DT e-Paper, Saturday, 12 November, 2016

World
Iraq troops battle IS in Mosul, UN
says dozens executed
• AFP, Mosul
Britain’s Brexiteers eye opportunity in Trump win
• AFP, London
Donald Trump’s improbable election
has buoyed eurosceptics in
Britain, who hope London’s “special
relationship” with the world’s
top economy will result in lucrative
post-Brexit trade.
US President Barack Obama
warned that Britain would be at
the “back of the queue” for trade
deals if it left the bloc but Trump
was pro-Brexit and will likely look
more favourably on its trans-Atlantic
partner, say Brexiteers.
The president-elect’s attitude to
Britain leaving the bloc was “more
positive than the hostile approach”
of Obama, noted prominent Conservative
lawmaker and ardent eurosceptic
Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Trump, whose mother was
born in Britain, hailed the vote to
leave the EU as “a fantastic thing”
Recently displaced people rush a food distribution point in Khazer refugee camp, Iraq on November 11
and pledged that Britain would
“certainly not be at the back of the
queue” under his presidency.
Fellow Conservative Bernard
Jenkin told the City AM financial
newspaper- “President Trump
might not be to our taste but we
must calculate our national interest.
“He will not put logs on the
track in front of Brexit in the same
way Clinton might have,” said the
influential eurosceptic.
Britain in best position
Seeking to capitalise on a Trump
presidency, Prime Minister Theresa
May wasted no time in emphasising
strong trans-Atlantic ties as
she bids to forge new trade links
outside the EU.
In her congratulatory message to
Trump on Wednesday, she carefully
avoided sensitive subjects - unlike
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Elite Iraqi troops battled the Islamic
State group in the streets of
Mosul on Friday, as the UN reported
IS jihadists had executed dozens
of people inside the city for
alleged “treason”. With IS also on
the defensive in neighbouring Syria,
US-backed forces pressed an
advance on jihadist bastion Raqa
after a sandstorm eased.
The high winds in the desert
which separates the Syrian Kurdish-Arab
militia alliance from the
jihadists’ stronghold in the Euphrates
Valley had slowed their
advance on Thursday as visibility
levels plummeted.
Iraqi forces too had regrouped
after meeting stronger than expected
resistance from IS fighters on the
east bank of the Tigris River which
runs through Mosul after thrusting
into the built-up area last week.
Commanders of Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism
Service (CTS) said that
troops were advancing on two eastern
neighbourhoods of the city.
In a house near the front line,
Staff Lieutenant Colonel Muntadhar
Salem clutched a radio in
one hand and a tablet in the other
with a map showing several rows
of buildings recaptured by CTS.
As the troops waited for orders
to push forward, incoming mortar
rounds shook the pink curtains on
the windows of the house.
Inside Mosul itself, IS fighters
reportedly shot dead more than
60 people this week and hung
some of their bodies from poles
after claiming they had collaborated
with Iraqi troops, the UN human
rights office said Friday.
“On Tuesday, IS reportedly
shot and killed 40 civilians in
Mosul city after accusing them of
‘treason and collaboration’” with
the ISF, rights office spokeswoman
Ravina Shamdasani said in a
statement released in Geneva.
And on Wednesday, IS slaughtered
another 20 people at the Ghabat
Military Base in northern Mosul
after accusing them of “leaking
information,” the UN statement
said. The battle to retake Mosul is
now in its fourth week, and while
troops have entered the builtup
area, there are weeks, if not
months, of fighting still to go.
“Our forces have begun the attack
on Arbajiyah. The clashes are
ongoing,” Salem said, referring to
an area in the east of the city.
‘Within firing range’
The latest fighting came “after a
few days of quiet,” he said.
Another CTS officer, Lieutenant
Colonel Ali Hussein Fadhel,
said that the first row of buildings
in Arbajiyah had been seized.
“We are within firing range of
Karkukli but the full attack has not
yet started,” he said, referring to
another eastern neighbourhood.
Iraqi forces launched the operation
to retake Mosul on October
17, with federal and Kurdish regional
forces closing in on the city
and French President Francois
Hollande - to highlight the strong
“trade, security and defence” ties
between London and Washington.
And writing in the Spectator
magazine, political commentator
Douglas Murray said that in terms
of trade, Britain was “in the best
possible position” with Trump in
the White House.
“Everything Trump has ever
said suggests that he is exceptionally
well-disposed towards the country
where his mother was born. In
recent times such an attitude could
not be taken for granted,” he wrote.
That could bode well for the
so-called “special relationship” between
Britain and the United States.
May 10th on call list
And there are early signs that
Trump may not prioritise the US’s
traditional “special relationship.”
REUTERS
from three sides.
Pro-government Shiite paramilitaries
later began an advance
on the town of Tal Afar, which
commands the city’s western approaches,
with the goal of cutting
the jihadists off from territory they
control in neighbouring Syria.
The advance up the Tigris Valley
from the south has been slowest.
The troops on that front had the
farthest to cover, with a string of
jihadist-held towns in their path.
On Thursday, the battle neared
the remains of ancient Nimrud,
some 30km south of Mosul, raising
fears for the famed heritage
site already ravaged by jihadist
bombs and sledgehammers. •
The president-elect spoke to nine
other leaders, including from Ireland,
Egypt and Australia, before
telephoning May, much to the annoyance
of British media.
Tom Raines, from the Chatham
House international affairs thinktank,
said that with his radical
policies, Trump could end up hobbling
the Brexit negotiations.
“I do not regard Trump as a
useful ally for Britain as it leaves
the EU. If she had been elected,
Hillary Clinton would likely have
been a strong advocate for a Brexit
settlement,” he told AFP.
Though Britain’s vote to leave
the EU contained a desire to play
an enhanced global role, that
largely depends upon cooperation
with the United States.
“In president Trump, the UK now
finds itself stuck between a Trump
rock and a Brexit hard place.” •
9
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2016
DT
USA
Snowden urges action not
fear of Trump
Former National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden has
urged people to work together to
protect themselves from intrusive
government surveillance as Donald
Trump prepares to move into the
White House. “If we want to have
a better world, we cannot hope for
an Obama and we should not fear
a Donald Trump. Rather we should
build it ourselves,” Snowden said
late Thursday, in a live video chat
from Russia. AFP
THE AMERICAS
Venezuela crisis talks
resume amid Trump
tension
Venezuela’s political rivals are to sit
down at the negotiating table Friday
to resume fraught talks on the
country’s volatile crisis. Socialist
President Nicolas Maduro and his
opponents declared a truce 10 days
ago to ease tension in a country
struck by food shortages. Their political
struggle had provoked mass
street protests and stern warnings
from the government. AFP
UK
Scottish leader slams
Trump’s abhorrent views
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
on Thursday urged US president-elect
Donald Trump to abandon
his “deeply abhorrent” campaign
rhetoric and work to strengthen
ties with his mother’s homeland.
Sturgeon told the regional Scottish
Parliament on Thursday that she
was not prepared to stay silent in the
face of “attitudes of racism, sexism,
misogyny or intolerance”. AFP
EUROPE
Migrants in Serbia march
towards Croatian border
Some 150 migrants, trapped in
Serbia, set out on Friday to walk
about 125km to the Croatian border,
demanding free and secure passage
towards Europe. Police are following
the group along the highway connecting
Belgrade and the border. Last
month another group tried a similar
protest march towards the Hungarian
border, but eventually decided to
return to Belgrade. REUTERS
AFRICA
Congo mayor suggests
political motive in
massacres
An influential mayor in eastern Congo
has suggested political leaders in
the country may have been involved
in a string of recent massacres in the
unstable region. Between 700 and
1,300 people have been killed, mostly
hacked to death, in attacks in the
troubled area around the town of
Beni, in North Kivu province, since
October 2014. AFP