Page 10 - aruba-today-20171118

A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 18 November 2017
Mugabe emerges from house arrest amid crisis Iraq forces retake

the country’s last

By FARAI MUTSAKA IS-held town: AP
CHRIS TORCHIA
Associated Press By QASSIM ZAHRA
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) Associated Press
— Zimbabwe’s President BAGHDAD (AP) —
Robert Mugabe emerged Iraqi forces backed by the
for the first time Friday from U.S.-led coalition retook
military-imposed house ar- on Friday the last town in
rest, presiding at a univer- the country that was held
sity graduation ceremony by the Islamic State group,
in a fragile show of nor- more than three years af-
malcy even as former loy- ter the militants stormed
alists across the country de- nearly a third of Iraq’s ter-
manded that he resign af- ritory, the Defense Ministry
ter nearly four decades in said.
power. In an extraordinary At dawn, military units and
evening newscast, state local tribal fighters pushed
broadcaster ZBC — for de- into the western neighbor-
cades, a mouthpiece for hoods of Rawah in west-
the Mugabe government ern Anbar province, and
— reported on the surging after just five hours of fight-
campaign for his ouster ing they retook the town,
and showed video of ruling according to Brig. Gen.
party members saying he Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, center, leaves after presiding over a student graduation Yahya Rasool, the minis-
should resign. ceremony at Zimbabwe Open University on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe Friday, Nov. 17, try’s spokesman.
Clad in a blue academic 2017. Mugabe is making his first public appearance since the military put him under house arrest Iraq’s Prime Minister Haid-
gown, the 93-year-old lead- earlier this week. er al-Abadi congratulat-
er earlier joined academics (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi) ed his forces on retaking
on a red carpet and sat position, sending tanks tions were called for Sat- lingering caution of many Rawah. In a statement
in a high-backed chair in and troops into Harare’s urday in Harare to support in a country where people released on Friday after-
front of several thousand streets this week to effec- the military’s move against have been prosecuted for noon, Al-Abadi said Iraqi
students and guests, a rou- tively end the Mugabe era, Mugabe, who drew ap- criticizing the president. forces liberated Rawah
tine he has conducted for while refraining from more plause from the graduat- Discontent with Mugabe in record time and were
many years as the official heavy-handed measures ing students on the outskirts has been growing be- continuing operations to
chancellor of Zimbabwe’s that would heighten ac- of the capital only when cause of the dire state of retake control of Iraq’s
universities. This time, how- cusations that they staged he made brief, perfunc- the economy, concerns western desert and the
ever, the spectacle was a coup and violated the tory remarks, usually to be- about corruption and mis- border area with Syria.
jarring because the au- constitution. Meanwhile, stow degrees on delighted management, a sense that Rawah, 175 miles (275 ki-
thority of the world’s oldest the ruling ZANU-PF party graduates. The military he is no longer physically lometers) northwest of
head of state, once seen signaled impatience with said it supports plans for a capable of leading the Baghdad, lies along the
as impregnable, is evapo- Mugabe amid negotiations march, as long as the dem- country due to advanced Euphrates River Valley
rating daily. That Mugabe on his exit. Party branches onstration is orderly and age and the ambitions of near the border town of
was permitted to go to the passed no-confidence peaceful. “It was a long his wife, Grace Mugabe, to Qaim that Iraqi forces re-
Zimbabwe Open University votes in all 10 Zimbabwean struggle,” graduate Arthur succeed him. The military took from IS earlier this
event possibly reflected a provinces, and the state- Chipra said of the years stepped into the factional month.
degree of respect by the run Zimbabwe Herald news- of effort that went into his battles of the ruling party U.S.-led coalition forces
military for the president, paper said all called for master’s degree in conflict on Wednesday after the supported the operations
a former rebel leader who the resignation of Mugabe resolution. He declined to firing of Vice President Em- to retake Rawah and
took power after indepen- and his wife. They seek a say anything when asked merson Mnangagwa, who Qaim with intelligence,
dence from white minor- special meeting within two what he thought about is close to the armed forces airstrikes and advisers, co-
ity rule in 1980. The armed days of the party’s Central Mugabe’s presence at the and was heavily criticized alition spokesman Ryan
forces are in a delicate Committee. Demonstra- ceremony, highlighting the by both Mugabes.q Dillon said.
IS blitzed across Iraq’s
north and west in the sum-
Chinese envoy in North Korea amid chill in ties mer of 2014, capturing
Iraq’s second-largest city
of Mosul and advancing
PYONGYANG, North Korea brief North Korean officials man of the ruling party armament talks. North Ko- to the edges of the Iraqi
(AP) — The highest-level on the outcome of China’s and one of the most senior rea staged its sixth nuclear capital, Baghdad.
Chinese envoy to North ruling Communist Party leaders after Kim. The visit test on Sept. 3, detonating Later that year the United
Korea in two years arrived congress held last month. is seen as an effort by Xi to what it said was a hydro- States began a campaign
in the country’s capital on He is visiting as President explore a new approach in gen bomb, and most re- of airstrikes against the mil-
Friday to try to improve re- Xi Jinping’s special envoy, relations and likely also re- cently launched a ballistic itants that fueled Iraqi ter-
lations that have soured according to Chinese and flects Xi’s desire to head off missile on Sept. 15, firing it ritorial gains, allowing the
over Beijing’s tightening of North Korean state media, further pressure from Wash- over the Japanese island military to retake Mosul in
sanctions and expressions but no other details about ington. China’s relations of Hokkaido into the Pacific July this year.
of support for U.S. President his itinerary or whether he with North Korea have de- Ocean. China, North Ko- All that now remains of IS-
Donald Trump’s calls for will meet with North Korean teriorated under Kim, who rea’s largest trading part- held Iraq are patches of
more pressure on the North leader Kim Jong Un have has ignored Beijing’s calls ner, says its influence with rural territory in the coun-
to abandon its nuclear been announced. After ar- to end the North’s nuclear Kim’s government is often try’s vast western desert
weapons program. Song riving, Song met with Choe weapons and ballistic mis- exaggerated by the U.S. along the border with
Tao’s official mission is to Ryong Hae, a vice chair- sile tests and return to dis- and others.q Syria.q