Region

DUBAI — Yemeni government troops took control Saturday of the city of Ataq, two days after deadly clashes between loyalists and southern separatists in the capital of Shabwa province, a pro-government source said.

Fighting between the troops and forces linked to the Southern Transitional Council (STC) broke out in Shabwa on Thursday night, in the latest such confrontation

At least 11 people have been killed, medical sources told AFP. 

Fighters from the Elite Forces — established in 2016 with the support of the United Arab Emirates — "were forced to retreat after entering a number of government buildings" in Ataq, the source told AFP. 

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said the government troops took control of one of the Elite Forces' military camps.

"Fighting between the two sides has moved to the outskirts of the city," added the source.

The two have sent reinforcements to the area, the rival sides said on Saturday.

The flare-up in Shabwa comes after deadly clashes earlier this month between the government and troops from the so-called Security Belt, who are dominated by separatists seeking an independent south, erupted in Yemen's de-facto capital Aden.

The STC partially withdrew last week from key sites it occupied in Aden under pressure from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but it retains control of key military sites. 

The STC has since driven government troops out of two military camps in Abyan province.

The separatists have received Emirati support and training, despite the UAE being a key pillar in the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government against Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

The Yemeni government accused the UAE of “being responsible for the armed rebellion” and urged it to stop backing “this militia”. 

While they have also fought against the Houthis in a year-long war, STC forces want to see South Yemen regain the independence it gave up with unification in 1990.

Analysts say the break between Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s internationally-recognised government and the separatists reflects a wider rift between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

BEIRUT — Regime forces massed on Saturday in northwest Syria, a monitor said, in an apparent bid to press an offensive against rebels that has heightened tensions with neighbouring Turkey.

After eight years of civil war, the terrorist-run region of Idlib on the Turkish border is one of the last to escape the Damascus government's control.

Backed by Russia, Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have chipped away at the south of the stronghold in recent weeks after months of deadly bombardment.

On Wednesday, they seized the key town of Khan Sheikhun from rebels, and on Friday overran the countryside to the south of the town, encircling a Turkish observation post there.

On Saturday, loyalist fighters gathered north of Khan Sheikhun, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The day after they controlled the area south of Khan Sheikhun, regime forces are massing in the area north of it," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based monitoring group, told AFP.

They are "preparing to continue their advance towards the area of Maaret Al Noman", a town some 25 kilometres to the north, he said.

Car bomb 

That area has come under intense Russian and regime aerial bombardment and been depleted of almost all of its residents in the past two weeks, the observatory says.

On Saturday, heavy bombardment hit the region in an apparent preparation for a further push north, Abdel Rahman said.

An AFP correspondent saw thick grey smoke billow up into a clear blue sky after a strike on the outskirts of Maaret Al Noman.

After Khan Sheikhun, Maaret Al Noman is the next town on a key highway running across Idlib province that analysts say is coveted by the regime.

Full government control of that road would allow it to connect the capital Damascus with second city Aleppo, retaken from opposition fighters in late 2016.

Also Saturday, a car bomb in Idlib city killed two people, the observatory said, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Turkish troops have been deployed at a dozen points around the Idlib region of some 3 million people, in an attempt to set up a buffer zone to protect the area.

A deal between Russia and rebel backer Turkey signed in September last year sought to set up the demilitarised area to avert an all-out regime assault, but militants refused to withdraw.

Moscow meeting 

In January, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham — an alliance led by Syria's former Al Qaeda affiliate — took full control of the region.

Russian and regime bombardment since late April has killed around 900 people, the observatory says.

A further 400,000 have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

Assad adviser Buthaina Shaaban on Friday accused Turkey of "turning the observation points into spots for transporting weapons and occupying a part of our land".

Also on Friday Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu denied the observation post in Morek had been surrounded and vowed that his country's troops would not withdraw from the position.

On Monday, regime air planes targeted a rebel vehicle leading a Turkish military convoy down the main highway in the direction of Morek.

It remained there on Saturday, an AFP reporter said.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to visit Moscow on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

They and their Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani — a supporter of the Damascus regime — are also to convene in Ankara on September 16.

Syria's war has killed more than 370,000 people since starting with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

TUNIS — Media magnate Nabil Karoui remains in the race for Tunisia's upcoming presidential election despite his arrest for alleged money laundering, the head of the country's electoral commission said on Saturday.

Karoui, one of 26 presidential candidates given preliminary approval this month to run in the September 15 election, was arrested on Friday, his party said. 

A judicial official said an arrest warrant had been issued for Karoui and his brother Ghazi for money laundering.

"Nabil Karoui is still a candidate and his name remains on the preliminary and definite list of candidates who are vying to become Tunisia's next president, " electoral commission head Nabil Baffoun said

"Following his arrest... as long as there are no changes in his legal status... he remains a presidential candidate," Baffoun told the private Mosaique FM radio station.

According to Baffoun, even candidacies of convicted individuals in Tunisia are accepted so long as the verdict against them does not specifically say they are banned from running in an election.

The tycoon was charged with money laundering in early July shortly after stating his intention to stand in the polls, but has remained a leading candidate.

His party, Qalb Tounes, announced his arrest the same day that authorities declared a ban on three local outlets — including Karoui's Nessma TV — from reporting on the election campaign over unlicensed "illegal" broadcasts.

On Saturday, the party alleged Prime Minister Youssef Chahed was behind the arrest, but said it would only serve to promote Karoui's campaign.

"We are making a direct accusation against Youssef Chahed and his gang of having orchestrated this arrest," a Qalb Tounes (Heart of Tunisia) senior official, Iyadh Elloumi, told a news conference.

He said such "degrading and dictatorial practises" would only serve as "free publicity" for Karoui.

The party leader has been accused by regulators and some politicians of using Nessma to bolster his political ambitions. 

He was nearly removed from the race in June when parliament passed an amended electoral code that would bar any candidate who handed out "favours in cash or in kind" in the year before the vote.

But then-president Beji Caid Essebsi neither rejected nor enacted the bill, leaving the door open for Karoui to run.

Essebsi died last month at the age of 92. 

ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host his Russian and Iranian counterparts for a summit on Syria in Ankara on September 16, the presidential spokesman said.

"The president will host a three-way summit with the participation of Russia and Iran in Ankara," spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said late Wednesday.

The announcement of the meeting between President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Erdogan comes at a time when the Syrian army made advances into the last extremists' stronghold of Idlib in Syria's northwest. 

Kalin said there was “no question” of moving one of its 12 observation posts in Idlib, despite it being cut off from the rest of the province by the advance of the Syrian army this week. 

“The ninth observation post remains in its place. All the other observation posts foreseen or put in place under the Idlib agreement will continue to operate where they are,” Kalin said. 

He was referring to a buffer zone agreement signed between Russia and Turkey last year that was supposed to protect Idlib from a government offensive. 

The three presidents will discuss Idlib at next month’s meeting, as well as the establishment of a constitution commission and how the political process should continue, Kalin said.

Their last meeting was in February and the September event will be the fifth summit between Putin, Rouhani and Erdogan since November 2017.

Kalin said Erdogan would speak on the phone with Putin in the coming days, adding that preparations were being made for another call with US President Donald Trump.

Damascus said on Thursday it is opening a corridor for civilians to leave the opposition-held north-western region of Idlib.

The announcement came a day after government forces recaptured the strategic Idlib province town of Khan Sheikhun from extremists and allied rebels.

Damascus has opened such corridors out of rebel bastions in the past as a prelude to retaking them either by force or through negotiated surrenders.

The Idlib region, which sits on the Turkish border has been ruled since January by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, which is led by extremists from Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate.

“The Syrian government announces the opening of a humanitarian corridor in Souran in the northern countryside of Hama province,” state news agency SANA quoted a foreign ministry source as saying. 

The corridor will be used to evacuate “civilians who want to leave areas controlled by terrorists in northern Hama and the southern countryside of Idlib”, it added.

The government said it would provide shelter, food and medical care for civilians who chose to leave the region.

RAMALLAH, Palestine — The Palestinian Authority (PA), in deep financial crisis since Israel froze tax transfers in February, said Thursday it had accepted a partial payment of just over half a billion dollars.

"An agreement was reached a few days ago with the Israeli side for transferring duties on oil and fuel which the Palestinian Authority bought in Israel to the amount of around [$568 million]," Civil Affairs Minister Hussein Al-Sheikh told AFP.

Israel in February decided to withhold around $10 million a month from revenues of some $190 million per month it collects on the PA's behalf, triggering Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to say he would accept either all or nothing.

The deduction corresponds to what Israel says the PA paid Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, or their families.

Prisoners who have carried out attacks on Israelis are among those receiving the payments, and Israel says the policy encourages further violence.

Abbas accused Israel of blackmail and insisted on the full amount, which accounts for around 65 per cent of PA revenues.

The money comes from customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports.

On Monday, President Abbas fired all of his advisers amid a financial crisis in the occupied West Bank that has prompted deep salary cuts.

Palestinians view prisoners as fighting against Israel's occupation and say the tax funds support families that have lost their main breadwinners.

The PA has cut salaries for most of its tens of thousands of employees by half to keep the government afloat.

On top of the tax dispute with Israel, the United States has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Palestinians via various programmes.

KHARTOUM — Sudan's first ever women's club football league will start next month, a federation official told AFP on Wednesday.

The championship, which will involve 18 clubs separated in three regions, would have seemed unlikely only a year ago when Islamist general Omar Al Bashir was still in power.

"The women's football league will start in the first week of September," Mirvat Hussein, the top federation official in charge of women's football, told AFP.

She said a national team was also in the works to represent Sudan in international events.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has no continental cup for women's club football yet.

The announcement came on the same day as the swearing in of a joint military-civilian Sovereign Council in Sudan.

The body replaces a military council that took over in April when Bashir was forced from power by months of relentless protests.

In what was seen as a significant advance, the 11-member ruling council, two of the six civilians on the council are women.

Many Sudanese have voiced the hope that the three-year transition will see more liberal policies implemented across the country, including measures to advance freedom of speech and women's rights and promote sport and arts.

Speaking during a training session with her club Tahadi, 22-year-old Rayan Ibrahim Rajab said a women's league would have been unlikely just a year ago.

"In the past, it was difficult for women to play football, there were many complications that prevented women from participating," she said.

"Now everybody is looking for a new reality and has new ambitions," Rajab added.

Sudan joined FIFA in 1948 and established the CAF along with Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa.