New offensive targets rebels on Aleppo's outskirts

Deaths of civilians reported in rebel-held Atareb while government blames fighters for deadly shelling elsewhere.

Syrian government forces have launched a new offensive against rebels on the outskirts of the city of Aleppo.

The fighting comes after claims by Syrian state television of at least three deaths due to opposition shelling of a district, and just two days after the Syrian army gained full control of Aleppo city.

At least six civilians were also killed on Saturday in air strikes on the rebel-held town of Atareb, west of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The SOHR, a UK-based information office that has been documenting human-rights abuses in Syria, said at least two children were among the dead.

The SOHR could not immediately specify who had carried out the air raids, but Russian and government warplanes typically carry out raids in Aleppo province.

An AFP correspondent in Atareb said military aircraft could be seen circling above the town and a nearby village throughout the day.

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Turkey's Gazientep near the border with Syria, said the new wave of air strikes were concentrated on eastern, southern and northern outskirts of Aleppo, appearing to be aimed at keeping rebel forces away from the recaptured city.

"People are concerned because there are thousands of civilians who are still trapped on the outskirts of Aleppo, particularly those who have been evacuated from eastern Aleppo," he said.

"If the fighting continues, that could further exacerbate the situation."

Russia launched its air war in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces in September 2015, marking a major turning point in the government's fight against armed opposition groups.

In another Aleppo-related development, Syrian state TV said an explosion caused by a device left inside a school by rebels rocked the eastern part of the city on Saturday as some residents were returning to their homes.

State news agency SANA said the school had been transformed into "an ammunitions and explosive devices warehouse left behind by terrorist groups in the Sukkari neighbourhood".

Citing a police source, SANA said another 33 people were wounded in the blast, four of them critically, but did not specify whether they were civilians or government troops.

A correspondent for Lebanon's Hezbollah-run Al Manar TV was reporting live from the area when the blast sounded in the background, sending a huge cloud of dust into the air.

The correspondent later said that at least three people were killed.

The SOHR reported two deaths in the Sukkari warehouse, but said the blast took place as army troops were dismantling explosives.

It said one other person was killed when an explosive devide detonated inside a home in the Ansari district.

Elsewhere in Syria, the Damascus water authority  said  late on Friday that it had resorted to using water reserves to meet the city's demands.

The authority accused rebels who control territory northwest of the Syrian capital of contaminating the water's source, al-Fija spring.

The water authority said it expected the problem to be resolved in a "few days".

Syrian government forces and allied paramilitaries entered eastern Aleppo on Thursday after the last residents and opposition fighters were evacuated from the enclave under a Turkish-Russian deal.

The evacuees left for areas under control of rebels in the western Aleppo countryside and Idlib in northwestern Syria.

The pullout has given Assad's forces full control over Aleppo, which had been divided between his government and opposition fighters since 2012.


source : http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/offensive-targets-rebels-aleppo-outskirts-161224140539925.html

Mosul battle: 'Iraqi forces' tortured and killed villagers

Federal police forces were involved in operations around Qayyarah in late October

Men dressed in Iraqi federal police uniforms are reported to have tortured and killed residents of villages south of Mosul, Amnesty International says.
Evidence gathered by the group suggests up to six people from the Shura and Qayyarah sub-districts were shot dead after being detained on suspicion of having ties to so-called Islamic State.
The federal police forces command has denied the accusations.

Pro-government forces launched an offensive to retake Mosul last month.
About 50,000 Iraqi security forces personnel, soldiers, police, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen are involved in the three-week operation.
On Thursday, troops were reportedly consolidating gains made in the eastern outskirts of Mosul, which they entered nine days ago amid fierce resistance.
Meanwhile, 30km (20 miles) to the south, army units retook a village near the site of the ancient city of Nimrud, where monuments were destroyed by IS last year.

• Mass graves reveal IS horrors
• The battle for Mosul so far
• On schedule but not exactly to plan
• Satellite images reveal IS barricades
• Images show IS Mosul airport damage

Amnesty researchers visited the locations where the extrajudicial executions are alleged to have taken place as IS militants retreated, taking with them hundreds of women, children and old men apparently for use as human shields.

According to information they obtained, about 10 men and a 16-year-old boy who escaped being forcibly transferred by IS were tortured after handing themselves over to a small group of men wearing police uniforms in the Nus Tal area on 21 October.

The men were taken on foot to an open desert area, where they were allegedly beaten with cables and rifle butts, punched and kicked, and had their beards pulled. One man had his beard set alight. They were also made to lie on their stomachs and shots were fired between their legs.

Three men were then separated from the group. Amnesty said men in police uniforms then subjected them to particularly brutal beatings before shooting them dead. Their remains were found in the same area five days later.
The body of a fourth man, who was handcuffed and led away by a group of men in police uniforms after being beaten, was discovered nearby almost a week later, according to Amnesty.
Also on 21 October, another young man was found dead with two bullet wounds shortly after he left a house near the Mishraq sulphur factory, which IS fighters set alight before retreating. He was blindfolded with his torso exposed.

Amnesty said the sixth man was apparently shot dead as he ran towards forces that included men in police uniform while pulling up his clothes to show that he had no explosives.

"When the Mosul military operation began, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made clear that violations by Iraqi armed forces and its allies would not be tolerated. Now is the time for him to prove just that," said Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty's Beirut office.
"The Iraqi authorities must immediately investigate these alarming reports of extrajudicial executions and torture," she added.

Up to 1.5 million civilians are believed to be living in and around the city of Mosul

A statement issued by the Command of the Federal Police Forces denied its officers had killed the six villagers, stressing its full commitment to adhere to Mr Abadi's order to protect civilians and their property.

Officers had provided aid and medical support to those affected by the fighting, and had rescued 10,000 families being used by IS as human shields, it added.

Meanwhile, residents of Mosul told the Reuters news agency that IS militants had killed at least 20 people in the past two days for passing information to the enemy.

Five crucified bodies were reportedly put on display at a road junction on Tuesday, while other bodies were seen hanging from electricity poles and traffic lights.

Source : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37930402

Isis seize and kills dozens in strongholds around Mosul to quell uprising

Islamic State targets former members of security forces, suspected resistance fighters and civilians, numerous sources report

Islamic State has seized and killed dozens of people in areas around Mosul that it still controls in an apparent bid to quell opposition and instil fear as opposition forces march on the group’s last Iraqi stronghold.

The United Nations, Kurdish forces and occupants of Isis-held areas all said they had evidence of fresh atrocities from the group. Isis has embraced a rule by terror since its militants took control of swaths of Iraq and Syria, committing and publicising massacres, attempted genocide of religious minorities and dissidents, widespread sexual enslavement, torture and child abuse.

The latest killings seem mostly targeted at former members of the security forces who Isis suspects might rise up against it, suspected resistance fighters or civilians who resist orders.

The group had allowed some members of the police to “repent” of their former allegiance and hand in their weapons when it took control, but its commanders are now said to be on high alert for plots.

In the town of Tel Keyf, dozens of former police officers were arrested and taken away two days before the push for Mosul began, said Ibrahim Ghazi, an officer in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party who iscollecting intelligence from Isis-controlled areas.

“Daesh [Isis] took 90 former police officers to Mosul and no one to this day knows what has happened to them,” Ghazi said. “These former officers were the ones who repented when Daesh took their town and, in return, they were spared.”

The UN’s human rights spokesman reported the killing of 50 former police officers in a building outside Mosul on Sunday, although he did not provide further details so it was not clear if they included some of the Tel Keyf officers.

He said Iraqi security forces discovered the bodies of 70 civilians last Thursday in houses in the village of Tuloul Naser, which lies south of the city, and had reports that 15 civilians were killed and their bodies thrown into the river in another village.

“We very much fear that these will not be the last such reports we receive of such barbaric acts,” said the UN spokesman, Rupert Colville.

Colville said the new allegations and information had come from civilians and established sources in northern Iraq that the UN had used in the past, who could not be named for their own security.

In another atrocity, Isis fighters reportedly shot dead three women and three girls who were lagging behind a group of civilians whom the terror group was moving to the city. The women and children were delayed because one of the girls, who was subsequently shot, was disabled.

Civilian casualties have been a concern for aid and rights groups since planning began for the battle of Mosul, which began last week after months of preparation.

As many as a million civilians still live in the city and its environs and humanitarian officials expect tens of thousands to flee in the first few weeks of fighting.

The battle pits up to 6,000 Isis fighters dug in around Mosul against 30,000 troops from a broad coalition including the Kurdish peshmerga, the Iraqi army and special forces, Shia militias allied with Iran, US warplanes and military advisers, and Turkish forces positioned to the north of the city.

Human rights officials believe Isis is moving residents into the city to use them as human shields as the noose tightens around Mosul and the killings are designed to discourage locals from rising up against the group.

Commanders recently killed dozens of senior fighters for planning a rebellion, and Isis is likely to be suspicious of former security officials with weapons training.

A man who recently escaped Hamam Ali, south of Mosul, said a relative told him 200 men, mostly former police officers, had been killed by Isis as the Iraqi army closed in. “These officers were the ones who repented in the past and handed over their pistols, or if they didn’t have them paid a $2,000 fine,” said the man, who asked not to be named to protect his relative.

He said six men from a nearby village of Bab al-Tob were also executed after refusing to evacuate when the army attacked. “They were taken away by Isis, then shot dead.”

The killings were in line with past atrocities carried out by the group in its rampage across the Nineveh plains of northern Iraq, famous for their religious diversity. It evicted the vast majority of the area’s Christian population and launched a campaign of genocide against the Yazidi community, capturing thousands of women and girls who were then sold into sexual slavery.

When it captured Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, the group carried out a mass slaughter of up to 1,600 Shia army cadets in its single worst atrocity of the wars in Syria and Iraq. Isis also destroyed many shrines and heritage sites.

More evidence of crimes is likely to be unearthed as the self-proclaimed caliphate recedes into the desert. Several mass graves were uncovered in the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar when it was recovered from Isis earlier this year.

Concerns have also mounted over possible abuses or revenge killings of suspected Isis members by the militias taking part in the campaign. The Shia militias in particular have been implicated in a range of violations such as forced disappearances and displacement after defeating Isis.

Combat inside the densely populated urban centre of Mosul will be particularly challenging, since the militants have had more than two years to prepare for an assault.

So far, at least 5,000 people have been displaced from Mosul’s outskirts amid the ongoing operation, including hundreds who fled to poorly equipped camps in Syria. Refugee camps near Mosul that have already been prepared can house up to 60,000 people.

“People who have fled from surrounding villages and towns tell us they’ve been driven to despair, waiting long days and weeks of hunger before they could flee to safety,” said Wolfgang Gressman, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s chief in Iraq. “Once again we call on the warring parties to put the safety and protection of Iraqi civilians as their top priority. This long, protracted nightmare has to stop.”

By Tuesday, Iraq’s elite counterterrorism units had advanced to within just over a mile of Mosul’s eastern edge, with Isis militants launching counterattacks to distract the advancing troops. Last week the terror group hit the city of Kirkuk, and had launched attacks on the desert town of Rutba.

Why is the battle for Mosul significant?

Mosul is Islamic State's last urban stronghold in Iraq, and the assault is the most critical challenge yet to the group's caliphate.
Since Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of a caliphate from the city in June 2014, Mosul has been central to the group’s ambitions to spread its ruthless interpretation of Islamic law throughout the Arab world and beyond.
Victory over Isis appears very likely, but there are concerns about what comes next: how to provide for up to 1.3 million refugees and how to re-establish governance in a city brutalised by tyranny.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/25/islamic-state-atrocities-reported-around-mosul-says-un

Germans visit mosques to learn about Islam

Muslim community opens doors of mosques to non-Muslims, and imams answer questions about Islamic faith, culture

BERLIN

Germany’s Muslim community opened the doors of its mosques to non-Muslims Monday to encourage dialogue and help overcome misunderstandings about Islam.

Nearly 1,000 mosques across Germany took part in "Open Mosque Day”, an annual event organized by Islamic associations in the country.

Ahmet Fuat Candir, Turkey’s religious services attaché in Berlin, said conflicts in the Middle East and terrorist attacks have sparked fears and anti-Muslim sentiments in Germany.

“The best way to dispel fears about Islam is to have more dialogue. Islam is not what they see on their televisions. Islam is a religion of peace and love,” he told Anadolu Agency at Berlin’s historic Sehitlik Mosque.

During the event, imams made presentations about Islamic faith and culture and answered visitors’ questions.

With a population of 81.8 million, Germany has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Among the 4 million Muslims in the country, 3 million are of Turkish origin.

Source : http://aa.com.tr/en/europe/germans-visit-mosques-to-learn-about-islam/657617

The ticking time bomb waiting to explode western interests in Syria

It’s becoming clearer and clearer that western involvement in the Syrian conflict began as a covert attempt to overthrow the Assad regime by arming his largely Islamist opponents.

But whatever its beginnings, the west’s focus turned definitively towards Daesh (Isis/Isil) from 2014 onwards, when the jihadi group made it very clear that western nations were just as much the enemy as Assad. And this altered focus would soon place western governments on a political collision course with one of their key NATO allies – Turkey.

The current Turkish regime has long been a time bomb waiting to explode, threatening collateral damage across the Middle East. But only recently has its ticking become too loud for the world to ignore. And what’s perhaps most worrying for western governments is that Ankara is now forming ever closer links with their arch-rivals in Russia.

It’s taken Ankara and Moscow a while to get to this point, though.

Tense Russo-Turkish relations

In November 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian jet in what would be a key moment for both the Syrian conflict and Turkey’s standing in the international community. Tensions soon escalated, and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of Turkey’s oil links to Daesh, referred to the country’s regime as “terrorists’ accomplices”, and placed strong sanctions on Turkish tourism and businesses. Turkish exports to Russia allegedly fell by 60.5% in the first half of 2016 (compared to the same period in 2015).

At the same time, Russia allegedly coordinated a number of airstrikes with the secular Kurdish-led ground forces of Rojava (northern Syria) – which was a big blow for Turkish-backed Islamist forces in Syria. It also opened up diplomatic relations with Rojava (a region upon which Turkey has long imposed a brutal blockade), calling for Rojavan representatives to attend Syria’s peace talks.

But with Turkey’s western allies increasingly distancing themselves from a regime in Ankara which was increasingly curtailing human rights, attacking media outlets, and massacring its own citizens, the stage was set for a change in tactics. (Even more so when we consider that the USA was also ramping up its temporary support for Rojavan militias in their efforts to defeat Daesh on the ground in Syria.)

Turkey’s change in tactics

In early July, Ankara hinted at its openness to make deals with the regimes in both Moscow and Damascus – which it had previously opposed – in an apparent attempt to stem Rojava’s influence in the region and show its opposition to the western-backed advances made on jihadi territory by Rojavan militias.

The Turkish regime was also seeking to clean up its image in general, almost a year after nose-diving into a destructive and self-indulgent civil war on its Kurdish communities, by replacing its prime minister in May. This didn’t only mean moving closer to Russia and Syria, but also to Israel and Egypt.

Then, on 15 July, a section of the Turkish army launched an abortive coup against its own government. The coup plotters claimed they wanted to “reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms” in Turkey.

While western leaders quickly condemned the coup attempt, a pro-government newspaper in Turkey soon accused the USA of orchestrating it. And these media-fuelled suspicions would further strengthen a growing current of anti-Americanism in Turkey, giving Ankara even more reason to distance itself from its allies in Washington.

A budding relationship

Even though Putin has previously slammed Turkey’s links with jihadis in Syria, the economic benefits of a renewed Russian alliance with Ankara (there are currently two major joint energy projects on hold) have clearly played a part in pushing the two powers to resolve their differences. Plus, Putin’s political pragmatism is notorious, and he’s always ready to jump at any opportunity to step in where the west is unwilling to go.

On 9 August, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Russia, on his first foreign visit since July’s coup. The groundwork for restored relations had already been laid, with Erdoğan allegedly apologising to Russia back in June and Putin expressing support for Erdoğan’s regime after the coup. And duly, Erdoğan asserted in St Petersburg on 9 August that:

the Moscow-Ankara friendship axis will be restored.
Putin, meanwhile, insisted that he would phase out sanctions on Turkey “step by step”.

According to retired Swedish Ambassador and Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies fellow Michael Sahlin:

the symbolic nature of this visit within weeks of the botched coup is far from lost on those in the US and EU who are searching for signs of possible permanent policy change [in Turkey]… To the delight of President Putin, Mr Erdogan is presumably happy to keep the West wondering, and sweating, for now.

The impact for Syria

Turkey has been at the forefront of western-backed efforts to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria ever since 2011. And its hostility to the biggest secular forces in Syria – the Kurdish-led militias of Rojava – has contributed significantly to the fact that around 60% of anti-Assad fighters today are thought to have similar extremist views to Daesh.

Renewed relations with Russia may push Turkey further away from supporting jihadis and closer to supporting a political settlement in Syria. This would likely lead to some sort of truce between the Assad regime and Turkish-backed Islamists. But it would also mean the sidelining of the secular, multi-ethnic and gender-egalitarian forces of Rojava – which the Turkish regime opposes with a passion. And that would not be good news for democracy in Syria.

A budding friendship between Putin and Erdoğan and a further distancing between NATO allies, meanwhile, could lead to Turkey’s exit from the alliance. If this happened, western governments would lose the influence they have been desperately seeking in Syria since 2011 – mostly through their links with Turkey. Ankara, on the other hand, would increase its influence in the region. And judging by its treatment of its own citizens, and its longstanding links with jihadis in Syria, that would almost certainly lay a minefield of further problems.

But whatever happens in the coming months, the thawing of relations between Ankara and Moscow will almost certainly prove to be a turning point in the Syrian conflict – and possibly for the whole power dynamics of the Middle East.

Source : http://www.thecanary.co/2016/08/10/the-ticking-time-bomb-causing-big-problems-for-the-west-in-syria/

US ready to work with Russia to fight Syria's Islamic extremists

US would be willing to share information on jihadists if Russia pressures Bashar al-Assad to stop bombing armed rebels

 Fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, move towards their positions during an offensive in Idlib province. 

The US is seeking closer cooperation with Russia in the fight against Islamic State and al-Qaida’s Syrian branch in the hope that President Bashar al-Assad will stop attacking the mainstream rebels who are fighting to overthrow him.

US officials said the plan under discussion would also require western and Arab-backed opposition forces to distance themselves from Jabhat al-Nusra, linked to al-Qaida, to avoid being hit in airstrikes. Both Jabhat al-Nusra and Isis are proscribed by the UN and seen as legitimate targets by Washington and Moscow.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, meanwhile, reported on Friday that 6,567 civilians had been killed in the first half of 2016 – 1,271 of them in June alone. Unofficial estimates used by the UN say some 400,000 people have died since the Syrian uprising began in 2011. Millions have been made homeless.

News of the latest US initiative, reported by the Washington Post, came as the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, admitted that conditions were still not ripe to reconvene the suspended Geneva peace talks ahead of a 1 August deadline for the start of a “political transition” in Damascus.

The paper said the Obama administration has submitted a proposal that includes “enhanced information sharing”, though no decisions have been made. Russia is also being asked to pressure Assad to halt the bombing of armed rebel groups that are supported by the US.

The US defence secretary, Ashton Carter, said that if Russia would “do the right thing in Syria – that’s an important condition – as in all cases with Russia, we’re willing to work with them.”

The idea is likely to be greeted with scepticism by critics of US policy on Syria, which is widely seen to be overly dependent on Russian goodwill and cooperation. Overall, however, there seems to be increasing convergence between the two big powers despite their ostensible disagreement about Assad’s fate.

The formal US position is that the president should step down, but Russia has continued to back him and to insist that his future is a matter for the Syrian people alone. The anti-Assad opposition fears a deal between Washington and Moscow on an imposed solution that will leave the president in place.

Assad himself said in an interview that Syrian cooperation with Russia and Iran – his main regional ally – was intended to restore stability. “The chaos in Syria is going to provoke the domino effect in our region,” he told the Australian broadcaster SBS. “It’s going to affect the neighbouring countries, it’s going to affect Iran, it’s going to affect Russia, it’s going to affect Europe.”

De Mistura told al-Hadath TV on Thursday that the key countries involved needed to work “with a feeling of urgency” to get the Geneva talks started again. Despite not being able to set a date for a resumption, he hinted at grounds for optimism. “I want to believe, and I think I have reasons to believe, that both Russia and the US – who are crucial because they are the co-chairs – have both an urgent vested interest in avoiding that this conflict starts again and becomes open ended,” he said.

He also said he had worked out how to untangle what he called the “Assad knot” – the central problem of irreconcilable demands about his political future – but he did elaborate.

Restoring the always patchy cessation of hostilities agreement that was brokered by the US and Russia last February appears to be a pre-condition for any progress towards a political solution to the war.

Brexit, said De Mistura, was another “casualty” of the Syrian crisis – a view held by many of those involved. “The consequences of this conflict are affecting everyone, even producing a sense of concern in European countries to the point of reaching that type of consequence.”

Britain on Friday appealed for wider humanitarian access to besieged areas of Syria, noting recent progress but demanding deliveries to eight areas that have not yet been reached by the UN. “Until we see a change in regime behaviour, thousands will continue to starve,” warned Gareth Bayley, the UK special envoy for Syria.

Britain also announced on Thursday that it would increase support to Iraqi forces fighting Isis by deploying 50 additional trainers on improvised explosive devices, infantry skills and combat first aid. The extra personnel will be working with US and Danish forces, providing training to the Iraqi army, border guards and federal police. Britain will also provide 80 army engineers to build infrastructure to support this deployment at an airbase in western Iraq.

Source : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/syria-us-russia-cooperate-fight-islamic-extremists-united-nations

Decoding Israel-Palestine conflict

This is a five-decade old conflict and is still ongoing. Israel and Palestine are at loggerheads over various issues like mutual recognition, borders, security, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements. Innumerable attempts have been made to broker a two-state solution with the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel which has failed. Prospects of resuming negotiations is very dim with the last round of peace talks having failed two years ago. Palestinians have been demanding an independent state and a majority of the Jews feel it is just.

In the late 19 and early 20 century, both the Arabs and the Jews wanted to attain sovereignty for their people in the Middle East. The conflict between these two forces in southern Levant and the emergence of Palestinian nationalism escalated into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 1947.

After the World War II, six million Jewish people were killed. The remaining people wanted their own country. A large part of Palestine was given to them and the Jews believed that it was their traditional home. Arabs who were already living in the Palestine area were not able to accept the new country.

War broke out in 1948 and post that Gaza was controlled by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan. Palestine fled from the area which was now the home to Jews and came to be known as Israel.

Another war broke out and following that in 1967 Israel occupied these Palestinian areas and their troops stayed there for years.

Israel finally left Gaza in 2005 and a group called Hamas won elections and took control there. Hamas refuses to recognise Israel as a country and wants Palestinians to be able to return to their old home. It has vowed to use its violence to achieve its arms.

Now, Palestinians are moving into their first planned city in West Bank after nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation. West Bank, according to Palestinians is part of their independent state along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza strip. The Palestinian government rules about a third of the territory and the rest is under Israeli control.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/in-school/news-bytes/decoding-israelpalestine-conflict/article8752075.ece

Numbers of rak’ahs in Taraaweeh prayer

have asked this earlier but did not get a satisfactory answer. My question is about Taraweeh Prayer in Ramadan. You have answered to me in a question before that Taraweeh should not be more that 11 rakat. It has been authentically reported that Muhammad SAAW prayed Taraweeh 3 times in Ramadan and it consisted 11 Rakah. Also the book by Shaykh Naasir-ud-Din Al-Albani (May Allah have mercy on him)، Qiyam and Taraweeh states that Taraweeh should be 11 Rakah. The sunnah is 11 Rakat. Now the question which is confusing and often becomes a discussion among brothers is whether the number of Rakat in Taraweeh should be 11 Rakat or 20 Rakat. Some people during Ramadan go to masjids where the Imam does 11 Rakats and other go to Masjids where the Imam does 20 Rakats. In most of the Hanafi Masjids around the US the Imam does 20 Rakat. The point to note is whether 20 Rakat or 11 Rakat the Imam completes the entire Qurran during Ramadan. The people are very sentitive about this issue and this issue becomes a topic in gathering in the United States. The people who pray 20 Rakat blame the other groug praying 11 as being wrong and the group praying 11 Rakat blames the group praying 20 as wrong. This is a big fitnah in the US. This leads to disunity. People always quote that in Prophets Mosque the Imam prays 20 Rakats and also in Masjid-ul-Haraam in Mecca the Imam prays 20 Rakat. Also those who during Ramadan go to Saudi Arabia for Umrah say that the Imam prays 20 Rakat. This is a confusion. 

Please answer and explain to me the following issues: 

1. The sunnah is to pray 11 Rakat then why is Prophets mosque in Medina and also in Masdid-ul-Haram the imam leads the people to pray 20 Rakat? Why? Why is this different from the sunnah? 

2. Why are the number of Rakat of Taraweeh in Prophets mosque and Masjid-ul-Haraam 20 Rakat? Please explain to us so.

Praise be to Allaah.  

We do not think that the Muslims should be so sensitive with regard to issues that are the matter of scholarly differences or make them the cause of division and fitnah among the Muslims. 

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen  (may Allaah have mercy on him) said, when speaking about the matter of one who prays ten rak’ahs with the imam, then sits down and waits for Witr and does not complete the Taraaweeh prayers with the imam: 

It grieves us deeply that we find in the Muslim ummah a group which differs concerning matters in which differences of opinion are acceptable, and they take these differences as a means to cause division. Differences within the ummah existed at the time of the Sahaabah, yet they remained united. The youth in particular and to all those who are committed to Islam must remain united, because they have enemies who are laying in wait. 

Al-Sharh al-Mumti’, 4/225 

Two groups have gone to extremes with regard to this matter. The first group denounced everyone who prays more than eleven rak’ahs and said that doing so was bid’ah. The second group denounced those who do only eleven rak’ahs and said that they are going against scholarly consensus (ijmaa’). 

Let us listen to what Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: 

Here we say that we should not go to extremes or be negligent. Some people go to extremes in adhering to the number mentioned in the Sunnah, and say that it is not permissible to do more than the number mentioned in the Sunnah, and they aggressively denounce those who do more than that, saying that they are sinners. 

This is undoubtedly wrong. How can they be sinners, when the Prophet SAWS (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), upon being asked about night prayers, said that they are to be done two by two, and he did not specify any particular number? Of course  the one who asked him about the night prayer did not know the number, because if he did not know how to do it, it is even more likely that he did not know the number. And he was not one of those who served the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) so that we might say that he knew what happened inside his house. Since the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) told him how to do it but did not say how many times, it may be understood that the matter is broad in scope, and that a person may pray one hundred rak’ahs then pray Witr with one rak’ah. 

With regard to the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), “Pray as you have seen me praying”, this does not apply in absolute terms even for these people. Hence they do not say that a person should pray Witr with five rak’ahs sometimes and with seven rak’ahs sometimes and with nine rak’ahs sometimes. If we understand it in absolute terms, then we would have to pray Witr with five rak’ahs sometimes and with seven rak’ahs sometimes and with nine rak’ahs sometimes. But what is meant by the hadeeth is pray as you have seen me praying with regard to how to pray not how many rak’ahs, unless there is a text to state what the number is.  

Whatever the case, a person should not be strict with people with regard to a matter that is broad in scope. We have even seen some brothers who are strict on this matter accusing the imams who pray more than eleven rak’ahs of following bid’ah, and they leave the mosque, thus missing out on the reward of which the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever stands with the imam until he finishes (the prayer), the reward of qiyaam al-layl will be recorded for him.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 806; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Tirmidhi, 646). Some of them even sit down after completing ten rak’ahs, thus breaking up the rows of worshippers by sitting there, and sometimes they start talking and disturb the people who are praying. 

We have no doubt that their intentions are good and they are doing their best to come to the right conclusion, but that does not mean that they are correct. 

The other group does the opposite. They sternly denounce those who pray only eleven rak’ahs and say that they have gone against scholarly consensus. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): 

“And whoever contradicts and opposes the Messenger (Muhammad) after the right path has been shown clearly to him, and follows other than the believers’ way, We shall keep him in the path he has chosen, and burn him in Hell — what an evil destination!”

[al-Nisa’ 4:115] 

All the generations who came before you only knew the number as twenty-three rak’ahs, and they denounce anyone who says anything different. 

Al-Sharh al-Mumti’, 4/73-75 

With regard to the evidence quoted by those who say that it is not permissible to do more than eight rak’ahs in Taraaweeh, they quote the hadeeth of Abu Salamah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahmaan, who asked ‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her), “How did the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) pray during Ramadaan?” She said: “He did not pray more than eleven rak’ahs in Ramadaan or at other times. He would pray four, and do not ask how beautiful and long they were, then he would pray four, and do not ask how beautiful and long they were, then he would pray three. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allaah, will you sleep before you pray Witr?’ He said, ‘O ‘Aa’ishah, my eyes sleep but my heart does not.’” 

Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 1909; Muslim, 738 

They said: This hadeeth indicates that the Messenger of Allaah was consistent in his prayers at night in Ramadaan and at other times. 

The scholars refuted this use of the hadeeth as evidence by saying that this is what the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did, but the fact that he did something does not imply that it is obligatory. 

The evidence that there is no set number for prayers at night – which include Taraaweeh – is the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Umar according to which a man asked the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) about prayer at night. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Prayers at night are to be offered two by two (two rak’ahs at a time). If any of you fears that the time of dawn is approaching then let him pray one rak’ah as Witr.”

(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 846; Muslim, 749) 

If we look at what the scholars of the prominent schools of thought said, you will clearly see that this matter is broad in scope and that there is nothing wrong with doing more than eleven rak’ahs. 

Al-Sarkhasi, who is one of the imams of the Hanafi school, said: 

It is twenty rak’ahs, apart from Witr, in our view. 

Al-Mabsoot, 2/145 

Ibn Qudaamah said: 

The favoured view according to Abu ‘Abd-Allaah (i.e., Imam Ahmad, may Allaah have mercy on him), is that it is twenty rak’ahs. This was the view of al-Thawri, Abu Hanfeefah and al-Shaafa’i. Maalik said it is thirty-six.

Al-Mughni, 1/457 

Al-Nawawi said: 

Taraaweeh prayer is Sunnah according to scholarly consensus. Our view is that it is twenty rak’ahs with ten tasleems, and it is permissible to pray it individually or in congregation. 

Al-Majmoo’, 4/31 

These are the views of the four imams concerning the number of rak’ahs of Taraaweeh prayer. All of them said something more than eleven rak’ahs. Perhaps the reasons why they said something more than eleven rak’ahs include the following: 

1-     They thought that the hadeeth of ‘Aa’ishah did not mean that this was the specific number.

2-     A greater number was narrated from many of the salaf. 

See al-Mughni, 2/604; al-Majmoo’, 4/32 

3-     The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to pray eleven rak’ahs and make them very lengthy, so much so that it used to take him most of the night. Indeed, one night in which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) led his companions in praying Taraaweeh, he did not end his prayer until just before dawn, and the Sahaabah feared that they would miss suhoor. The Sahaabah (may Allaah be pleased with them) loved to pray behind the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and they did not feel that it was too long. The scholars thought that if the imam made the prayer so long, this would be too difficult for the members of the congregation and that might put them off. So they thought that the imam should make the recitation shorter and increase the number of rak’ahs. 

The point is that the one who prays eleven rak’ahs in the manner narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is doing well and is following the Sunnah. Whoever makes the recitation shorter and increases the number of rak’ahs is also doing well. A person who does either of these two things is not to be denounced. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said:

 If a person prays Taraaweeh according to the madhhabs of Abu Haneefah, al-Shaafa’i and Ahmad, with twenty rak’ahs, or according to the madhhab of Maalik, with thirty-six rak’ahs, or with thirteen or eleven rak’ahs, he has done well, as Imam Ahmad said, because there is nothing to specify the number. So the greater or lesser number of rak’ahs depends on how long or short the qiyaam (standing in the prayer) is. 

Al-Ikhtiyaaraat, p. 64 

Al-Suyooti said: 

What is narrated in the saheeh and hasan ahaadeeth is the command to observe night prayers during Ramadaan, which is encouraged without specifying a particular number. It is not proven that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) prayed twenty rak’ahs of Taraaweeh, rather that he prayed at night, with an unspecified number of rak’ahs. Then he delayed it on the fourth night lest it become obligatory for them and they might not be able to do it. Ibn Hajar al-Haythami said: There is no saheeh report that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) prayed twenty rak’ahs of Taraaweeh. The narration which suggests that he “used to pray twenty rak’ahs” is extremely weak (da’eef). 

Al-Mawsoo’ah al-Fiqhiyyah, 27/142-145 

So you should not be surprised that people pray Taraaweeh as twenty rak’ahs. There have been generation after generation of those imams (who used to pray twenty rak’ahs), and all of them are good.  

And Allaah knows best.

Source : https://islamqa.info/en/9036

A simple guide to healthy eating during Ramadhan

The holy month of Ramadhan has finally arrived. From the religious side, the holy month is a chance to reflect on your sins from the past and start doing better things. On the other hand, it is also a chance to make decisions for a healthier life.

Many people use Ramadhan as an excuse to go on a diet, and that's okay.

There are some things you need to know, though, to keep you fit and healthy during Ramadhan, as your eating habits will affect your entire day throughout the fasting month.

Three things: Complex carbohydrates, protein and fiber

Sahur (predawn meal) should be the focus of your attention Ramadhan to keep you strong during the fasting period.

Foods rich in complex carbohydrates, from red rice and wheat bread to vegetables and fruit, are some of the examples of sahur's main dishes. They are ideal because they will keep your stomach full for a longer time.

Make sure that you also prepare foods with high protein and fiber like meat and fish because they will also keep you full for longer.

Consuming foods that contain complex carbohydrate is good for you, keeping your stomach full for longer.

Don't warm up leftovers

It's common sense to eat leftover foods for sahur after buying too much the night before. Warming your food is not a good idea because the reheating process will reduce the amount of nutrients contained in the food.

A better idea is to wake up earlier for sahur, especially if you're on cooking duty.

Eating dates for iftar is very good for you

The theory of starting your iftar by eating sweet things is an old myth; some people believe it and some people don't.

This theory is accurate, as long as you eat healthy sweet foods to top up your energy with sugar after a long day of fasting. The best option for this is dates. Rich in fiber, potassium and magnesium, dates are an entirely reliable starter for iftar.

Avoid greasy snacks like gorengan

Around the world, dates are the first choice to start iftar. This also applies in Indonesia, but with tight competition from gorengan (deep fried snacks).

With all due respect to all our favorite gorengan places, these snacks do not make a healthy iftar. Avoid salty and spicy foods for iftar and replace them with fresh foods like fruits and vegetables instead.

Do not eat more than you should

You're probably familiar with this habit. After a long wait, especially during the first week of Ramadhan, eating all the food you desire in the world sounds like an attainable dream. Iftar time comes and you do exactly what you dreamed of.

Sorry to crush the dream but, bad news, eating too much food is not good for you. Eating during Ramadhan is about quality, not quantity, and that applies both to iftar and sahur.

Stay hydrated

Water is important on a daily basis and it's even more important during Ramadhan. Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water during iftar and sahur.

Drinking eight glasses of water throughout the night is the perfect amount to keep you hydrated during fasting time. (kes)

Source : http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2016/06/07/a-simple-guide-to-healthy-eating-during-ramadhan.html

Syrian Troops Advance on Raqqa, as Islamic State Militants Pressed on Four Fronts

Government forces close in on extremists’ de facto capital as Iraqi forces, rebels and al Qaeda Affiliate Nusra Front attack ISIS in other areas

BEIRUT—Syrian troops on Saturday reached the edge of the northern province of Raqqa, home to the de facto capital of Islamic State militant group’s self-styled caliphate, in a push that leaves the extremists fighting fierce battles on four fronts in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Islamic State, which is also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL, controls large swaths of territory in both countries and is fighting Syrian troops, U.S.-backed fighters and opposition militants in northern Syria. It also is battling an offensive by Iraqi government forces on its stronghold of Fallujah.

The Syrian government hasn’t had a presence in Raqqa since August 2014, when Islamic State fighters captured the Tabqa air base and killed scores of government soldiers. The provincial capital, Raqqa, became the first city under the militants’ control.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian troops reached the “administrative border” of Raqqa province under the cover of Russian airstrikes. It said that during three days of fighting 26 Islamic State fighters and nine Syian troops and pro-government gunmen were killed.


Syrian troops began their advance toward the province on Wednesday, the same day U.S.-backed forces launched an attack on the militant stronghold of Manbij, some 72 miles to the northwest of Raqqa. It is unclear if the attacks were coordinated.


The U.S.-backed predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces on Saturday advanced closer to Manbij, which lies on a key supply route linking the Turkish border to the city of Raqqa.

The Observatory said SDF fighters had captured 34 villages near Manbij. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said the fighting is now concentrated on the south of the town.

Islamic State fighters are also engaged in fierce battles for the rebel-held stronghold of Marea, a town west of Manbij. Islamic State has surrounded Marea on three sides but has failed to capture the city, which is under control of Syrian rebels and fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front. “The fighting is very intense on three fronts in Marea,” said opposition activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in northern Syria.

While battles raged in Raqqa province, Manbij and Marea, Islamic State fighters were also under fire in their Iraqi stronghold of Fallujah. Iraqi forces launched their offensive on the city almost two weeks ago and say they have reached the edge of town.

On the city’s northern edge, Iraq’s military said Islamic State had been pushed out of the neighborhood of Saqlawiya on Saturday. It also said an Iraqi flag had been raised above the area.

The main push into the city center has been slow, however. Heavy militant counterattacks and concerns for the tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside the city have slowed Iraq’s elite counterterrorism troops, who are leading the push, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi.

Meanwhile, violence in and around the contested northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest and once commercial center, claimed more lives on Saturday. The city has been the scene of fierce fighting, even during a truce brokered by the U.S. and Russia that went into effect in late February and collapsed weeks later.

The Russian military’s Reconciliation Center in Syria said the Nusra Front heavily shelled several government-held neighborhoods of the city.

Syrian state TV said the shelling of government-held parts of contested Aleppo killed 22 and wounded 23 people, while opposition activists said dozens were killed or wounded in rebel-held neighborhoods.

Intense fighting also took place south of Aleppo, where insurgents led by the Nusra Front attacked Syrian army position near the Khan Touman area, according to the Observatory and the activist, al-Halaby. “The aim of the attack south of Aleppo is to reduce pressure on the city” by government forces, al-Halaby said.

Source : http://www.wsj.com/articles/syrian-troops-advance-on-raqqa-as-islamic-state-militants-pressed-on-four-fronts-1465067257

Syria civil war: Russia denies conducting Idlib raids

Moscow refutes accusations it carried out raids that killed 50 people, including children, and damaged hospital.

More than 250,000 people have been killed during Syria's war

Russia has angrily denied its planes carried out air strikes overnight against the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, which the Syrian Civil Defence said had killed at least 50 people.

"Russian planes did not carry out any combat missions, to say nothing of any air strikes, in the province of Idlib," Igor Konashenkov, a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier on Tuesday the death toll was 23, including seven children.

Turkey also accused Russia of killing at least 60 people in its air strikes on Idlib.

Ten overnight strikes on Monday in Idlib hit areas around the National Hospital and other parts of the city centre, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Observatory.

"The air strikes are the most intensive on Idlib since the beginning of the truce," Rahman told the AFP news agency. "Even though Idlib is not covered by the truce, it had been relatively calm with only intermittent raids."

The strikes on Monday evening on the north-western city, which is held by a coalition of rebel groups, including al-Nusra Front, come five days after Moscow said it was suspending strikes on Syrian "gunmen".

The Russian Defence Ministry had said the pause was to allow groups who signed up for a US and Russian-backed cessation of hostilities a chance to cut their links with the al-Nusra, a powerful Syrian group with ties to al-Qaeda.

"We have been hearing from different sources on the ground that more than eight areas have been targeted by Russian air strikes," Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reported from Gaziantep in Turkey. "One area is close to a hospital. Because of that explosion, half of the hospital was destroyed."

Ahelbarra said there were concerns that the death toll could climb as a rescue operation was under way.

Searching the rubble 

"Idlib is a major opposition stronghold run by a coalition of military factions, including conservative parties such as Ahrar al-Sham. There is also a strong presence by al-Nusra Front," he said.

"The opposition says Russians are taking advantage of a ceasefire in place since February, and are trying to undermine defence lines of the opposition."

Idlib is considered the de facto capital for rebels.

Rebels have accused Russia of repeatedly targeting groups not linked to ISIL or al-Qaeda, while the US has said that battlefield alliances between al-Nusra and other rebels have complicated implementation of the truce, especially around the key northern city of Aleppo.

A volunteer with the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets rescue group, said the strikes appeared to have been carried out by Russian aircraft.

Rescue workers were searching for survivors under the rubble of the bombed buildings, the volunteer, who asked to be known only as Majed, told the dpa agency.

The Syrian conflict, which began with peaceful protests in March 2011, has spiralled into a multi-sided civil war.

The death toll has risen to more than 250,000 people while half the country's population have been forced from their homes, according to UN estimates.

Source : http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/syria-civil-war-russia-raids-idlib-kill-civilians-160531082734910.html

Syria war: Battling on as a disabled refugee

Of the estimated 1.4m Syrians who have found safety in Jordan, about a third have a disability or serious health condition.
That's a lot, but in many ways it's expected. War leaves its mark. The country has taken in so many refugees it's overwhelmed.
The Jordanian government admits it's unable to support everyone. Put simply, in order to comprehensively support refugees who need more than the very basic level of care, they need more money.

Before we made this film, Our World: Displaced & Disabled, I couldn't quite understand how you escape when you have a disability and, if you manage to, what happens if you require essential rehabilitation or ongoing treatment in order to maintain what little independence you have?
Prosthetic legs are not cheap. Physiotherapy is a luxury for many. Medicines are expensive. Wheelchairs break and cost money to repair.
For me to make this documentary in a more challenging environment for someone with a physical disability, I had a producer who planned the entire trip, making sure there was a van that I could get in and a wonderful driver who parked in easy spots - a strong man who lifted my scooter and me in and out the van several times a day.
Even with access to a ramp and wheelchair, there were still places and people I couldn't get to.
The people I met don't have this kind of support but that makes them tougher, more resilient. Many know their strengths and they want to show the world that they are capable of doing anything, despite their situation.

Psychological support

Together with Handicap International, one of the main charities working on the ground, we visited Jordan's two Syrian refugee camps - Zaatari and Azraq.
Zaatari is only a few miles from the Syrian border; it is a city in the middle of a desert, packed with close to 80,000 refugees.

At one of the charity's fixed meeting points in Zaatari, I remember thinking I'd not seen that many amputees in one place.
These are the people having to deal with the ramifications of war but, at the meeting point, they are able to receive vital support from highly trained and dedicated staff.
I met men who had lost limbs, walking "the bars" - something most people with a physical disability have had to do at one time or another - which support you while you take a few tentative steps. It's great exercise.
Mohammed, who has cerebral palsy, was playing games to improve his stability. Ragda was doing her arm exercises to keep strong - she's got a wheelchair to push, provided by the charity, something she didn't have back home in Syria.
There's also crucial psychological support, something I imagine most people forced from their homes and loved ones could do with.

Sense of humour

Zaatari was the first refugee camp I'd visited, and I'd built up this picture in my head, pieced together from various news reports and online articles.
There's no getting away from it; life as a refugee is tough, too tough for many to comprehend. The basics we take for granted are not freely available here and, when you have a disability, it can make life almost impossible.

But what I wasn't as prepared for was the spirit and strength of the people existing in the camp - their life in limbo.
When you have a disability, you don't want people to feel sorry for you; you just want to get on with things.
That was certainly the case with many of the disabled Syrians we met. They know their situation is dire, but they still laugh, they had fun with us over lunch, they enjoy a cigarette and a few jokes. I have never been asked if I'm on Facebook quite as much.

Priced out

But not all Syrian refugees live in the camps. Around 80% of all the refugees in Jordan live in and around the main cities, like Abd al-Aseem and his brother, who live in Jordan's capital, Amman.
Abd had a stroke. For months he couldn't walk, he couldn't move. He needs expensive medication the family just can't afford.

They owe money and, although he is slowly improving thanks to the dedication of his family and support from a charity, he still needs to be carried from the third floor in order to leave his apartment.
A big problem for disabled refugees is the price of apartments like Abd's. The higher the floor, the cheaper the rent.
Abd is still unable to speak but his brother told me he was a kind, generous man who ran his family business and had time for everyone who needed him.
He had previously had a nice life and could provide for his wife and kids. Now, his situation is bleak; life has dealt him a rubbish hand. The family can't dream of returning to Syria, they just have to get through each day.

'Lazy girl'

But, for one young man, all he wants is to go back home. I met the charismatic Moead at a hospital for reconstructive surgery, run by the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, in Amman.

He lost one of his legs in an explosion in Syria. We got on straight away. He liked my mobility scooter, I told him it would make him lazy, and for the rest of the time we spent together he called me "lazy girl". I was calling this flirting, but I think that's a stretch.
I met so many incredible people whilst making Our World: Displaced & Disabled, all very different but with one thing in common - a total reliance on charity to get by, and that's scary.
We all like to think we're in control of our own lives, but the people I met are not.

Source : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36363222

Monitor: 60,000 dead in Syria government jails

Most dead as a result of torture or poor humanitarian conditions, says Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

More than 60,000 people have been killed through torture or died in dire humanitarian conditions inside Syrian government prisons throughout the country's five-year uprising, according to a monitor. 

The numbers were obtained from Syrian government sources, the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. 

"Since March 2011, at least 60,000 people lost their lives to torture or to horrible conditions, notably the lack of medication or food, in regime prisons," said the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman. 

Though the Syrian conflict started with popular protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it quickly became a civil war between the government and rebel groups. 

Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy to Syria, recently estimated that 400,000 people had died throughout the last five years. The number was his personal estimate and not an official UN statistic. 

'No progress on detainees'

Calculating a precise death toll is impossible, partially due to the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of Syrians whose fates remain unknown. 

Nadim Houry, a Beirut-based Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), accuses the Syrian government of "rampant torture". 

Explaining that HRW cannot verify the Observatory's statistics, Houry told Al Jazeera: "We have known how bad the situation is in the detention facilities for a long time and that many people have died inside."

In a report published in December, HRW concluded that the Caesar photographs - a photo cache documenting the deaths of more than 28,000 deaths in government custody which was smuggled out of the country - suggested that the government had carried out crimes against humanity. 

"There has been no progress on detainees," Houry said. "The entire world saw the large scale detention and death in the Ceasar photos, and despite all of this, there was no reaction."

'War crimes' 

The International Syria Support Group - the 17-country coalition that includes the United States and Russia - released a statement on Tuesday that urged the UN special envoy de Mistura to negotiate the release of detainees in government custody, as well as those held by armed groups.

Houry added: "Detainees deserve the same level of attention from the high level political actors, like the US and Russia, as all the other issues. It has been going on for too long and with too high a cost."

In a February 2016 report, the UN Human Rights Council accused both government and opposition forces, including the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), of subjecting detainees to torture. 

The council accused the government and al-Nusra of war crimes, while it said ISIL has "committed the crimes against humanity of murder and torture, and war crimes". 

Source : http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/tens-thousands-die-syria-government-prisons-160521173306410.html

Al Qaeda Turns to Syria, With a Plan to Challenge ISIS

WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda’s top leadership in Pakistan, badly weakened after a decade of C.I.A. drone strikes, has decided that the terror group’s future lies in Syria and has secretly dispatched more than a dozen of its most seasoned veterans there, according to senior American and European intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

The movement of the senior Qaeda jihadists reflects Syria’s growing importance to the terrorist organization and most likely foreshadows an escalation of the group’s bloody rivalry with the Islamic State, Western officials say.

The operatives have been told to start the process of creating an alternate headquarters in Syria and lay the groundwork for possibly establishing an emirate through Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, to compete with the Islamic State, from which Nusra broke in 2013. This would be a significant shift for Al Qaeda and its affiliate, which have resisted creating an emirate, or formal sovereign state, until they deem conditions on the ground are ready. Such an entity could also pose a heightened terrorist threat to the United States and Europe.

Qaeda operatives have moved in and out of Syria for years. Ayman al-Zawahri, the group’s supreme leader in Pakistan, dispatched senior jihadists to bolster the Nusra Front in 2013. A year later, Mr. Zawahri sent to Syria a shadowy Qaeda cell called Khorasan that American officials say has been plotting attacks against the West.

But establishing a more enduring presence in Syria would present the group with an invaluable opportunity, Western analysts said. A Syria-based Qaeda state would not only be within closer striking distance of Europe but also benefit from the recruiting and logistical support of fighters from Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

Mr. Zawahri released his first audio statement in several months in early May, and it seemed to clear the way for the Qaeda figures to use the Nusra Front to form an emirate in Syria with his blessing. Some Nusra leaders, however, oppose the timing of such a move, so the affiliate has not yet taken that step.

“The combination of an Al Qaeda emirate and a revitalized Al Qaeda central leadership in northern Syria would represent a confidence boost for the jihadi organization’s global brand,” Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, wrote this month in Foreign Policy.


“Al Qaeda would present itself as the smart, methodical and persistent jihadi movement that, in contrast to the Islamic State, had adopted a strategy more aligned with everyday Sunni Muslims,” Mr. Lister wrote.

Al Qaeda and the Islamic State have the same ultimate objective to create an Islamic state, but they have used different tactics, Mr. Lister and other scholars said. The Islamic State moved quickly to impose harsh, unilateral control over territory in Iraq and Syria and declare its independence. The Nusra Front has painstakingly sought to build influence over areas it wants to control and with other Syrian rebel groups opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

American officials say the Islamic State has largely eclipsed Al Qaeda in the global jihadist hierarchy, with Al Qaeda hemorrhaging members to its more brutal and media-savvy rival. Many of the Khorasan operatives, including their leader, Muhsin al-Fadhli, have been killed in eight American airstrikes in northwest Syria since September 2014.

The Islamic State has between 19,000 and 25,000 fighters, roughly divided between Iraq and Syria, American intelligence analysts estimate. The Nusra Front has about 5,000 to 10,000 fighters, all in Syria. An emirate would differ from the Islamic State caliphate in the scale of its ambition, in that a Nusra emirate would not claim to be a government for all the world’s Muslims.

Some senior American and European intelligence and law enforcement officials say the small but steady movement of important Qaeda operatives and planners to Syria is a desperate dash to a haven situated perilously in the middle of the country’s chaos. These officials say Qaeda operatives in Syria are determined but largely contained.

“There’s always been a steady trickle, and it remains,” said Col. Steve Warren, a military spokesman in Baghdad for the American-led campaign in Iraq and Syria.

Nonetheless, the presence of a senior cadre of experienced Qaeda leaders in Syria — some with multimillion-dollar American bounties on their heads — has raised alarms in Washington as well as in the allied capitals of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

“We have destroyed a large part of Al Qaeda,” John O. Brennan, the director of the C.I.A., said this month on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It is not completely eliminated, so we have to stay focused on what it can do.”

The evolving assessment about Al Qaeda and the Nusra Front in Syria comes from interviews with nearly a dozen American and European intelligence and counterterrorism officials and independent analysts, most of whom have been briefed on confidential information gleaned from spies and electronic eavesdropping. They also analyzed the public statements and social media commentary among Qaeda and Nusra Front members.

One of the operatives Western intelligence officials are focused most intently on is Saif al-Adl, a senior member of Al Qaeda’s ruling body, known as the Shura Council, who oversaw the organization immediately after Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in Pakistan in 2011. It is unclear whether Mr. Adl is in Syria, North Africa or somewhere else, American intelligence officials said.

The government of Iran released Mr. Adl and four other senior members of Al Qaeda early last year as part of a secret prisoner swap with Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, the group holding an Iranian diplomat, Nour Ahmad Nikbakht.

Mr. Adl, a former colonel in the Egyptian military who is believed to be in his 50s, is listed on the F.B.I.’s Most Wanted Terrorist list and was indicted in the 1998 United States Embassy bombings in East Africa. He is the subject of a $5 million American bounty.

“As a senior adviser to Al Qaeda’s networks in Syria and proximate environs, al-Adl could be especially useful in helping to define strategies that will help the group achieve confidence-inspiring successes,” said Michael S. Smith II of Kronos Advisory, a terrorism research and analysis firm.

The other four men released by Iran are also suspected of being in Syria. They are Abdul Khayr al-Misri, an Egyptian who formerly led Al Qaeda’s foreign relations council; Abul Qassam, a Jordanian who was a deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of the organization that later became the Islamic State; Sari Shibab, a Jordanian operative; and Abu Mohamed al-Misri, an Egyptian who helped orchestrate Al Qaeda’s major attacks before Sept. 11, 2001, according to American officials briefed on details of the transfer. They agreed to discuss the matter on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s confidential nature.

It is unclear how and when Al Qaeda might form an emirate in Syria that would hold territory and most likely harden its position toward more moderate Syrian opposition groups. The Nusra Front was created in 2012 as an offshoot of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq — which under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi later declared itself the Islamic State — to fight Mr. Assad’s government. That same year, the United States designated the Nusra Front as a terrorist organization.

But in 2013, the Nusra Front balked at joining Mr. Baghdadi when he announced the creation of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and instead pledged allegiance to Mr. Zawahri in Pakistan. This ignited an often bloody rivalry between Nusra and Islamic State fighters in Syria.

Now Al Qaeda’s top leadership is looking to stanch its losses in Pakistan and score a propaganda coup in Syria by establishing a formal emirate. A portion of Nusra’s leadership, however, supports continuing the group’s more pragmatic strategy of cultivating local support.

“The fundamental disagreement is over how far Al Qaeda’s long-game strategy should be sustained before revealing more and more of Nusra’s real face and solidifying territorial control through the formation of an emirate,” Mr. Lister said in an interview.

Many of the Syrian rebel groups that are fighting alongside Nusra against Mr. Assad’s government reject the idea of forming an emirate, fearing it would further splinter the opposition to Mr. Assad.

“From Al Qaeda’s religious perspective, the declaration of a state or of an emirate should only happen in a context where it is possible to govern effectively,” said Firas Abi Ali, a senior principal analyst with IHS Country Risk in London. “It would be ironic for Al Qaeda to declare an emirate while there’s a caliphate that it rejects.”

Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/world/middleeast/al-qaeda-turns-to-syria-with-a-plan-to-challenge-isis.html?_r=0

Syria conflict: Army 'storms mutinous prison' in Hama

Syrian government troops have stormed a prison in the central city of Hama to try to put down a mutiny among some 800 inmates, monitoring groups say.
The troops fired tear gas, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, but it is unclear whether the operation was successful.
The mutiny began on Monday when inmates took some guards hostage.
The prisoners reportedly objected to a plan to transfer some of them to the army-run Saydnaya prison near Damascus.
Has opportunity for peace been lost?
What is left of Syria?
Troops surrounded the facility after the guards were taken on Monday, the Observatory said.
It said prisoners were also angry at delays to trials.
Some 46 prisoners had been released since the protest began, it said.
Human rights groups say thousands of Syrians are held in jails without charge.
Syria's main opposition grouping, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), had earlier warned there could be a massacre of prisoners.
It said the inmates, who include political and jihadist prisoners, wanted better conditions.
More than 270,000 people have died in five years of conflict in Syria.
A nationwide, and very shaky, partial truce agreement between government forces and non-jihadist rebel groups has been in place since February.
It does not include so-called Islamic State or the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36233008

Nearly 250 Dead Amid Relentless Airstrikes On Syria’s Aleppo

Nine days of deadly bombardment of the city has all but destroyed Syria’s ceasefire deal

People carry an injured boy after airstrikes on Aleppo on Thursday. Nearly 250 civilians have died in nine straight days of bombardments on the city.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Nearly 30 air strikes hit rebel-held areas of Syria‘s northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, killing more people in a ninth straight day of bombardments by warring sides, and a temporary “calm” declared by Syrian military took hold around Damascus and in the northwest.

The violence in Aleppo, which has borne the brunt of an escalation in fighting that has all but destroyed a ceasefire deal brokered in February by Washington and Moscow, has killed nearly 250 people since April 22, a monitoring group said.

It has also contributed to the break up of peace talks in Geneva, which the main opposition walked out of last week.

A temporary “regime of calm”, or lull in fighting, announced by the Syrian army late on Friday, which Damascus said was designed to salvage the wider ceasefire deal, appeared to hold in the capital and areas in its suburbs, as well as parts of northwest coastal province Latakia. Aleppo had not been included in the plan for a lull.

At least five people were killed in Aleppo early on Saturday in the latest round of air strikes, which were believed to have been carried out by Syrian government warplanes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The British-based monitoring group put the civilian death toll in government and rebel bombardments of neighborhoods in Aleppo since April 22 at nearly 250.

This figure included around 140 people killed by government-aligned forces in air strikes and shellings of rebel-held areas, including 19 children, it said. Insurgent shelling of government-held areas killed 96 people, including 21 children.

Aleppo, Syria‘s largest city before the war, has been divided for years between rebel and government zones. Full control would be the most important prize for President Bashar al-Assad, who has been fighting to keep hold of his country throughout a five-year civil war.

A BIT QUIETER’

Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said government-held areas of Aleppo were “a bit quieter today”, but that shells fired by rebels were still intermittently hitting.

Farther southwest, “there aren’t clashes in Latakia, there aren’t clashes in Ghouta (Damascus suburbs),” only some lower-level violence between rival rebel groups outside Damascus, Abdulrahman said, referring to the lull in fighting announced by the army.

A resident of Western Ghouta, which is under government siege, said shellings appeared to have ceased around the capital in the hours after the start of the lull at 1 a.m. (2200 GMT on Friday).

“There has been no military activity and no sound of bombardments in nearby areas, no sound of shelling or of warplanes,” the resident, Maher Abu Jaafar, told Reuters via internet messenger.

“It’s the opposite of last night, when there was a lot of bombing and the sounds of rockets and shells.

”Syrian helicopters later in the day dropped a number of barrel bombs southwest of Damascus but outside the area where the lull in fighting was meant to take place, the Observatory said.

Abu Jaafar said he heard several explosions in the afternoon.

A Friday statement from the Syrian army did not explain any detail what military or non-military action the “regime of calm” would entail.

It said it would last for 24 hours in Eastern Ghouta and Damascus and for 72 hours in areas of the northern Latakia countryside.

The United Nations has called on Moscow and Washington to help restore the ceasefire to prevent the complete collapse of talks aimed at ending a conflict in which more than 250,000 people have been killed and millions displaced.

Aid agencies have continued to deliver aid in the west of the country, but say that access is not regular enough and that many Syrians in need still cannot be reached.

The International Committee for the Red Cross said on Saturday fresh aid had begun to enter the towns of Zabadani and Madaya, where there were reports of starvation earlier this year due to a siege by government forces and their allies.

Trucks simultaneously entered al-Foua and Kefraya in the northwest province of Idlib, which are surrounded by insurgents.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syria-aleppo-death-toll_us_5724d05ce4b01a5ebde5cc00

21 inmates convert to Islam in Sharjah

Colonel Ahmed Abdul Aziz Shuhail, Deputy Director of Ajman Central Jail, said 21 inmates had declared their conversion to Islam.
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A total of 21 female and male inmates have converted to Islam in the first quarter of 2016.

Colonel Ahmed Abdul Aziz Shuhail, Deputy Director of Ajman Central Jail, said 21 inmates have declared their conversion to Islam though the initiative launched by department of reformatory and rehabilitation at Sharjah central jail to support new Muslims.

He pointed out the Sharjah Punitive and Reformatory Establishments (SPRE) encourages none Muslims to convert to Islam through religious lectures which aimed at spread of Islam teachings.

The SPRE in coordination With Islamic Affairs department in Sharjah presented 80 lectures during 2016.

He pointed out yesterday on Monday five inmates declared their conversion in presence of top official at Sharjah Police.

Source : http://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/sharjah/21-inmates-convert-to-islam-in-sharjah