LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 15/2019

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.april15.19.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 06/22-24: “‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
’
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on April 14-15/19
Palm Sunday: Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh
Maronite Patriarch Reiterates Call for Refugees Return
Polling stations close in Tripoli, vote count begins/The Future Movement Declare Its Member Dema Jamali as a Winner
LADE: A flagrant breach of electoral silence
Serhan rules out any conflict among judges, security apparatuses
Jumblatt from Ain Teeneh: Under Speaker Berri's guidance, we will exert all efforts to complete the state budget, rationalize spending
Bteich winds up Washington visit by meeting with IMF officials
Lebanon Seizes 800,000 Stimulant Pills in Major Drug Bust
US Congress Delegation Tours Lebanese-Israeli Border
Lebanese PM Calls for ‘Uprooting’ Civil War Spirit from Political Practice

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 14-15/19
Belarusian, North Korean missile engineers killed or injured in Israel’s air raid of Masyaf
Israel Raids Iranian Missiles Development Center in Syria
International Coalition Carries out Aerial Landings in Eastern Euphrates
Turkish Defense Minister in Washington to Contain US Anger over S-400 Purchase
Death Toll in Iran Floods Climbs to 76
Sudan Protesters Submit Demands to Military Council
UAE, Bahrain Voice Support for Sudan Military Council
WHO: Over 120 Killed, 600 Wounded in Tripoli Fighting
Iraqi Forces Continue Pursuit of ISIS in Hamrin Mountains
Face to face with ISIS: Episode 1
Egypt's Sisi Meets Libyan Strongman Haftar in Cairo
12 killed in fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria: Police

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 14-15/19
Palm Sunday: Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh/Elias Bejjani/April 14/2019
Lebanese PM Calls for ‘Uprooting’ Civil War Spirit from Political Practice/ Asharq Al-Awsat/April 14/19
Belarusian, North Korean missile engineers killed or injured in Israel’s air raid of Masyaf/DEBKA FILE/April 14/19
Is Bashir Really Out/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 14/19
The Tech Disaster that Didn’t Happen/Stephen Carter/Bloomberg/April 14/19
Iran’s ticking time bombs in Syria could prove difficult to uproot/The Arab Weekly/April 14/19/
Sudanese demand creation of civilian government/The Arab Weekly/April 14/19
IRGC’s terrorist designation welcomed by the GCC/Mohammed Alkhereiji/The Arab Weekly/April 14/19
Erdogan’s version of democracy is one in which only he wins/Stephen Starr/The Arab Weekly/April 14/19
Haftar's move did not occur in a vacuum/Mohamed Kawas/The Arab Weekly/April 14/19
Exclusive interview with ex-ISIS fighter Bin Laden al-Italy/Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/April 14/19
European Churches: Vandalized, Defecated On, and Torched "Every Day"/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/April 14/2019
After the deluge: Iran’s paramilitary looting takes a deadly toll/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/April 14/19

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on April 14-15/19
Palm Sunday: Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh
Elias Bejjani/April 14/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73792/elias-bejjani-palm-sunday-hosanna-blessed-is-he-who-comes-in-the-name-of-yahweh/
(Psalm118/26): “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh! We have blessed You out of the house of Yahweh”.
On the seventh Lantern Sunday, known as the “Palm Sunday”, our Maronite Catholic Church celebrates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
The joyful and faithful people of this Holy City and their children welcomed Jesus with innocent spontaneity and declared Him a King.
Through His glorious and modest entry the essence of His Godly royalty that we share with Him in baptism and anointing of Chrism was revealed.
Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, the “Palm Sunday”, marks the Seventh Lantern Sunday, the last one before Easter Day, (The Resurrection).
During the past six Lantern weeks, we the believers are ought to have renewed and rekindled our faith and reverence through genuine fasting, contemplation, penance, prayers, repentance and acts of charity.
By now we are expected to have fully understood the core of love, freedom, and justice that enables us to enter into a renewed world of worship that encompasses the family, the congregation, the community and the nation.
Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time to participate in the Jewish Passover Holiday. He was fully aware that the day of His suffering and death was approaching and unlike all times, He did not stop the people from declaring Him a king and accepted to enter the city while they were happily chanting : “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!”.(John 12/13).
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19/39-40).
Jesus entered Jerusalem to willingly sacrifice Himself, die on the cross, redeem us and absolve our original sin.
On the Palm Sunday we take our children and grandchildren to celebrate the mass and the special procession while happily they are carrying candles decorated with lilies and roses. Men and women hold palm fronds with olive branches, and actively participate in the Palm Procession with modesty, love and joy crying out loudly: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21/09).
On the Palm Sunday through the procession, prayers, and mass we renew our confidence and trust in Jesus. We beg Him for peace and commit ourselves to always tame all kinds of evil hostilities, forgive others and act as peace and love advocates and defend man’s dignity and his basic human rights.
The Triumphal Entry of Jesus’ story into Jerusalem appears in all four Gospel accounts (Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-40; John 12:12-19).
The four accounts shows clearly that the Triumphal Entry was a significant event, not only to the people of Jesus’ day, but to Christians throughout history.
His entry was so humble, meek simple and spontaneous. He did not ride in a chariot pulled by horses as earthly kings and conquerors do.
He did not have armed guards, nor officials escorting him.
He did not come to Jerusalem to fight, rule, judge or settle scores with any one, but to offer Himself a sacrifice for our salvation.
He is the One who accepted poverty for our own benefit and came to live in poverty with the poor and escort them to heaven, the Kingdom of His Father.
The crowd welcomed Jesus for different reasons and numerous expectations. There were those who came to listen to His message and believed in Him, while others sought a miraculous cure for their ailments and they got what they came for, but many others envisaged in Him a mortal King that could liberate their country, Israel, and free them from the yoke of the Roman occupation. Those were disappointed when Jesus told them: “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom” (John 18/36)
Christ came to Jerusalem to die on its soil and fulfill the scriptures. It was His choice where to die in Jerusalem as He has said previously: “should not be a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem” (Luke 13/33): “Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem”.
O, Lord Jesus, strengthen our faith to feel closer to You and to Your mercy when in trouble.
O, Lord Jesus, empower us with the grace of patience and meekness to endure persecution, humiliation and rejection and always be Your followers.
O, Lord Let Your eternal peace and gracious love prevail all over the world.
A joyous Palm Sunday to all

Maronite Patriarch Reiterates Call for Refugees Return
Kataeb.org/ Sunday 14th April 2019/Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi renewed his call for Syrian refugees to return to their homeland, saying that it is time for them to go back so that they would no longer burden Lebanon. "We are calling on the displaced to return to their country, [...], so that they would not fall victims to a double war: the military war that destroyed humans and the political war that is destroying identity," Al-Rahi said in his Sunday sermon.

Polling stations close in Tripoli, vote count begins/The Future Movement Declare Its Member Dema  Jamali as a Winner
Agencies/April 14/19/ In an issued statement by the Interior and Municipalities Ministry's Media Office this evening, it indicated that polling stations for the parliamentary sub-elections of Tripoli's small district have closed, and the vote count operation has begun in the presence of the candidates' representatives. Meanwhile the  Future Movement Declared Its Nominee Member Dema  Jamali as a Winner, although the official results will be announced before tomorrow.

LADE: A flagrant breach of electoral silence
Sun 14 Apr 2019/NNA - The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) monitored Sunday the electoral process in Tripoli through 170 observers who were distributed among various polling stations, including 43 permanent observers within a 10% sample of polling stations in the city.
In an issued statement this afternoon, the Association described the electoral process as being "relatively calm" until this moment, with no security issues reported. It added that the electoral day was distinguished by allowing the Association's observers to enter polling stations with no interventions. "It is important for the Association to remind all candidates and the media to respect the electoral silence and not to violate article 78 of the Election Law 44/2017, especially in light of the blatant violation of this article by many candidates, politicians and the media," the statement went on. The Association revealed that its observers assessed the electoral process and documented a number of irregularities. It commended the cooperation of the chamber of operations affiliated to the Interior Ministry with its requests. The Association also reminded "all concerned parties of the need to respect the silence period because it is the time required for voters to determine their electoral choices away from the pressures of election campaigns and the media."In case of any irregularities witnessed by citizens, the Association urged them to report their observations via the LADE application or the hotline numbers 01-333713/01-333714.

Serhan rules out any conflict among judges, security apparatuses
Sun 14 Apr 2019/NNA - Justice Minister, Albert Serhan, stressed Sunday "there is no conflict among the judges or between them and the security apparatuses." "The delay in issuing the results of the investigations conducted by the Disciplinary Board of Judges and the Judicial Inspection Authority is evidence of the credibility of our work to purify the judicial body, with no malicious intents in this respect," he explained. Serhan's words came in a television interview earlier today within the framework of his Ministry's follow-up on the parliamentary sub-elections in Tripoli, at the head of a judicial-administrative committee operating from his office at the Justice Ministry. "Honest and impartial judges are a majority within the judicial body," Serhan corroborated. He deemed that any shortcomings of a minority of judges for certain reasons is their responsiblity, and cannot undermine the trustworthiness of the majority of judges. He indicated that the Judicial Inspection Authority is thoroughly examining the files at hand, noting that the results will be announced when finalized. Meanwhile, Serhan was in contact with the First Head of the Court of Appeal in the North, Judge Reda Raad, and the judges of the registration committees, whereby he was reassured of the committees' readiness to oversee the vote count operation following the closure of ballot boxes this evening. The Justice Minister and the judicial-administrative committee will continue to work until the election results are released.

Jumblatt from Ain Teeneh: Under Speaker Berri's guidance, we will exert all efforts to complete the state budget, rationalize spending
Sun 14 Apr 2019/NNA - House Speaker, Nabih Berri, received this evening at Ain el-Teeneh Palace Socialist Progressive Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, accompanied by former Minister Ghazi Aridi, in the presence of Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil. Following the meeting, Jumblatt said: "The main issue at stake is how to overcome the economic crisis. As I understood from Minister Khalil, all efforts will be exerted, under Speaker Berri's supervision, to accomplish the annual budget. At the same time, a plan for the rationalization of public expenditure will be put into effect.""This is probably the last opportunity for beginning to reassure the Lebanese and place matters within their natural context," he added. Jumblatt noted that talks during the encounter touched on other issues of concern as well. He disclosed that the House Speaker briefed him on the nature of his recent tour in Iraq, saying, "There is no doubt that we wish this country reconciliation and success in overcoming its internal crises. We know that Speaker Berri played a significant role in this connection, and in its [Iraq's] return to the Arab circle.""Iraq will undoubtedly one day play a huge role in the Arab East!" asserted Jumblatt.

Bteich winds up Washington visit by meeting with IMF officials
Sun 14 Apr 2019/NNA - Economy and Trade Minister, Mansour Bteich, concluded Sunday his visit to the American capital, Washington, by holding a series of meetings with officials at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which focused on supporting Lebanon, explaining the government's perspectives and expected reforms. Talks highlighted the need for good governance and the importance of enhancing transparency, disclosure and enforcement of laws, especially in the field of tax evasion. Officials also expressed their keenness on approving a financially disciplined state budget in Lebanon. In this connection, Bteich met with IMF's Deputy Director-General, Mitsuhiro Furusawa, and his team, as well as IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Director, Jihad Azour. In the same context, Bteich conferred with the Operations Manager of the European Investment Bank of the Neighboring Countries, Flavia Palanza, who praised the advantages that Lebanon has been trying to build upon in the recent period. Moreover, bank officials expressed their willingness to invest in Lebanon, both in the public and private sectors, placing their expertise at Lebanon's service. Near future agreements with the Lebanese government also featured high during their discussions. Furthermore, Minister Bteich met with the Director General of the Arab Fund, Abdlatif Al-Hamad, and the Economic Advisor to the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Munther Al-Karkouri, with whom he discussed various projects. Al-Hamad announced his readiness to secure a new loan for Lebanon's Housing Bank, in addition to an accessible loan for sewage treatment of the Litani River. Bteich also discussed the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, from which 15 Arab countries have benefited, and ways to activate its work in Lebanon.

Lebanon Seizes 800,000 Stimulant Pills in Major Drug Bust
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 14/19/ Lebanon's police said Saturday it has seized more than 800,000 pills of the amphetamine-type stimulant captagon worth around $12 million in a bust coordinated with Saudi authorities. Police stopped a refrigerated truck containing 142 kilogrammes (312 pounds) of the illicit drug on April 9, according to a statement. Captagon is one of the most commonly used drugs in the Syrian war, where fighters who take it say it helps them stay awake for days and that it numbs their senses, allowing them to kill with abandon. The bust came after Saudi Arabia's Directorate of Narcotics Control tipped off Lebanese authorities on a plan to smuggle a large captagon shipment to an unidentified "Arab country" by land, it said. Lebanon has previously stopped several shipments of captagon to Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia. Captagon is classified by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as an "amphetamine-type stimulant" and usually blends amphetamines, caffeine and other substances. Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are usually assumed to be transit or production territories for illicit captagon, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Lebanese authorities have been clamping down on exports of the psycho-stimulant, which is produced in swathes of Syrian and Lebanese territory where government oversight is lax or non-existent. In one of the country's largest busts, Lebanon arrested a Saudi prince and four other Saudi nationals in October 2015 for attempting to smuggle out nearly two tonnes of captagon via Beirut's airport.

US Congress Delegation Tours Lebanese-Israeli Border
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 14 April, 2019/A 14-member US Congress delegation toured on Saturday the Lebanese-Israeli border at the Lebanese region of Marjeyoun. The delegation visited the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) position in Marjeyoun. It was then transported to the border by the UN peacekeeping force and military. There, it toured the main road in Kfar Kila-Adeissah where it observed Israeli construction of a border wall on the Israeli side of the border. Tensions had been high in the region following Israel’s move to construct the separation wall. It has so far completed some 5 kilometers of the barrier. The Congressional delegation then completed its visit by carrying out a tour by helicopter of the Shebaa Farms region.

Lebanese PM Calls for ‘Uprooting’ Civil War Spirit from Political Practice
 Asharq Al-Awsat/April 14/19
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri called Saturday for “uprooting” the spirit of the country’s civil war from political practices. He made his remark on the 44th anniversary of the eruption of the 1975-90 civil war. It is not enough to commemorate April 13 as an infamous day in Lebanon’s history, but it is important to prevent the spirit of civil war from practicing politics and protect Lebanon from the evils of neighboring wars, he said in a tweet. Former President Michel Suleiman tweeted: “In order to avert a repeat of April 13, we must build the state that enjoys sovereignty over all its territories and that alone has the right to possess weapons.” Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said that on April 13, 1975, “balances were upturned and the loyalty to the nation was weakened,” leading to the eruption of the war.
“Justice and partnerships, not sectarianism, are guarantees for stability and national spirit,” he remarked. As Lebanon marked the start of its civil war, families whose loved ones disappeared during the conflict hope they might finally get some answers.
The country passed a landmark law in November to determine the fate of thousands of Lebanese who went missing in the war. But political parties once involved in the fighting must now encourage followers with key data such as the location of mass graves to come forward to help. Wadad Halwani, who heads the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Missing, says the new legislation has given grieving relatives a glimmer of hope.
"It's the first time we commemorate the war with a law to enshrine the right to know... the fate of all the missing, dead or alive," she said, according to AFP. More than 150,000 people were killed during the civil war and some 17,000 people went missing, according to official figures. Halwani's husband was among them, abducted, never to return. For more than a decade, she and a dozen other women have regularly protested in the garden outside the UN headquarters in Beirut, clutching faded photographs of their long-gone loved ones.
The new law is "crucial to allow relatives of the missing to move on with their lives like everyone else, instead of wasting them waiting", she said. Law 105 gives families the right to know the place of abduction or detention of their loved one, as well as the whereabouts of their remains and the right to retrieve them. To do this, the cabinet must set up an official commission of inquiry to gather testimonies and investigate mass graves. But five months on, nothing has been done.
Former lawmaker Ghassan Moukheiber, who co-drafted the law, said political will was key to moving forward. The "decision to pass this law now needs to be translated into appointing a commission and facilitating its work", he said, according to AFP.
The probing body is to include, among others, family representatives, lawyers, an academic and a forensic doctor. Once formed, its first task should be to draw up a unified list of all those missing, Moukheiber said.
They will have to "track down... those still alive and work towards their return, as well as retrieving the remains of those killed or dead", he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it is willing to hand over all information and DNA samples it has collected into a database on the missing since 2012. But what Moukheiber describes as the commission's "purely humanitarian" mission is also a highly sensitive one.
After Lebanon's war ended, parliament in 1991 passed a general amnesty law that saw former warlords breathe a sigh of relief and move on to politics.
Almost three decades later, their parties are still going strong, and persisting differences have repeatedly sparked government deadlocks.
"A number of parties that were once militias and have... a past of war crimes have started to at least tentatively fear this commission's future work," Moukheiber said.
With numerous groups implicated, choosing where to start will also be delicate.
"In what mass grave should the inquiry begin?" asked the former lawmaker.
"There are burial grounds all over Lebanon, in every area once under control of" an armed group, he said. "Choosing where and how to exhume these graves will require wisdom and courage."All previous calls to investigate the fate of Lebanon's missing have come up against uncooperative political parties and inactive governments.
Researcher Lokman Slim, who has spent years gathering data on the missing, says there was little chance the commission would produce tangible results, said AFP.
"That a political authority with blood-drenched hands actually voted on this law just means that it doesn't fear its consequences," said the head of the Umam Documentation and Research center.
"It knows very well that, as with so many issues in Lebanon, the law will simply remain ink on paper." Relatives of the missing, however, are determined.
"Successive governments have accused us of pouring salt into old wounds," said Halwani. But "the whole of society needs to know the truth because it's the only way forward towards real reconciliation", she added.

Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published on April 14-15/19
Belarusian, North Korean missile engineers killed or injured in Israel’s air raid of Masyaf
موقع دبيكا: مهندسون بيلاروسيون وكوريون قتلوا أو جرحوا في الغارة الإسرائيلية على بلدة مصياف السورية
DEBKA FILE/April 14/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73844/%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D8%AF%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%A7-%D9%85%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%88%D9%83%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%88/
The Israeli air strike on the Scientific Studies and Research Center in the Syrian town of Masyaf on Saturday, April 13, is reported by Western intelligence sources to have killed and wounded in addition to Iranian and Syrian military officers, a number foreign missile experts hired to upgrade their missiles. Among them were missile scientists from Belarus and North Korea who were employed in different departments of the large industrial complex outside Masyaf in western Syria. Those sources disclose that, whereas Israeli has raided the complex before, this time the attack was massive and, unlike before, gutted most of its installations. Especially targeted were the sections working on the upgrade of Syrian and Hizballah surface missiles, the production of solid fuel for those missiles and the departments focusing on installing new guidance instruments to enhance their precision. North Korean engineers were working on the production of solid fuel, while Belarusians were in the pay of Syria’s Organization of Technological Industries. Behind the fancy title is an organization that specializes in breaking the UN-US embargo against the employment of expert manpower in Syria’s military production and the sale of military hardware to the Assad regime. Most of the Belarussians working at Masyaf were provided by the Belvneshpromservice whose military ties with Damascus go back years. On Feb. 27, Israel struck Iran’s newly established command centers and weapons stores in Aleppo.
Israel’s attack on this combined Syrian-Iranian missile production complex and its ramifications will be covered in exclusive detail in the coming issue of DEBKA Weekly out on April 19 as well as other disclosures. If you are not already a subscriber, click here to sign on.

Israel Raids Iranian Missiles Development Center in Syria
Damascus, London – Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 14 April, 2019/Syrian regime air defenses intercepted an Israeli aerial attack that targeted military positions in Masyaf city and surrounding areas in the Hama countryside in central Syria, reported the SANA news agency. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the strikes targeted a middle-range missiles development center, which killed a number of Iranian fighters and injured 17 members of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them. A military source told SANA that at about “2:30 am on Saturday, warplanes of the Israeli enemy carried out an airstrike … on one of the military positions towards Masyaf city.”The source added that regime defenses immediately intercepted the hostile missiles and downed some of them before they reached their targets. It said that the attack caused the destruction of some buildings and the injury of three fighters. Speaking to AFP, Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman revealed that several Iranian fighters were killed in the attack, “but we have not been able to determine their number so far." An Israeli army spokesman declined to comment on the incident when approached by AFP. This is not the first time Masyaf has been targeted, as Damascus has repeatedly accused Israel of bombing military sites there. In recent years, Israel has stepped up its attacks in Syria, targeting positions of the Syrian regime, Iranian forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah party. In March, Israeli forces attacked positions in Aleppo. Damascus announced that its air defenses intercepted the raid which, according to the Observatory, left seven fighters dead. On January 21, the Israeli army announced that it raided intelligence and training centers, claiming they belonged to the Iranian al-Quds Force, as well as ammunition sites and another location at Damascus International Airport. The Observatory reported that the raids killed 21 people, including Iranian forces and fighters associated with them. Israel repeatedly declares that it will continue to address what it calls Iran's attempts to consolidate its military presence in Syria and send advanced weapons to Hezbollah. Since the beginning of the Syrian war, Israel has carried out dozens of military strikes in Syria, targeting suspected arms transfers and deployments of Iranian forces and allied Hezbollah fighters to provide military support to regime leader Bashar Assad.

International Coalition Carries out Aerial Landings in Eastern Euphrates
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 14 April, 2019/The US-led international coalition against ISIS, in cooperation with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), carried out aerial landings in the eastern Euphrates region in pursuit of remaining ISIS terrorist cells. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that the SDF, backed by aerial cover from the coalition, carried out a raid against a house in the Takihi village in the eastern Deir Ezzour countryside. Clashes ensued with several people, including Iraqis, inside the house. Two Syrian brothers and three Iraqis, including a woman, were killed and eight Iraqis and a Syrian were arrested in the operation. The SDF also raided a house in the town of al-Shuhayl town in the eastern Deir Ezzour countryside. It confiscated machine guns and arrested two people at the house. The Observatory also revealed that the coalition carried out aerial landings in the city of Raqqa. In the first landing, a helicopter landed in the Sayf al-Dawla street and another landed in the northern al-Badu neighborhood. Coalition warplanes flew overhead and SDF forces deployed heavily on the ground as the operations were carried out. The Observatory said that the operations sought to arrest three arms dealers in Raqqa who sold weapons to ISIS cells in the city. Despite ISIS’ military defeat in the eastern Euphrates region, especially in SDF-controlled areas, the group continues to operate cells that carry out bombings, attacks, assassinations and murders against civilians, fighters and SDF members, including its Asayesh internal security forces. Observatory sources estimated that there are between 4,000 to 5,000 members, who have formed sleeper cells in villages, towns, and cities controlled by the SDF. Some of the cells are affiliated to ISIS, while others are loyal to or are paid by regional powers in order to stoke chaos in the region and target the SDF.

Turkish Defense Minister in Washington to Contain US Anger over S-400 Purchase
Ankara - Saeed Abdul Razek/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 14 April, 2019/Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar traveled to the United States on Saturday to address a number of pending disputes between the two sides, most notably Ankara’s deal with Russia to purchase its S-400 missile defense system.
Akar is scheduled to hold talks with Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. Sources said that they will also discuss Ankara’s purchase of the Patriot system and delivery of F-35 jets from Washington. Earlier this month, the US halted the delivery of F-35 fighter jet parts to Turkey in retaliation for Ankara's decision to move ahead with the purchase of the S-400 system. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to back down from Ankara’s planned purchase of the Russian system that Washington has said would compromise the security of F-35 aircraft. The US had agreed to sell 100 of its latest, fifth-generation F-35 fighters to Turkey, initially planning to deliver the two aircraft to Turkey in June. The United States and other NATO allies that own F-35s fear the radar on the Russian S-400 missile system will learn how to spot and track the jet, making it less able to evade Russian weapons. Meanwhile, Washington continued its escalation against Ankara by underlining its travel advisory to its citizens wishing to head to the country. “Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Turkey,” warned a State Department statement. “Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, local government facilities, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, major sporting and cultural events, educational institutions, airports, and other public areas. Terrorists have also previously targeted Western tourists and expatriates. “Security forces have detained tens of thousands of individuals, including US citizens, for alleged affiliations with terrorist organizations based on scant or secret evidence and grounds that appear to be politically motivated. US citizens have also been subject to travel bans that prevent them from departing Turkey. Participation in demonstrations not explicitly approved by the Government of Turkey, as well as criticism of the government, including on social media, can result in arrest. “The US government has very limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens traveling in Batman, Bingol, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hakkari, Hatay, Kilis, Mardin, Sanliurfa, Siirt, Sirnak, Tunceli and Van, as the US government restricts its employees from traveling to specific provinces in these regions without prior approval,” said the statement.

Death Toll in Iran Floods Climbs to 76
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 14 April, 2019/Seventy-six people have been killed in Iran by floods in recent weeks, according to a new toll published Sunday with warnings still in place for large swathes of the country. "With the death of five people in the Khuzestan province flood and another person in Ilam province the death toll has now reached 76," since March 19, according to a statement published online by the coroner's office. The two southwestern provinces are the latest overwhelmed by floods that first hit the northeast of the usually arid country, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate from cities and villages, said AFP. Officials have again issued flood warnings for the east of Iran with heavy rains that began on Saturday forecasted to continue. The floods have caused immense damage with homes, roads, infrastructure and agriculture all hit. "More than 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) of roads have been damaged," transport minister Mohammad Eslami told parliament, according to the official IRNA news agency. He added that "725 bridges have been totally destroyed." The head of Iran's meteorology service told the same parliamentary session that the floods do not necessarily mean that a decades-long drought has ended. "The recent floods were due to climate change and global warming," Sahar Tajbakhsh said. Tehran has received aid from neighboring countries and further afield, with France on Saturday donating 210 tents and 114 pumps.

Sudan Protesters Submit Demands to Military Council
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 14 April, 2019/The organizers of protesters in Sudan submitted late on Saturday their demands to the newly formed transitional military council, saying they will maintain their rallies until a civilian government is formed. A 10-member delegation representing the protesters delivered their demands during talks late Saturday, according to a statement by umbrella group the Alliance for Freedom and Change, reported AFP. "We will continue... our sit-in until all our demands are met," including the formation of a fully civilian government, one of the alliance's leaders, Omar al-Degier, said in the statement. The umbrella group insists that civilian representatives should be accepted onto the military council, and that a fully civilian government should be formed to run day-to-day affairs. "We surely want our demands to be met, but both sides will have to be flexible to reach a deal," said a protester who spent the night at the army complex. Thousands remained encamped outside Khartoum's army headquarters overnight to keep up the pressure on the military council that took power after ousting veteran leader Omar al-Bashir on Thursday. On Saturday, the new chief of the military council General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed to dismantle Bashir's regime and lifted a night time curfew with immediate effect. Burhan also pledged that individuals implicated in killing protesters would face justice and that protesters detained under a state of emergency imposed by Bashir during his final weeks in power would be freed.
He took the oath of office on Friday after his predecessor General Awad Ibn Ouf stepped down little more than 24 hours after ousting Bashir. Tens of thousands of people have massed outside the army headquarters since April 6, initially to urge the armed forces to back their demand that Bashir be removed.
Degier said their demands include restructuring the country's feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), whose chief Salih Ghosh resigned on Saturday. Rights group Amnesty International on Saturday urged the military council to examine Ghosh's actions during a crackdown against protesters during the final weeks of Bashir's rule. "It is crucial that Sudan's new authorities investigate Salah Ghosh's role in the killings of scores of Sudanese protesters over the past four months", said Amnesty's regional director Sarah Jackson. The newly formed 10-member transitional council contains several faces from Bashir's regime.On Saturday evening, the new military ruler named NISS deputy head Jalaluddin Sheikh to the council. He also nominated Mohammad Hamdan Daglo -- known as Himeidti -- a field commander for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) counter-insurgency unit, which rights groups have accused of abuses in war-torn Darfur. One of the protesters taking part in the sit-in outside the army headquarters said he was ambivalent about Himeidti's appointment. "We don't have many options -- they (the RSF) have guns, they have money," said Mohamed, who gave only his first name for security reasons. "Himeidti was part of the crimes that happened previously but at least now he is on the side of the people," he added.

UAE, Bahrain Voice Support for Sudan Military Council
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 14 April, 2019 /The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain voiced their support for the newly formed transitional military council in Sudan after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday. The nomination of new council chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan "reflects the ambitions of the brotherly people of Sudan for security, stability and development", UAE state news agency WAM said Saturday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation described the development as a "step forward reflecting the ambitions of the brotherly people of Sudan towards security, stability and development." "The UAE is following with a great interest this defining moment in Sudan's modern history and reiterates full trust in the ability of the Sudanese people and their national army to survive the challenges in a way that ensures stability, prosperity and development for the nation," added the statement. "The UAE reaffirms its support for the steps taken by Sudan's transitional military council to protect people and property, wishing these steps would ensure security and stability for the sisterly country."The statement added that Abu Dhabi hopes that all political, factional, popular and military leaders in Sudan will work to protect legitimacy and ensure a peaceful transfer of power for a better future for the nation and unity of the people. On Sunday, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa stressed the Kingdom’s solidarity with Sudan, expressing his appreciation of the tremendous efforts being exerted Burhan to boost the security, peace and prosperity of the people. He hailed the strong fraternal stances of Sudan and its permanent keenness on joint Arab work and on supporting security and stability in the region, reported the Bahrain news agency. During a visit to the Bahrain Defense Force's General Command, King Hamad voiced gratitude to Sudan’s military and its participation in the Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen.

WHO: Over 120 Killed, 600 Wounded in Tripoli Fighting
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 14 April, 2019/The UN health agency announced Sunday that fighting between the Libyan National Army (LNA) and forces loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) has left at least 121 people dead. The World Health Organization added that 561 others have been wounded since Khalifa Haftar’s LNA launched its operation to cleanse Tripoli of terrorist and criminal gangs on April 5. WHO's Libya account said on Twitter the organization was sending medical supplies and more staff to Tripoli, and denounced "repeated attacks on health care workers, vehicles" during the fighting. The UN office for humanitarian affairs said more than 13,500 people had been displaced by the clashes, while more than 900 residents are living in shelters. Separately, LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari announced Saturday that the military controls 95 percent of Libya’s oil fields and ports. He criticized National Oil Corporation head Mustafa Sanalla for exploiting the conflict in order preserve oil production, while “forgetting that 95 percent of the oil fields are under LNA control.” “Oil is no longer an excuse to call on the international community to fight the LNA,” he declared.

Iraqi Forces Continue Pursuit of ISIS in Hamrin Mountains
Baghdad – Hamza Mustafa//Sunday, 14 April, 2019/Elite Iraqi counter-terrorism forces are continuing their operation to eliminate ISIS positions in the Hamrin Mountains. The area connects the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, to the Salaheddine province, north of the capital. The area is one of the most prominent ISIS hideouts in Iraq after the country declared its victory against the group in late 2017. The operation was kicked off two days ago and is being led by Abdulwahhab al-Saaedi. The counter-terrorism apparatus announced Saturday that 12 terrorists have been killed in operation so far. A spokesman for the apparatus, Sabah al-Numan, said that the operation took more than a month to plan, revealing that it has thwarted ISIS plots against neighboring regions, as well as a plan for it to set up base in Hamrin. The international coalition has supported the Iraqi forces in their operation, he told a press conference. “We are determined to eliminate terrorism this year,” he declared. An Iraqi security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the operation will extend to other provinces until ISIS is eliminated. Armed groups expert Dr. Hisham al-Hashemi told Asharq Al-Awsat that ISIS may have lost its control over various regions of Iraq, but it was able to take root in Hamrin where it adjusted to its military defeat and started to regroup. It is relying on the natural terrain, which is mountainous and dotted with caves, to fortify itself against a military onslaught, he explained. The Hamrin Mountains has the potential to hold terrorist threats not just against Diyala, Kirkuk and Salaheddine, but the whole of Iraq, he warned. Confessions by some ISIS captives in Diyala have revealed that the organization is breaking up from the inside and this should be exploited by the Iraqi military and security forces, he urged. Security expert Fadel Abu Ragheef doubted that the Iraqi authorities would succeed in completely eliminating ISIS in Hamrin given its treacherous terrain. “They may limit its abilities, but it would be difficult to say that they will eliminate it,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Face to face with ISIS: Episode 1
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Sunday, 14 April 2019/Al Arabiya was granted access to what remains of the Al Baghouz camp, ISIS’s last stronghold that fell in March to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). According to SDF sources, more than 4,000 ISIS fighters are now in SDF prisons, 1,000 of whom are foreigners. Al Arabiya’s Rola al-Khatib was able to conduct a series of interviews with several of these detainees. Bin Laden al-Italy (the Italian Bin Laden) is one of them. He describes how he joined ISIS, entered Syria via Turkey, trained, lived and fought with the group, as well as the last days in al-Baghouz before its fall.

Egypt's Sisi Meets Libyan Strongman Haftar in Cairo
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 14/19/Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met Sunday with Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, whose forces are fighting for control of the capital Tripoli, the presidency said. "The president (Sisi) affirmed Egypt's support in efforts to fight terrorism and extremist militias to achieve security and stability for Libyan citizens throughout the country", it said in a statement. Their discussion comes on the back of "the latest developments on the Libyan situation", it added. Sisi has been an ardent supporter of Haftar's forces, which control swathes of eastern Libya and launched an offensive on April 4 to take the capital. Fighting near Tripoli has killed 121 people and wounded 561, the World Health Organization said on Sunday. Haftar has defied international calls to halt his battle against fighters loyal to the UN-backed Government of National Accord based in Tripoli. The military strongman supports a parallel administration based in the Libya's east. Earlier this month, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry cautioned that the conflict could not be solved militarily. His remarks came at a Cairo press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who also called for a political solution among all sides in Libya. The Libyan commander has modelled his political style of authoritarian leadership after Sisi, himself an army general turned president. Egypt has provided funding and arms to Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army, seeing him as a bulwark against Islamist militants. Haftar, who was exiled in the United States for two decades, returned to Libya in 2011 when the revolution erupted, commanding forces that eventually toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi. The oil-rich north African country has been in turmoil ever since with successive weak governments in place and several Islamist militias battling for territorial control.

12 killed in fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria: Police
Sun 14 Apr 2019/NNA - Twelve people were killed and 16 others badly injured when a fuel tanker exploded in northern Nigerian city of Gombe, police told AFP on Sunday. The driver lost control of the fuel tanker as he tried to avoid colliding with another truck at a bridge on the outskirts of the city on Saturday. The tanker fell on its side, "spilled its contents and exploded, causing an inferno that engulfed other road users," Gombe state police spokeswoman Mary Mallum said. "Twelve people burned to death while 16 others were seriously injured and evacuated to hospital for treatment," she said, accusing the driver -- who was among those killed -- of reckless driving and speeding. Accidents are common on Nigeria's poorly maintained roads, many caused by reckless driving, speeding and disregard for traffic rules. Nineteen people were killed on April 5 when a truck crashed in northern Katsina state due to "fatigue and overloading", according to road safety officials. ---AFP

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 14-15/19
Is Bashir Really Out?
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 14/19
The impossible change in Sudan has happened, yet, I find it difficult to judge events from faces and promises. My doubt could be exaggerated, but it stems from the reality that we see around us. I do not forget the day after the coup d'état that took place on June 30, 1989, when an unknown army general named Omar Al-Bashir came to power. In the morning, I went to see the then-Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, with my colleague Mr. Abdellatif El-Menawy in a pre-arranged meeting. The meeting was also attended by Osama Al-Baz, advisor to the president, and Safwat Al-Sharif, Minister of Information.
Of course, the conversation started with the coup in Sudan and who was behind it. I asked Mubarak frankly whether Egypt had anything to do with the change, citing that MENA, the official Egyptian news agency, was the first to broadcast the news the day before. Although Mubarak turned the answer into a joke, he was sure that the coup in Khartoum was in Egypt's favor, that it was good news, and he did not hide his welcome to the coup. In fact, the Egyptian government thought for a few days that the putschists were affiliated with Egypt. The toppled government of Sadiq Al-Mahdi, which had been popularly elected, did not appreciate the consequences of its political decisions, and made many mistakes, including the rapprochement with Iran, which angered its three most important allies - Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United States. In addition, it decided to negotiate with the southerners before it guaranteed enough support among the poles of politics at home.
Then, it turned out that Cairo was the last to know the truth of what happened in Khartoum, and that the coup was more dangerous than the former government. It turned out that what was thought of as an angry military coup was in fact organized by a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, an enemy of Egypt and Mubarak, whose name was the National Islamic Front (NIF) and was led by the late Hassan Al-Turabi. The group chose Brigadier General Bashir because he was a member of the movement, but the NIF ran the government from behind for a while. Turabi himself narrated these details later, including that he asked Bashir on the night of the coup to put him (Turabi) in prison to create a smokescreen that obscures his plot.
Bashir ruled Sudan for 30 dark years, in which he committed all the unimaginable crimes. Despite the many bad leaders who ruled in our region, Bashir was the only one wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In order to stay in power, Bashir sold everything -- oil and the south, and hosted hardened terrorists such as Bin Laden, Carlos, Hezbollah and Iran. Under the rule of Bashir, Sudan witnessed increased poverty, disintegration, polarization and wars. So, will the country be better today after his departure?
We can only be optimistic and wait. As I explained at the beginning of this article, the Bashir and Turabi duo deceived the world; therefore, the Sudanese have the right to be skeptical and afraid that the game might be repeated yet again. The popular demonstrations, which persistently insisted on their demands for weeks, have removed Bashir, and the military now has the primary task of establishing a civil rule. They must prove that they will keep their promises to step aside and hand over the power to civilians later. They have issued a number of positive decisions, including the abolition of partial fronts in the government, in which the former ruling party had nestled. Yet, the Islamic group remains the deep state in Khartoum.

The Tech Disaster that Didn’t Happen
Stephen Carter/Bloomberg/April 14/19
That’s funny. There were no computer-led disasters this past weekend. Shortly before midnight on Saturday, April 6, the clock that keeps official time for the Global Positioning System ran out of space to count the weeks, and rolled back to Week One. The hazards of this “rollover” were hyped in terms comparing the threat to the equally uneventful Y2K — “There’s a chance your GPS system could go haywire”! — and yet, when I climbed into my car on Sunday morning, the GPS worked just fine. As Avi Natter of Bloomberg News noted, “The world as we know it didn’t end.” The non-event wouldn’t even be worth mentioning, except to note the one thing that did go haywire: the online rumor mill. Starting on April 6, message boards were thick with rumors that some Boeing 777s had been grounded by the rollover. A similar claim about Boeing 787s was made in a tweet from China Aviation Review, which appears not to have a complementary website. A few bloggers then picked up on the tweet and treated it as true. Yet there’s no other evidence that this happened. The interested reader had only to scroll down through the Twitter thread to find pushback from aviation fans who tracked the supposedly grounded planes in flight. And given Boeing’s parlous situation, the grounding of so many aircraft would surely have sparked splashy headlines around the world. It didn’t.
The most intriguing aspect of all this is why there’s such a readiness to believe the stories of looming technological disaster. Let there be so much as a whisper that Dr. Frankenstein is trying to perfect his monster, and people are ready to believe that it’s standing just outside the door, ready to hack alarm systems and shamble in to eat up computers. The term “technophobia” does not quite capture what’s going on. When we think of the technophobe, the image that comes to mind is of someone like Alicia Corwin, the former White House official played so excellently by Elizabeth Marvel during the first season of the television drama “Person of Interest.” Corwin had become terrified of the surveillance state she herself had helped birth. Driven half mad by her fears, she had moved to Green Bank, West Virginia, a real-life town where no cell towers exist and wireless internet is strongly discouraged, in order to escape an artificial intelligence that she believed was watching her every move.
But it seems to me that Corwin is an exaggerated version of most of us. For even as we dive (sink?) ever deeper into a digitally connected world, we face a growing inability to control or even understand the technology that surrounds us.
For several years, I taught a popular course on the legal regulation of science. I would tell the students that during my own youth, technology was still seen as something that you could more or less get the hang of. People took pride in repairing their own cars or taking apart the television set to replace a burned-out vacuum tube. Home telephones, mostly owned by the Bell System, were embossed with stickers forbidding users to open them up, but nobody took the prohibition seriously. If calls were being interrupted by occasional bursts of static, we would pry off the bottoms to hunt for loose wires. Technology isn’t so scary when you can figure out how it works.
Today’s technologies are more useful than ever but they’re also a lot less accessible. We take it for granted that we aren’t permitted to perform a feat as simple as replacing the battery in a smart phone. When you take your car to the dealer because of a weird rumbling, the mechanic probably makes the repair by downloading a software patch. And even among those who consider themselves tech-savvy, few would attempt to fix the hardware inside their laptops. That inability to get the hang of how things work very likely excites in us a feeling less of phobia than of inability. Call it techtimidation: the sense of being helpless should our technology break down. And with techtimidation, I suspect, comes a secret resentment. We can’t repair the devices of which we make constant use, we don’t trust those who build them not to spy on us, and fewer and fewer of us really understand how the darn things work. No wonder we’re so attracted to popular culture in which advanced technology is either absent (think “The Walking Dead” or “Game of Thrones”) or actively evil (the “Star Wars” franchise or “The Hunger Games”). And no wonder we’re ready to believe scare headlines about how hackers are planning to kill us by taking control of our smart cars and disabling the brakes, or to rob us by opening smart locks on our front doors. That these exploits have been demonstrated by experts doesn’t mean they’re looming over our collective heads, and, indeed, it’s hard to figure out why hackers would bother. But news stories scream away, and our techtimidation builds. Wait, you’re saying. Smart devices around the home do get hijacked, at least if the passwords are not updated. True, and not good. When this happens, however, the usual reason is not to invade our households — where’s the profit in that? The usual reason is to enable mass botnet attacks on other sites. And that’s a risk we hardly think about. How many people even remember the hugely disruptive October 2016 botnet attack, helped along by the internet of things? Or, even today, how much do most people know about, say, Mirai? Not on our collective radar.
Or consider the small risk that hackers might be using our laptops, without our knowledge, to mine bitcoin. A danger, but hardly central to people’s technological fears. We worry a lot more about ransomware programs that lock us out of our computers unless we pay, well, a ransom — even though those attacks seem to be on the decline. Our fears are what make the scare stories interesting. The GPS rollover “bug” never posed a serious threat to, well, pretty much anything. But news editors know that there are eyeballs to be caught and clicks to be had by pretending that it might.

Iran’s ticking time bombs in Syria could prove difficult to uproot
The Arab Weekly/April 14/19/
With Syria’s 8-year war waning, attention is shifting to the ticking time bombs Iran has planted in the form of militias that threaten to destabilise the country for years to come. Following the United States’ designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, Iran’s proxies are expected to act more aggressively towards the US presence in Syria and the greater Middle East.
Scattered across Syria, Iran-aligned fighters have proven effective for Iran in gathering intelligence and assisting in counterintelligence operations and deterrence. Through their entrenched presence on the ground, the militias are difficult for the United States to counter, both militarily, because they often engage in unconventional warfare, and economically, due to their complex funding networks.
Despite Iran’s initial denials of involvement in the Syrian conflict, a pile of evidence, collected by civil society groups and journalists, proved that Tehran was active in the country from the very beginning, providing significant logistical, technical, financial, training and combat support to Damascus.
After Tehran’s role in Syria was made public, the country claimed its presence there was aimed at protecting Shia holy sites. The United States and its allies obviously did not buy those claims, maintaining that Tehran’s main goal is destabilising the country and expanding its influence.
Tehran’s aggressive posture in Syria can be understood as an attempt to replicate the Hezbollah model in Lebanon, forming militias that include not only Syrians but Iraqi Shia fighters and foreign recruits from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At the apex of the conflict, the militias were directed to provide security and social, political and economic services for the population. The aim was to garner support or at least acceptance for Iran’s involvement in Syria. However, activists and civil society groups repeatedly warned that Iran-aligned proxies are used to advance Tehran’s agenda and pose a serious threat to civilians and national security.
Iran’s proxies have also created a headache for Washington. During the battle for Aleppo (2012-16), Iran-backed militias played a key role in countering US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, fighting alongside Syrian and Hezbollah forces in eastern Syria to capture territory for Syrian President Bashar Assad. The US-led coalition was pushed to retaliate, targeting militia positions in what was described as “defensive” air strikes.
One of Iran-backed militias operating in Syria, the Baqir Brigade, threatened attacks against US personnel in April 2018. That announcement, which would not have been made without approval from senior Iranian officials, set a dangerous precedent, indicating that US forces in Syria would eventually become targets. Despite its significant losses in Syria and the heavy cost of its intervention, Tehran has sought to maintain its presence, especially after Washington abruptly announced in December 2018 a plan to withdraw US troops from northern Syria. Just after that announcement, Iran embarked on a diplomatic blitz aimed at hammering out an agreement with Turkey and Russia over Syria’s future. Of course, the US administration delayed its withdrawal, realising that any hasty move would empower Iran not just in Syria but across the region.
This is especially true given that the area of north-eastern Syria where US troops are deployed is highly coveted by Iran. Apart from being rich in oil, the area is near the border with Iraq, through which Iran has been sending in fighters from the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces under the guise of fighting the Islamic State (ISIS).
The presence of US forces near the Syrian-Iraqi border has severely limited the militias’ movement and blocked Iran’s access to oil fields and other possible sources of revenue that could help Tehran offset economic losses following the United States’ reimposition of sanctions.
Now, with the IRGC’s ban, the militias’ wings can be further clipped as Iran comes under further financial pressure. However, the battle against Iran’s tentacles has just begun and could prove more difficult and complex. Beyond militias’ activities, Iran has sought to indoctrinate young minds on a sectarian basis, particularly foreign fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan, amplifying its influence and making it more unpredictable.
While most foreign fighters were convinced to join the battle through financial incentives, indoctrination also plays a big part. By letting go of these fighters in times of dire economic conditions, Tehran could exacerbate the problem by scattering its ticking time bombs outside Syria. How the United States deals with this threat could be much trickier than its fight against ISIS. Sure, US decisions to reimpose sanctions against Iran and blacklist the IRGC are helpful, if long overdue, moves but more needs to be done to ensure Syria and the region move towards stability and away from Iran’s orbit.

Sudanese demand creation of civilian government
The Arab Weekly/April 14/19
KHARTOUM - Sudanese protest organisers have presented demands to the country's new military rulers, urging the creation of a civilian government, the group spearheading demonstrations said. Thousands remained encamped outside Khartoum's army headquarters overnight to keep up the pressure on a military council that took power after ousting veteran leader Omar al-Bashir on Thursday. A 10-member delegation representing the protesters delivered their demands during talks late Saturday, according to a statement by umbrella group the Alliance for Freedom and Change. "We will continue... our sit-in until all our demands are met," including the formation of a fully civilian government, one of the alliance's leaders, Omar al-Degier, said in the statement.
The umbrella group insists that civilian representatives should be accepted onto the military council, and that a fully civilian government should be formed to run day-to-day affairs."We surely want our demands to be met, but both sides will have to be flexible to reach a deal," said a protester who spent the night at the army complex.
Burhan talks the talk
On Saturday, the new chief of the military council General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed to dismantle Bashir's regime and lifted a night time curfew with immediate effect. Burhan also pledged that individuals implicated in killing protesters would face justice and that protesters detained under a state of emergency imposed by Bashir during his final weeks in power would be freed. He took the oath of office on Friday after his predecessor General Awad Ibn Ouf stepped down little more than 24 hours after ousting Bashir. Tens of thousands of people have massed outside the army headquarters since April 6, initially to urge the armed forces to back their demand that Bashir be removed. Burhan comes with less baggage from Bashir's deeply unpopular rule than Ibn Ouf.
But while celebrating the fall of Bashir and then Ibn Ouf -- a defence minister and long-time close aide of the deposed president -- protesters remain cautious.
Degier said their demands include restructuring the country's feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), whose chief Salih Ghosh resigned on Saturday. Rights group Amnesty International on Saturday urged the military council to examine Ghosh's actions during a crackdown against protesters during the final weeks of Bashir's rule. "It is crucial that Sudan's new authorities investigate Salah Ghosh's role in the killings of scores of Sudanese protesters over the past four months", said Amnesty's regional director Sarah Jackson.
Gulf allies voice support
The newly formed 10-member transitional council contains several faces from Bashir's regime. On Saturday evening, the new military ruler named NISS deputy head Jalaluddin Sheikh to the council. He also nominated Mohammad Hamdan Daglo -- known as Himeidti -- a field commander for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) counter-insurgency unit, which rights groups have accused of abuses in war-torn Darfur. One of the protesters taking part in the sit-in outside the army headquarters said he was ambivalent about Himeidti's appointment. "We don't have many options -- they (the RSF) have guns, they have money," said Mohamed, who gave only his first name for security reasons. "Himeidti was part of the crimes that happened previously but at least now he is on the side of the people," he added. Key regional power-brokers Saudi Arabia and the UAE voiced backing for the transitional council. Burhan's nomination "reflects the ambitions of the brotherly people of Sudan for security, stability and development", UAE state news agency WAM said. Saudi Arabia has promised an aid package, the Saudi Press Agency reported Saturday. Sudan is part of a UAE and Saudi-led military coalition fighting Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.
That marked a dramatic shift by Khartoum, aligning itself with the Gulf Arab monarchies and dropping close ties with their arch-rival Iran. The International Criminal Court has longstanding arrest warrants against Bashir for suspected war crimes during the regime's brutal campaign of repression in Darfur, where a decade-and-a-half of conflict has killed 300,000 people. Amnesty demanded Saturday the deposed president be handed over to the Court. But the military council has said it would never extradite Bashir or any other Sudanese citizen.

IRGC’s terrorist designation welcomed by the GCC
Mohammed Alkhereiji/The Arab Weekly/April 14/19/
LONDON - The classification by the US State Department of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation was welcomed by most Gulf Cooperation Council countries, particularly those significantly affected by the group’s activities. Saudi Arabia described the US move as a “practical and serious step” in efforts to combat terrorism. The US decision “translates the kingdom’s repeated demands to the international community of the necessity of confronting terrorism supported by Iran,” a Saudi Foreign Ministry source was quoted as saying by the official Saudi Press Agency.
In October 2018, in a joint counterterrorism initiative with the United States, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait placed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) high-ranking members, including al-Quds Force commander Major-General Qassem Soleimani and IRGC officers Hamed Abdollahi and Abdul-Reza Shahlai, on a sanctions list. The sanctions, which fall under Saudi Arabia’s Terrorist Financing Targeting Centre, included the
IRGC’s al-Quds Force, which has been active in many regional hot spots, including the war in Yemen and the civil war in Syria. Riyadh has long been on a target al-Quds Force’s destabilising activities, including efforts to politicise the haj pilgrimage. The US government said al-Quds was involved in a plot to assassinate Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir in Washington in October 2011 when he was Riyadh’s ambassador to the United States.
Al-Quds Force, through one of its regional proxies, was determined to be responsible for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 US military personnel and wounded 500 others. A 2001 US government indictment stated that 13 members of the Saudi-branch of Hezbollah, with support from an unnamed member of the Lebanese branch of the movement, conducted surveillance on US operations as early as 1993 with the help of Iranian military and government officials and planned the bombing to drive Americans from Saudi Arabia.
In 2006 a US federal judge ruled Iran responsible for the operation and ordered Tehran pay $254 million to the families of the Americans killed in the attack.
IRGC support for the Houthis in Yemen has helped the militia upgrade its military capabilities. The Gulf coalition and the internationally recognised Yemeni government fighting the Houthis say Iran has violated a UN arms embargo by supplying the rebels with advanced surface-to-air missile systems.
Bahrain, which has regularly objected to Tehran’s activities within its borders, including support of Shia opposition groups and the arming of terror cells, expressed gratitude over the designation of the IRGC as terrorists.
The Bahraini Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of the decision in addressing “the dangerous role played by the IRGC as a destabilising force and the main contributor to the spread of violence and terrorism across the Middle East and the entire world.”In the United Arab Emirates, despite the government not issuing public statements on the US designation, state-controlled media supported the development.
“Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have been the main actors when it comes to the regime in Tehran promoting its sectarian agenda from the Bab el Mandeb to the Mediterranean Sea. Its far-reaching influence, its structure, its ability to act within that regime as a virtual state-within-a-state — one in which its tentacles reach through every facet of Iranian society — have been all too obvious,” an editorial in Dubai daily Gulf News said.
“This designation should serve notice that Iran’s interference across the region must come to an end,” the editorial added. Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani condemned the move by the US State Department. Thani, on an official visit to Ankara, was joined by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in saying the designation would create “instability” in the region.
Thani said disagreements over the Iranian military’s behaviour or that of any other army should not be solved by imposing sanctions, Al Arabiya reported.
Doha, because of its expanding economic and military ties with Iran and suspected support of Islamist terrorist groups, saw Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar in June 2017.

Erdogan’s version of democracy is one in which only he wins
Stephen Starr/The Arab Weekly/April 14/19
Despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s long-standing insistence that elections in his country have been free and fair, his sudden challenge of the Istanbul mayoral election result calls into question just what the president’s idea of democracy is. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has filed an extraordinary appeal seeking a rerun of the Istanbul vote because “events” directly affected its outcome. The Higher Election Board had already rejected the AKP’s appeal of the results throughout Istanbul’s electoral districts.
The opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Istanbul mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoglu is believed to have won the coveted race by a margin of approximately 15,000 votes — out of more than 8 million cast — defeating AKP heavyweight, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
Erdogan had said he’d accept whatever outcome the Supreme Electoral Council reached but he has changed his tune and the outcome left Erdogan fuming, claiming the result involved “an element of robbery” and that “there was some theft at the ballot box,” without elaborating on his claims.
The AKP’s response led Imamoglu to label the AKP “bad losers,” adding: “Up until yesterday (April 3), the government and the ruling party were claiming that Turkey had the most credible voting system and they were giving it the highest praise… If there was any suspicious activity, they would record it and make a written report.”
While few independent observers would claim that elections in Turkey are even remotely fair — independent media have largely been wiped out since the failed July 2016 coup attempt, with Erdogan and his minions overwhelmingly dominating print and broadcast outlets — they have, for the most part, been free of direct political interference.
Over the years, election observers from the European Union and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe have sent representatives to thousands of voting centres to monitor the voting process. While there have been irregular reports of incidents, particularly in more recent polls, the monitors largely returned reporting to have witnessed free election processes. Pointedly, Erdogan had never called into question the veracity of any previous poll — all elections and referendums that he and his party won.
Opposition parties in the past called for recounts and international monitoring groups warned of minor irregularities. Amid the 2017 constitutional referendum as the anti-Erdogan “No” side began to cut into the president’s lead, it was unexpectedly announced that unstamped ballots would be accepted. Having secured a close victory that day, Erdogan immediately brushed aside his opponents’ demands and concerns.
However, his calling for a recount of the Istanbul mayoral vote shows the Turkish public that the president clearly doesn’t see the same laws applying to him and his party as to his rivals.
Perhaps most galling for Erdogan is that Istanbul, the city he led as mayor in the 1990s, a city that he almost single-handedly modernised and that gave him a political career, has turned against him. That’s likely because it has been urban dwellers who are worst affected by crushingly high interest rates and rising unemployment stoked by an economic crisis that emerged last summer.
It presents the AKP and Erdogan with very difficult questions: What does it mean that Imamoglu, a rank outsider with little in the way of a track record, can defeat, even by a close margin, a former prime minister who ran with wall-to-wall media coverage? Without Ankara, which was won by CHP candidate Mansur Yavas, and Istanbul, what does the future hold for the AKP?
Most authoritarian leaders become more vicious as the threat to their grip on power grows. The consequences of Erdogan’s questioning of the electoral process could be dire because it is the only political process in Turkey that maintains any semblance of democratic credence.
Losing Turkey’s economic and political capitals in one fell swoop represents a significant turning point in the country’s modern history. The question on the lips of many Turks is: What lengths will the government go to hang on?

Haftar's move did not occur in a vacuum
Mohamed Kawas/The Arab Weekly/April 14/19
Libyan Field-Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s push to Tripoli can only be interpreted as a development intimately connected to the structural change in international stances towards the crisis in Libya. Targeting the Libyan capital, headquarters of the internationally recognised Libyan government headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, cannot be analysed by just referring to local realities.
The situation must be understood within the context of international tendencies that favour the creation of realities that would end the incomprehensible chaos in Libya, chaos that has become a burden for all world capitals concerned with Libyan affairs and security in the Mediterranean Basin. However, the imposition of a fait accompli does not necessarily mean that it would be achieved through Haftar’s military tools only. Some countries -- the United States, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, France and Britain -- quickly reacted to Haftar’s move by declaring that the solution in Libya must remain political.
This indicates that the goal of the military operation in Tripoli was not intended to undermine the UN-organised national conference, which had been scheduled for this month in Ghadames. Its intent was -- and still is -- to push this kind of conference, whenever one takes place, to adopt resolutions that would end the conflict in Libya by considering recent military developments in the area of Tripoli.
Someday, it may be discovered that Haftar’s move was a necessity for the United Nations’ political initiatives, even if it wasn’t planned that way. To understand developments in Libya, there needs to be an examination of the international changes that created the new circumstances and gave Haftar the green light to advance on Tripoli. All external efforts have been unable to produce a breakthrough in the Libyan impasse. The Skhirat Agreement in Morocco failed. The French effort to work out a rapprochement between Sarraj and Haftar led nowhere. Rome wanted to counter French efforts in Libya under the pretext that the latter is part of Italy’s strategic space but the unprecedented tension between Paris and Rome produced no change on the Libyan chessboard.
Similarly, efforts by neighbouring countries, although with multiple agendas and carried out according to strict diplomatic rules, failed to have any effect on the internal balance of power or budge the absurd status quo of a divided country with a recognised government in Tripoli in the west and a legitimate parliament in Tobruk in the east. While Libyans and the rest of the world have a pretty good idea of the identity, rhetoric and agenda of Haftar’s forces, it is a futile exercise trying to figure the same about anti-Haftar forces. It’s a smorgasbord of regional militias, government militias, Muslim Brotherhood militias and militias connected with al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other jihadist groups.
Regardless of the outcome of the hit-and-run operations in Tripoli and subsequent changes in the map of influence there, there has been a new development in the general balance of power in Libya. Haftar's relations with Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, as well as his recent visit to Riyadh, reveal international and regional trends that support him. Turkey and Qatar are also not hiding their direct support for Libyan groups affiliated with political Islamist currents.
Thus, Haftar’s military moves may be implicitly related to the conflict in the region between the Arab Quartet -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain -- and Qatar since June 2017 and the subsequent pro-Doha Turkish position.
Libya is no longer an urgent priority for Algeria, which is itself in an unprecedented protest movement. Before the current protests, Algeria had hinted that it rejects Haftar’s growing role in Libya and would oppose his extending his influence westward.
Libya is no longer a primary concern for Sudan, either. There, too, the regime is struggling with popular protests demanding the departure of President Omar al-Bashir and his regime. Khartoum has been accused of smuggling weapons of Qatari and Turkish origin into Libya.
Haftar’s move came a few days after local elections in Turkey that suggested a weakness in the influence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party. Ankara will have to reconsider its foreign policy options and that would include its choices in connection with the Libyan crisis.
However, Haftar's assessment of the realities of the regional countries involved in the Libyan conflict may not be far from the same assessment made by the United States, Europe, Russia and other international players. Those players no longer feel obliged to live with the eternal chaotic conditions in Libya and would like to push for a change in the rules of the game there.
Haftar’s move can only make sense in the context of a new reality that is encouraging him to take steps that could lead to international statements that do not outright support them but will not condemn them, either. As suggested by the Guardian newspaper in Britain, Europe no longer sees Libya except through the prism of Tripoli's role in halting immigration, fighting terrorism and producing oil.
In this regard, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' willingness to meet with Haftar to discuss Libya’s future indicates the international community’s readiness to treat Haftar as a real component of the solution in Libya.
The world is intervening to deal with the anomalous situation in Libya and it is precisely this convergence of outside interests that may impose a solution in Libya in which Haftar would be a partner who imposes his conditions. He might do so, this time, from Tripoli.

Exclusive interview with ex-ISIS fighter Bin Laden al-Italy
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/April 14/19
This is the full transcript of Al Arabiya's exclusive interview with ex-ISIS fighter Bin Laden al-Italy in Syria's Baghouz.
How did you come to know about ISIS?
I was living a normal life. Then I started seeing ISIS all over the news and YouTube. I started searching for their videos. Honestly, they gave the impression that they’ll help people and that they’re the good against the evil. I’m a person who likes to experiment, and I thought maybe I’ll become a hero.
I came to know that you were an atheist before?
Yes, in beginning I used to say that justice doesn’t have to do with religion. I believed that religions are mere myths and I believed in the Big Bang. So I lived my life accordingly. Then I got introduced to ISIS through the internet. I saw videos and then I came here.
When did you come here?
2015.
How were you able to get in touch with people to take you to ISIS?
It was very easy in 2015. Through Facebook, when my support of ISIS was obvious, I was approached by an Egyptian. He told me it’s better if I go there and put me in touch with someone in Istanbul. And then it was very easy for me to make the mistake. Even when I entered Syria, I couldn’t comprehend where I am.
You said you got in touch with an Egyptian guy?
On Facebook he was called Mohammed Mohammed. When I got to Istanbul, there was a guy who claimed he’s Syrian, but he’s actually Egyptian. We went to the hotel for a couple of hours, then we took a bus to Urfa and then from Urfa to Tell Abyad. That’s how we entered.
How did you cross the borders?
It was very easy. When I entered, I heard gunshots from the Turkish Gendarmerie General Command. I saw a lot of people entering, and it was an open road. I thought it was weird.
How?
I couldn’t understand. They saw us. That time I wanted to go back, but the guys with me talked me out of it. I saw immigrants from Britain and France. I later understood, along with other immigrants, that this had to do with politics. They were using young men that have good intentions and want an Islamic state.Because a lot of the ones who come from Europe, don’t really understand religion.So we wanted an Islamic state, and I think it’s our right. But then when we got here, they explained to us some things in religion,For example, I didn’t know we could have concubines until I came to Syria. I entered Syria, and a masked guy approached me, he asked where I’m from, then told me: Good news, there are concubines. I asked what do you mean? They said they’re infidels, and I didn’t fully understand back then.
What did you mean when you said it had to do with politics? Did you mean the Turkish authorities were letting young men into Syria?
I’m sure Turkey knows. Thousands came in through Turkey.
How is it that they didn’t know?
It’s obvious that they knew.
How come the road was open? Did you hear about any cooperation between ISIS leaders and Turkey to allow people to come in?
People say that, yes. Many people know that.
What did you hear exactly?
They say there are common interests between Turkey and ISIS. Because ISIS were capable of doing an attack in Turkey, many of ISIS’ people were in Turkey before.
So why didn’t they do anything in Turkey? What did ISIS militants do in Turkey?
Coordination work, when people come to join, when there are money transfers.
What did you wear? What did you eat? Where did the goods come from? How did you get money?
This was an administration role, they used to bring us food and clothes. It’s all from Turkey. All through the Turkish border.
When you reached the city of Tabqah, you participated in the first battle?
No, not in Tabqah. I stayed in Tabqah for a while, then I got married. My wife now is in the camp, and I have two children. This month we’re having a new baby, by God’s will.
Did families have their privacy? Or were you all serving ISIS?
They used to say that there will be coordination with the families, but that wasn’t true.
What do you mean by coordination?
They used to tell me that they will take care of my family if I go to fight, but that wasn’t true, they just wanted us to fight.
Where is your wife from?
She’s Syrian.
From Tabqah?
No, she has Kurdish origins. But she was living in Raqqa for a long time.
Who did you deal with directly from the group? What was the hierarchy?
The Emirs knew each other, they were in Iraq before, in prisons. They chose the emirs they knew.
And you worked under one of the Emirs?
Yes, each one of us worked for a certain place.
How did you spend on your family?
In the beginning, they gave us money. Then my mother transferred money to me.
How did you receive money transfer?
There were wire transfer offices in Raqqa, in Tabqah. Or my mother would transfer the money to Turkey, someone would take it from there and it would be given to me in Syria. Or the same process in Lebanon. I also received it through ISIS many times, through an Uzbek-Turkish man.
How do you think the group got funding?
Either from Iraq’s oil, or gold in Iraq.
But who did they sell them to?
Oil used to go to Turkey, everything was in Turkey, it all passes through Turkey.
Oil was sold to Turkey?
Yes, ISIS sold oil to Turkey, everybody knows that.
Where did you get arms?
They used to buy, God knows better, but they used to buy arms from the whole region. From the Free Syrian Army, from the Syrian regime, and it would enter from Turkey.
Did you ever meet al-Baghdadi?
No, no one sees al-Baghdadi other than his tight group. In the beginnings, before the coalition comes in, he used to show up, but after that, not at all.
You didn’t receive letters or orders from him?
Yes, he would send letters to the soldiers telling them to go die.
When did you first fight?
In Aleppo. South of Aleppo.
Who did you fight?
I don’t want to say that on camera, but it’s in that area in 2015. After staying at a military camp for three months, they take us to the battle.
Where did you fight after Aleppo?
I don’t want to say.
Did you turn yourself in or get arrested?
I turned myself in near Sousa, the villages near Baghouz.
Is it true that around September, there was a coup attempt against Baghdadi? We heard that Moroccans were responsible for it and that the coup failed and the fighters who attempted it were executed.
That’s true. Near an area called Kashmah, near al-Shaafa, they attempted a coup, and there was fighting. They weren’t Moroccans, they were from Libya, Russia, Tunisia, and Morocco, it was a big group. But a lot of them were Libyan and Russian.
When was that?
Maybe some five to six months ago.
Why did they attempt a coup?
We heard many things honestly. ISIS said that they are Khawarij.
But what was the actual reason?
Their narrative was that they were being used and betrayed. The truth is, ISIS always lied to use us.
So they attempted a coup near al-Shaafa, does that mean al-Baghdadi was there?
I don’t know, I’m sure he wasn’t. It’s impossible for Baghdadi to be there.
Where do you think he is?
Honestly, I would tell you if I knew his place. But I know he is not there. He might be in Turkey or in Iraq. Some place that doesn’t have fighting.
What happened to those who attempted the coup?
They were killed. They were first imprisoned, then ISIS would pull them out to execute them.
How did they kill them?
They killed them in the street.
Publicly?
Yes.
Did you watch the executions?
No I didn’t, but they didn’t kill them all, they brought two or three and killed them, the rest they kept them in prison.
Do you want to go back to Milano?
Yes I do want to go back, I’m waiting, and I want my family to come with me. They told me they will help me, and I’m waiting for that, by God’s will.
You told me you turned yourself in three months ago, but how did you get injured?
It was caused by an airstrike.
After which you turned yourself in?
No, before that, around six months ago.
Where were you when this happened?
I was walking in the street, looking for food. The Syrian regime was hitting us, hitting a souk, a bakery, where women were, they purposefully hit those areas. Unlike the US-led coalition. The US would hit a military point only, while the Syrian regime would hit the whole area. Wherever there’s a gathering of women, who are out to get bread from the bakery, they would hit them. The whole world knew this.
Where are the leaders of ISIS? They didn’t find anyone in Baghouz. How did they plan to flee?
They took the money and the gold, they secured themselves and their families, and they ran away and left the young men. They only tell us to fight, and that our enemies are blasphemous and atheists. They used us and ran away.
How did they secure themselves?
I’m sure they buy houses elsewhere and take the money. Then they live in their new place with money.
Weren’t you afraid for your children in Baghouz? The whole area has landmines, how did you live through this?
Many young men and women were killed by the landmines. ISIS even does that on purpose.
Why?
So that people don’t leave that area. For the soldiers who don’t want to fight not to leave. There were even mines in the houses, many have died. That was a nightmare.

European Churches: Vandalized, Defecated On, and Torched "Every Day"
ريموند ابراهيم: الكنائس في أوريا تستباح ويتم التعدي عليها بأشكل مختلفة على مدار الساعة
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/April 14/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73839/%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B3-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A7/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14044/europe-churches-vandalized
In Germany, four separate churches were vandalized and/or torched in March alone. "In this country," PI-News, a German news site, explained, "there is a creeping war against everything that symbolizes Christianity: attacks on mountain-summit crosses, on sacred statues by the wayside, on churches... and recently also on cemeteries."
In virtually every instance of church attacks, authorities and media obfuscate the identity of the vandals. In those rare instances when the Muslim (or "migrant") identity of the destroyers is leaked, the desecraters are then presented as suffering from mental health issues.
"Hardly anyone writes and speaks about the increasing attacks on Christian symbols. There is an eloquent silence in both France and Germany about the scandal of the desecrations and the origin of the perpetrators.... Not a word, not even the slightest hint that could in anyway lead to the suspicion of migrants... It is not the perpetrators who are in danger of being ostracized, but those who dare to associate the desecration of Christian symbols with immigrant imports. They are accused of hatred, hate speech and racism." -- PI News, March 24, 2019
In February, vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, France, and mangled the arms of a statue of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner. In addition, an altar cloth was burned.
Countless churches throughout Western Europe are being vandalized, defecated on, and torched.
In France, two churches are desecrated every day on average. According to PI-News, a German news site, 1,063 attacks on Christian churches or symbols (crucifixes, icons, statues) were registered in France in 2018. This represents a 17% increase compared to the previous year (2017), when 878 attacks were registered — meaning that such attacks are only going from bad to worse.
Among some of the recent desecrations in France, the following took place in just February and March:
Vandals plundered Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nîmes and used human excrement to draw a cross there; consecrated bread was found thrown outside among garbage.
The Saint-Nicolas Church in Houilles was vandalized on three separate occasions in February; a 19th century statue of the Virgin Mary, regarded as "irreparable," was "completely pulverized," said a clergyman; and a hanging cross was thrown to the floor.
Vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, and mangled the arms of a statue of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner. In addition, an altar cloth was burned.
Arsonists torched the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris soon after midday mass on Sunday, March 17.
Similar reports are coming out of Germany. Four separate churches were vandalized and/or torched in March alone. "In this country," PI-News explained, "there is a creeping war against everything that symbolizes Christianity: attacks on mountain-summit crosses, on sacred statues by the wayside, on churches... and recently also on cemeteries."
Who is primarily behind these ongoing and increasing attacks on churches in Europe? The same German report offers a hint: "Crosses are broken, altars smashed, Bibles set on fire, baptismal fonts overturned, and the church doors smeared with Islamic expressions like 'Allahu Akbar.'"
Another German report from November 11, 2017 noted that in the Alps and Bavaria alone, around 200 churches were attacked and many crosses broken: "Police are currently dealing with church desecrations again and again. The perpetrators are often youthful rioters with a migration background." Elsewhere they are described as "young Islamists."
Sometimes, sadly, in European regions with large Muslim populations, there seems to be a concomitant rise in attacks on churches and Christian symbols. Before Christmas 2016, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, where more than a million Muslims reside, some 50 public Christian statues (including those of Jesus) were beheaded and crucifixes broken.
In 2016, following the arrival in Germany of another million mostly Muslim migrants, a local newspaper reported that in the town of Dülmen, "'not a day goes by' without attacks on religious statues in the town of less than 50,000 people, and the immediate surrounding area."
In France it also seems that where the number of Muslim migrants increases, so do attacks on churches. A January 2017 study revealed that, "Islamist extremist attacks on Christians" in France rose by 38 percent, going from 273 attacks in 2015 to 376 in 2016; the majority occurred during Christmas season and "many of the attacks took place in churches and other places of worship."
As a typical example, in 2014, a Muslim man committed "major acts of vandalism" inside a historic Catholic church in Thonon-les-Bains. According to a report (with pictures) he "overturned and broke two altars, the candelabras and lecterns, destroyed statues, tore down a tabernacle, twisted a massive bronze cross, smashed in a sacristy door and even broke some stained-glass windows." He also "trampled on" the Eucharist.
For similar examples in other European countries, please see here, here, here, here, and here.
In virtually every instance of church attacks, authorities and media obfuscate the identity of the vandals. In those rare instances when the Muslim (or "migrant") identity of the destroyers is leaked, the perpetrators are then presented as suffering from mental health issues. As the recent PI-News report says:
"Hardly anyone writes and speaks about the increasing attacks on Christian symbols. There is an eloquent silence in both France and Germany about the scandal of the desecrations and the origin of the perpetrators.... Not a word, not even the slightest hint that could in anyway lead to the suspicion of migrants... It is not the perpetrators who are in danger of being ostracized, but those who dare to associate the desecration of Christian symbols with immigrant imports. They are accused of hatred, hate speech and racism."
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Enclosed Pictures: In February, vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, France, and mangled the arms of a statue of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner. In addition, an altar cloth was burned. (Image source: Eutrope/Wikimedia Commons)

After the deluge: Iran’s paramilitary looting takes a deadly toll
د. ماجد رزاد: بعد الطوفان في إيران القوى العسكرية تنهب المنطاق المنكوبة وتلحق بها خسائر فادحة
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/April 14/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73847/%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a7-%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b7%d9%88%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84/
The official death toll from recent massive flooding in Iran stands at around 77, but it is more likely that well over 250 people have been killed by the disaster and as a result of bungled relief efforts.
The Tehran government has been credibly accused of downplaying the casualty figures, and it is hard not to take these accusations seriously in the wake of reports that the judiciary has threatened flood victims and their families with prosecution if they speak publicly or post on social media about their experiences.
If that wasn’t bad enough, it has also been reported that Iranian security forces, the military, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are all on the ground in flood-ravaged areas, but are generally more focused on suppressing dissent and preserving the theocratic regime’s reputation than contributing to relief efforts. While collective action by the public may help speed the recovery process in the wake of this and other disasters, it will do little to prevent their recurrence. For that to happen, the political establishment must either accept drastic changes or suffer domestic rebellion.
The seriousness of the recent flooding can be blamed, in large part, on the systematic mismanagement of natural resources by the government, and the rampant neglect of safety procedures and ecological assessments by private-sector companies that are under the control of the IRGC.
Well over half of the country’s gross domestic product is controlled by the IRGC, either directly or through a series of front companies according to the Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
The IRGC and its affiliates are subject to virtually no government oversight, and so have undertaken projects that are now being blamed for worsening the flooding crisis. Among these are construction projects immediately next to waterways, widespread dam-building coupled with poor maintenance, and infrequent dredging of affected rivers and lakes. Previously, the paramilitary’s disregard for environmental impacts was blamed for exacerbating the effects of long-term, nationwide drought.
Now, Iran is seeing the opposite side of that same coin in the form of some of the worst flash-flooding in the 40-year history of the republic.
The government’s role in all this has often consisted of opting to take no role whatsoever. This was made particularly apparent last year following the forced resignation of Kaveh Madani, a Western-educated ecology expert who had left a post at Imperial College London to take on the role of deputy head of Iran’s Department of the Environment. While collective action by the public may help speed the recovery process in the wake of this and other disasters, it will do little to prevent their recurrence. Madani was widely lauded as the person most likely to save Iran from its worsening environmental degradation. But among powerful hard-line figures, this optimism was very much outweighed by suspicion over his connections to the West. Madani’s forced resignation came immediately after he was arrested and interrogated for 72 hours. At roughly the same time, the IRGC spearheaded the arrest of nine other environmentalists who would ultimately be accused of using their professional work as cover for spying.
The real motivation for these arrests seemed to be related to the fact that environmental impact reports threatened to challenge the IRGC’s choice of location for new missile sites. No evidence has been presented to suggest any of these people committed a crime, apart from confessions that were extracted via torture and immediately recanted. Even before authorities secured this foundation for a legal case against the environmentalists, one of them, an Iranian-Canadian professor named Kavous Seyed-Emami, died in custody.
Four of the remaining eight have since been charged with “spreading corruption on earth,” which can carry the death penalty.
If capital sentences are passed and carried out, it will demonstrate the IRGC’s willingness to actively murder Iranian citizens simply for the sake of continuing the sorts of activities that contributed, over the past two weeks, to the deaths of dozens of flood victims. Meanwhile, reports indicate hard-liners are presently jostling to exploit the flood damage and further tighten their grip on Iranian commerce and society. According to the regime’s own Fars News Agency, IRGC Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari has been putting pressure on the government to finance an IRGC-led reconstruction effort, rather than for more effectively coordinated rescue and recovery efforts. The only likely effect of this will be the continued misappropriation of funds by a paramilitary organization that has channeled countless millions of dollars into Iran-backed militias outside Iran’s borders in the midst of economic and ecological crises.
This situation has led the leader of the Iranian opposition, Maryam Rajavi, to issue a statement on Twitter calling on “the public, particularly the youths, to form their popular councils and independently act to aid the affected people.”
“The mullahs do nothing but preserving their shameless rule and plundering the people. National solidarity and cooperation is the only way to confront the flash floods,” she said.
The pain being experienced by the Iranian public is likely to get much worse unless the international community sanctions the IRGC and isolates its activities to such an extent that it becomes impossible to put more Iranian wealth into its hands.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh