Troops in Syria reportedly gained control of the city of Banias, on the coast, Tuesday 3 May, as the Syrian government clampdown on protesters continues. The National Organization of Human Rights in Syria says a new wave of arrests has involved 1,000 people, with Banias mostly sealed off by the army and security forces. Government troops last week took over Deraa, in the south, where the uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad began in mid-March. The Assad family has ruled in Syria for 41 years.
European leaders Tuesday and Wednesday morning began stepping up calls to for sanctions against Libya, while a US State Department spokesperson called the actions of the Syrian government “barbaric”.
Links to other sites: Guardian, newsfromsyria, Radio Free Europe
US officials at the Pentagon say that Robert Gates, the defense secretary, was not given any warning when he visited Bahrain last week that just two days later Saudi Arabia would send 1,000 troops to the small kingdom to help quell protests, Monday 14 March. Aljazeera reports that the UAE (United Arab Emirates) sent 500 police and that both requests were made to help protect government buildings.
The White House said Monday it does not consider the move an invasion by Saudi Arabia, but it cautioned governments in the region to use restraint.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are ruled by Sunni Muslim families, and the protesters are Shi’ites. The region has long been marked by taut relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which is ruled by Shi’ite Muslims.
Update 2 March Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Libyan government Tuesday 1 March sent troops to the remote southern border crossing of Dehiba, reports Reuters, ignoring the warships massing around the country. Humanitarian agencies in Geneva meanwhile report that Monday saw the heaviest outpouring of refugees from Libya to date, 14,000 people, with another 10-12,000 expected Tuesday.
The Tunisian border has seen more than 75,000 people cross the border from Libya since 19 February, the vast majority of them Egyptian, and another 40,000 are waiting to cross the border. The massive exodus is putting an enormous strain on local resources in Tunisia, report the IOM and UNHCR in Geneva.
Joint project to speed up evacuations to avoid humanitarian disaster on Libyan border
UNHCR and IOM joined forces late Tuesday, working in partnership with the Egyptian and Tunisian governments, to put in place plans for handling the massive evacuation from Libya on the Tunisian border. Thousands of Egyptians, but also citizens of several other countries, need to be moved rapidly beyond the border areas to avoid a humanitarian disaster. The two Geneva UN organizations are appealing to governments to fund the joint effort and to send experts and supplies as well as to provide boats and planes urgently.
Updates from international organizations in Geneva that are heavily involved in helping the refugees:
UNHCR: UN High Commissioner for Refugees staff at border points Tuesday said the situation is quickly reaching a crisis point, with transport to move those who have just arrived on to their final destinations. Thousands have waited three days on the Libyan side of the Tunisian border, with no shelter at night and bitterly cold temperatures. Self-appointed border guards are refusing to let sub-Saharan Africans cross into Tunisian. Some 1,000 tents that will hold 6-8 persons are being erected Tuesday, and UNHCR is appealing to Unicef and ICRC for more assistance in supplying precariously scarce drinking water and food to the refugees.
ICRC: Medical staff from the International Red Cross are waiting with supplies, ambulances and equipment to enter the western part of Libya to, but conditions are as yet too unstable and the ICRC is calling on Libya to allow it to help the wounded and those in need of medical care.
IOM: Sea and air evacuations organized by the International Organization for Migration are picking up speed, with about 900 Egyptians being flown from the island of Djerba on five planes carrying about 900 people and another 1,450 Egyptians heading for the sea port of Sfax where they will pick up a chartered sea vessel. Bangladeshi refugees are also being helped to move on from Libyan border points and the IOM is working with their government to get them home.
Government troops in Bangkok are reported to be shutting down pockets of resistance in the city after the surrender of Red-shirts leaders, but the violence that swept through the city Wednesday appears to have spread to cities in the north, including the tourist haven of Chiang Mai. The government announced that protesters set fire to some 30 buildings in the capital, and troops were given orders to shoot arsonists. Central World, the country’s largest shopping mall, has suffered badly from fire damage and one side of a high-rise in the centre is in danger of collapsing.
Links to other sites: The Age, Australia, New York Times
Reuters video of fires in Bangkok
Thai gov’t troops break through Red-shirts, protesters put up white flag
Update 10:00 Four people are reported dead as government troops in Thailand have broken through a barrier to the Red-shirts encampment in the centre of Bangkok Wednesday 19 May. Tanks have moved into the streets surrounding the area and troops are offering safe passage to those who want to leave the encampment, according to Bloomberg/Business Week and other reports. Leaders of the Red-shirt protesters say they are still hoping negotiations will go ahead, while the government says some of the movement’s leaders have escaped from the encampment, and they are asking citizens to be on the lookout for them.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, Reuters and Reuters live coverage
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Brussels, Belgium Friday, where she has traveled to explain the new US policy on Afghanistan to European leaders. She is expected to seek support from fellow Nato members. She told reporters on her plane en route to Brussels that in intensive talks with other foreign ministers this week she received strong words of support. Clinton says she expects announcements to be made in the next few days of additional troops sent by other governments, although she concedes that for some, the timing is politically delicate.
Links to other sites: BBC, New York Times, Reuters/Yahoo, Times, UK
The United States will boost the number of troops it has in Afghanistan to 30,000, US President Barack Obama told a crowd at West Point military academy Tuesday 1 December, confirming media predictions. But he also said that he wants the US out of the country by 2013, giving military forces four years to put the country on the road to peace. Troops withdrawals are scheduled to begin in July 2011. The plan will cost $30 billion in 2010.
US President Barack Obama is widely expected to announce Tuesday 1 December that the US will send up to 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. He phoned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Sunday and met at the White House with top military and diplomatic officials to brief them and order them to implement a new strategy, the White House announced, without confirming the actual number of troops. He then spent much of Monday discussing US strategy with Afghanistan allies, including Australia, Canada and the UK, in what White House spokesperson Robin Gibbs called “an international effort.” Obama will give a speech at the West Point military academy Tuesday explaining why the US is involved in Afghanistan and announcing details of the new strategy. The head of the US military programme in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has requested 40,000 troops.
Links to other sites: CNN, New York Times, NPR, Times, UK
United States forces in Afghanistan say they have begun a major offensive against Taliban fighters, the largest since the the US began building troops earlier in 2009. The Helmand River valley push involves 4,000 US soldiers and 650 Afghan soldiers. Pakistan is sending additional troops to border areas to prevent these being used as escape routes. CNN
A series of bomb attacks have killed at least 29 people in several towns and cities in Iraq Monday. Coming so soon after a weekend suicide truck explosion in Kirkuk that killed 70 people, and days before US troops are to move out of towns to mililtary bases, 30 June, there is concern that “insurgents are determined to make things look as unstable as possible as the pull-out deadline approaches,” according to a BBC reporter in Baghdad. The US has 133,000 troops in Iraq, scheduled to leave the country by September 2011. Xinhua
Madagascar army troops took over presidential offices in Antananarivo, the capital, at 18:00 local time 16 March, under orders from the country’s opposition leader Andry Rajoelina. President Marc Ravalomanana offered to test support for the government through a referendum, but he was refused. The president was not in the palace at the time of the attack. According to the UK’s Guardian, he is reported to be in another palace on the island. CNN, AllAfrica
