Female Kurdish militant killed in police raid in Istanbul: reports

By AFP, Istanbul Friday, 4 December 2015
A female suspected member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was killed on Friday in Istanbul in a police operation against militants suspected to be planning suicide attacks, reports said.

Counter-terrorism police raided a home in Istanbul’s Sancaktepe district after receiving a tip-off that PKK militants had arrived in Turkey’s biggest city to carry out suicide attacks, Dogan news agency said.

A female member of the PKK was killed in the ensuing shootout with police while three other militants were detained, Dogan said.

Police also detained 10 suspected members of the radical Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) in a separate operation in several districts of Istanbul, state-run Anatolia news agency said.

The MLKP, an offshoot of the Turkish Communist Party/Marxist-Leninist (TKP-ML) set up in 1994, is a small armed group that seeks to replace Turkey’s political system with a communist regime.

It is considered by the Turkish authorities as close to the PKK, which has over the years narrowed its demands from an independent Kurdish state to greater autonomy and cultural rights.

Germany approves anti-ISIS military action in Syria

Reuters, Berlin Friday, 4 December 2015
Germany's lower house of parliament on Friday approved government plans to join the military campaign against Islamic State in Syria.

Of the 598 lawmakers who took part in the vote, 445 voted for, 146 against and seven abstained.

The mission will include sending six Tornado reconnaissance jets, a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, refueling aircraft and up to 1,200 military personnel.

Germany will not join countries like Britain, France, the United States and Russia in conducting airstrikes.

France’s Hollande to visit aircraft carrier off Syrian coast

Reuters, Paris Friday, 4 December 2015
French President Francois Hollande will visit on Friday military personnel on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier off the Syrian coast, his office said in a statement.

"He will meet the military involved in intensifying the battle against Daesh (Islamic State) in Syria and Iraq," the statement said.

The carrier, which has 38 warplanes on board, was deployed to the east Mediterranean just days after Islamic State claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris that killed 130 people on Nov. 13.

The two-hour visit, scheduled to start at 1400 GMT, comes just two days before the first round of regional elections in which Hollande's ruling Socialist party is expected to be defeated by the conservatives and far-right parties.

Hollande's popularity rose to its highest level in three years a poll showed on Tuesday, with voters backing his robust handling of the post-attack period.

France was the first country to join US-led air strikes in Iraq and since the Paris attacks it has stepped up its aerial bombing campaign of Islamic State in Syria, focusing especially on its stronghold in Raqqa and oil-related targets.

Over the last week, fighter jets have struck more than 20 times in Iraq supporting local troop advancements in areas near Baiji, Sinjar and around the city of Ramadi, the French army said on Wednesday.

The carrier holds some 1,900 personnel and is accompanied by an attack submarine, several frigates, refueling ships, as well as fighter jets and surveillance aircraft.

Iraq: Sunnis suffer abuse in areas taken from ISIL

Sunni Muslims are facing forced evictions, abductions, and other serious human rights abuses in areas of Iraq freed from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) control, the United Nations said on Friday.
Analysts have warned that Sunni Arabs are being discriminated against in Iraq by either the Shia-led government in Baghdad or Kurdish forces in the north, helping to radicalise communities and setting back efforts to defeat ISIL.
Iraqi and Kurdish troops "have been responsible for looting and destruction of property belonging to the Sunni Arab communities, forced evictions, abductions, illegal detention and, in some cases, extra-judicial killings", according to Cecile Pouilly, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"We have received reports as well about their limited access to basic services and essential goods, such as water, food, shelter and medical care," Pouilly said.

Sunni tribal leaders pledge allegiance to ISIL in Iraq

Some Sunni Arabs in Syria and Iraq have been accused by Kurdish forces of collaborating with ISIL.
The UN noted that it was especially concerned for some 1,300 Sunnis stuck in a no man's land in the Sinjar region, between Kurdish areas and ISIL-held territory.
In Sinjar, an area recently freed from ISIL control by Kurdish forces, the UN said 16 mass graves were recently discovered.
Inside ISIL territory there were ongoing "gross human rights violations", including reports of kidnappings, burnings and beheadings of civilians, Pouilly said.
ISIL holds vast swaths of territory in both Syria and Iraq despite continuing efforts by the United States-led coalition targeting the group with air strikes and mostly-Kurdish and Iraqi forces battling on the ground.

Putin: Turkey will regret jet shooting 'more than once'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Turkey it will "more than once" regret shooting down the Russian bomber jet near the Syrian-Turkish border.
Delivering his annual state-of-the-nation address on Thursday, Putin said Russia would not ignore what he described as Turkey's "aiding of terrorists", adding that the November shooting down of the Sukhoi Su-24 was a "treacherous war crime".
Putin also called for a broad international front against terrorism, an end to what he called double standards and halting any backing of what he called "terror groups".

Marwan Bishara: Putin's Bush moment

"We are not planning to engage in military sabre-rattling [with Turkey]," Putin said.
"But if anyone thinks that having committed this awful war crime, the murder of our people, that they are going to get away with some measures concerning their tomatoes or some limits on construction and other sectors, they are sorely mistaken."
Moscow has already responded with measures including bans on some Turkish fruit and vegetables, and in his icy remarks Putin made clear that would not be the end of it.
"It appears that Allah decided to punish the ruling clique of Turkey by depriving them of wisdom and judgment," Putin said.
He harshly criticised Turkey, accusing it of buying oil from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
"We are fighting for justice, happiness and the entire future of our civilisation. We have to be prepared and we have to defeat them [terrorists] before they get here. That's why we launched this operation in Syria."
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said: "Putin's speech echoed statements by US President George Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"Notably, his emphasis on terrorism and fighting terrorism in a world full of terrorism underlines the attack on Russian values, and makes it clear the likes of Turkey are either with Russia or with the terrorists.
"He didn't give any signal of backing down. He seemed to be escalating the war of words with Turkey and other Russia detractors in Europe and the Middle East."

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OPINION: Turkey-Russia - The inevitable clash of the titans

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Putin's comments came a day after Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said he was ready to meet his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of a two-day Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe  conference in Belgrade.
Later on Thursday, Lavrov met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. But he said he heard "nothing new" about the downing of the Russian plane.
Russia has escalated its dispute with Turkey by claiming to have evidence that proves President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family are benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from territory held by ISIL.

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Q&A: Debate about Syria is missing one thing - Syrians

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"Turkey is the main consumer of the oil stolen from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq. According to information we've received, the senior political leadership of the country - President Erdogan and his family - are involved in this criminal business," Anatoly Antonov, Russia's deputy defence minister, said on Wednesday.
Turkey has vehemently denied Russia's claims, with Erdogan saying again on Wednesday that he would resign from his post if they could be proved.
"Turkey has not lost its moral values as to buy oil from a terror organisation... Those who make such slanderous claims are obliged to prove them. If they do, I would not remain on the presidential seat for one minute," Erdogan said.
"But those who make the claim must also give up their seat if they can't prove it."
Meanwhile, Serko Cevdet, head of the energy commission of the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government, dismissed Russia's claim, telling Anadolu news agency that recently published Russian satellite images showed tankers carrying oil from the Kurdish region to Turkey’s Port of Ceyhan.
Cevdet said it was impossible to transport oil from the ISIL-held areas to Turkey via the Kurdish region.

Israel draft law allows jail for Palestinians aged 12

An Israeli ministerial committee has approved a law sharply criticised by human rights groups as it would allow the imprisonment of Palestinian children as young as 12.
Authorised by Israel's Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, the bill could enable Israel to impose jail terms for children aged 12 years or above, who are found guilty of "nationalistic-motivated" violent offences - including murder, attempted murder and manslaughter.
The bill still needs to be passed by Israel's parliament, the Knesset, in order to become a law.

Israeli army under fire over arrests of Palestinian children

According to rights groups, the proposed law will in effect impact Palestinian children in occupied East Jerusalem and those who carry Israeli citizenship and live in cities, towns and villages across the country.
Until now, Palestinian children in East Jerusalem could not be imprisoned unless they are 14 or older.
"Israel's [civilian] penal laws are becoming more and more similar to military laws in the occupied West Bank," Rafat Sub Laban, advocacy unit coordinator at the Addameer Prisoner Support Network, told Al Jazeera.
While Israel has placed occupied East Jerusalem under its civilian law, the rest of the occupied West Bank is under military rule.
Israeli military courts are already able to try and imprison Palestinian children 12 years and older in the West Bank, as long as they do not carry Israeli-issued Jerusalem residency permits. 

New apps help Palestinians navigate Israeli checkpoints

A pair of new mobile apps hope to help Palestinians navigate snarled traffic at Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, offering a hi-tech response to constant and burdensome restrictions on movement.
"Azmeh", which means traffic jam in Arabic, and "Qalandiya", the name of a major Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem, join a slew of other global traffic apps, including the Israeli-developed Waze.
What sets the two Palestinian apps apart is how they go beyond daily rush-hour traffic and touch at the heart of a central Palestinian criticism of Israeli occupation. They are designed to run on slow local networks - a necessity because Israel has not granted Palestinian telecommunication companies swifter 3G access.
The free apps, launched over the past month, have been downloaded a few thousand times each. As they grow in popularity, their developers say the crowdsourced apps present a partial solution to the traffic jams that checkpoints cause, and they hope they will catch on with drivers