BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Friday denied that five men accused by a military tribunal of killing an Irish UN peacekeeper in 2022 were linked to the armed Shiite group.
A court document filed on Thursday had identified some of the five as members of Hezbollah and allied movement Amal, according to a senior Lebanese judicial source.
Hezbollah media official Mohammad Afif said the five accused were not members of the group, which controls the part of southern Lebanon where last year’s attack took place, and also denied that the indictment had described them as Hezbollah members.
Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed on Dec. 15 in the first fatal attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon since 2015.
Afif said Hezbollah had played a big role after the killing in reducing tensions and in local people’s cooperation with the army and judicial investigation.
His comments are the first by a Hezbollah official since Thursday’s reported indictment. The Amal Movement, which is headed by Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, has so far declined to comment.
The judicial source had said evidence was drawn from camera recordings in which the accused refer to themselves as members of Hezbollah. A second judicial source confirmed that camera evidence was mentioned in the 30-page court document.
Hezbollah has previously denied involvement in the killing, calling it an “unintentional incident” that took place solely between the town’s residents and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says not linked to accused in UNIFIL peacekeeper killing
https://arab.news/766xr
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says not linked to accused in UNIFIL peacekeeper killing
US Central Command forces capture Daesh official in Syria after helicopter raid
- No civilians were killed or injured during the operation, the statement said
DAMASCUS: The United States Central Command on Monday said its forces had captured a Daesh official after conducting a helicopter raid in northern Syria on Saturday.
“Abu Halil Al-Fad’ani, an Daesh Syria Operational and Facilitation official, was captured during the raid. Al-Fad’ani was assessed to have relationships throughout the Daesh network in the region,” the US Central Command said in a statement.
Troy Garlock, a spokesperson for the US Central Command, said: “The capture of Daesh officials like Al-Fad’ani increases our ability to locate, target, and remove terrorists from the battlefield.”
No civilians were killed or injured during the operation, the statement said.
Japan is committed to supporting COP28, Kishida tells UAE Special Envoy
- Japanese PM asks Al-Jaber for UAE’s help in stabilizing the crude oil market and increasing production
TOKYO: Sultan Al-Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Special Envoy of the United Arab Emirates to Japan, met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Monday and expressed his expectations for Japan’s contributions to the COP28 conference on the environment.
Al-Jaber is also the President-Designate of COP28, which will take place in the United Arab Emirates from November 30 to December 12.
The prime minister stated that Japan is fully committed to making efforts to contribute to the success of COP28. Both sides confirmed that they will work closely towards making COP28 a success, according to a statement by the foreign ministry.
Kishida expressed his appreciation for the UAE’s stable supply of crude oil to Japan and working with Japanese companies in the same field. He asked Al-Jaber for UAE’s help in stabilizing the crude oil market and increasing production.
Both sides exchanged views on cooperation between Japan and the UAE towards overall stabilization of the international oil market. They also discussed the “Japan-UAE Innovation Partnership” and the “Global Green Energy Hub” concept covered during Kishida’s July visit to the UAE.
Kishida welcomed the convening of the First Ministerial Level Meeting of the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Initiative (CSPI)” held between Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Al-Jaber and stated that Japan attaches great importance to the strategic partnership with the UAE.
Kishida said he looks forward to further cooperation with the UAE in various fields, and Al-Jaber expressed his renewed hopes for strengthening bilateral relations with Japan.
One dead, four injured in incident at Iran’s Bandar Abbas refinery -state news
- The incident did not impact production at the refinery, which is one of Iran’s largest
DUBAI: One person has died and four others were injured in an incident at Iran’s southern refinery of Bandar Abbas last week, Iranian state media reported on Monday.
The Iranian Oil Ministry’s Shana news agency said the incident occurred late on Sept. 22 during emergency repairs, adding that five maintenance workers were hurt, with one worker since dying of their injuries.
“During the emergency repair operation in one of the process units of this refinery, five people were injured, and one of the injured died on Monday,” an official from Bandar Abbas refinery told state media.
The incident did not impact production at the refinery, which is one of Iran’s largest, Shana added.
Egypt to hold presidential election Dec 10-12
- President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi widely expected to win reelection
CAIRO: Egypt will hold a presidential vote on December 10-12, election officials said Monday, at a time the Arab world’s most populous country is mired in a painful economic crisis.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, a former army chief in power for nearly a decade, has yet to formally announce his candidacy, but state-aligned media has already published messages of support from pro-government entities.
El-Sisi, 68, was first elected in 2014 and then won a 2018 vote.
Only two other candidates have so far declared their intention to run this time, including opposition politician Ahmed Al-Tantawi.
Farid Zahran, president of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, has also announced his intention to run.
The election had initially been expected in the spring of 2024.
The vote will be held “on December 10, 11 and 12,” said National Election Authority chairman Judge Walid Hassan Hamza.
Hopefuls can apply from October, with the candidate list to be finalized by November 9. The campaign period runs until November 29 and the winner will be announced on December 18.
Egypt has battled its worst-ever economic crisis since early last year.
The currency has lost half its value since March 2022 in a series of devaluations that have sent up consumer prices in the import-dependent economy.
Last year, the International Monetary Fund approved a $3 billion loan for Egypt conditioned on “a permanent shift to a flexible exchange rate regime.”
The government has kept the exchange rate pegged at around 31 Egyptian pounds to the dollar since January.
But prices have continued to skyrocket as a parallel currency market surged amid a severe foreign exchange shortage.
Annual inflation reached an all-time high for the third month in a row in August, hitting 39.7 percent.
El-Sisi’s government has announced a series of social protection measures and raises to the minimum wage in attempts to cushion the economic blow.
Iraqi torture victims still waiting for US compensation, two decades after invasion
- No evidence found that the US government paid any compensation or other redress to victims of detainee abuse in Iraq, nor issued any individual apologies
LONDON: The US government has apparently failed to compensate Iraqis who were tortured or abused two decades after evidence surfaced that US forces mistreated inmates at prisons they ran in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
About 100,000 Iraqis were detained by the US and its coalition allies between 2003 and 2009 after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
HRW and other organzations documented torture and other abuse by US forces in Iraq. Survivors of abuse have given accounts of the treatment they suffered, but have received little recognition from the US government and no compensation.
“Twenty years on, Iraqis who were tortured by US personnel still have no clear path for filing a claim or receiving any kind of redress or recognition from the US government,” said the Washington director at HRW, Sarah Yager.
“US officials have indicated that they prefer to leave torture in the past, but the long-term effects of torture are still a daily reality for many Iraqis and their families,” Yager said.
Between April and July 2023, HRW interviewed a former detainee at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison called Taleb Al-Majli and three anonymous people with knowledge of his detention, and condition after his release.
He claims to be one of the men in a photograph that was circulated widely showing a group of naked, hooded prisoners on top of one another in a human pyramid, while two US soldiers smiled behind them.
“Two American soldiers, one male and one female, ordered us to strip naked. They piled us prisoners on top of each other. I was one of them,” Al-Majli said.
Al-Majli said that US forces detained him while he was visiting relatives in Anbar province in 2003 during a round-up of old men and boys in the village he was staying in.
After being held for a few days at Habbaniya military base and at an unknown location in Iraq, US forces moved Al-Majli to Abu Ghraib prison.
“It was then the torture started. They took away our clothes. They mocked us constantly while we were blindfolded with hoods over our heads. We were completely powerless. I was tortured by police dogs, sound bombs, live fire and water hoses,” he said.
HRW said his story of detention at Abu Ghraib is credible and that Al-Majli presented corroborating evidence, including a prisoner identity card with his full name, inmate number and cell block, which he said US forces issued him at Abu Ghraib after taking his photo, iris scan and fingerprints.
Al-Majli also showed the organization a letter he obtained in 2013 from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, a governmental body with the mandate to protect and promote human rights in Iraq, confirming his detention at Abu Ghraib prison, including his date of arrest, and listing the same inmate number as his prisoner identity card.
For two decades, he has sought compensation and an apology for the abuse he was subjected to. He sought help from the Iraqi Bar Association and the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights but they could not assist. He said that he did not know how to contact the US military and raise a claim.
HRW wrote to the US Department of Defense in June 2023 outlining Al-Majli’s case and requesting information on compensation for survivors of torture in Iraq. No response was received.
“The US secretary of defense and attorney general should investigate allegations of torture and other abuse of people detained by the US abroad during counterinsurgency operations linked to its ‘Global War on Terrorism,’” Yager said.
“US authorities should initiate appropriate prosecutions against anyone implicated, whatever their rank or position. The US should provide compensation, recognition and official apologies to survivors of abuse and their families,” she said.
The organization has found no evidence that the US government has paid any compensation or other redress to victims of detainee abuse in Iraq, nor has the US issued any individual apologies or made other amends.
