Excerpts: Ayatollah Khamenei re Western youth. IS leaves hidden death in
retreat. Jordan covers 81% refugee cost. Japan works from Jordan re IS
hostages. Jordan claims Palestine football-fix. Hamas asks Hizbullah jointly
fight Israel January 23, 2015
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 23 Jan,’15:”Examine Islam, Western youth urged
[byIran’s supreme leader], Agence France Presse
SUBJECT Ayatollah Ali Khamenei re Western youth
QUOTE: “Khamenie:’Don’t allow them (the West?) to hypocritically introduce
their own recruited terrorists as representatives of Islam’ “: ‘
FULL TEXT:TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged
Western youth to examine Islam for themselves rather than swallow prejudiced
views, in a message posted on his Twitter account. “The recent events in
France and similar ones in some other Western countries have convinced me to
directly talk to you about them,” he wrote in reference to the Jan. 7-9
militant attacks in Paris that left 17 dead. “Many attempts have been made
over the past two decades, almost since the disintegration of the Soviet
Union, to place this great religion in the seat of a horrifying enemy,”
Khamenei said of Islam. “Don’t allow them to hypocritically introduce their
own recruited terrorists as representatives of Islam,” he said. “Receive
knowledge of Islam from its primary and original sources,” said the supreme
guide of the Islamic republic. Khamenei called for the youth of Europe and
United States to “study and research the incentives behind this widespread
tarnishing of the image of Islam”. — AFP
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 23 Jan.’15:”IS kills with hidden bombs even after
retreating in Iraq”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: IS leaves hidden death in retreat
QUOTE:Kurdish peshmerga fighters work on detonating landmines planted by the
Islamic State (IS) fighters …, after it was recaptured by Kurdish peshmerga
troops. The jihadists still sow death long after they depart, and as Iraqi
Kurdish forces regain ground, they — and the civilians returning to their
homes — face the threat of unexploded bombs and booby traps. — AFP
FULL TEXT::A MASSAGE belt, a PlayStation controller, a gold ring — it sounds
like a gift list, but the items the Islamic State group left in Iraq are
rigged with explosives to kill.
The militant still sow death long after they depart, and as Iraqi Kurdish
forces regain ground, they — and the civilians returning to their homes —
face the threat of unexploded bombs and booby traps.
“These people were very imaginative, like devils,” said Marwan Sydo Hisn, a
Kurdish bomb disposal expert currently based in Sinuni, a town in the
northwestern Sinjar area that was recaptured from IS fighters in late
December.
“Look at this one,” he said, thumbing through pictures on his smart phone.
“We found this massage belt that they had stuffed with a small quantity of
explosives, perfectly put back together and set up to explode on the next
person to turn it on.”
One consisted of TNT concealed inside a TV set triggered by the use of a
PlayStation controller. Another contraption was a gold ring conspicuously
left lying on the floor and rigged to kill its finder.
Some houses were webbed with trip wires and lines connecting bombs to
doorknobs.
“We have a list of 24 different types of devices they used in this area,”
said Darwish Mussa Ali, another explosives expert.
He and his colleague Sydo are both from the Kurdish “asayesh” security
service and are the only two experts tasked with clearing explosives from
the entire northern side of Mount Sinjar, a 60-km-long (40-mile) ridge near
the Syrian border.
They were dispatched from their base in Jalawla, at the southeastern end of
the Kurds’ 1,000-km frontline with the militants.
“In 24 days, we found 410 devices amounting to more than five tons, mostly
IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” Mussa said, referring to the homemade
bombs laid on roadsides to target vehicles and hamper any military advance.
They received specialized training from American explosive ordnance disposal
units before the 2011 US pullout from Iraq, but have very little equipment
to perform their dangerous task.
“We have no special armor, no robots, no scramblers for mobile
communications — just our eyes, our experience and a pair of pliers,” Sydo
said.
Most of his equipment fits in a blue cooler bag, where he also keeps a
bundle of detonators, a box-cutter and tape.
Their harvest is kept in a damp storage room adjacent to a grocer’s and
protected only by an old iron rolling door on which the word “danger” is
spray-painted in large yellow letters.
“Just walk where I walk,” said Hadi Khalaf Jirgo, a member of the Kurdish
peshmerga security forces who has been assisting the pair.
A cigarette dangled from his lips as he reeled out the wire for a controlled
detonation of some of the roadside bombs they continue to find, sometimes at
a rate of 30 a day. The blast sent a cloud rising from a gully against the
backdrop of Mont Sinjar’s snow-covered slopes.
The area was wrested back from the militants about a month ago but military
activity remains intense and civilians are returning faster than authorities
can handle.
In the first days after the northern side of Mount Sinjar was retaken, eight
people were killed in three explosions, Sydo said.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency lost four of its staff in a blast
during a clearing operation in the nearby Zumar area in October.
“Large areas that were recaptured are still not cleared. With regards to
IEDs, we have not received special devices and equipment,” said IKMAA
director Ako Aziz.
“Our teams work on the basic experience that they have learned from military
engineering regiment teams, which is really not adequate to deal with IEDs,”
he said.
IEDs are the leading cause of death among the more than 750 peshmerga killed
since IS spearheaded a militant offensive that overran large areas north and
west of Baghdad in June.
IKMAA has stepped up its awareness effort with billboards telling civilians
what to do when they find a suspicious object.
But there are only a handful of specialist teams operating across a huge
area and struggling to keep up with the fast-changing military map.
The unconventional nature of the devices planted by IS militants also slows
down the clearing effort.
“They seem to have a high level of expertise in planting those devices, they
have some experienced people. So to defuse those devices, you also need a
high level of experience,” Aziz said. — AFP
+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 23 Jan.’15:”Jordan covering 81% of refugee crisis
cost –P.M
SUBJECT: Jordan covers 81% refugee cost
QUOTE:”640,000 Syrian refugees have been registered by the local
authorities”
FULL TEXT:AMMAN — Jordan’s commitment to its open-door policy for Syrians
fleeing the violence in their country should be met with more international
support to address the burden of hosting refugees, Prime Minister Abdullah
Ensour said Thursday.
At a meeting with UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan Edward
Kallon Ensour said international support at present only covers 19 per cent
of the cost of hosting Syrian refugees, with the Kingdom left to cover the
remaining 81 per cent, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
For his part, Kallon said the UN is working with other concerned
organisations to increase the international community’s assistance to Jordan
to enable it to continue its humanitarian efforts in the service of the
refugees.
Also on Thursday, an army source said border guards received 41 Syrian
refugees during the past 72 hours, according to Petra.
Border guards provided the new arrivals with humanitarian assistance and
took them to official refugee camps.
The UNHCR says it needs nearly $404.4 million to deal with the Syrian crisis
and provide humanitarian assistance for refugees in Jordan in 2015.
In December 2014, the government launched Jordan’s Response Plan of $2.87
billion that seeks to address the repercussions of the Syrian crisis for
this year, which makes the needs of the country and
UNHCR Jordan over $3 billion.
Around 620,000 Syrians in Jordan are registered as refugees with the UNHCR,
while some 640,000 Syrian refugees have been registered by the local
authorities, according to figures cited by Brig. Gen. Waddah Hmoud, director
of the Syrian Refugee Affairs Department, in December.
The figures recorded by authorities are more accurate, he said, as “we
register those who enter and leave the country” for security reasons.
Only 98,000 of the registered refugees are staying in camps allocated for
Syrian refugees, while the rest reside among host communities, according to
Hmoud.
In addition to this figure, there are 750,000 Syrians living in the Kingdom
who are not registered as refugees, which adds up to a total of 1.398
million Syrians in Jordan.
++SOURCE: Jordan Times 23 Jan.’15:”Japan follows up on hostage case from
Amman”.by Omar Obeidat
SUBJECT:Japan works from Jordan re IS hostages
QUOTE: “Japan: ‘in any case Japan will not give in to terrorism”
FULL TEXT:AMMAN – Japan has set up an operations room in Jordan to deal with
the issue of two Japanese citizens held captive by the Islamic State (IS)
terror group, an official at the Japanese embassy in Amman said Thursday.[22
Jan.]
The operations room is headed by Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs
Yasuhide Nakayama, the embassy official told The Jordan Times over the
phone, adding that Japan is in contact with other regional countries to
secure the release of the two hostages.
His Majesty King Abdullah met with Nakayama on Wednesday[21 Jan.]. A Royal
Court statement said the meeting was a follow-up on the outcome of Abe’s
recent visit to the Kingdom and ways to build on it to activate aspects of
cooperation between the two countries in various fields.
In a video posted online Tuesday[20 Jan.], IS threatened to execute the
Japanese citizens it is holding within 72 hours if Tokyo fails to deliver a
$200 million ransom. The deadline expires Friday[23 Jan.].
A masked man shown standing between the two hostages, linked the group’s
ransom demand to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent pledge of $200
million in financial aid to countries fighting terror.
But in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times by the Japanese embassy in
Amman, Tokyo insisted the $200 million grant was “for humanitarian
assistance and infrastructure development, and it is non-military in nature”.
A statement by the Japanese government described the demand for the ransom
to spare the lives of the hostages as an act of blackmail, calling on the
group not to harm the two men and to release them immediately.
“In any case, Japan will not give in to terrorism, and our position of
contributing to counter-terrorism efforts by the international community
remains unchanged,” said the statement.
Following a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Abe’s office released a statement
quoting the Japanese prime minister as saying that he “hurriedly” made
requests by phone for cooperation to help release the hostages from King
Abdullah in addition to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Japanese government said Nakayama was dispatched to Jordan to follow up
on the IS threats, which Abe described as a “formidable battle against time”.
According to The Japan Times, the hostages are identified as Kenji Goto, a
47-year-old independent journalist, and Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old private
security contractor.
+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 23 Jan.’15:”Jordan complains against Palestine over
suspected match fixing” by Muath Freij
SUBJECT: Jordan claims Palestine football fix
QUOTE:”The JFA official said if match-fixing accusations are proven, those
involved face a lifelong football ban.”
FULL TEXT:AMMAN — The Jordan Football Association (JFA) has submitted an
official complaint to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) against the
Palestinian Football Association (PFA) over suspicions of match fixing in
the AFC Asian Cup in Australia.
JFA Vice President Salah Sabra said on Thursday[22 Jan.] that a video posted
on YouTube showing PFA President Jibreel Rjoub telling Iraqi players that he
hopes they beat Palestine points to potential rigging, as Iraq won 2-0,
depriving Jordan of any chance to qualify to the next round.
If Palestine had won, the national team would have had a chance of reaching
the knockout stage.
Jordan lost to Japan 0-2 on Tuesday[20 Jan.], ending its run at the 16th
Asian Cup. The team had lost to Iraq 0-1 in its opening match and beaten
Palestine 5-1.
In the video
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421828030&v=FjSceJ9tjyU&x-yt-cl=84411374),
taken ahead of the Iraq-Palestine match, Rjoub is seen telling Iraqi
players: “I hope you beat us, and the most important thing is that you have
to qualify.”
Japan and Iraq qualified to the second round.
Sabra expressed shock over Rjoub’s public statement, adding that JFA had
supported the Palestinian team in its attempts to qualify to the AFC Asian
Cup. This year was the first time the team successfully qualified to the
championship.
“We’ve spent years supporting them to qualify to this tournament,” Sabra
added.
The JFA official said that if match fixing accusations are proven, those
involved face a lifelong football ban.
+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 23 Jan.’15:”Hamas calls on Hizbullah to unite fight
against Israel, by Reuters
SUBJECT: Hamas asks Hizbullah jointly fight Israel
FULL TEXT:GAZA — A letter purported to be from Mohammed Deif, the leader of
Hamas' armed wing, on Thursday[22 Jan.] appealed to the Lebanese Hizbollah
group to unite with Hamas in battling Israel.
The letter, posted on the website of Hizbollah-run Al Manar TV, suggests the
Palestinian Hamas and Hizbollah were patching up a rift over the Syrian war.
Hamas has been hostile towards Syrian President Bashar Assad, while
Hizbollah, backed by Iran, has been fighting against the rebels trying to
topple him.
"The true enemy of the nation is the Zionist enemy and all rifles must be
directed against it," said the letter, which carried Deif's signature. "All
forces of resistance must direct their coming battle as one."Deif was
targeted in an Israeli bombing in last summer’s Gaza war.
The letter offered Hamas’ condolences to Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah over the killing of six of its fighters in an Israeli air strike
on Sunday[19 Jan.] in Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel says Deif was behind the deaths of dozens of people in suicide
bombings in its cities and has tried to assassinate him several times,
including one attempt in August during the 50-day Gaza war. The shadowy
leader, whose health condition is unknown, has been in hiding for years.
Hamas, in political and financial isolation, has been anxious to revitalise
old alliances and restore its battered funding. In December, it said it had
restored its ties with Iran, which had been angered by Hamas’ stance against
Assad.
Teheran has long been a major supplier of military and financial aid to the
group.
=========
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA
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