World
12 Saturday, September 14, 2013
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Taliban attack on US Consulate kills 4 Afghans Amir Shah Nahal Toosi Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban attacked a U.S. Consulate in western Afghanistan with car bombs and guns on Friday, killing at least four Afghans but failing to enter the compound or hurt any Americans. The attack in the city of Herat underscored concerns about an insurgency that shows no signs of letting up as U.S.-led troops reduce their presence ahead of a full withdrawal next year. Within hours of the assault, the U.S. temporarily evacuated many of its consular personnel to the embassy in Kabul, 650 kilometers (400 miles) to the east. Herat lies near Afghanistan’s border with Iran and is considered one of the safer cities in the country, with a strong Iranian influence. Friday’s attack highlighted the Taliban’s reach: The militants once concentrated their activities in the east and the south, but in recent years have demonstrated an ability to strike with more frequency in the once-peaceful north and west. In a phone call, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi took responsibility for the assault. An interpreter and three members of the Afghan security forces were killed, said U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf. Seven militants, including two
drivers of explosives-laden vehicles, also died, according to Gen. Rahmatullah Safi, Herat province’s chief of police. At least 17 people were wounded, said Herat hospital official Sayednaim Alemi. The attack began about 6 a.m. when militants in an SUV and a van set off their explosives while others on foot fired on Afghan security forces guarding the Consulate, Safi said. He said the militants were not able to breach the compound, where Americans live and work. Harf said the attackers fired rocket propelled grenades and that the compound’s front gate was extensively damaged in one of the bombings. Footage broadcast on Afghanistan’s Tolo television network showed Afghan police dragging away a badly bloodied man from the scene. Rubble and twisted pieces of metal lay strewn in a seemingly wide area near the consulate. American security personnel were among those responding to the attack, Harf said. Robert Hilton, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, said “all consulate personnel are safe and accounted for.” Most of the staff were temporarily relocated to the capital, but some essential personnel stayed in Herat, he said. U.S. and other foreign missions are attractive targets for militants
Hoshang Hashimi | AP Photo
Afghan security personnel assist an injured police after a suicide car bombing and a gunfight near the U.S. consulate in Herat Province, west of Kabul on Friday. Taliban militants attacked the U.S. consulate in western Afghanistan on Friday morning, using a car bomb and guns to battle security forces just outside the compound in the city of Herat. It was not entirely clear whether any attackers managed to breach the facility.
in Afghanistan, but their high walls and strict security also make them difficult to penetrate. The militants also often carry out complex attacks that include suicide car bombers and fighters on foot. Last month, a botched bombing against the Indian Consulate in the Afghan city of Jalalabad killed nine people, including six children. No Indian officials were hurt. And two years ago to the day, insurgents
fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles at the U.S. Embassy, NATO offices and other buildings in Kabul. Also Friday morning, a suicide truck bombing wounded seven Afghans in eastern Paktika province’s Sar Hawza district, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Paktika province lies along the border with Pakistan, and militants affiliated
with the Taliban and al-Qaida are active in the region. Friday’s attacks came in the wake of nationwide celebrations after the Afghan soccer team won the South Asian Football Federation Championship on Wednesday. The win produced a rare moment of national unity in this ethnically divided country, and euphoric Afghans poured into the streets to express their joy over the victory.
Teachers seize historic heart of Mexico City Mark Stevenson Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Thousands of striking teachers seized control of the historic heart of Mexico City on Friday, blockading the Zocalo plaza armed with metal pipes and wooden clubs as riot police flooded the area for what could be an ugly confrontation culminating weeks of protests against an education reform. The teachers used steel grates and plastic traffic dividers to block the streets leading into the Zocalo, home to the Metropolitan Cathedral, Templo Mayor and National Palace, some of the city’s best-known tourist attractions. Hundreds of Mexico City and federal riot police massed on the other sides of the barriers. Mexico’s government has promised that Independence Day celebrations, including the traditional presidential shout of independence from a balcony overlooking the square, will take place there Sunday and Monday. The teachers, many veterans of battles with police in the poor southern states where they live, are promising not to move from the square where they have camped out for weeks, launching a string of disruptive marches around the city. Manuel Mondragon, the head of the federal police, warned on national television that police would move in at 4 p.m. local time. One of the heads of the teachers’ union organizing the protests said organizers were still deciding what to do, but protesters on the street said they were preparing for battle. “We’re ready for whatever happens,” said Jesus Sanchez, a teacher from the southern state of Oaxaca, where he battled police during a months-long clash between authorities and striking teachers and their backers in 2006. “The Zocalo is for the people, it’s not
Eduardo Verdugo | AP Photo
Protesting teachers light a bonfire in Mexico City main plaza, the Zocalo on Friday. Thousands of teachers who have camped out at the Zocalo for more than a month have been told by authorities they need to leave today setting the stage for what could be an ugly confrontation culminating weeks of protests against an education reform. As federal police helicopters swooped low overhead Friday, teachers struck tents they have been living in for weeks and burned garbage and plastic traffic barriers, filling the Zocalo with thick, acrid smoke.
just for a few.” The teachers have disrupted the center of one of the world’s largest cities at least 15 times over the last two months, decrying a plan that aims to break union control of Mexico’s dysfunctional education system. President Enrique Pena Nieto dashed the teachers’ hopes of blocking the overhaul when he signed the new system into law Tuesday. On Wednesday, the protests began turning violent, as protesting teachers scuffled with riot police after officers set up a line to keep protesters from blocking one of the city’s main expressways. City officials reported 15 police
hurt as protesters seized some plastic riot shields from officers. The teachers say blocking the reform itself is no longer the point. They say they are now trying to maintain pressure to protect their rights and privileges as the government puts the labor reforms into effect and reduces union control over teacher hiring and assignment. As federal police helicopters swooped low overhead Friday, teachers struck tents they have been living in for weeks and burned garbage and plastic traffic barriers, filling the Zocalo with thick, acrid smoke. A group of battle-hardened teachers said clearing the tents
was a tactical move to allow them maneuvering room for any possible clash. In echoes of the Oaxaca clashes of 2006, a group of Oaxaca teachers said they had already commandeered a bulldozer from road works in the Zocalo and had moved it to the front lines, to use against a possible police attack. “We’ve got the bulldozer ready,” said primary-school teacher Cesar Perez, who teaches in the impoverished Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca. “The president isn’t going to give the shout here. Here they are going to listen to the people.” As the teachers waved pipes and cudgels in the air, singing “we will overcome!” actor Pepe Ortiz cheered on the crowd dressed as independence hero Miguel Hidalgo and clutching a big Mexican flag. He brushed off criticism that the protest was preventing the customary shout of independence. “For me, this is the shout, the shout of the people,” he said, pointing to the singing, chanting throng of protesters. “This is the real shout.” The protests are being led by the National Education Workers Coordinating Committee, or CNTE, the smaller of the country’s two main teachers unions. The larger union has supported Pena Nieto’s reform. The teachers argue that the powerful listen only to power, and their main strength is the ability to shut schools and make life inconvenient in Mexico’s economic, political and cultural heart. Mexico City’s government has avoided intervening until Friday, increasing the frustrations of many of the capital’s residents. The city’s leftist government has historically been slow to crack down on protests, fearful of violence on the capital’s streets. Two massacres of protesting students in 1968 and 1971 became national traumas.
President’s brother key to Syria regime survival Barbara Surk Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — He is hardly ever photographed or even quoted in Syria’s media. Wrapped in that blanket of secrecy, President Bashar Assad’s younger brother has been vital to the family’s survival in power. Maher Assad commands the elite troops that protect the Syrian capital from rebels on its outskirts and is widely believed to have helped orchestrate the regime’s fierce campaign to put down the uprising, now well into its third year. He has also gained a reputation for brutality among opposition activists. His role underlines the family core of the Assad regime, though he is a stark contrast to his brothers. His eldest brother, Basil, was the family prince, publicly groomed by their father Hafez to succeed him as president — until Basil died in a 1994 car crash. That vaulted Bashar, then an eye doctor in London with no military or political experience, into the role as heir, rising to the presidency after his father’s death in 2000. The two brothers — the “martyr” and the president — often appear together in posters. The 45-year-old Maher, however, has resolutely stayed out of the limelight. Friends, military colleagues and even his enemies describe him as
a strict military man to the core. The 15,000 soldiers in the 4th Armored Division that he leads are largely members of the Assad family’s minority Alawite sect — who see the civil war as a battle for their very survival — and represent the best paid, armed and trained units of the Syrian military. In the past year, his troops have launched repeated offensives against rebels firmly entrenched on Damascus’ outskirts, bombarding and raiding the impoverished suburbs they hold. Maher is also believed to have led a bloody crackdown on dissent since the uprising began in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests against Assad’s rule. In April, the Syrian rights group Violations Documentation Center reported interviews with several former detainees who described being crammed in crowded cells and undergoing beatings by guards in secret prisons on the 4th Division’s bases around Damascus where hundreds of suspected regime opponents have been held. “He is known to be merciless butcher,” said Mohammed al-Tayeb, an opposition activist speaking by Skype from the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma, among the areas pounded by the 4th Division’s assaults. Within President Bashar’s
circle of trust, Maher has advocated an uncompromising response throughout the uprising. “From the beginning, Maher was convinced that the uprising must be put down before any talks take place,” said Fawaz A. Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. “The life of the regime depends on Maher’s ability to prevent the rebels from infiltrating Damascus and toppling his brother’s government … If Damascus falls, the regime goes,” He also played a role in reshaping the Syrian military as the conflict dragged on. Once plagued by defections as rebels gained territory, the military this year has regained the upper hand with a series of powerful offensives, battling rebels to a standstill in cities and taking back some towns. “The Syrian military has changed from a rusty institution, filled with passive and tired conscripts into an urban warfare fighting machine, filled with skilled and battle hardened fighters,” said Gerges. Maher’s importance has only grown. His brother-inlaw Assef Shawkat, who was deputy defense minister and a key figure in the intelligence apparatus, was killed along with the defense minister in a June 2012 bombing.
Shawkat’s wife, the Assads’ older sister Bushra, herself a major adviser to Bashar, is believed to have since left the country for Gulf. Several of Bashar’s cousins hold significant security posts, but Maher is by far the most prominent relative. Following the Aug. 21 alleged chemical attack near Damascus that killed hundreds, opposition activists charged that the rockets carrying the chemical agents were fired by the 4th Division’s 155th Brigade, which commands large missile sites on the mountains overlooking the capital. However, the opposition could not produce proof. The United States blames the military for the attack but has not specified which units — though Maher’s are the ones that operate in the capital. The Syrian government has denied its troops carried out the attack, accusing instead foreign Islamic militants among the rebels. Maher’s relationship to his 48-year-old brother in some ways mirrors that of his father Hafez’s to his own younger brother, Rifaat, who commanded an elite military unit and was seen as the regime enforcer in the first decade after the Assads came to power in a 1970 coup. But Rifaat fell out with Hafez after he made his own bid for power in the mid-1980s, and
has lived in exile in Europe since. Maher, a brigadier general, has shown no similar thirst for the presidency. There’s been no public sign of frictions with Bashar. Last year, when rebels were striking directly into the heart of Damascus, a few startling chants calling for Maher to rule could be heard at pro-government protests: “Bashar to the clinic, Maher to the command,” underlining a perception that the military younger brother was more fit for power than his former doctor brother. But the chants were scattered, soon ended and never grew to a larger campaign. From behind the heavy secrecy, numerous reports of Maher’s ruthlessness and temper circulate — though few have been confirmed. Opposition figures and activists say Maher was behind a July 2008 crackdown on a riot by mainly Islamist prisoners at the Saidnaya prison near Damascus, in which at least 17 prisoners were killed, according to Amnesty International — though others put the toll at several dozen. An online video of the scene shows a man activists claim is Maher taking cell-phone pictures of the mangled bodies and severed limbs of the dead. The man resembles Maher, but has not
been confirmed as him. Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese army general who has studied the Syrian army and is in touch with officers from the 4th Division, said Maher is known as a “brave … and in some respects aggressive man, who has a lot of military experience.” He is respected by his troops but also feared for his strictness, Jaber said. Like his brother, Maher is married to a member of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority. He, his wife Manal Jadaan, and three children — two girls and an 18-month-old boy — live in a villa near the presidential palace in Damascus. Maher is a passionate equestrian and owns a ranch and horses in the Yaafour area, near Damascus, according to two family friends, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to give details of his private life. He also collects autographed jerseys from athletes and old motorcycles, they added. Qassem Saadeddine, a former Syrian army colonel and spokesman for the rebels’ Supreme Military Council, counters that Maher ensures loyalty among those close to him with largesse. “He gives them money, cars, houses and all means of entertainment.” “He controls the country and its resources, that’s what he does.”