‘sex jihad’ waging women

Official: few Tunisian women waging Syria ‘sex jihad’.

Rebel fighters scouting in the Syrian city of Homs. (File photo: AFP)

AFP | Tunis | 07 Oct 2013 :: The number of Tunisian women travelling to Syria to wage “sex jihad” by comforting Islamists fighting the regime is very low, a senior interior ministry official told AFP on Sunday. 

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, seemed to play down previous government statements that suggested “sex jihad” was more widespread. 

“At most about 15 Tunisian women went to Syria, most to care for fighters or to do social work,” the official said. 

But some of them were forced to have sexual relations with Islamist fighters once they were in the country, the official said. 

“Four of them came back from Syria, and one is pregnant,” he added.

“The pregnant woman said that she was caring for fighters and had to have sexual relations with them.”

The official said, however, that women from Chechnya, Egypt, Iraq, France and Germany had travelled to Syria for “sex jihad”. 

“They were targeted for indoctrination over the internet and by foreign sheikhs,” he added, referring to information obtained from Tunisian women returning from Syria. 

Interior Minister Lotfi ben Jeddou told the National Constituent Assembly in September that Tunisian women had gone to Syria where “they have sexual relations with 20, 30, 100” militants.

“After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of ‘jihad al-nikah’ -- (sexual holy war, in Arabic) -- they come home pregnant,” Ben Jeddou said at the time.

Ben Jeddou did not elaborate on how many Tunisian women had returned to the country pregnant with the children of jihadist fighters.

Jihad al-nikah, permitting extramarital sexual relations with multiple partners, is considered by some hardline Sunni Muslim Salafists as a legitimate form of holy war.

Meanwhile the head of the relief association for Tunisians abroad, Badis Koubakji, said “dozens of Tunisian women have come back” from Syria after carrying out the jihad al-nikah there and that “hundreds” were still there.

Koubakji said there was a camp for the women in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. 

“It’s a complete network and the interior ministry is not being transparent on this issue,” he said on Sunday. 

He said that these young women aged between 17 and 30 would not talk about their experiences because their families wanted to “preserve their honour”. 

NGOs in Tunisia have urged the government to do more to tackle networks recruiting young girls to travel to Syria. 

The interior ministry said earlier this year that it had beefed up checks at airports to stop young Tunisians trying to reach Syria. 

Ben Jeddou had said that since he assumed office in March “six thousand of our young people have been prevented from going there” to Syria.

Local media outlets in Tunisia have published several anonymous witness accounts from young women saying they had come back from Syria, but AFP has been unable to verify them. 

Media reports say thousands of Tunisians have, over the past 15 years, joined jihadists across the world in Afghanistan Iraq and Syria, mainly travelling via Turkey or Libya.(Courtesy:Al Arabiya)

Islamist stronghold near Cairo.

Egypt police raid Islamist stronghold near Cairo.

Security forces determined to assert control over pro-Morsi areas, bring to justice killers of 15 policemen in attack last month

CAIRO | 24 Sep 2013 :: Egypt’s state TV said security forces raided a village near the Giza Pyramids west of Cairo hunting for suspects in the brutal killing of 15 policemen last month.

The Tuesday security sweep of Nahya, a stronghold for Islamist groups, was the latest move by authorities to assert control over towns and villages seized by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi after his July 3 overthrow by the military.

The police officers were killed in the nearby village of Kerdasa, and their bodies mutilated, in apparent retaliation for an August 14 assault by the security forces on pro-Morsi protest camps that left hundreds dead. Security forces reoccupied Kerdasa last week, arresting scores of suspects.

State TV showed security forces in body shields and masked special commandos searching suspects’ home.(Courtesy:The Times of Israel)

Somalia blasts hits Mogadishu's Village restaurant.

Somalia blasts hits Mogadishu's Village restaurant.

BBC News | 07 Sep 2013 :: Explosions at a popular restaurant near the parliament building in Somalia's capital Mogadishu have killed 15 people, police say.

The blasts hit The Village around lunchtime. The restaurant is popular with government workers and journalists and has been targeted before.

It was not clear who carried out the attacks, which appeared to tear much of the roof off the restaurant.

Somalia is battling an Islamist-led insurgency and high levels of crime.

The restaurant - near the presidential palace - was busy at the time of the attacks.

Local reports suggest a car bomb was detonated outside the restaurant, and that a suicide bomber then blew himself up among the crowd that gathered at the scene.

Earlier reports wrongly suggested a nearby hotel was also targeted.

The Village, about 1km (0.6 miles) from the presidential palace, is not within the city's security zone but is popular with journalists and those in political circles.

Run by Somali businessman Ahmed Jama, who returned to the country from the UK in 2008, it was targeted by two suicide bombers last September in attacks that killed 14 people(Courtesy:BBC News )

Escape from Taliban' author shot dead in Afghanistan.

Escape from Taliban' author shot 

dead in Afghanistan.

In this photograph taken on March 6, 2003, Indian
 author Sushmita Banerjee holds one of her
 Bengali language novels. (AFP files)

KHOST | Afghanistan | 06 Sep 2013 ::  An Indian author whose story was told in the movie "Escape from Taliban" was shot dead after returning to Afghanistan to make a documentary about women, police said on Friday.

The killing of Sushmita Banerjee, 49, on Wednesday was the latest in a series of attacks on women in the conservative Islamic country, adding to concern that hard-won women's rights are eroding ahead of next year's withdrawal of most international forces.

The Afghan Taliban denied involvement.

Banerjee, who told her story of life under the Islamist Taliban in "A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife", was dragged from her house in lawless southeastern province of Paktika and shot as many as two dozen times, police said.

Her body was found on Thursday morning near an Islamic school about three km (two miles) from her home, Paktika police chief General Dawlat Khan Zadran said.

"Gunmen entered her house at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, took her out and shot her dead," Zadran said, adding that he suspected Taliban involvement.

Speaking to Reuters from Paktika police headquarters, Banerjee's husband, Jaanbaz Khan, said he had heard knocking on the back gate of their compound on Wednesday night.(Courtesy:Toronto SUN)Read More>>>

In Egypt, Islamists call for uprising after military opens fire.

What happened … is a massacre,' the Muslim Brotherhood declares. The army says the shooting that killed 51 came in response to an attack on its headquarters.

A man grieves at a makeshift hospital in Cairo after the
 Egyptian military's deadly crackdown on a sit-in by
supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi.

CAIRO | AFP | 09 Jul 2013 | :: With its people more polarized than ever and the military once again struggling to impose calm, Egypt's downward spiral appears to have no bottom.

At least 51 people were killed Monday when army and police forces opened fire on a sit-in during morning prayers. Theprotesters outside Republican Guard headquarters said they were peacefully calling for the release of the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, whom the military deposed last week. The army said it responded to a "terror group" firing weapons and hurling Molotov cocktails.

Stunned but not deterred by the violence, the Islamists quickly called for a national uprising.

"We are very patient. We Egyptians built the pyramids," said Essam Erian, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing. "Do you know how many people died building the pyramids? How many died digging the Suez Canal?"

The two sides’ differing views of the violence were a chilling suggestion of what Egypt may yet endure. The military crackdown has been fierce and swift. But the army so far has been unable to patch together a coalition government to replace Morsi and the Brotherhood. Without it, critics say, the army resorted to excessive force — as it did two years ago when it stepped in after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

The army's actions early Monday may also have nudged two Islamic adversaries — the Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Salafist Nour Party — closer together.

Nour, which won 25% of the vote in last year's parliamentary elections, plays a pivotal role. It sided against the Brotherhood last week and joined a coalition of secular and religious parties in favor of ousting Morsi. But it balked at the naming of prominent secularist Mohamed ElBaradei as prime minister Saturday.

Facing increasing pressure from the Islamist camp after the killings, Nour withdrew from the negotiations on forming an interim government. The move is likely to consolidate Islamist forces and damage efforts to stabilize the country.

The military is dealing "with human beings, not animals, so how can you target people like that?" said Nour spokesman Nader Bakar. "This is something that cannot be justified.... Where is the military's self-control and restraint?"

The army was unbowed. It was determined to convince Egyptians that its takeover and removal of Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, was necessary to stem political chaos and economic turmoil. It said it was forced to act because of a deepening threat from radicals.

"The armed forces always deal with issues very wisely, but there is certainly also a limit to patience," said Ahmed Ali, the military spokesman.

The army increasingly has used the term "terrorism" to describe not only attacks by militants, but also in reference to clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators. The term to many Egyptians is becoming a code word for Islamists.

"The reports say that the army assaulted them while they were praying, but of course this isn't true," said Ibrahim Allaga, a 23-year-old who runs a T-shirt business. He was one of the anti-Morsi demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday. "This has never happened in Egyptian history, that the army would attack people while they pray. This is a rumor started by terrorist groups to get the support of the Egyptian people."

In Washington, the Obama administration ruled out, at least for now, cutting off $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt despite a federal law that requires halting assistance to countries that have overthrown elected governments with military coups.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters that a quick cutoff of aid would be "not in the best interests of the United States." Officials suggested that using the threat of a cutoff to push the Egyptian military and other political players toward reconciliation would be more effective than imposing a punishment that could alienate the generals.

Witnesses said demonstrators near the Republican Guard headquarters, where Morsi is believed to be in detention, fled in the early-morning darkness as soldiers and security forces fired tear gas, bullets and buckshot. The dead and wounded were ferried away by motorcycles, ambulances and in the arms of relatives.

"While we prayed, they shot us," said Fatma Alzomor, who wailed near the Rabaa al Adawiya mosque, about two miles away. "Witness, free world, what is happening. We are being sprayed with blood. You must hear me."

In the clamor, husbands reached for wives and mothers for children.

"We were praying at 3:30 a.m. when we were surprised by gunfire and tear gas all around us," said Mahmoud Mohamed, a lawyer, who was shot in the arm. "We had women and children with us. The shooting went on for a long time. They didn't give us a chance to retreat. They met us from every direction."(Courtesy:Los Angeles Times)