UN To Discuss Yemen As Rebels Seize Major City

The UN Security Council will meet on Sunday night to discuss the deepening crisis in Yemen.

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had asked the organisation for an "urgent intervention" amid allegations that Houthi fighters were staging a coup against him.

Armed rebels have successfully seized Taiz - Yemen's third-largest city - by overtaking government buildings, a prison and the airport.

Thousands of residents soon gathered to protest against the Houthi occupation there but fighters dispersed them by firing shots into the air and beating them back with batons.

On Saturday, the US evacuated all remaining personnel out of Yemen, signalling a major setback in attempts to combat al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - widely regarded as the terror group's most dangerous offshoot.

Video: Deadly Mosque Attacks In Yemen

Although Mr Hadi's presidency is recognised by the United Nations, his position was undermined after he was placed under house arrest in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

Last month, he managed to escape, and relocated to the city of Aden in the nation's south, declaring it Yemen's "temporary capital".

However, the region is visibly expecting an assault, with the deputy governor warning: "There are great fears that plans are underway for Aden to meet the same fate as Sanaa."

Diplomats fear that Saudi Arabia and Iran could be drawn into the conflict.

There are also concerns that continuing instability and power struggles in Yemen could push the impoverished country back into civil war, with Mr Hadi warning that Houthi militias "not only threaten peace in Yemen but the regional and international peace and security".

On Friday, suicide bombers killed at least 142 people in attacks on two Sanaa mosques frequented by Houthis.

A previously unknown Sanaa branch of Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombings, but the US said it was too early to confirm whether IS was involved.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

IS Posts 'Kill List' Of US Military Personnel

A group calling itself the "hacking division" of Islamic State has published what it says are the names and addresses of 100 US military staff and urged IS supporters to kill them, a monitoring group says.

SITE Intelligence said the allegedly hacked details about members of the air force, army and navy included pictures, addresses and ranks of personnel.

The hackers said the staff had targeted IS in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and called upon its "brothers residing in America" to attack them.

The group, which referred to itself as the "Islamic State Hacking Division", said it had hacked several military servers, databases and emails and made the information public so "lone wolf" attackers can kill them.

A US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "I can't confirm the validity of the information, but we are looking into it.

Video: Jan: Centcom Twitter Feed Hacked

"We always encourage our personnel to exercise appropriate OPSEC (operations security) and force protection procedures."

Officials from the Defense Department and the FBI told The New York Times they were aware of the threats and were investigating.

The US Marine Corps said it was visiting all staff affected, and urged caution online.

Lieutenant Colonel John Caldwell said: "Vigilance and force protection considerations remain a priority for commanders and their personnel.

"It is recommended Marines and family members check their online/social footprint, ensuring privacy settings are adjusted to limit the amount of available personal information."

Lt Col Caldwell added the threat remained "unverified".

A defence source told The New York Times that most of the information is available in public records and did not appear to have been hacked from government servers.

The newspaper quoted officials as saying the list appeared to have been drawn from people mentioned in news articles about airstrikes on IS, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria.

NATO commander Philip Breedlove claimed it was an attempt by IS to divert attention away from military setbacks.

He said: "What we have seen across the last several months is that every time they take a defeat on the battlefield, or every time they are under great pressure on the battlefield, they come out with kind of some big splash like this.

"This caliphate, I think, is under great pressure and so they try to divert attention from what is happening on the battlefield."

IS has claimed responsibility for hacking attacks in the US in the past, including against Central Command, which oversees the air campaign against the group.

In January, the Centcom Twitter feed was hacked by a group claiming to be IS sympathisers.

Images were posted showing documents containing the contact details of current and retired military officers, including home addresses and email accounts.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iran Involvement In Iraq 'Unacceptable'

By Sherine Tadros, Middle East Correspondent, Southern Iraq

Iraq's Vice President Iyad Allawi has told Sky News that Iran's involvement in his country is unacceptable and is failing to push Islamic State fighters back.

Speaking from his office in Baghdad, Mr Allawi said he was very concerned about Iran's increasing influence on the militias fighting the war against IS in Iraq.

He said: "I think the role of any regional power or any power in Iraq's affairs in unacceptable."

Mr Allawi went on to explain that Iran's role "doing what they are doing and sending officers to fight and to lead, and declaring that Baghdad is becoming the capital of the Persian empire, is unacceptable".

Iraq's Vice President Iyad Allawi speaks to Sky's Sherine Tadros

There are dozens of different Shia militias fighting IS in Iraq right now.

They may have the same enemy, but that doesn't make them friends. There's a history of animosity.

Video: The Fightback Against IS In Iraq

In a cemetery in the southern city of Najaf, more than 50 fighters are buried every day, according to gravediggers there.

Where you are buried though depends on which militia you fought with.

The graves marked with a yellow logo are for the Hezbollah Battalions, a militia active in Iraq for over a decade and on the US terror list since 2009.

In another part of the cemetery we found the white flags of the League of the Righteous. Their leader is out fighting but his grave lays here dug up as a sign that he's not afraid of death.

What many militias do have in common though is Iranian backing. Iran is providing weapons, funding and has recently carried out airstrikes to support the militias.

Video: People Return Home After Liberation

The strong Iranian influence in Iraq is not new but just how visible it has become is quite staggering. 

Pictures of Iran's supreme leader - Ali Khamenei - are plastered all over the country. 

There is no doubt Iranian help is key to defeating IS but many have serious concerns over what this may mean for the future.

Mr Allawi says the posters of Khamenei send chills up his spine and there will be a high price to pay for Iranian involvement.

For him, the main threat to the country's stability is the militias.

Video: Shia Fighters Battle Islamic State

He said: "As far as I'm concerned these clusters of militias, whether Sunni or Shia, are the main threat and indeed the governments and regional powers who support these groups are the biggest threat to to Iraq and to the future of Iraq." 

Mr Allawi also warned: "The failure of this country means the failure of the whole region. That's why it's very important to keep Iraq as a united, federal, democratic country and to get reconciliation on the ground and to build a viable state."

As the battle to free Iraq from IS continues, the larger war between those fighting on the ground - and their backers elsewhere - is becoming increasingly clear.

Iraq's future, and the stability of the region, hangs in the balance.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tunis Museum Terror Attack: CCTV Of Gunmen

Footage showing a militant attack carried out by two gunmen on a museum in Tunisia has been released by the country's interior ministry.

It shows the armed men walking through the Bardo national museum in the capital Tunis before they opened fire on tourists. 

The government also released two still images of the men, named as Tunisians Yassine Laabidi and Hatem Khachnaoui.

Briton Sally Adey was killed in the attack

It is claimed they had trained in camps in Libya, and the Tunisian government say they have arrested more than 20 suspected militants following the attack.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said Laabidi had been flagged to intelligence services, although not for "anything special".

Video: Sombre March After Tunisia Massacre

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi admitted "failures" helped facilitate the deadly attack.

"There were failures" which meant that "the police and intelligence were not systematic enough to ensure the safety of the museum", he told the Paris Match magazine.

A senior Tunisian politician said the guards supposed to be protecting the museum and the nearby parliament were having coffee at the time of the assault.

"I found out there were only four policemen on security duty around the parliament (compound), two of whom were at the cafe. The third was having a snack and the fourth hadn't turned up," deputy speaker Abdelfattah Mourou said.

Islamic State later released an online audio recording in which it claimed responsibility for the shooting last Wednesday.

Video: Briton Killed in Tunisia Named

Witnesses said the gunmen opened fire on tourists arriving at the museum before chasing them inside.

The two attackers were among the 23 people left dead, which included tourists from Japan, Italy, Colombia, Australia, France and Poland.

A "much-loved" British mother-of-two was also among the victims.

Newly retired Sally Adey, 57, was on holiday with her husband Robert, who was unharmed in the attack.

The Adeys, both solicitors from Shropshire, had been on the cruise ship MSC Splendida, which docked at the port in Tunis early on Wednesday.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Obama: Israel Hampering Palestinian Peace Plan

Barack Obama has said Israel is making it "hard to find a path" for peace over the Palestinian conflict.

In an apparent snub to Benjamin Netanyahu, the US President said the Israeli leader's rejection of a two-state solution was hampering negotiations to resolve the crisis.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, the President described a phone call he had with Mr Netanyahu, two days after the Israeli leader was re-elected.

"I did indicate to him that we continue to believe that a two-state solution is the only way for the long-term security of Israel, if it wants to stay both a Jewish state and democratic," he said.

Mr Netanyahu had declared before the election that there would be no Palestinian state while he was Israel's prime minister.

Video: Netanyahu Declares Victory

Despite appearing to backtrack later, Mr Obama said he would take Mr Netanyahu "at his word" for the comments.  

"I indicated to him that given his statements prior to the election, it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible.

"We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn't happen during his prime ministership, and so that's why we've got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don't see a chaotic situation in the region."

Video: Bibi's Back - More Of The Same?

The White House said Washington would "reassess" its options on US-Israel relations and Middle East diplomacy following Mr Obama's phone call.

In the interview, the President also expressed concern over Mr Netanyahu's election day warning to his supporters about Arab-Israeli voters going to the polls "in droves".

"We indicated that that kind of rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel's traditions, that although Israel was founded based on the historic Jewish homeland and the need to have a Jewish homeland, Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly," he said.

Despite a worsening in US-Isaeli relations, Mr Obama said the country's military and security cooperation would remain unchanged.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

US Troops Pull Out Of Yemen As Crisis Worsens

By Sky News US Team

Some 100 US troops, including specials forces commandos, have begun pulling out of Yemen amid worsening security concerns.

The troops are the last of the US forces deployed to Yemen to conduct operations against al Qaeda and allied groups.

They evacuated al Annad airbase near the southern city of al Houta, which was seized by al Qaeda militants on Friday.

Yemen's president fled the capital in February after escaping house arrest

"Due to the deteriorating security situation in Yemen, the US government has temporarily relocated its remaining personnel out of Yemen," State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a statement.

The US has been waging a drone war against al Qaeda's branch in Yemen, which Washington considers to be the terror group's most dangerous offshoot.

Video: Deadly Mosque Attacks In Yemen

The country has become increasingly unstable amid a power struggle between the Iranian-backed Shia rebels, known as Houthis, in the north and UN-recognised President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Mr Hadi fled to the southern city of Aden in February after escaping house arrest in the capital Sanaa.

Late on Saturday, Mr Hadi called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council meeting, which will convene later today.

In his letter to the Council, Mr Hadi denounced "the criminal acts of the Huthi militias and their allies," saying they "not only threaten peace in Yemen but the regional and international peace and security".

Video: 19 Jan: Yemen In Turmoil

"I urge for your urgent intervention in all available means to stop this aggression that is aimed at undermining the legitimate authority, the fragmentation of Yemen and its peace and stability," he wrote.

On Friday, suicide bombers killed at least 142 people in attacks on two Sanaa mosques frequented by Houthis.

A previously unknown Sanaa branch of Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombings, but the US said it was too early to confirm whether IS was involved.

That same day, al Qaeda militants killed 20 Yemeni soldiers during a brief occupation of al Houta.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

100 Throat-Slit Corpses Left By Boko Haram

Up to 100 bodies, many with their throats slit, have been found in a mass grave on the edge of a town in northeast Nigeria after it was freed from Boko Haram militants.

Soldiers from Chad and Niger who have liberated Damasak from the Islamist group said they discovered the bodies under a bridge on one of the main roads leading out of the town. 

Chad's military spokesman Colonel Azem Bermandoa Agouna said: "There are about 100 bodies spread around under the bridge just outside the town... this is the work of Boko Haram."

A Reuters witness said they had counted at least 70 bodies.

Chadian and Nigerian soldiers have retaken the town of Damasak

Col Agouna, who visited the scene himself close to the border with Niger, claimed the massacre probably occurred about two months ago because the bodies were partially mummified by the dry desert air.

He said several of the victims had been decapitated while others had been shot.

Video: Feb 2015: Battling Boko Haram

"There are heads here and bodies there, the mass grave has become like a termite mound," he added.

Damasak was seized by Boko Haram in November but recaptured by troops from Niger and Chad on 9 March as part of a multinational effort to wipe out the militants.

All but around 50 of the town's residents had fled by the time Damasak was recaptured. Those who remained were mostly too old or too sick to leave.

Video: Islamic State's Reach

Damasak resident Mbodou Moussa said: "People were in town when they (Boko Haram) attacked, they fired at us, we ran away to the bushes but they continued to fire and chased some people to kill them."

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in a six-year insurgency aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.

The regional offensive was launched this year with Chad, Niger and Cameroon as Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and biggest economy, prepares for presidential elections on 28 March.

Video: Boko Haram Align With Islamic State

Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan has been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the insurgency.

His challenger Muhammadu Buhari has campaigned on a reputation for toughness gained when he was military ruler of Nigeria in the 1980s.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shia Volunteers Lead Fightback Against IS

By Sherine Tadros, Middle East Correspondent, in Iraq

Ansar Marjaiyeh, or Soldiers Of The Religious Leadership, is a group of Shia volunteers leading the fightback against Islamic State militants near Fallujah.

IS snipers are just 200m away, and they return fire hard and fast. The volunteers are slowly pushing the militants back, but holding the territory they retake is their main challenge.

Their weapons are not impressive, but their resolve is. Dozens of these fighters have been killed so far. This is just one of several open fronts with the Islamic State group in Iraq.

More than 20,000 Shia militiamen from different groups, many backed by Iran, are involved in the fight against IS. They make up what is known as the Popular Mobilisation Force. Around 5,000 Iraqi officers and soldiers are working with them.

The men proudly show off their weapons and what they have picked up during battle.

Video: People Return Home After Liberation

One militia leader showed us what he said was a receipt, bearing the stamp of the Islamic State group, invoicing the Syrian government for crude oil worth thousands of dollars. The receipt said the oil was to be transferred from Mosul to Syria.

We met up with hundreds of fighters on their way to the frontline in Tikrit - the birthplace of former president Saddam Hussein, which was taken over by IS last summer.

The military operation In Tikrit is in its third week, but the militias still only control parts of the city.

Hadi al Amiri heads up the Badr Brigade, one of Iraq's most effective fighting forces.

Seen by many as Iran's man on the ground, he told Sky News that dozens of Iranian advisors are helping take back territory from IS, and that Tikrit would be retaken within days.

Video: 'This Is Not A Sectarian War'

But he insists co-ordination with local Sunni forces has been key, and is confident his men will soon take back Anbar before recapturing the country's second city, Mosul.

He said: "We were victorious in Diyala, and we're using the same strategy here, as a result of a high degree of co-ordination between the army, the popular mobilisation forces and the police."

In Diyala, though, Sunni families returning have found their homes burned and looted. Rights groups say dozens of villages were destroyed not just by IS, but also Shia militias carrying out revenge attacks.

We spoke to people in Diyala who told us they heard about those attacks from their neighbours and friends, but did not see anything themselves.

Militia leaders insist they have strict orders not to harm locals under their control, and near Tikrit, we found Shia fighters helping hundreds of families going home.

Video: Shia Fighters Battle Islamic State

There are also some areas where the battle was too fierce, meaning there is nothing left to come back to. Islamic State flags still litter the walls along the streets as mangled metal and charred buildings replace what used to be a vibrant neighbourhood.

For now, the momentum is with the militias and the Iraqi army.

Tikrit will be a strategic and symbolic victory before the push northwards, but that will entail Shia militias controlling Sunni and mixed villages - putting Iraq's delicate sectarian balance to the ultimate test.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Seven Children Die As Fire Sweeps Through Home

Authorities say seven children aged between five and 15 are dead following a fire at a home in Brooklyn, New York.

Two people have also been critically injured in the blaze, according to the fire department.

The dead children are all believed to be from the same family.

Emergency workers were called to the property in Bedford Avenue shortly after midnight on Saturday.

More than 100 firefighters attended the scene and brought the fire under control.

Fire Department spokesman Jim Long said the cause of the blaze was being investigated.

More follows...

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

British Woman Among 23 Killed In Tunisia Attack

A "much-loved" British mother-of-two was killed in the terror attack in Tunisia that left 23 people dead, it has emerged.

Newly retired Sally Adey, 57, was on holiday with her husband Robert, who is believed to be unharmed.

Terrorist group Islamic State has released an online audio recording in which it claims responsibility for Wednesday's shooting at the Bardo Museum in Tunis.

Witnesses say the gunmen opened fire on tourists arriving at museum, before chasing them inside. The two attackers were among the 23 people left dead.

Twenty foreign tourists were gunned down, including visitors from Japan, Italy, Colombia, Australia, France and Poland.

Video: How Events Unfolded

Most of the victims were passengers on two cruise liners.

The Adeys, both solicitors from Shropshire, had been on MSC Splendida, which docked at the port in Tunis early on Wednesday.

Julia Holden, a close friend of the Adey family and a partner at Shakespeares Solicitors in Birmingham where Mr Adey works, issued a statement on the family's behalf.

Video: PM Condemns Tunis Terror Attack

"Sally Adey was a much-loved daughter, wife and mother. The family are devastated by her loss," she said.

"They are also saddened for others who have lost people they love, and for those who have been hurt."

David Crawshaw, who was the Adeys' neighbour in Shifnal for more than a decade, said: "They were really the sort of neighbours you want, a fine, hard-working family, and Sally will be missed by us."

1/14

1. Gallery: Police Secure Area After Terror In Museum

   Police officers stand outside the parliament

A tourist injured after an attack by gunmen on Tunisia's national museum is wheeled on a stretcher

]]>

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More