French dam project sparks new clashes

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Fresh clashes have broken out between angry protesters and riot police in southwestern France, following the death of a demonstrator in a similar rally.

Monday skirmishes occurred when a large number of activists held a rally to voice their opposition to the controversial Sivens dam project in the town of Albi, the capital of the Tarn region.

The protesters argue that only a handful of agri-businesses will benefit from the project.

A 21-year-old protester, identified as Remi Fraisse, lost his life early on Sunday during clashes between police and the protesters, with security forces firing tear gas and throwing grenades at them at the site of the construction project. Seven security forces also sustained injuries in the unrest.

“Remi, Remi, we won’t forget you,” chanted the protesters during the Monday rally.

A prosecutor, meanwhile, said the 21-year-old was injured by “an explosion.”

“The big wound on the top of Remi Fraisse’s back was caused, in all likelihood, by an explosion,” prosecutor Claude Derens said.

Further analyses could determine whether “a grenade, thrown from the area where police were entrenched” was “at the origin” of the blast, Derens said, referring to earlier media reports that a grenade might have hit the protester.

Demonstrators have been gathering at the site of the contested project since early last month when clearing work started there. The gatherings have ended in clashes with police in most of the cases.

MR/NT/SS

Australian Muslim Shiites travel to Iraq for Ashura despite IS threat

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ashura

Hundreds of Australian Muslim Shiites are expected to make the pilgrimage for the 40-day holy commemoration festival in Karbala, but this year the Australian government is warning worshippers to think twice about their travel plans.

The festival commemorates the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, and is a long held practice in Shiite Islam.

Tradition holds that the esteemed Imam Hussein was decapitated and his body mutilated in the historic battle of Karbala in 680 AD.

Representative of ‘Spiritual Journeys Australia’, Zoubeida Moubarak, said the threat is real and the Australian government was limited in what they could do if an attack occurred.

“It is unsafe and a lot of people are concerned,” Zoubeida said.

“I have called the Australian Embassy, they will issue visas, they won’t stop anyone from getting a visa… They have said we will not have any consulate help, we don’t have an embassy there. So if you go, you go on your own terms.”

Twenty-one-year-old Zainab Mohammed will be travelling to Iraq next week to fulfil her pilgrimage dream.

She told SBS she’s not too concerned about Islamic State militants.

“No matter what they do, we will always visit our Imam and people in Iraq are used to war and conflict,” she said.

“It won’t stop us because it’s a spiritual journey we make and it’s beautiful.”

Earlier this week, two deadly bomb blasts ripped across Shiite regions, one hit a Baghdad mosque killing 17 worshippers while another suicide car killed another 16 people in Karbala.

Zoubeida Moubarak says, “Imam Hussein stood for what it is to be a human being… people are going to go because if we stop visiting his shrine and Karbala then the story might end there.”

The Iraqi government has stepped up security measures in Karbala and Najaf in an effort to protect local and visiting pilgrims but warned people to vigilant and alert.

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Kobani Kurdish forces repel ISIL attack

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Kurdish forces in the Syrian city of Kobani have repelled an attack by the Takfiri ISIL militants, officials say.

According to Kurdish officials and the London-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the ISIL terrorists attempted to seize Kobani’s border post with neighboring Turkey late Saturday.

The militants were, however, pushed back by the Kurdish fighters in the south and west, guarding the only official gateway from Kobani to Turkey.

Idris Nassan, a local Kurdish official, said that the ISIL militants had shelled Kobani’s border gate late Saturday.

“Of course they will try again tonight. Last night, they brought new reinforcements, new supplies, and they are pushing hard,” Nassan added.

Last week, Iraq’s Kurdistan voted in favor of sending Peshmerga forces to Kobani to help the Kurdish fighters in their battle against the ISIL.

However, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesman Safeen Dizayee said on Sunday that they will only provide the Kurdish forces in Kobani with artillery support and not with ground soldiers.

Kobani and its surroundings have been under attack since mid-September, with the ISIL militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages.

As a result of the ISIL’s advances in the region, tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds have been forced to flee into Turkey, which is a stone’s throw from Kobani.

Reports say that at least 815 people have been killed during the clashes between Kurdish fighters and the ISIL militants in Kobani. More than half of those killed are reportedly ISIL militants.

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Australia: Muslim woman suffers broken arm in racist attack

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A Muslim woman is nursing a broken arm after being pushed onto a road in an unprovoked racist attack in Melbourne’s north.

The attack occurred outside a Lalor shopping centre in the middle of a weekday earlier this month.

The 48-year-old woman, who was wearing a hijab and a “long Islamic dress”, had been shopping at Lalor Plaza and was on her way home when she was attacked.

The woman’s daughter, Abrar Ahmed, saw the incident unfold from her car.

“A man approached my mum and said, ‘You Muslims, go back to where you came from’,” Ms Ahmed said.

“As my mum turned around to see who was yelling at her in such a disgusting way, she saw this really big guy.

    “He pushed her on the ground, she landed in the middle of the road. When she fell on the ground she broke her arm. She heard her bone crack.”

Ms Ahmed, who organised a recent protest against racism in the CBD, said attacks like the one on her mother were not uncommon.

“A lot of other Muslim women, they have been going through worse assaults, they are being attacked in very different ways and they don’t have the courage to speak out.”

In Carlton, Quman Ali was pushed down the steps of a tram earlier this month, falling into the metal barricade on the street.

She said the incident occurred about 6.30pm on a weeknight on a packed No. 1 tram travelling to East Coburg.

As she tried to exit the tram, a man whom she was passing pushed her down the stairs.

“He pushed me out of the tram. When I looked up he was mumbling something. I was so shocked, I could not even say anything.”

Ms Ali hit the metal tram barrier, injuring her knee. She believes the attack was racially motivated because she was wearing a hijab.

Neither woman reported the attacks to the police.

Federal member for Melbourne Adam Bandt said the current political climate is contributing to an increase of attacks on Muslim women.

“It can divide our community and some people end up on the receiving end of abuse. In this case, Muslim Australians – and especially women – tell me they are being harassed and assaulted,” he said.

Brunswick police Acting Senior Sergeant Ben Davies said police take all reports of racist attacks seriously.

“I think sometimes people have a fear of reporting or think there is no point in reporting, so we are engaging with the community to encourage them.”

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‘World powers’ demands beyond NPT’

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A former Iranian nuclear negotiator says the big powers in nuclear talks with Iran are making demands which are beyond the scope of international regulations, particularly the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“Not only was sending Iran’s nuclear dossier to [the UN] Security Council against international regulations and law, but the current demands of the big powers in the nuclear negotiations with Iran are also beyond the scope of recognized international regulations,” Hossein Mousavian said in a meeting in New York.

He added that world powers are asking Iran not to enrich uranium above five percent, limit its reserves of enriched uranium, limit the number of centrifuges…and enrichment sites, limit research and development of centrifuges, limit reprocessing activities, convert Arak heavy water reactor into a light water reactor and allow inspections of its nuclear sites beyond the NPT requirements.

“According to the present international regulations on nuclear program, which are based on the NPT, none of the global powers’ seven demands of Iran have any legal basis and [all of them] are beyond the scope of the treaty (NPT),” Mousavian added.

He noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has carried out more than 7,000 person-hours inspections of the Iranian nuclear sites over the past 10 years.

As a signatory to the NPT, Iran has allowed more probes of its nuclear activities than any other country and there has been no report of any diversion in its nuclear program toward the production of weapons, he said, adding that due to this reason, referring Iran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council and describing it as a threat to global peace and security was a disgrace for international law.

The former Iranian diplomat emphasized that there is a consensus among 16 US security organizations that Iran’s nuclear program has had no diversion toward weapons production and that Iranian authorities have no intention to build nuclear weapons.

“The approach taken to Iran’s nuclear case is 100-percent political and while lacking any legal basis, violates the existing international regulations regarding nuclear [activities],” Mousavian said.

The US, the Israeli regime and some of their allies accuse Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with Washington and the European Union using the unfounded claim as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions on Iran in a bid to block foreign companies from doing business with the Islamic Republic.

Iran is currently in talks with the P5+1 group of world powers – the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany – to find a comprehensive solution to the nuclear standoff.

SF/HMV/SS

HRW urges Bahrain to free activists

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Human rights organizations have called on Bahraini authorities to drop all criminal charges against two detained prominent human rights activists, Nabeel Rajab and Zainab al-Khawaja.

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the [Persian] Gulf Center for Human Rights ([P]GCHR) urged the Manama regime to release the two activists immediately. 

“These two courageous activists face years in jail for their peaceful criticism of a deeply repressive government,” said HRW Deputy Director of Middle East and North Africa Joe Stork, who added, “A lot of influential governments that vociferously champion free speech elsewhere seem to have become shamefully coy where rights violations in Bahrain are concerned.”

The HRW said the two activists’ charges clearly violate their right to freedom of speech and called on Manama to immediately revoke all laws that violate freedom of speech, including those that criminalize insulting or defaming state institutions or the monarch.

Rajab is due in court on October 29 to face charges of offending the Interior Ministry and may be sentenced to three years in jail, while Zainab al-Khawaja, who is eight months pregnant, is scheduled to stand trial on October 30. The activist could receive up to seven years in jail on charges of insulting the king of Bahrain.

“The silence of the UK, the EU, and others may result in Nabeel Rajab and Zainab al-Khawaja paying a further heavy cost for their activism,” [P]GCHR Co-director Khalid Ibrahim said, adding, “Bahrain and the [Persian] Gulf region in general are quickly becoming the litmus test when it comes to states’ support for freedom of expression.”

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling on the Al Khalifa royal family to step down. The protesters have also slammed the Manama regime’s arrest and torture of political activists.

Many Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.

ASH/HMV/SS

Kidnapping girls, Boko Haram tactic

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Human Rights Watch says the Boko Haram Takfiri militants have been using female abductees to achieve their tactical goals in their fight against the Nigerian government.

The rights organization issued a report about Boko Haram violence against women and girls on Monday based on interviews conducted with over 40 witnesses and victims of Boko Haram abductions.

Some of the people that Human Rights Watch interviewed have suggested that female abductees are “being used for tactical reasons, such as to lure (Nigerian) security forces to an ambush, force payment of a ransom, or for a prisoner exchange.”

The female victims have been also forced to accompany the militants to the frontline, the report said.

“I was told to hold the bullets and lie in the grass while they fought. They came to me for extra bullets as the fight continued during the day,” said a girl interviewed by the rights group, who managed to escape Boko Haram.

The report also pointed to motives behind Boko Haram’s abductions, stating that the Takfiri leaders sought to “retaliate against the government for its alleged detention of family members, including the wives of the group’s leaders.”

The rights organization’s report states that the militants kidnap Nigerian women and girls “to punish students for attending Western schools.”

Boko Haram means, “Western education is forbidden.”

In April, the militants kidnapped 276 girls in the town of Chibok, triggering worldwide outrage. Reports say 57 of the girls managed to escape later but 219 are still missing.

GMA/HSN/SS

Nusra Front Threatens killing Lebanese soldiers

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Nusra Front – Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate – threatened Sunday to kill Lebanese soldiers it captured in fighting in August unless the army halts operations against militants in Lebanon’s second city Tripoli.

The Lebanese army, meanwhile, said gunmen kidnapped a soldier from his home in the port city, the second seized in northern Lebanon since Saturday.

Al-Nusra Front, which has previously executed one captive Lebanese soldier, issued its threat after troops cleared militants from Tripoli’s historic bazaar district Saturday in an operation that left one civilian and a militant dead.

Many of the militants managed to withdraw to the Bab al-Tebbaneh district of the city, a Sunni Islamist stronghold, where troops were engaged in heavy fighting on Sunday, an AFP correspondent reported.

The army’s offensive against the militants in Wednesday – who are suspected of having links to Al-Nusra and ISIS – sparked attacks on troops across the Tripoli region that left six dead.

The Al-Qaeda affiliate initially threatened to start executing its prisoners from 0800 GMT but then issued a second statement extending the deadline to 1200 GMT.In response Lebanon army declare in a statement “Operations will continue until we eliminate the last militant, news of efforts for evacuating militants are untrue”, Lebanon National News Agency reports.

Al-Nusra and rival terrorists of the ISIS group captured some 30 Lebanese soldiers and police in fighting around the eastern town of Arsal, close to the Syrian border, in August. IS has since executed two of its captives.

Islamist gunmen in Tripoli have carried out repeated attacks against the army and Shiites citizens.The August fighting in Arsal – a Sunni enclave within the mainly Shiite Bekaa Valley border region – was the most serious in Lebanon since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.

The army said of warrant officer Fayez al-Ammuri was abducted by gunmen who stormed his home in Bab al-Tebbaneh on Sunday morning. Ammuri is the second soldier kidnapped by gunmen at the weekend, after a comrade was captured on a highway outside Tripoli on Saturday evening.

The army said it foiled an attempt by unidentified gunmen late on Saturday to abduct five of its soldiers in the Akkar region of northern Lebanon.

According to NNA, 4 soldiers have been killed in renewed clashes with gunmen in Bhanneen. Clashes renews on Sunday in Bhannin between the Lebanese Army and the militants after two military vehicles came under fire.

Also Lebanese Army announced in a statement Sunday the death of 4 soldiers, including 2 officers, in an ambush by a terrorist group in Dhour Mohamara of Minnieh in the afternoon.

The number of soldiers hospitalized at Halba Medical Center, has risen to 9 due to the ongoing armed clashes between troops and gunmen in Bhanneen, One additional soldier received first aid at Nahr el-Bared refugee camp before being transferred to Beirut for treatment, same reporters added.

The Lebanese Armed Forces raided on Sunday residential apartments in the region of Rass Sarj in Arsal and apprehended five Syrian nationals.




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IS anger: “100 Suicide Bombers for Amriyat al-Falluja”

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 ISIS reacting to the loss of Jurf al-Sakhar with propaganda in Falluja, saying supporters “Don’t be afraid and worry what happened in Jurf al-Sakhar. The mujahideen will be back, be cheerful. We have 100 suicide bombers preparing for the battle of Amriyat al-Falluja.”

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the southern district of Jurf al-Sakhr which has recently witnessed pitched battles between government troops alongside Shiite volunteer militiamen against the ISIS group.Jurf al-Sakhr, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Baghdad, was seized by IS last June. The Iraqi government said the area was liberated from IS extremists.

Al-Abadi during his visit on Saturday, made a rousing speech to the troops and vowed that Iraqis united would prevail over the IS militants.”By own our capabilities, we are able to liberate our territories from ISIL. All Iraqis are one hand. Coordination will continue between the al-Hashid al-Sha’abi (Popular militiamen) and Iraqi security troops as it is now.  Such coordination will continue in Babil, Baghdad, Anbar and Mosul. All Iraqis are one hand, and we will overcome terrorism.”Haider al-Abadi said:

Thousands of Iraqi Shiites answered a call from top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in June to join security forces fighting the militants, who have captured swathes of land in the country’s west and north.

Iraqi government forces retook four villages on Sunday near a mountain ridge overlooking ISIS supply lines, security officials said, in a campaign which has struggled to make advances against the insurgents.Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite militias gained momentum on Saturday in their bid to loosen the grip of ISIS. After months of fighting they drove ISIS out of Jurf al-Sakhar, just south of Baghdad, while Kurdish fighters regained control over the town of Zumar in the north.

Insurgents have been moving fighters, weapons and supplies from western Iraq through secret desert tunnels to Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraqi officials have said. Now it appears government forces to disrupt that network.Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite militias launched an assault on Saturday on areas around the Himreen Mountains, a hotbed of militant activity 100 km (60 miles) south of the oil city of Kirkuk.

On Sunday they seized control of four villages in the area, security officials said, adding that it was very difficult to accelerate efforts to capture more territory because of roadside bombs and booby-trapped houses.”We have decided to make slow advances. We hold the ground, set up watch towers, clear the explosives and build sand barriers to prevent the armed men from returning,” army major Ahmed Nu’aman told Reuters by telephone.

The operation is designed to ISIS State fighters controlling the towns of Jalawla and Saadiya and cut off the areas they seized northeast of the city of Baquba, which is held by Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias.Government forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been trying for months to take over Jalawla and Saadiya, located northeast of Baghdad.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber in a truck packed with explosives killed three soldiers at an Iraqi army gathering on a highway west of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit, military sources said.Government forces and Shiite militias also attempted to advance on a village near Tikrit held by ISIS, the sources said.But they failed in the face of roadside bombs, landmines and sniper fire. Clashes raged in the area all day.

The next major security operation is expected to target the town of Falluja, located in the Sunni heartland of Anbar province, just 40 km (25 miles) from Baghdad. The Sunni insurgents have been surrounding it for weeks.Security officials said government forces are preparing to try and break the siege, security officials said.

ISIS fighters also appear to be gearing up for battle. Militants in the nearby town of Falluja, an ISIS bastion and former al Qaeda stronghold under the U.S. occupation of Iraq, used loudspeakers attached to police vehicles they captured to address supporters.

They were told to expect good news from “Amriyat al-Falluja”.”Don’t be afraid. Don’t worry about what happened in Jurf al-Sakhar. The mujahideen will be back,” was the message conveyed over loudspeakers, a witness told Reuters from Falluja.”Be cheerful. We have 100 suicide bombers preparing for the battle of Amriyat al-Falluja and we have more if the situation warrants.”

meanwhile Security source stated to IraqiNews.com “The security forces liberated 14 towns within Heet and Baghdadi districts in Anbar from the ISIL terrorists.

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Syria: Over 350 Kobane Defenders killed in 40 Days

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More than 334 Kurdish have been killed in ground fighting for Kobane since ISIS group militants attacked the Syrian Kurdish enclave on September 16, a monitoring group said Sunday.

The terrorists have lost 481 dead, while 313 Kurds have been killed fighting to defend the area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.The figures do not include IS losses to US-led air strikes, which the Pentagon has claimed run to “several hundred.”

Civilians accounted for 21 of the dead. The terrorist assault prompted nearly all of the enclave’s population to flee, with some 200,000 refugees streaming over the border into neighboring Turkey.

ISIS militants tried to seize a border post in Kobani on the Turkish frontier overnight but were repulsed by Kurdish fighters, Reuters reported.

ISIS fighters have been trying to capture Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, for over a month, pressing their assault despite U.S.-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters.

Idris Nassan, a local Kurdish official, said ISIS fighters had shelled Kobani’s border gate on Saturday night but Kurdish fighters had pushed them back in the south and west, “Of course they will try again tonight. Last night they brought new reinforcements, new supplies, and they are pushing hard,” he said.

To lose the border gate – the only official way for the Kurdish fighters in Kobani to cross into Turkey – would be a major blow to the fighters defending the town as well as the civilians who still remain.

Iraqi Kurdish “peshmerga” fighters are expected to arrive to reinforce the fighters in Kobani, who are mostly members of the Syrian Kurdish YPG armed group, but it is unclear when.

Meanwhile Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish reporters aboard his presidential plane that the Syrian Kurdish party the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has been leading the defence of Kobane, feared losing its influence in northern Syria when the peshmerga arrive and added “The PYD does not want the peshmerga to come”.

He also called the PYD a “terror” organisation, highlighting Turkey’s wary stance towards Kurdish groups demanding an autonomous Kurdish state straddling the border with Turkey.

Erdogan said last week that the peshmerga would be joined in the defence of Kobane by 1,300 fighters from the Syrian armed rebel forces called “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) who are backed by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, US and other regional and international forces who are struggling to topple Syrian government.

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