Middle East & North Africa Observatory

18-5-2013 (Yemen)

ITUC — 2013-05-18T13:59:35Z

Suspected Islamist gunmen assassinate Yemeni colonel. Gunmen shot dead a senior Yemeni military intelligence officer who had been targeted for assassination by Al-Qaeda-linked militants, a local security official said. Colonel Abdullah al-Rabaki was walking home in the city of Mukalla in Hadramawt Province late on Friday when the gunmen shot him six times with a revolver fitted with a silencer, the official said. They escaped on a motorbike. Leaflets from Islamist militants allied to (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Yemen

18-5-2013 (Tunisia)

ITUC — 2013-05-18T13:58:07Z

Tunisia Salafists urge supporters to defy congress ban. Tunisian Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia called on its hardline Islamist supporters to defy a government ban on its annual congress, setting the scene for a possible showdown Saturday on the eve of the planned meeting. Ansar al-Sharia urged its supporters to travel to the venue in the historical central city of Kairouan in groups in a bid to get past police, adding to security concerns. “We advise our brothers coming to Kairouan to (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Tunisia

18-5-2013 (Iraq)

ITUC — 2013-05-18T13:56:37Z

Deadly Iraq violence sweeps country, killing at least eight. Violence in Iraq killed at least eight people, including a police officer, his wife and two children, on Saturday, while gunmen kidnapped 10 security force personnel, officials said. Gunmen broke into the home of the administrator for the Rashid area, south of Baghdad, killing one of his guards, an interior ministry official told AFP news agency. They then moved to the nearby house of Captain Adnan al-Obaidi, a police officer (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Iraq

17-5-2013 (Egypt)

ITUC — 2013-05-17T19:36:47Z

Angry Egyptian policemen close crossing with Gaza. Egyptian policemen blocked the crossing into the Gaza Strip on Friday to protest against the kidnapping of Egyptian security forces in the Sinai, witnesses and sources said. Locals said police had placed barbed wire across the entrance to the border and closed the gates with chains, leaving hundreds of Palestinians stranded on both sides of the fence. The Associated Press reported that, according to an Egyptian security official, guards (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Egypt

17-5-2013 (Iraq)

ITUC — 2013-05-17T19:35:50Z

Iraqis mourn two Shiite fighters killed in Syria. Hundreds of Iraqis in a southern city have attended the funeral of two Shiite fighters killed in Syria. In Basra, mourners on Friday carried the coffin of Mohammed Aboud, who they say was killed by a sniper fire near the shrine of Sayida Zeinab outside the capital of Damascus five days before. The coffin of the other slain fighter, Hassan Ali, was rushed to Baghdad at the start of the funeral. Relatives said both bodies were transported (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Iraq

17-5-2013 (Syria)

ITUC — 2013-05-17T19:34:40Z

NGO's say Syrian activists face ‘terror' charges. The Syrian authorities must drop all charges against prominent peace activist Mazen Darwish and two of his colleagues, 19 human rights organizations said on Friday. Darwish, Hussein Gharir and Hani Zaitani “are facing trial on terrorism charges for their peaceful activism”, said the groups that include Human Rights Watch (HRW), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Amnesty International. They and two other colleagues who were conditionally (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Syrian Arab Republic

16-5-2013 (Jordan)

ITUC — 2013-05-16T20:43:54Z

Jordan to host ‘Friends of Syria' Wednesday. Jordan's foreign ministry said Thursday Amman will host a meeting of the so-called “Friends of Syria” group next week to discuss latest developments in Syria's civil war. Spokeswoman Sabah Rafei told AFP the “foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, the United States, Britain, France, Turkey, Germany and Italy will meet in Amman” on Wednesday. Earlier this week, Rafei said the gathering would “follow up on (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Jordan

16-5-2013 (Yemen)

ITUC — 2013-05-16T20:42:32Z

U.N. says there is hope for Yemen if funds are forthcoming . Yemen, home to what Washington considers al Qaeda's most dangerous wing, has the chance of a bright future, the top U.N. official in the country said on Thursday, but needs help to deal with a major humanitarian crisis that threatens its stability. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, also told reporters at a briefing in Geneva that poverty, unemployment and scarce water supplies meant its (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Yemen

16-5-2013 (Syria)

ITUC — 2013-05-16T20:41:17Z

Syria jihadist executed regime supporters . A video distributed Thursday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights shows jihadists in the east of the country executing supporters of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The Britain-based watchdog did not specify whether the men killed were combatants, nor did it say when the footage was shot. The men killed by Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist organization operating in Syria that the United States has classed as “terrorist” “are supporters of (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Syrian Arab Republic

15-5-2013 (Lebanon)

ITUC — 2013-05-15T10:01:31Z

Attacks against Lebanese Alawites deepen fears. Lebanese members of the Syrian leader's Alawite sect fear their tiny community will be a casualty of the civil war raging in the neighboring country. Already, Sunni Muslim extremists have stoned a school bus, vandalized stores and beaten or stabbed a number of men in a wave of attacks against Lebanese Alawites, stoking fears of even more violence should Syrian President Bashar Assad be removed from power. In one particularly humiliating (...) - 1. Daily Newsletter / Lebanon