Egypt: 2,600 killed in political upheaval
CAIRO – At least 2,600 people were killed in violence in the 18 months after the military overthrew Egypt’s president in 2013, nearly half of them supporters of the Islamist leader, the head of a state-sanctioned rights body said Sunday.
Mohammed Fayeq, head of the National Council for Human Rights, told reporters that the 2,600 included 700 policemen and 550 civilians who were killed in the period between June 30, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2014.
The military overthrew Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, on July 3, 2013, amid massive protests demanding his resignation. In the following months, his supporters held regular demonstrations that set off deadly clashes with police and rival protesters.
Pro-Iranian militias join Ramadi battle
HABBANIYA, Iraq – Iraqi forces have seized a string of hamlets and villages in the dust-choked desert southeast of Ramadi from Islamic State militants in recent days, closing in on the key city for a counteroffensive.
But the yellow and green flags that line the sides of the newly secured roads and flutter from rooftops leave no doubt as to who is leading the fighting here – Kitaeb Hezbollah, a Shiite militia designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
Iraq’s two main allies – Iran and the United States – have vied for influence over Iraq’s battle to retake ground from Islamic State militants in the past year. While Iranian-linked Shiite militias have spearheaded the fight elsewhere, the U.S.-backed Iraqi army and counterterrorism units had been on the front lines in Anbar province, supported by an eight-month American-led air campaign.
But with the fall of Ramadi, the province’s capital, this month, paramilitary forces close to Iran now are taking the upper hand. They include groups such as Kitaeb Hezbollah, responsible for thousands of attacks on U.S. soldiers who fought in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
Kerry delays return after bicycle crash
GENEVA – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has delayed his trip back to the United States to stay in a Swiss hospital overnight after breaking his leg in a bicycle crash Sunday.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said that after further consultation, it was decided it was sensible for Kerry to remain in the hospital for observation overnight. Kerry had to scrap the rest of a four-nation trip that included an international conference on combating the Islamic State group.
Kerry broke his leg after a bicycle crash when he struck a curb. Kerry was in stable condition as he prepared to return to Boston for further treatment with the doctor who previously operated on his hip, Kirby said. He said X-rays at a Swiss hospital confirmed that Kerry fractured his right femur.
Netanyahu warns of boycott campaigns
JERUSALEM – Israel faces an “international campaign to blacken its name” aimed at delegitimizing its very existence regardless to its policies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
The international community disproportionally singles out the Jewish state for condemnation while remaining silent on major conflicts and human-rights abuses in other countries, he said.
Netanyahu made the comments Sunday at a meeting of his new Cabinet just two days after a Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel from world football was dropped at the final moment. Netanyahu warned that such efforts to boycott Israel continue. Palestinians accelerated their campaign to boycott Israel and Israeli-made products after peace talks collapsed last year.
Palestinians had pushed to get Israel banned because they said Israeli security restrictions limited the movement of Palestinian players, visiting teams and soccer equipment.
“We are in the midst of a great struggle being waged against the state of Israel, an international campaign to blacken its name. It is not connected to our actions; it is connected to our very existence. It does not matter what we do; it matters what we symbolize and what we are,” Netanyahu said.
Associated Press and Washington Post
