Deadly shooting at Ivory Coast beach resort

Gunmen opened fire on a beach in Ivory Coast’s seaside town of Grand-Bassam on Sunday, killing 14 civilians and two soldiers. Al Qaeda’s North African branch has claimed the attack. See the day's events as they unfolded on FRANCE 24’s liveblog.

• Al Qaeda-linked militants killed at least 14 civilians and two soldiers when they opened fire on a crowded beach in the resort town of Grand-Bassam, 40 kilometres east of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital.

• The attack was claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the terror network’s North African branch, which carried out recent attacks in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso.

• Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said six assailants were “neutralised” by security forces.

• Officials said four of the fatalities were European citizens. France has confirmed the death of one of its citizens.

• France, which has 18,000 citiziens in the Ivory Coast, has opened emergency phone lines in Paris (+33.1.43.17.56.46) and Abidjan (+225.20.20.05.44).
   

Iran's Khamenei hails 'competitive' elections

Elections, first since nuclear deal, saw gains for moderate allies of President Hassan Rouhani.

Middle East Online

'Elections were healthy' TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday hailed last month's elections that saw gains for allies of moderate President Hassan Rouhani, denying they lacked competition. "Elections were clearly competitive," Khamenei said. "Different parties and individuals participated under various banners... and expressed their views," he said. The February 26 vote was for parliament and the Assembly of Experts, a powerful clerical body that oversees the work of the supreme leader and would choose a replacement if he dies. "Elections were healthy ... exactly the opposite of what our enemies have claimed over the years," Khamenei said in a meeting with outgoing members of the assembly. He urged them to be "vigilant" and to fulfil their duties. "In one word, the Assembly of Experts must remain revolutionary, think revolutionary and act revolutionary." The elections were the first since a landmark nuclear deal between world powers and Iran that was implemented in January, leading to the lifting of sanctions. Thousands of candidates, including many reformists, were initially disqualified from running, but that was later partially reversed. Although no single political grouping won a majority in the 290-seat parliament, the polls curbed its conservative dominance. The List of Hope alliance between pro-Rouhani reformists and moderates won all 30 parliamentary seats for Tehran. Rouhani and former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, another moderate, came third and first in the Tehran election to the assembly. Tehran voters also removed two hardline ayatollahs, assembly chairman Mohammad Yazdi and Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, a former close adviser to ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khamenei praised the "very graceful" behaviour of candidates who lost. He contrasted that with "the disgraceful behaviour of those who were not elected in 2009 and started fights and dragged people to the streets." Reformists said that ballot was rigged and their two defeated candidates, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have been under house arrest since 2011, accused of "sedition" against the regime. A second round of legislative elections is expected in April to determine the fate of 69 seats that have no clear WINNERS yet. Khamenei also repeated his warning about Western "infiltration" of the country. "We should have relations with the whole world, except the US and the Zionist regime, but we should also know that the world is not limited to the West and Europe," he said.

Yemen loyalists advance near rebel-besieged Taez

Pro-government forces take back areas in western, southern suburbs of rebel-besieged Taez.

Middle East Online

A Yemeni tribesman from forces backing Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi TAEZ - Yemeni pro-government forces on Friday gained ground around third city Taez which has been under rebel siege for several months, an official said. The loyalists backed by a Saudi-led military coalition took back areas in the western and southern suburbs of the city, its governor Ali al-Maamari said. They "reopened key roads that the Huthis (Iran-backed Shiite rebels) had been blocking for nine months," said the governor, who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia. That should allow for humanitarian and medical aid to reach the city's around 200,000 besieged inhabitants, he said. A source in the army's 35th brigade confirmed that loyalists had seized Al-Misrakh area to the south of Taez city after heavy fighting that led to several deaths over the past days. Dozens of military vehicles carried rebel fighters out of the western suburb of Taez towards the city of Hodeida on the Red Sea, witnesses said. The coastal city remains under the control of the insurgents and their allies, army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Taez is located between the rebel-held capital Sanaa and the southern port city of Aden, which loyalists took back from the Huthis in July. In November, forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi announced a major offensive to try to break the siege on Taez. More than 6,100 people have died -- half of them civilians -- since the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Yemen in March 2015, according to the United Nations.

UN calls for Syria elections in 18 months

UN, world powers counting on ceasefire to allow for new round of indirect negotiations between warring parties.

Middle East Online

'Substantive' talks to begin on Monday in Geneva DAMASCUS - The UN envoy for Syria called Friday for elections in the war-ravaged country in 18 months, as the opposition announced it will attend fresh peace talks next week. But in a worrying development ahead of the negotiations, government raids were reported to have killed five civilians in Syria's second city, Aleppo, despite a ceasefire. The truce has prompted a nearly two-week lull in fighting between the Russian-backed regime and non-jihadist rebels since coming into force on February 27. World powers are counting on the ceasefire to hold for a new round of indirect negotiations between the opposition and the government due to start on March 14 in Geneva. The Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee, the main Syrian opposition grouping, agreed on Friday to attend the UN-backed talks. The HNC said in a statement that its delegation would focus on creating a "transitional governance body with full executive powers". It insisted that President Bashar al-Assad "will have no place" in a future government. A plan agreed by world powers last year called for six months of negotiations followed by a transitional government, a new constitution and elections within 18 months. Assad's regime announced last month that it would hold parliamentary elections on April 13 instead, drawing criticism. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has said "substantive" talks will begin on Monday in Geneva and last no longer than 10 days. The first day of negotiations would start the countdown to both presidential and parliamentary elections in Syria under UN observation, he said. "New elections... should be held 18 months from the start of talks, that is from March 14," de Mistura told Russia's RIA Novosti state news agency on Friday, in comments translated into Russian. That would mean elections around mid-September 2017. - 'Serious violation' - In addition to planning the polls, the focus of the Geneva negotiations will be on the formation of "an inclusive new government" and a new constitution, according to de Mistura. "I hope that during the first stage of talks, we reach progress at least on the first question (of the new government), it doesn't matter whether this is on paper," he was quoted as saying. A source close to Syria's government told AFP earlier this week that its delegation would be attending the talks beginning on Monday. Previous diplomatic efforts to resolve the complex conflict have failed. The war, which will enter its sixth year next week, has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions. The chief prosecutor for the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal said Friday that those behind atrocities in Syria must eventually be held to ACCOUNT. "As an international prosecutor and somebody who believes in justice... it is obvious that sooner or later ACCOUNTABILITY will be needed for the crimes committed in Syria," Serge Brammertz told AFP. The last round of UN-sponsored talks collapsed in Geneva in February amid a fierce Russian-backed government offensive in Aleppo province. Since then, regime fighters and rebels have largely abided by a partial truce that has seen a dramatic drop in air strikes, fighting and deaths. - 'Syrian people are one!' - But the government air strikes on Aleppo city on Friday threatened the delicate ceasefire, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based monitor said the raids killed at least five civilians and wounded 10 others in the rebel-held neighbourhood of Salhin, describing it as "the most serious violation in the city since the truce came into effect." An AFP correspondent in Aleppo city said the raids struck a mosque. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets across Syria after Friday prayers for the second week in a row. In Maarat al-Numan, a town in northwest Idlib province, dozens of protesters waving the three-starred, tricolour flag of Syria's uprising briefly clashed with members of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. In a video posted online, motorcyclists waving Al-Qaeda's recognisable black flag pulled up to the protest and attempted to drown out the singing with calls of "Allahu akbar" or "God is greatest." But the crowd pushed the Al-Nusra members out, chanting, "The Syrian people are one!" Al-Nusra leads an Islamist coalition that controls much of Idlib province and has arrested activists and journalists in the past.

Turkey drops probe against security officials over Ankara bombing

Senior officials including Anakara police chief had been accused of negligence in suicide bombing that killed 103 people.

Middle East Online

Negligence probe targeted police chief, his deputy and other officers ANKARA - Turkish prosecutors have dropped a probe into senior security officials suspected of negligence over a massive suicide bombing that killed 103 people in Ankara last year, Anatolia news agency reported Friday. Turkey blamed the October attack, in which two bombers blew themselves up at a crowded peace rally, on Islamic State (IS) extremists acting under orders from their leadership in Syria. Three senior Ankara police officials, including the city's police chief, were sacked soon afterwards amid accusations of security lapses and a wave of public anger at the deadliest attack in Turkey's modern history. A negligence probe into the chief, his deputy and other officers was dropped because the local administration, which has authority over security forces, refused to approve pursuing the case, Anatolia said, citing the prosecutor's office. After the attack, which came three weeks before parliamentary elections, opposition parties accused the government of deliberately neglecting security for the rally that was hit. But the Ankara governor's office insisted the same precautions were taken for the rally as for any other similar event, the prosecutor's office said. Four deadly attacks blamed on IS have hit Turkey since July, the latest coming in January in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district, which killed 12 German tourists. On Tuesday rockets fired from an IS-controlled area of Syria hit a Turkish border town, killing two people including a four-year-old child, after Turkey launched repeated artillery strikes in the last two weeks on IS positions in Syria. Turkey has on occasion been accused by its western allies of not doing enough to combat the threat of IS, which has captured swathes of Iraq and Syria right up to its border. But Ankara is now playing a key role in the US-led anti-IS coalition and hosting foreign warplanes at its Incirlik airbase for strikes on the group.

Arab League declares Hezbollah 'terrorist' group

Sunni Gulf monarchies and nearly all members of the pan-Arab body supported the decision; Lebanon and Iraq express reservations.

Middle East Online

Escalating tensions with Iran-backed Hezbollah CAIRO - Arab League foreign ministers on Friday declared Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah a "terrorist" group, after Sunni-dominated Gulf monarchies adopted the same stance. Nearly all members of the pan-Arab body supported the decision, but not Lebanon and Iraq which expressed reservations, the bloc said in a statement read out at a news conference by Bahraini diplomat Wahid Mubarak Sayar. "The resolution of the League's council (of foreign ministers) includes the designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group," the statement said. The announcement comes after Gulf monarchies last week declared Hezbollah a "terrorist" group, escalating tensions with the movement which has lawmakers in Lebanon's parliament and is backed by Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran. Earlier in the day, the Saudi delegation briefly withdrew from discussions to protest against Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's refusal to label Hezbollah as terrorist. In January, Bahrain said it had dismantled a "terror" cell allegedly linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah. That same month, a lower court in Kuwait sentenced 22 people, all but one of them Kuwaiti Shiites, who were charged with spying for Iran and plotting Hezbollah-linked attacks in the Gulf country. The Revolutionary Guards created Hezbollah (Party of God) in the 1980s. Funded by Iran, it is the only side not to have put down weapons after Lebanon's civil war from 1975 to 1990. The United States, Canada and Australia have listed Hezbollah as a "terrorist" group. The European Union has also blacklisted its military wing.

Iraq vows to retaliate after ISIS chemical attack

Suspected mustard gas attack on Taza that left three-year-old girl dead ‘will not go unpunished,’ says PM Haider al-Abadi.

Middle East Online

Experts are still analysing samples BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi vowed on Saturday to retaliate against the Islamic State group after it launched a chemical attack on a town near Kirkuk. The suspected mustard gas attack on Taza that left a three-year-old girl dead "will not go unpunished", the premier said in a statement. A large number of rockets were fired on Taza on Wednesday from the nearby village of Bashir, which is held by the jihadists. Intelligence experts are still analysing samples but local officials believe mustard agent was used in the attack. On Saturday, an Iranian delegation visited Taza, which lies just south of the city of Kirkuk and around 220 kilometres (135 miles) north of Baghdad. Abadi promised that medical support would be provided to the town, where hundreds of people received care following the chemical attack. Hundreds of people attended the funeral on Friday of Fatima Samir, the girl who died of wounds sustained during the attack. Some of the mourners carried placards demanding protection. The Iraqi air force carried out a strike on Bashir overnight and Abadi promised a ground operation to retake the village from IS soon, pro-government militia commander Abu Ridha al-Najjar said. Bashir lies in an area that is officially under federal administration but is controlled by Kurdish forces that de facto expanded their autonomous region on the back of the jihadists' 2014 offensive. Tension has been high between Kurdish forces and Shiite militias in the area, impeding military cooperation against ISIS.