IO N IPT SC R SU B
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2011
Top seeds tumble in Toronto
150 Fils
47
No: 15179
RAMADAN 13, 1432 AH
Emsak: Fajer: Shoruk: Dohr: Asr: Maghreb: Eshaa:
03:39 03:49 05:15 11:53 15:28 18:31 17:54
Baghdad seeks UN help to halt port project ‘Hezbollah of Iraq Brigades’ threatens Kuwait
Max 46º Min 32º
By A Saleh
JERUSALEM: Palestinian women wait to pass the checkpoint on their way to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, on the second Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem yesterday. — AP
Syria protesters defy bullets 10 shot dead; US urges Assad to go DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces opened fire yesterday killing at least 10 people as thousands of anti-regime protesters rallied in flashpoint cities after the Ramadan weekly prayers, rights activists said. A man was shot dead in a dawn assault on the Damascus suburb of Saqba while a woman died when troops opened fire in the town of Kahn Sheikhun in northwestern Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. As thousands poured out of mosques after the noon prayers in the central city of Hama, security forces sprayed them with gunfire, killing a civilian and wounding three others, the Britainbased Observatory said. “Thousands of people marched in Hama despite a higher presence of security forces. We left from the mosque to the Al-Manakh Square and they shot at us. People were wounded and several others were arrested,” an activist said. Hama has been the scene of some of the bloodiest clashes since an uprising began mid-March against the authoritarian rule of President Bashar Al-Assad. At least 100 people died when troops backed by tanks stormed the city on July 31, the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. State television streamed images showing Assi Squarenerve centre of protests in Hama-as completely empty, saying: “Life is back to normal in Assi Square, there are no armed forces.” Another man died in sniper fire yesterday near a mosque in Homs, another central city which has witnessed relentless bloodletting in past weeks. And a man was killed in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, an activist at the scene said. Security forces also shot to disperse demonstrators in two neighborhoods on the outskirts of Damascus-Harasta and Douma-where they killed five people, an activist at the scene said.
Meanwhile, state television said “two security agents were shot dead by armed men in Douma.” Security forces encircled the Damascus neighborhood of Qabun in a bid to prevent demonstrations there, the Observatory said. Protests were also staged in the coastal city of Lattakia while in the Mediterranean city of Banias troops circled mosques in a bid to prevent protests taking place, the Observatory said. The Observatory said a total of 2,150 people have been confirmed dead since the protests began, including 1,744 civilians and 406 members of the security forces. As the West grapples with ways to pressure Damascus into ending the bloodshed, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China, Russia and India on Thursday to weigh in against Assad’s regime. The United States has decided to call explicitly for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to step down, officials said on Thursday, as Washington groped for ways to stop a deadly protest crackdown. The expected announcement would come as the Obama administration presses for tougher international sanctions on a regime bent on crushing a pro-democracy movement. In an interview with CBS News, she suggested that China and India impose energy sanctions on Syria, and urged Russia to stop selling arms to Damascus, which has bought weapons from Moscow for decades. “What we really need to do to put the pressure on Assad is to sanction the oil and gas industry. And we want to see Europe take more steps in that direction,” Clinton said. “And we want China to take steps with us. We want to see India, because India and China have large energy investments inside of Syria. — Agencies
KUWAIT: Iraq will ask the United Nations to stop construction of the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port project which Kuwait is currently constructing on Boubyan Island, if it discovers that the facility will hurt Iraq’s interests, said the Iraqi premier yesterday. Speaking to Iraq’s Al-Sumeria News Agency, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki revealed that Baghdad has already asked Kuwait to halt construction work at the port “until we can ensure that the port won’t hurt Iraq’s maritime activities,” adding that Kuwait has yet to respond to this demand. “The UN says that international regulations subject Iraq to benefit from the [Mubarak Al-Kabeer] port,” said AlMaliki, adding that these regulations would be violated if the port did not comply with this stipulation. “The Iraqi Cabinet has issued a statement asserting Iraq’s maritime rights, which Kuwait has agreed on,” the premier added. Al-Maliki also reiterated that a team of Iraqi experts and consultants is set to visit Kuwait to study the port’s construction. “Kuwait says that the project will be built in three stages, but there is talk about a fourth stage that could damage Iraq’s maritime activity,” said the premier, adding that the inspection team would submit their report to the Iraqi Cabinet two or three days after concluding their visit. He also warned that Baghdad could “take legal actions with the UN to stop the port if it was proven that it would harm Iraq”. Iraq officially asked Kuwait on July 27th to temporarily suspend construction work on the port until both sides can ensure that it won’t limit activity at the Khor Abdullah a narrow strip of water separating Kuwait’s Boubyan and Warba islands from Iraq’s thin outlet to the Arabian Gulf. Kuwait has rejected this request on the grounds that it has no legal basis, whilst stressing that the port is entirely located within Kuwait’s borders and will have no negative effects on Iraq. Meanwhile, dozens of Iraqi citizens gathered in Tahrir Square in downtown Baghdad yesterday to demand that Kuwait halt construction work on the port immediately. In related news, the General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI) said in a recent statement that the Kuwaiti authorities have tightened security measures around the port, with heavy presence of coastguard patrols around the east of the Boubyan Island where the project is located. The GCPI also listed some details of the construction operation, citing these as evidence that “Kuwait has no intentions of suspending the accelerating construction process”. Kuwait has been subjected to threats from the militant ‘Hezbollah of Iraq Brigades’ group, which issued a statement on July 18 threatening companies involved in the port’s construction and issuing another statement last week in which the group said that it had obtained surfaceto-surface missiles which it would be launching at a number of Kuwaiti targets if construction work on the port was not stopped immediately.