2 Palestinians killed as Israel raids W.Bank

RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli troops killed two Palestinians on Sunday, Palestinian medics and a militant group said, as Israel pressed on with its crackdown on Hamas, the Islamist group it accuses of abducting three Israeli teens.
Soldiers entered several Palestinian cities and villages in the occupied West Bank, rounding up six suspected militants, the Israeli military said.
Israel has said its West Bank operation is twofold — to find Gil-Ad Shaer and US-Israeli national Naftali Fraenkel, both aged 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, who went missing near an Israeli settlement on June 13, and to deal a substantial blow to Hamas.
Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, has neither denied nor confirmed involvement in the disappearance of the youths.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in public remarks to his cabinet on Sunday, said Israel had conveyed its evidence against Hamas to several countries and would soon make it public. He defended Israel’s military action in the West Bank.
“We have no intention of hurting anyone maliciously, but our forces are behaving in the manner necessary for their self-defense and occasionally there are fatalities or wounded on the Palestinian side,” Netanyahu said.
The military has so far searched some 1,350 sites in the West Bank and detained more than 330 Palestinians. The raids have triggered street clashes in which four Palestinians have been killed.
During a raid in the city of Nablus, Israeli soldiers fired at stone-throwing Palestinians, killing Ahmad Famawi, 26, residents and medics said.
The military said its soldiers fired at a suspect who approached them without responding to calls to stop. The incident is being investigated, it said, though an “initial inquiry suggests the suspect was mentally unstable.”
In Ramallah, the Islamic Jihad militant group said one of its members was killed by Israeli gunfire. The Israeli military said it was “not familiar” with the incident.

Abbas challenges Netanyahu
The crisis has put pressure on a unity pact between Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and rival Hamas.
Abbas has condemned the abduction of the three Israelis, and his security forces have been helping in the search. But he has also called the Israeli sweeps collective punishment.
Abbas’s security cooperation with Israel touched off a rare protest against Palestinian police in Ramallah, the seat of his government, on Sunday.
Chanting “collaborators,” dozens of people hurled rocks at a police station and damaged three police cars when policemen remained inside the building rather than joining protesters in confronting Israeli troops who entered the city, witnesses said.
In an interview with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, Abbas said he had no credible information Hamas was behind the kidnappings.
“I do not intend to punish anyone based off suspicions or because Netanyahu claims something. When Netanyahu has such information, he needs to update me and we will take care of the matter according to our own laws,” he said.

ATLANTA ( At Least 84 Could Have Been Exposed to Anthrax at U.S. Government Lab )

 

ATLANTA – The number of workers at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who could have been exposed to anthrax has risen to 84, nine more than originally reported, the Atlanta-based federal agency said Friday.

“We have moved quickly to identify those who could have been exposed and they are being treated. Up to now, 84 have been identified as probably exposed,” CDC spokesperson Belsie Gonzalez told Efe.

Gonzalez said there were two other cases of possible contact that have not yet been confirmed.

The workers could have been infected due to the mismanagement of live biological material at one of the CDC laboratories.

The agency said it is observing closely the workers who might have been infected and has treated them to minimize the risk of complications.

While the incident is still under investigation, authorities say the employees would have been exposed to anthrax while handling samples of live material that had not been inactivated correctly.

The workers thought the samples were inactivated and did not use the equipment for personal protection required in such cases, the CDC said.

Authorities do not believe that people outside the agency are at any risk of anthrax infection.

Anthrax can infect the skin, lungs and digestive system of those who come in contact with the substance and is considered one of the most dangerous resources of biological terrorism.

The accidental exposure was discovered on June 13 when the original bacteria samples were collected to discard as trash and traces of live bacteria were detected that had been distributed among several CDC laboratories.

34 Iraqi soldiers slain on Syria border

RAMADI: Clashes with Sunni militants have killed 34 Iraqi security forces members in Al-Qaim, a town on the Syrian border, officials said Friday.
The fighting broke out late Thursday night and continued until around noon Friday, with militants in control of most of the town, security forces officers and a local official said. The identity of the militants was not immediately clear.
But the official, Farhan Farhan, appealed to the government for arms “stronger than the weapons that ISIL has,” a reference to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Witnesses said families had begun to flee Al-Qaim.

Israeli troops kill boy, 14, in hunt for missing teens

HEBRON: Israeli soldiers killed a 14-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Friday as they pressed a crackdown on Hamas in their search for three missing teenagers.
Troops also wounded two Palestinians in a refugee camp just outside Jerusalem, medical sources said, as clashes flared during the massive military operation in which forces have detained 330 Palestinians over the past week.
Israel accuses Hamas of kidnapping two 16-year-olds and a 19-year-old who went missing at a hitch-hiking stop in the West Bank, an allegation the group has dismissed.
But Israel seized on the opportunity to drive a wedge between Hamas and the Palestinian leadership, who formed a merged administration for the West Bank and Gaza Strip just this month for the first time in seven years.
Palestinian security and medical sources said 14-year-old Mohammed Dudin was shot in the chest in a clash that erupted after Israeli soldiers arrived to conduct arrests in the village of Dura, south of the West Bank city of Hebron.
Dudin was taken to the Alia hospital in Hebron, where he was later pronounced dead.
The army said villagers had thrown stones and Molotov cocktails at troops on an arrest mission in Dura, and that soldiers had responded with live fire.
A spokeswoman told AFP the army was examining the reports of Dudin’s death. In Qalandia refugee camp just north of Jerusalem, troops shot and wounded two young Palestinians, medics said.
Mustafa Aslan, 20, was in critical condition at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem while Mohammed Shehada, 21, was being treated in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah — the head of the new unity government appointed on June 2 — attended the Friday prayers in Hebron, but the army prevented him from attending Dudin’s burial in Dura.
Hamas has lashed out at the Palestinian leadership for its decision to maintain security coordination with Israel despite the massive wave of searches and arrests.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki accused Israel of an “exaggerated” response, and questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that Hamas was behind the abduction. “He cannot keep blaming one side without showing evidence,” Malki told AFP.
“Three kids have disappeared, but in exchange for that the Israeli army has taken 300 Palestinians,” he said. “Their reaction went beyond logic.”
Malki added, however, that “if it comes to be known that Hamas is behind it (the kidnapping), then of course the unity government will be at risk.”
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said, meanwhile, that Israel’s “working assumption” was that “the abductees are alive, until proven otherwise.”
Israeli troops also carried out search and arrest operations overnight in the Dheisheh refugee camp, near Bethlehem, and in Arura, north of Ramallah, “detaining some 25 suspects and searching approximately 200 locations,” the army said.
Since the start of the operation last week, troops have “scanned about 1,150 locations in search for the abducted boys and for terror elements.”

Iran ( 80 Sunni prisoners on hunger strike in protest at imminent execution )

Posted on: 18th June, 2014      

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HRANA News Agency – 80 Sunni prisoners of conscience in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj began a hunger strike yesterday in support of four Sunni prisoners who are in danger of imminent execution.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), in a leaked message from the prison, the Sunni prisoners released the following statement:
“We, the Sunni prisoners of conscience in Rajai Shahr Prison, announce that the vast majority of us declare our own hunger strike from today, 16 June 2014, in support of our four brothers who are in Karaj’s Ghezel Hesar Prison on the eve of their [scheduled] execution and in solidarity with their families’ protest. We will continue our strike until their executions are stopped and sentences revoked.”

Washington ( Obama Touts Capture of Suspect in Benghazi Attack )

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama confirmed on Tuesday that he authorized the operation in Libya to capture one of the men suspected in the deadly September 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and vowed that the prisoner “will now face the full weight of the American justice system.”

The apprehension of Ahmed Abu Khatallah “is a testament to the painstaking efforts of our military, law enforcement, and intelligence personnel,” the president said in a statement.

“With this operation, the United States has once again demonstrated that we will do whatever it takes to see that justice is done when people harm Americans,” Obama said.

The Pentagon said earlier Tuesday that a joint operation of military Special Forces and FBI agents captured Khatallah, reputed leader of the Islamic terrorist organization Ansar al-Shariah, in eastern Libya.

U.S. investigators suspect Khatallah led the Sept. 12, 2012, attack against the consulate in Benghazi.

Washington’s ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was killed in the strike along with a State Department security officer and two CIA contractors.

The president promised to keep working to bring the rest of the Benghazi attackers to justice.

“We will remain vigilant against all acts of terrorism, and we will continue to prioritize the protection of our service-members and civilians overseas,” he said.

Obama, who had been harshly criticized by the Republican opposition for making no headway in catching those guilty of the attack, said he had always made it a “priority to find and bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of four brave Americans.”

GENEVA ( U.N. Refugee Agency Says Iraq situation “Chaotic” )

GENEVA – The United Nations’ refugee agency on Friday described the situation in Iraq as “chaotic,” saying it has not been able to reach or help tens of thousands of people who are internally displaced and fears that number will increase as the conflict spreads.

“The situation is chaotic,” Adrian Edwards, the spokesman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, said of the crisis in Iraq, where several conflicts are raging at the same time.

The United Nations continues to give a figure of 500,000 people internally displaced as a result of this month’s seizure of the northern city of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a jihadist group linked to Al Qaeda, and its allies.

Concurrently, humanitarian agencies must attend to another half-million people forcibly displaced by the conflict in the western province of Al-Anbar that predates ISIS’ uprising over the past two weeks.

Edwards said the UNHCR is “very concerned” because the fighting is causing more displacement, noting that humanitarian agencies are already overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who have fled and are unable to reach many others due to lack of security.

Neither the UNHCR, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs nor the International Organization for Migration can say how many of the internally displaced lack access to international aid, nor give their precise location, but they believe they number more than 100,000.

“The ongoing conflict and the extremely volatile environment is likely to limit humanitarian access to thousands of displaced people in areas controlled by armed groups,” Jacqueline Badcock, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement Friday.

The OCHA’s spokesman, Jens Laerke, said that for the moment no talks have been held with ISIS leaders requesting access to the internally displaced.

The situation is complicated further because many of the displaced are constantly on the move.
An additional major concern is the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases due to high temperatures and the lack of sanitation, hygiene and potable water in many of the areas where the displaced have taken refuge, Fadela Chaib, spokesperson for the World Health Organization, said.

Iraqi officials contend that ISIS is solely responsible for the offensive in the northern part of the country, but other Sunni militant groups opposed to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki are backing the jihadist movement.

The rebels are holding Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the capital of Nineveh province, and trying to advance on Baghdad.