15 People, Including Members of Parlmement, Killed in Mogadishu

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.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – Al-Shabab Stages Deadly Attack on Somalia Luxury Hotel – 21 February 2015

CNN International – Police: At Least 15 Dead In Attack on High-Profile Mogadishu Hotel – 20 February 2015

CBS News – Somali Officials Hit In Suicide Attack – 20 February 2015

USA Today – Suicide Bombings at Somalia Hotel Kill At Least 10 People – 20 February 2015

 

 

Report: Ten Children of Syrian Rebels Killed by Assad Force

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.

For more information please see:

Al Arabiya – Syria Forces Execute 10 Children of Alleged Rebels: Monitor – 21 February 2015

International Business Times UK – Syria: President Assad’s Troops ‘Kill Children of Alleged Rebels’ – 21 February 2015

Middle East Monitor – Assad Forces Kill 48 Civilians in Aleppo – 21 February 2015

Reuters UK – Monitor Says Syrian Army and Allies Killed 48 In Aleppo Offensive – 21 February 2015

The Looting of Syria

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.

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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.

For more information please see:

BBC News – The Men Who Smuggle the Loot That Funds IS – 16 February 2015

International Business Times Australia – SIS’ Looting Of Precious Relics in Syria ‘Biggest Threat’ To Art since World War II – 12 February 2015

The Smithsonian – Can Antiquities Looting In Syria Be Stopped? – 12 February 2015

United Nations News Centre – Security Council Approves Resolution Targeting Sources of Financing for ISIL – 12 February 2015

The Independent – Call for UK to Take Tougher Action to Save Antiquities from Isis – 11 February 2015

The Wall Street Journal – Culture Brigade: Syrian ‘Monuments Men’ Race To Protect Antiquities as Looting Bankrolls Terror – 10 February 2015

National Geographic – ISIS Cashing In On Looted Antiquities to Fuel Iraq Insurgency – 26 June 2015

Bill Browder’s Red Notice Hits the UK Sunday Time’s Best Seller List

February 20, 2015 – ‘Red Notice,’ a non-fiction thriller by justice campaigner Bill Browder, hit ‘The Sunday Times’ best-seller list in the first week since the book’s launch.

‘Red Notice’ is an unputdownable account of the rise and fall in fortune of a Westerner, once the largest international investor in Russia, and a look under the hood of the massive corruption of Vladimir Putin’s regime. The book is told through the story of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was tortured and killed in Russian police custody after testifying about a $230 million government corruption scam.

The Sunday Times list reflects weekly book sales in the UK. ‘Red Notice’ has gained the No 9 position on this week’s Sunday Times list, which will be published on Sunday, February 22nd. It means that the book has become an instant best-seller in Britain.

“The reason I wrote the book is so that people could see for themselves what has happened to me and to Sergei Magnitsky when we tried to expose Russian government corruption. I wrote it in a style that both those interested in Russia and those who are not would find it easily accessible and interesting. It exceeds my best hopes to get such amazing feedback from my readers,” said Bill Browder.

This success in the UK follows ‘Red Notice’ becoming a best-seller in the US, where it has now been on ‘The New York Times’ best-seller list for the second week since its launch.

‘Red Notice’ has received rave reviews from celebrities and ordinary readers alike.

Playwright Tom Stoppard said: “The story of Sergei Magnitsky’s life and death is?a shocking true-life thriller, and Bill Browder was the man to write it.”

Reviewers on amazon.co.uk said:

“It reads like a legal and political thriller, a historical novel and true crime story all in one and I would recommend to everyone who is old enough to read to buy or download to their kindle and can guarantee you will be hooked before you reach the 3rd chapter.”

“It is the clearest, most fact-dense, heart-breaking and heartfelt account of grotesque, systematic and unrelenting criminality, at the highest levels of the government of a country, Russia, whose leaders brazenly demand the world’s respect while continuing to break the world’s laws.”

The book has also received glowing reviews in the global media:

“An unburdening, a witness statement and a thriller all that the same time … Electrifying … One heck of a read.” – The Times

“[Browder’s] freewheeling, snappy book describes the meteoric rise, and disastrous fall, of a buccaneer capitalist who crossed the wrong people and paid a steep price. . . The high stakes make for a zesty tale” – New York Times

“A sizzling accountof Mr Browder’s rise, fall and metamorphosis from bombastic financier to renowned human-rights activist … Readsmore like a financial thriller than a real-life story” – The Economist

“A tale that makes the dirty dealings of House of Cards look like Snow White.” – Toronto Star

‘Red Notice’ was published by Random House and released in the UK on 5 February 2015.

Triple bombing in Libya kills dozens

By Ashley Repp 

News Desk Reporter- Africa

al-Qubbah- Libya

                Earlier this week, following the release of a gruesome video that showed the beheading of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians, and one non-Christian, Egypt launched air strikes in and near the city of Derna.  The strikes targeted training camps and arms caches in the city. Groups affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIL) have claimed responsibility for the video, and called the beheaded Coptic Christians, ‘crusaders.’

isis libya

Following these are strikes, Islamic State affiliate groups vowed revenge for the attacks on Derna.  On Friday, Islamic State affiliate groups carried out a triple attack on the eastern city of al-Qubbah.  One of the apparent targets of the attack was the parliament speaker of the internationally recognized parliament of Libya, Aguila Salah.  Medical personnel assert that Salah was not home at the time of the attack.  The two other bombings in the triple strike included a police station, as well as a gas station.  The majority of those killed in these attacks were waiting in line at the gas station.  Over 30 people have died, although a source quoted by Reuters asserts that the death toll is nearer to 40 and over 70 injured.

Libya plunged into chaos following the ousting of Col. Moammar Kadafi in 2011.  Since that time, factions have waged war with one another in an effort to gain control over Libya.  No one group has gained significant traction.  ISIL has sought to capitalize on the instability and violence that currently racks Libya, in an effort to gain traction in Africa.  While it is not a group that currently predominates in Libya, recent events have begun to establish the Islamic State as a very real actor in the game in Libya.   Egypt has become increasingly alarmed by the rate at which the Islamic State has been gaining support in Libya, as Egypt is currently fighting another Islamic State affiliate group in the Sinai Peninsula.

For more information, please visit:

ABC News- Triple bombings kill at least 25 in eastern Libya, medics say– 20 Feb., 2015

Al Jazeera- Deaths in car bombings in east Libya city– 20 Feb., 2015

LA Times- Bomb attacks in Libya kill at least 34– 20 Feb., 2015

BBC News- Libya Violence: Bombs kill dozens in al-Qubbah– 20 Feb., 2015