Region

NASIRIYAH — One protester was killed on Monday in Iraq's southern city of Nasiriyah after university security guards opened fire on demonstrators trying to block the campus entrance, medical sources told AFP.

Desperate to keep up their anti-government movement, which appears to be fading after more than four months, a group of protesters had briefly shut down several campuses in the city.

More than 540 Iraqis have been killed in protest-related violence since the rallies erupted, according to a recent toll by the Iraqi Human Rights Commission. 

Last week, Iraq's interior minister ordered reinforcements to deploy at schools, universities and public offices to ensure they reopen in full after prolonged sit-ins by protesters.

Their rallies demanding the ouster of the entire governing class broke out in October and have mainly relied on civil disobedience tactics to put pressure on authorities, which have however resisted any profound reforms. 

As schools and roads reopen, the numbers in protest squares across the country have dwindled but students have sought to maintain momentum with regular marches.

They have opposed the nomination of Mohammad Allawi as Iraq's new premier, slamming the two-time communications minister as too close to the political elite they have been demonstrating against for months.

Allawi has until March 2 to form a government, which will have to be approved by a parliamentary vote. 

QAMINAS, Syria — Syrian army artillery killed five Turkish soldiers in Idlib Monday, Turkey's defence ministry said, as the number of people displaced by violence in the region neared 700,000 since December.

The barrage also wounded five soldiers in the violence-plagued northwest, prompting the Turkish military to respond by "destroying targets", the defence ministry added.

The exchange was the second in eight days and took place in the area of Taftanaz, which was recently reinforced by Turkey, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Monday's incident comes a week after earlier army shelling killed eight Turkish soldiers, prompting a deadly response by the Turkish army.

The clashes are further straining relations between Damascus and Ankara, while also increasing tension between Russia and Turkey — the conflict's chief foreign protagonists.

Syrian government forces have pressed a blistering assault against the last major rebel bastion in Syria's northwest for more than two months. 

Violence in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo has displaced 689,000 people, said David Swanson, spokesman for the United Nation's humanitarian coordination office, OCHA.

"The number of people being displaced in this crisis is now spiralling out of control," he told AFP on Monday.

The exodus is one of the largest of the nine-year civil war and risks creating one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the conflict.

It has sparked alarm from rebel backer Turkey which already hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees and fears another influx.

Turkey's defence ministry said the troops targeted on Monday had been sent "as reinforcement to the region with an aim to prevent clashes in Idlib, ensure our border security, and stop migration and human tragedy".

Turkish reinforcements 

Since Friday, large convoys of vehicles carrying commandos, tanks and howitzer artillery pieces have reinforced 12 Turkish military posts in Idlib installed by Ankara under a 2018 deal with Russia to stave off a army offensive.

But the agreement has failed to stop the government’s advance, with Turkey saying army forces have surrounded three of its outposts, despite repeated warnings against such a move.

Following the latest attack, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Defence Minister Hulusi Akar immediately met for talks, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported.

Fahrettin Altun, Erdogan’s top press aide, wrote on Twitter that “Turkey retaliated against the attack to destroy all enemy targets and [avenge] our fallen troops”.

He added: “The war criminal, who ordered today’s heinous attack, targeted the entire international community, not just Turkey.”

Erdogan has given Damascus until the end of the month to retreat from its outposts, and urged Russia to convince the army to halt its offensive.

A Russian delegation has been in Ankara for talks on Idlib since Saturday, with further meetings expected on Monday.

The two countries have worked closely together despite supporting opposing sides of the war.

Intensifying bombardment 

The escalation between Turkey and Damascus comes as intense bombardment by the army and Russia killed 29 civilians in less than 24 hours. 

Six children were among nine civilians killed early Monday in raids on the village of Abin Semaan, in Aleppo province where Russian-backed army forces have been waging a fierce offensive to retake a key highway, the observatory said.

At the site of the raids, a rescue worker carried a dead girl in a thick blanket, while one of her relatives pleaded for the body, said an AFP correspondent.

Volunteers shivering in near-freezing temperatures dug at mounds of rubble, rescuing a dust-covered man and a child who had been trapped beneath.

The latest air strikes follow a night of heavy bombardment by Russia and the army that had already killed at least 20 civilians in the neighbouring provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, according to the observatory.

Around half of Idlib province, along with slivers of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces remain outside government control.

Some 50,000 fighters are estimated to be in the shrinking pocket, including many jihadists from the dominant Hayat Tahrir Al Sham alliance but mostly their rebel allies, according to the observatory. 

Some three million people, half of them already displaced at least once by violence elsewhere in Syria, live in the area. 

BAGHDAD — A hardline Iraqi faction hanged effigies of US President Donald Trump in Baghdad on Monday, ahead of a memorial for their commander killed in a US strike.

On Tuesday, the Iraqi capital will commemorate 40 days since Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq's powerful Hashed Al Shaabi military network, was killed alongside top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

An official memorial service will be held in the morning in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, followed by a public commemoration.

In preparation, Kataeb Hizbollah — a hardline Hashed faction that Muhandis founded — erected mock gallows at the entrances to the massive eastern district of Sadr City.

Hanged in nooses were cut-outs of Trump with his tongue protruding and soldiers in US uniforms.

Enormous portraits of Muhandis and Soleimani were also erected elsewhere in the city.

"Our people hung the gallows in preparation for the 40-day memorial service," said an official from Kataeb Hizbollah, who declined to give his name.

Washington carried out a drone strike outside Baghdad International Airport in the early hours of January 3, hitting the two-car convoy in which Soleimani and Muhandis were travelling.

Trump authorised the strike against Soleimani but had not specifically targeted Muhandis, US officials said.

The Iraqi commander was picking up his longtime friend and mentor Soleimani, Iran's pointman on Iraqi affairs, who had just landed.

The strike took place just days after supporters of Kataeb Hizbollah besieged the US embassy in the Green Zone in a rare breach of security for the enclave.

The US embassy in Baghdad issued an alert to its citizens on Monday not to approach the facility due to the risk of more demonstrations or rallies.

Following the US killing of Soleimani, Iran launched volleys of ballistic missiles on a western Iraqi base where US forces are stationed.

Some 5,200 American troops are still based in Iraq, leading the international coalition fighting militants.

The US strike so outraged Iraq's parliament that it swiftly voted to oust all foreign forces, a longstanding demand of the Hashed and its political arm, Fateh.

But there has not been a clear military response from the Hashed.

"Kataeb Hizbollah reserves the right to respond to the occupation and to force it out," said the group's spokesman Mohammad Mohye, adding that parliament's vote must be implemented.

Top Hashed commander Qais Al Khazali, who is blacklisted by the US, said: "We've agreed to postpone the military response and give the political route a chance."

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Israel on Sunday imposed a ban on Palestinian agricultural exports, in a move the Palestinians blasted as a "dangerous" escalation in a five-month trade war.

"Starting from today... export abroad of Palestinian agricultural product through the Allenby crossing will not be allowed," COGAT, the Israel defence ministry unit that oversees civilian activities in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement.

The Israeli-controlled Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank is the only route through which Palestinian goods can reach foreign markets.

Moein Ashtiyeh, a Palestinian farmer in the fertile Jordan Valley region, said he had 400 tonnes of dates set for export to Britain, Germany and Turkey, which he is currently unable to sell.

"If I can't export these dates, the Israeli action will cost me 10 million shekels ($2.9 million)," he told AFP.

The trade dispute has escalated since US President Donald Trump released his controversial Middle East plan last month, which has been rejected by the Palestinians as overwhelmingly pro-Israeli.

Last week, Israel’s defence ministry halted all imports of agricultural products from the West Bank to Israel, cutting the Palestinians off from a market that accounts for roughly two-thirds of their agricultural exports.

The Palestinian Authority responded by banning the import of Israeli produce, soft drinks and mineral water.

Palestinian Agriculture Minister Reyad Attari told AFP that Israel’s latest block on goods crossing the Allenby Bridge “violated all the agreements” between the two sides.

“It’s a very dangerous action,” he said.

COGAT stressed that its ban would be reversed “the moment the Palestinian Authority took back its decision to harm cattle trade with Israel and the free market”.

Palestinian economic analyst Nasser Abdel Karim told AFP that despite the rising tensions neither side is seeking a full-blown trade war.

Unrest in the West Bank has surged since Trump unveiled his controversial peace proposal and the Israelis want to avoid any further “outbursts of violence in the Palestinian territories and ensure calm”, Abdel Karim said.

Among the Palestinian leadership, “there is no will for economic confrontation,” he added.

But even if both sides are keen to avoid major economic hostilities, Palestinian vegetable producer Nasser Abdel Razek said he remained worried.

“This is potato and onion season,” he told AFP. “If I can’t export I will lose a lot of money.”

MAARET MISRIN, Syria — Exhausted from days of driving in search of shelter in northwest Syria, 38-year-old Ghossoon has no idea where her family will go after fleeing ongoing violence.

"Thank God we have this car to sleep in, even if it's not comfortable," she said, after parking the grey people-carrier by the side of the road.

"We've spent two nights in it so far," she said, sitting on a blanket and leaning back against the vehicle in Maaret Misrin, a town in Idlib province.

"This will be the third night. We'll stay in it again because we can't find anywhere else to go," she added.

By her side, Ghossoon's husband crouches with their baby daughter in his arms, while their young son, who is wrapped up in a winter coat, clutches a packet of plain biscuits.

The Syrian army has pounded Syria’s last major rebel bastion over the past two months, forcing more than 580,000 people from their homes and onto the roads.

In the extremist-ruled region of some three million people, entire families have headed north in cars piled high with blankets, chairs and pans as they seek to survive the winter.

But many are struggling to find protection from the cold along the Turkish border, which was closed by Ankara in response to waves of displacement earlier in Syria’s nine-year civil war.

‘More people 

than homes’ 

Ghossoon and her husband have stuffed warm blankets and pillows in the back of their car, while they have strapped large plastic woven mats to the roof.

“We went to the camps, but there wasn’t any space there,” Ghossoon said.

“We looked for a home but the rent was really expensive. Where am I supposed to find the money?”

The average monthly rent in Idlib’s northern countryside was around $150 per apartment before the latest wave of displacement; the few available are now priced as high as $350, according to an AFP correspondent.

On Wednesday, eight organisations called for an immediate ceasefire, describing the situation as a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

Bahia Zrikem from Humanity Inclusion said “there are simply more people than [there are] homes available”.

“Many of those who have fled are sleeping in their cars or camping by the side of the road.”

In a newly-established camp on the edge of Maaret Misrin, tents made available for newcomers are already packed.

Entire families are sleeping on the muddy floor, with carpets, mattresses, and household appliances stacked around them, an AFP correspondent said.

Designed to host 350 families, the camp is now brimming with more than 800, and people keep flooding in.

Mustafa Haj Ahmad arrived in the camp only days ago along with 30 relatives, including his wife and seven children.

The 40-year-old said he fled fighting near his hometown of Sarmin carrying nothing but clothes.

When he arrived in the camp, he couldn’t find a tent for his family.

“We have been sleeping under trees for the past two days,” he told AFP.

‘Roof over our heads’ 

Even though Mustafa can’t afford to rent a house closer to the Turkish border, he said he is determined to head there.

“We will sleep in the olive groves, I don’t know what else we can do.”

According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, displacement camps are at five times their capacity and rental prices have skyrocketed in towns in Syria’s northwest.

This has forced Alaa Aboud, 38, to relocate his family from northern Idlib to the provincial capital, only a few kilometres away from the frontline.

He now lives with his wife, five children, his two parents and his brother in an unfinished building in Idlib city.

The rudimentary cinderblock home doesn’t have windows or doors installed.

The floors don’t have tiles and the walls need painting.

A carpet and cushions are laid out on the floor.

“This place is better than others, at least we have a roof over our heads,” Alaa said.

“But if the roof is destroyed over us, then it would be better to live in the mud,” he added, fearing attacks on Idlib city.

Preparing for an eventual offensive on the city itself, he said he is looking for a plot of land further north, where he can pitch a tent.

But he said he hopes he won’t need it.

“May God spare us,” he said.

“We are tired.”

ADDIS ABABA — African leaders on Sunday condemned US President Donald Trump's Mideast peace plan as illegitimate, taking advantage of an African Union summit to voice solidarity with "the Palestinian cause".

AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat told assembled heads of state that the plan unveiled in late January represented the "umpteenth violation of multiple United Nations and African Union resolutions".

He said that it was prepared without international consultation and that it "trampled on the rights of the Palestinian people", a line that drew applause in the main hall at AU headquarters.

Trump's long-delayed peace proposals were immediately rejected by the Palestinians, who have boycotted his administration over its pro-Israel stance.

The proposals include giving Israel the green light to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank, the largest part of the territories the Palestinians see as their future state.

The outgoing AU chair, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, said in his remarks Sunday that "the Palestinian cause will always be in the hearts and minds of the people of Africa".

His successor, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, compared Trump's proposals to regulations in place during his country's apartheid period.

“As I listened to it and as I read everything that’s written about it, it brought to mind the horrible history that we in South Africa have gone through,” he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who regularly attends AU summits, did not travel to Ethiopia this year.

Palestinian officials said last week that Abbas was heading to the UN to push for a Security Council resolution condemning Trump’s peace proposals.

The resolution will almost certainly be vetoed by the US.

Abbas was represented on Sunday by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who reiterated Palestinian leaders’ position that the Trump plan “has no legitimacy whatsoever”.