Region

TRIPOLI — Heavy fighting raged in the Libyan capital on Saturday as eastern forces made a new push to advance inside the city controlled by the internationally recognised government.

The Libya National Army (LNA) force of Khalifa Haftar, who is allied to a parallel government in the east, started an offensive to take Tripoli almost two months ago but has not breached the city's southern defences.

The LNA made a new push on Saturday morning, trying to advance on a road from the former airport — located in a southern suburb — towards the centre but there was no sign of progress, residents said.

Fighting had slowed in recent weeks during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan when most people fast during the day until sunset.

The battle for Tripoli has killed at least 510 people, forced 75,000 out of their homes, trapped thousands of migrants in detention centres, and flattened some southern suburbs. It has also forced closures of schools, split families on different sides of the front line, and brought power cuts.

Two ambulance workers were killed and three wounded on Thursday when their ambulance cars were hit, the World Health Organisation said. It did not say who was resonsible.

The United Nations has been unable to negotiate a ceasefire. France has, like other European countries, called for a ceasefire but also supported Haftar as a way to fight militants in the country. 

On Wednesday, Haftar, meeting French President Emmanuel Macron, ruled out a ceasefire and said he wanted to rid the capital of militias that had "infested" the UN-backed government of Premier Fayez Al Serraj, a French presidential official said.

BAGHDAD — Thousands of supporters of a populist Iraqi Shiite Muslim cleric urged political and factional leaders on Friday to stay out of any conflict between Baghdad's two biggest allies, Iran and the United States.

Protesters from the movement of Moqtada Al Sadr, who once led Shiite militiamen against US forces and is also vocally critical of Iranian influence in Iraq, chanted "no to war" and "yes to Iraq" in central Baghdad and the southern city of Basra.

Iraqis worry that their country will be caught up in any escalation of US-Iranian tensions, which spiked earlier this month when President Donald Trump's administration said it had sent additional forces to the Middle East to counter alleged threats including from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

Politicians and Shiite paramilitary leaders have called for calm and the Iraqi government has tried to position itself as a mediator between the two sides.

"We've just recovered from Daesh. Iraq must not be used as a base to try to harm any country. America doesn't want Iraq to be stable," said protester Abu Ali Darraji.

There was speculation that Sadr would speak to demonstrators in Baghdad but he did not appear. The firebrand leader, whose political bloc came first in Iraq's parliamentary election last year, is a friend of neither Washington nor Shiite Iran.

The United States once described Sadr as the most dangerous man in Iraq, and designated his militia at the time, the Mehdi Army, a bigger threat to its forces than Al Qaeda during an insurgency against US troops after their 2003 invasion.

Sadr campaigned last year on a platform of Iraqi nationalism, opposed to both US and Iranian influence in the country.

Amid rising US-Iran tension, a rocket was fired last week into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions, but caused no casualties. No group claimed responsibility; US officials say they strongly suspect Iran's local allies.

The attack came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iraqi leaders that if they failed to keep in check powerful Iran-backed militias, Washington would respond with force.

US intelligence had showed militias positioning rockets near bases housing US forces, according to Iraqi security sources.

After pulling out of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Trump restored US sanctions on Iran last year and tightened them this month, ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil or face sanctions themselves.

Iraq has said it will send delegations to Washington and Tehran to help calm tensions.

Both Iran and the United States say they do not want war, but security officials and analysts warn that a small incident could spark a new spiral of violence in the volatile region.

GAZA — The head of the United Nations agency that has supported Palestinian refugees for seven decades hit back on Thursday at a US proposal to have host countries take over the services it provides across the Middle East.

The suggestion, from US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, that UNRWA should be effectively dismantled was the latest US attack on an agency that began operations in 1950.

Formerly UNRWA's largest donor, the United States halted its funding to the agency in 2018, deeming its fiscal practices "irredeemably flawed" and stoking tensions between the Palestinians and US President Donald Trump's administration. 

"We need to engage with host governments to start a conversation about planning the transition of UNRWA services to host governments, or to other international or local non-governmental organisations, as appropriate," Greenblatt said after the Security Council was briefed by UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl.

Asked at a Gaza news conference on Thursday about Greenblatt's remarks, Krahenbuhl said UNRWA's mandate was a matter for the entire UN General Assembly to consider, not by "one or two individual member states".

“Therefore, Palestinian refugees should remember that the mandate is protected by the General Assembly, and of course we will engage with member states to ensure what we hope is a safe renewal of that mandate,” Krahenbuhl said.

Strong backing in UN General Assembly

UNRWA’s mission is due to come up for renewal later this year in the General Assembly, where support for the agency has been traditionally strong and the United States would likely face an uphill battle to change or cancel its mission.

Greenblatt said UNRWA was “currently running on fumes, surviving on a surge in foreign donations in 2018”, and it was time for the international community to address the needs of Palestinians in refugee camps in a sustainable way.

More than half of the 2 million Palestinians in the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which is under Israeli blockade, receive food aid from UNRWA.

“UNRWA’s business model, which is inherently tied to an endlessly and exponentially expanding community of beneficiaries, is in permanent crisis mode,” Greenblatt claimed.

Since Trump assumed office in 2017, Palestinians have grown concerned that he intends to bring about UNRWA’s demise. 

US ally Israel claimes the work of UNRWA — short for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — only “perpetuates the plight of Palestinians”.

“Year after year, Palestinians in refugee camps were not given the opportunity to build any future; they were misled and used as political pawns and commodities instead of treated as human beings,” Greenblatt told the Security Council.

UNRWA says it provides services to about 5 million registered Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza, and that it safeguards and advances their rights under international law.

Most are descendants of about 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation and claim a right of return to the lands they left.

Israel has ruled out such an influx, fearing the country would lose its Jewish majority. Palestinian leaders reject settling refugees in host countries, saying their presence there should be considered temporary. Palestinians in host countries complain of restrictions on jobs and benefits there.

DUBAI — Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement on Thursday launched a drone attack on a Patriot missile battery in the airport of the Saudi city of Najran near the Yemeni border, the group's Al Masirah TV said on Thursday.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said the drone was intercepted and destroyed by the kingdom's air defences.

The Houthis, who ousted the Saudi-backed Yemeni president from power in the capital Sanaa in 2014, have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi in the past 10 days in a resurgence of tactics that had largely subsided since late last year amid United Nations-led peace efforts.

The group claimed responsibility for last week's armed drone strikes on oil assets in Saudi Arabia and on Sunday said they would attack 300 vital military targets in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

This is the third Houthi strike or attempt to strike Najran in a week, according to Saudi and Houthi reports.

"The royal Saudi air defence forces intercepted a drone laden with explosives... targeting the Najran regional airport which is used by thousands of civilians daily," a spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition said, cited by the Saudi Press Agency. 

The hostilities coincide with rising tensions between Iran and Gulf Arab states allied to the United States and come just as a sensitive, UN-sponsored peace deal is being carried out in Yemen's main port of Hodeida, a lifeline for millions.

SAN DIEGO — A judge in the court-martial of a decorated Navy Seal charged with war crimes in Iraq said on Wednesday the trial would start at least a few days late as lawyers on both sides grappled over allegations that prosecutors illegally snooped on the defence.

The timing of the trial could be rendered moot in light of reports that President Donald Trump is considering offering a pardon to Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher and other US military personnel accused or convicted of battlefield atrocities.

Gallagher is charged with fatally stabbing a helpless, wounded Daesh fighter in his custody and with shooting two unarmed civilians — a school girl and an elderly man — from a sniper's perch during his 2017 deployment to Mosul, Iraq.

In addition to murder and attempted murder, Gallagher is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to intimidate his accusers into silence. 

The 39-year-old career combat veteran and platoon leader has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Defence lawyers say the allegations against Gallagher were fabricated by subordinate Navy Seal team members disgruntled with his leadership style and seeking to force him from his command.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Trump was reviewing several high-profile US war crimes cases, including Gallagher's, for possible pardons to be announced over the Memorial Day holiday honouring military veterans at month's end.

Timothy Parlatore, the civilian attorney leading Gallagher's defence, told reporters after the hearing on Wednesday at US Naval Base San Diego that he had discussed the possibility of presidential clemency with his client. He declined to say whether Gallagher was inclined to accept a pardon.

"We've not asked for one," he told Reuters on Tuesday night. During a recess in court, Gallagher, dressed in Navy whites, declined comment when asked about a pardon by reporters in the courtroom.

Characterising Gallagher's court-martial as a wrongful prosecution, Parlatore disputed the notion that granting a pardon before the case concludes would preempt justice.

"If the president decides to step in, that's what the commander does," he told reporters.

The presiding judge, navy Capt. Aaron Rugh, granted additional time to resolve questions over tactics navy prosecutors used to pinpoint the origin of leaks from case files the judge had placed under seal. He ordered prosecutors to furnish the defence more information about the scope and nature of its probe, including notice of whether anyone remained under scrutiny.

Parlatore insisted he would need at least two more weeks to prepare for trial once matters of alleged prosecutor misconduct were settled.

He has accused prosecutors and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service of conducting illegal surveillance of defence attorneys and reporters with electronic tracking software secretly embedded in e-mails. Such methods were tantamount to warrantless wiretapping, he said.

Prosecutors said the e-mail "auditing tools" it used were designed merely to detect the flow of e-mails without revealing their content.

Nevertheless, Parlatore said he may request that the lead prosecutor be disqualified from the case, and for recusal of the judge.

Rugh, denying that he had ordered a leaks investigation, gave Parlatore until this Friday to file any remaining pleadings on the issue and set a hearing for May 29 — the day after the trial had been scheduled to commence — to argue those motions.

Barring any further upheavals, Rugh said, he hoped to seat a trial jury by May 31 and to begin hearing testimony the following week. 

Trump weighed in on the Gallagher case publicly in March, ordering the defendant moved to less restrictive pre-trial confinement "in honour of his past service to our country".

DJERBA, Tunisia — Afef Ben Yedder delicately placed an egg inscribed with wishes in a cavity in Africa's oldest synagogue in southern Tunisia, hoping they will be granted even though she is a Muslim.

Five years ago, she said, her prayers were answered after visiting the Ghriba Synagogue on the Mediterranean island of Djerba, where Jews go to ask a mysterious saint to grant their wishes.

"I prayed for a friend who had difficulty having children and now he has a three-year-old boy, and for something else I don't want to mention, and it has come true," she said with a big smile.

This time Ben Yedder returned with her Jewish childhood friend Karen who moved to France as a teenager, after they were reunited on Facebook.

It is a chance to pray together and reminisce about their times spent together in a district of Tunis where they grew up living alongside Jewish, Christian and Muslim neighbours.

This year's annual pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan for the first time since 1987.

Muslim and Jewish leaders shared a fast-breaking meal on Wednesday evening on the island, a symbol of cohabitation that Tunisia is keen to promote.

The number of Jews in Tunisia has fallen significantly, from around 100,000 before independence from France in 1956 to an estimated 1,500 today, most of whom live in Djerba.

Ben Yedder is not the only Muslim joining thousands of Jewish pilgrims at the synagogue.

"For 15 or 20 years, more and more Muslims have been participating in this pilgrimage," said French historian Dominique Jarasse, co-author of a book on Tunisian synagogues.

Shared holy places 

"For a long time, they were spectators. But there is now a form of appropriation, which is linked to the political situation — because people want to show how tolerant Tunisia is — to tourism because it is a place of heritage, and there is undeniably an act of faith on the part of these Muslims," he told AFP.

"Many are convinced that the saint really has power."

The festival, an important tradition for Jewish Tunisians, is no ordinary act of worship.

Pilgrims revere a girl — the "Ghriba" — who is said to have been killed by lightning and whom they hope will grant their wishes — especially for fertility, marital happiness and health.

"This cult of saints is quite typical of the region and Islam. Judaism has adapted," said Jarasse.

But men and women of all religions can mingle inside.

"Anyone who enters — Catholic, Muslim or Jew — can pray here," said Laura Touil Journo from France who visits every year. 

"We are not even sure which confession she is herself, this young girl," she said, referring to the "Ghriba".

Dionigi Albera, co-organiser of a recent exhibition on shared holy places, said this phenomenon is quite widespread.

Some Jewish Tunisians venerate Sidi Mahrez, a Muslim saint of the 11th century believed to have stood up for them.

"The Ghriba is one of the few visible testimonies" of this phenomenon.

EL SHAKHLUBA, Egypt — In Egypt's Nile Delta, Om Ahmed ponders how her two sons will be able to marry and build new homes when they only earn about 70 Egyptian pounds ($4.10) from a day's fishing.

The 45-year-old mother of four said life was growing harder in El Shakhluba, a village on the southern shore of Lake Burulus in northern Egypt, a country of about 100 million people, many of whom rely on state subsidies that are being scaled back.

"What we get is barely enough for food, and I have two sons who want to get married and want to start new homes, and two girls we want to prepare for marriage," said Om Ahmed, who asked to identified by her nickname which means "Mother of Ahmed" — a reference to her oldest son — rather than by her full name.

Like most women in the Muslim village of about 10,000 people, Om Ahmed tends the home while the men fish. Her husband and their two sons usually make a daily catch worth about 70 Egyptian pounds.

Shakhluba is divided by a canal that runs into Lake Burulus, which is separated from the Mediterranean by a thin strip of land. Small fishing boats, moored in front of small houses dotted along the lake shore, rock gently in the waves.

The women complained that the village fishermen, who use boats powered using a single oar, faced growing competition from engine-powered craft that added to pollution. They also said securing a fishing licence was becoming increasingly difficult.

Thabet El Sweifi, in charge of fisheries for region that includes El Shakhlub village, said fishing permits were usually issued within 48 hours and permanent licences lasted a year.

He also told Reuters the authorities in Kafr El Sheikh governorate had met fishermen in the area to discuss grievances, including measures to protect the lake from illegal fishing and to clean up pollution.

Abeer, a mother of four, said she sold milk in the area to help make ends meet, adding that the 60 or 70 Egyptian pounds a day her husband earned from a good catch was inadequate.

"That's not enough to provide for the children," the 38-year-old said. "I have three girls and a boy, and if my husband sits for one day without work, we won't have any money to spend."

WASHINGTON — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump may soon have a face-to-face meeting, either in Turkey or on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Japan next month, a senior Turkish official said on Wednesday.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official said Erdogan had invited Trump to Turkey and that there were “positive signals” the American president would accept the invitation.

“We are working on the calendar now,” the official said. “We have some positive signals but the time has not been scheduled yet. They may meet on the margins of G-20 in Japan as well,” he said. “For a bilateral visit, we are waiting for an exact date.”

The United States and Turkey have been at loggerheads recently, primarily due to Ankara’s planned purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems, which Washington says are incompatible with the NATO defence network and would pose a threat to US F-35 stealth fighter jets which Turkey also plans to buy.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and several prominent US senators have warned Turkey it will face penalties for buying the S-400s, under legislation which calls for sanctions against countries procuring military equipment from Russia. Turkey says as a NATO member it poses no threat to the United States and the sanctions should not apply.

Investors have been keeping an eye out for a potential meeting between the two presidents because Turkey’s hopes of avoiding punishing US sanctions have increasingly appeared dependent on a potential intervention from Trump. 

Turkey’s Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also Erdogan’s son-in-law, in April met with Trump and his son-in-law and White House Adviser Jared Kushner on the issue. Few details of the meeting have emerged, but Turkish media quoted Albayrak as saying Trump had a “positive understanding... regarding Turkey’s needs for the S-400s”.