Day: June 9, 2021

HASEKE, Syria/ANKARA – An unspecified number of Russian soldiers were injured in a land mine explosion in northeastern Syria, local sources said on Wednesday.

The blast occurred while a Russian military group was on patrol in Dirbasiyya in al-Hasakah province, an area occupied by the YPG/PKK terror group.

The injured soldiers were admitted for treatment at a local health center, the sources said.

Pictures of the injured personnel were shared on social media accounts linked to the to the YPG/PKK terror group.

Fadil Hammad, head of the Assad regime’s media office in al-Hasakah, also confirmed the mine blast in a post on social media.

Russian authorities are yet to comment on the incident.

– Russian presence in region

Russian forces took over some bases evacuated by US soldiers in northern Syria after Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring against the YPG/PKK terror group in October 2019.

Moscow has since strengthened its presence by increasing its number of bases in YPG/PKK-occupied regions east of the Euphrates.

Russia has a total of 18 bases and hundreds of elements at military points in areas occupied by YPG/PKK terrorists in the provinces of al-Hasakah, Raqqa, and the districts of Manbij and Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) in Aleppo.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ALGIERS, Algeria – The Algerian military said Wednesday it will remain neutral in the June 12 parliamentary election.

“The army refuses to be dragged into the political game in the county,” reads an editorial in the June edition of the Army Magazine.

“We say once again that the People’s National Army is a republican army and will remain so in an irreversible manner […] an army that assumes its constitutional duties as required by the laws of the republic,” it said.

“The army refuses to be dragged into the game played by those who have lost their way,” the editorial added.

About 24 million voters, more than half of Algeria’s 43 million population, are eligible to vote in the June 12 polls.

A total of 1,483 candidates are vying in the race, including 646 from 28 political parties and 837 independents, to win seats in the 407-member parliament.

In March, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune issued a decree calling early parliamentary election on June 12, less than a month after dissolving the People’s National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara

Source: Anadolu Agency

HATAY, Turkey – The UN on Wednesday sent 98 more truckloads of humanitarian aid through Turkey to Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.

The trucks crossed into Idlib through the Cilvegozu border gate in Turkey’s southern Hatay province.

The humanitarian aid will be distributed among the needy in Idlib, home to millions of displaced Syrians struggling to survive.

Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN estimates.

Idlib falls within a de-escalation zone forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire understandings, which have frequently been violated by the Assad regime and its allies.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Ethiopia on Wednesday said that there was no risk of famine in the restive Tigray region, where the federal government launched a massive “law enforcement operation” last November.

Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians are said to be internally displaced and more than 60,000 people fled to neighboring Sudan in the conflict that is now in its eighth month – a conflict that erupted after the hitherto all-too-powerful Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) stormed the northern command of the Ethiopian defense forces, killing soldiers and looting sizable military hardware.

Although Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared the military operations over two weeks into the start of the law enforcement, sporadic fighting is being reported to date, though on a very limited scope as the TPLF fighters were pushed deeper into the bushes in two fronts.

“We are not in a condition to declare a famine in Tigray,” Mitiku Kassa, commissioner for disaster risk management, told a joint press briefing he gave together with Health Minister Lia Tadesse.

Last week, the UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock repeated what has been circulating widely in international media that there was a serious famine situation or at least extreme hunger in Tigray, Ethiopia’s northernmost region.

He said, “70% of areas in Tigray (that are cultivable) are cultivated,” adding not all of three conditions required for declaring a famine situation happened – crude death rates higher than two per 10,000 people per day, a global acute malnutrition rate greater than 30%, and an extreme lack of food affecting more than 20% of the population.

According to Lowcock, 4.5 million beneficiaries in a region of an estimated 5.5 million people have been covered with emergency assistance – both food and non-food.

In a situational update briefing, Lia said on her part that 55% of hospitals and 52% of health centers in the region have been made operational thus far.

“Last week it was 46% of health facilities that were made to be functional in the region,” she said, adding 10 more health facilities were made operational in recent days.

Source: Anadolu Agency

CHICAGO, United States – The administration Joe Biden on Thursday dumped a Donald Trump administration ban on new downloads of TikTok, WeChat and eight other communications and financial technology software applications.

Trump announced that he was using an executive order last year to ban new downloads of the popular video-sharing app TikTok in the US and limiting the use of WeChat because of national security concerns, specifically that the two were owned or connected to Chinese companies.

The Trump administration said the Chinese could spy on Americans’ data.

But the executive orders faced legal challenges. Technology experts said TikTok was actually fairly secure on users’ data and questioned whether the orders would do much to dent the risk of data breaches. And Facebook’s former chief security officer compared Trump orders to the same kind of censorship employed by China.

In the announcement Wednesday, the White House said right off the top that it, too, was concerned that China does “not share the values” of an open, secure, internet and that China seeks “to leverage Americans’ data in ways that prevent unacceptable national security risks while advancing authoritarian controls.”

But in ditching Trump’s orders, the Biden administration’s new executive orders essentially use a scalpel, rather than a hammer, to crack down on potential Chinese software spying.

It said the new orders direct the use of “criteria-based decision framework and rigorous, evidence-based analysis” to figure out the risks posed by downloading software that is connected to any foreign adversary, including China. The administration also said the orders take “strong steps to protect Americans’ sensitive data.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia announced on Wednesday that its armed forces arrested a senior leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab terrorist group in an operation in the country’s Middle Shabelle region, according to an official statement.

“Somali National Army and Hirshabelle police arrested a senior Alshabaab local leader after a joint operation in War Isse and Aqab Duco villages near Jowhar,” Somali government spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu said on Twitter.

Jowhar is the administrative capital of Hirshabelle and a strategic agricultural town located approximately 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The Somali Army is conducting a two-week operation against al-Shabaab in the region, so far killing 130 terrorists and liberating six villages, according to reports.

“The SNA (Somali National Army) operations in Hirshaballe have left 130 terrorists dead,” Somali state television reported on Wednesday.

Late on Monday, at least 60 al-Shabaab terrorists, including foreign nationals, senior commanders and bomb experts, were killed after a house used for bomb making exploded in the Lower Shabelle region, according to the military.

The offensive was launched in line with efforts to improve security as the Horn of Africa country prepares for parliamentary and presidential elections in the coming months.

Source: Anadolu Agency

PARIS – French police have reportedly recovered weapons and a copy of Adolf Hitler’s autobiography from the house of one of the suspects involved in Tuesday’s public slapping of President Emmanuel Macron.

Citing sources, local cable channel BFMTV reported that Mein Kampf and the weapons were found at the residence of an individual identified as Arthur C., who is thought to have filmed Macron being slapped by Damien Tarel, 28, in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage. The weapons included both handguns and long-barreled guns.

Arthur and Tarel, who were both arrested immediately after the assault, are residents of the Drome region, which Macron visited on Tuesday. They reportedly do not have any criminal records and were previously unknown to the police.

Tarel is charged with willful violence against a person holding public office. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison and a fine of €45,000 ($55,000).

Based on Tarel’s social media profiles which were active for a short while after their arrests, French media reports said he was influenced by medieval history, right-wing groups, and gaming culture. He had founded two associations for enthusiasts of historical European martial arts and board games with figurines.

His Instagram account showed a photo of him dressed as a knight with black headgear and a long sword by his side.

On YouTube he had subscribed to channels of the far-right figures such as Henry de Lesquen, convicted in 2017 of racial hatred and Holocaust denial, and Cercle Richelieu, a proponent of restoring the French monarchy.

Source: Anadolu Agency

©TRENTON, Canada – A coalition of civil liberties groups issued a report indicating the tax arm of the federal government is unfairly targeting Muslim charities, leading to a revocation of funding based on discrimination, media reports said Wednesday.

While the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) denies the charge, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) report cited statistics that tend to support the discrimination claims.

“The report shows that the Review and Analysis Division (RAD), a little know division of the CRA is targeting Muslim charities for audits, based on prejudiced and unsupported allegations of a risk of terrorist financing,” according to the report obtained by Anadolu Agency. “Between 2008 and 2015, 75% of all charities revoked by RAD following these secretive audits were Muslim charities, harming the sector and impacting the larger Muslim community in Canada.”

Yet not one Muslim charitable organization or its members have been charged with terrorist financing, according to the report. No more current figures were available because they have not been made public, said the ICLMG.

It is not the first time charges of Islamophobia concerning Muslim charities have been leveled against the CRA.

In May 2020, the Ottawa Islamic Centre had its charitable status revoked by the CRA because it said mosque speakers had pursued “activities that promote hate and intolerance.”

The Canadian Council of Imams (CCI) said the center and two imams had no chance to refute the charges and the Council accused the CRA of Islamophobia.

“By falsely connecting two well-respected Canadian Imams from CCI to hate, intolerance, and terrorism, the CRA has driven fear in the Muslim community about the possible existence of Islamophobia in the CRA’s audit process and its auditors,” the Council contended.

The number of charities audited between 2008-2015 was 16 and eight lost their charitable status. Of the eight, six were Muslim charities

The charitable designation allows donors to claim the funds for income tax deductions, a powerful incentive to donate.

The ICLMG has established an online petition that demands, among other things, a suspension of “RAD’s activities until a thorough, independent review has been concluded” of its practices, and a “full review of the anti-terror regulatory, policy and legislative landscape.”

The petition will be presented to government political leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The ICLMG is a coalition of dozens of civil liberty organizations dedicated to promote and protect human rights in Canada.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ANTALYA, Turkey – Police in southern Turkey held a group of irregular migrants preparing to leave the country illegally, according to an official statement on Wednesday.

Acting on a tip, local police teams in Antalya province held 21 irregular migrants from Syria in the Gazipasa district.

The migrants were later referred to the provincial migration directorate.

Turkey has been a key transit point for asylum seekers who want to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

It hosts nearly 4 million refugees, including more than 3.6 million Syrians, the most in any country in the world.

Source: Anadolu Agency