Al Arabia English

Canada extends Iraq, Ukraine military training missions

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2019/03/19/Dutch-prosecutors-arrest-third-suspect-over-deadly-tram-shooting.html

Canada’s defense and foreign ministers jointly announced Monday the extensions of military training missions in Iraq and Ukraine.

Both had been slated to wrap up at the end of March, but security concerns persist.

In Iraq, Canada will keep 250 special forces troops advising and training Iraqi security forces, in addition to several attack helicopters, as part of the US-led coalition against ISIS until the end of March 2021.

The number of troops deployed could ramp up to 850, if needed, and they will also help neighboring Jordan and Lebanon build their respective security capabilities, said officials.

Complementing those efforts, Canada last November assumed command of a new NATO mission. It has been contributing air power, medical support and help in training Iraqi forces since 2014.

“We have made significant and lasting progress, but we recognize that more work is needed. Now we must ensure that Daesh can never rebuild and threaten the safety of Iraq,” Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan told a press conference, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

In Ukraine, some 200 Canadian troops will continue to provide arms, military engineering, logistics, military policing, and medical training until the end of March 2022.

Since 2015, Canada has so far trained nearly 11,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

Canada will also host a third Ukraine reform conference in Toronto between the second and fourth of July.

“Ukraine can continue to count on Canada’s unwavering support,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

“It’s very important to send a strong message to Ukraine, to the people of Ukraine, and to the international community that the invasion of Crimea and the annexation of Crimea are a grave breach of international law,” she added.

Al Arabia English

US-backed SDF says it captured 157 militants, mostly foreigners

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2019/03/19/US-backed-SDF-says-it-captured-157-militants-mostly-foreigners.html

US-backed fighters besieging the last shred of ISIS territory in eastern Syria said on Tuesday they had captured 157 mostly foreign fighters as they tracked efforts by extremists to escape the enclave.

“Our units monitored a group of terrorists, trailed them and captured 157 fully militarily equipped terrorists,” a statement by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said.

ISIS’s Baghouz pocket is tiny, wedged between the Euphrates river and a row of hills at the Iraqi border. It is crammed with vehicles and makeshift shelters and pummeled at night by artillery and air strikes.

It is the last populated area remaining to ISIS from the third of Syria and Iraq it suddenly seized in 2014 before its cruelties and attacks brought together local and foreign countries to push it back.

The captured extremists were “mostly foreign nationals” said Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF’s media office, on Twitter. Neither he nor the SDF statement said when the capture took place.

Both the SDF and the US-led coalition that backs it have said the remaining ISIS militants inside the Baghouz pocket are among its most hardened foreign operatives.

Over the past two months, more than 60,000 people have poured out of the group’s dwindling enclave, nearly half of whom were surrendering supporters of ISIS, including some 5,000 fighters.

However, while the capture of Baghouz will mark a milestone in the battle against ISIS, regional and Western officials say the group will remain a threat.

Some of its fighters hold out in the central Syrian desert and others have gone underground in Iraq to stage a series of shootings and kidnappings.

Nobody knows how many remain inside the last scrap of ground. Reuters footage of the encampment on Monday showed large explosions there and smoke billowing overhead with the sound of gunshots.

On Monday night ISIS released an audio recording of its spokesman, Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer, saying the group would stay strong.

“Do you think the displacement of the weak and poor out of Baghouz will weaken the Islamic State? No,” he said.

Al Arabia English

Hundreds rally in Algiers as protest leaders tell army to stay away

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2019/03/19/Algeria-protest-leaders-tell-army-to-stay-out-of-politics.html

Hundreds of students and doctors rallied in Algiers on Tuesday calling for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit, as a new group headed by activists and opposition figures told the powerful army not to interfere in the campaign.

In the first direct message to the army from leaders emerging from mass protests against Bouteflika, the National Coordination for Change said the military should “play its constitutional role without interfering in the people choice.”

Students massed in the centre of the capital while doctors began a protest march nearby. "We will not stop our pressure until he (Bouteflika) goes," said student Ali Adjimi, 23.

Generals have traditionally wielded power from behind the scenes in Algeria but have stepped in during pivotal moments.

In 1992, the army cancelled elections an Islamist party was set to win, triggering a long civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people. Soldiers have stayed in their barracks throughout the recent unrest.

In a statement titled “Platform of Change” and issued late on Monday, the organization demanded the Bouteflika should step down before the end of his term on April 28 and the government resign immediately.

Algerian authorities have always been adept at manipulating a weak and disorganized opposition.

But more than three weeks of demonstrations - which peaked on Friday with hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of Algiers - have emboldened well-known figures to lead the drive for reforms in the North African country.

Prominent members of the new group include lawyer and activist Mustapha Bouchachi, opposition leader Karim Tabou and former treasury minister Ali Benouari, as well as Mourad Dhina and Kamel Guemazi, who belong to an outlawed Islamist party.

Zoubida Assoul, leader of a small political party, is the only woman in the group so far.

Bouteflika, rarely seen in public since a stroke in 2013, has failed to ease anger on the streets by reversing a decision to seek a fifth term, postponing an election and planning a conference that will chart a new political future.

But he stopped short of stepping down, and effectively prolonged his fourth term.

“Bouteflika just trampled on the constitution after he decided to extend his fourth term,” said the National Coordination for Change.Brother-in-law of Tunisia’s Ben Ali arrested, France confirms

Prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux said Trabelsi had been charged with “aggravated fraud and money laundering in an organized gang.” (File photo: AFP)

AFP, MarseilleTuesday, 19 March 2019

France said Monday it had arrested and detained Belhassen Trabelsi, the brother-in-law of ousted Tunisian leader El-Abidine Ben Ali, who had been on the run for three years after fleeing Canada.

Prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux in the southern city of Marseille said Trabelsi had been charged with “aggravated fraud and money laundering in an organized gang.”

Officials gave no other details of his arrest.

Tunisia said Sunday it was seeking Trabelsi’s extradition to face charges of fraud.

A Tunisian justice ministry statement said he faced 17 arrest warrants in Tunisia and 43 international warrants.

The millionaire businessman and brother of Ben Ali’s wife Leila Trabelsi left Tunisia in January 2011 when the Arab Spring uprising forced the veteran leader to flee to Saudi Arabia.

Trabelsi and his family flew in a private jet to Montreal where he requested political asylum but Canada turned down his appeal in 2015 , and a year later as it prepared to deport him he vanished.

A leaked June 2008 US diplomatic cable concluded that Trabelsi was “the most notorious (Ben Ali) family member and is rumored to have been involved in a wide range of corrupt schemes”.

Trabelsi -- whose holdings included an airline and hotels -- has denied the allegations against him, saying he accumulated his wealth from being a successful entrepreneur.

Radio Pakistan

Pakistan, Tajikistan agree to enhance trade volume

http://www.radio.gov.pk/18-03-2019/pakistan-tajikistan-agree-to-enhance-trade-volume

Pakistan and Tajikistan have agreed to enhance the volume of bilateral trade to 500 million dollar per annum.

The resolve came during meeting of 18-member high-level Tajikistan delegation of investors and businessmen with the Chief Executive of Pakistan Furniture Council, Mian Kashif Ashfaq in Islamabad today (Monday).

The delegation apprised the Chairman that Tajikistani investors and business community will take advantage of package of incentives offered to foreign investors by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The head of the delegation Chairman Union of Private Sector Development of Tajikistan Radzhabov Fayzali said Tajikistan is keen to promote bilateral trade with Pakistan and enhance trade, joint ventures and investment in different fields.

He said they are in Pakistan to explore new vistas in investment sector besides giving new impetus to their ties through enhanced cooperation in diversified areas, including trade, energy, furniture, garments, cotton, connectivity, health, education and culture.

He urged the Pakistani business community to become more proactive to promote business relations with Tajik counterparts as both countries have great potential for mutual cooperation.

He said that Pakistan could export many products to Tajikistan including furniture, sugar, textiles, cement, sports goods, surgical instruments, pharmaceuticals and leather products and stressed that Pakistani exporters should step up efforts to exploit these business opportunities.

Radzhabov Fayzali said that Pakistani investors should focus on Tajikistan to get easy access to huge market of Central Asia.

Welcoming the delegation, the PFC Chief Executive said that Tajikistan was a gateway for Central Asia and Pakistan wanted to develop close cooperation with it in furniture and garments fields.

He said  Pakistan’s furniture industry has the potential to dominate global markets with its innovative design and can take this to new height joining hands with their counterparts in Tajikistan.

Radio Pakistan

FBR enforced Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Rules, 2019

http://www.radio.gov.pk/19-03-2019/fbr-enforced-benami-transactions-prohibition-rules-2019

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has enforced Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Rules, 2019 with immediate effect.

Under the rules, BTB zones of Inland Revenue Service have been assigned the duty to establish cases against Benami properties and submit challan to Adjudication Authority within 120 working days.

In a statement, the FBR said that during this period, sale, purchase and transfer of such Benami property will be banned till further orders.

Appeal against the decision of Adjudication Authority can be lodged with the Federal Tribunal and after the decision of the Federal Tribunal such properties will be confiscated and sold out by the Federal Government.

Trt World

The Hezbollah fighter who wants to have a 'good life' in the U

https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/the-hezbollah-fighter-who-wants-to-have-a-good-life-in-the-us-25052/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Perhaps a metaphor for Lebanon’s complex cultural mosaic, the fighter is married to a Christian woman, has fought in Syria for several years but says that what he and all other Shia men really want is jobs, healthcare and a decent education.

The priorities of many Hezbollah fighters have changed as many aspire to have a conflict-free life in some place like America. ( AP )

BAALBEK, Lebanon — About half a kilometre from the 2,000-year-old ruins of the temple of Bacchus, the god of wine, Venus, the goddess of love, and Jupiter, the god of Roman gods, stands a larger than life cut-out of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Shia cleric who brought his idea of Islamic revolution to Iran and began to spread it in the region through its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

While diminutive in comparison to the ancient pillars jutting out in the distance lending Baalbek a historical appeal, it is Khomeini’s ideas that have gripped the imagination of the local Shia population in the recent past.  

Hassan, a 1.7-metre tall portly young man, is one of his followers. A Hezbollah fighter, he agreed to drive me around and shared his story - and that of his group as he saw it - in a rare interview. He opted for Hassan as his nom de guerre because officially Hezbollah fighters are instructed against speaking to journalists.

He pointed to the temple and said: “It is beautiful but that was the time of Jahiliya [ignorance] of religion.”

A product of Khomeini’s ideology and a foot soldier of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan said that he chose to speak to me because he did not want the world to think that his fellow fighters or him were terrorists. The US listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation over two decades ago while Britain followed suit last month and banned the group in its entirety.

“Do I look like a terrorist to you?” he asked. “England just does what America says and they do not like us because we fight Israel, their ally.”

Hassan neither counted the 1983 Beirut barrack attack which killed 241 US marines nor the 1992 one against Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires as terrorist strikes and either outrightly denied the group’s responsibility or termed them as acts to defend Lebanon.

He was, however, affronted by the UK’s classification of him as a terrorist and in a bid to show Hezbollah’s “kindness”, decided to show me round the villages of Baalbek.

He said: “Take a look at these empty villages, the only work here is agriculture. It was the same when I was a child, it is the same now. But after Hezbollah came into being at least I could get some work.”

It is here, along the fertile fields with little to no employment and an impoverished Shia population, that it all began. In the 80s, as Israel invaded Lebanon, a few hundred Iranian revolutionary Guards [IRGC] made way through a smugglers route from Zabadani in Syria to Baalbek in Lebanon where they rented homes in villages around the temple.

At first, they began a religious and social programme to win over the popular support among the Shias, traditionally the poorer community compared to the Sunni elite, propped up by the Ottomans, and the Maronite Christians, backed by the French.

However, at the same time, among others, a group of Shia fighters were already engaged in ousting the Israelis. Many of the latter, with religious leanings, collaborated with the IRGC and formed Hezbollah, which emerged as an effective guerrilla force and claimed success in pushing the Israelis to a sliver of territory in the south of the country by 1985.

Hassan was born in 1987, a time ripe with Hezbollah’s rhetoric and military success against Israel. Hassan said it was a time to believe that the Shias could rise up and not only protect Lebanon from Israel’s invasions but also fight to reclaim the Palestinian lands. Moreover, he said, Hezbollah was in a position to provide jobs to a people who did nothing else but till the farms.

He was too young to fight in the 80s or even in the 2006 war against Israel, but he said he fought in Syria to aid Iran’s other ally, Bashar al Assad, and has returned war hardened.

“I fought in Al Qusayr and then provided logistical support in the battle for Aleppo. Until 2014-15 it was only us, only Hezbollah fighting in Syria. There were very few Syrian soldiers and most of them badly trained. I was paid $1,200 a month. It was not great but better than nothing. There are no jobs in Lebanon,” he said.

Hassan is grateful to Hezbollah for providing jobs even if it is as fighters. But he said that he primarily joined the group to defend his country and was inspired by the group which could take on the might of “America-backed Israel”.

He said: “If we did not fight ISIS [Daesh] in Syria they would in Baalbek, and if my predecessors did not fight Israel, they would be in Beirut.”

Hassan has no qualms about fighting for Hezbollah and bombing Syrian homes, however, as he grows older his priorities have changed. Hassan is soon to be a father.

In Beirut he lives with his pregnant wife. Perhaps a metaphor for Lebanon’s complex mosaic itself, he is married to a Christian woman.  

For her comfort, Hassan lives in a Christian neighbourhood as opposed to the Shia-dominated southern suburbs of Dahiye, a stronghold of Hezbollah.

The living room in his house has a spartan look but for a Christmas tree tucked in a corner.

“It’s a girl,” he said. “My time for war has gone. Now I think about my child. How would I be able to give her a good education, a good future? If I got a job in the US, I would say bye-bye Hezbollah.”

After a whole day of criticising America, his sudden switch in tone and desire to move there was startling. He clarified and said that most Hezbollah fighters like America as a country and the Americans but disagree with their government’s regional policy.

A News

Facebook says it removed 1.5 million videos of New Zealand terror attack

http://www.anews.com.tr/middle-east/2019/03/18/facebook-says-it-removed-15-million-videos-of-new-zealand-terror-attack

Facebook said it removed 1.5 million videos globally of the New Zealand mosque attack in the first 24 hours after the attack.

"In the first 24 hours we removed 1.5 million videos of the attack globally, of which over 1.2 million were blocked at upload...," Facebook said in a tweet late Saturday.

The company said it is also removing all edited versions of the video that do not show graphic content out of respect for the people affected by the mosque shooting and the concerns of local authorities.

Copies of the distressing 17-minute live stream circulated online for hours after the terror attack that killed 50 people.

Hours after the attack, New Zealand police said they were working to have the footage removed while urging people not to share it.

Later Friday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern echoed the police's call, saying that citizens "should not be perpetuating, sharing, giving any oxygen to this act of violence and the message that is sitting behind it."

Meanwhile, the death toll in the New Zealand mosque shootings rose to 50 on Sunday. The gunman who attacked two mosques on Friday live-streamed the attacks on Facebook for 17 minutes using an app designed for extreme sports enthusiasts, with copies still being shared on social media hours later.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she wants to discuss live streaming with Facebook.