MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2013
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Iraqi holy city hit hard by Iran economic woes NAJAF, Iraq: The spiritual heart of Shiite Islam and a hub for religious tourism in Iraq is being badly hit as sanctions against neighbouring Iran have resulted in fewer pilgrims with less money to spend. Business leaders, shopkeepers and hotel owners in Najaf, site of a shrine to a revered figure in Shiite Islam and home to most of the sect’s top clerics, all report declining trade as economic sanctions targeting Iran’s controversial nuclear program have made it harder for visitors from Iraq’s eastern neighbour to make the trip. “Revenues for hotels which host Iranian pilgrims have plunged since the beginning of the year,” said Zuheir Sharba, chairman of Najaf’s chamber of commerce. “They have fallen by half.” That marks a marked turnaround for a city that had embarked on an ambitious hotel-building program to accommodate greater numbers of pilgrims, with Sharba himself telling AFP in 2011 that “if there
are more rooms, more people will come”. The city houses the shrine to Imam Ali, a seventh century Muslim leader and cousin of the Prophet Mohammed, and is frequented by Shiite pilgrims from around the world, though the biggest chunk of visitors come from Shiite-majority Iran. Those tourists typically travel in organised nine-day tours, during which they spend three days in Najaf, which lies about 150 km south of Baghdad. The massive decline in Iranian pilgrims has badly hit the city, which is dependent on tourism-related revenues for 60 percent of its income. The sharp drop is largely due to the plummeting value of the Iranian rial. In Dec 2010, $1 bought 11,500 rials but today, it is equivalent to 36,000 rials. Iran’s Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini has blamed sanctions tied to Iran’s controversial nuclear program, which Western powers and Israel believe is being used by the Islamic republic to
develop an atomic bomb. Tehran denies the charges and insists the nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. According to Hosseini, Iran’s oil revenue has dropped by 50 percent in the past year, and he has warned that “the situation will not improve in the near future”. And, as a result of the declining value of their currency, Iranians now have less purchasing power when travelling overseas. One Iranian pilgrim, who declined to give her name, admitted that while she had long dreamt of visiting Najaf, the trip was “very expensive”. Hotel owners are also facing a crunch as deals with Iranian tour operators have gone sour. “We - hotel owners in Najaf wanted to raise the nightly rate per person from $20 to $30 because of the rising cost of power generators, but the Iranian embassy in Baghdad refused,” said Amir Al-Ameri, owner of the Rebal hotel. “And also, Iranian tour operators have stopped
paying us what they owe. So now, many hotels in Najaf are refusing to take Iranian pilgrims.” Najaf, a city with a population of around 500,000, is filled with a wide variety of languages, reflecting the varying backgrounds of Shiites, who make up around 15 percent of Muslims worldwide. They are the majority population in Iraq, Iran and Bahrain and form significant communities in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia, with travellers often coming to Iraq from as far as the United States and Canada. So to fill the shortfall caused by the decline in Iranian pilgrims, Iraq’s tourism ministry now wants to focus on Shiites visiting from other countries housing major Shiite communities. “It is necessary that we diversify,” admitted Baha Al-Maya, an adviser to the minister. “This is a crucial question, to overcome the fall in the number of Iranian pilgrims.” But for a city heavi-
ly dependent on Iranians, bridging that gap will not be easy. “Before (the decline of the Iranian rial), we sold 90 percent of our stock, but now we are down to 30 percent,” said Ahmed Al-Essawi, whose stall in the Najaf souk sells the fine black fabric used to make the chador, the full-body robe worn by Iranian women. His products are made in Iran, and his clients are exclusively Iranian, meaning Essawi has felt the decline more than most. Elsewhere, adjacent to the market, multiple hotels simply bear a “closed” sign, with no explanation offered, though none is needed. Other hotels, still under construction, have been abandoned completely by contractors. “Some hotels were almost finished when their construction was stopped,” said chamber of commerce chairman Sharba. “Other establishments wanted to begin renovations, but work has not even started because they have no idea what the future holds.” —AFP
Car bombs, shootings kill 32 people in Iraq Attacks bear hallmark of Al-Qaeda
This image released on Dec 25, 2012 shows one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, in an undisclosed place. —AFP
AQIM confirms death of leader Abou Zeid NOUAKCHOTT: Al-Qaeda’s north African branch confirmed that one of its top leaders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, was killed in fighting in Mali, three months after France announced his death, according to a statement published yesterday. Algerian-born Abou Zeid, considered one of the most radical leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was killed “on the battlefield defending the ummah (the Muslim community) and sharia law,” according to a statement carried by the private Mauritanian news agency ANI. It gave no date for his death. Paris had announced in March that Abou Zeid was killed in fighting with its forces after France led an offensive to rout Al-Qaeda linked Islamist groups from northern Mali. Both France and Chad, whose troops were also involved in the offensive, said the 46-year-old militant was killed at the end of February. “It is the first time that an AQIM statement has officially referred to the death of Abou Zeid,” said ANI director Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Abou Al-Maali, a specialist on the Islamist group. In March however, Algerian television said that AlQaeda had named a replacement for Abou Zeid, Algerian national Djamel Okacha. Abou Zeid had a reputation as a
severe, aloof character with an unflinching capacity for violence when required. Born in Debdeb in Algeria, close to the border with Libya, Abou Zeid was a young activist in the FIS Islamist movement that won the country’s first democratic elections in 1991 but was denied power. He then disappeared underground for most of the 1990s. He reemerged spectacularly in 2003 as second in command of the GSPC group which kidnapped dozens of foreigners in southern Algeria, and that would later, along with several other organisations, evolve into AQIM. Latterly, Abou Zeid - whose real name was Mohamed Ghdir according to Algerian court documents - was considered a deputy to AQIM’s “Saharan emir” Yahia Djouadi and commanded a katiba, or battalion, of fighters from Mauritania, Algeria and Mali known as Tareq ibn Ziyad, named after an eighth-century Muslim military commander. Mali descended into chaos in the wake of a March 2012 coup as Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels capitalised on the power vacuum to seize a Texas-sized triangle of desert territory in the north. France launched its offensive in its former colony on Jan 11 to stop the Islamists from advancing on the capital Bamako. —AFP
PM due in Benghazi after bloody clashes BENGHAZI: Libya’s premier was due to meet local authorities in Benghazi yesterday, a government source said, as special forces units patrolled the city a day after clashes with gunmen killed six soldiers. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was due to travel to the eastern city with members of his government to discuss the security situation, the source said on condition of anonymity. An onlooker in Benghazi told AFP that “special forces soldiers have been deployed in the city and patrolled the streets, which are calm again”. Amid the trouble and its aftermath, Libya’s highest political authority, the General National Congress, postponed a vote to choose a replacement for its head, Mohamed Al-Megaryef. Megaryef resigned on May 28 after the GNC adopted a law banning officials who had served under ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi from government jobs. Elsewhere in Libya, gunmen shot dead an appeal court judge in the eastern town of Derna on Sunday, official news agency LANA cited the head of the court, Abdelaziz Trabelsi, as saying. “Judge Mohammed Ibrahim Houidi, president of the criminal division, was killed yesterday morning as he left the appeals court building in Derna,” he said. Trabelsi added that the attackers had fled immediately after the shooting, quoting witnesses. Eastern Libya has been the scene of attacks targeting judges, soldiers and policemen who served under Kadhafi’s regime. A senior US official visiting Algeria yesterday said Washington was committed to supporting Libya in the transitional period after its revolution.”We must all support the Libyan government as they try to move forward to the destiny the Libyan people have asked for for themselves,” Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman told a news conference. She said she had talked to Algerian officials about how Algiers could improve the situation in neighbouring Libya. “Algeria is a leader in the region... and I think if we all work together we can help the Libyans succeed,” she said. Late on Saturday, Libya’s grand mufti Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ghariani called for residents of Benghazi to “stay calm” and unite during “this difficult phase that the country is passing through”. In a television appeal, Ghariani also urged the “General National Congress to open an investigation and put an end to this spiral of violence”. The head of the security forces’ joint operations room, General Mohammed Sherif, said that “special forces have identified the attackers... and some of them have been arrested,” without giving further details. Clashes between elite forces and gunmen killed six soldiers and wounded five in Benghazi on Saturday, the military said. Benghazi, the cradle of the uprising that ousted Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, has been increasingly rattled by attacks on security forces and Western interests, often blamed on Islamists. —AFP
BAGHDAD: A string of nearly a dozen apparently coordinated bombs and shootings in cities across Iraq killed at least 32 and wounded dozens yesterday, extending a wave of violence that is raising fears of a return to widespread killing a decade after the US-led invasion. Violence has spiked sharply in Iraq in recent months, with the death toll rising to levels not seen since 2008. Nearly 2,000 have been killed since the start of April. Most of the car bombs hit Shiite-majority areas and were the cause of most of the casualties, killing 26. The blasts hit half a dozen cities and towns in the south and center of the country. There was no claim of responsibility for any of the attacks, but they bore the hallmark of AlQaeda in Iraq, which uses car bombs, suicide bombers and coordinated attacks to target security forces, members of Iraq’s Shiite majority, and others. The blasts began when a parked car bomb went off early morning in the industrial area of the city of Kut, killing three people and wounding 14 others. That was followed by another car bomb in the nearby city of Aziziyah that targeted a gathering of construction workers that killed two and wounded 12, according to police. In a teahouse hit by the blast, a blood-stained tribal headdress and slippers were strewn on the floor, along with overturned chair and couches. Kut is located 160 km southeast of Baghdad. “The cafe and the street outside is covered in blood,” said Hisham Shadhan, whose father owns the cafe badly hit in the Aziziyah attack. “The car was parked just next to the cafe and when it went off, it destroyed the front part of the cafe. Many cars have caught fire, and it also caused huge damage to nearby shops.” The force of the blast overturned cars and left shrapnel strewn across the scene, but authorities quickly cleaned up much of the visible damage, an AFP journalist said. In the oil-rich city of Basra by the Gulf coast in southern Iraq, a car bomb exploded in a busy downtown street, police said. As police and rescuers rushed to the scene of the initial blast, the second car exploded. A total of six people were reported killed. Cleaners were seen brushing off debris of the car bomb that damaged nearby cars and shops. About an hour later, two parked car bombs ripped through two neighborhoods in the southern city of Nasiriyah, 320 km southeast of Baghdad, killing one and wounding 17,
another police officer said. And in the town of Mahmoudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad, two civilians were killed and nine wounded when a car bomb went off in an open market. In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad, a blast struck a produce market, killing eight and wounding 28. Afterwards, watermelons, tomatoes and apples were scattered on the ground where a bulldozer was loading charred and twisted stalls and cars into a lorry. And in Madain, a roadside bomb and then a
the scene of some of the deadliest unrest outside of the Baghdad area in recent weeks. In the northern city of Tuz Khormato, a roadside bomb targeted a passing police patrol, killing two policemen and wounding another, another police officer said. The town is about 200 km north of Baghdad. Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t allowed to release the information. The attacks came a day after the leader of Al-
BASRA: Iraqi security forces (background) inspect the site of a car bomb attack yesterday. —AP car bomb exploded, killing three and wounding 14. Madain is about 20 km southeast of Baghdad. Near Hillah, a car bomb exploded in a parking lot, killing one and wounding nine. Hillah is about 95 km south of Baghdad. A shooting happened near the restive northern city of Mosul. Police officials say gunmen attacked police guarding a remote stretch of an oil pipeline, killing four and wounding five. Mosul, some 360 km northwest of Baghdad, has been
Qaeda’s Iraq arm, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, defiantly rejected an order from the terror network’s central command to stop claiming control over the organization’s Syria affiliate, according to a message purportedly from him. Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s comments reveal his group’s determination to link its own fight against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad with the cause of rebels trying to topple the Iranbacked Syrian regime. —Agencies