By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Armed US drones have been deployed to target Anwar Al-Awlaki, one of the world’s most wanted Islamist terrorists following reports that he was involved in last week’s failed suicide bomb attack against Britain’s ambassador to Yemen.

The cleric, who allegedly had ties to the September 11 hijackers, later praised the Fort Hood killings and said Muslims should only serve in the US military if they intended to carry out similar attacks.

He is also believed to have played a role in the radicalization of Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the British-educated Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jet last Christmas.

Mr Obama took the highly unusual step of authorizing the assassination of an American citizen after US intelligence officials convinced the White House that the radicalization of impressionable young Muslims by al-Awlaki’s sermons posed a major threat to national security.

Senior US intelligence officials say they have stepped up their efforts to target Al-Awlaki following new evidence that the American-born cleric is taking an increasingly operational role in the operation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

But experts caution that unless Yemen diversifies its approach – which led to success in neighboring Saudi Arabia – increased military action as well as overt cooperation with America may ultimately backfire.

“Up until Christmas Day 2009, Al-Qaeda … was stronger in Yemen than it had ever been before. Over the last few months, they’ve taken a series of hits … but none of these have been sort of the debilitating blow that’s going to knock the organization off its tracks for any sustained period of time,” says Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University in New Jersey.

For more information, please see:

Telegraph UK – American Drones Deployed To Target Yemeni Terrorist – 2 May 2010

One India – Obama Orders Deployment Of US Drones To Target Yemeni Terrorist – 2 May 2010

CSM – Why Yemen’s US-Aided Fight Against Al-Qaeda Could Backfire – 2 May 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian intelligence official on Thursday denied allegations leveled by Hamas that Egypt pumped gas into a cross-border tunnel used to smuggle goods into the Gaza Strip, killing four Palestinians.

Egypt has been under pressure to shut down the hundreds of tunnels that are a key economic lifeline for the blockaded Palestinian territory but which are also used to bring in weapons for the Islamic militant group.

The intelligence official confirmed that Egyptian security forces destroyed the entrances to several tunnels this week, but said that no gas was used in the operations. He said that Egypt routinely blows up the mouths to the tunnels to seal them off, and that the blast and an ensuing fire could quickly use up all the oxygen in the confined space, causing people caught inside to suffocate.

Egypt’s denial comes a day after Hamas accused Egyptian forces of killing four Palestinians by pumping gas into a smuggling tunnel. The Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement late Wednesday that the gas used to try to clear the tunnel was poisonous. It said six people were also injured.

It was not immediately clear what evidence Hamas was basing its allegations on.

Mohammed al-Osh, the medical director of the Abu Yusef al-Najar hospital in the Gaza border town of Rafah where some of the dead and injured were taken, could not confirm those killed had inhaled poison gas. He said the hospital did not have the equipment or specialists needed to conduct the necessary tests on lungs and clothing.

The United States and Israel have been pushing Egypt to do more to try to close the tunnels, which provide Hamas with a lifeline helping it to stay in power in Gaza. Weapons and other contraband regularly move through the tunnels.

But the 1.5 million residents of the impoverished Gaza Strip also rely on the tunnels to bring in food and commercial goods like refrigerators and clothing.

Many of the tunnels, dug with electrical drills and running side by side under the border, are just high enough to enable workers to move on all fours. Their entrances are covered by tents and they are equipped with motorized pulleys to haul goods and generator-powered lighting.

For more information, please see:

Press Trust Of India – Egypt Denies Pumping Gas Into Gaza Smuggling Tunnel – 29 April 2010

AP – Egypt Rejects Claims That It Gassed Gaza Tunnels – 29 April 2010

NPR – Egypt Rejects Claims That It Gassed Gaza Tunnels – 29 April 2010

By Bobby Rajabi

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – On April 27, Iran’s main opposition leaders called for protests to take place on the anniversary of the disputed June 12, 2009 presidential election. Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi came to the decision after a April 27 meeting, according to Karroubi’s website. The Sahamnews website reported that the leaders “insisted on staging a demonstration on June 12…and called on all reformist groups, organisations and parties to send their requests for this to the interior ministry.”

The meeting between Karroubi and Mousavi was called to discuss the current situation in the Islamic Republic with respect to government activity. The two opposition leaders came to the conclusion that “the government’s performance was negative in all fields –political and economic.” The two also spoke of their opposition to the government’s imprisonment of reformists and corruption by the Iranian vice president. Mousavi said that “these acts are anti-Islamic, I truly don’t understand how they will answer to God.”

As a result of this assessment, the two men called for “the pubic’s participation in peaceful demonstrations on the anniversary of the presidential election.” The two urged opposition groups and political parties to send requests asking for permission to march on the anniversary to the Islamic Republic’s Interior ministry. The Interior Ministry has repeatedly denied such requests in the past.

The election marked the re-election of incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who defeated both Mousavi and Karroubi. Immediately after the election came claims of voter fraud and accusations of vote-rigging. What followed were protests in streets of the Islamic Republic’s major cities. Security forces cracked down on protesters. Dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds were rounded up and arrested. Those who were put on trial, including journalists and human rights advocates, received stiff sentences for their involvement.

The last major protest against the Islamic Republic’s government came in December where eight protesters were killed. Hard line government authorities have branded those involved in the protest movement as being involved with a sedition perpetrated by Iran’s enemies. These enemies allegedly include the United States and the United Kingdom.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Iran’s Opposition Plan Protests on Poll Anniversary – 27 April 2010

New York Times – Iran: Opposition Calls for Protests – 27 April 2010

Voice of America – Iran Opposition Leaders Call for Election Anniversary Rallies – 27 April 2010

Washington Post – Iran Opposition Urges Vote Anniversary Rally: Website – 27 April 2010

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Egypt has rejected a potential water sharing agreement proposed by a conference of the ten Nile River Basin countries in Sharm Al-Sheik earlier this month. Egypt claims that reducing its traditional water rights threatens its fragile agriculture along the Nile, and perhaps Egypt itself.

Egypt’s latest refusal has led to the other countries upstream, including the Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia, to threaten to shut Egypt out of the pact. Water pacts along the Nile have been in place since 1929, when most of the countries along the river were under British colonial European control. Egypt has traditionally been the most powerful country in the region, and has also held the most robust water rights.

“We will not sign on to any agreement that does not clearly state and acknowledge our historical rights,” said Egyptian Water Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam, after the meeting with representatives from the other Basin countries.

The countries upstream, led by Ethiopia, which contributes eighty percent of the water flowing into Egypt, have demanded what it calls a fairer water deal, departing from pre-independence treaties. Ethiopia and the other upper riparian countries also dispute the legitimacy of a 1959 water treaty between Egypt and Sudan, which allows Egypt alone to use 55.5 billion cubic meters of water per year, 87% of the Nile’s water per year, and granting Sudan 18.5 cubic meters per year. The 1929 and 1959 agreements also give Egypt veto power over any proposed dams and upstream river projects that may influence Egypt’s water flow.

Egypt says the issue could soon be one of national security, and that Egypt may be forced to use military force to protect its water rights. As the effects of climate change worsen, Egypt faces water threats from both ends of the Nile: as sea levels rise, the Egyptian cultural hub in the Nile River Delta could be flooded and inundated with salt water; as water needs become dire upstream, the fabled breadbasket of the Nile River Basin could become arid. Some analysts fear that the Nile River Basin could be a hotspot for a potential “water war.”

For more information, please see:

Afrik.com – Egypt Better Off Settling Water Spat with Ethiopia Led Nile Basin Negotiations – 27 April 2010

Al-Masri Al-Youm – Dying of Thirst vs. Death by Drowning – 27 April 2010

Daily Nation – Tension as Egypt Rejects New Deal for Nile Water – 27 April 2010

Guardian – Egypt Must Negotiate on Nile Water – 26 April 2010

All Headline News – Egypt Will Reassert Traditional Rights to Nile River Water – 23 April 2010