Iraqi protesters inch toward Green Zone
BAGHDAD -- Anti-government protesters seized control of a strategic square in central Baghdad on Saturday, as they inched closer toward their goal of reaching the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of government, after days of violent clashes with security forces.
An activist involved in the protest movement was shot dead early in the morning, security officials and activists said, in northwest Baghdad. The officials requested anonymity in line with regulations.
At least 320 people have been killed and thousands wounded since the unrest in the capital and the mostly Shiite southern provinces began on Oct. 1. Protesters have taken to the streets in the tens of thousands over what they say is widespread corruption, lack of job opportunities and poor basic services despite the country's oil wealth.
Iraqi security forces withdrew from Khilani Square and part of Sinak Bridge on Saturday, after firing live rounds and tear gas the previous day against protesters trying to tear down a concrete barrier blocking entry to the square.
Security forces kept control over part of the Sinak Bridge and erected new concrete barriers to block protesters from pushing into the Green Zone, which houses Parliament and many foreign embassies.
Protesters have sought to cross the flashpoint Jumhouriyya and Sinak bridges to get to the Green Zone and failed every time as riot police stationed on the bridges held them off with tear gas and stun grenades.
Turkey cites Kurdish militia in car blast
BEIRUT -- A car bomb exploded Saturday in a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing at least 18 people and wounding several others, Syrian opposition activists and Turkey's Defense Ministry said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 19 people, including 13 civilians, were killed Saturday in the town of al-Bab in Aleppo province. The Aleppo Media Center, an activist collective, said 15 people were killed in the blast in a busy part of town near a bus station.
Turkey's Defense Ministry said the blast killed 18 people and blamed it on the main Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units.
It is not uncommon for reports to give differing casualty figures in the immediate aftermath of this kind of attack.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast.
Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas military sites
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel said its aircraft hit military sites of Gaza's Hamas rulers early Saturday after two rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave.
This was Israel's first strike against Hamas since the start of last week's cross-border fighting with another Gaza militant group, the Iran-backed Islamic jihad. The shooting ended in a shaky cease-fire announced Thursday.
The worst bout of fighting in months began Tuesday after Israel's targeted killing of a senior Islamic Jihad commander in an airstrike.
Israel had refrained from attacking Hamas, which has kept to the sidelines, adhering to understandings reached through Egyptian mediators after previous rounds of fighting with Israel.
[GALLERY: Israelis, Palestinians clash in West Bank » arkansasonline.com/1117gaza/]
But Israel's military Saturday reiterated its long-held position that Hamas was "responsible for events transpiring in the Gaza Strip and emanating from it," after several firings of rockets by Palestinian militants since the Egyptian-brokered deal took effect.
Israel said Saturday that its air defenses intercepted two rockets fired from Gaza. In response, Israel struck a Hamas military camp and a naval base. There were no reports of injuries and no immediate comment from Hamas.
Burma snubs international court's ruling
YANGON, Burma -- Burma's government has rejected the International Criminal Court's decision to allow prosecutors to open an investigation into crimes committed against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay said at a Friday night news conference that Burma stood by its position that the Netherlands-based court has no jurisdiction over its actions. His statement was the first official reaction since the court agreed Thursday to proceed with the case.
Burma has been accused of carrying out human-rights abuses on a large scale in the western state of Rakhine in 2017 during what it described as a counterinsurgency campaign.
Zaw Htay cited a Burmese Foreign Ministry statement from April 2018 that because Burma was not a party to the agreement establishing the court, it did not need to abide by the court's rulings.
Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that military authorities adopted in 1989. Some nations, such as the United States and Britain, have refused to adopt the name change.
The court's position is that because Burma's reported atrocities sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh for safety, it does have jurisdiction since Bangladesh is a party to the court and the case may involve forced deportation.
A Section on 11/17/2019