ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2015 9 MIDEAST/INTERNATIONAL Ticket to new life in Europe Afghans pin asylum hope on Taleban ‘threat’ letters KABUL, Sept 19, (AFP): Stamped with the Taleban’s crossed sabres emblem, the threat letter in Ahmadzia Abbasi’s hand reads like a death warrant — but like many Afghans he sees the document as a ticket to a new life and asylum in Europe. The Taleban widely use so-called “night letters” con- taining lurid threats of vio- lence and death, often deliv- ered by shadowy agents under the cover of darkness, as an effective tool of intimi- dation. Many war-weary Afghans embarking on perilous voy- ages to Europe carry the noc- turnal missives — real and counterfeit — in an effort to build a compelling case for their refugee application. “Anyone who reads this will know that my life is in grave dan- ger,” said Abbasi, a 31-year-old social activist from eastern Logar province, holding up a night letter he found pinned to his front door in April. The Pashto-language doc- ument, bearing the signature Taleban stamp, castigates him for supporting the “infi- del government” and warns that his head will be cut off. He said the threat was prompted by his push to pro- mote girls’ education in his village, which apparently angered the infamously misogynistic militant net- work. “The letter is my best hope — my only hope — of gain- ing asylum,” he told AFP in Kabul. He has appealed for asy- lum to the European Union mission in Afghanistan, but the process is unlikely to be smooth as a record number of Afghans flee the turmoil and war convulsing their country. Afghan officials say the country is witnessing an “unprecedented” migration towards European nations. Some 77,731 Afghans applied for asylum in Europe in the first six months of the year, more than three times the figure in the same period last year, and higher than all previous years since 2001, according to the UN refugee agency. Afghans are the second largest group of migrants try- ing to make Europe their home, behind only Syrians. While many face genuine threats, fabricated night let- ters are common, highlight- ing the lengths some Afghans are willing to go in order to attain asylum. Heshmat, 24, bought his for $80 from a group of coun- terfeiters recommended by a friend who recently made it to Germany with a similar letter. He said he was unsure whether the network was linked directly to the Taleban but the forged night letter looks “very real”. “The human smuggler who will take me to Sweden says: ‘Europe is now open to migrants — and a Taleban death threat can go a long way to demonstrate the need for asylum’,” Heshmat told AFP, request- ing that his last name be withheld. Smuggling networks are flourishing in Afghanistan, making money from tens of thousands of desperate migrants undertaking dan- gerous journeys on well- trodden Mediterranean trails via Iran, Turkey and Greece. Statistics suggesting the scale of fraudulent cases are hard to come by but Heather Barr, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, cau- tions against generalising the trend. “Even if some letters are fake, that does not mean that all are — and Human Rights Watch has docu- mented what we are fully satisfied are genuine threat letters in some cases,” Barr told AFP. “It’s also worth remem- bering that the body count in Afghanistan is high and growing. I would ask anyone who argues that the threats are not real to explain why so many people who say they are under threat keep dying.” Anecdotal evidence, how- ever, suggests that Afghans — increasingly weary of surging Taleban violence and rising joblessness — are going to lengths to bolster their case for asylum. A Kabul printing press said it has fielded more and more enquiries about “Taleban rubber stamps”, possibly for fake night letters. A hair salon in Kabul revealed recent requests from light-haired Afghans for darker, dyed hair to make them “appear Syrian” — the belief being that Syrians are being given priority for asy- lum. Joining the snaking queues outside Kabul’s passport office — another testament to the accelerating exodus — some Afghans are seen wav- ing night letters in desperate pleas to officials to expedite the process. “We can’t give passports to thousands of people in one day — nobody in the world can! Leave, just leave!” an official bluntly told the crowd one morning recently. Abbasi says the preva- lence of “fake night letters” was affecting his EU appli- cation. “It raises questions whether my threat is real,” he said, adding that his cousin, a government offi- cial, was recently shot dead after receiving a similar threat. As the sun went down over Kabul, he scrambled to return to his village in Logar before nightfall — when security forces retreat to their bar- racks and the Taleban prowl the streets. No one can dispute that threat. Illegal fishing off Somalia risks piracy return 12 Somalian soldiers killed in Shebab attack MOGADISHU, Sept 19, (AFP): Twelve Somali government soldiers have been killed in an attack by al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants, officials and witnesses said Saturday. The attack occurred early Friday at a military base in the Yaq-Bariweyne area about 100 kilometres (65 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu. “Several of the militants were also killed during the fighting,” said Mohamed Adan, a Somali military offi- cial. Witnesses said the militants overran the camp, looted military supplies and then left. “The Shebab fighters took control of the camp and looted everything. The commanders addressed residents of the village, they said the rule of Sharia law will be back soon,” said Abdirahman Somow, a local eyewitness. “The Mujahedeen fighters carried out a dawn raid on the Yaq-Bariweyne military camp, nearly fifteen apostate soldiers were killed and a huge amount of military supplies have been taken,” the Shebab also said in a brief statement posted on jihadist websites. The Shebab, who have recently lost a string of key bases in the face of an offen- sive by the African Union’s AMISOM force, has stepped up counter attacks involving hit-and-run raids on several bases, including an attack on an African Union camp earlier this month that left at least 50 dead. The Shebab is fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government in Mogadishu, which is protected by 22,000 AMISOM troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Also: NAIROBI: Rampant illegal fishing by foreign trawlers off Somalia’s once pirate-infested coastline is threatening economic gains in the Horn of Africa nation and could push communities back to maritime crime, a report warned. Somalia’s fearsome pirates often justi- fied their attacks because they were unable to compete with foreign fisher- men. Piracy peaked in 2011 when 28 ves- sels were hijacked, but has since dramat- ically declined due to the use of armed guards on ships and international naval patrols. But the report by Secure Fisheries, a part of the One Earth Future Foundation campaign group, warned those advances could be reversed if illegal fishing is not stemmed. Foreign industrial fishing boats have resulted in “depleted stocks, a loss of income for Somalis, and violence against local fishers” the report read, adding “it also has threatened to ignite local support for a return of piracy.” At their peak in 2011, Somali pirates held over 700 hostages, netting millions of dollars in ransoms and threatening key maritime trade routes, including the southern access to the Red Sea and Suez Canal. ‘Without a fight’ Mali ex-rebels retake control of northeastern town BAMAKO, Sept 19, (AFP): Fighters from Mali’s former rebel alliance, the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), took control of the northeast- ern town of Anefis Friday after loyalist fighters who seized it last month with- drew, officials said. “CMA rebels have retaken control of the locality of Anefis today,” a security official in MINUSMA, the UN peace- keeping mission the west African coun- try, told AFP. “But without a fight. Several of their vehicles arrived in the city.” The news was confirmed by Almou Ag Mohamed, a CMA spokesman. “Anefis is under our control,” he said. “In violation of the ceasefire, militias took the town. Under pres- sure, they left.” The Platform coalition of loyalist fighters seized Anefis in deadly clash- es in August that left at least 10 dead. They agreed to pull out, though, and MINUSMA welcomed the com- pletion of their withdrawal on Monday. On Thursday, however, CMA fight- ers clashed with pro-government mili- tias in northeastern Mali, with the two sides accusing each other of starting the fighting, breaching a peace deal signed this year. Mali was shaken by a coup in 2012 that cleared the way for Tuareg sepa- ratists to seize towns and cities of the north, an expanse of desert the size of Texas. Pakistan bombs Taleban hideouts after deadly raid on military base Dozens arrested in connection with air base attack PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 19, (Agencies): Pakistani jets killed 16 suspected militants in bombing raids near the Afghan border on Saturday, and police arrested dozens of people, security offi- cials said, the day after Taleban militants killed 29 people in an attack on an air base. The attack on the base on Friday was the deadliest ever militant attack on a Pakistani military installation and is likely to undermine already rocky ties with Afghanistan. Hours after the attack, Pakistan’s military spokesman pointedly noted that communications intercepts showed the Pakistani Taleban gunmen were being directed by handlers in Afghanistan. Saturday’s air force raids targeted militant bases in the Tirah Valley, which straddles the Afghan border and is a main smuggling route between the two countries, two Pakistani secu- rity officials said. “All those killed in the bombing were Pakistani militants,” said one security official in the northwestern city of Peshawar. On Friday, 13 gunmen stormed the Badaber air base, about 10 kms (6 miles) south of Peshawar in an attack a Pakistani Taleban spokesman said was retaliation for bombing raids on their bases along the Afghan border. Police said they picked up around 50 residents living near the base on suspicion of helping the militants organise the attack. Shafqat Malik, head of the Peshawar bomb squad, said the attackers carried enough fire- power to occupy the base, but that some of their weapons had malfunctioned. Each man had an assault rifle, two improvised explo- sive devices, and several rocket propelled grenades, but some of the grenades misfired, he said. “Their mission was occupation of the air base,” he said. For decades Pakistan nurtured Islamist militants as allies against old rival India, and to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. But it has been fighting some militant fac- tions since after it sided with the United States following the Sept 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on US cities. Pakistan launched an offensive to dis- lodge Pakistani Taleban from their north- western stronghold of North Waziristan in 2014 and there has been fighting in various places, including the Tirah Valley, since then. For years Pakistan and Afghanistan have traded accusations of not doing enough to stamp out insurgents on either side of their long, porous border. Each country has a separate but allied Taleban insurgency fighting to overthrow the government and install strict Islamist rule and security cooperation is seen as vital to defeat militancy. Last month, Afghanistan blamed Pakistan for not doing enough to counter militants who carried out a series of attacks in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Meanwhile, twenty-two suspects have been detained in connection with a deadly attack on a Pakistan air force base claimed by the Taleban, officials said Saturday. Pakistani Taleban militants dressed in official uniforms attacked the air force base near the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least 29 people, most of them soldiers, the group’s deadliest assault in months following a major military offen- sive against them. All 14 attackers were also killed, the mil- itary said. “At least 22 suspects including eight Afghan nationals have been detained from different parts of the city since Friday after the attack, and are being thoroughly interro- gated,” a senior local police official Shakir Bangash told AFP. He said some of the suspects were set free after an initial interrogation while others, including the eight Afghans, are still in cus- tody. A senior security official told AFP evi- dence was still being collected from the site of the attack to find more clues about how the incident happened and how the attackers entered the camp. The insurgents entered the residential compound at the base, attacking a mosque where they killed 16 air force personnel as they were about to offer dawn prayers. Another seven air force personnel were also killed in a barrack adjacent to mosque. Three from the army and three civilians were also killed. The TTP claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in an e-mail sent to journal- ists, saying their “suicide unit” carried out the attack. Military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said Friday the attackers belonged to a splinter group of Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) and came from Afghanistan. “The attackers came from Afghanistan, the attack was planned and controlled from there,” Bajwa said. Islamabad and Kabul regularly accuse each other of supporting militants who cross the porous border to carry out attacks and of giving sanctuary to them. A Pakistani soldier checks vehicles at the main entrance of an airbase that was attacked by suspected Taleban militants, Sept 19, in Peshawar, Pakistan. Suspected Taleban militants launched a brazen attack on a Pakistani military base on Friday. (AP) Mexican tourists who survived air strike return home Mexico demands Egypt compensation for victims MEXICO CITY, Sept 19, (AFP): On stretchers and in wheelchairs, six Mexican tourists hurt in a mistaken Egyptian air strike that killed eight others returned home Friday, as Mexico pressed for compensation for the victims. President Enrique Pena Nieto visited the five women and one man at a public hospital in Mexico city hours after they returned on the presidential plane with the country’s for- eign minister. Pena Nieto told reporters that he assured the patients that his government would “accompany them in this legal process” to obtain compensation for the attack. In the morning, the wounded arrived in Mexico City accompanied by Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu, who had flown to Cairo earlier in the week to demand answers from Egyptian authorities. Four of the wounded were brought off the plane on stretchers, one draped in the green, white and red flag of Mexico. Two others came out in wheelchairs. The wounded, who are all in stable condi- tion, were taken to the National Rehabilitation Institute in a police helicopter. Their injuries ranged from shrapnel wounds to burns, fractures and respiratory ailments, Health Minister Mercedes Juan told reporters. Ruiz Massieu said the victims should be compensated “according to international rights” for what she branded an “unjustified aggression.” Barr Israel strikes Gaza: Israel carried out air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after Palestinian militants there fired rock- ets into southern Israel. The overnight air strikes targeted two training camps belonging to the Islamist group Hamas, causing no injuries, officials and witnesses said. Late on Friday, Gaza militants had fired at least two rockets into Israel. One struck a town, damaging a bus but causing no injuries. A second was shot down by a mis- sile defense system. A Palestinian group that supports the group Islamic State claimed responsibility for one of the rockets fired at Israel. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑ Floods kill 10 people in Iran: Iran’s state TV says flash floods triggered by heavy rains have killed 10 people in the capital, Tehran, and south of the country. The Saturday report says the flash flood killed six in Tehran and four in the south- ern province of Hormozgan Friday night. At least eight people, including five members of the same family in Tehran, were still missing. Relief and rescue opera- tions are underway. Earlier in July, at least 11 people were killed in flash flooding in both Tehran and the northern province of Alborz. Authorities attribute the rising number of deadly flash floods to deforestation and improper construction near riverbeds. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Libya peace talks get boost: Hopes for a deal to form a unity government in war-torn Libya by a September 20 deadline received a boost Friday after UN-brokered peace talks had run into opposition from both sides. UN envoy Bernardino Leon, announcing “very good news”, said lawmakers from Libya’s internationally recognised parlia- ment had agreed to return to the talks with their rivals in Tripoli after resolving an internal dispute. The parliamentarians based in Tobruk in the far east of Libya had bridged their dif- ferences and agreed to re-engage in the process, he said from the talks near Rabat. “We still have to reach a final agreement on the other issues,” he said. “We have little time, a lot of work to do and we will con- tinue to inform on the evolution.” (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Rebels attack police checkpoint: Afghan officials say that at least eight police officers were found dead after their checkpoint was attacked in southern Zabul province. Mohmand Nasratyar, district administra- tive chief, said on Saturday that all eight policemen were killed late Friday night inside their check point in the Arghandab district. Nasratyar said that a delegation has been sent to investigate the incident and so far it remained unclear how the attack happened. Taleban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility. (AP) News in Brief