found in a first search a month ago, including the remains of Fizaali’s 10-year-old son.
Fizaali has no illusions; his wife and daughter are dead.
“But what’s important for me is to find their bodies, this would bring me peace. I could visit them when I wanted to. When I go to my son’s grave, I feel calmer.”
It took more than eight months of heavy fighting, air strikes and shelling to dislodge the Daesh group from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and once the jihadists’ biggest urban bastion.
In the process significant parts of the city, and especially west Mosul’s Old City, were pulverised, leaving months of work ahead for Civil Defense workers to clear out the debris and search for the many still missing.

There are likely still hundreds, possibly even thousands, of bodies left to find.
“We don’t have any estimates,” says Major Rabia Ibrahim Hassan of the Civil Defense, as his team works in the rubble nearby.
“We can’t know, because Daesh moved people from house to house to use them as human shields. People still come to us today to tell us they think they have loved ones buried in this or that place.”
A few minutes later his men pull up a skull, which like the other remains that they find will be sent to the forensic department of the Al-Salam hospital in Mosul’s Wadi Hajar district.
Every day “no less than 30 or 40 bodies” arrive at the hospital, according to Dhiyaeddin Shamseddin, the deputy head of the service. In the last month, 850 bodies have passed through, of which 180 have not been identified.
A few dozen people arrive every day to enquire about lost friends and family, he says, like Zahraa and Hajar Nashwan who came to ask about their big brother Ahmed. They have had no news of him since their home was bombed two months ago.
“We made it out alive but we feel like we died,” says Zahraa, the older of the two.
“People say that even if you lose all your money and possessions, it’s not so bad, the important thing is that you still have the people you love. But we’ve lost both.”
Hajar, 18, says they have done all they can to find their brother.
“We searched in the rubble, we went to the checkpoints, we went to the camp (for the displaced) at Hamam Al-Halil, we found nothing,” she says. “I don’t know if we will know some day. It will be up to God.”
But for those spending their days searching the devastated streets of Mosul, there’s always some hope.
“The other day we found eight people who survived in a cave under the rubble for 25 days,” Hassan of the Civil Defense says.


Pope Francis set to visit Turkiye for Council of Nicaea anniversary in 2025

Updated 8 sec ago
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Pope Francis set to visit Turkiye for Council of Nicaea anniversary in 2025

  • The pope had already expressed in June the desire to go on the trip despite international travel becoming increasingly difficult for him
ROME: Pope Francis said on Thursday he planned to visit Turkiye’s Iznik next year for the anniversary of the first council of the Christian Church, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The early centuries of Christianity were marked by debate about how Jesus could be both God and man, and the Church decided on the issue at the First Council of Nicaea in 325.
“During the Holy Year, we will also have the opportunity to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the first great Ecumenical Council, that of Nicaea. I plan to go there,” the pontiff was quoted as saying at a theological committee event.
The city, now known as Iznik, is in western Anatolia, some 150km southeast of Istanbul.
The pope had already expressed in June the desire to go on the trip and the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, had said the two men would celebrate the important recurrence together but no official confirmation had been made yet.
Despite international travel becoming increasingly difficult for him because of health issues, Francis, who will turn 88 on Dec. 17, completed in September a 12-day tour across Asia, the longest of his 11-year papacy.

Israel wants India’s Adani Group to continue investments after US bribery allegations

Updated 44 min 37 sec ago
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Israel wants India’s Adani Group to continue investments after US bribery allegations

  • Adani Group holds a 70 percent stake in Haifa port in northern Israel and is involved in multiple other projects with firms in the country
  • US last week accused Adani Group of being part of scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure contracts, misleading US investors 

HYDERABAD, India: Israel wants India’s Adani Group to continue to invest in the country, Israel’s envoy to India said on Thursday, affirming the nation’s support for the ports-to-media conglomerate whose billionaire founder is facing bribery allegations in the United States.

“We wish Adani and all Indian companies continue to invest in Israel,” Ambassador Reuven Azar said in an interview with Reuters, adding that allegations by US authorities were “not something that’s problematic” from Israel’s point of view.

The Adani Group holds a 70% stake in Haifa port in northern Israel and is involved in multiple other projects with firms in the country, including to produce military drones and plans for the manufacture of commercial semiconductors.

US authorities last week accused Gautam Adani, his nephew, and Adani Green’s managing director of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian power supply contracts and misleading US investors during fund raising efforts there.

Adani Group has denied all the accusations, calling them “baseless.”

Still, shares and bonds of Adani companies were hammered last week and some partners began to review joint projects.

“I am sure Adani Group will resolve its problems,” Azar said on the sidelines of an event in the southern city of Hyderabad.


Lebanon to hold parliament session on Jan. 9 to elect president

Updated 51 min 13 sec ago
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Lebanon to hold parliament session on Jan. 9 to elect president

  • State news agency: ‘Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9’

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament will hold a session in January to elect a new president, official media reported on Thursday, a day after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire began and following more than two years of presidential vacuum.
“Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9,” the official National News Agency reported.


Israel says ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon violated

Updated 13 min 37 sec ago
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Israel says ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon violated

  • Lebanese security sources and state media report tank fire struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba
  • Lebanon’s military deployed troops and tanks across the country’s south on Thursday

BEIRUT: Israel’s military announced on Thursday that it had detected the presence of suspects in several areas of southern Lebanon, calling it a violation of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Earlier on Thursday Israeli tank fire targeted three towns along Lebanon’s southeastern border with Israel, according to Lebanese security sources and state media. The strikes came a day after the ceasefire, which prohibits “offensive military operations,” had officially taken effect.

The tank fire hit Markaba, Wazzani, and Kfarchouba, all located within two kilometers of the Blue Line that marks the border between Lebanon and Israel. One security source reported that two people were wounded in Markaba.

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the US and France, intended to allow people in both countries to start returning to homes in border areas shattered by 14 months of fighting.

But managing the returns have been complicated. Israeli troops remain stationed within Lebanese territory in towns along the border, and on Thursday morning the Israeli military urged residents of towns along the border strip not to return yet for their own safety.

The three towns hit on Thursday morning lie within that strip.

There was no immediate comment on the tank rounds from Hezbollah or Israel, who had been fighting for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war.

Lebanon’s military deployed troops and tanks across the country’s south on Thursday as a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war largely held for a second day.

A Lebanese army source said its forces were “conducting patrols and setting up checkpoints” south of the Litani River without advancing into areas where Israeli forces were still present.

In the border village of Qlaaya, residents threw rice and flowers to celebrate the arrival of Lebanese soldiers.

“We only want the Lebanese army,” chanted the residents of the Christian-majority village, as they clapped and cheered for the troops and waved the Lebanese red, white and green flag.

Since the ceasefire took effect on Wednesday, tens of thousands of Lebanese who fled their homes have headed back to their towns and villages, only to find scenes of devastation.

“Despite all the destruction and the sorrow, we are happy to be back,” said Umm Mohammed Bzeih, a widow who fled with her four children from the southern village of Zibqin two months ago.

“I feel as if our souls have returned,” she said, visibly exhausted as she swept up the shattered glass and pieces of stones that carpeted the floor.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said his group was cooperating on the army’s deployment in the south.

There is “full cooperation” with the Lebanese state in strengthening the army’s deployment, he said, adding the group had “no visible weapons or bases” but “nobody can make residents leave their villages.”

The agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region racked by conflict, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years. But Israel is still fighting its other arch foe, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can take up to 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border.

Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, the top interlocutor for Lebanon in negotiating the deal, had said on Wednesday that residents could return home.


Syria war monitor says more than 130 dead in army-militant clashes in north

Updated 28 November 2024
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Syria war monitor says more than 130 dead in army-militant clashes in north

  • Clashes followed “an operation launched by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
  • The air forces of both Syria and its ally Russia struck the attacking militants

BEIRUT: A monitor of Syria’s war said on Thursday that more than 130 combatants had been killed in clashes between the army and militant groups in the country’s north, as the government also reported fierce fighting.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the toll in the clashes which began a day earlier after the militants launched an attack “has risen to 132, including 65 fighters” from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, 18 from allied factions “and 49 members of the regime forces.”