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 by Staff Writers Baghdad (AFP) Nov 6, 2020
A young demonstrator was shot dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday as gunmen killed an activist in the capital, police and medics said. They said Omar Fadhel was killed in the centre of Basra, while at around the same time a key figure in anti-government protests launched in Baghdad in October 2019 was shot and killed by men using a silenced gun as he drove through an eastern district of the capital. The name of the activist killed in Baghdad was not immediately known. Fadhel was the first demonstrator killed since October 1 this year, a date that saw the first anniversary of the protest movement and was marked by demonstrators trying to revive their campaign. Medics said Fadhel was hit by at least one bullet as hundreds of protesters clashed with anti-riot police. The interior ministry confirmed his death, but said its forces had operated "in conformity with the letter of the instructions" from Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, who has repeatedly ordered security forces to avoid the use of lethal force against demonstrators. Almost 600 people have been killed since October 2019, mostly in clashes with security forces. The key demand of the youth-led protest movement in the capital and southern Iraq has been the ouster of the entire ruling class, which it accuses of corruption and of being beholden to neighbouring Iran. Activists have long suffered a campaign of kidnappings and killings to intimidate them into halting demonstrations. The months-long protest movement eventually lost momentum as tensions between Baghdad's key allies Tehran and Washington spiralled, before demonstrations ground to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Hundreds in Baghdad demand ouster of US troops from Iraq "We will choose resistance if parliament's vote is not ratified!" read one of the banners at the demonstration, which took place near an entrance to the high-security Green Zone, where the US embassy and other foreign missions are located. Others carried signs bearing the logo of Hashed al-Shaabi, a state-sponsored network of armed groups including many supported by Iraq's powerful neighbour Iran. Following a US strike on Baghdad in January that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and the Hashed's deputy head, outraged Iraqi parliamentarians voted to oust all foreign forces deployed in the country. The US has sent thousands of troops to Iraq since 2014 to lead an international coalition helping Baghdad fight the Islamic State jihadist group. Washington has drawn down those forces in recent months to around 3,000, and other coalition countries have also shrunk their footprint. Starting in October 2019, rockets regularly targeted those troops as well as diplomats at the US embassy. Over the summer, there was a marked increase in attacks against coalition logistics convoys using roadside bombs. Enraged by the ongoing attacks, the US in late September threatened to close its Baghdad embassy and carry out bombing raids against hard-line elements of the Hashed. Pro-Iran factions announced a temporary truce in October that put an end to the attacks, with no rockets targeting the embassy or foreign troops since. Iraq has long been caught in the struggle for influence between its two main allies, the US and Iran, with the tug-of-war intensifying under US President Donald Trump. Baghdad has been closely monitoring the results of the US presidential elections, seeing a change in the White House as a sign that tensions between Washington and Tehran could decrease.
French airstrikes kill over 50 Qaeda-linked jihadists in Mali Bamako (AFP) Nov 2, 2020 The French government said Monday its forces had killed more than 50 jihadists aligned to Al-Qaeda in air strikes in central Mali. The offensive took place on Friday in an area near the borders of Burkina Faso and Niger, where government troops are struggling to rout an Islamic insurgency, French Defence Minister Florence Parly said after meeting members of Mali's transitional government. "On October 30 in Mali, the Barkhane force conducted an operation that neutralised more than 50 jihadists an ... read more
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