Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Friday 3 March 2017
U.S. airstrikes Merkel visits Egypt with eye on stemming migration
target al-Qaida
within Yemen BRIAN ROHAN refugees in Egypt, and we “Egypt has made propos- Europe in exchange for
Associated Press would like these refugees als for technical support economic aid. Egypt has
AHMED AL-HAJ CAIRO (AP) — German to have better opportuni- that also must be further
LOLITA C. BALDOR Chancellor Angela Merkel ties — as Egypt faces a big discussed, but I think that so far rejected the idea,
Associated Press on Thursday pledged to challenge, we are discuss- when it has to do with bor- but el-Sissi said it was a top-
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — U.S. boost support for Egypt’s ic for negotiation.
forces carried out more economic development ing concrete points,” she der security, Germany is “Of course we must take
than 20 airstrikes against al- said at a joint news con- very ready to deliver sup- measures in Egypt, and
Qaida in Yemen on Thurs- as a transit land we must
day, killing at least seven make more efforts,” he
militants in the largest op- said. “As for camps, in
eration since a ground raid Egypt we don’t have any
a month ago that left a camps or ghettos for refu-
Navy SEAL and more than gees... This point I would
two dozen Yemenis dead. not really discuss until our
The strikes targeted al-Qai-
da positions, weapons sys- talks are at the final deci-
tems and equipment in a sions.”
remote and mountainous Human Rights Watch last
area in central Yemen. week described Merkel’s
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Penta- visit as part of a European
gon spokesman, said the effort to “externalize re-
strikes were aimed at de- sponsibility for migrants
grading the group’s abil- and asylum seekers.”
ity to “coordinate external “Ensuring safe and swift re-
terror attacks” and to limit turns of Tunisians and Egyp-
its use of Yemen as a “safe tians who are not in need
space for terror plotting.”
Yemeni security officials of protection is legitimate,
told The Associated Press as long as the procedures
that U.S. jets and drones are fair,” said Judith Sun-
targeted at least six dis- derland, associate Europe
tricts where the provinces German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, meets with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi at the and Central Asia director
of Bayda, Shabwa and presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, March 2, 2017. for the New York-based
Abyan meet. An official (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty) rights group.
said the strikes killed seven and partner with Cairo to ference in the presidential port,” Merkel said. “It’s another thing entirely
al-Qaida militants in Shab- help address the region’s palace. Merkel’s visit was her first to pursue dodgy deals that
wa and Abyan. refugee crisis, with an eye “We can imagine fur- visit to the country in a de- could trap asylum seekers
The pre-dawn attack on stemming the flow of ther support but have not cade. She later met with and migrants from else-
shook houses and awoke where in countries like Tuni-
sleeping residents, many migrants to Europe. reached this point yet.” Muslim and Christian lead-
of whom fled in fear, as After meeting President Germany wants to help ers and is to meet civil so- sia and Egypt that cannot
smoke billowed into the sky Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Egypt strengthen its coast ciety representatives be- guarantee decent treat-
and explosions lit up the Merkel told reporters she guard and crack down fore heading to Tunisia on ment or meaningful ac-
horizon, according to local had discussed providing on illegal trafficking across Friday. cess to asylum.”
tribal leaders, who spoke assistance and equipment the Mediterranean, where She is believed to be seek- Merkel said she also dis-
on condition of anonymity to stop human traffickers thousands of migrants die ing a deal similar to the cussed human rights with
out of security concerns. from using Egypt as a tran- at sea each year. Hun- one reached between the el-Sissi, and reached an
Al-Qaida issued a state- sit country. dreds of thousands of refu- European Union and Tur- additional protocol for the
ment claiming that local Neither leader provided gees and migrants have key in which Ankara blocks work of civil society groups
fighters foiled a U.S. ground further details. entered Europe in recent migrants and refugees in Egypt, without getting
raid in the southern prov-
ince of Abyan. It said U.S. “There are a variety of years. from traveling onward to into specifics.q
naval vessels launched a Iraqis flee western Mosul; UN warns of displacement
wave of random shelling to
provide cover for the forc-
es to pull out. S. GEORGE said Omar Saabr Hussein, Wednesday, said that from which they can look
Several U.S. officials flatly Associated Press who was among a group 28,400 people have been down into IS positions just a
denied that the U.S. partic- MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Hun- of western Mosul residents forced from their homes few blocks away.
ipated in any ground raid dreds of Iraqi civilians con- making their way out on since the operation began Despite holding the area
in Yemen. They said U.S. tinued to flee Mosul on Thursday along a highway more than a week ago. for more than three days,
airstrikes targeted al-Qai- foot Thursday as the Islam- that has become the main Inside Mosul’s Mamun Sabah said IS launched an
da artillery and other sites, ic State group launched escape path for families neighborhood IS fighters RPG attack on his forces
and that no U.S. Navy ships
participated in the mission. fierce counterattacks on fleeing on foot. trapped deeper inside the on Thursday morning that
None of the officials were Iraqi positions along the “On each street there were city launched salvos of wounded one of his men.
authorized to discuss the city’s southwestern edge. four to five car bombs,” he mortar rounds, targeting The push to free western
matter publicly, so they The fight to rout IS from said as he held one of his Iraqi positions and along Mosul began on Febru-
spoke on condition of ano- western Mosul — the last children in his arms. Islamic routes used by civilians to ary 19. Iraqi forces first re-
nymity.Thursday’s airstrikes urban IS bastion in Iraq — State militants “don’t show flee.“There are so many took Mosul airport and the
came a month after U.S. is causing higher numbers mercy to anyone.” families in Mosul, it turns sprawling Ghazlani military
special operations forces of displaced people than An elderly woman said a all of our missions into two base next to it, but are still
carried out a raid in Bayda previously seen in the 4 single car bomb outside missions: protect the civil- struggling to secure a strip
in which a Navy SEAL was ½-month-long offensive for her home killed five of her ians and secure our own of the city’s southwest-
killed, six American sol- Iraq’s second-largest city, relatives. “They slaugh- location,” said Iraqi special ern neighborhoods where
diers were wounded and
a military aircraft suffered according to a statement tered us,” Hafifa Muham- forces Lt. Nour Sabah. dense clusters of houses
a hard landing and had to from the United Nations. mad Saleh said.The U.N., Sabah’s men hold an old and thousands of civilians
be destroyed. “The situation is a disaster,” in a statement released school building in Mamun are frustrating the fight. q