Militants resist advance in Mosul

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has asked Interpol to put an alert out to apprehend four North Koreans in the murder of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Kim Jong-Nam, killed at Kuala Lumpur’s airport on February 13, had spoken out against his family’s dynastic control of the isolated, nuclear-armed state. South Korean and US officials say he was killed by North Korean agents.

Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said two women – one Vietnamese, one Indonesian – arrested last week had been paid for carrying out the fatal assault on Kim using a fast-acting poison.

Reuters BOGOTA: Colombia’s transition to peace continues its turbulent path with the FARC asking the UN on Tuesday to push back the start date for its disarmament amid allegations of peace treaty breaches from the Colombian government.

The FARC said that the government was “improvising” on parts of the protocols and said the majority of disarmament zones had problems with clean drinking water, electricity and road connectivity.

While the government has recognised the logistical problems in the disarmament zones, it said that the 180-day deadline given for the FARC to start disarming would not change. Telesur ALMOST 1.4 million children are at imminent risk of death from severe acute malnutrition this year, as famine looms in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and north-east Nigeria the UN Children’s fund (Unicef) has warned.

These children are part of more than 20 million people in the four countries who are facing devastating levels of food insecurity, UN secretary-general António Guterres warned as he joined other top UN officials and called for “strong and urgent” action from the international community to help the already-fragile countries avert catastrophe. “Famine is already a reality in parts of South Sudan. Unless we act now, it is only a matter of time before it affects other areas and countries,” he said.

Guterres said the UN needed at least $4.4 billion (R56.4bn) by the end of March to avert a catastrophe.

“Despite some generous pledges, just $90 million has been received so far. We are at the beginning of the year, but these numbers are very worrying.”

In South Sudan, the UN and its humanitarian partners aim to assist 5.8 million people this year; in Somalia, 5.5 million and in Yemen 8.3 million.

The threat of famine was highlighted as another UN agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), warned that the world’s ability to feed itself was “in jeopardy”.

The world will have trouble feeding itself in decades to come unless countries undertake “major transformations” to the way they grow and distribute food, the UN said on Wednesday in a report that paints a bleak and hungry future.

Because of growing global population – experts estimate the world will have 10 billion mouths to feed in 2050, versus 7.3 billion today – agricultural output will need to increase by 50%, the FAO warned in The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges.

There are a number of related challenges beyond just a growing population. Diets are changing from being heavy on cereals to include more meat, which requires significantly more grains and water. (The average Chinese person went from consuming 12.9kg. of meat per year in 1982 to 63kg of meat last year).

Groundwater sources are being depleted rapidly. From the central valley of California to northern China, water reserves in 21 of 37 of the world’s largest aquifers are on the decline. (Two billion people around the world rely on aquifers for their water supply.)

Likewise, climate change is altering weather and precipitation patterns, and in decades to come is expected to shrink agricultural yields, especially in already-vulnerable regions like the Sahel in Africa.

Together, that’s creating a ticking time bomb down the road. The UN estimates that 600 million people will be undernourished in 2030, and overall global food security will be “in jeopardy”, unless there is a concerted effort to change eating habits and mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

Avoiding the dire forecasts is possible, if pricey, the report’s lead author told Foreign Policy. Lorenzo Bellu, senior economist with the FAO, said additional annual investments of $265bn would be needed through 2030 to keep the hungry fed.

IRAQI security forces yesterday started a major assault to retake the Mosul international airport from Islamic State (IS) militants and fought their way into a nearby military base, the military said.

Federal police and elite Interior Ministry units, known as Rapid Response, stormed the airport and engaged in gun battles with IS fighters who used suicide car bombs to try to stem the advance.

Counter-terrorism service (CTS) troops stormed the Ghazlani military base near the ariport, said federal police captain Amir Abdul Kareem, whose units were fighting nearby. Other officers said the militants deployed bomb-carrying drones to attack CTS units.

The attacks came as Iraqi security forces advanced towards the fringes of the western side of Mosul to drive out IS militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Three days ago, federal police and CTS forces freed the hill of Albu Saif, just south of Mosul airport, after clashes with IS.

The recapture of the strategic hill of Albu Saif is crucial for the Iraqi forces, as the area gives the troops the ability to command IS positions in the southern neighbourhoods and inside the airport, which is located on Mosul’s southern outskirts.

“We are attacking Daesh (IS) from multiple fronts to distract and prevent them from regrouping. It’s the best way to knock them down quickly,” said Kareem.

After ousting the militant group from eastern Mosul last month, Iraqi forces have sought to capture the airport to use it as a launchpad for an onslaught into the west of the city.

The campaign involves a 100 000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish fighters and Shia militias and has made rapid advances since the start of the year, aided by new tactics and improved co-ordination.

Losing Mosul could spell the end of the Iraqi side of militants’ self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, which IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared from the city after sweeping through vast areas of Iraq in 2014.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Sunday the start of an offensive to drive extremist militants out of the western side of Mosul, locally known as the right bank of Tigris River, which bisects the city.

Late in January, Abadi declared the liberation of the eastern side of Mosul, or the left bank of Tigris, after more than 100 days of fighting against IS militants.

However, the western side of Mosul, with its narrow streets and a population of between 750 000 and 800 000, appears to be a bigger challenge to the Iraqi forces.

Mosul, 400km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq’s northern and western regions.

US special forces in armoured vehicles yesterday positioned near Mosul airport looked on as Iraqi troops advanced and a helicopter strafed suspected IS positions.

The airport and the nearby military base have been heavily damaged by US-led air strikes intended to wear down the militants before the offensive, an Iraqi official said.

The US military commander in Iraq believes US-backed forces will retake both of Islamic State’s urban bastions – the other is the Syrian city of Raqqa – within the next six months, which would end the jihadists’ ambitions to rule and govern significant territory.

Iraqi commanders expect the battle to be more difficult than in the east of Mosul, however, in part because tanks and armoured vehicles cannot pass through narrow alleyways that criss-cross the city’s ancient western districts.

Militants have developed a network of passageways and tunnels to enable them to hide and fight among civilians, melting away after hit-and-run attacks, according to inhabitants.