Iran confirms air strikes in Iraq against Islamic State: Guardian newspaper

BAGHDAD Sat Dec 6, 2014 3:48am EST

Smoke raises behind an Islamic State flag after Iraqi security forces and Shiite fighters took control of Saadiya in Diyala province from Islamist State militants, November 24, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior Iranian official has confirmed his country carried out air strikes in neighboring Iraq against Islamic State fighters at the request of Iraqi authorities, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported.
It quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour as saying the strikes were not coordinated with the United States, which is also waging an air campaign against the radical Sunni Muslim militants who control large parts of north and west Iraq.
The purpose of the strikes was "the defense of the interests of our friends in Iraq", the newspaper quoted Rahimpour as saying in an interview in London.
"We did not have any coordination with the Americans. We have coordinated only with the Iraqi government," he said. "In general, every military operation to help the Iraqi government is according to their requests."
Rahimpour's reported comments were the first from an Iranian official confirming Iran's role in the air strikes in the Iraqi province of Diyala, which borders Iran, in late November. On Wednesday an Iranian official had denied that Iran had launched any such strikes.
Diyala is an ethnically mixed province, where the Iraqi army, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga and Shi’ite militias drove Islamic State out of several towns and villages last month.
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Wednesday he had no knowledge of Iranian air strikes. On Saturday, Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told a security conference in Bahrain: "It's not 100 percent confirmed."
The Iranian role was first highlighted in footage filmed by Al Jazeera television, which appeared to show an F-4 Phantom striking Islamic State positions in Diyala. Defense experts said Iran and Turkey were the only regional operators of the F-4, and Turkey is reluctant to take on Islamic State militarily.
"We will not allow conditions in Iraq to descend to the level of Syria, which has been created by foreign players," the Guardian quoted Rahimpour as saying, referring to Syria's catastrophic three-year war in which Iran supports President Bashar al-Assad against rebels including Islamic State.
"And certainly our assistance (to Iraq) is stronger than our assistance to Syria, because they are nearer to us," he said.
Rahimpour said Iran was also assisting Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, but repeated Tehran's insistence that it did not have any ground troops in Iraq. "This is only an advisory presence. There is no need to send Iranian troops to Iraq. There are sufficient Iraqi and Kurdish troops there," he said.
(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Manama; Writing by Dominic Evans, editing by Louise Heavens)

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Protests against police violence flare for third night in New York

By Robert MacMillan, Andrew Chung and Sebastien Malo

NEW YORK Fri Dec 5, 2014 11:58pm EST

1 of 33. A female protester, demanding justice for Eric Garner, holds a placard in Brooklyn, New York December 4, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Elizabeth Shafiroff

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Protesters in New York and other cities rallied for a third night on Friday denouncing the use of deadly force by police against minorities, even as prosecutors said they would consider charges against an officer in the fatal shooting of a unarmed black man in November.

The slaying of Akai Gurley, 28, gunned down in a dimly lit stairwell in the New York borough of Brooklyn, was the latest in a string of lethal police actions feeding U.S. public outrage over what many perceive as racially based violence by law enforcement.

This week's wave of angry but largely peaceful protests began Wednesday when a New York grand jury declined to bring charges against white officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black 43-year-old father of six.

Garner, who had no weapon, was being arrested on suspicion of selling cigarettes illegally. A videotape of his confrontation with police on Staten Island in July showed Pantaleo's arm across Garner's neck as he is subdued by four officers, then Garner was pinned face down to the pavement as he repeatedly gasps, "I can't breathe" - a phrase protesters have adopted as a rallying cry.

The decision sparing Pantaleo from prosecution was announced nine days after a Missouri grand jury chose not to indict a white policeman for the shooting death in August of an unarmed black teenager in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, spurring two nights of arson and unrest there.

Then on Thursday in Phoenix, Arizona, another unarmed black man was shot dead by a white police officer during a scuffle, leading to protests in that city.

"The government has created a monster and the monster is now loose," said Soraya Soi Free, 45, a nurse from the Bronx who has been protesting in New York.

MARCHERS INVADE APPLE STORE

After two nights that saw thousands of demonstrators pouring into the streets and blocking traffic in Manhattan, the turnout on Friday saw only hundreds as a cold, steady rain fell.

But in a surprising departure from previous nights, more than 100 people stormed into an Apple Store to stage a brief "die-in," sprawling on the floor as shoppers and employees watched. They left without incident after about five minutes.

Similar demonstrations were staged at Macy's flagship department store in Herald Square and at Grand Central Terminal, one of the city's two main rail stations. As they did at the Apple store, police stood by but allowed the protesters to briefly occupy both locations.

Some Manhattan retailers have curtailed their hours in response to the recent unrest, including Best Buy Co Inc and Target Corp.

Meanwhile, nearly 100 people, including local civic leaders, huddled under umbrellas near the site of Garner's death for a candlelight vigil on Staten Island.

"This is a movement, a rainbow of people," the Rev. Demetrius Carolina of the First Central Baptist Church told the racially mixed crowd.

A dwindling group of marchers who pressed on through the rain were confronted by police on Manhattan's lower East Side before midnight. Police arrested several protesters.

Among them were Chloe Dewberry, 22, who had shrugged off the chilling downpour.

"No one ever got anywhere by giving up when it got tough," she said. "I'm so enraged, I don't even notice."

Protests also unfolded in Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C., where marchers echoed demonstrators across the country, chanting "Black lives matter," and "I can't breathe."

Renee Alexander, 44, a nurse from Woodbridge, Virginia, who joined about 200 protesters in downtown Washington, expressed outrage over the video images of Garner's death.

"It's heartbreaking for me to watch, over and over on TV, how his life was cut short on the street, just like a dog,” she said. "They had no respect for him. No human being should die in the street like that - choked to death.”

NEW CASE IN BROOKLYN

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson said on Friday he will convene a grand jury to consider charges against the New York City officer who shot Gurley. Police there have said the officer, Peter Liang, may have accidentally discharged his gun.

At a news conference with Gurley's relatives on Friday, Kevin Powell, the president of the advocacy group BK Nation, called the shooting part of a "series of modern-day lynchings."

Gurley's mother, Sylvia Palmer, tearfully demanded justice.

In Cleveland on Friday, the family of a 12-year-old boy fatally shot by police filed a lawsuit against the city, a day after the federal government found the police department systematically uses excessive force.

Elsewhere in the Midwest, activists on Friday concluded a 120-mile (190 km) protest march to the Missouri governor's mansion from Ferguson, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot to death in August by a policeman who initially stopped the teenager for walking in the street.

Some witnesses to the confrontation told a grand jury that Brown had raised his hands in the air before he was killed, though others contradicted that testimony.

More than 100 protesters shouted, "hands up, don't shoot" and other slogans as they rallied in the rotunda of the state capitol in Jefferson City.

Unlike the Aug. 9 slaying of Brown, Garner's encounter was captured on video. Pantaleo could still face disciplinary action from an internal police investigation, his lawyer said. Chokeholds are banned by police department regulations.

Pantaleo told the grand jury he used a proper takedown technique and denied putting pressure on Garner's neck, according to his lawyer, Stuart London. The city's medical examiner has said Garner's death was caused by compressing his neck and chest, with his asthma and obesity contributing.

Pantaleo has been accused by other blacks of violating their civil rights while he was on patrol. Court filings obtained by Reuters show that four African American men have sued Pantaleo over two separate 2012 incidents, claiming they were stopped, strip-searched and arrested without cause.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the Justice Department will pursue civil rights investigations into both the Missouri shooting and the New York case, though legal experts have said federal charges for the two officers are unlikely.

(Additional reporting by Frank McGurty, Joseph Ax, Ellen Wulfhorst, Scott Malone, Nandita Bose and Nathan Layne; Writing by Steve Gorman and Joseph Ax; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Grant McCool, Ken Wills & Kim Coghill)

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Egyptian court drops case against Mubarak over 2011 protest deaths

By Ali Abdelaty and Maggie Fick
CAIRO Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:31pm EST

1 of 6. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak waves to his supporters as he returns to Maadi military hospital in Cairo November 29, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court has dropped its case against former President Hosni Mubarak over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule and symbolized hopes for a new era of political openness and accountability.
Mubarak, 86, was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators, sowing chaos and creating a security vacuum during the 18-day revolt, but an appeals court ordered a retrial.
His supporters erupted in celebration when the verdicts of that retrial - which also cleared Mubarak's former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, and six aides - were read out. The defendants had denied the charges.
Supporters outside court, carrying pictures of the ex-air force officer who dominated the most populous Arab nation for three decades, far outnumbered families of protesters who died in the Tahrir Square revolt that had embodied the hopes of Arab Spring uprisings that spread through the region.
The judge said criminal charges should never have been brought against Mubarak. The decision can be appealed, however, and the former leader was not freed as he is serving a three-year jail term in a separate embezzlement case.
Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak's rule view it as a period of autocracy and crony capitalism.
His overthrow led to Egypt's first free election. But the winner, Mohamed Mursi, was ousted last year by then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, following protests against his rule.
Sisi, who went on to win a presidential election in May, launched a crackdown on Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Authorities have jailed thousands of Brotherhood supporters and sentenced hundreds to death in mass trials that drew international criticism.
By contrast, Mubarak-era figures are slowly being cleared of charges and a series of laws curtailing political freedoms have raised fears among activists that the old leadership is regaining influence. Saturday's verdict was seen as the latest sign that rights won in 2011 were being eroded.
"This is a political verdict. The judiciary has been procrastinating for four years so they could clear him after hope had been lost," the father of Ahmed Khaleefa, 19, who was killed in 2011, told Reuters outside the court.
"The verdict hit us like bullets. I consider that my son Ahmed died today."
A few dozen young people gathered to protest the verdict in the city of Suez, site of the first death of the uprising. But they were quickly dispersed by police, security sources said.
Security forces fired tear gas and birdshot and aimed water hoses on a crowd of around a thousand demonstrators who had gathered in downtown Cairo.
They had been chanting slogans against Mubarak and against Sisi and Mursi, the two men who have served as president since him. An eyewitness said both Mursi supporters and liberal secular protesters appeared to be present.
Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told Reuters two protesters were killed and nine injured in the clashes but said he had no further details.
CLEARED OF GRAFT
Hundreds of people died when security forces clashed with protesters in the weeks before Mubarak was forced from power.
Othman al-Hefnawy, a lawyer representing some families of protesters who died, said the verdict left open the question: If Mubarak, his interior minister and their security aides were not responsible for the deaths of 239 protesters, then who was?
The court also cleared Mubarak and a former oil minister of graft charges related to gas exports to Israel.
In a separate corruption case, charges were dropped against Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal, with Judge Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi saying too much time had elapsed since the alleged crime took place for the court to rule.
State television showed Gamal and Alaa kissing their father's forehead after the ruling. Gamal also hugged former Interior Minister Adly, who appeared to be in tears. Mubarak's sons and Adly will also remain in jail serving other sentences.
Mubarak will remain in an army hospital, where he is serving the three-year embezzlement sentence handed down in May.
(Additional reporting by Mahmoud Mourad and Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Dan Grebler)

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Egyptian court drops case against Mubarak over 2011 protest deaths

AppId is over the quota
By Ali Abdelaty and Maggie Fick
CAIRO Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:31pm EST

1 of 6. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak waves to his supporters as he returns to Maadi military hospital in Cairo November 29, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court has dropped its case against former President Hosni Mubarak over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule and symbolized hopes for a new era of political openness and accountability.
Mubarak, 86, was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators, sowing chaos and creating a security vacuum during the 18-day revolt, but an appeals court ordered a retrial.
His supporters erupted in celebration when the verdicts of that retrial - which also cleared Mubarak's former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, and six aides - were read out. The defendants had denied the charges.
Supporters outside court, carrying pictures of the ex-air force officer who dominated the most populous Arab nation for three decades, far outnumbered families of protesters who died in the Tahrir Square revolt that had embodied the hopes of Arab Spring uprisings that spread through the region.
The judge said criminal charges should never have been brought against Mubarak. The decision can be appealed, however, and the former leader was not freed as he is serving a three-year jail term in a separate embezzlement case.
Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak's rule view it as a period of autocracy and crony capitalism.
His overthrow led to Egypt's first free election. But the winner, Mohamed Mursi, was ousted last year by then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, following protests against his rule.
Sisi, who went on to win a presidential election in May, launched a crackdown on Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Authorities have jailed thousands of Brotherhood supporters and sentenced hundreds to death in mass trials that drew international criticism.
By contrast, Mubarak-era figures are slowly being cleared of charges and a series of laws curtailing political freedoms have raised fears among activists that the old leadership is regaining influence. Saturday's verdict was seen as the latest sign that rights won in 2011 were being eroded.
"This is a political verdict. The judiciary has been procrastinating for four years so they could clear him after hope had been lost," the father of Ahmed Khaleefa, 19, who was killed in 2011, told Reuters outside the court.
"The verdict hit us like bullets. I consider that my son Ahmed died today."
A few dozen young people gathered to protest the verdict in the city of Suez, site of the first death of the uprising. But they were quickly dispersed by police, security sources said.
Security forces fired tear gas and birdshot and aimed water hoses on a crowd of around a thousand demonstrators who had gathered in downtown Cairo.
They had been chanting slogans against Mubarak and against Sisi and Mursi, the two men who have served as president since him. An eyewitness said both Mursi supporters and liberal secular protesters appeared to be present.
Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told Reuters two protesters were killed and nine injured in the clashes but said he had no further details.
CLEARED OF GRAFT
Hundreds of people died when security forces clashed with protesters in the weeks before Mubarak was forced from power.
Othman al-Hefnawy, a lawyer representing some families of protesters who died, said the verdict left open the question: If Mubarak, his interior minister and their security aides were not responsible for the deaths of 239 protesters, then who was?
The court also cleared Mubarak and a former oil minister of graft charges related to gas exports to Israel.
In a separate corruption case, charges were dropped against Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal, with Judge Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi saying too much time had elapsed since the alleged crime took place for the court to rule.
State television showed Gamal and Alaa kissing their father's forehead after the ruling. Gamal also hugged former Interior Minister Adly, who appeared to be in tears. Mubarak's sons and Adly will also remain in jail serving other sentences.
Mubarak will remain in an army hospital, where he is serving the three-year embezzlement sentence handed down in May.
(Additional reporting by Mahmoud Mourad and Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Dan Grebler)

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