http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Aug-16/184838-syria-presidents-brother-lost-leg-in-attack-sources.ashx#axzz23fXXyRbp
Assad's feared brother lost leg in bomb attack: sources August 16, 2012 05:09 PM (Last updated: August 16, 2012 07:04 PM)By Dominic Evans
Maher has not been seen in public since the bombing, while Assad himself has restricted appearances to recorded clips broadcast on television, leading to speculation about the effectiveness of the leadership as the rebellion grows.
Maher, a close associate of the president, has acquired a fearsome reputation as the commander of the Syrian army's Republican Guard and 4th Division, elite formations largely composed of troops from the Assads' minority Alawite sect, whose loyalty can be relied on in the fight against the rebels.
"We heard that he (Maher al-Assad) lost one of his legs during the explosion, but don't know any more," a Western diplomat told Reuters.
A Gulf source confirmed the report: "He lost one of his legs. The news is true."
The disclosure of Maher's injury came as fears grew that the conflict that has already claimed the lives of at least 18,000 people in Syria was starting to spill over its borders into a region already torn by sectarian divisions.
Gulf Arab states told their citizens to leave Lebanon after a Lebanese Shi'ite clan kidnapped more than 20 people in Beirut and initially threatened to seize more Arab nationals.
The gunmen said a Turkish hostage, whose country is a key backer of Syria's mainly Sunni Muslim insurgency, would be the first to die if one of their kinsmen held by Syrian rebels in Damascus were killed.
The powerful Meqdad family is seeking to put pressure on rebels to release clan member Hassan al-Meqdad, who has been held by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) for two days.
An earlier threat by the kidnappers to seize Saudis, Turks and Qataris to secure the release of their kinsman bore ominous echoes of Lebanon's own civil war - and Arab governments lost no time in urging visitors to leave Beirut's popular summer tourist haunts.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain all told their nationals to leave at once. Some nations have already begun flying their citizens home.
"The snowball will grow," warned Hatem al-Meqdad, a senior member of the Meqdad family who said his brother Hassan was detained by the FSA two days ago.
REGIONAL MOVES
Assad, whose Alawite minority is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has long relied on support from Shi'ite Iran and its Hezbollah allies.
He accuses the Sunni powers of the Gulf and Turkey of promoting the revolt against him, which grew out of Arab Spring demonstrations 18 months ago.
While his opponents, and the Western powers which sympathise with them, insist they want to avoid the kind of sectarian blood-letting seen in Iraq, rebels who mostly come from Syria's disadvantaged Sunni majority have seized Iranians and Lebanese there in recent weeks, saying they may be working for Assad.
The kidnapping by the Meqdad clan on Wednesday will damage a Lebanese economy for which Gulf tourists have played a part in recovery after 15 years of civil war ended in 1990.
Maher al-Meqdad, the clan's spokesman, said they were only targeting the Free Syrian Army and Turks, insisting that Saudis, Qataris and other Gulf nationals were not targets.
"If Hassan (al-Meqdad) is killed, the first hostage we will kill is the Turk," he told Reuters. He later said the clan had "halted military operations", signalling it would stage no further abductions.
The Turkish hostage told a Lebanese television channel he was being treated well. Another station broadcast footage it said showed two Syrian hostages in the custody of masked gunmen from the Meqdad clan wearing fatigues and armed with rifles.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the kidnappings, but his government seemed largely powerless to act.
"This brings us back to the days of the painful war, a page that Lebanese citizens have been trying to turn," he said.
Fighting in Syria has triggered violence across the border before - some of it linked to Syrian rebels bringing arms and supplies across Lebanon.
DEFECTION
But the round of hostage-taking on both sides adds a new factor for regional states, who are advancing their strategic interests while Russia and the West are deadlocked by their deep divisions over Syria.
At a meeting in Saudi Arabia, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria on Thursday, citing Assad's suppression of the Syrian revolt, but there was little support for direct military involvement.
The 57-member body's rebuke is mostly symbolic, but it shows Syria's isolation - as well as that of its ally Iran - across much of the Sunni-majority Islamic world.
Later, Al-Arabiya television reported that a cousin of Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara had defected and was calling on members of the Syrian army to join the "revolution".
China used a visit to Beijing by a special envoy from Assad to repeat its call for the Syrian government to talk with the opposition and take steps to meet the people's demand for change, but offered no new solutions.
Talks seem unlikely in the near future while the rebels insist Assad must step down as a precondition for negotiations and government troops are pounding rebel forces.
The price being paid by the Syrian people was underlined by the U.N. humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, who said that as many of 2.5 million people, about one tenth of the population, were in need of aid.
Speaking in Syria where she met Prime Minister Wael al-Halki this week, Amos said: "Back in March, we estimated that a million people were in need of help. Now as many as 2.5 million are in need of assistance and we are working to update our plans and funding requirements."
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Issam Abdullah Asma Alsharif in Mecca and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Jon Boyle)
DUBAI: The brother of Syrian President Bashar Assad lost one leg in a July attack on the country's security cabinet in Damascus, a Western diplomat and a Gulf-based source said on Thursday.
"We heard that he (Maher Assad) lost one of his legs during the explosion, but don't know anymore," the diplomat told Reuters.
A Gulf source confirmed the report: "He lost one of his legs. The news is true."
The attack on July 18 killed half of the government's six-member crisis council, including the president's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat.
and whatever happened to the War on Afghanistan , part of the War on Terror - these days it seems to be the War of Green by Blue attacks.....
Assad's feared brother lost leg in bomb attack: sources August 16, 2012 05:09 PM (Last updated: August 16, 2012 07:04 PM)By Dominic Evans
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| Maher Assad, the president's youngest brother, commands Syria's best equipped army division and six brigades of the Republican Guards, responsible for security in the capital, Damascus. He is known for his hot temper and ruthless tactics.(AP Photo, File) |
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BEIRUT: President Bashar al-Assad's feared brother Maher lost a leg in a bomb attack on the Syrian leader's security cabinet a month ago, sources said on Thursday, in a severe blow to one of the main military commanders fighting a 17-month-old insurgency.
The attack on a meeting of Assad's security chiefs in Damascus on July 18 killed four members of the president's inner circle, including his brother-in-law, and emboldened the rebels to take their fight to the capital for the first time.
The attack on a meeting of Assad's security chiefs in Damascus on July 18 killed four members of the president's inner circle, including his brother-in-law, and emboldened the rebels to take their fight to the capital for the first time.
Maher has not been seen in public since the bombing, while Assad himself has restricted appearances to recorded clips broadcast on television, leading to speculation about the effectiveness of the leadership as the rebellion grows.
Maher, a close associate of the president, has acquired a fearsome reputation as the commander of the Syrian army's Republican Guard and 4th Division, elite formations largely composed of troops from the Assads' minority Alawite sect, whose loyalty can be relied on in the fight against the rebels.
"We heard that he (Maher al-Assad) lost one of his legs during the explosion, but don't know any more," a Western diplomat told Reuters.
A Gulf source confirmed the report: "He lost one of his legs. The news is true."
The disclosure of Maher's injury came as fears grew that the conflict that has already claimed the lives of at least 18,000 people in Syria was starting to spill over its borders into a region already torn by sectarian divisions.
Gulf Arab states told their citizens to leave Lebanon after a Lebanese Shi'ite clan kidnapped more than 20 people in Beirut and initially threatened to seize more Arab nationals.
The gunmen said a Turkish hostage, whose country is a key backer of Syria's mainly Sunni Muslim insurgency, would be the first to die if one of their kinsmen held by Syrian rebels in Damascus were killed.
The powerful Meqdad family is seeking to put pressure on rebels to release clan member Hassan al-Meqdad, who has been held by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) for two days.
An earlier threat by the kidnappers to seize Saudis, Turks and Qataris to secure the release of their kinsman bore ominous echoes of Lebanon's own civil war - and Arab governments lost no time in urging visitors to leave Beirut's popular summer tourist haunts.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain all told their nationals to leave at once. Some nations have already begun flying their citizens home.
"The snowball will grow," warned Hatem al-Meqdad, a senior member of the Meqdad family who said his brother Hassan was detained by the FSA two days ago.
REGIONAL MOVES
Assad, whose Alawite minority is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has long relied on support from Shi'ite Iran and its Hezbollah allies.
He accuses the Sunni powers of the Gulf and Turkey of promoting the revolt against him, which grew out of Arab Spring demonstrations 18 months ago.
While his opponents, and the Western powers which sympathise with them, insist they want to avoid the kind of sectarian blood-letting seen in Iraq, rebels who mostly come from Syria's disadvantaged Sunni majority have seized Iranians and Lebanese there in recent weeks, saying they may be working for Assad.
The kidnapping by the Meqdad clan on Wednesday will damage a Lebanese economy for which Gulf tourists have played a part in recovery after 15 years of civil war ended in 1990.
Maher al-Meqdad, the clan's spokesman, said they were only targeting the Free Syrian Army and Turks, insisting that Saudis, Qataris and other Gulf nationals were not targets.
"If Hassan (al-Meqdad) is killed, the first hostage we will kill is the Turk," he told Reuters. He later said the clan had "halted military operations", signalling it would stage no further abductions.
The Turkish hostage told a Lebanese television channel he was being treated well. Another station broadcast footage it said showed two Syrian hostages in the custody of masked gunmen from the Meqdad clan wearing fatigues and armed with rifles.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the kidnappings, but his government seemed largely powerless to act.
"This brings us back to the days of the painful war, a page that Lebanese citizens have been trying to turn," he said.
Fighting in Syria has triggered violence across the border before - some of it linked to Syrian rebels bringing arms and supplies across Lebanon.
DEFECTION
But the round of hostage-taking on both sides adds a new factor for regional states, who are advancing their strategic interests while Russia and the West are deadlocked by their deep divisions over Syria.
At a meeting in Saudi Arabia, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria on Thursday, citing Assad's suppression of the Syrian revolt, but there was little support for direct military involvement.
The 57-member body's rebuke is mostly symbolic, but it shows Syria's isolation - as well as that of its ally Iran - across much of the Sunni-majority Islamic world.
Later, Al-Arabiya television reported that a cousin of Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara had defected and was calling on members of the Syrian army to join the "revolution".
China used a visit to Beijing by a special envoy from Assad to repeat its call for the Syrian government to talk with the opposition and take steps to meet the people's demand for change, but offered no new solutions.
Talks seem unlikely in the near future while the rebels insist Assad must step down as a precondition for negotiations and government troops are pounding rebel forces.
The price being paid by the Syrian people was underlined by the U.N. humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, who said that as many of 2.5 million people, about one tenth of the population, were in need of aid.
Speaking in Syria where she met Prime Minister Wael al-Halki this week, Amos said: "Back in March, we estimated that a million people were in need of help. Now as many as 2.5 million are in need of assistance and we are working to update our plans and funding requirements."
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Issam Abdullah Asma Alsharif in Mecca and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Jon Boyle)
DUBAI: The brother of Syrian President Bashar Assad lost one leg in a July attack on the country's security cabinet in Damascus, a Western diplomat and a Gulf-based source said on Thursday.
"We heard that he (Maher Assad) lost one of his legs during the explosion, but don't know anymore," the diplomat told Reuters.
A Gulf source confirmed the report: "He lost one of his legs. The news is true."
The attack on July 18 killed half of the government's six-member crisis council, including the president's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat.
Maher Assad has not been seen in public since the attack.
President Assad has been battling a 17-month-old uprising against his rule. The United Nations says at least 18,000 people have died in the revolt.
President Assad has been battling a 17-month-old uprising against his rule. The United Nations says at least 18,000 people have died in the revolt.
and whatever happened to the War on Afghanistan , part of the War on Terror - these days it seems to be the War of Green by Blue attacks.....
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/08/have-obama-and-romney-forgotten-afghanistan.htmlAugust 13, 2012
HAVE OBAMA AND ROMNEY FORGOTTEN AFGHANISTAN?
How’s this for a conspiracy of silence? With less than three months to go until Election Day, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have successfully avoided saying almost anything about America’s war in Afghanistan. Remember that war? You will at some point, however little the two candidates talk about it.
You can make your own guesses about why the candidates have said so little about Afghanistan—their positions are virtually identical, the economy is more important, etc. My own guess: neither of them knows what to do about the place. In a mere twenty-eight months, the United States is scheduled to stop fighting, and every day brings new evidence that the Afghan state that is supposed to take over is a failing, decrepit enterprise.
The latest bit of evidence: in the past several days, three of the most powerful people around President Hamid Karzai have come under fire, and now either are gone from their jobs, have promised to leave, or are hunkered down while clinging to what’s left of their legitimacy. Earlier this month, the Afghan parliament voted to impeach the two Afghan officials responsible for overseeing the war: Abdul Rahim Wardak, the minister of defense, and Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, the minister of the interior, on allegations of corruption, favoritism, and incompetence. (The charges are as yet unproven, and both men have denied them.) In the case of B.K., as Mohammadi is known, there were also concerns that he was stacking the Afghan police forces with men more loyal to the largely ethnic Tajik militia that he used to help lead, Jamiat-e Islami, than to the Afghan state—heightening fears that an American withdrawal could precipitate a civil war. (I wrote about those dangers in a piece for The New Yorker last month.)
Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’s lawyers and Yemeni activists say the charges against him were fabricated as a result of his investigative journalism.
“Ever since his arrest and trial, there are strong indications that Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ was targeted for revealing evidence of the US role in a cluster bomb attack that killed dozens of residents,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.
“Two years on, he remains behind bars. The charges on which he was convicted appear to be based on what he has done as part of his legitimate activities as a journalist. As such his conviction must be set aside and he should be released.”
In January 2011, Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ was convicted by the Specialized Criminal Court on several charges including communicating with “wanted men”, joining a military group and acting as a media consultant to al-Qa’ida. After serving his five-year jail term, he will be banned from travel for a further two years.
The charge of communicating with “wanted men” appears to have been connected to his work as an investigative journalist. Shayi’ himself does not deny having had contact with members of al-Qa’ida but said that this was in relation to his journalism. His lawyers say the prosecution submitted no convincing evidence that their client had worked with or supported al-Qa’ida.
Amnesty International has not seen anything that would substantiate any of the charges against him.
Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ and his lawyers have refused to appeal his conviction, citing concerns about the legitimacy of the court and the fairness of his trial.
From the time of his arrest until 11 September 2010, Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ was held incommunicado and he told his lawyers and others who were present at one of the court sessions that he was beaten during that time, leading to chest injuries, bruising on his body and a broken tooth. Given the lack of convincing evidence to support the charges, the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and Amnesty International’s concerns about the fairness of trials before the Specialized Criminal Court and its lack of independence, Amnesty International considers that his detention is arbitrary and that the conviction should be set aside and he should be released.
If the authorities have evidence against him, they should charge him with a recognizably criminal offence, and bring him to trial in proceedings which conform to international fair trial standards.
Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ was the first Yemeni journalist to allege US involvement in a December 2009 missile attack on the community of al-Ma’jalah, the site of what the government claimed to be an al-Qa’ida training camp in southern Yemen’s Abyan area.
Shortly after the attack – which killed 41 local residents, including 21 children and 14 women – he wrote articles and spoke to news channel Al Jazeera and newspapers. In addition 14 alleged al-Qa’ida members were also reported to have been killed in the missile attack.
Yemen's government initially said its forces had acted alone in the attack on al-Ma’jalah, but shortly afterwards US media outlets published alleged statements by anonymous US government sources claiming President Obama approved the use of US missiles being fired at two alleged al-Qa'ida sites in Yemen.
In June 2010 Amnesty International released images of a US-manufactured Tomahawk cruise missile that carried cluster sub-munitions, apparently taken near al-Ma’jalah after the December 2009 airstrike. The organization further claimed that such missiles were only known to be held by the US forces at that time and that Yemeni armed forces were unlikely to be capable of using such a missile.
This finding was later corroborated when WikiLeaks released a US diplomatic cable confirming that US forces had carried out the attack.
The Pentagon has not responded to a request from Amnesty International for information about US forces’ involvement in the attack.
“The Yemeni and US authorities have failed to account for the attacks that killed dozens of Yemeni residents, and a journalist who revealed information about the US involvement has been behind bars for two years,” said Hadj-Sahraoui.Cluster munitions – also known as cluster bombs – have indiscriminate effects and unexploded bomblets threaten lives and livelihoods for years after their use.
A global treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs entered into force on 1 August 2010 and has 75 states parties to date. Neither Yemen nor the USA has joined the treaty.
But the most interesting case concerns Omar Zakhilwal, the Afghan finance minister. Reporters for Tolo, the country’s largest private media network, obtained bank statements for at least two of Zakhilwal’s accounts, dating back several years. Those accounts show deposits totaling nearly a million dollars, most of which were made while Zakhilwal was a public servant. Many of the deposits—like the hundred thousand dollars he deposited on July 16, 2009—were made in cash. At the time of that deposit, Zakhilwal was Karzai’s minister of finance as well as the finance chairman for his reëlection campaign.
In some cases, Zakhilwal’s bank statements show the source of the money. In August of 2009, for instance, a two-hundred-thousand-dollar deposit was made by the Safi Landmark Hotel, which is owned by an Afghan family that also owns an airline and other businesses that deal with the government. One of the bank statements obtained by Tolo shows that between 2007 and 2009, Zakhilwal transferred nearly four hundred thousand dollars from his accounts in Afghanistan to another one of his accounts in Canada.
Where did all the money for Zakhilwal come from? And what was it for?
Najeeb Manali, an aide to Zakhilwal, told me that his boss would not talk about the case until the Afghan attorney general completed an investigation, which he—Zakhilwal—had asked for. In a recent letter to the Times, Zakhilwal acknowledged that the bank statements published by Tolo were his. He claimed that the Tolo reports were “inaccurate and misleading” and part of a “larger smear campaign against me,” but didn’t elaborate. “I have been a minister only for the last three and a half years, but I have held various professional positions for more than 15 years, including well-compensated senior advisory and consulting positions,” he wrote to the paper. “My assets are mostly from those jobs.”
But Zakhilwal’s letter raises more questions than it answers. According to his official biography, Zakhilwal has been employed by the government since at least 2005. He served as economics advisor to Karzai, acting minister for transport and aviation, and president of the Afghan Investment Support Agency, which licenses foreign firms that want to do business in the country. In March, 2009, he became minister of finance. Even before 2005, Zakhilwal worked for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and was a board member of the Afghan Central Bank.
In other words, over at least the past seven years, Zakhilwal held a number of government jobs that would have given him broad influence over Afghan business and economic activity. And over that same period, hundreds of thousands of dollars were deposited into his account.
Zakhilwal does appear to have done consulting gigs during that same period—which in itself is curious. Did he really earn a million dollars working for the United Nations or other such agencies while also working for the Afghan government? And did they pay him in cash?
The pressure appears to be getting to him. According to the Guardian, Zakhilwal wept during a recent meeting with Western ambassadors and said he had been “naïve” in his handling of some two million dollars in contributions to Karzai’s 2009 reëlection campaign while finance chairman. At the meeting, Zakhilwal maintained that he had done nothing wrong, the Guardian said.
This isn’t the first time that Zakhilwal’s financial dealings have raised questions. In January, 2011, Zakhilwal told me that he received a briefcase containing two hundred thousand dollars from representatives of Kabul Bank, to be used for Karzai’s reëlection. (Kabul Bank is the ill-starred financial institution that flourished on the strength of its political connections until it collapsed after running up hundreds of millions dollars in losses.) He told me then that he kept no record of the briefcase-with-cash and didn’t know what happened to it. This sort of shoddiness was endemic to Karzai’s reëlection campaign: election monitors invalidated nearly a million ballots cast on his behalf.
Why does all this matter to American voters? Look at this way: after eleven years, more than four-hundred billion dollars spent and two thousand Americans dead, this is what we’ve built: a deeply dysfunctional, predatory Afghan state that seems incapable of standing on its own—even when we’re there. What happens when we’re not? You can bet that, whoever the President is, he’ll be talking about it then.
and fog of War captures journalist.....
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/yemen-two-years-journalist-remains-behind-bars-after-alleging-us-cluster-bomb-use-2012-08-15
Yemen: Two years on, journalist still behind bars after alleging US cluster bomb use
A Yemeni journalist has been behind bars for two years after alleging the USA used cluster bombs in Yemen.
© Private
The Yemeni authorities must set aside the conviction of a journalist imprisoned after he alleged US involvement in fatal air strikes in the country – including the use of cluster bombs – and release him, Amnesty International said today.
Thursday marks two years since Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’, an investigative journalist specializing in counter-terrorism affairs, was arrested at his home in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, on charges of links to al-Qa’ida. He has been behind bars ever since.On 18 January 2011, he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. On 1 February 2011, former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh issued an order to free him, but it was not carried out after US President Barack Obama expressed concern over the journalist’s release.
Thursday marks two years since Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’, an investigative journalist specializing in counter-terrorism affairs, was arrested at his home in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, on charges of links to al-Qa’ida. He has been behind bars ever since.On 18 January 2011, he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. On 1 February 2011, former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh issued an order to free him, but it was not carried out after US President Barack Obama expressed concern over the journalist’s release.
Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’s lawyers and Yemeni activists say the charges against him were fabricated as a result of his investigative journalism.
“Ever since his arrest and trial, there are strong indications that Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ was targeted for revealing evidence of the US role in a cluster bomb attack that killed dozens of residents,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.
“Two years on, he remains behind bars. The charges on which he was convicted appear to be based on what he has done as part of his legitimate activities as a journalist. As such his conviction must be set aside and he should be released.”
In January 2011, Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ was convicted by the Specialized Criminal Court on several charges including communicating with “wanted men”, joining a military group and acting as a media consultant to al-Qa’ida. After serving his five-year jail term, he will be banned from travel for a further two years.
The charge of communicating with “wanted men” appears to have been connected to his work as an investigative journalist. Shayi’ himself does not deny having had contact with members of al-Qa’ida but said that this was in relation to his journalism. His lawyers say the prosecution submitted no convincing evidence that their client had worked with or supported al-Qa’ida.
Amnesty International has not seen anything that would substantiate any of the charges against him.
Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ and his lawyers have refused to appeal his conviction, citing concerns about the legitimacy of the court and the fairness of his trial.
From the time of his arrest until 11 September 2010, Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ was held incommunicado and he told his lawyers and others who were present at one of the court sessions that he was beaten during that time, leading to chest injuries, bruising on his body and a broken tooth. Given the lack of convincing evidence to support the charges, the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and Amnesty International’s concerns about the fairness of trials before the Specialized Criminal Court and its lack of independence, Amnesty International considers that his detention is arbitrary and that the conviction should be set aside and he should be released.
If the authorities have evidence against him, they should charge him with a recognizably criminal offence, and bring him to trial in proceedings which conform to international fair trial standards.
Abdul Ilah Haydar Shayi’ was the first Yemeni journalist to allege US involvement in a December 2009 missile attack on the community of al-Ma’jalah, the site of what the government claimed to be an al-Qa’ida training camp in southern Yemen’s Abyan area.
Shortly after the attack – which killed 41 local residents, including 21 children and 14 women – he wrote articles and spoke to news channel Al Jazeera and newspapers. In addition 14 alleged al-Qa’ida members were also reported to have been killed in the missile attack.
Yemen's government initially said its forces had acted alone in the attack on al-Ma’jalah, but shortly afterwards US media outlets published alleged statements by anonymous US government sources claiming President Obama approved the use of US missiles being fired at two alleged al-Qa'ida sites in Yemen.
In June 2010 Amnesty International released images of a US-manufactured Tomahawk cruise missile that carried cluster sub-munitions, apparently taken near al-Ma’jalah after the December 2009 airstrike. The organization further claimed that such missiles were only known to be held by the US forces at that time and that Yemeni armed forces were unlikely to be capable of using such a missile.
This finding was later corroborated when WikiLeaks released a US diplomatic cable confirming that US forces had carried out the attack.
The Pentagon has not responded to a request from Amnesty International for information about US forces’ involvement in the attack.
“The Yemeni and US authorities have failed to account for the attacks that killed dozens of Yemeni residents, and a journalist who revealed information about the US involvement has been behind bars for two years,” said Hadj-Sahraoui.Cluster munitions – also known as cluster bombs – have indiscriminate effects and unexploded bomblets threaten lives and livelihoods for years after their use.
A global treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs entered into force on 1 August 2010 and has 75 states parties to date. Neither Yemen nor the USA has joined the treaty.
and from Libya.....
http://www.libyaherald.com/?p=12767
Grand Mufti issues fatwa condemning assassinations of Qaddafi-era officers
By George Grant.
The grand mufti insisted that justice could only be done through the courts.
Tripoli, 15 August:
Grand Mufti Sheikh Sadik Al-Ghariani has issued a fatwa condemning the spate of bombings and assassinations that have afflicted Libya in recent weeks, including what appears to be a coordinated elimination of Qaddafi-era senior army officers in Benghazi.
In a statement issued through the Libyan Fatwa Office yesterday, Tuesday, Ghariani condemned what he described as “heinous crimes”, saying their was no justification for such attacks “regardless of motive”.
Ghariani singled out the Benghazi assassinations, emphasising the impermissibility of vigilante attacks “even if the person was in any way involved with the former regime.
“…It is not permissible in our religion for an individual or party to kill a person in cold blood”, the cleric continued. “Retribution should only be carried out through the judicial system after submission of a law suit and consideration of all evidence”.
There have been 14 successful assassinations of former regime officers in Benghazi so far this year, as well as a significant number of failed attempts.
Only yesterday a grenade exploded outside the home of Colonel Abdullah Alhaafa, commander of the Hurreya (Freedom) military base in Benghazi.
Last Friday, assailants gunned down Brigadier-General Mohammed Al-Fitouri as he left midday prayers in Benghazi. Al-Fitouri, who had previously served under the old regime, was in charge of weapons-storage in the city.
Two weeks earlier, on 28 July, Colonel Suleiman Buzraidah, a former intelligence officer under Qaddafi, was killed by a single shot fired from a white Chevrolet whilst going to Isha prayers.
That attack came just one day before an attempt on the life of General Khalifa Hafter, the commander of Libyan ground forces, although he survived.
Although Ghariani is a person of some influence in Libya, it remains to be seen whether his fatwa will be effective in stemming the bloodshed in practice.
In spite of making significant progress in the past nine months, both civil infrastructure and the formal security apparatus remain weak and under-resourced in Benghazi, making the prevention of such incidents and subsequent apprehension of those responsible extremely difficult.
On a recent visit to military facilities in the city, the Libya Herald came across one regular army brigade still being housed in the burned-out ruins of an old Gaddafi-era barracks, with not a computer or chair to be found in the entire complex.
Meanwhile on today the president of the Benghazi Local Council, Shahat Awami, tendered his resignation after just two-and-a-half months in office, after revealing that the council had only 2 million dinars left in its account, meaning that many salaries were not being paid.
None of those responsible for the recent killings have been apprehended as yet, and their identity remains a mystery, although speculation amongst local people is rife.
“Some people are blaming the Islamists, others are blaming the revolutionaries, and still others are blaming Gaddafi people trying to give Benghazi a bad name”, said Hana Al-Gallal, a member of the Benghazi National Council for General Freedom and Human Rights.
“Whoever is responsible, we don’t need a fatwa to condemn the killing of any Libyan in this brutal manner.
“We fought this revolution for the rule of law; not for assassinations and arbitrary killings, and I can tell you that 90 per cent of people in Benghazi feel the same way”.
In his fatwa, Ghariani stressed that those involved in tracking down and murdering such people were not advancing the cause of justice, but were rather engaging in murder.
The mufti cited a number of Quranic verses, as well as sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, as evidence for his ruling.
President of Benghazi Local Council resigns over “unworkable” conditions; aims fire at Tripoli
By Hadi Fornaji.
Benghazi, 16 August:
The president of the Benghazi Local Council, Shahat Awami, has resigned from his post after just two-and-a-half months in office, citing unworkable conditions.
He has been temporarily replaced by the vice president of the council, Faraj Abbar, having tendered his resignation on Wednesday.
It has been reported on various Arabic websites that the reason for Awami’s resignation was death threats from people on the council’s payroll who had not received wages due.
However, this version of events has been challenged by the spokesman of the local council, Khaled Al-Jazwee, who has insisted that the truth is quite different.
“Awami received threats to his life, but that was not why he resigned”, Jazwee, told the Libya Herald today.
“The real problem was that we have no budget; no headquarters; and no administrative structure. We are operating out of a modest office building belonging to the health ministry, and it is hardly adequate”.
Al-Jazwee revealed that the council have just two million dinars in their account, in spite of a nominal allocation of 68 million dinars by the government in Tripoli for the first six months of this year.
“We have received only a fraction of this sum to date, and we are due a further 31 million dinars for the second half of 2012”, Jazwee continued, explaining that this went some way to explaining why many people have not been paid the wages they are owed.
The council will elected a permanent new president after Eid, which is due to take place in the next few days.
Benghazi hospital staff strike over security
Tripoli, 14 August:
Employees at Hawari Hospital in Benghazi have been on strike since Sunday, in protest at the lack of security provision for staff.
Attacks on medical professionals are a growing concern in Libya’s hospitals. A Jordanian nurse at a hospital in Sirte sustained serious injuries after being stabbed by a group of patients on Friday and has since been repatriated.
Staff at Hawari Hospital have grown concerned that they are unable to carry out their work safely, after a series of dangerous incidents.
It is understood that attacks the attacks often involve injured militiamen, and that both patients and staff have been targetted.
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