Report: Worldwide Terrorism at All-Time High

Worldwide terrorism is at an all-time high, and violence cost the global economy $14.3 trillion last year, with a $2.5 trillion impact in the United States alone.

These new figures from the latest Global Peace Index, a report on conflict and security, indicate that world peace has been deteriorating for the past decade, largely driven by terrorism and conflicts in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

The study says the decline interrupts long-term improvements the world had been making since the end of World War II.

According to the report, the annual number of terrorism incidents has almost tripled since 2011.

Deaths from terrorism have risen more than 900% since 2007 in the 35 countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Of those members, 23 nations experienced terrorism related deaths over the past year.

Those countries include Denmark, Sweden, France and Turkey.

U.S. effect

The United States has dropped 11 places in the study's ranking, falling to the bottom spot among developed nations. Experts say the U.S. has experienced a significant rise of internal conflict due to political polarization. In addition, the homicide rate has gone up in several major American cities, and measures of the impact of terrorism were affected by several attacks including a shooting in an Orlando, Florida nightclub in which 49 people died.

Steve Killelea, founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace, which produces the yearly study, said tensions in the United States have an international effect.

"The increased political polarity in the U.S. is being experienced across the developed world," he said. "This is driven by underlying conditions of increasing inequality, rising perceptions of corruption, a lack of acceptance of rights of others, and falling press freedoms. These factors underpin the U.S. decline in peace and signal potential future increases in instability and violence."

The economic impact of violence in the United States equals $2.5 trillion, or 9 percent of the nation's gross national product - nearly $5,000 per person.

Terrorism and internal conflict

Among all the nations ranked, Syria was the least peaceful, due both to internal conflict and to terrorism.

Across the Middle East, "battle deaths from conflict are at a 25-year high, and the number of refugees and displaced people are at a level not seen in 60 years," the Institute said.

Worldwide, deaths from terrorism increased by 80 percent from last year. The intensity of terrorism also increased; 11 countries last year lost more than 500 people to terrorist acts, when only five nations experienced that kind of death toll the year before.

The majority of terrorist activity was concentrated in five countries: Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria.

The Global Peace Index annually measures 163 countries and territories for domestic and internal conflict, safety and security, and each nation's degree of militarization.

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Report: Worldwide Terrorism at All-time High

The number of countries impacted by terrorism hit an all-time high in 2016, and for the first time in seven years, the United States experienced a decline in peacefulness, according to new figures from the Global Peace Index. The report, which measures the level of conflict around the world, also shows that violence cost the global economy $14.3 trillion last year. Jesusemen Oni has more.

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World Ignores Displaced Africans, Aid Agency Protests

DAKAR, SENEGAL — 

The world pays the least attention to humanitarian crises when they force Africans from their homes, dashing hopes of peace, hindering reconstruction and increasing the risk of radicalization, an aid agency said Thursday.

Central African Republic topped the Norwegian Refugee Council's (NRC) annual list of neglected displacement crises.

It was followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Yemen, the Palestinian territories, Ukraine, Myanmar and Somalia.

"The fact that most of these people do not turn up at our doorsteps gives us no right to close our eyes to their suffering, and does not remove our responsibility to assist," NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland said in a statement. "Economic support to alleviate humanitarian crises must be given based on needs, and not ... geopolitical interests."

Limited political will to achieve peace, scant media attention and a lack of aid funding mean crises are likely to worsen and trigger even more displacement, the NRC said.

Chronic conflict involving militias in countries such as Central African Republic and Congo could drive more and more people into armed groups, said Richard Skretteberg of the NRC.

"When you combine limited state presence in much of these countries, mass displacement, and a lack of protection and aid for civilians, this creates a fertile breeding ground for radicalization," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Rebuilding and working towards peace are difficult when so many people are displaced," the NRC senior adviser added.

1 million people displaced

One in five Central Africans — about a million people — is displaced, and at least 100,000 were newly uprooted last month in some of the worst violence between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian militias since conflict began in 2013.

Spreading ethnic violence in Congo has forced more than 1.5 million people to flee their homes within the country this year — more than triple the number uprooted within Syria and five times the number within Iraq, according to the NRC.

The United Nations has received just a fifth of the $812.5 million sought in the humanitarian appeal for Congo this year,and 25 percent of the $400 million requested for Central African Republic, the U.N.'s Financial Tracking Service shows.

Africa's arid Sahel belt, which stretches from Senegal to Eritrea and lies south of the Sahara desert, topped the NRC's index last year, followed by Yemen and Libya.

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Pressure Mounts on Refugee Camps as Final Offensive Looms in Mosul

Displaced residents of Mosul say food, water and medicine in refugee camps are becoming increasingly scarce as fleeing civilians continue to join them daily due to a new push by U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops against Islamic State in old Mosul. VOA's Kawa Omar reports.

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Turkey-Israel Rapprochement Threat to Iranian Ambitions?

ISTANBUL — 

With Turkey facing strained relations with most of its neighbors and allies, Ankara is deepening ties with Israel in a rare bright spot. Diplomatic relations collapsed in 2010 after Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish citizens on a boat seeking to break Israel's economic blockade of Gaza. A reconciliation deal reached last year has opened the door to a resumption in relations that could pose a threat to Iran's regional aspirations.

“Almost every day there is a certain bilateral activity, either here or in Israel that has to do with the fruits of the reconciliation,” said Shai Cohen, the Israeli consul-general, speaking in Istanbul last week at a gathering aimed at enhancing ties. Cohen went further, eyeing regional turmoil as an impetus for further cooperation. “We share almost the same interests along our borders with Syria, Israel on one side and Turkey on the other. The main one is defeating jihadi terrorism Daesh,” he said, using an Arabic term for Islamic State. “But there is another one, with the expanding presence of Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, in that region.”

Israeli hopes of fostering a powerful alliance against Tehran have been boosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasingly fiery rhetoric against Iran. Last month, Erdogan labeled Shia paramilitary forces fighting Islamic State in Iraq “terrorists,” calling them part of Iran's “Persian expansionism policy.” Erdogan has increasingly positioned himself as protector of Sunni Muslim interests in the region, accusing Tehran of pursuing sectarian policies.

Turkey-Israel cooperation on Iran, would, analysts suggest, mark a major step in enhancing relations, especially addressing the “trust deficit.”

“Trust has to be rebuilt. Security is a crucial issue for both governments,” Cohen said. “We are working on that and maybe it's a little bit too early to elaborate on that but I think in the near future we will know more.”

The warming in Israeli-Turkish relations has brought improvements in trade along with talks on energy cooperation and promising signs of a return to Turkey of lucrative Israeli tourism; but, relations are still far from their heyday of the late 1990's, epitomized by close military cooperation that culminated in a deal that allowed Israeli jets to practice in Turkish airspace.

Bilateral cooperation against Iran could offer an opportunity in bridging the trust deficit.

“I think the current political setting in the Middle East provides a fertile ground for Turkey and Israel to restore their partnership. They have shared interests in terms of balancing Iran and combating terrorism in the region,” said Selin Nasi, journalist for Turkey's Salom newspaper and a columnist for Hurriyet Daily News. Nasi, however, also voices caution. “On the other hand, they (Turkey and Israel) do not see eye to eye on a number of issues. For instance, Iran is a rival but not an enemy for Turkey. Turkey has to take into account the fact that she shares a border with Iran.”

Former Turkish ambassador Unal Cevikoz, now head of the Ankara Policy Center research organization, warns of risks of joining any anti-Iranian alliance. “If Turkey chooses to do that, then Turkey will be perceived if it's pursuing some kind of sectarian policy just because of the emerging Sunni-Shia divide in the region.”

There are also domestic political risks for Erdogan, whose priority is his 2019 re-election bid. Much of the president's electoral base is drawn from conservative Muslims, to whom anti-Israeli rhetoric often plays well. Some of the pro-government Turkish media are rampantly anti-Semitic, rarely missing an opportunity to fan anger over Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

“It is always better to maintain a cautious optimism when making an assessment on Turkish-Israeli relations, given the place of the Palestinian issue in bilateral ties as a derailing factor,” warns journalist Nasi; but, a Turkish presidential source maintains the Palestinian issue remains “compartmentalized” in relations with Israel.

“Cooperation and rivalry” is the traditional maxim in Turkish diplomacy in defining Iranian relations. Even in the current tensions, cooperation remains an important aspect of relations. “In the Astana Process, Russia, Iran and Turkey are at least trying to find a common understanding to guarantee the cease-fire and also deconfliction zones in Syria,” points out retired Turkish ambassador Cevikoz, citing peace talks in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.

The complexity and sensitivity of attempting to lure Turkey into Israel's fold in its struggle against Iran is acknowledged by Consul-General Cohen. For now it appears Israel is ready to play the long game. "Iran is a common denominator for Israel and Turkey because of its aspirations for regional hegemony; but, the Iranian issue is not right now, something we are putting up at the top of the priority list. It's a common interest; we talk about it," he said.

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Syria Opens Its First Solar-Powered Hospital Aiming to Save More Lives

BEIRUT, LEBANON — 

After months of testing, a hospital in Syria will have uninterrupted power from this week, charged by solar power in a project designers hope will save lives and can be repeated across the country.

Syria's electrical grid has taken a big hit after six years of a volatile civil war with most the electrical infrastructure bombed, dismantled or destroyed, leaving hospitals relying on diesel generators but at the mercy of fuel shortages.

So the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), an international coalition of international medical organizations and NGOs, said it hoped creating the country's first solar-power hospital would save lives.

"To have those active [hospitals] resilient and operational, it's a matter of life [or death] for many, many people in the country," said Tarek Makdissi, project director of UOSSM told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

The France-based UOSSM launched the initiative, "Syria Solar", with the aim of getting hospitals less dependent on diesel which the organization says is expensive and not reliable.

The first solar hospital - the name and location of which the UOSSM would not release for safety reasons - runs on mixture of a diesel generator and 480 solar panels built near the hospital that link to an energy storage system.

If there is a complete fuel outage the solar system can fully power the intensive care unit, operating rooms and emergency departments for up to 24 hours without diesel, which is 20 to 30 percent of the hospital's energy cost.

Makdissi said the goal is to get five other medical facilities in Syria running like this by the end of spring 2018 with funding from places like institutions, foundations, government agencies, and philanthropists.

Beyond reducing operational costs Makdissi believes this initiative creates a more resilient electrical infrastructure.

"To be resilient is to be independent and to be independent you need to have control of your own resources," said Makdissi. "This project is really increasing the independence and resilience of local communities."

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Bahrain Court Orders Dissolution of Last Major Opposition Group

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — 

A court in Bahrain ordered the country's last main opposition group dissolved and its property confiscated Wednesday in the latest blow to reformers and dissenting voices in the Middle Eastern island nation.

The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said the political society known as Waad planned to appeal the ruling. Waad confirmed the court order for its dissolution on its official Twitter account.

The Justice Ministry had launched proceedings to dissolve the 15-year-old group, alleging that Waad incited acts of terrorism, promoted the violent overthrow of the Sunni-led government and "glorified convicted terrorists and saboteurs." The government used similarly broad wording to dissolve the country's largest Shi'ite opposition group, al-Wefaq.

Bahrain is a majority Shi'ite nation ruled by a Sunni monarchy with close ties to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which sent forces to help quell an Arab Spring-style uprising in 2011.

The government accuses Shi'ite-ruled Iran, which lies across the Persian Gulf from Bahrain, of arming and training some protesters to destabilize the country. Shi'ite militant groups have claimed responsibility for some deadly attacks on police, but Iran denies it has trained or assisted groups in Bahrain.

Waad's dissolution came a week after five people died in a police raid on the hometown of a prominent Shi'ite cleric who was stripped of his nationality and faces possible deportation. Police arrested 286 people in the raid, adding to the hundreds more who have been jailed, forced into exile or stripped of their nationality in recent years.

Both Shi'ite, Sunni activists

Two smaller opposition groups remain active, but Waad was seen as the last major opposition group still functioning in Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. The secular group included both Shi'ite and Sunni activists and political figures. Its offices were targeted by vandals and twice set ablaze.

"Today matters because it says the government won't just not tolerate Shi'ite opposition, it won't tolerate any opposition," Brian Dooley, a senior adviser at Human Rights First, told The Associated Press.

Rights group Amnesty International said Bahrain "is now heading towards total suppression of human rights" with Wednesday's court ruling.

The case stems from a statement Waad made in February on the anniversary of the country's 2011 uprising in which the group criticized the Bahraini constitution.

"Their only so-called 'crime' is exercising their right to freedom of expression and association," said Lynn Maalouf, director of research at Amnesty International's Beirut regional office.

Separately, Amnesty International reports that human rights activist Ebtisam al-Saegh said she was tortured for seven hours in Bahrain during an interrogation last month. She said she was blindfolded, beaten, kicked and kept standing for most of the time, and that she was threatened with the rape of her daughter and the torture of her husband.

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Gulf Arab Row Rattles Trump's Anti-Iran Axis

DUBAI/DOHA — 

Just 10 days after President Donald Trump called on Muslim countries to stand united against Iran, a public feud between Qatar and some of its Gulf Arab neighbors is jolting his attempt to tip the regional balance of power against Tehran.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are incensed by Qatar's conciliatory line on Iran, their regional archrival, and its support for Islamist groups, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood, which they regard as a dangerous political enemy.

The bickering among the Sunni states erupted after Trump attended a summit of Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia where he denounced Shi'ite Iran's "destabilizing interventions" in Arab lands, where Tehran is locked in a tussle with Riyadh for influence.

The spat shows no sign of abating, raising the prospect of a long breach between Doha and its closest allies that could have repercussions around the Middle East.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani visits Kuwait on Wednesday for talks with his counterpart Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah that are expected to address the rift. Kuwait, a past mediator between Gulf states, has offered to help ease tensions.

But few expect an early end to what is not their first feud. Three years ago Saudi Arabia and the UAE withdrew their ambassadors from Doha for similar reasons, although they returned after less than a year.

Analysts point to the unusual willingness of Qatari state-backed media on one side, and Saudi and Emirati media on the other, to trade rhetorical broadsides in public.

This suggests that point-scoring is taking priority over displays of unity among some members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a Saudi-dominated club of states that presents itself as an outpost of stability in a turbulent region.

In the Gulf's tightly-controlled media scene, attacks made by news outlets tend to be authorized by governments.

"The GCC could harm it own interests in this fight and is at risk of becoming more vulnerable to Iranian encroachment," said a Western diplomat based in Doha.

Emboldened by Trump

The spat's immediate cause was a purported Qatari state media report that the emir had cautioned against confrontation with Iran, as well as defending the Palestinian group Hamas and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi'ite movement allied to Tehran.

Qatar denied the report, saying its news agency had been hacked, but Saudi Arabia and the UAE allowed their state-backed media to continue running it, angering Doha.

The squabble revives old accusations that Qatar backs the Brotherhood, which is present across most of the Muslim world and whose political ideology challenges the principle of dynastic rule. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi also suspect Doha is complacent about Iranian expansionism.

Some analysts speculate Riyadh and Abu Dhabi felt confident to authorize criticisms of Qatar by their deepening friendship with Trump, confident that his opposition to Iran and all Islamist armed groups reflects their views more than Qatar's.

"When Trump gave fulsome support in Riyadh and said, 'let's isolate Iran' that sent a signal to the UAE and Saudi, which felt emboldened and said: let's let loose everything we have on Qatar," said Gerd Nonneman, professor of International Relations and Gulf Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar.

Acknowledging the tensions, the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that the GCC countries "are passing through a new sharp crisis that carries within it a great danger".

Gulf officials and commentators outside Qatar said it did not matter whether the remarks were fake because they reflected Qatar's sympathies anyway.

"Doha's insistence in denying the issue is marginal because in reality, on the ground, Qatar confirms it adopts the policies that it is now trying to deny," an editorial in Saudi-owned newspaper Al-Hayat on Monday said.

Rifts have ramifications

A Gulf Arab official said patience had run out. "What is certain is the Gulf states led by Riyadh are not likely to tolerate such a deviation, if intentional, especially at this junction in our relationship with our hostile neighbor Iran."

Al Raya, a government-owned Qatari daily, hit back at Emirati reports on Friday by publishing pictures on its front page of UAE journalists it called "mercenaries".

Such animosities can have ramifications across the Middle East, where Gulf states have used their financial and political clout to influence events in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen amid upheaval caused by the Arab Spring.

Nonneman said Kuwait and Oman clearly did not want a major rift. "It's not in the interests of anyone for this to grow into a clash beyond a media campaign - but sometimes these things take on a life of their own," he said.

Iran, which denies Arab accusations that it is engaged in subversion of Arab countries, appears to be gloating. Kayhan, a newspaper closely associated with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday the rift reflected Saudi Arabia's inability to "form an alliance against Tehran."

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Russia Fires Cruise Missiles at Islamic State in Syria

Russia's Defense Ministry says its forces fired four cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea to hit Islamic State targets in Syria.

The ministry said the missiles came from a frigate and a submarine and landed near the city of Palmyra, striking heavy weapons and Islamic State militants who had deployed there from the group's de facto capital in Raqqa.

Russia said it notified the United States, Turkey and Israel before firing the missiles. It did not say exactly when the strikes took place.

The Palmyra area has seen a lot of fighting during the past year, with control of the city changing between Islamic State fighters and the Syrian government several times. Syrian forces currently hold the city, but clashes continue.

Russian forces have been involved in Syria since late 2015 in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Russia has been criticized by the United States and others for not focusing enough of its air campaign against Islamic State targets.

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Indications Iran Doubling Down on Use of Proxy Forces

WASHINGTON — 

An influx of cash that was the byproduct of the deal Iran struck with a group of world powers to curtail its nuclear program may not be changing the way Iran goes about wielding influence across the Middle East and beyond.

A top U.S. military official says rather than using any additional monies to invest more heavily in conventional forces, there are indications Tehran continues to focus on cultivating special operators to help lead and direct proxy forces.

“If anything, increased defense dollars in Iran are likely to go toward increasing that network, looking for ways to expand it,” U.S. Special Operation Forces Vice Commander Lieutenant General Thomas Trask told an audience in Washington late Tuesday.

“We’ve already seen evidence of them taking units and officers out of the conventional side that are working with the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) in Syria,” Trask added. “We’re going to stay focused on these proxies and the reach that Iran has well past Syria and Yemen but into Africa, into South America, into Europe as well.”

The 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, gave Tehran access to an estimated $50 billion to $150 billion in previously frozen assets. It also cleared the way for Iran to seek new investment to boost its economy.

Critics of the deal feared Iran would take a large portion of that money to boost its military and expand its influence across the Middle East.

Yet despite Iran’s heavy involvement in Syria to help prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. military officials see no indications much of that money has been set aside for bolstering Tehran’s conventional forces.

Nor do they see that as a likely scenario, even though the latest estimates from the U.S. intelligence community warn Iran is trying to develop “a range of new military capabilities,” including ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and armed drones.

“That takes a long time to change. You’ve really got to build a significant infrastructure,” Trask said during the event at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

“We’re going to continue to plan primarily against that network of proxies and unconventional warfare that Iran pushes out to create that buffer for the regime,” he said.

Already, Iran is supplementing its own forces inside Syria by providing arms, financing and training for as many as 10,000 Shia militia fighters, including units from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Military and intelligence officials further worry about the sway Iran has over tens of thousands of additional fighters who are part of Shia militias fighting in Iraq. And there are concerns Iran is trying to employ the same type of model in Yemen, where U.S. officials say it has been supplying arms and other help to Houthi forces.

“Everywhere you look, if there is trouble in the region, you find Iran,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last moth during a visit to Saudi Arabia, when asked about Yemen. “We'll have to overcome Iran's efforts to destabilize yet another country and create another militia in their image of Lebanese Hezbollah.”

And some analysts say that Iran will persist, even if the results are not immediate.

“You’ve seen this slow ratcheting up of what they’ve been able to do in Syria and it’s not sufficient,” said J. Matthew McInnis, a resident fellow at AEI and author of a new report on Iran’s security policy, noting Tehran’s reliance on Russian air support.

Still, Tehran has shown no signs of backing down, he said, willing to wait out its adversaries.

“We underestimated the degree to which Iran was committed to Assad,” McInnis said. “They’re going to fight as long as it takes in Syria.”

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Solar Power Lights Up Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan

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Solar power is lighting up the night sky in Jordan and making life easier for the 20,000 Syrian refugees at a camp that once had no reliable source of electricity. Faith Lapidus reports. Read More Solar Power Lights Up Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan : http://ift.tt/2qA724V

Russia Fires Cruise Missiles at Islamic State in Syria

Russia's Defense Ministry says its forces fired four cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea to hit Islamic State targets in Syria.

The ministry said the missiles came from a frigate and a submarine and landed near the city of Palmyra, striking heavy weapons and Islamic State militants who had deployed there from the group's de facto capital in Raqqa.

Russia said it notified the United States, Turkey and Israel before firing the missiles. It did not say exactly when the strikes took place.

The Palmyra area has seen a lot of fighting during the past year, with control of the city changing between Islamic State fighters and the Syrian government several times. Syrian forces currently hold the city, but clashes continue.

Russian forces have been involved in Syria since late 2015 in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Russia has been criticized by the United States and others for not focusing enough of its air campaign against Islamic State targets.

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Solar Power Lights Up Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Solar power is lighting up the night sky in Jordan and making life easier for the 20,000 Syrian refugees at a camp that once had no reliable source of electricity. Faith Lapidus reports. Read More Solar Power Lights Up Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan : http://ift.tt/2rmiKz9

Indications Iran Doubling Down on Use of Proxy Forces

WASHINGTON — 

An influx of cash that was the byproduct of the deal Iran struck with a group of world powers to curtail its nuclear program may not be changing the way Iran goes about wielding influence across the Middle East and beyond.

A top U.S. military official says rather than using any additional monies to invest more heavily in conventional forces, there are indications Tehran continues to focus on cultivating special operators to help lead and direct proxy forces.

“If anything, increased defense dollars in Iran are likely to go toward increasing that network, looking for ways to expand it,” U.S. Special Operation Forces Vice Commander Lieutenant General Thomas Trask told an audience in Washington late Tuesday.

“We’ve already seen evidence of them taking units and officers out of the conventional side that are working with the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) in Syria,” Trask added. “We’re going to stay focused on these proxies and the reach that Iran has well past Syria and Yemen but into Africa, into South America, into Europe as well.”

The 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, gave Tehran access to an estimated $50 billion to $150 billion in previously frozen assets. It also cleared the way for Iran to seek new investment to boost its economy.

Critics of the deal feared Iran would take a large portion of that money to boost its military and expand its influence across the Middle East.

Yet despite Iran’s heavy involvement in Syria to help prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. military officials see no indications much of that money has been set aside for bolstering Tehran’s conventional forces.

Nor do they see that as a likely scenario, even though the latest estimates from the U.S. intelligence community warn Iran is trying to develop “a range of new military capabilities,” including ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and armed drones.

“That takes a long time to change. You’ve really got to build a significant infrastructure,” Trask said during the event at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

“We’re going to continue to plan primarily against that network of proxies and unconventional warfare that Iran pushes out to create that buffer for the regime,” he said.

Already, Iran is supplementing its own forces inside Syria by providing arms, financing and training for as many as 10,000 Shia militia fighters, including units from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Military and intelligence officials further worry about the sway Iran has over tens of thousands of additional fighters who are part of Shia militias fighting in Iraq. And there are concerns Iran is trying to employ the same type of model in Yemen, where U.S. officials say it has been supplying arms and other help to Houthi forces.

“Everywhere you look, if there is trouble in the region, you find Iran,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last moth during a visit to Saudi Arabia, when asked about Yemen. “We'll have to overcome Iran's efforts to destabilize yet another country and create another militia in their image of Lebanese Hezbollah.”

And some analysts say that Iran will persist, even if the results are not immediate.

“You’ve seen this slow ratcheting up of what they’ve been able to do in Syria and it’s not sufficient,” said J. Matthew McInnis, a resident fellow at AEI and author of a new report on Iran’s security policy, noting Tehran’s reliance on Russian air support.

Still, Tehran has shown no signs of backing down, he said, willing to wait out its adversaries.

“We underestimated the degree to which Iran was committed to Assad,” McInnis said. “They’re going to fight as long as it takes in Syria.”

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Allegations of Abuse, Mismanagement Shadow Gains Against IS

BEIRUT — 

As the U.S.-led coalition ratchets up operations in Syria, there are concerns that it will result in a rerun of what happened in Iraq, where $1 billion in weapons supplied to local fighters is unaccounted for.

Weapons, training and airstrikes by the coalition have aided ground forces in both Iraq and Syria, allowing Iraq's military, Iraqi Kurdish fighters and Syrian Kurdish fighters to retake some 55,000 square kilometers (21,235 square miles) of territory from the Islamic State extremists in the nearly three-year fight.

However, many in both countries are concerned about how the forces bolstered by the coalition will leverage their influence and arms once the militants are vanquished. Numerous Iraqi groups that benefited from the training and arms have been accused of human rights violations.

The Trump administration's decision to provide Syria's Kurds with more advanced weapons has raised concerns among the various players in Syria's complicated battlefield. U.S. officials have said new weapons to be supplied would include heavy machine guns, ammunition, mortars and possibly TOW anti-tank missiles.

Coalition spokesman Col. John Dorrian said the weapons will not be reclaimed after the specific missions are completed but the U.S. will "carefully monitor" where and how they are used.

"Every single one" of the weapons will be accounted for and the U.S. will "assure they are pointed at" IS, he said.

But opposition fighters battling Syrian forces in the country's six-year civil war -- some of them backed by Turkey -- say there is simply no guarantee the weapons won't be directed against them or others.

U.S.-backed Kurdish groups have often clashed with Turkey-backed groups in northern Syria, where many factions are jostling to hold various zones of influence.

The coalition already has demonstrated an inability to track weapons in Iraq, a much less complex and unstable battlefield than Syria.

Amnesty International released a report this month detailing a 2016 U.S. Defense Department audit stating that $1 billion in weapons provided to Iraqi forces for use in the IS fight are now unaccounted for.

The coalition could have worked closer with the Iraqi government to ensure the weapons were accounted for, said Patrick Wilcken, a researcher with Amnesty and an author of the report. But in Syria, he said, it will be "almost impossible to avoid leakage and diversion of arms" provided by the coalition to fighters there.

"The coalition takes all reasonable efforts to maintain accountability of equipment divested to the government of Iraq to fight" IS, coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon told The Associated Press. Since the 2016 audit referenced in the Amnesty report, he said, "all deficiencies identified in that report have been corrected."

Iraqi commanders must sign for all equipment they receive and the coalition then continues to monitor them "for future vetting purposes" and on the battlefield, Dillon added.

Allegations of torture, rape

This month, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine detailed allegations of torture, rape and killings of IS suspects at the hands of Iraq's Emergency Response Division, an Interior Ministry unit that has played a leading role in the coalition-aided operation to retake Mosul.

Iraqi soldiers, Kurdish forces and local policemen have all been accused of carrying out mass extrajudicial detentions of men and boys fleeing military operations against IS, according to reports by Human Rights Watch and the AP. Syrian Kurdish forces backed by the coalition have also been accused of abuses against Sunni Arabs, according to human rights organizations and Syrian opposition activists.

Other armed groups -- notably Iraq's mostly Shiite paramilitary forces who do not receive direct U.S. assistance of any kind -- have been accused of much more widespread human rights abuses than the forces backed by the coalition.

The U.S. human rights law known as the Leahy amendment prohibits the Defense Department from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights. In March 2015, the Iraqi Emergency Response Division was disqualified from receiving U.S. equipment and training, coalition spokesman Dillon said.

But he said the law does not prevent the U.S. from working with the ERD to help ensure a coordinated effort among different elements of the Iraqi security forces. The coalition has shared intelligence with the unit and conducted airstrikes to facilitate their military operations.

Iraq's Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga -- who have received some of the most extensive support from the coalition, including training, arms and air support -- have been accused of destroying Arab property and forcing Arab residents out of dozens of villages retaken from IS.

The AP visited one village outside Kirkuk where Arab residents said Kurdish forces labeled their homes as "confiscated," seized identification documents and reduced buildings to rubble. Iraq's Kurdistan regional government denied the claims, saying IS fighters destroyed the houses as they retreated.

Syrian Kurdish forces

In northern Syria, rebels are concerned that Syrian Kurdish forces will mirror the actions of the peshmerga and use the fight against IS to expand the land they control, ultimately creating a separate state by pushing out ethnic Arabs. Amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, the Kurds have already created an autonomous Kurdish zone in northern Syria.

An Amnesty International fact-finding mission to northern Syria in 2015 uncovered forced displacement of Arab residents carried out by Kurdish forces that the group said amounted to war crimes. The report detailed the deliberate demolishing of civilian homes as well as razing and burning whole villages previously captured by IS. The Kurds have rejected the claims.

Col. Abdul-Razzak Ahmad Freiji, a Syrian army defector who is now with Turkey-backed rebels in northern Syria, said news of U.S. arms to Syrian Kurdish fighters exacerbates his concerns.

After the fight with the Islamic State group is over, Freiji said, "these weapons [will be directed] against us."

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US Starts Providing Weapons to Syrian Kurds

WASHINGTON — 

The United States said Tuesday that it had begun distributing arms to Syrian Kurdish militia members battling to help retake Raqqa from Islamic State, moving ahead with a war plan that has angered NATO ally Turkey.

Pentagon spokesman Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway said the Kurdish fighters received small arms and vehicles from the U.S. military. He said he thought the arms were distributed earlier Tuesday.

Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the distribution of the arms had started in the past 24 hours, based on authority given by President Donald Trump earlier this month.

There was no immediate reaction from Turkey, which has warned the United States that its decision to arm Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State in Syria could end up hurting Washington.

Turkey views the YPG as the Syrian extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984 and is considered a terrorist group by the United States, Turkey and Europe.

U.S. partner

The United States regards the YPG as a valuable partner in the fight against Islamic State militants in northern Syria.

Washington says that arming the Kurdish forces is necessary to recapturing Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and a hub for planning attacks against the West.

U.S. officials have told Reuters that the United States was also looking to boost intelligence cooperation with Turkey to support its fight against the PKK.

It was unclear whether the effort would be enough to soothe Turkey, however.

Ankara worries that advances by the YPG in northern Syria could inflame the PKK insurgency on Turkish soil. It has also voiced concern that weapons given to the YPG would end up in the hands of the PKK.

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Iraqi Forces Begin Final Push in Mosul

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After more than seven months of battles, U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces say they are beginning what they call a final push to oust Islamic State militants from their last pockets of control in Mosul. VOA's Kawa Omar reports. Read More Iraqi Forces Begin Final Push in Mosul : http://ift.tt/2qwNHl7

Path Cleared for Congress to Consider U.S. Arms Sale to Riyadh

WASHINGTON — 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has authorized the State Department to notify Congress of the Trump administration's sale of precision-guided munitions for Saudi Arabia to use in its Yemen campaign, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday.

The notification is one of the last steps in the arms sale process and triggers a formal 30-day review to allow members of Congress to attempt to pass legislation to stop any sale.

U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation last week seeking to block about $500 million of a $110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, including the portion on precision-guided missiles and other offensive weapons.

An announcement of the sale had been expected in March but objections from mostly Democratic lawmakers and human rights groups led to Washington to ask Riyadh for commitments to improve targeting procedures that would minimize civilian casualties.

Asked on Tuesday whether the Saudis had taken specific measures to improve targeting capabilities, the senior U.S. diplomat, acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones, did not answer directly.

“That's a continuing source of conversation between us,” Jones told reporters. “We're constantly trying to improve that process.”

Limited military support

The Yemen civil war pits Iran-allied Houthi rebels against the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. Nearly 4,800 civilians have been killed since March 2015, the United Nations said in March.

Jones said Tillerson's authorization, which was expected, occurred just before President Donald Trump's May 20-21 visit to Saudi Arabia.

Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, in December limited military support to Saudi Arabia's campaign in Yemen because of concerns over civilian casualties, and halted the sale of the precision-guided munitions.

On his trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump received a warm welcome from Gulf Arab leaders, who want to crack down on Iran's influence in the region, a commitment they found lacking in Obama.

Human rights abuses

Trump also did not make overt mentions of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia in his speech there, a move criticized by Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

“The fact that it wasn't featured in the speech doesn't mean that it's not part of the bilateral dialogue,” Jones said. “By taking it out of the public debate and having those conversations directly and quietly, we'll be more effective.”

Tillerson last week told reporters that human rights issues were not the “central part” of Trump's private meetings with Saudi officials, which instead focused on the fight against terrorism.

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Putin, Saudi Prince Praise Dialogue on Oil, Syria

DUBAI/MOSCOW — 

Russia and Saudi Arabia hailed their growing partnership in oil markets and dialogue on Syria on Tuesday, in a departure from past hostilities between the top global producers and major players in the Middle East.

Russian President Vladimir Putin heaped praise on Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who looks after the kingdom's defense and energy, as he welcomed the possible future king to the Kremlin.

It was the second meeting between the two men over the past year following a breakthrough meeting in China, where Putin and Prince Mohammed showed the first signs the world's two biggest oil exporters could clinch a deal to prop up oil prices.

Non-OPEC Russia had long opposed any cooperation in reducing oil output in tandem with OPEC, where Saudi Arabia is de facto leader.

Russia's military campaign in Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad in the past two years has effectively pitted the Kremlin in a direct military confrontation with Saudi Arabia as the Sunni kingdom has long fought for Assad's removal.

But the oil price plunge in the last two years has overstretched the budgets of both producers, making joint cuts more likely, especially with Russia facing a presidential election next year and Saudi Arabia requiring higher prices for economic reforms and the listing of its energy giant Aramco.

"The relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia are going through one of their best moments ever," Prince Mohammed told Putin.

"We have a lot of common ground. As far as our disagreements are concerned, we have a clear mechanism of how to overcome them. We are moving forward quickly and in a positive way," he added.

"The most important thing is that we are succeeding in building a solid foundation to stabilize oil markets and energy prices," Prince Mohammed said.

Last December, Russia and 10 other non-OPEC nations agreed to join OPEC's output cuts for the first time in 15 years. Last week Moscow agreed to extend its cooperation by another nine months until March 2018.

Both Moscow and Riyadh said that cooperation would last beyond the current agreement as both countries are still trying to find ways to co-exist with U.S. shale oil producers, who are not part of the global output reduction deals.

As a part of Tuesday's talks, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to explore an opportunity to join a consortium of investors in a Moscow real estate project.

The Russian fund also said in statement both parties are evaluating more projects, including in retail, real estate, alternative energy projects, transportation and logistics infrastructure.

"We are grateful to you for your ideas and the joint work between OPEC and the countries which are not part of the cartel," Putin told Prince Mohammed.

"We support political contacts, contacts between defense ministries. We work together on sorting out difficult situations, including in Syria," Putin said.

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UN: 200,000 Iraqis Could Flee Mosul in Coming Days

UNITED NATIONS — 

The United Nations said Tuesday that 200,000 Iraqi civilians could flee an Islamic State-controlled part of Mosul in the coming days.

The Iraqi government on Thursday urged civilians in the Old City of Mosul to flee their homes and cross to safety on the other side of government lines.

"When they issued this new instruction, it represented a dramatic change and shift from the guidance that they had been previously providing," said Lise Grande, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official in Iraq.

She said there are three neighborhoods to the north of the Old City, as well as the Old City itself, where the civilians are trapped.

"We are deeply concerned about the safety of these civilians," Grande told reporters by video link from Baghdad. "We feel those civilians are probably at greater risk now than at any stage of the entire campaign."

She noted that the evacuation notice was not compulsory, and that the Iraqi security forces would protect civilians who remained in the Old City.

When the military offensive to retake Mosul began in the eastern part of the city last October, the U.N. feared an exodus of as many as 700,000 civilians. It did not happen, as a half-million residents stayed in their homes and rode out the fighting.

But when the army began liberating the western part of the city, residents fled at a much higher rate. Grande said 774,000 Iraqis have left Iraq's second-largest city, which has been under IS control since 2014. The U.N. is providing assistance to all of them, as well as the half-million east Mosul residents who remained in their homes.

Expecting the worst

"Based on our own scenario planning, we are at the moment staring our worst-case scenario straight in the face," Grande said. "Now we know that in the next few days, the next few weeks, an additional 200,000 civilians are likely to flee," she added, saying it would be difficult for humanitarians to cope with the number and speed of people moving.

Grande said the number of people leaving western Mosul recently had spiked to 10,000 a day and had reached 15,000 to 16,000 on some days.

"We are, however, developing contingency plans for a worst case that would envision as many as 40,000 civilians leaving each day," Grande said.

They are arriving at humanitarian points where they receive water, food and medical care, before they are screened and then sent to emergency camps or find shelter with friends or relatives. Grande said the families who have made the difficult and dangerous escape report limited food supplies, as well as shortages of clean water and medicines.

The battle for Mosul is not over, but humanitarians already are making contingency plans for the next town the Iraqi security forces are likely to try to liberate from IS — Hawija, in Kirkuk province. The U.N. already has constructed eight emergency camps nearby and is building more in anticipation of that operation.

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UN: Yemen Now World's Largest Food Insecurity Crisis

UNITED NATIONS — 

The United Nations humanitarian chief said Tuesday that Yemen has become the world’s largest food insecurity crisis, with more than 17 million people struggling daily to get enough to eat.

Stephen O’Brien told the U.N. Security Council that of the 17 million people who are food insecure, nearly 7 million of them are “one step away from famine.”

“What is worse, the threat of famine is driven and exacerbated by conflict,” O’Brien said, speaking of the more than two-year-old war between Yemen's government and Houthi rebels.

O’Brien noted that the country is not facing a drought, a common cause of famine, but that the crisis is entirely man-made.

“If there was no conflict, there would be no descent into famine, misery, disease and death – a famine would certainly be avoidable and averted,” he said.

Spike in food prices

Food prices have surged, leaving a quarter of Yemenis unable to afford provisions at their local markets.

Local food production, especially agriculture and fishing, has been severely disrupted by the fighting. Add to that a de facto blockade on the country’s main commercial port by the government’s Gulf Arab supporters, which is making the delivery of humanitarian aid and fuel extremely difficult.

As hunger spreads, the population becomes more susceptible to disease and the country is now trying to contain a cholera outbreak that O’Brien said has sickened an estimated 60,000 people and killed 500. He said another 150,000 cases of the water-borne disease are projected over the coming six months.

“The scale of this latest outbreak is…a direct consequence of the conflict,” O’Brien said. He praised the U.N. and its humanitarian partners who are working to contain the epidemic. Less than 45 percent of Yemen’s medical facilities are functioning, adding to the challenge.

Political settlement still beyond reach

And there is no political settlement in sight.

“I will not hide from this council that we are not close to a comprehensive agreement,” the U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told council members.

“The reluctance of the key parties to embrace the concessions needed for peace, or even to discuss them, remains extremely troubling,” he said.

Ahmed said he has also failed to get agreement on a deal to avert a military attack on the vital Red Sea port of Hodeidah, which is the main entry point for the majority of the country’s fuel and humanitarian aid.

Meanwhile, over one million civil servants have not been paid their salaries in months, driving families into poverty and adding to the country’s economic crisis.

Even the special envoy has not been immune to first-hand experience of the violence. Last Monday, Ahmed's convoy was attacked in Houthi-controlled Sana'a while traveling from the airport to the United Nations compound. The U.N. has called for an investigation into the incident.

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For Turkey's Medical Tourists, Sightseeing and Hair Transplants

ISTANBUL — 

When you walk around Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square, men with bands around their heads are not an uncommon sight. The locals know by now that the men have just received hair transplants.

Even though general tourism has suffered in Turkey due to recent terrorist attacks, medical tourism continues to thrive. In 2016, more than 152,000 people came to Turkey for medical tourism, according to statistics from the Turkish Health Ministry.

Jordanian Khaled Saleh is one of the thousands of people who came to Turkey not only for a visit, but also to get a hair transplant.

“If I want to make the same surgery in my country, it's going to cost me $5,000. I spent $1,100 here,” says Saleh. “It was very cheap and helpful. The team was very helpful. We also come here for tourism. We feel safe in Turkey. Police is everywhere, helping us. Also, the tourism — Istanbul is a magnificent city."

Medical tourism consultant Emre Ali Kodan lists the reasons why Turkey is one of the top medical tourism destinations.

“High quality service, affordable prices, surpassing Europe in medical technology, cultural proximity to Middle East, experience of doctors,” he says.

Kodan says about 5,000 people received hair transplants each month in 2016, and up to 80,000 people are projected to receive hair transplants in 2017.

WATCH: video from Istanbul

The men with bands around their heads are the most visible medical tourists in Turkey. But the top medical procedures tourists came to Turkey for in 2016 involved obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology and orthopedics. Plastic surgery and cancer treatment were also in the top 10.

"Our doctors are top notch," says Kodan. "We have competitive advantage in terms of fees. These reasons are why even Europeans chose to come here for medical treatments."

In 2016, most of Turkey's medical tourists were Libyans, Azerbaijanis and Iraqis. But Europeans choose Turkey as well.

German Jan Bourcevet, 23, found the Turkish hair transplant clinic he used after researching online.

“In Germany where I come from, it’s like [one] fourth of the price. I sent my pictures to them and they made me an offer. It sounded great, so I did it,” says Bourcevet.

Like Jordanian Khaled Saleh, Bourcevet also plans to use the opportunity to be a traditional tourist. He's happy that, thanks to his hair transplant procedure, he gets to explore another country.

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Rouhani Faces Pressure to Improve Human Rights in Iran

BEIRUT — 

In the week before the May 19 presidential election in Iran, the eventual victor, Hassan Rouhani, criticized the judiciary and the powerful Revolutionary Guards with rhetoric rarely heard in public in the Islamic republic.

Now, in the eyes of his supporters, it is time to deliver.

Millions of Rouhani's followers expect him to keep pushing on human rights issues.

"The majority of Iranians have made it clear that they want improvement on human rights," said Hadi Ghaemi, the director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a New York-based advocacy group. "Expectations are running high."

That message came through loud and clear shortly before Rouhani, who won re-election with more than 57 percent of the vote, took the stage at a gathering of supporters in Tehran last week.

"Ya Hussein, Mirhossein" went the thunderous chant, a reference to Mirhossein Mousavi, a presidential candidate in the 2009 election, who, along with fellow candidate Mehdi Karroubi disputed the results, spurring widespread protests.

Dozens of protestors were killed and hundreds arrested in the crackdown that followed, according to human rights groups.

Mousavi, his wife Zahra, and Karroubi, were placed under house arrest in 2011 after calling for protests in Iran in solidarity with pro-democracy uprisings across the Middle East.

The trio's continued detention is a divisive political issue in Iran and one that Rouhani has promised to resolve.

But if he keeps pushing, he will face a backlash from his hardline opponents which could undermine his second term, analysts say.

Clear message

At the rally, it took several minutes for the announcer to quiet the crowd before another chant broke out: "Our message is clear, house arrest must be broken".

Along with those arrests, more than 20 journalists and activists were arrested in the lead-up to the elections according to CHRI, an issue which has also been raised by Rouhani supporters.

Many political prisoners are kept in solitary confinement and not allowed to see their families for long periods of time, according to human rights groups.

Iran has one of world's highest rates of capital punishment. At least 530 people were executed in 2016, according to a United Nations report.

Rouhani's supporters also expect him to fight for basic rights that affect their daily lives, like preventing security forces from harassing women for the way they dress or the judiciary from cancelling concerts.

During his first term, Rouhani made the signing of an agreement with Western powers, which lifted a large number of sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program, his top priority.

As a result, human rights issues were sidelined, analysts say. But now that the nuclear agreement is being implemented, his supporters are waiting for change.

Rouhani's decisive election win may have finally given him the opportunity to address human rights issues.

"As the head of the executive branch, Mr. Rouhani and his colleagues must use this opportunity to the maximum," parliamentarian Gholamreza Tajgardoon said last week, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA).

But signs are emerging that hardliners are ready for a fight.

Iran's judiciary chief hit back at Rouhani on Monday for bringing up the issue of the house arrest of opposition leaders during his campaign.

"Who are you to break the house arrests?" Larijani said without naming Rouhani, according to the judiciary news site Mizan.

Larijani said the Supreme National Security Council must take the initial decision to end the house arrests and then the judiciary would step in.

Any attempt to resolve this issue outside this legal procedure would be seen as an attempt to stoke up unrest similar to 2009, he said, according to Mizan.

"We're issuing a warning that they should wrap this issue up otherwise the judiciary, with authority, will wrap this issue up itself," Larijani said.

Meanwhile, the restrictions continue.

Karroubi, 79, served as speaker of parliament before running for president in 2005 and 2009. He now stays largely on the upper floor of his house in Tehran and gets exercise by walking indoors, according to his son Mohammad Taghi.

His only sources of information are local newspapers and state TV.

Security agents stay on the premises around the clock and do not allow him to have access to the phone or Internet.

Taghi, speaking by telephone, said the hosue arrest had backfired, raising the profile and importance of his father and the other detainees.

"If the goal is to cut off their political ties, what we've seen is that the passage of these six or seven years hasn't had any effect," he said. "In fact, the limitations and problems have increased their impact in society."

Little progress can be made on any human rights issue without the approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest power in the country.

"Since becoming Supreme Leader in 1989, Khamenei has sought to weaken every Iranian president in their second term," said Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment.

"Given how directly Rouhani challenged Khamenei during the campaign this tradition is likely to continue."

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Bomb Kills 13, Hurts 24 in Baghdad; IS Claims Responsibility

BAGHDAD — 

A car bomb exploded outside a popular ice cream shop in central Baghdad just after midnight on Monday, killing 13 people and wounding 24, hospital and police officials said.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, which Iraqi officials said involved apparently remotely detonated explosives inside a parked car. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The attack came just days into the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims fast during daylight hours. After sundown, families break their fast and Baghdad's restaurants and cafes quickly fill up.

Videos posted to social media showed chaotic scenes on the streets surrounding the blast. A number of wounded lay on the ground, others propped themselves up on the colorful park benches outside the ice cream shop. One young girl, wearing a ribbon and bow in her hair, wandered the scene dazed.

Ramadan is often marked by an uptick in violence in Iraq.

Last year, Baghdad was rocked by a huge truck bomb attack that targeted a popular retail district in the city center where young people and families were shopping for new clothes ahead of the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. The blast killed hundreds in the single deadliest event in Baghdad since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. The IS group also claimed responsibility for that bombing, which ultimately led to the resignation of Iraq's interior minister.

Tuesday's attack comes as Iraqi troops are slowing pushing IS fighters out of their last strongholds in the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi commanders say the offensive, which recently entered its eight month, will mark the end of the IS caliphate in Iraq, but concede the group will likely increase insurgent attacks in the wake of military defeats.

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Car Bombing Kills 13 in Iraq

A car bomb has exploded outside a popular ice cream shop in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 24 others.

The bombing late Monday comes just three days into the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims flock to cafes and restaurants after a whole day of fasting.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the attack, which Iraqi officials said involved apparently remotely detonated explosives inside a parked car.

Islamic State was also responsible for a big truck bombing during Ramadan last year that killed hundreds of people.

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Warplanes Carry Out 3 Strikes on Libya's Derna, Witness Says

BENGHAZI, LIBYA — 

Warplanes launched three airstrikes on the eastern Libyan city of Derna on Monday, a witness said, an apparent continuation of Egyptian raids on the
city that began last week after militants ambushed a bus and killed Egyptian Christians.

There was no immediate confirmation of Monday's strikes from officials in Libya or neighboring Egypt, nor any claim of responsibility for the raid on the city at the eastern end of Libya's Mediterranean coast.

However, Egypt has previously acknowledged conducting airstrikes on targets in Libya since Friday and said it would launch further raids if necessary. A powerful Libyan force in the east of the country says it has coordinated air raids with Cairo.

The witness said one attack hit the western entrance to Derna and the other two hit Dahr al-Hamar, an area in the south of the city.

Egyptian jets attacked Derna on Friday, just hours after masked militants boarded vehicles en route to a monastery in the southern Egyptian province of Minya and opened fire at close range, killing 29 and wounding 24.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack in Egypt, the latest targeting the Christian minority there. Two church bombings also claimed by Islamic State killed more than 45 people last month.

According to Yasser Risk, chairman of state newspaper Akhbar Elyoum and former war correspondent with close ties to Egypt's presidency, 15 targets were hit on the first day of strikes, including in Derna and Jafra, in central Libya, where what he called "terrorism centers" were located.

He said the targets included leadership headquarters as well as training camps and weapons storage facilities and 60 fighter jets were used for the earlier raids. Egypt struck Derna again on Saturday.

Egypt has carried out airstrikes on its neighbor occasionally since Libya descended into factional fighting in the years following the 2011 civil war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

Islamist militant groups, including Islamic State, have gained ground in the chaos, and Derna, a city of around 150,000 that straddles the coastal highway linking Libya to Egypt, has frequently served as one of their main bases.

Egypt has been backing eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, whose Libyan National Army has been fighting Islamist militant groups and other fighters in Benghazi and Derna for more than two years.

Libyan National Army spokesman Col. Ahmad Messmari told reporters in Benghazi late on Sunday that Haftar's forces were coordinating with Egypt's military in airstrikes and the weekend raids targeted ammunition stores and operations camps.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said on Friday the air raids targeted militants responsible for plotting the attack, and that Egypt would not hesitate to carry out additional strikes inside and outside the country.

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Iraq Paramilitaries Move on Key Town Near Syrian Border

BAGHDAD — 

An Iraqi government-sanctioned paramilitary force moved on Monday to capture a key town beyond the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group, tightening its grip on series of towns and villages near the Syrian border, officials said.

Backed by the U.S.-led international coalition, Iraq last October launched a wide-scale military offensive to recapture Mosul and the surrounding areas, with various Iraqi military, police and paramilitary forces taking part in the operation. The city's eastern half was declared liberated in January, and the push for the city's western section, separated from the east by the Tigris River, began the following month.

According to Shi'ite lawmaker Karim al-Nouri, the mainly Shi'ite Popular Mobilization Forces seeks to drive IS militants out of the center of strategic Baaj, west of Mosul near the border with Syria. Al-Nouri said the surrounding villages have already been taken from IS.

Once Baaj falls, he told The Associated Press, the fight with IS will move to the Syrian border. He didn't elaborate.

"Baaj is a strategical town for Daesh as it is the last supply line" linking IS with Syria, said Sheikh Sami al-Masoudi, a PMF leader, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

"Once we reach the border, we will erect a dirt barricade and dig a trench to derail their [IS] move," he added.

Hashim al-Mousawi, a leader with al-Nujaba militia, which is also part of the PMF, said the troops are ready to move inside Syrian territories but that this needs Iraqi government approval.

The Iran-backed PMF — known as Hashed al-Shaabi in Arabic — has largely operated since October in the desert to the west of Mosul, trying to cut IS supply lines.

In Mosul, Iraqi forces began a new offensive to drive IS militants from the remaining pockets of territory that the militants still hold in the Old City, in Mosul's western half. The IS hold on Mosul has shrunk to just a handful of neighborhoods in and around the Old City district where narrow streets and a dense civilian population are expected to complicate the fight.

Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul fell to IS in the summer of 2014 as the militants swept over much of the country's north and central areas. Weeks later the head of the Sunni extremist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the formation of a self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque.

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Trump Sends Mixed Messages During First Foreign Trip

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Donald Trump is back in Washington after wrapping up his first international trip as president. The nine day trip was free of any major controversies abroad, but did produce several eyebrow-raising moments. VOA's Bill Gallo reports. Read More Trump Sends Mixed Messages During First Foreign Trip : http://ift.tt/2re5U5K

Norway Demands Return of Funds From Palestinian Authority

HELSINKI — 

Norway is demanding that the Palestinian Authority reimburse it for funds donated to a women's center on the West Bank because the center was named after a female militant who participated in an attack in Israel that killed 37 civilians.

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry says the country “will not allow itself to be associated with institutions that take the names of terrorists.”

Israeli Foreign Ministry officials applauded Norway's move and urged “the international community to check closely where the money that it invests in the Palestinian Authority goes.”

The women's center was named for Dalal Mughrabi, a member of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). She participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel and died during the attack.

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Egypt Blocks Financial Newspaper Website, Widening Media Blackout

CAIRO — 

Egypt has blocked the website of one of its most prominent financial newspapers, the paper's owner said on Sunday, expanding a media blackout initiated last week to curb what authorities called support for terrorism and fake news.

Egypt blocked access to a number of news websites including Al-Jazeera and Huffington Post Arabic on Wednesday after similar actions by its Gulf allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The censorship of Al-Boursa, a widely read financial newspaper that generally steers clear of politics and reflects the views of a largely pro-state business community, suggests a more expansive attempt to control private media coverage.

The website of Al-Boursa's sister publication, the English-language Daily News Egypt, was also blocked, a statement by parent company Business News said.

"Al-Boursa and Daily News Egypt newspapers express their strong condemnation for the ongoing government campaign to restrict them," it said.

Egypt last month declared a three-month state of emergency after two suicide bombings at Coptic churches killed more than 45 people. In an address ushering in a new era of martial law just after the attacks, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi warned the press to be careful in its reporting.

Security sources told Reuters last week that 21 websites had been blocked for allegedly being affiliated with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood or being funded by Qatar.

Business News said the decision to block its sites came as a surprise because they were not among the 21 blocked last week.

The company had its assets frozen last December for alleged ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, a charge it denies.

"We point out that all information on our company, its shareholders, financial statements and contracts are available to all relevant government entities," the company said in a statement on Sunday.

Websites such as Mada Masr, an Egyptian news website that describes itself as progressive and has no Islamist or Qatari affiliations, were also blocked last week.

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Families of 5 Bahrainis Say Burial of Loved Ones Without Their Consent a Crime

DUBAI — 

The families of five Bahrainis killed during a security raid last week accused authorities of depriving them from bidding farewell to their loved ones after authorities buried the bodies without their permission.

An interior ministry official said the five were buried on Friday after having contacted the families to attend funeral services, only to change their minds later, the Arabic-language al-Wasat newspaper reported on Sunday.

The dispute over the burial was likely to increase tensions in the Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab island where a government crackdown on opponents has already angered majority Shi'ite Muslims who have been demanding a bigger share in running the Western-allied country.

Authorities said the five killed were among a group that attacked security forces during a raid in Diraz, the village of Shi'ite Muslim spiritual leader Ayatollah Isa Qassim, and that nearly 300 people were also arrested.

In a statement received by Reuters on Sunday, the families said they had received a call on Friday to send two male members to a local police station.

The families said, knowing that the summoning of male relatives meant a burial ceremony was planned, they refused to go, demanding instead that the bodies be handed over for proper funeral services.

"The martyrs' families announce that depriving them from burying their sons in accordance with their wish can be construed as a crime which will be added to the first crime of liquidating them in the field," the families said in a statement.

The raid, days after President Donald Trump said U.S. ties with the Sunni-ruled kingdom — long strained over its human rights record — would improve, stoked tensions in the Gulf kingdom where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based.

Bahrain was rocked by mass protests in 2011 that were quelled by security forces. But protests continued to erupt from time to time without with varying intensity.

The government says opposition has been working with Iran, Gulf states' arch-rival, to overthrow the government. Iran denies the accusations.

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Iraq's Iran-backed Paramilitary Advances Towards Syria Border

BAGHDAD — 

Iraq's Iran-backed Shi'ite paramilitary force said on Sunday it had dislodged Islamic State from a number of villages west of Mosul, scoring further progress towards the border with Syria.

The villages taken by the Popular Mobilization paramilitary force include Kojo, where Islamic State fighters abducted hundreds of Yazidi women in 2014, including Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar, recipients of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.

Kojo and the other villages of the Sinjar mountain region will be returned to the Yazidi community, a Popular Mobilization leader, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, told Iraqi state television.

Popular Mobilization is taking part in the U.S-backed Iraqi campaign to defeat Islamic State in Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh. The force reports nominally to Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and has Iranian military advisers.

Iraq's government is aiming to control the border area with Syria in coordination with the Iranian-backed army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Linking up the two sides would give Assad a significant advantage in fighting the six-year rebellion against his rule.

The region immediately alongside the border on the Iraqi side is either under the control of Islamic State or Kurdish forces. Islamic State also controls parts of Syria.

Iraqi government armed forces are focusing their effort on dislodging insurgents from the city of Mosul, Islamic State's de-facto capital in Iraq.

Since the campaign started in October, the insurgents have lost the city except for an enclave alongside the western bank of the Tigris river.

On Saturday Iraqi forces launched an operation to capture the enclave, which includes the densely populated Old City center and three adjacent districts.

The fall of the city would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the "caliphate" declared nearly three years ago by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from Mosul.

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Survivors of Egypt Christian Bus Attack Recount Horror

CAIRO — 

Video interviews with survivors of a deadly attack by Islamic militants on a bus taking Egyptian Christians to a remote desert monastery are painting a picture of untold horror, with children hiding under their seats to escape gunfire.

The videos surfaced on social media networks on Sunday, two days after 29 were killed in the attack on a desert road south of the capital. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday. It was the fourth attack against Christians in Egypt since December to be claimed by the IS. The string of attacks have killed more than 100 and injured scores.

One survivor, a small boy who seemed to be about six, said his mother pushed him under her seat and covered him with a bag. A young woman speaking from her hospital bed said the assailants ordered the women to surrender their jewelry and money before they opened fire, killing the men first and then some of the women.

The woman said the gunmen were masked and wore military uniforms.

Bishop Makarios, the top Coptic Orthodox cleric in Minya, the province where the attack took place, said the assailants told Christian men they ordered off the bus they would spare their lives if they converted to Islam.

"They chose death," said Makarios, who has been an outspoken critic of the government's handling of anti-Christian violence in Minya, where Christians account for more than 35 percent of the population, the highest anywhere in Egypt.

"We take pride to die while holding on to our faith," he said in a television interview aired late Saturday.

Makarios confirmed that the assailants stole the women's jewelry and his contention that the men were ordered off the bus before being killed was also confirmed by a video clip purportedly in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. This video showed at least four or five bodies of adult men lying on the desert sand next to the bus; women and other men screamed and cried as they stood or squatted next to the bodies.

Egypt responded to the attack with a wave of airstrikes against suspected militant bases where the military said the perpetrators trained. A manhunt for the assailants in the vast deserts to the west of the site of the attack has so far yielded no arrests.

In the Vatican, Pope Francis, for the second day in a row, expressed his solidarity with Egypt's Coptic Christians following Friday's attack. He led thousands of people in prayer Sunday for the victims, who Francis said were killed in "another act of ferocious violence" after having refused to renounce their Christian faith.

Speaking from his studio window over St. Peter's Square, he said: "May the Lord welcome these courageous witnesses, these martyrs, in his peace and convert the hearts of the violent ones."

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Sources: Iran to Bankroll Pro-Government Militia Fighters in Syria

The Syrian government has asked Iran to take over the supervision and payroll of thousands of Shi'ite militiamen fighting alongside Russian and Syrian troops in support of President Bashar al-Assad, according to a government source and a news report.

The pro-opposition Syrian news website Zaman Al Wasel reported that it obtained a Syrian defense ministry document saying the Assad regime has approved a plan to give Iran responsibility for paying foreign fighters – mostly Shi'ites of varying nationalities. Shi'ite fighters mostly are paid in cash from Iran, the Syrian government and coffers of the Lebanese-based, pro-Iranian Hezbollah, according to analysts.

Iran would foot the bill alone in the future, a Syrian official told VOA on the condition of anonymity, confirming the Al Wasel report.

“The number of Shia militia has increased dramatically during the last two months,” the official said. “While a big part of these militia were recruited by Iran, a relatively big part was recruited by the Syrian government directly. We are speaking about more than 50,000 militants from different nationalities. The Syrian government requested that Iran provide for all of the mentioned militias.”

The document from Al Wasel put the number of fighters to be paid at 88,733 — a figure analysts say is exaggerated. They estimate that about 10,000 Iranian combat troops are in Syria fighting alongside thousands of fighters from Lebanon's Tehran-affiliated Shiite militia Hezbollah and assorted Shiite militia made up of renegade Pakistanis, central Asians and other nationalities. Since January 2013, more than 1,000 members of Iran’s elite Quds Force or other elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units have been killed fighting in Syria.

Tehran says its forces are in Syria to protect the Zeinab Shrine in Damascus, a Shi'ite holy site. But since 2011, Iran has been a major backer of the Syrian regime in its war with rebel groups across the country, at first sending advisers, then forces from the IRGC and expanding far beyond the shrine area.

Iran has long expressed a desire to command a unified army in the region, particularly in Syria, and its growing power in Syria and Iraq is causing unease in Western capitals. In an interview with the Mashregh news agency last August, Mohammad Ali Falaki, an IRGC leader, announced formation of a unified army in Syria which appears to have come to loose fruition.

“It would hardly be abnormal for Iran's IRGC to be controlling yet more Shia jihadists,” said Talha Abdulrazaq, a researcher at the University of Exeter's Strategy and Security Institute.

In the long run, the formation of a unified army in Syria under Tehran supervision appears very practical, analysts say.

“It seems plausible that the Syrian government shift the responsibility for management and organization of the militias, especially where financial burden is concerned,” said Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East affairs expert in Washington.

Asserting its military prowess would help Iran push its political agenda in the region, some analysts believe.

“The bigger and more advanced army you control, the stronger voice you have,” said Daryoush Babak, a Washington-based retired Iranian military adviser.

But unifying Assad supporters under Tehran’s umbrella could worsen sectarian conflict in the region between Shi'ites and Sunni, analysts say.

Iran is looking for any chance to increase its influence and gain an upper hand against Saudi Arabia, its strongest rival in the war of minds and hearts, analysts say. Saudi Arabia and Iran support rival groups in Syria's civil war. And In a speech in Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump accused Tehran of contributing to instability in the region.

"Tehran and Riyadh … keep contradicting each other to prove whose ideology leads the region," said Nafisi.

While Syria has relied on Iran militarily in the fight against rebels and Islamic State, it’s unlikely to grant Tehran a controlling foothold in the country, analysts say.

“In Syria, it is not likely to happen as long as the Assad regime harbors ambitions of regaining sovereignty rather than being reduced to an Iranian protectorate,” said Alfoneh.

VOA’s Noor Zahid contributed to this report.

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Pope says Egyptian Copts Killed by IS Were 'Martyrs'

VATICAN CITY — 

For the second day in a row, Pope Francis has expressed his solidarity with Egypt's Coptic Christians following an attack on a bus carrying Coptic pilgrims to a remote desert monastery.

Francis led thousands of people in prayer Sunday for the victims, who Francis said were killed in "another act of ferocious violence" after having refused to renounce their Christian faith.

Speaking from his studio window over St. Peter's Square, Francis said: "May the Lord welcome these courageous witnesses, these martyrs, in his peace and convert the hearts of the violent ones."

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, which killed 29 people.

On Saturday during a visit to Genoa, Francis prayed for the victims and lamented that there were more martyrs today than in early Christian times.

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Long Shunned By Foreigners, Iran Looks to Tourism to Boost Ailing Economy

Iran’s potential as a holiday destination is vast, with its stunning landscapes and numerous World Heritage sites, but foreign tourists have largely avoided the country ever since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The reasons are numerous. The visa process can be lengthy and complex. Some female visitors object to customary restrictions on dress. Alcohol consumption is heavily restricted. And, fears of detention and political upheaval enter the minds of many foreigners considering holidays in the Islamic republic.

Under President Hassan Rohani, a relative moderate who won a second term in office with a convincing first-round victory in Iran's May 19 presidential election, the country has welcomed foreigners as part of an effort to improve its international image and boost an economy battered by low oil prices and years of crippling international sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear program.

Since the signing of a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 that was the crowning achievement of Rohani's first term, tour companies have launched holiday packages and major European airlines have resumed regular flights to Iran.

The number of foreign tourists has increased accordingly, and the cash-strapped government is planning to build on its tourism revival by easing visa restrictions and spending heavily to spruce up tourist accommodations and shabby transportation networks.

'Tsunami of tourists'

In 2015, Masoud Soltanifar, the head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, said he was expecting a "tsunami of tourists" once sanctions were lifted following the deal under which Iran's nuclear program would be curbed in return for the lifting of sanctions.

The World Bank saidthe number of visitors to Iran increased from 2.2 million in 2009 to 5.2 million in 2015, and Iranian officials expect that trend to continue.

The influx of tourists has brought the country billions of dollars in revenue and created badly needed jobs. In 2015, Iran earned $7.5 billion in tourism revenue; the government hopes to attract 20 million foreign tourists by 2025 and gross $30 billion.

Business Insider and Bloomberg have named Iran among the top destinations to visit in 2017 because of security and the country’s ancient architecture, famous bazaars, and natural beauty.

To put Iran on the map for tourism in the region, authorities have announced sweeping plans that include easing visa restrictions.

Issuing visas on arrival at the airport for nationals of 190 countries as well as issuing electronic visas are among the initiatives being considered by Iranian officials. Citizens from the United States, Canada and Britain would still only be allowed to travel on escorted tours.

The government has also announced plans to create sufficient accommodation and transportation for the growing number of tourists. There is a plan to increase the number of higher-end hotels from 130 to more than 1,000 in 10 years.

Iran also plans to add 400 new passenger planes to its domestic fleet to compensate for shortages due to international sanctions over the past three decades.

The plan is to make Iran a hot spot that would rival regional destinations. Like Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, Iran is blessed with natural wonders.

The Islamic Republic has a sun-baked coast with hundreds of kilometers of beaches. Iran is also a haven for culture buffs, with 19 World Heritage sites, including the ancient desert city of Bam and the ruins of Persepolis.

Tourist hub

Key to the government’s plans to boost tourist numbers is Kish Island, one of a handful of free-trade zones in Iran. The southern island in the Persian Gulf is known for its newly built, multistory malls; sparkling jewelry stores; and swanky, five-star hotels hugging the coast.

The island is a tourist hot spot that attracts an estimated 1 million people every year, mostly Iranians. But Tehran is stepping up its efforts to make the island, located 16 kilometers from the mainland, a destination for foreign visitors as well.

Iran’s first cruise ship since 1979 made its maiden voyage on April 13, docking at another Iranian Gulf resort island, Qeshm, with more than 200 passengers on board.

The seven-floor, Swedish-built cruise liner, named Sunny, is equipped with two cinemas, restaurants, a swimming pool and a conference hall. With the capacity to carry up to 1,600 passengers and 200 vehicles between the two islands, the ship is intended to help launch a "boom [in] marine tourism," according to Iran’s state IRNA news agency.

Luxurious spot

Kish Island is known as an oasis of luxury and relative freedom in the otherwise conservative Islamic republic.

Women can be seen dipping their bare legs in the warm sea, alcohol is easier to come by, and even prostitutes can be seen on the promenades. It is a world away from the mainland, where a strict ban on alcohol and prostitution is enforced and women must be covered.

Visitors to Kish are attracted by the duty-free shops, resort hotels, water sports and an opportunity to escape the strict social norms on the mainland. A small number of foreigners are also going to Kish, where they do not need a visa and where they can mingle freely in foreigners-only parts of the island.

Authorities occasionally crack down on cinemas playing Western films, shops displaying mannequins that are deemed too exposed, and restaurants selling alcohol, but that is the exception.

Mina, a 21-year-old Iranian student who has visited Kish Island twice, says Iranians go there to escape the social restrictions on the mainland. But she added, "I saw more foreigners coming to Kish, and as long the infrastructure improves, more will come."

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