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Syria meets deadline for chemical weapons disclosure
Syria meets deadline for chemical weapons disclosure (Reuters) / 22 September 2013 Syria has handed over information about its chemical arsenal to a UN-backed weapons watchdog, meeting the first deadline of an ambitious disarmament operation that averted the threat of Western air strikes. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Saturday it had “received the expected disclosure” from Damascus, 24 hours after saying it had been given a partial document from Syrian authorities. It said it was reviewing the information, handed over after President Bashar Al Assad agreed to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons in the wake of a sarin gas strike in Damascus’s suburbs last month – the world’s deadliest chemical attack in 25 years. The timetable for disarmament was laid down by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a week ago in Geneva when they set aside sharp differences over Syria to address the chemical weapons issue. Their plan set a Saturday deadline for Syria to give a full account of the weapons it possesses. Security experts say it has about 1,000 tonnes of mustard gas, VX and sarin – the nerve gas UN inspectors found had been used in the Aug. 21 attack. The US State Department said on Friday, after the OPCW announced Syria’s initial declaration, that it was studying the material. “An accurate list is vital to ensure the effective implementation,” spokeswoman Marie Harf said. Once the OPCW executive has voted to follow the Lavrov-Kerry plan in a meeting expected early next week, the Security Council is due to give its endorsement of the arrangements – marking a rare consensus after two years of East-West deadlock over Syria. However, the two powers are divided over how to ensure compliance with the accord. US President Barack Obama has warned that he is still prepared to attack Syria, even without a U.N. mandate, if Assad reneges on the deal. Russia, which says it is not clear who was behind the August 21 attack and has a veto in the Security Council, opposes attempts by Western powers to write in an explicit and immediate threat of penalties under what are known as Chapter VII powers. It wants to discuss ways of forcing Syrian compliance only in the event that Damascus fails to cooperate. But a senior Russian official suggested on Saturday that if there were clear indications that Assad were not committed to handing over chemical weapons, Moscow may stop supporting him. “I’m talking theoretically and hypothetically, but if we became sure that Assad is cheating, we could change our position,” said Sergei Ivanov, chief of staff for President Vladimir Putin. Ivanov said it would take two to three months to decide how long it would take to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, a task that the Kerry-Lavrov agreement aims to complete by mid-2014. The accord has been welcomed internationally because of its potential to remove a toxic arsenal from Syria’s battlefield and possibly revive international efforts to press for a political solution to the civil war. But it has done nothing in the short term to stem fighting with conventional weapons, which has killed more than 100,000 people, according to the United Nations. Rebel forces, some of whom accused the West of betrayal when Obama stepped back from air strikes against Assad’s forces three weeks ago, seized several villages south of Aleppo on Saturday. Their offensive was the latest effort to cut Assad’s supply lines to Syria’s biggest city, preventing reinforcements by road from Damascus to the south. Video posted on the Internet showed rebels from the Tawhid brigade firing from a tank and a truck-mounted machine gun at army positions near the Sheikh Said suburb south of Aleppo. Further south, in Hama province, soldiers and pro-Assad militiamen killed at least 15 people, including a woman and two children, in the Sunni Muslim village of Sheikh Hadid, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The opposition Syrian National Coalition rejected an offer by Iran’s president Hasan Rohani to help start talks with the Syrian government, saying Tehran could not mediate while providing political, economic, and military support to Assad. “If serious, the Iranian government would withdraw its military experts and extremist fighters from Syria before embarking on dialogue proposals,” it said in a statement. Continue reading
Sharjah Police in dramatic rescue of suicidal student
Sharjah Police in dramatic rescue of suicidal student Afkar Abdullah / 22 September 2013 Police prevented a university student from leaping to her death from the top of a Sharjah hotel, in a dramatic rescue operation. Sharjah Police Stations Director Omar Al Suwaidi said the 22-year-old woman from Saudi Arabia, a student at Sharjah University, went into the coffee shop of the Al Aryan Hotel in Sharjah on Saturday morning, before sneaking through an emergency exit, climbing to the top of the hotel and exiting on to the helipad. The security and administration of the hotel saw the woman on the hotel’s security camera footage and called the police at 11.10am, after she rebuffed their approaches. Speaking to Khaleej Times , the manager of Al Aryan Hotel said as soon as staff saw the woman on camera they went to try to speak with her, but when she refused to respond they called police. He said the hotel made strides to protect residents and guests, and the emergency doors to the helipad were always open in case of emergency. The Anjad patrol, ambulance and Civil Defence services and psychiatrists arrived at the scene to attempt negotiations. The police negotiated with the girl for almost two hours, before convincing her to drink water, as she was becoming weak and dehydrated as a result of the high temperatures outside. Al Suwaidi said police managed to grab her back while she was drinking the water, before taking her inside and to the ground. The police took the distressed woman to Al Kuwaiti Hospital for a check-up, though doctors said she was fine and had no medical problem. She is reportedly suffering from depression. The woman was at Al Buhairah Police Station late last night, where she was being questioned over the reasons she wanted to commit suicide. Police said the reason for her actions was not yet clear and investigations were continuing. afkarali@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Troops battle to free hostages in Nairobi mall
Troops battle to free hostages in Nairobi mall (Agencies) / 22 September 2013 At least 59 people have been confirmed killed in an attack by Somali militants on an upmarket shopping mall in Nairobi, a government minister said Sunday, as Kenyan troops battled gunmen still holding an unknown number of hostages. Heavy gunfire could be heard as Kenyan security officials said they were attempting to kill or capture the remaining attackers and end the 24-hour-long bloodbath at the Westgate mall. Among the dead was renowned Ghanaian poet and statesmen Kofi Awoonor. Somalia’s Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels said the carnage at the part Israeli-owned complex was in retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the militants. Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said 59 people were confirmed dead. “A number of attackers are still in the building, and range between 10 to 15 gunmen,” he said in a statement. “We believe there are some innocent people in the building, that is why the operation is delicate.” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation late Saturday that he had lost family members in the attack. “Let me make it clear. We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to. We shall get them. We shall punish them for this heinous crime,” he vowed. The Westgate mall is popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates, and was packed with around 1,000 shoppers when the gunmen marched in at midday on Saturday, tossed grenades and sprayed automatic gunfire at terrified people. Security agencies have long feared that the shopping centre could be targeted by Al Qaeda-linked groups. The attack was the worst in Nairobi since an Al Qaeda bombing at the US embassy killed more than 200 people in 1998. After a day and night of sometimes ferocious gun battles, security sources said police and soldiers had finally “pinned down” the gunmen. The Kenyan Red Cross appealed for blood donations and authorities urged residents to steer clear of the area. “We are still battling with the attackers and our forces have managed to maroon the attackers on one of the floors,” said Kenyan military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna . “We still do not know the number of hostages nor the attackers but we hope to bring this to an end today.” One teenage survivor recounted to AFP how he played dead to avoid being killed. “I heard screams and gunshots all over the place. I got scared. I tried to run down the stairs and saw someone running towards the top, I ran back and hid behind one of the cars,” 18-year-old Umar Ahmed said. In the hours after the attack began, shocked people of all ages and races could be seen running from the mall, some clutching babies, while others crawled along walls to avoid stray bullets. Kenyan police, troops and special forces then moved in and went shop-to-shop inside the shopping centre. Foreign security officials — from Israel, the United States and Britain — were also seen at the complex. An AFPTV reporter said she saw at least 20 people rescued from a toy shop, some of them children taken away on stretchers. Kenneth Kerich , who was shopping when the attack happened, described scenes of utter panic. “I suddenly heard gunshots and saw everyone running around so we lied down. I saw two people who were lying down and bleeding, I think they were hit by bullets,” he said. “The gunmen tried to fire at my head but missed. I saw at least 50 people shot,” mall employee Sudjar Singh said. Ghanaian poet Awoonor , 78, who was once his country’s representative to the United Nations, was killed while shopping with his son, who was injured in the attack, Ghanaian officials said. A spokesman for Shebab said the attack was retaliation for Kenya’s nearly two-year-old military presence in war-torn Somalia in support of the internationally backed Mogadishu government. “We have warned Kenya of that attack but it ignored (us), still forcefully holding our lands… while killing our innocent civilians,” Shebab spokesman Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement. “If you want Kenya in peace, it will not happen as long as your boys are in our lands.” Police at the scene said a suspect wounded in the firefight had been detained and taken to hospital under armed guard, and later died of his injuries. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was “appalled by the brutal attack against innocent citizens” and sent her “sincere condolences to those who have lost family, friends and loved ones”. Paris confirmed that two French citizens were among those killed in what it condemned as a “cowardly” attack. Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper said two Canadians, one of them a diplomat, were among the dead, while official Chinese news agency Xinhua said one Chinese woman was killed and her child wounded. Two Indians and a South Korean were also among the dead. The United States said its citizens were reportedly among those injured by the “despicable” act while British Foreign Secretary William Hague said there were “undoubtedly British nationals caught up in this so we should be ready for that”. The UN Security Council condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”. Continue reading
