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Opposition Party Boycotting Bangladesh Election
Amid unrest and despite violence, the governing Awami League is going ahead with Sunday’s vote, while the main opposition party is refusing to take part.
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sábado, 4 de janeiro de 2014
Flood fears for UK rivers and coasts
BBC News - Home
Flood fears for UK rivers and coasts
People are being warned to brace themselves for fresh floods on England's coasts and rivers, ahead of further severe weather across the UK on Sunday.
Backlash against al-Qaida affiliate sees 'dozens of fighters' killed in Iraq and Syria
World news and comment from the Guardian | theguardian.com
Backlash against al-Qaida affiliate sees 'dozens of fighters' killed in Iraq and Syria
Attempt to push back group that claimed responsibility for bomb attack on Shia suburb in Beirut
Al-Qaida's most significant and powerful affiliate in Iraq and Syria was under attack on multiple fronts on Saturday, even as the group claimed responsibility for its latest outrage – bombing a Shia suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, two days ago.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – known by the acronym Isil – was facing an assault in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, led by police and tribal fighters, after attempting to seize the city of Falluja and the neighbouring town of Ramadi on Friday.
Across the border in Syria, the same group was facing a concerted push-back from an alliance of Islamist and other rebel factions in a series of apparently co-ordinated strikes – which some activists claimed on Saturday marked the start of a "second revolution", this time against al-Qaida. Among them was Ibrahim al-Idelbi, an activist with close ties to the rebels, who wrote on his Facebook page that the "revolution has returned to its true path".
The attempt to push back the group – which has attracted large numbers of foreign jihadis to its banner in both countries – comes amid growing resentment of its attempt to impose its harsh version of Islamic law. The combined attacks on Isil came as the group claimed responsibility for a bombing of a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, which killed at least five people on Thursday – the latest in a wave of attacks in Lebanon in recent months as Syria's civil war has spilled into its smaller neighbour.
According to Syrian activists, dozens of Isil's fighters had been killed in the new fighting, which started on Friday. Some analysts suggested that Isil's kidnapping and killing of Hussein al-Suleiman, a doctor who was also a commander in the Ahrar al-Sham militia, had triggered the assault after pictures of his disfigured body were shown on social media.
Reports on social media and elsewhere described clashes at multiple locations, including in Idlib province, where an Isil-controlled prison was seized. Other reports, impossible to confirm, suggested Isil had been driven from its base close to a key border crossing with Turkey. One group of fighters battling Isil is the newly formed Mujahideen Army, an alliance of eight brigades led by a well known fighter with strong Gulf links.
In a statement accusing the al-Qaida affiliate of hijacking their struggle to topple President Bashar al-Assad, it said Isil was responsible for forced repopulation, illegal arrests and refusal to co-operate with the agreed sharia court system. It said Isil fighters were "undermining stability and security in liberated areas" through theft, kidnapping and imposing their own brand of Islam, and vowed to fight them until Isil was disbanded or driven out of Syria.
Fighters from the Islamic Front, made up of several Islamist brigades that have been close to Isil in the past, were also said to be in heavy clashes with the group in northern Aleppo province. The new conflict seems certain to complicate efforts to find a peaceful settlement to the Syrian crisis at a peace conference later this month.
Assad's main political opponents in exile, the National Coalition, sought to portray Saturday's clashes as a counter assault by the Free Syrian Army against Isil's "authoritarian oppression".
"The Syrian people clearly have rejected al-Qaida's attempts to establish a presence in the liberated territories," coalition member Monzer Akbik said. "The solution to fighting extremism in Syria is to strengthen the Free Syrian Army at this critical juncture."
The battles in Syria came as Iraqi police and tribal fighters claimed to have retaken the western city of Falluja from al-Qaida-affiliated fighters after heavy clashes that have left scores of dead there and in the neighbouring city of Ramadi in recent days.
Amid reports of civilians fleeing fighting elsewhere in Anbar and Ninevah provinces, social media in the country described continuing serious violence in western Iraq between Sunni Islamist militants and the government forces of the country's Shia-dominated government.
The sudden escalation of violence broke out early last week after a government clampdown on a sit-in camp in Ramadi demanding more civil rights for the country's Sunni minority.
Falluja has been held since Monday by militants from Isil in the most serious challenge yet to the authority of his Shia-led government in Anbar province.
According to a local journalist working for CNN in Falluja, tribal forces and police were once again in control of a city where US forces and militants fought one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war a day.
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Official: S. Sudan rivals to meet for talks
CNN.com - World
Official: S. Sudan rivals to meet for talks
Rival parties in the South Sudan power struggle will meet Sunday in Ethiopia for peace talks, an official with the regional group promoting the negotiations said.
Milicianos de Al Qaeda toman la ciudad iraquí de Faluya
Portada de Internacional | EL PAÍS
Milicianos de Al Qaeda toman la ciudad iraquí de Faluya
El Gobierno de Irak ha perdido el control de la ciudad de Faluya a manos de combatientes de Al Qaeda. Milicianos vinculados a la red controlan ahora el sur de la ciudad, según ha informado a la BBC una fuente de seguridad. Un periodista iraquí ha añadido a la cadena británica que milicianos tribales vinculados a Al Qaeda controlan el resto de la ciudad.
El Ejército ha bombardeado este sábado la ciudad en un intento de reconquistarla. El primer ministro, Nuri al Maliki, ha declarado a la televisión estatal que sus soldados eliminarán a todos los grupos terroristas: “No nos rendiremos hasta que hayamos acabado con todos los grupos terroristas y hayamos salvado al pueblo de Anbar”, ha declarado.
La toma de Faluya supone un agravamiento del conflicto sectario en Irak. Combatientes suníes vinculados a Al Qaeda se han aliado con milicianos tribales en su oposición al primer ministro, el chií Nuri al Maliki, y su avance supone un gran desafío a la autoridad del Gobierno central en la provincia de Anbar. El grupo Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante (ISIS, por sus siglas en inglés) ha ido ganando terreno durante los últimos meses en esta provincia de mayoría suní donde pretende crear un Estado suní.
Tropas gubernamentales combatían el sábado también en otra ciudad, en Ramadi, en un intento de reconquistarla de los milicianos. Es la primera vez en varios años que grupos insurgentes suníes toman ciudades y son capaces de retenerlas. En Ramadi, a diferencia de lo que ocurre en Faluya, los milicianos tribales combaten junto al Ejército regular contra Al Qaeda.
Iraq government 'loses Fallujah'
BBC News - Home
Iraq government 'loses Fallujah'
Iraqi troops have reportedly lost control of the strategic city of Fallujah after intense fighting with al-Qaeda militants and local Sunni tribesmen.
Militant Tied To Bombings In Lebanon Dies in Jail
NYT > World
Militant Tied To Bombings In Lebanon Dies in Jail
Majid bin Muhammad al-Majid, the leader of a Lebanon-based affiliate of Al Qaeda who was arrested recently, died Saturday while in custody in Lebanon, officials said.
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