BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Kurdistan region said on Thursday it has offered a joint Kurdish-Iraqi deployment at a strategic crossing into Turkey, with the participation of the US-led coalition that was helping fight Daesh.
The offer was disclosed hours after Iraqi armed forces accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of delaying the handover to Iraq of control of the borders with Turkey, Iran and Syria, and threatened to resume operations to capture Kurdish-held areas.
The KRG defense department said the offer was part of a “deconfliction” proposal made to the Iraqi government on Oct. 31.
The other points included a cease-fire on all fronts, continued cooperation in the fight against Daesh and a joint deployment in so-called disputed territories, which are areas claimed by both the KRG and the Iraqi central government.
The KRG “continues to welcome a permanent cease-fire on all fronts, deconfliction and the start of a political dialogue” with Baghdad, the Kurdish statement said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi ordered economic and military retaliation after Iraqi Kurds voted for independence in a referendum held in September that Baghdad declared illegal.
He insists that the KRG cancel the referendum’s outcome as a pre-condition for any dialogue. Iran and Turkey back his measures against Iraq’s Kurds, fearing the drive for independence will spread to their own Kurdish populations.
The joint deployment at the strategic Fish-Khabur crossing was meant “as a goodwill gesture and trust-building exercise that ensures a limited and temporary arrangement until an agreement is reached in accordance with the Iraqi Constitution,” the Kurdish statement said.
Fish-Khabur is strategically important for the Kurdistan region because it is the point where its oil pipeline crosses into Turkey.
Iraq’s entire land border with Turkey is located inside the Kurdish autonomous region and has been controlled by the Kurds since before the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Abadi declared a pause on Friday in an offensive that began on Oct. 16 to take over the disputed areas. The oil-rich city of Kirkuk fell on the same day without much fighting.
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command accused the KRG on Wednesday of using the talks that started on Friday to “buy time” to strengthen Kurdish lines.
“We will not allow it; the federal forces are mandated to secure (the disputed) areas and borders,” it said in a statement.
The Kurdish Peshmerga command also accused Iraqi forces on Wednesday of massing weapons and threatening force to resolve “domestic political differences.”
Iraqi troops set up positions between Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish checkpoints on Tuesday at the Habur border crossing, between the Turkish town of Silopi and the Iraqi town of Zakho.
That meant vehicles crossing the border were subject to three separate checks. Eight members of Turkey’s security forces and five Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were killed in a clash early on Thursday near the border between northern Iraq and southeast Turkey, Turkish security and hospital sources said.
The PKK launched a separatist insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Kurds offer joint border deployment as Iraq threatens to resume military operations
Kurds offer joint border deployment as Iraq threatens to resume military operations
Bahraini king, crown prince meet Italian PM in Manama
- King Hamad welcomed Giorgia Meloni at Al-Gudaibiya Palace
- They discussed bilateral relations, ways to boost cooperation
LONDON: Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa received Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Manama on Monday.
The Italian premier embarked on an official visit to the Middle East this week, meeting the Saudi leadership in AlUla on Sunday before heading to the Bahraini capital.
King Hamad welcomed Meloni at Al-Gudaibiya Palace in the presence of Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the crown prince and prime minister.
They discussed bilateral relations and ways to boost cooperation in economics, trade and investment, according to the official Bahrain News Agency.
The king commended Italy’s efforts to promote peace and highlighted the importance of dialogue and diplomatic solutions to address regional as well as global issues, the BNA added.
Meloni expressed her gratitude for King Hamad’s warm hospitality and his efforts to strengthen historical relations between Rome and Manama.
King Hamad hosted a luncheon in honor of the Italian prime minister and her delegation.
Palestinians say two killed in Israeli West Bank strike
- Official Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the two killed as Ramez Damiri and Ihab Abu Atwi, both residents of the Nur Shams refugee camp
TULKAREM: The Palestinian health ministry said Monday two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, an attack confirmed by the Israeli military.
The Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement that two dead and three injured arrived at Tulkarem’s Governmental Hospital “following the occupation’s targeting of a vehicle in Nur Shams refugee camp,” adjacent to the city of Tulkarem.
The Israeli army confirmed the strike, and said in a statement that “in a joint operation by the Israeli army and the Shin Bet (internal security agency), an air force aircraft launched an attack shortly ago in the Tulkarem area.”
Official Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the two killed as Ramez Damiri and Ihab Abu Atwi, both residents of the Nur Shams refugee camp.
The health ministry also announced the death of a young man killed Sunday night by Israeli forces in Qalandiya refugee camp, north of Jerusalem.
The ministry reported one dead and two injured “by (Israeli) bullets near Qalandiya camp.”
Wafa news agency identified the man killed as Adam Sab Laban, shot by Israeli forces who were stationed at a military tower by the Qalandiya checkpoint into Jerusalem, and who “opened fire at a group of citizens.”
Violence has soared throughout the West Bank since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 861 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the health ministry.
At least 29 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Lebanon says Israeli fire kills one as residents try to go home
- The bloodshed came hours after the extension of a deadline for Israeli forces to withdraw from south Lebanon under a November ceasefire deal
BURJ AL-MULUK: Lebanon’s heath ministry said Israeli fire killed one person Monday and wounded seven others in the south, in a second day of violence as residents tried again to return to border villages.
The bloodshed, which one analyst said was unlikely to re-spark war, came hours after the extension of a deadline for Israeli forces to withdraw from south Lebanon under a November ceasefire deal.
The ministry said Israeli fire killed 24 returnees on Sunday.
“Israeli enemy attacks as citizens attempt to return to their towns that are still occupied have led... to one dead and seven wounded,” the health ministry said Monday in a statement.
It reported one dead and two wounded in the border town of Adaysseh, with others wounded in Bani Hayyan, including a child, as well as in Yarun and Hula.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said earlier Monday that Lebanon had agreed to an extension of the ceasefire deal between Hezbollah and Israel until February 18, after the Israeli military missed Sunday’s deadline to withdraw.
In south Lebanon, residents accompanied by the army were again trying to return to their villages, official media and AFP correspondents reported.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem is scheduled to deliver a televised address at 6:30 p.m. (1630 GMT).
In the village of Burj Al-Muluk, an AFP photographer saw dozens of men, women and children gathering in the morning behind a dirt barrier, some holding yellow Hezbollah flags, hoping to reach the border town of Kfar Kila, where the Israeli military is still deployed.
In the city of Bint Jbeil, an access point for many border villages, Hezbollah supporters were distributing sweets, water and images of former chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in September.
Others handed out stickers celebrating the “victory from God” as women held pictures of slain Hezbollah fighters.
“They think they are scaring us with their bullets, but we lived under the bombing and bullets don’t scare us,” said Mona Bazzi in Bint Jbeil.
The official National News Agency (NNA) said that Lebanese “army reinforcements” had arrived near the border town of Mais Al-Jabal, where people had started to gather at “the entrance of the town” in preparation for entering alongside the military.
It said the Israeli army had “opened fire in the direction of the Lebanese army” near the town, without reporting casualties there.
“We waited in a long line for hours, but couldn’t enter,” said Mohammed Choukeir, 33, from Mais Al-Jabal, adding that Israeli troops “were opening fire from time to time on civilians gathered at the entrance of the town.”
In nearby Hula, where the health ministry reported two wounded, the NNA said residents entered “after the deployment of the army in several neighborhoods.”
Under the ceasefire deal that took effect on November 27, the Lebanese military was to deploy in the south alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period, which ended on Sunday.
Hezbollah was also to pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border.
Both sides have traded blame for delays in implementing the deal, which came after more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war.
Lebanon’s army said Sunday that it had entered several border areas including Dhayra, Maroun Al-Ras and Aita Al-Shaab.
An AFP photographer in Aita Al-Shaab on Monday saw widespread destruction, with newly returned families among the ruins of their homes, as bulldozers worked to open roads and rescue teams searched for any bodies leftover from the conflict.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee on Monday called again for south Lebanon residents to “wait” before returning.
Hilal Khashan, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, said he did not expect a return to major violence.
“Hezbollah no longer wants any further confrontation with Israel, its goal is to protect its achievements in Lebanon,” he told AFP.
The health ministry said Monday that Israeli fire killed 24 people who were trying to return to their villages the previous day, updating an earlier toll of 22 dead.
The Israeli military had said soldiers “fired warning shots to remove threats” where “suspects were identified approaching the troops.”
The Lebanese army said Sunday it would “continue to accompany residents” returning to the south and “protect them from Israeli attacks.”
19 arrested after Turkiye hotel inferno disaster
ANKARA: Turkish authorities have arrested 19 people as part of an investigation into a fire at a ski resort hotel that killed 78 people, Anadolu state news agency reported Monday.
Those detained include a deputy mayor for the town responsible for the Kartalkaya resort, a deputy fire chief and the head of another establishment belonging to the hotel owner, the agency said.
The investigation into the January 21 disaster has focused on the hotel management and the actions of the emergency services and authorities in the town of Bolu.
On Friday, the owner of the Grand Karta hotel, his son-in-law, the hotel’s chief electrician and its head chef were arrested.
Survivors and experts have highlighted the absence of fire alarms and sprinklers, working smoke detectors and proper fire escape routes at the 12-story building that overlooked the ski slopes.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said 238 people were staying in the Grand Karta hotel when the inferno tore through the building in the middle of the night.
Palestinians return to north Gaza after breakthrough on hostages
- Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of another six hostages
- Crowds began making their way north along a coastal road on foot Monday morning
NUSEIRAT, Palestinian Territories: Masses of displaced Palestinians began streaming toward the north of the war-battered Gaza Strip on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of another six hostages.
The breakthrough preserves a fragile ceasefire and paves the way for more hostage-prisoner swaps under an agreement aimed at ending the more than 15-month conflict, which has devastated the Gaza Strip and displaced nearly all its residents.
Israel had been preventing Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the terms of the truce, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late Sunday they would be allowed to pass after the new deal was reached.
Crowds began making their way north along a coastal road on foot Monday morning, carrying what belongings they could, AFPTV images showed.
“It’s a great feeling when you go back home, back to your family, relatives and loved ones, and inspect your house — if it is still a house,” displaced Gazan Ibrahim Abu Hassera said.
Hamas called the return “a victory” for Palestinians that “signals the failure and defeat of the plans for occupation and displacement.”
Its ally Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, called it a “response to all those who dream of displacing our people.”
The comments came after US President Donald Trump floated an idea to “clean out” Gaza and resettle Palestinians in Jordan and Egypt, drawing condemnation from regional leaders.
President Mahmud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, issued a “strong rejection and condemnation of any projects” aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza, his office said.
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said that Palestinians would “foil such projects,” as they have done to similar plans “for displacement and alternative homelands over the decades.”
For Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba,” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.
“We say to Trump and the whole world: we will not leave Palestine or Gaza, no matter what happens,” said displaced Gaza resident Rashad Al-Naji.
Trump had floated the idea to reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One: “You’re talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.”
Moving Gaza’s roughly 2.4 million inhabitants could be done “temporarily or could be long term,” he said.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — who opposed the truce deal and has voiced support for re-establishing Israeli settlements in Gaza — called Trump’s suggestion of “a great idea.”
The Arab League rejected the idea, warning against “attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land,” saying their forced displacement could “only be called ethnic cleansing.”
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said “our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians.”
Egypt’s foreign ministry said it rejected any infringement of Palestinians’ “inalienable rights.”
Israel had said it would prevent Palestinians’ passage to the north until the release of Arbel Yehud, a civilian woman hostage who it maintained should have been freed on Saturday.
But Netanyahu’s office later said a deal had been reached for the release of three hostages on Thursday, including Yehud, as well as another three on Saturday.
Hamas confirmed the agreement in its own statement Monday.
During the first phase of the Gaza truce, 33 hostages are supposed to be freed in staggered releases over six weeks in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held by the Israelis.
The most recent swap saw four Israeli women hostages, all soldiers, and 200 prisoners, nearly all Palestinian, released Saturday in the second such exchange during the fragile truce entering its second week.
“We want the agreement to continue and for them to bring our children back as quickly as possible — and all at once,” said Dani Miran, whose hostage son Omri is not slated for release during the first phase.
The truce has brought a surge of food, fuel, medicines and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, but the UN says “the humanitarian situation remains dire.”
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war, 87 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 47,306 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
