CAIRO: An Egyptian court has referred the case of seven defendants facing terrorism charges to the country’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion on whether they can be executed as the prosecution seeks.
The Cairo Criminal Court said Saturday the defendants are members of a local affiliate of the Daesh group spearheading an insurgency in northern Sinai.
The men are part of 32 defendants accused of killing eight police, including an officer, when they ambushed a microbus in Cairo’s southern suburb of Helwan in May 2016.
The verdict is set for Nov. 12, and the presiding judge may rule independently of the Mufti.
Egypt has battled an insurgency for years in the Sinai Peninsula that has occasionally spilled over to the mainland.
Egypt court asks Grand Mufti for opinion on terror case sentences
Egypt court asks Grand Mufti for opinion on terror case sentences
- Cairo Criminal Court said defendants are members of a local affiliate of the Daesh group
- Grand Mufti will be asked for a non-binding opinion on whether they can be executed as the prosecution seeks
Iraq agrees to supply Lebanon with fuel for six months
BEIRUT: Iraq has agreed to supply Lebanon with fuel for six more months, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said in a statement on Saturday, renewing a deal meant to alleviate Lebanon’s acute power shortage.
Under the heavy fuel oil deal, first agreed in July 2021, Iraq provides the Lebanese government with the fuel in exchange for services including health care for Iraqi citizens.
Lebanon then swaps the heavy fuel oil for gas oil that it can use at its power stations.
These have operated for decades at partial capacity, but electricity provision deteriorated further during a financial crisis that has hit the state’s ability to buy fuel.
Sudan’s army takes major market as it extends control over capital
- The statement comes days after the Sudanese army declared victory over the RSF in Khartoum
- The army said in a statement that its forces were now in control of the market in western Omdurman, Souq Libya, having seized weapons and equipment left behind by the RSF
CAIRO: The Sudanese army said on Saturday it had taken control of a major market in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, which had previously been used by their Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rivals to launch attacks during a devastating two-year-old war.
The statement comes days after the Sudanese army declared victory over the RSF in Khartoum, claiming control of most parts of the capital.
The conflict between the army and the RSF has unleashed waves of ethnic violence, created what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and plunged several areas into famine.
The army said in a statement that its forces were now in control of the market in western Omdurman, Souq Libya, having seized weapons and equipment left behind by the RSF when they fled.
Souq Libya is one of the largest and most important commercial hubs in Sudan.
The army already controlled most of Omdurman, home to two big military bases. It appears intent on securing control over the entire capital area, which is made up of the three cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri, divided by branches of the River Nile.
The RSF has not commented on the army’s advance in Omdurman, where the paramilitary forces still hold some territory.
The war erupted amid a power struggle between the army and RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. It ruined much of Khartoum, uprooted more than 12 million Sudanese from their homes, and left about half of the 50 million population suffering acute hunger.
Overall deaths are hard to estimate, but a study published last year said the toll may have reached 61,000 in Khartoum state alone in the first 14 months of the conflict.
The war has added to instability in the region, with Sudan’s neighbors Libya, Chad, Central African Republic and South Sudan each weathering internal bouts of conflict over recent years.
Turkiye opposition calls mass rally in Istanbul
- Imamoglu’s detention on March 19 has prompted a repressive government response that has been sharply condemned by rights groups and drawn criticism from abroad.
- The protests over his arrest quickly spread across Turkiye, with vast crowds joining mass nightly rallies outside Istanbul City Hall
Istanbul: Protesters were to join a mass rally in Istanbul Saturday at the call of Turkiye’s main opposition CHP over the jailing of the city’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a top figure in the party whose arrest has sparked 10 days of the country’s biggest street demonstrations in a decade.
Imamoglu’s detention on March 19 has also prompted a repressive government response that has been sharply condemned by rights groups and drawn criticism from abroad.
The rally, which begins at 0900 GMT in Maltepe on the Asian side of Istanbul, is the first such CHP-led gathering since Tuesday and comes on the eve of the Eid Al-Fitr celebration marking the end of Ramadan, which starts Sunday.
Widely seen as the only Turkish politician capable of challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the ballot box, Imamoglu was elected as the CHP’s candidate for the 2028 presidential race on the day he was jailed.
“Imamoglu’s candidacy for president is the beginning of a journey that will guarantee justice and the nation’s sovereignty. Let’s go to Maltepe.. and start our march to power together!” CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said on X.
The protests over his arrest quickly spread across Turkiye, with vast crowds joining mass nightly rallies outside Istanbul City Hall called by the CHP, that often degenerated into running battles with riot police.
Although the last such rally was Tuesday, student groups have kept up their own protests, most of them masked despite a police crackdown that has seen nearly 2,000 people arrested.
Among them were 20 minors who were arrested between March 22-25, of whom seven remained in custody, the Istanbul Bar Association said Friday.
In Istanbul, at least 511 students were detained, many in predawn raids, of whom 275 were jailed, lawyer Ferhat Guzel told AFP, while admitting that the number was “probably much higher.”
The authorities have also cracked down on media coverage, arresting 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deporting a BBC correspondent and arresting a Swedish reporter who flew into Istanbul to cover the unrest.
Although 11 journalists were freed Thursday, among them AFP photographer Yasin Akgul, two more were detained on Friday as was Imamoglu’s lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan, who was later granted conditional release.
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, who flew into Turkiye on Thursday to cover the demonstrations, was jailed on Friday, his employer Dagens ETC told AFP, saying it was not immediately clear what the charges were.
’Accusations 100 percent false’
Unconfirmed reports in the Turkish media said Medin was being held for “insulting the president” and belonging to a “terror organization.”
“I know that these accusations are false, 100 percent false,” Dagens ETC’s editor-in-chief Andreas Gustavsson wrote on X account.
In a post on social media, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said Stockholm was taking his arrest “seriously.”
Turkish authorities held BBC journalist Mark Lowen for 17 hours on Wednesday before deporting him on the grounds he posed “a threat to public order,” the broadcaster said.
Turkiye’s communications directorate put his deportation down to “a lack of accreditation.”
Baris Altintas, co-director of MLSA, the legal NGO helping many of the detainees, told AFP the authorities “seem to be very determined on limiting coverage of the protests.
“As such, we fear that the crackdown on the press will not only continue but also increase.”
New US strikes against Houthi rebels kill at least 1 in Yemen
- American operation under President Donald Trump appears more extensive than those under former President Joe Biden
- The strikes into Saturday targeted multiple areas in Yemen under the control of the Iranian-backed Houthis
DUBAI: Suspected US airstrikes pounded Yemen overnight into Saturday, reportedly killing at least one person as the American military acknowledged earlier bombing a major military site in the heart of Sanaa controlled by the Houthi rebels.
The full extent of the damage and possible casualties wasn’t immediately clear. The attacks followed a night of airstrikes early Friday that appeared particularly intense compared to other days in the campaign that began March 15.
An Associated Press review has found the new American operation under President Donald Trump appears more extensive than those under former President Joe Biden, as the US moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel as well as dropping bombs in cities.
Meanwhile, satellite photos analyzed by the AP show a mysterious airstrip just off Yemen in a key maritime chokepoint now appears ready to accept flights and B-2 bombers within striking distance of the country Saturday.
New strikes come as US releases video of one bombing
The strikes into Saturday targeted multiple areas in Yemen under the control of the Iranian-backed Houthis, including the capital, Sanaa, and in the governorates of Al-Jawf and Saada, rebel-controlled media reported. The strikes in Saada killed one person and wounded four others, the Houthi-run SABA news agency said.
SABA identified the person killed as a civilian. Houthi fighters and their allies often aren’t in uniform. However, analysts believe the rebels may be undercounting the fatalities given the strikes have been targeting military and intelligence sites run by the rebels. Many of the strikes haven’t been fully acknowledged by the Houthis — or the US military — while the rebels also tightly control access on the ground.
One strike early Friday, however, has been confirmed by the US military’s Central Command, which oversees its Mideast operations. It posted a black-and-white video early Saturday showing an airstrike targeting a site in Yemen. While it didn’t identify the location, an AP analysis of the footage’s details corresponds to a known strike Friday in Sanaa. The footage shows the bomb striking the military’s general command headquarters held by the Houthis, something the rebels have not reported.
The Houthi-controlled Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry in Sanaa separately said US strikes Friday destroyed “broadcasting stations, communication towers and the messaging network” in Amran and Saada governorates. The strikes in Amran around the Jebel Aswad, or “Black Mountain,” had appeared particularly intense.
US campaign follows Houthi shipping threats
The new campaign of airstrikes, which the Houthis now say have killed at least 58 people, started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels in the past have had a loose definition of what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning other vessels could be targeted as well.
The Houthis had targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors during their campaign targeting ships from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none have been hit so far.
The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting any dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decadelong stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.
The Houthis have begun threatening both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two American allies in the region, over the US strikes. That’s even as the nations, which have sought a separate peace with the Houthis, have stayed out of the new US airstrike campaign.
An AP analysis of satellite photos from Saturday shows the American military has moved at least four long-range stealth B-2 bombers to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — a base far outside of the range of the rebels that avoids using allies’ Mideast bases. Three had been earlier seen there this week.
That means a fourth of all the nuclear-capable B-2s that America has in its arsenal are now deployed to the base. The Biden administration used the B-2 with conventional bombs against Houthi targets last year.
The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman has launched attacks from the Red Sea and the American military plans to bring the carrier USS Carl Vinson from Asia as well.
Meanwhile, France said its sole aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, was in Djibouti, an East African nation on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The French have shot down Houthi drones in the past, but they are not part of the American campaign there.
Mysterious airstrip in Bab el-Mandeb appears ready
Satellite images Friday from Planet Labs PBC show an airstrip now appears ready on Mayun Island, a volcanic outcropping in the center of the Bab el-Mandeb. The images showed the airstrip had been painted with the designation markings “09” and “27” to the airstrip’s east and west respectively.
A Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis had acknowledged having “equipment” on Mayun, also known as Perim. However, air and sea traffic to Mayun has linked the construction to the UAE, which backs a secessionist force in Yemen known as the Southern Transitional Council.
World powers have recognized the island’s strategic location for hundreds of years, especially with the opening of the Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
The work on Mayun follows the completion of a similar airstrip likely constructed by the UAE on Abd Al-Kuri Island, which rises out of the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden.
US embassy in Syria warns of increased risk of attacks
- Department of State cautions US citizens of the increased possibility of attacks during Eid Al-Fitr holiday
Damascus: The US embassy in Syria has warned its citizens of an “increased possibility” of attacks during the holiday marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in the coming days.
“The US Department of State cautions US citizens of the increased possibility of attacks during Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which could target embassies, international organizations, and Syrian public institutions in Damascus,” said a statement posted on the embassy website late Friday.
“Methods of attack could include... individual attackers, armed gunmen, or the use of explosive devices,” it added.
Security in Syria remains tenuous after Islamist-led rebels overthrew longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December following nearly 14 years of war that erupted with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.
Washington advises its citizens not to travel to Syria “due to the significant risks of terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, hostage-taking, armed conflict, and unjust detention,” according to the statement.
The embassy’s operations have been suspended since 2012.
