Region

ALGIERS — Protesters filled the streets of Algeria's capital Tuesday, defying calls for a day of mourning for the deceased army chief seen as the guardian of the system they want dismantled.

Powerful military chief of staff Ahmed Gaid Salah died of a heart attack at age 79 on Monday, and newly-sworn in president Abdelmadjid Tebboune called for three days of mourning.

Nonetheless, students and other protesters held their regular Tuesday demonstration as they have every week since February, when protests broke out in the North African country against the political system in place since Algeria's 1962 independence from France.

Gaid Salah was seen as Algeria's de facto strongman following the April resignation of longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the face of mass demonstrations sparked by his bid for a fifth term.

The army chief's funeral will be held on Wednesday, the presidency said, adding that his body would be interred at Al Alia cemetery in western Algiers, the final resting place of other presidents and senior Algerian figures.

Previous protests had slammed Gaid Salah, particularly in the lead-up to a December 12 presidential election rejected by protesters who demanded deep-rooted political reforms before any poll.

On Monday, however, there were no slogans or placards directly targeting Gaid Salah.

"We are not against one person, but against a system," said biology student Kahina, 22.

"We agreed that there would be no anti-Gaid slogans or signs out of respect for the dead."

Some onlookers considered it "shameful" to protest despite the mourning period.

“It goes against our values, we must respect mourning,” said Amine, 27, who added that he has taken part in most of the major weekly Friday demonstrations held since February 22.

But many students protesting told AFP that the death of Gaid Salah changed nothing for the movement.

Demonstrations have continued since the election of Tabboune, with protesters rejecting his invitation for dialogue and his vow to appoint young ministers and push for a new constitution.

Rumours had circulated ahead of the Tuesday march that the student protest would be cancelled, and fewer people appeared to have turned out for the rally.

The police presence was lighter as well, with the march progressing peacefully before it was dispersed by security forces in the early afternoon.

MAARET AL NUMAN, Syria — At least eight people were killed on Tuesday in Russian air strikes on northwest Syria, as France and Turkey appealed for an end to violence that has forced tens of thousands to flee.

Heightened regime and Russian bombardment has hit the militant-held province of Idlib since mid-December, as regime forces make steady advances on the ground despite an August ceasefire and UN calls for a de-escalation.

Nearly 80 civilians have been killed by air strikes and artillery attacks over the same period, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which estimates that more than 40,000 people have been displaced in recent weeks.

"These attacks should come to an end immediately," Turkey said on Tuesday after sending a delegation to Moscow to discuss the flare-up.

Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara was pressing for a new ceasefire to replace the August agreement.

The French foreign ministry called for "an immediate de-escalation".

"The military offensive by the Damascus regime and its allies is worsening the humanitarian crisis" in Idlib, it said in a statement.

Tuesday's strikes targeted the village of Jubass near the town of Saraqeb in southern Idlib, killing civilians sheltering in a school and nearby, said the Britain-based observatory, which has a network of contacts across Syria.

The site of the attack was strewn with destroyed tents and smoking debris, said an AFP correspondent there.

Standing amid the wreckage, Hassan — who has been living in the informal settlement — said he was trying to leave when the attack happened.

"As we were packing the car an air strike hit us," he said.

 Ground assault 

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF on Tuesday condemned the violence in Syria's last major opposition bastion.

"Children are bearing the brunt of intensifying violence in northwest Syria," it said in a statement.

The escalation came as Damascus loyalists advanced on the ground.

Since Thursday, regime forces have taken control of dozens of towns and villages in southern Idlib following battles with fighters.

The clashes have killed 260 fighters on both sides, according to the observatory.

Regime forces are now less than four kilometres from the strategic city of Maaret Al Numan, observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Syrian army said it has seized 320 sq.km from its rivals in recent days.

It pledged to continue its push until it recaptures all of Idlib, calling on civilians to exit areas under terrorists’ control.

But fearing further regime advances from the south, thousands of Maaret Al Numan's residents have fled northwards towards the Turkish border.

"I didn't expect to have to leave," said Abu Ahmad, poking his head out of the pick-up truck driving him and his family towards a camp for the displaced.

"This is my home, this is where I grew up," the father of ten told AFP.

'Life-saving assistance' 

Idlib is dominated by the country's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham.

The head of the group urged fighters and allied rebels Tuesday to head to the frontlines and battle "the Russian occupiers" and the regime.

Their "ferocious" campaign "requires us to exert more effort", said HTS chief Abu Mohammed Al Jolani in a statement by his group's propaganda arm.

The region hosts some three million people, including many displaced by years of violence in other parts of Syria.

The Damascus regime, which now controls 70 per cent of Syria, has repeatedly vowed to take back the area.

Backed by Moscow, Damascus launched a blistering offensive against Idlib in April.

The latest spike in violence comes after Russia and China on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended for a year cross-border aid deliveries to 4 million Syrians, many of them in Idlib.

The move raised fears that vital UN-funded assistance could stop entering opposition-held parts of Syria from January unless an alternative agreement is reached.

France on Tuesday called on member states of the UN Security Council, namely Russia and China, to renew the resolution.

"It is more imperative than ever for the United Nations to maintain the most direct and effective access to populations in need through preserving cross-border assistance," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

To help civilians in Syria's northwest, it said it has released additional emergency aid of just over 5 million euros to the UN cross-border humanitarian fund based in the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

Syria's war has killed over 370,000 people and displaced millions since beginning in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

KARBALA, Iraq — Anger over Iran's stranglehold on Baghdad's political system has helped propel an unprecedented protest movement — and now Iraqi activists are hitting the Islamic Republic where it hurts, with a goods boycott.

Tehran has held enormous sway over its neighbour since Saddam Hussein was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2003.

And that influence has spilled over into the commercial arena, with exports from Iran to Iraq ten times those moving in the opposite direction.

Using the slogan "let them rot", protesters who have taken to the streets since October 1 to demand wholesale political change are now shunning everything Iranian — from fruit to sugary drinks.

For 24-year-old protester Hatem Karim, the boycott kills two birds with one stone.

"It allows us to create jobs for Iraqis and means our money stays in the country", he told AFP.

There are even hopes the boycott could help revive domestic industry, battered by forty years of intermittent war, a decade of sanctions under Saddam and ineffectual policy since the invasion.

"We must boycott all foreign goods to support our own national production", Karim urged.

Impromptu open air markets at protest encampments have stands offering "Made in Iraq" goods to patriotic consumers, in a country where one in four young people are jobless.

Uphill struggle 

Only Turkey exports more to Iraq than Iran, which sends products including cars, dairy and fresh produce, amounting to a total annual value of around $9 billion (8.1 billion euros).

Iraq is the OPEC cartel's second biggest oil producer, but more than half of all hydrocarbon revenues have been syphoned off by crooked politicians and their cronies under recent administrations.

The private sector is almost non-existent and industry is on its knees, with the non-oil trade balance in heavy deficit.

Numerous factories that shut during the 1990s trade embargo or because of war — the latest devastating conflict came against Daesh from 2014 to late 2017 — have simply never re-opened.

Iraqi factories lack the capacity to supply national demand, warns economist Ahmad Tabaqchali at the Institute of Regional and International Studies in Sulaymaniyah.

"Either they are too small, or they are not profitable", because there is no private sector ro cover the basic needs of 40 million Iraqis.

Local producers are demanding the state drastically increase import taxes to protect them.

They complain they cannot compete with Iran, whose exports have received support from a currency that has been in free-fall since the US reimposed sanctions last year.

 'Made in Iraq' 

But the young protesters are determined to direct their apparently boundless energy into changing all that.

They have launched Facebook groups and film adverts for locally produced fizzy drinks with sparkling studio quality.

"We want a renaissance at all levels, including trade", says one protester.

In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, some 100 kilometres  south of Baghdad, Bassem Zakri looks at yoghurts and white cheeses leaving his factory's production line.

The increasingly revered words "Made in Iraq" appear on each pot.

Production has increased five-fold since the start of the protests on October 1, reaching forty tonnes per day, he said.

One shopper in a supermarket in central Baghdad sees progress.

"Before, Iraqi products were always the most expensive, but now the price of some goods has more than halved," he told AFP.

Yet, while the boycott may gain momentum, Iranian firms may already be employing inventive ways to skirt it, according to one activist.

GAZA CITY — With a shining tree, tinsel and Santa miniatures, Hanadi Missak's apartment is all ready for Christmas, yet she still feels sad about spending the holiday at home.

The 48-year-old is one of hundreds of Christian Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who applied for Israeli permission to travel to Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Church leaders say the normally straightforward process has this year been incredibly difficult, with only around one in five applications granted.

With time running out until the celebrations begin, Missak had given up on travelling.

"I was hoping to go to Bethlehem, but the circumstances did not allow it," Missak, who is deputy principal at a Christian school in Gaza, told AFP.

"There is the real celebration — the prayers, decorations in all the streets and the church," she said.

"The midnight mass is wonderful."

There are barely more than 1,000 Christians in all of Gaza, where two million people live crammed into a territory only 40 kilometres long and a few wide.

It is geographically separated from the West Bank — the Palestinian territory where Bethlehem is located — by Israel, and crossing between them requires hard-to-get Israeli permits.

A few hundred Gazan Christians have traditionally been granted permits to attend Christmas festivities in Bethlehem and Jerusalem each year.

This year, Israel initially didn't announce any permits, prompting criticism from church groups and media.

On Sunday, a statement from COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for the permits, said some would be granted "in accordance with security assessments".

Gaza is ruled by the Islamist group Hamas, which Israel accuses of abusing the permit system to plan attacks against its citizens.

Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to and spokesman for church leaders in the Holy Land, told AFP Monday that out of 951 applications so far, 192 had been granted.

“We still hope there will be more to come. We were promised by many Israeli bodies... but Christmas begins tomorrow,” he said.

“We are saying this is a basic human right that should be respected.”

Missak said she had travelled to the West Bank multiple times before for Christmas and didn’t know why the permit hadn’t been granted this year.

COGAT did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding the number of permits awarded or Missak’s case.

AFP reached out to a number of Palestinians from Gaza who were able to leave the enclave, but none wished to speak out of fear they would jeopardise future chances of getting permits.

Nabil Al Salfiti and his wife Fatten were among those lucky enough to receive permits, but ultimately decided not to travel when their son’s application was denied.

They also cited financial constraints for their decision.

Israel maintains a crippling blockade of Gaza it says is necessary to isolate Hamas.

Local authorities in Gaza used to hold a large celebration for Christmas, but it was stopped after Hamas seized control in 2007.

“People come offer us congratulations and we offer congratulations to them,” Fatten said, but, he added: “There is not much joy — the real joy is in Bethlehem where Christ was born.”

Despite not travelling this year, Missak is determined to enjoy Christmas.

Hanging on the wall in her apartment is a stitched “Merry Christmas” sign, while the bannisters are covered in fake holly.

Missak said Muslim friends and neighbours would pass by the house to take part in the festivities.

“Despite all the misery in Gaza, I try to make joy and celebrate Christmas.”

ALGIERS — Algeria's powerful army chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah died of a heart attack at age 79 on Monday, threatening to deepen the country's political crisis at the end of a turbulent year.

Gaid Salah was seen as Algeria's de facto strongman following the April resignation of longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the face of massive protests against his bid for a fifth term.

"The deputy defence minister and chief of staff of the army died Monday morning of a heart attack," the presidency said in a statement read out on state news channel
Algeria 3.

The general died at home of a heart attack at about 6:00am (0500 GMT) before his body was transferred to a military hospital, the statement said. 

The lifelong military man had made his last public appearance on Thursday at the swearing-in of new president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was seen as close to Gaid Salah.

At Thursday’s ceremony, Gaid Salah was also awarded the rank of “Sadr” in Algeria’s National Order of Merit, an honour normally reserved for heads of state.

As chief of the military for a record 15 years and a veteran of Algeria’s war for independence from France, the general was seen as the guardian of the military-dominated system that has been in power since.

When Bouteflika appointed him in 2004 to head the armed forces — the backbone of Algeria’s opaque regime — he became one of the north African country’s most powerful men.

He loyally supported Bouteflika for years until the president’s February announcement that he would run for reelection sparked unprecedented protests by the youth-led “Hirak” movement.

In early April, Gaid Salah called on his boss to resign. Bouteflika quit the same day, leaving the armed forces chief effectively in charge of the country.

But the old soldier categorially rejected the Hirak movement’s key demands: Deep reforms, the establishment of transitional institutions and the dismantling of the military-dominated regime.

His death comes as huge numbers of Algerians have continued protesting after Tebboune’s appointment as president, rejecting his call to engage in dialogue.

Gaid Salah was born in 1940 in Batna region, some 300 kilometres southwest of Algiers, and spent more than six decades in the armed forces.

At the age of 17, he joined Algeria’s National Liberation Army in its gruelling eight-year war against French colonial forces.

When the country won independence in 1962 after 132 years as a French colony, he joined the army, attended a Soviet military academy and rose through the ranks.

Gaining a reputation for a hot temper, he commanded several regions before becoming chief of Algeria’s land forces at the height of a decade-long civil war pitting the regime against Islamist insurgents.

In 2004, as he hit retirement age, he was picked by Bouteflika to replace overall chief of staff Mohamed Lamari, who had opposed the president’s quest for a second mandate.

Tebboune on Monday appointed land forces commander Gen. Said Chengriha as interim military chief of staff, Algeria 3 reported.

He also declared three days of national mourning.