Category: Blog

Sinai Bedouins fear losing homes

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Al-Jazeera:

At least 700 Egyptian Bedouins have protested over fears the Egyptian government plans to remove their houses from an area along the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of police surrounded the Sinai desert Bedouins as they set several tyres ablaze in the Massura area, on the main road between Rafah and the nearby city of Al-Arish in Egypt.
The demonstrations followed a visit two days earlier by local officials who surveyed land and houses near the border.
This prompted fears among Bedouins that an anti-smuggling measure, that has not been implemented to date, could be used to remove their homes.

Daily attacks in Iraq hit new high in June

Posted on By 3arabawy

Via Reuters:

Attacks in Iraq last month reached their highest daily average since May 2003, showing a surge in violence as President George W. Bush completed a buildup of U.S. troops, Pentagon statistics show.
The data, obtained by Reuters from the Defense Department, showed an upward trend in daily attacks over the past four months, when U.S. and Iraqi forces were ramping up operations against insurgents and militants, including al Qaeda, in Iraq.
Pentagon officials were not immediately available to comment on the statistics.
The June numbers showed 5,335 attacks against coalition troops, Iraqi security forces, civilians and infrastructure.
June’s total was 2.5 percent below an October 2006 peak of 5,472 attacks and slightly lower than the 5,365 attacks in May.
But because June has only 30 days, the average daily number of attacks was 177.8, higher than the 176.5 last October and 173.1 in May.
The Pentagon statistics, which come as pressure mounts in the U.S. Congress for a troop withdrawal from Iraq, depicted the most intensive month for daily attacks since Bush declared major combat operations at an end in May 2003.

Egypt-Gaza border town under curfew

Posted on By 3arabawy

From AP…

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on Egypt’s border town of Rafah Thursday following unconfirmed reports that Palestinian gunmen planned to blow up a border wall to allow thousands of Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side to return home, a police official said.
Thousands of police and security forces also were deployed at Rafah and roads leading to the town were sealed off, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Stores and eateries at the town were ordered to close, he said.
On the Gaza side of the Rafah border, around 2,000 Palestinians from different militant factions protested to demand Egypt let through the Gazans stranded in Egypt.
There were no signs to suggest they planned acts of violence.
“Rafah is our only gateway and it must be opened right now,” read one banner carried by protesters.