Greater Middle East
Yemen escalates offensive against Zaydi insurgents
The Yemeni army entered into its fifth day of deadly fighting against Zaydi Shi’ite insurgents in the north of the country.
Tag: Greater Middle East
Greater Middle East
Protesters “massacred” in south Yemen
Yemeni security forces opened fire on thousands of protesters in Zinjibar, provincial capital of Abyan in the country’s restive south, killing 12 and wounding scores of others.
Greater Middle East
Obama to Muslims: let’s chill out!
From the World Muslim Congress: Obama, Hujurat and Islamic Calligraphy President Obama quoted the verse 49:13 from Sura Hujurat in his speech in Cairo. “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and… Read moreObama to Muslims: let’s chill out!
Greater Middle East
Obama in Cairo: selective historical memory
President Obama’s historic speech to the Muslim world at Cairo’s al-Azhar University was a meaningful step forward nonetheless compromised by tactical equivocation…
Greater Middle East
United Arab Emirates sheikh held over torture video
The Abu Dhabi authorities have detained a brother of the president and opened a criminal investigation of a videotape in which he appears to torture an Afghan grain merchant.
Greater Middle East
Regional protests, pirates rock Yemen
A bomb that exploded amid a violent protest in south Yemen left one dead, as Yemeni commandos stormed a hijacked a tanker in the Gulf of Aden, killing three Somali pirates and capturing 11 others.
Greater Middle East
Lebanon tribunal orders release of generals accused in Hariri assassination
A judge for the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon ordered the release of four generals held on suspicion of their involvement in the suicide bombing that killed former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
Greater Middle East
ARSO
An Istanbul Court of Appeals upheld the life sentences of six individuals, including prominent journalists Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak, on charges of assisting the plotters of a failed military coup in 2016. The journalists were originally sentenced in February, along with 221 other defendants, and appealed to the higher court for their release. All defendants were charged with being linked to a US-based religious leader Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt. Since the coup attempt, tthe Turkish government has been carrying out purges and arrests aimed at removing supposed Gulen supporters from state institutions and society generally. (Map: CIA)
Greater Middle East
GJEC
Yemen war crime investigators called upon the UN Human Rights Council to renew their mandate and allow the continued inquiry into Yemen's internal conflict, calling the situation in the county "extremely alarming." The Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, in their initial report, released in August, found evidence that "members of the Saudi-led coalition, the Yemeni government, and the Houthi armed group have been committing abuses, including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians, arbitrary and abusive detention, and recruitment of children." At the time of the report, the experts recommended that their mandate be renewed. However, Saudi Arabia and other coalition members have pressed the council to discontinue the inquiry. (Photo via WikiMedia Commons)
Greater Middle East
FFR
A Turkish court sentenced a former British soldier to seven-and-a-half years for alleged links to Syria's Kurdish YPG militia, considered a "terrorist" group by Ankara. Joe Robinson of Leeds was arrested in Turkey last year after he apparently posted photos of himself in camouflage, posing beside fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. The Afghanistan veteran was among many volunteers who joined the YPG's campaign against ISIS. A court in Turkey's western city of Aydin sentenced the 25-year-old for "membership in a terrorist organization." Robinson is currently on bail and planning an appeal. His Bulgarian fiancée Mira Rojkan, arrested along with him, was sentenced to two years for "terrorist propaganda." (Photo via Defense Post)
Greater Middle East
US judge grants habeas petition for Yemeni Gitmo detainee
A judge for the US District Court in Washington granted a habeas corpus petition filed by Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee Yasin Muhammed Basardh, ordering his release from the prison.
Greater Middle East
Turkey: colonel arrested in Kurdistan killings
A Turkish officer, Col. Cemal Temizoz, was arrested in connection with suspected extrajudicial killings in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast in the 1990s.