KIEV, Ukraine – A march in Kharkiv was interrupted today by an explosion that led to the deaths of two and wounding fifteen others. A second bomb was found in a shopping bag in Odessa, but was defused by police.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko pays tribute during the ceremony in honor of the overthrow of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. (Photo courtesy of The New York Times)
The rallies today were held in honor of the overthrow of the former Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, an ally to Russia. Some members of the parades, bearing Ukrainian flags, yelled “glory to the heroes!” Shortly thereafter, an explosion caused over a dozen casualties. Current President Petro Poroshenko said on Facebook, “[t]his is a brazen attempt to expand the territory of terrorism.”
Markian Lubkivskyi, an aide to the head of Ukraine’s SBU security forced, reports that four suspects have been arrested for planning attacks in Kharkiv with a Russian “Shmel” rocket launcher. These citizens, he reports, received weapons and training in Belgorod, a Russian city just across the Ukrainian border from Kharkiv. Moscow has not answered to these claims as of yet. Also, fighting around Mariupol, this time in the village of Shyrokyne, has been reported as well.
Fighting has been on the decline, however, over the past several days. Following the grave situation in Debaltseve, Kiev’s troops made a safe withdrawal and violence in and around the city has dwindled. Kiev reports that both sides are beginning to pull back heavy weapons, in accordance with the recent Minsk agreement. Further, 139 Ukrainian troops and 52 rebels have been exchanged to the village of Zholobok, west of rebel-held Luhansk. While this is not the entirety of prisoners, it is certainly a step in the right direction towards peace.
By Lyndsey Kelly Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – Recently, U.S. District Judge, Andrew Hanen, blocked the unilateral actions of President Barack Obama from shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, forcing the Obama administration to delay such action. Twenty-six states urged Judge Hanen to block the President’s actions, claiming that it was an abuse of his presidential powers. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, stated “President Obama abdicated his responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution when he attempted to circumvent the laws passed by Congress via executive fiat….” Judge Hanen stated that the Obama administration had not complied with procedures needed for putting his immigration procedures into effect.
President Obama has stated that his administration will comply with the Judge’s order and delay accepting applications from some of the illegal immigrants for deportation relief. However, Obama has said that he disagrees with the ruling and expected his administration to prevail on appeal, stating, “the law is on our side and history is on our side.” Immigration lawyers have states that many applicants that had already filed the necessary paperwork and paid the required fee must not either withdraw their applications or continue with the process in hopes that the injunction is overturned.
The Obama administration’s orders would offer legal reprieve to the undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the United states for at least 5 years. Thus, removing the threat of immediate deportation. Additionally, the administration would seek to expand the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allows illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as children to apply for a two-year work permit.
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
MOGADISHU, Somalia – At least 15 people, including two members of the Somali Parliament and Mogadishu’s deputy mayor, were killed on Friday in an attack on a hotel often used by government officials in Somalia’s capital 20 others were wounded in the attack. Militant’s reportedly attacked the hotel with a car packed with explosives which was detonated near the main gate of the high-profile Central Hotel. The hotel is located only a few miles from the cede of Somali political power, the Presidential Palace.
Police said they believed several government ministers and MPs were inside the Central Hotel when it was attacked by extremists. (Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera]
Following the explosion heavy gunfire between the militant attackers and hotel guards broke out, witnesses reported. Shortly after a second blasted carried out by a female suicide bomber at a mosque inside the hotel was reported as other attackers shot their way inside the hotel, a reporter said. “I saw … several people burned by the flames of the explosions lying on the blood-filled ground inside the hotel,” said Mustaf Mohamed, a witness who runs a small shop nearby.
Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte was among those inside the Central Hotel at the time of the attack, having just attended traditional Friday prayers. The Deputy Prime Minister suffered minor injuries but survived the attack, state media reported. Transportation Minister Ali Jama Jangeli also suffered minor injuries. Parliament members Hajji Gafe and Ali Omar, as well as Mohamed Aden Guled, Mogadishu’s deputy mayor, were killed in the attack.
Al-Shabaab, an Islamist extremist group which has committed several terrorist acts in Somalia and the region over the past several years has claimed responsibility for the attack, Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab, a spokesman for the terror group, said on Andulus radio, a radio station ran by the militant group. “We have killed more than 20 senior officials working for the apostate government. They gathered thinking they were safe from the mujahedeen,” he said. Al- Shabaab controlled much of Mogadishu from 2007 to 2011. However, the group was pushed out of Somalia’s capital and other major cities by African Union forces.
The presidential palace condemned the attack in a tweet citing President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, “#AlShabaab are un-Islamic and anti-democracy.”
Friday’s assault on the Central Hotel was the second on a hotel in Mogadishu in less than a month. On January 22, three Somali nationals were killed by another female suicide car bomber who blew himself up at the gate of a hotel housing the advance party of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who visited the country only days after the attack.
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
DAMASCUS, Syria – Syrian Activists say at least 49 people, including 10 children, have been killed by Syrian government troops in the village of Rityan, north of the city of Aleppo. The alleged massacre was reportedly committed by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who have launched an offensive to cut rebel supply lines to the Turkish border, according to the United Kingdom based rights and monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
People rescue children from a building damaged by, what activists said where, explosive barrels dropped by Assad’s forces in the Al-Shaar neighborhoods of Aleppo. (Photo Courtesy of the International Bushiness Times UK)
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the regime forces backed by Hezbollah and non-Syrian fighters entered the town on Tuesday and executed 49 civilians, including 13 rebels and their families, including children. “The troops and militiamen knew exactly where they lived thanks to the informers who accompanied them,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. “There was no resistance except in one house where a rebel opened fire at troops before being executed along with his family.”
The Syrian Army denied alleged involvement in the massacre, which was reportedly carried out during the regime force’s offensive against rebel-held areas in the Aleppo region. “I deny completely such an act that cannot be committed by the Syrian army whose duty is to protect lives and not kill people,” a military source told the press. The military source claimed armed groups kill residents whom they suspect of being loyal or working with the government and then accuse the Syrian Army of committing the acts.
Aleppo is Syria’s second-largest city and has become the forefront of clashes between pro-regime forces and rebel groups. The Syrian regime has targeted civilians in and around the city throughout the course of the four year conflict and has even bombarded residential areas with barrel bombs and shelling.
On Friday the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that it had documented the killings of 103 people, including four women, by Islamist factions since the beginning of 2015. Of these, 72 people were reportedly killed “execution style” for a variety of perceived offences. Also on Friday, United Nations investigators announced that they were considering reversing their policy of withholding the names of alleged war criminals in the Syrian Civil war which has now claimed the lives of at least 220,000 people over the past four years. According to the United, more than 9 million Syrians have been displaced by conflict since the war began.
Kathryn Maureen Ryan Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
DAMASCUS, Syria – Urging global cooperation “to impair, isolate and incapacitate” terrorist threats, the United Nations Security Council recently approved measures targeting sources of funding for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the Al Qaida affiliated group the Al-Nusra Front. The Security Conceal condemned those parties who are buying oil from the groups, banning all trade in looted antiquities from Iraq and Syria, and calling on governments to end ransom payments for kidnapping victims. The Russian-led resolution was unanimously adopted by the Security Council.
The gold-plated bronze figurine (photo D Osseman) was stolen from the museum in Hama, western Syria. (Photo courtesy of BBC News)
The resolution condemns the destruction and smuggling of cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the Al-Nusra Front, “whether such destruction is incidental or deliberate, including targeted destruction of religious sites and objects.” The resolution also notes concern that the groups are generating income from engaging directly or indirectly in the looting and smuggling of antiquities and other cultural heritage items.
“What started as opportunistic theft by some has turned into an organized transnational business that is helping fund terror,” said Michael Danti, an archaeologist at Boston University who is currently advising the United States Department of State on how to tackle the issue. “It’s the gravest cultural emergency I’ve seen.” While the Resolution focus on the activities of ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front evidence is mounting the regime of Syrian President of Bashar Al Assad is not only actively participating in the destruction of certain historical heritage sites but in profiteering from the looting of antiquities.
In 2012 an archaeologist trained that Damascus University and another Syrian archeologist college begin cataloging evidence of looting from all sides of the conflict. The team operates in secrecy to protect their work as they attempt to visit and examine sites targeted by looters. “It’s dangerous work. We have to get in and out of a site very quickly,” one of the archeologists said. “The looting has become systematic, and we can’t keep up.” The team operates in secrecy to protect themselves from loyalists and other groups participating in the cultural looting and destruction “The regime knows us and is looking for us,” because of work done to expose looting by Syrian regime loyalists, said the Damascus-trained archaeologist. “Other groups could kill us if they knew what we were doing, so we move in the shadows.”
Many of the antiquities are being sold by middlemen to wealthy collectors in the Gulf and eventually find their way into the global market. The black market antiquities trade is also to drugs and arms smuggling and human trafficking. While much of the world’s focus has been on importance of cutting off the Islamic State’s two principal sources of funding, the sale of Syrian oil and ransoms, the looting and smuggling of antiquities has become a growing source of funding for ISIS. Locations targeted in Syria for looting include historic sites that have been designated as UNESCO world heritage sites including the ruined city of Palmyra, the crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers and medieval buildings in Aleppo. Experts believe this looting, as well as shocking demolition of ancient relics and historic sites by the extremist group including the 2,800-year-old Hittite sculptures in Raqqa, represents the largest threat to artwork and cultural heritage sites since World War II. The looting of Syrian antiquities robs the Syrian people of their cultural property and ultimately their history as the cultural treasures from what is considered to be the birthplace of western civilized are spirited away and sold to the highest bidder, all to fuel and finance more death and destruction.
