Russia repatriates 32 ISIS group children
MOSCOW — Russia says it has repatriated another 32 children of members of the Islamic State group from Iraq.
Russia’s state TV on Tuesday showed footage of the children arriving at Zhukovsky airport outside Moscow. It said the children aged between 1 and 9 will undergo extensive medical checkups before relatives take them home.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the children had been held in asylum centers in Iraq or in prisons with their mothers.
Their arrival represents the fourth group of Russian children to be repatriated from Iraq. The Foreign Ministry said a total of 122 children have been brought home.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that over 4,000 Russian citizens and some 5,000 citizens of other ex-Soviet nations have joined the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
Hit Iranian targets in Syria, Israel says
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military today said it struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria, carrying out a “wide-scale” strike in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the day before.
The military said its fighter jets hit multiple targets belonging to the elite Quds force, including surface-to-air missiles, weapons warehouses and military bases. After the Syrian military fired an air defense missile, the military said a number of Syrian aerial defense batteries were destroyed.
The strikes further burst into the open what’s been a long shadow war between Israel and its archenemy Iran.
“Yesterday’s Iranian attack towards Israel is further clear proof of the purpose of the Iranian entrenchment in Syria, which threatens Israeli security, regional stability and the Syrian regime,” the military said in a statement.
Israel intercepted the four rockets on the Golan Heights on Tuesday which came amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iranian proxies along its borders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a series of warnings recently about Iranian aggression throughout the Middle East.
Israel last week fought against the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza, striking and killing a top commander in the coastal enclave and is widely believed to have struck and missed another leader of the group in Syria.
Iran has forces based in Syria, Israel’s northern neighbor, and supports Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. In Gaza, it supplies Islamic Jihad with cash, weapons and expertise.
Trump pardons concern U.N. agency
GENEVA — The U.N. human-rights office says it’s “very concerned” about U.S. President Donald Trump’s exoneration of three U.S. servicemen accused of war crimes, calling one pardon in a pending case “particularly troubling.”
Office spokesman Rupert Colville said Tuesday the moves “run against the letter and the spirit of international law” requiring accountability for such violations and send a “disturbing signal” to military forces worldwide.
One of the pardons announced Friday went to Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, a former Green Beret accused of killing a suspected bomb-maker in Afghanistan in 2010. Golsteyn believed the man was a legal target and was responsible for an explosion that killed two U.S. Marines.
Colville called that pardon “particularly troubling” because it cut short judicial processes. Golsteyn was to stand trial by court-martial in February.
Police, protesters on Dominica clash
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua — A protest over election changes started on the Caribbean island of Dominica, with more than 200 people fighting police before being dispersed with tear gas, officials said Tuesday.
The former French and British colony of about 75,000 residents holds elections on Dec. 6. The opposition United Workers’ Party has been pushing the ruling party to enact changes that could reduce the ruling party’s electoral advantage.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s government has not enacted the changes, leading to charges of unfairness.
Assistant Police Commissioner Richmond Valentine said more than 200 protesters clashed with police when they tried to march to President Charles Savarin’s home Monday night to call for changes.
Police fired tear gas after protesters removed street barricades during the confrontation in Roseau, the capital. No fatalities or major injuries were reported.
In a televised address Tuesday morning, Skerrit said the protest “signaled the intrusion of violence into the election campaign in a manner that is unfamiliar, unnecessary and unproductive.”
Valentine said protesters wanted to see the president make the case for more rigorous checking of voter registrations and a prohibition on expatriate Dominican citizens returning to vote in elections. The opposition has accused the government of buying voters by providing supporters with tickets home around election time.
“That is what they were advocating, that they wanted to see the president,” Valentine said.