TRIPOLI: A Libyan political activist who was abducted by an unknown armed group in western Libya has been released, local media reported Thursday.
Al-Moatassim Al-Areebi, 29, was released a day after the United Nations said it was “deeply concerned” over his abduction.
“Unidentified men released activist Al-Moatassim Al-Areebi, detained since last Monday in Misrata,” about 190 kilometers (120 miles) east of the capital Tripoli, the Al-Wasat TV channel said.
Areebi was released after “calls from the UN mission in Libya and the embassies of France and the United States,” as well as a large online campaign demanding his release, the channel added.
Photos shared on social media on Thursday showed the activist walking in the streets of Misrata.
The armed men who abducted him earlier in the week have not been identified, and media did not report any reasons for his abduction and release.
The UN mission on Wednesday called on “law enforcement agencies to urgently investigate the abduction of Mr. Al-Areebi, disclose his whereabouts, and secure his safe and immediate release.”
It also called for “the immediate and unconditional release of all arbitrarily detained individuals” in the conflict-plagued country.
It said it has “documented cases of at least 60 individuals currently detained across the country for their actual or perceived political affiliation.”
“Reports of arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment, torture, and deaths in custody committed with impunity continue to plague Libya,” it added.
Kidnappings are not uncommon in the restive North African country, including in May, when an elected member of Libya’s eastern-based House of Representatives was abducted in the city of Benghazi.
In 2019, Siham Sergewa, another representative, was abducted in Benghazi and remains missing.
Libya has been wracked by division and unrest since the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of former dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
It is currently divided between two rival administrations based in Tripoli and Benghazi.
Abducted Libya political activist released: media
https://arab.news/5vc6c
Abducted Libya political activist released: media
- Al-Moatassim Al-Areebi, 29, was released a day after the United Nations said it was “deeply concerned” over his abduction
- Photos shared on social media on Thursday showed the activist walking in the streets of Misrata
Famine officially declared in Sudan
JEDDAH: The civil war in Sudan and restrictions on aid have caused famine in North Darfur, food security experts said on Thursday.
The finding, linked to an internationally recognized standard known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, is only the third time a famine determination has been made since the system was set up 20 years ago.
It shows how starvation and disease are taking a deadly toll in Sudan, where more than 15 months of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have created the world’s biggest internal displacement crisis and left 25 million people — half the population — in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
An official review committee found there was acute malnutrition and deaths meeting famine criteria in the Zamzam camp, which houses 500,000 displaced people. Paramilitaries are besieging the area and no aid has reached the camp for months.
The Islamic Relief charity said rising numbers of children needed treatment in clinics across Sudan. “It is not too late for them, but time is running out,” it said. Some victims have been forced to eat leaves and soil, and satellite imagery showed cemeteries expanding fast as starvation and disease spread.
Supporters say Iranian Nobel winner’s health deteriorating in prison
- Rights activist Narges Mohammedi, 52, has been jailed since November 2021, and has spent much of the past decade in and out of prison
PARIS: The health of jailed Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammedi has deteriorated in prison, supporters said Thursday, demanding her freedom and calling to give her access to medical care “without delay.”
Rights activist Mohammedi, 52, has been jailed since November 2021, and has spent much of the past decade in and out of prison.
A group of supporters of Mohammedi, who in 2023 won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her advocacy work, said they had been informed of the results of medical tests carried out last month “which showed a worrying deterioration of her health.”
“The Free Narges Coalition is extremely worried about the deterioration of Narges Mohammadi’s health in detention,” the group said in a statement, noting cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and other risks.
Mohammedi, who is held in Tehran’s Evin Prison, should be released “immediately” and have access to medical care “without delay,” the coalition added.
In the past eight months, Mohammedi has been suffering from acute back and knee pain, including a herniated spinal disc, the supporters said.
Mohammedi has kept campaigning even behind bars and strongly supported the protests that erupted across Iran following the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules for women.
In recent weeks, Mohammedi and other women held with her at Evin have staged protests in the prison yard against death sentences handed to two Iranian Kurdish activists, Pakhshan Azizi and Sharifeh Mohammedi who were tried for membership of an illegal armed group.
Narges Mohammedi in June received a new one-year prison term for “propaganda against the state,” on top of a litany of other verdicts that already amounted to 12 years and three months of imprisonment, 154 lashes, two years of exile and various social and political restrictions.
Turkiye blocks NATO-Israel cooperation over Gaza war
- Ankara ‘will not allow Israel to continue its interaction with NATO until there is an end to the conflict,’ source says
ANKARA: Turkiye has blocked cooperation between NATO and Israel since October because of the war in Gaza and said the alliance should not engage with Israel as a partner until there is an end to the conflict, sources familiar with the process said.
Israel carries the status of NATO partner and has fostered close relations with the military alliance and some of its members, notably its biggest ally the US.
Prior to Israel’s offensive in Gaza — prompted by Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage — NATO member Turkiye had been working to mend its long-strained ties with Israel.
Since then, Ankara has been fiercely critical of Israel’s operation in Gaza, which it says amounts to a genocide, and has halted all bilateral trade.
It has also slammed many Western allies for their support of Israel.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said Turkiye had vetoed all NATO engagement with Israel since October, including joint meetings and exercises, viewing Israel’s “massacre” of Palestinians in Gaza as a violation of NATO’s founding principles.
A UN inquiry in June found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war.
It said Israel’s actions constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses. Israel rejects this and says its operation in Gaza, which has killed nearly 40,000 people, aims to eradicate Hamas.
The sources said Turkiye would maintain this block and not allow Israel to continue or advance its interaction with NATO until there was an end to the conflict, as it believes Israel’s actions in Gaza violate international law and universal human rights.
After a NATO summit in Washington in July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was not possible for NATO to continue its partnership with the Israeli administration.
Earlier this week, Israel’s foreign minister urged the alliance to expel Turkiye after Erdogan appeared to threaten to enter Israel, as it had Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh in the past.
Erdogan has condemned the “perfidious assassination” in Tehran of his close ally and “brother” Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas.
“May God have mercy on my brother Ismail Haniyeh, fallen in martyrdom after this odious attack,” Erdogan wrote on the X social media platform, denouncing “Zionist barbarity.”
“This shameful act aims to sabotage the Palestinian cause, the glorious Gazan resistance and our Palestinian brothers’ just fight, and to intimidate Palestinians,” Erdogan added.
Thousands of protesters marched after evening prayers in Istanbul to condemn the killing, many waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and chanting slogans hostile to Israel, while an Israeli flag was burned.
“I am here because Israel martyred the representative of the Palestinian people,” said 44-year-old demonstrator Mehmet.
“The great powers have an important role to play. If they don’t prevent these massacres ... history will accuse us of looking on.”
Hezbollah says fired ‘dozens’ of rockets at north Israel
- Hezbollah said it “launched dozens of Katyusha rockets... in response to the Israeli enemy’s attack on... (the southern village of Shama) that killed a number of civilians“
- The Israeli military said that shortly after the rocket fire, the air force “struck the Hezbollah launcher from which the projectiles were launched“
BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it launched rockets at northern Israel Thursday “in response” to a deadly Israeli strike in south Lebanon — the group’s first attack after Israel killed a top commander earlier this week.
The Iran-backed group said in a statement that it “launched dozens of Katyusha rockets... in response to the Israeli enemy’s attack on... (the southern village of Shama) that killed a number of civilians.”
The Israeli military said that shortly after the rocket fire, the air force “struck the Hezbollah launcher from which the projectiles were launched.”
Earlier Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said four Syrians were killed in an Israeli strike on the south, where Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire since the Gaza war began in October.
“The health ministry announces... four Syrian nationals were martyred” in an “Israeli strike” on the southern village of Shama, it said in a statement.
The ministry said the toll might rise once DNA tests had been carried out.
The strike also wounded five Lebanese nationals, it added.
Emergency services told AFP that the dead were farmer workers and part of the same family.
Plumes of smoke billowed from the site of the strike, which heavily damaged two nearby buildings and burnt a vehicle to a crisp, a photographer contributing to AFP reported.
The attack was Hezbollah’s first since an Israeli air strike killed its top commander Fuad Shukr on Tuesday evening, with leader Hassan Nasrallah saying operations would resume on Friday morning.
Nasrallah warned his group was bound to respond to the killing of Shukr.
His death was followed hours later Wednesday, by the killing of Hezbollah ally Hamas’s chief Ismail Haniyeh in a strike in Tehran, which Iran and Hamas have blamed on Israel. Israel has declined to comment on his killing.
The violence since October has killed at least 542 people on the Lebanese side, most of them fighters but also including 114 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
At least 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed on the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, according to army figures.
Kuwait will not become launchpad for attacks on neighbors, officials say
- Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Hamad Al-Sager dismisses reports that suggest otherwise
KUWAIT: Kuwaiti authorities said on Thursday they will not allow the nation’s land or airspace to be used as launchpads for military attacks on neighboring countries.
Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Hamad Al-Sager dismissed reports that suggested otherwise, reported the Kuwait News Agency on Thursday.
His statement came as Iranian officials were due to meet regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to discuss possible retaliation against Israel following the assassination of Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in an airstrike in Tehran on Wednesday.
There are growing fears of a wider regional conflict between Israel and Iran and its proxies following the killing of Haniyeh, and an Israeli strike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur.
