Smoke billows at the site of a reported Russian strike in a forest area west of Syria's opposition-held northwestern city of Idlib, Aug. 22, 2022. (AFP Photo) Forces loyal to the Bashar Assad regime and Russia on Wednesday renewed their attacks on Syria’s northwest, the last opposition region, as the United Nations warns of military escalation and urged for calm. “Today, Russian warplanes renewed their airstrikes on northwestern Syria, targeting the western outskirts of Idlib city and the outskirts Sarjah village in the southern countryside of Idlib. Our teams inspected the targeted areas and did not report any civilian casualties,” the White Helmets civil defense group said, adding that civilian areas were also shelled in Aleppo’s villages. The Syrian regime and its ally Russia have regularly targeted hospitals and civilian areas since the start of the war in 2011. The Idlib region bordering Turkey is home to about 3 million people and it is one of the last pockets to oppose Damascus. For years, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further territory gains and crushing the opposition. With this aim, the regime has for years bombed civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing the displacement of almost half of the country's population. The Idlib de-escalation zone was forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire agreements, which have been frequently violated by the Assad regime and its allies. On the other side, the U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, warned that “troubling signs of military escalation on several axes” have been seen recently. Pedersen, in a briefing to the security council on Monday, said that the PKK’s Syrian wing, the YPG, on Aug.11 “publicly acknowledged killing Turkish soldiers on the border, inside Turkish territory.” “Syrian state media said that the government carried out strikes on Turkish and armed opposition sites inside Syria,” he added, acknowledging the attacks by the Assad regime and the YPG on Türkiye. Ankara has recently stepped up its calls to eliminate the threat of the terrorist organization. Türkiye, which has mounted four operations in northern Syria since 2016, has vowed a new operation against YPG terrorists that control swathes of territory near the Turkish border. Pedersen renewed his call for a nationwide cease-fire as well as “parallel efforts to address the extensive presence of listed terrorist groups, in a cooperative manner that is in line with international law and protects civilians and civilian infrastructure.” © Turkuvaz Haberleşme ve Yayıncılık 2021 Link to article: https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/russian-warplanes-renew-strikes-on-nw-syria-as-un-warns-of-escalation/news

A young woman has been murdered in Egypt after turning down a marriage proposal from a 29-year-old man Social media photo of 19-year old Amany Abdel Karim (Facebook) A young woman has been murdered in Egypt after turning down a marriage proposal from a 29-year-old man from the village of Toukh Tanbesha in Menoufia Governorate in the Nile Delta, underscoring an ongoing tragedy in the country: violence against women and the authorities' failure to prevent it happening. Ahmed Fathi Amerirah shot Amani Abdul Karim, 19, on Saturday and then reportedly turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. Amani is the third female murder victim in Egypt in just three months – each was murdered after refusing to marry the killer. "What happened is not just an ordinary crime, it is a new crime of violence against women, and it is a femicide,'" Shaimaa Elbanna, spokeswoman for the Committee for Justice told MEMO. "We note that violence in general is increasing in Egypt, especially violence from the state against all citizens. At least identifying the crime and labelling it correctly helps us determine the reasons it is happening and helps us find solutions to protect women." Amani was murdered not long after an outpouring of solidarity with the student Naira Ashraf, who in June was beaten and stabbed multiple times outside Mansoura University by Mohamed Adel. The footage of the murder went viral and the killing shook Egypt, especially after it emerged that Mohamed harassed Naira for a year, to the knowledge of authorities, who failed to prevent her death. According to a Reuters article, Mohamed edited her face onto pornographic images and sent her death threats for months before he stabbed her. Naira reported Mohamed to the cybercrime police unit and filed two restraining orders against him, yet her lawyer said the police did not undergo proper legal procedures and action was not taken against him. State-run media has tried to draw the focus elsewhere, in one case running an article which argues men kill their lovers due to "Othello's disease", or a pathological jealousy. From Naira Ashraf to the student Amani. The story, 'Love never kills,' is an ongoing drama Naira's autopsy was published, focusing on the results of her virginity test and whether her hymen was intact. Then a discussion erupted online. Why didn't Naira wear the headscarf? Could other women who chose not to wear it be subject to the same act of violence? "Cover up or meet the same fate," one Al-Azhar professor said. Then just one and a half months after Naira's brutal murder, it happened again. At the beginning of August, Islam Mohamed stabbed 20-year-old Salma Bahgat to death 17 times in Zagazig on the eastern part of the Nile Delta. Islam had posted a story on his social media threatening Salma after she turned down his marriage proposal with a firm "no" As Amina's story spreads on social media, observers continue to mourn Naira and Salma, call for urgent justice for women in Egypt, and for the attention to be put squarely on what happened, rather than what they were wearing. "The killings are an extension of violence against women in Egypt, which began with threats, beatings and harassment, and have continued every day without confrontation or clear rejection by society," Shaimaa says. "This is due to toxic relations between men and women, a cultural heritage that encourages violence, religious interpretations that incited it, the absence of adequate legal protection, the existence of legal loopholes that allow criminals to go unpunished, and the deterioration of the security system in Egypt. And for these reasons, women don't report what is happening to them." In June, Naira's killer, Mohamed Adel, was sentenced to death, the maximum penalty for murder in Egypt, with the court even asking for the law to be changed so his execution could be televised to the nation. In 2021 Egypt was the third highest executioner worldwide, despite calls by human rights groups and the UN to impose a moratorium on the death sentence as it spiralled out of control. "A deterrent law does not mean revenge or death sentences – that we reject completely – because as we see Naira Ashraf's killer was sentenced to death, but this didn't stop the crime and it happened again. Issuing a death sentence was never enough and it didn't deter and protect the new victim," says Shaimaa. Instead, women need a safe environment which encourages them to report violence, she says, and which offers them protection and takes their complaints seriously. This needs to start by schools educating new generations and through civil society, a difficult task as censorship and restrictions on NGOs are at an all-time high in Egypt. "I wish patience to all women who are suffering from trauma which is renewed with each new incident of violence against women in Egypt and the Arab world," says Shaimaa. © Ardi Associates Ltd 2009-2022. All Rights Reserved Link to article: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220905-third-femicide-in-egypt-in-3-months-after-young-woman-says-no-to-marriage-proposal/

Demonstrators protest Chinese human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs at a rally in Istanbul, Turkey, on December 20, 2019. (Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images) American doctors go to great lengths to maintain the highest ethical standards as they work to save thousands of desperately ill patients waiting for an organ match, as underscored in recent reporting of innovative transplant experiments using genetically modified pig hearts. China’s transplant sector, unconstrained by rigorous ethical rules, found a more expedient solution. China created a thriving transplant industry, the world’s second-largest, based on a supply of organs forcibly harvested from executed prisoners – most likely prisoners of conscience. Though China announced that it banned this hideous practice in 2015, transparency is lacking and mounting evidence indicates that it continues. Nevertheless, the American transplant sector, while adhering to medical ethics at home, openly supports China’s transplant doctors and industry. In 2006, shocking reports first surfaced of China forcibly harvesting organs from detained Falun Gong adherents. According to these reports, after Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual meditation group was targeted for “elimination” by China’s president in 1999, thousands of practitioners were thrown into labor camps and jails and subjected to organ screening, unexplained deaths, and disappearances. Many, the group says, were killed for their organs, which were sold to China’s transplant sector, just as it surged and became a billion-dollar industry. Credible testimony from former detainees, relatives, patients, and surgeons supports this. It was during this period that scores of Chinese transplant surgeons published articles, openly describing procedures on prisoners who “were alive and breathing as the surgeons cut their hearts out,” as documented in a 2022 article in the respected American Journal of Transplantation, written by Victims of Communism Foundation fellow Matthew Robertson and Israeli Dr. Jacob Lavee. Last year 12 independent UN experts stated they were “extremely alarmed” by “credible information” that forced organ harvesting was continuing and, moreover, targeting China’s various religious minorities. Several sources report evidence that the atrocity has spread to Xinjiang’s massive network of closed detention camps, which, significantly, were built after 2015, and which both Republican and Democratic administrations recognized as the site of ongoing genocide against China’s Uyghur Muslims. Nury Turkel, who chairs the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, documented forced blood sampling and organ screening of Uyghur detainees, including a Christian, Ovalbek Turdakun, whom one of us interviewed. As noted in a May 2022 European Parliament resolution, a Beijing hospital brazenly advertised its use of “‘halal organs’ from Uyghurs and Muslim minorities.” At the International Religious Freedom Summit, held in Washington, D.C. in June, Ethan Gutmann, the leading field researcher on China’s forced organ harvesting, estimated that 25,000 to 50,000 Uyghurs have been killed annually for their organs. Gutmann’s research implicates a former SARS hospital in Aksu, Xinjiang, which is served by an airport with a designated “fast lane” for expressing organs to hospitals throughout China. No satisfactory explanation exists for how – despite only a million registered volunteer donors in China, compared with America’s 145 million in 2019 – China’s patients can schedule appointments for transplant surgeries within days or weeks, as patients and investigators reported, instead of waiting months or years, as in the U.S. In addition, Robertson, Lavee, and Australian statistician Raymond Hinde have determined that the growth curves of China’s voluntary donation lists for three organ types formed implausible, nearly perfect quadratic equations. In a peer-reviewed medical ethics journal article in 2019, they conclude that China’s donor database was “falsified” as a result of being “manufactured and manipulated from the central levels of the Chinese medical bureaucracy.” Also, China’s reported number of annual transplants, 5,000-6,000, appears understated. Documenting Chinese transplant hospitals, beds, and surgeons, Gutmann, and Canadian human rights experts David Matas and David Kilgour estimated that 60,000 to 100,000 organ transplants are occurring annually in China, with 8,000 a year at just one hospital. Though shocking, China’s lack of medical ethics is not entirely surprising considering that it perpetrates ethnoreligious genocide. But, given the grave questions about organ sourcing raised in these reports and China’s lack of transparency, it is unconscionable that major American universities and hospitals support China’s transplant sector. As brandished on their websites, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pittsburgh, and many other others provide China with fellowships, academic exchanges, conferences, and joint research projects. American institutions are documented to have trained 344 of China’s transplant doctors. Some in the American medical community apparently collaborate in the hope of persuading their Chinese partners to ensure organ donation is indeed voluntary. But when blocked from verifying claims of reform, these same U.S. institutions accept China’s word at face value and even praise its progress. They are not alone in buying China’s lies. The medical ethics journal cited above observed: “The World Health Organization, the Transplantation Society, the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences have all provided endorsements of the reforms based on what appears to be contaminated data.” The WHO’s organ transplant task force, for example, was proposed in 2017 by Dr. Huang Jiefu, who directed China’s transplant donor registry, long served on the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, and, though far from independent, was appointed to the task force itself. Under the chairmanship of Harvard’s Dr. Francis Delmonico, who toured China’s hospitals as Huang’s guest and praised Huang as a “courageous leader” in congressional testimony, the task force was mandated to flag crises in the transplant field. Yet, Gutmann, Robertson, and Matas each say that it dismissed out of hand their devastating research. To date, no U.S. administration has taken seriously the charges of China’s ongoing organ harvesting. In 2018, the State Department tried to close the book on the issue, declaring point blank that China’s government “officially ended the long-standing practice of involuntarily harvesting the organs of executed prisoners for use in transplants in January 2015.” It, too, failed to undertake independent verification. The Biden administration should reexamine all forced organ harvesting evidence and make its own determination. Congress should pass the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act to ensure this happens. Former Chinese military surgeon Dr. Enver Tohti, testifying before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, recently commented on Western indifference to this issue. Forced organ harvesting seemed just “too bad to be true,” he said. But the evidence is too compelling to persist in that naïve belief. Until compliance with international ethical norms is verified, the American transplant sector should halt all collaboration with China. (c) Real Clear Politics, 2022

The U.S. helped transport them to temporary safety in the Middle East and left them stranded without visas to resettle. On August 16, 1,500 Afghan religious minorities watched with mounting anxiety as the wheels pulled up on the last U.S. charter flight for evacuees from the UAE airport, carrying a few hundred members of Afghan military families. The minorities were left behind in Emirates Humanitarian City (EHC), the evacuation center in Abu Dhabi, where over 12,000 fleeing Afghans found temporary shelter beginning last August. When American engagement winds down there in September, the minorities fear abandonment to a fate of indefinite limbo, in lockdown at EHC, or, if the UAE tires of supporting the camp and deports them, certain death in their Taliban-ruled homeland. Washington used to care about and even prioritize persecuted religious minorities, but it doesn’t now, not even those from Afghanistan, a country identified among the world’s worst religious persecutors by the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). As I noted in these pages, shortly after Senate confirmation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that religious freedom would not be given priority in his department’s list of human rights concerns. Afghanistan’s religious minorities — Christians, Hazara Shiites, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadis, Bahais, and Jews — face veritable genocide as “infidels” and “apostates” under Taliban Islamic law, yet these groups were all excluded from U.S. priority refugee admissions status. The administration ignored repeated pleas by USCIRF and hundreds of advocates to include them in the “P-2” priority visa category went ignored by the administration. After Kabul’s fall last August, religious minorities, women judges, girl athletes, foreign-aid workers, and others seriously threatened by the Taliban furtively streamed, family by family, to hiding places around Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. They were vetted there and transported to the EHC by American charities and private air-charter operations. These flights were approved and facilitated by the U.S. government. Based on what the U.S. had pledged to the UAE, the evacuees expected to be relocated from UAE lily pads to permanent safe havens within 90 days. Instead, while most other groups have moved on, these 1,500 religious refugees worry about being stranded, along with a few thousand others who lack valid immigration claims. The UAE generously provides food and shelter, but Afghans at EHC are denied rights to citizenship and the freedom to build new lives. As they see it, they are in a form of detention. One is a 28-year-old Christian whose rescue I’ve helped shepherd over the past year. A contact in St. Louis named John, who had formerly worked with persecuted people through the nondenominational Voice of the Martyrs, sent me an email on August 24, 2021, asking for help in finding an evacuation flight for Ben (not his real name). He and his wife, Pari, a naturalized citizen from Afghanistan, had supported and ministered to Ben via the Internet nearly a decade ago. Alone and hiding in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat, Ben turned to John because relatives and neighbors were pressured to give information about people like him to the Taliban, who lost no time hunting down “apostates.” John, Pari, and their friend, Laura, became Ben’s “points of contact,” or a bridge to me and a network of American charities and religious-freedom experts. Ben is well acquainted with persecution. As a teenager, he explored evangelical teachings on the Internet and converted to Christianity in 2014. For this, his family regularly beat him, until once he fell unconscious and had to be hospitalized. Fearing for his life, he moved to Kabul, aiming to finish high school. There, he joined a house church in the western Karte Seh district that was started twelve years earlier by South African Pastor Werner Groenewald and his wife, Hannelie, a physician. Within their sprawling guesthouse, the couple also ran an aid organization, Partnership in Academics and Development, and a seminary. Ben befriended their teenage son and daughter and found emotional and spiritual support within the Groenewald’s church community. This abruptly changed on November 29, 2014, with a shocking attack that drew international coverage. That Saturday afternoon, three Taliban gunmen broke into the guesthouse and, in unprovoked rage, murdered Werner and his two children, Ben’s friend Zabih Bamiani, and another Afghan. The compound exploded in flames from a suicide bomb. Ben was spared, but his church and adoptive family were wiped out. In the ensuing years, Ben struggled to overcome this trauma as he continued his studies in computer science. As he wrote last week to Laura, “I can sum up the Taliban in two words: brutal and deadly. I used to tremble when I saw them.” We connected Ben with the Shai Fund, which arranged travel and a safe house in Mazar, and, in October, put him on one of nine evacuation flights sponsored by its partnering charity, Mercury One. At EHC, Ben had an Afghan roommate (now resettled in the U.S.) who, he says, pressured him to join in Muslim prayers. He knew firsthand bad things could happen to those exposed as apostates. The intolerant culture that has long barred non-Muslim worship inside Afghanistan accompanied some into EHC. As a result, Ben and the other Christians avoid the prayer room and, last Christmas, passed on public celebrations. In March, Shai Fund director Charmaine Hedding wrote in an assessment report on EHC that “Christians have been living in greater fear with the passing of time in the EHC, as it becomes harder to hide their faith living in such close quarters. They face daily struggles to practice their faith and are threatened physically, verbally, and psychologically.” The U.S. reportedly resettled several hundred EHC religious minorities, but this was primarily based on military, family, or work ties with Americans — not religious persecution grounds. While 75,000 Afghans resettled under Operation Allies Welcome, as of June, a mere 350 more entered by humanitarian parole, including a few for religious persecution. Worldwide, there are limited refugee options, even for these 1,500 religious minorities, who have charitable funds ready to support their resettlement. The Commission on Inalienable Rights, which Blinken disbanded last year, found that prioritizing specific rights at specific times in foreign policy is a pragmatic and legal necessity. At this time, as the State Department pulls up stakes at the UAE camp, prioritizing visas for these religious refugees from the Taliban is demonstrably necessary. To abandon them would betray America’s oldest traditions and highest principles. (c) National Review, 2022

The Myanmar military has been invited to the Tri-Service Asian Defense & Security Exhibition, Conference and Networking Event, running in Bangkok from August 29 to September 1. The Asian Defense & Security 2022 visitor profile features “High-Ranking Officials from Defence Ministries and Departments, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force” and lists Myanmar as one of the countries. Defense & Security 2022 involves an arms fair, seminars, technical presentations and live demonstrations, supported by Thailand’s Ministry of Defence. The conference website lists the ASEAN Defence Industry Collaboration as part of the event, an ASEAN program that includes the Myanmar military. In the last Asian Defense & Security, held in 2019, war criminal Min Aung Hlaing led the military’s delegation, and the army’s Myanmar Defence Industry had a booth. Other official Defense & Security invitees include Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, South Korea, and Spain, all of which have arms embargoes in place against Myanmar. The USA has a “partnership pavilion”. Exhibitors with a record of selling arms and dual-use goods to the Myanmar military include CETC, Elbit Systems, NORINCO, and Thales. The event organizer, GML (Thailand), is a joint venture registered in China and 49% owned by Informa, a UK corporation listed on the London Stock Exchange, according to its last annual report. Informa did not respond to questions from Justice For Myanmar on the Myanmar military junta’s attendance and if they will be exhibiting in 2022. Informa is the parent company of the academic publishing giant, Taylor & Francis Group, and its subsidiary, Routledge. Informa acquired the Hong Kong-based exhibition business UBM in June 2018, giving them a stake in GML. Other upcoming Informa events, where there is a risk that junta representatives could attend, include IFSEC India, a security industry trade fair to be held in New Delhi on December 1-3, showcasing surveillance technology. IFSEC India partner, Hikvision, has supplied CCTV equipment to the Myanmar junta. In 2018, the Myanmar police chief was a VIP guest at an IFSEC event in Southeast Asia, also organized by Informa. On December 7-10, Informa is co-organizing Marintec, an exhibition in Shanghai supported by the Equipment Department of the PLA Navy and co-sponsored by China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited, a state-owned navy shipbuilder. Chin State Shipbuilding Corporation is a supplier of the Myanmar Navy, according to leaked documents concerning procurement. Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “We condemn Informa’s involvement in arms fairs that support the Myanmar military’s procurement of arms and equipment for use against the people. “Informa must ensure that the Myanmar junta and its associates are barred from Defense & Security 2022, and all future events, and explain why it allowed Min Aung Hlaing to participate and exhibit in Defense & Security 2019, two years after the Myanmar military’s campaign of genocide against the Rohingya. “By exhibiting locally produced arms, Informa has helped the Myanmar military develop export markets that can provide it with revenue to finance its international crimes and enrich war criminals. “Since the military’s February 1, 2021, illegal attempted coup, the junta has launched a terror campaign that has involved the murder of over 2,200 people, the arrest of more than 15,000, widespread torture, indiscriminate air strikes, and shelling, and mass forced displacement. “The junta’s atrocity crimes are enabled by the continued flow of funds and arms. These must be cut. “We urge academics who publish research through Taylor & Francis to pressure Informa to ban the Myanmar junta from all its events. “We demand ASEAN immediately exclude the Myanmar military junta from all events, meetings, and activities, including those associated with Defense & Security 2022, and recognize and engage with the National Unity Government as the legitimate government of Myanmar.” (c) Justice for Myanmar, 2022

By Sara Sidner, Lauren Kent, Victoria Butenko, Sandi Sidhu and Kostyantyn Gak, CNN Published 1:04 PM EDT, Thu September 1, 2022 Ukrainian prosecutors have identified the suspect as Nikolay Sergeevich Sokovikov. Kyiv, Ukraine CNN — It was a chilling shooting: Russian soldiers caught on camera killing unarmed Ukrainian civilians as they walked away from an encounter on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv. CNN first reported on the shooting in May, after obtaining exclusive surveillance video of what is being investigated as a war crime, a shooting targeting civilians. Now, Ukrainian prosecutors say they have informed Russia that their pre-trial investigation has zeroed in one of the Russian perpetrators they believe is responsible. The Bucha Prosecutors’ Office in the Kyiv region says CNN’s exclusive reporting was instrumental in helping identify the Russian soldier. Prosecutors say the suspect is Nikolay Sergeevich Sokovikov, adding that Russia was informed of his charges of “violation of the laws and customs of war” and “intentional murder.” CNN has requested comment from Russia’s defense ministry but has not had a response. CNN also asked the Russian MOD for response to our original report in May and never received a reply. Civilians shot in the back In newly obtained footage of the incident obtained by CNN this week, two soldiers can clearly be seen shooting at something next to a business they have just overtaken. Other videos of the incident reveal their target was two unarmed civilians, shot in the back immediately following what appears to be a calm conversation with the soldiers. The incident happened in March outside a vehicle dealership in a village near Kyiv, as Russian forces attempted to take the Ukrainian capital in the early days of the invasion. Sokovikov, along with another unidentified serviceman, inflicted at least 12 gunshot wounds on the civilians, according to Ukrainian prosecutors. They were part of a group of soldiers who then ransacked the business and loaded stolen goods into a car marked “Tank Special Forces RUS,” prosecutors said in a statement. CNN previously identified the victims. One was the owner of the looted dealership, whose family does not want to be named. The other was Leonid Oleksiyovych Plyats, a 68-year-old grandfather who worked as a guard there. Surveillance camera footage obtained by CNN shows the suspect inside the dealership, which the group of Russian soldiers looted. In addition to the killing, surveillance video shows more unprofessional behavior by the group of five soldiers, who are seen on camera drinking and toasting each other. The group was identified as members of the invading force by their uniforms, analysis of who controlled what area at the time and witness statements. The footage has been verified by CNN. Prosecutors will not reveal exactly how they identified this particular soldier. But CNN has previously reported on one part of the process being used by Ukrainian authorities – facial recognition technology. Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation uploads images of suspects into software that scrubs social media websites looking for matching photos. Once investigators have a match, they corroborate it with friends and family on the suspects’ social media. The identification of this latest suspect for war crimes was months in the making, according to prosecutors. While the pre-trial investigation is ongoing, it is at least one step toward justice for the victims’ families. © 2022 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.

Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) prepare to head to mission in Sanja, Amhara region, near a border with Tigray, Ethiopia November 9, 2020. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri NAIROBI, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Fighting in Ethiopia's nearly two-year Tigray war has erupted along a new front near Sudan, the government said on Wednesday, after a ceasefire collapsed a week ago. Medics also reported fresh air strikes on Mekelle, capital of northern Tigray region, where local forces have battled Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's national army in a conflict killing thousands, smashing infrastructure and exacerbating hunger. A government statement said the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the region, had "launched an invasion" towards areas it said were in the Amhara region and referred to as Wag, Wolqait and the Sudanese border. The fertile area is claimed by both Amhara and Tigray regions. The Tigrayans call it western Tigray. Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for the TPLF, tweeted that the government was "making up stories so it'd get away scot-free in the eyes of the international community." The party had said last week they were expecting a major attack from that direction and that skirmishes in the south were a feint. A medical worker and an aid worker reported three explosions late on Tuesday in the city of Mekelle. One hit a neighborhood near Mekelle General Hospital, tweeted Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief executive of Ayder General Hospital. He said Ayder had received some casualties. The extent of damage and casualties was unclear, although an aid worker said at least two people had been injured. Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister's spokesperson Billene Seyoum did not respond to requests for comment. Getachew, the TPLF spokesperson, said on Twitter that at least three bombs had been dropped and that the Mekelle General Hospital was among the targets. Reuters was unable to reach other residents of Mekelle for confirmation because the region has not had phone communication since Ethiopian troops pulled out more than a year ago. The latest strike follows a hit on a children's play area on Friday that killed seven people, including women and children. HUMANITARIAN CONVOYS HALTED Almost all of Tigray's 5.5 million people need food aid, but no humanitarian deliveries have entered for nine days, two United Nations officials said. On Tuesday, Getachew said an offensive against the TPLF had been broken and a counter-attack launched. He underscored the devastation in the region, which has not had banking, phone or electricity services for more than a year. Fuel restrictions have also limited aid distribution, while patients are dying for lack of medicine and equipment. Restoring services is a key demand of the TPLF before peace talks. The government said it wants talks to begin without conditions. But after a week of fighting hopes for a peace deal have faded. On Saturday, the Ethiopian government communication service said it had pulled its forces out of the town of Kobo, in the Amhara region bordering Tigray, blaming the TPLF for sending "human waves" against the town and endangering civilians. The government said Tigrayan forces were attacking in two directions - along the border with Amhara to the south and along the border with Afar to the east. The eruption in the west would mean there has been fighting in all directions except to the north, along the border with Eritrea. Eritrea previously intervened in the conflict to support Ethiopia's military, sending large numbers of troops into Tigray, where rights investigators said they were responsible for looting, mass killings of civilians and gang rapes - allegations Eritrea always denied. In Getachew's speech to regional media in Tigray, he said that Ethiopian soldiers had recently been sent into Eritrea. Ethiopian government and military spokespeople as well as Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not respond to requests for comment on that. Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne © 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved

To watch, click on photo. On August 24th, In Defense of Christians hosted an expert panel event exploring Jihad and Christian persecution in Nigeria. Max Prowant, Philos Project Research Fellow at IDC, moderated the panel. Expert panelists included: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Stephen Enada of the International Committee on Nigeria, Lela Gilbert of the Hudson Institute, Dr. Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch, and former Congressman Frank Wolf. Click here to watch the event.

The violence erupted after the powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said he is leaving politics. Protesters supporting Mr. Sadr took to the streets of the capital, Baghdad, and security forces opened fire. Supporters of Mr. Sadr and the police in Baghdad’s Green Zone on Monday. Security forces closed roads south of the capital to prevent more protesters from arriving.Credit...Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Iraq sank deeper into political chaos on Monday after the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced he was retiring from politics and at least 12 of his supporters were shot and killed by government security forces while protesting in the capital, Baghdad. Mr. Sadr’s pronouncement on Twitter sent hundreds of his followers into the streets of Baghdad, where they breached concrete barriers guarding the so-called Green Zone, the site of Parliament, Iraqi government offices and diplomatic missions, including the U.S. Embassy. At least 12 protesters were killed and more than 100 were injured when security forces fired on them, according to two Iraqi officials who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Baghdad and most provinces were under curfew by Monday evening. The Associated Press later reported that at least 15 protesters had been killed by gunfire, citing a senior medical official. A senior aide to Mr. Sadr, Hassan al-Adhari, said late on Monday that the Shiite cleric was declaring that he would go on a hunger strike until “the violence and use of weapons stops.” Although political turmoil and street protests are common in Iraq, Monday’s developments — with a combustible mix of inter-Shiite divisions and the breaching of state institutions, along with political deadlock — could mark an even more dangerous phase. Iraq has been without a new government since elections last October, when candidates loyal to Mr. Sadr won the single biggest bloc of seats and eclipsed rival Shiite political parties backed by Iran. That has left the country with a caretaker government that has not been able to address urgent economic problems, such as passing an annual budget, among other priorities. Mr. Sadr, whose militia fought U.S. troops during the American occupation of Iraq, comes from a family of revered clerics and is Iraq’s most influential Shiite religious figure involved in politics. In the midst of disagreements with other parties over who should be president and prime minister, he threw the process of forming a government into turmoil in June when he ordered newly elected members of Parliament loyal to him to resign. Leaders in the Sadr movement, in a show of force in July, directed his followers to storm Parliament and then set up a tent camp that has blockaded the Parliament building for more than a month, preventing lawmakers from meeting. Mr. Sadr has had an uneasy relationship with Iran, and if his vow to quit politics stands it could pave the way for his Iranian-backed rivals to form the nucleus of a new government. His ability to mobilize hundreds of thousands of followers throughout Shiite-majority Iraq means he could also engineer protests that would threaten any new government if he wishes. On Monday, protesters for the first time during the recent unrest stormed the Republican Palace, Saddam Hussein’s former residence, which later served as the headquarters of the U.S.-led occupation and now hosts Iraqi cabinet meetings. Video posted on social media showed some of the protesters stripping off to their underwear and jumping in the palace pool. “Today, the people are controlling the Green Zone,” says the narrator, who appears to be on a diving board. Some international organizations were conducting evacuation flights from the Green Zone by helicopter to Baghdad’s international airport. Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, said that he was alarmed by the developments. “He appeals for calm and restraint,” he said of Mr. Guterres, adding that the U.N. leader was calling for “immediate steps to de-escalate the situation and avoid any violence.” Security forces closed roads south of the capital, preventing more protesters from arriving from southern provinces that are Sadr strongholds. One of those provinces, Dhi Qar, announced all government offices would be closed Tuesday because of security concerns. Iraqi security forces include members of Iran-backed paramilitaries not directly under the control of the government. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said the use of live fire by security forces was banned and he was launching an investigation into the shootings. Security forces also used tear gas and water cannons against protesters in the Green Zone. Neighboring Iran announced it was closing all land borders with Iraq until further notice and warned citizens not to travel to Iraq, saying the country was working to return Iranian visitors home safely. Tehran’s international airport suspended flights to Baghdad. Millions of Iranian pilgrims travel to Iraq every year to visit historic shrines at the heart of Shiite Muslim identity. At least two of those killed were shot dead near the home of a former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, according to the senior security official. Mr. Maliki is locked in a bitter rivalry with Mr. Sadr and the shootings near his home illustrated the dangers of the increasing factionalization of Iraqi Shiite parties. Mr. Maliki is part of an Iran-backed political bloc that has also vied to form a government. His sectarian policies while in power are widely blamed for having fostered the rise of the terrorist group Islamic State. Hours after security forces opened fire on protesters approaching Mr. Maliki’s home, witnesses reported more gunfire. Mr. Sadr has mobilized much larger gatherings of followers in the streets in recent weeks to protest against government corruption and foreign interference in Iraq. Mr. Sadr said in his statement he was also closing all institutions linked to the Sadrists except for the tomb of his father, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, who was assassinated while Saddam Hussein was in power, and other offices related to the family’s religious heritage. “I have decided not to interfere in political affairs so now I announce my final retirement,” Mr. Sadr wrote on Twitter. Mr. al-Kadhimi, the prime minister, said he was suspending cabinet sessions until further notice. In an appeal to Mr. Sadr, he said perpetuating political disputes “to the point of damaging all state institutions does not serve the Iraqi people, their aspirations, their future and their territorial integrity.” Mr. Sadr has said several times before that he was leaving politics and even temporarily suspended his political activities and closed his movement’s offices, prompting questions about whether this latest move could be a tactic to eventually strengthen his negotiating position in the now-paralyzed efforts to form a government. “He repeatedly says he’s not going to be part of politics and then inevitably comes back in,” said Sajad Jiyad, an Iraq-based fellow at the Century Foundation, a U.S.-based think tank. “Maybe this is a way of giving breathing space to all sides.” Mr. Sadr is known as an Iraqi nationalist. He had been trying to form a new government with Sunni Arab and Kurdish partners before those monthslong negotiations failed. The resignation and the appearance of his followers in the streets could also be “a means to exert pressure and have people beg him to roll back his decision,” said Elie Abouaoun, a director at the United States Institute of Peace. © 2022 The New York Times Company Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/world/middleeast/iraq-sadr-politics.html

A man surveys the damage from clashes in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Sunday. CAIRO — Militias patrolled nearly deserted streets in Libya's capital Sunday, a day after clashes killed over 30 people and ended Tripoli's monthslong stretch of relative calm. The fighting broke out early Saturday and pitted militias loyal to the Tripoli-based government against other armed groups allied with a rival administration that has for months sought to be seated in the capital. Residents fear the fighting that capped a monthslong political deadlock could explode into a wider war and a return to the peaks of Libya's long-running conflict. Libya has plunged into chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The oil-rich county has for years been split between rival administrations, each backed by rogue militias and foreign governments. The current stalemate grew out of the failure to hold elections in December and Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah's refusal to step down. In response, the country's east-based parliament appointed a rival prime minister, Fathy Bashagha, who has for months sought to install his government in Tripoli. Saturday's fighting centered in the densely populated city center and involved heavy artillery. Hundreds were trapped and hospitals, government and residential buildings were damaged. The Health Ministry said at least 32 people were killed and 159 wounded in the clashes. Among the dead was Mustafa Baraka, a comedian known for his social media videos mocking militias and corruption. He was shot reportedly while live-streaming on social media. It was not clear whether he was targeted. The Associated Press spoke to dozens of residents and witnesses. They recounted horrific scenes of people, including women and children, trapped in their homes, government buildings and hospitals. They also spoke of at least three motionless bodies that remained for hours in the street before an ambulance was able to reach the area. They asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from the militias. "We see death before our eyes and in the eyes of our children," said a woman who was trapped along with many families in a residential apartment. "The world should protect those innocent children like they did at the time of Gadhafi." Militias allied with Tripoli-based Dbeibah were seen roaming the streets in the capital early Sunday. Their rivals were stationed at their positions in the outskirts of the city, according to local media. Much of the city has suffered nightly power outages. Several businesses were closed Sunday and he state-run National Oil Corp. ordered its employees to work remotely Sunday. Residents were still weary of potential violence and most stayed in their homes Sunday. Many rushed to supermarkets when the clashes subsided late Saturday to stock up on food and other necessities. "It could be triggered in a flash. They (the militias) are uncontrolled," said a Tripoli school teacher who only gave a partial name, Abu Salim. "Our demand is very simple: a normal life." Dbeibah's government claimed the fighting began when a member of a rival militia fired at a patrol of another militia in Tripoli's Zawiya Street. It said the shots came amid a mobilization of Bashagha-allied groups around the capital. The claim couldn't be independently verified. Militia clashes are not uncommon in Tripoli. Last month, at least 13 people were killed in militia fighting. In May, Bashagha attempted to install his government in Tripoli, triggering clashes that ended with his withdrawal from the city. © 2022 npr Link to article: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/27/1119818207/libya-militias-clashes-tripoli

Source: Flickr JAKARTA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Authorities in Indonesia's Papua region have detained six army officers and launched an investigation into their alleged involvement in the brutal killing of four civilians last week, military officials said on Monday. Teguh Muji Angkasa, a senior military officer in Papua, told a televised news briefing the military and police would conduct a joint investigation. "We have been given the order to investigate the incident," said Teguh, "and if from the results of the investigation, soldiers were involved, they will be sternly sanctioned." The military is investigating the alleged involvement of six officers in thekilling of four victims, Lieutenant General Chandra W. Sukotjo told Reuters. The victims had been looking to buy weapons from the military officers on Aug. 22 before the deal went awry, he said. Papua police said in a statement that the victims' bodies were mutilated, stuffed into sacks and thrown into a river near the city of Timika. Authorities have not named the suspects. Indonesia maintains a heavy military presence in Papua, where small groups of separatist fighters have for decades waged a low-level, but increasingly deadly battle for independence. The military has faced accusations of human rights abuses in Papua, which it has denied, but investigations into such allegations are rare. Sebby Sambom, spokesperson for the separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), called on the government to hold the perpetrators accountable or risk further violence. "If Indonesian President Joko Widodo does not immediately take responsibility, then the TPNPB together with the Papuan people will take revenge," Sambom said in a statement on Monday. Papua police said one of the victims was linked to TPNPB. Armed conflict in Papua has escalated significantly since 2018, with attacks by the TPNPB becoming deadlier and more frequent, a report by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) noted in July. That was largely due to the TPNPB acquiring more weapons by stealing from army posts or purchasing them illegally from rogue officers, IPAC said. © 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved

GENEVA (24 August 2022) – Five years after Myanmar forces began a genocidal attack against Rohingya men, women, and children in Rakhine State, a UN expert today urged the international community to redouble its efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and deliver justice to the Rohingya inside and outside Myanmar. “It is long past time for the entirety of the international community to call these attacks what they are – genocide. The Myanmar military has yet to be held to account for this ultimate crime,” said Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. “It is no wonder then that the military has had the audacity to imprison – and indeed execute – democracy and human rights advocates and elected leaders while engaging in yet more atrocity crimes against the people of Myanmar.” “It is critical that, once and for all, the international community hold the Myanmar military accountable for its atrocities,” Andrews said. Beginning late at night on 24 August 2017 and lasting for weeks, Myanmar forces planned and executed attacks that resulted in the widespread and targeted killing of Rohingya civilians including systematic sexual violence and the looting, burning, and razing of entire villages. Myanmar forces killed thousands of Rohingya and forced over 700,000 to flee for their lives into Bangladesh. The Special Rapporteur recalled that attacks against the Rohingya did not just happen in August 2017, but over many years. During fact-finding missions to Rakhine State prior to the 2017 attacks, Andrews said he witnessed the oppressive conditions Rohingya were living in and the denial of basic rights they had to endure. “I visited what is and what remains to this day, effectively a concentration camp or ghetto, where over 120,000 Rohingya are confined in Sittwe. I remember a man telling me that if the world would not help to free them from the camps, then to please bomb them as death would be preferable to the horrible conditions that he and his family were forced to endure,” the expert said. More than 1 million Rohingya survivors live in Bangladesh, in camps in Cox’s Bazaar and Bhasan Char. They are unable to return home, confined in cramped conditions often lacking security, and cannot pursue their livelihoods, the expert said. “The Rohingya in Bangladesh continue to live with the trauma of what they witnessed by the deaths of their loved ones, by the loss of their community, their homes, by the attempted destruction of their very identity,” Andrews said. He called on the international community to strengthen its support for the Rohingya who live in camps in Bangladesh through robust funding that ensures access to quality, inclusive humanitarian services, health care, and education until they can return home. Andrews said he was in awe of Rohingya survivors, activists, and human rights defenders who, despite their circumstances, were working together with international lawyers to creatively pursue justice in diverse jurisdictions including the International Court of Justice. The UN Special Rapporteur called for solidarity with the Rohingya through concrete action to support accountability and justice and to help to rebuild their lives. Andrews said that the Rohingya – both inside and outside of Myanmar – need and deserve international support. “The international community must do its part and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court without delay and put maximum pressure on this criminal military through economic and diplomatic means,” the Special Rapporteur said. OHCHR-UN Special Procedures - Human Rights (c) 2022