Chaos as jihadist relatives left Syrian camp, witnesses say

There were scenes of “utter chaos” when thousands of women and children related to suspected Islamic State jihadists escaped a camp in Syria last month following the sudden withdrawal of Kurdish forces, witnesses have told AFP.An AFP journalist who entered the huge Al-Hol camp on Wednesday found it virtually deserted after the Syrian government decided to evacuate the site.Until recently, it housed 23,500 people and was the largest camp for relatives of suspected IS jihadists in northeastern Syria.Since the territorial defeat of IS, it had been under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.However the SDF swiftly left the camp on January 20, under pressure from Syrian troops which were seizing swathes of the country’s north months after their ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.Syrian security forces say they took over control six hours later.Thousands of family members of suspected jihadists left for parts unknown.As soon as the Kurdish forces left, “it was utter chaos,” Salah Mahmud al-Hafez, who lives in the nearby Al-Hol village, told AFP. “The SDF withdrew, and the locals and tribesmen came,” he said.”Cars loaded people and drove off,” Hafez said, adding that the camp “remained without security control for three hours.”- Toys, food left behind -The camp held mostly women and children, the majority of them Syrian or Iraqi. However a high-security annex housed more than 6,000 foreigners of around 40 nationalities.Access to the camp remains prohibited and checkpoints have been set up on the road leading to it, according to the AFP journalist at the scene.The paths of the empty camp are now strewn with rubbish bags, and white tents stretch as far as the eye can see.Children’s toys and tricycles have been abandoned in the foreigners’ annex.Clothes, notebooks and even food were left behind, signs of a hasty departure.Last week, Syrian authorities evacuated the remaining families at the camp after determining that the conditions at Al-Hol — particularly security — were inadequate.Syria’s interior ministry confirmed on Wednesday there were mass escapes from the camp, accusing the Kurdish SDF of withdrawing “suddenly, without coordination and without informing” them.The SDF responded by saying their withdrawal was “a direct result of the military attack… targeting the camp and its surroundings by forces affiliated with Damascus”.The SDF also said the families escaped after Syrian troops took control of the camp.Local resident Hafez said that “when the state took over, it gave the people the choice to stay or leave.”Morhaf Al-Olayan, a 43-year-old farmer who lives next to the camp, said that after the Kurdish forces departed, “cars came, loaded the families, and left”.The father of five said he saw men “wearing camouflage military uniforms” among those transporting the families.Farhan Abbas, an 86-year-old who lives near the camp, said that “people fled… in all directions”.The detained family members had not been charged with any crime, but many had embraced the idea of living in the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate.- Women and children at risk -The foreigners’ annex held a large number of people from around the world, including Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia.While the whereabouts of those who left the camp remain unknown, teachers in the former rebel stronghold of Idlib in northwestern Syria told AFP that several children from Uzbekistan have enrolled in their schools since late January.In a report earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said that most of Al-Hol’s residents “left in a largely unplanned and chaotic manner”.”The way these departures have unfolded has exposed women and children to serious risks, including trafficking, exploitation, and recruitment by armed groups,” the report warned.Kurdish forces still control the smaller Roj camp in Syria’s northeast, where more relatives of suspected foreign jihadists including Westerners are detained.The Kurds had repeatedly urged countries to take back their citizens but few did, fearing security threats and a domestic political backlash.”For years, many governments claimed that difficulties negotiating with a non-state actor in charge of the camps was why they couldn’t repatriate their citizens, but now that excuse won’t hold,” Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.For the jihadists themselves, the United States military has transferred more than 5,700 IS suspects from Syrian prisons to Iraq.

Iran, US hold talks in push to avert war

Iran and the United States held talks in Switzerland on Thursday, in a last-ditch bid to avert war under the shadow of the biggest American military build-up in the Middle East in decades. The Oman-mediated discussions follow repeated threats from Donald Trump to strike Iran, with the US president last Thursday giving Tehran 15 days to reach a deal.While Iran has insisted the discussions focus solely on its nuclear programme, the US wants Tehran’s missile programme and its support for militant groups in the region curtailed.The US and Iranian delegations held a morning session at the Omani ambassador’s residence amid tight security, and then paused ahead of resuming at around 1630-1700 GMT according to the foreign ministry in Tehran.Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said after discussions began that the two sides expressed “unprecedented openness to new and creative ideas and solutions”.UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi joined the negotiations, a source close to the talks told AFP, with an Iranian state TV journalist also reporting he was attending.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted ahead of the talks that the Islamic republic was not “at all” seeking a nuclear weapon.As part of the dramatic US build-up, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, sent to the Mediterranean this week, left a naval base in Crete on Thursday, an AFP photographer said.Washington currently has more than a dozen warships in the Middle East: one aircraft carrier — the USS Abraham Lincoln — nine destroyers and three other combat ships.It is rare for there to be two US aircraft carriers, which carry dozens of warplanes and are crewed by thousands of sailors, in the region.The developments follow massive protests in Iran that rights groups say saw thousands of demonstrators killed. – ‘Sinister nuclear ambitions’ -In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump accused Iran of “pursuing sinister nuclear ambitions”, though Tehran has always insisted its programme is for civilian purposes.Trump also claimed Tehran had “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America”.The Iranian foreign ministry called these claims “big lies”.The maximum range of Iran’s missiles is 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles), according to what Tehran has publicly disclosed. However, the US Congressional Research Service estimates they top out at about 3,000 kilometres — less than a third of the distance to the continental United States.Trump’s State of the Union accusations in Congress were delivered in the same forum in which then-president George W. Bush laid out the case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.Ahead of Thursday’s talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran must also negotiate on its missile programme, calling Tehran’s refusal to discuss ballistic weapons “a big, big problem”.He followed up by saying “the president wants diplomatic solutions”.US Vice President JD Vance told Iran to take Trump’s threats “seriously”, saying the US leader had a “right” to use military action.”You can’t let the craziest and worst regime in the world have nuclear weapons,” Vance told “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News.- ‘People would suffer’ -Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the Iranian delegation at the talks, has called them “a historic opportunity”, adding that a deal was “within reach”.The US was to be represented by envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.The two countries held talks earlier this month in Oman, then gathered for a second round in Geneva last week.A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last June, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.In January, Tehran launched a mass crackdown on nationwide protests that posed one of the greatest challenges to the Islamic republic since its inception.Protests have since resumed around Iranian universities.Tehran residents who spoke to AFP were divided on whether there would be renewed conflict.”There would be famine and people would suffer a lot. People are suffering now, but at least with war, our fate might be clear,” 60-year-old homemaker Tayebeh said.burs/ser/dcp

Municipales: Philippe Dessertine, l’inattendu trouble-fête bordelais

C’est l’outsider du scrutin bordelais: donné troisième du premier tour par un sondage, l’inattendu Philippe Dessertine contraint le député macroniste Thomas Cazenave à appeler au “vote utile” face au maire sortant écologiste Pierre Hurmic, annoncé en tête.”Merci d’être si nombreux, il se passe quelque chose à Bordeaux”, avait lancé lundi soir cet universitaire habitué des plateaux télévisés devant un millier de personnes, à la moyenne d’âge avancée, venues l’écouter dans un théâtre.Celui qui annonce sa victoire depuis qu’il s’est déclaré candidat, mi-septembre, est crédité de 15% des intentions de vote par une étude Ifop publiée mercredi soir par Sud Ouest, LCI et Sud Radio, contre 33% à Pierre Hurmic et 25% à Thomas Cazenave.Par rapport à un sondage OpinionWay en novembre, il gagne trois points quand l’ex-ministre macroniste en perd un et que la députée européenne Julie Rechagneux (RN) recule de 12 à 7%.Candidat “sans étiquette” qui érige la “protection des habitants” en priorité, Philippe Dessertine séduit principalement à droite et à l’extrême droite: parmi les personnes interrogées, il rassemble 37% de celles ayant voté pour Valérie Pécresse au premier tour de la présidentielle 2022, 22% des partisans de Marine Le Pen et 35% de l’électorat zemmouriste.- “Détermination” -Entré en campagne quand Thomas Cazenave bataillait encore avec Nathalie Delattre, présidente du Parti radical, pour mener la liste d’union de la droite et du centre, le sexagénaire séduit aussi 35% des électeurs de feu Nicolas Florian, ex-dauphin de l’ancien maire LR Alain Juppé, battu par Pierre Hurmic en 2020 et décédé l’an dernier.Philippe Dessertine, novice en campagne mais dont l’épouse a longtemps fait partie de l’équipe Juppé, accueille ce sondage “avec détermination” et promet de “poursuivre (sa) campagne de rassemblement pour battre le maire sortant”. “Des alliances, des choses comme ça, c’est le monde politique traditionnel. Je ne suis pas un politique traditionnel”, a esquivé ce docteur en gestion lors d’un débat organisé jeudi par Sud Ouest et la chaîne locale TV7, refusant de “tirer des plans sur la comète sur la base d’un sondage ou d’accords politiques”.Thomas Cazenave a lui appelé mercredi soir au “vote utile”, jugeant que “toute voix portée sur une autre liste” que la sienne “renforcerait la majorité sortante” et que “la dispersion serait une erreur”.- Épée de Damoclès -Pierre Hurmic était au contraire d’humeur badine mercredi soir après un meeting.”François Mauriac disait, après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, +Moi, j’aime tellement l’Allemagne que je suis content qu’il y en ait deux+. Moi, j’aime tellement la droite que je suis content quand il y en a deux”, a-t-il ironisé, satisfait de “virer en tête” dans l’étude.”Philippe Dessertine a dit haut et fort qu’il irait jusqu’au bout (…) J’ai plutôt tendance à penser que ce qu’il a dit, il le fera”, a ajouté l’écologiste, qui veut “poursuivre et amplifier” la politique mise en place depuis 2020 (autonomie énergétique renforcée via notamment la solarisation de bâtiments publics, secteur piétonnier augmenté, grand plan de végétalisation…).Au second tour, le sondage Ifop le donne vainqueur d’une quinquangulaire qui l’opposerait à Nordine Raymond (LFI) – crédité de 12% au premier tour, contre 5% à Philippe Poutou (NPA) – ainsi qu’à Thomas Cazenave, Philippe Dessertine et Julie Rechagneux, dont l’institut juge la qualification encore “crédible”.Mais, en cas d’alliance Cazenave-Dessertine, le maire sortant perdrait la quadrangulaire, d’après l’étude. De quoi le contraindre à se rapprocher de LFI, hypothèse validée jeudi par M. Raymond, mais exclue jusqu’ici par Pierre Hurmic ? À chacun son “épée de Damoclès”, a commenté le directeur général de l’Ifop, Frédéric Dabi, dans le journal Sud Ouest.Soutenu par les Écologistes, PS, PCF, Génération.s, Nouvelle Donne, Place publique et le mouvement l’Après, Pierre Hurmic se dit “persuadé que tout électeur de gauche préfèrera voir notre coalition diriger la ville” plutôt qu’une “coalition de droite”.Le maire sortant attire à lui 43% des électeurs de Jean-Luc Mélenchon à la présidentielle 2022, parmi les personnes interrogées dans le sondage dévoilé mercredi. 

Municipales: Philippe Dessertine, l’inattendu trouble-fête bordelais

C’est l’outsider du scrutin bordelais: donné troisième du premier tour par un sondage, l’inattendu Philippe Dessertine contraint le député macroniste Thomas Cazenave à appeler au “vote utile” face au maire sortant écologiste Pierre Hurmic, annoncé en tête.”Merci d’être si nombreux, il se passe quelque chose à Bordeaux”, avait lancé lundi soir cet universitaire habitué des plateaux télévisés devant un millier de personnes, à la moyenne d’âge avancée, venues l’écouter dans un théâtre.Celui qui annonce sa victoire depuis qu’il s’est déclaré candidat, mi-septembre, est crédité de 15% des intentions de vote par une étude Ifop publiée mercredi soir par Sud Ouest, LCI et Sud Radio, contre 33% à Pierre Hurmic et 25% à Thomas Cazenave.Par rapport à un sondage OpinionWay en novembre, il gagne trois points quand l’ex-ministre macroniste en perd un et que la députée européenne Julie Rechagneux (RN) recule de 12 à 7%.Candidat “sans étiquette” qui érige la “protection des habitants” en priorité, Philippe Dessertine séduit principalement à droite et à l’extrême droite: parmi les personnes interrogées, il rassemble 37% de celles ayant voté pour Valérie Pécresse au premier tour de la présidentielle 2022, 22% des partisans de Marine Le Pen et 35% de l’électorat zemmouriste.- “Détermination” -Entré en campagne quand Thomas Cazenave bataillait encore avec Nathalie Delattre, présidente du Parti radical, pour mener la liste d’union de la droite et du centre, le sexagénaire séduit aussi 35% des électeurs de feu Nicolas Florian, ex-dauphin de l’ancien maire LR Alain Juppé, battu par Pierre Hurmic en 2020 et décédé l’an dernier.Philippe Dessertine, novice en campagne mais dont l’épouse a longtemps fait partie de l’équipe Juppé, accueille ce sondage “avec détermination” et promet de “poursuivre (sa) campagne de rassemblement pour battre le maire sortant”. “Des alliances, des choses comme ça, c’est le monde politique traditionnel. Je ne suis pas un politique traditionnel”, a esquivé ce docteur en gestion lors d’un débat organisé jeudi par Sud Ouest et la chaîne locale TV7, refusant de “tirer des plans sur la comète sur la base d’un sondage ou d’accords politiques”.Thomas Cazenave a lui appelé mercredi soir au “vote utile”, jugeant que “toute voix portée sur une autre liste” que la sienne “renforcerait la majorité sortante” et que “la dispersion serait une erreur”.- Épée de Damoclès -Pierre Hurmic était au contraire d’humeur badine mercredi soir après un meeting.”François Mauriac disait, après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, +Moi, j’aime tellement l’Allemagne que je suis content qu’il y en ait deux+. Moi, j’aime tellement la droite que je suis content quand il y en a deux”, a-t-il ironisé, satisfait de “virer en tête” dans l’étude.”Philippe Dessertine a dit haut et fort qu’il irait jusqu’au bout (…) J’ai plutôt tendance à penser que ce qu’il a dit, il le fera”, a ajouté l’écologiste, qui veut “poursuivre et amplifier” la politique mise en place depuis 2020 (autonomie énergétique renforcée via notamment la solarisation de bâtiments publics, secteur piétonnier augmenté, grand plan de végétalisation…).Au second tour, le sondage Ifop le donne vainqueur d’une quinquangulaire qui l’opposerait à Nordine Raymond (LFI) – crédité de 12% au premier tour, contre 5% à Philippe Poutou (NPA) – ainsi qu’à Thomas Cazenave, Philippe Dessertine et Julie Rechagneux, dont l’institut juge la qualification encore “crédible”.Mais, en cas d’alliance Cazenave-Dessertine, le maire sortant perdrait la quadrangulaire, d’après l’étude. De quoi le contraindre à se rapprocher de LFI, hypothèse validée jeudi par M. Raymond, mais exclue jusqu’ici par Pierre Hurmic ? À chacun son “épée de Damoclès”, a commenté le directeur général de l’Ifop, Frédéric Dabi, dans le journal Sud Ouest.Soutenu par les Écologistes, PS, PCF, Génération.s, Nouvelle Donne, Place publique et le mouvement l’Après, Pierre Hurmic se dit “persuadé que tout électeur de gauche préfèrera voir notre coalition diriger la ville” plutôt qu’une “coalition de droite”.Le maire sortant attire à lui 43% des électeurs de Jean-Luc Mélenchon à la présidentielle 2022, parmi les personnes interrogées dans le sondage dévoilé mercredi. 

France: l’Iranienne Esfandiari condamnée à un an de prison ferme, annonce faire appel

La justice française a condamné jeudi l’Iranienne Mahdieh Esfandiari à un an de prison ferme assorti d’une interdiction définitive du territoire, notamment pour apologie du terrorisme, une peine contre laquelle elle dit vouloir faire appel, a constaté une journaliste de l’AFP présente au tribunal correctionel de Paris.Mme Esfandiari, sortie libre du tribunal, pourrait servir de possible monnaie d’échange avec Téhéran contre les Français Cécile Kohler et Jacques Paris, assignés à l’ambassade de France en Iran après plus de trois ans de détention.Agée de 39 ans, Mahdieh Esfandiari, née en Iran et arrivée en France en 2018, a été condamnée à quatre ans d’emprisonnement dont un ferme, pour apologie du terrorisme mais aussi provocation directe en ligne à un acte de terrorisme, injure publique en ligne en raison de l’origine, ethnie, nation, race ou religion et association de malfaiteurs.La justice l’accuse d’avoir alimenté en publications les comptes de l’organisation Axe de la Résistance en 2023 et 2024, notamment sur les plateformes Telegram, X, Twitch et YouTube et le site Egalité et Réconciliation de l’essayiste français d’extrême droite multicondamné Alain Soral.Ces publications ont notamment fait l’apologie de l’attaque sanglante menée par le mouvement islamiste palestinien Hamas le 7 octobre 2023 en Israël, incitant à des actes de terrorisme et injuriant la communauté juive.Son avocat a aussitôt annoncé son intention de faire appel de cette décision.”On nous parle depuis le départ de ce soi-disant échange qui doit avoir lieu entre nos compatriotes et Mme Esfandiari (…) Si le tribunal a rendu une peine aussi sévère sur la base de considérations diplomatiques, le tribunal a commis une faute”, a affirmé Me Nabil Boudi à l’issue de l’audience.”Nous allons interjeter appel (…) en espérant avoir une décision qui sera rendue sur la base d’éléments de droit et de faits”, a-t-il ajouté.Interrogé sur la question de savoir si Mme Esfandiari comptait rester en France ou quitter le territoire le temps de la procédure en appel, l’avocat a répondu: “on verra, moi je n’ai pas la réponse”.Les autorités iraniennes ont émis le souhait d’échanger, une fois la procédure judiciaire close en France, leur ressortissante contre les deux Français. Ces derniers avaient été incarcérés en Iran en mai 2022 avant d’être condamnés à de lourdes peines notamment pour espionnage, puis libérés début novembre 2025 avec interdiction de quitter le territoire iranien. Ils sont actuellement assignés à résidence à l’ambassade de France à Téhéran.

Algeria welcomes pope visit as ‘dream come true’

Pope Leo XIV’s newly announced visit to Algeria in April was welcomed as a dream come true by the archbishop of Algiers on Thursday.The trip will mark the first time a head of the Catholic Church has visited the North African Muslim-majority country.”This dream of a pope visiting Algeria… has come true!” Jean-Paul Vesco, the Franco-Algerian cardinal of the Catholic Church who serves as the Archbishop of Algiers, wrote in a statement.French-language newspaper El Watan said the “symbolic” visit was “of great historical significance in a country where ancient Christian memory coexists with the Muslim reality of today”.Arabic-language newspaper El Khabar agreed the visit, which was announced by the Vatican on Tuesday, “carries a great symbolic and spiritual dimension”.For Leo, the trip is in honour of fifth-century Saint Augustine, who was born in modern-day Algeria and whose order he follows.Leo, who was elected in May last year, will visit the capital Algiers and the city of Annaba — where the Basilica of Saint Augustine stands — from April 13 to 15.The 70-year-old pontiff said the trip would allow him to “continue the discourse of dialogue and bridge-building between the Christian and the Muslim worlds”.After Algeria, the pope will visit Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.The Algerian presidency on Wednesday said the pope’s trip reflected Algeria and the Vatican’s “shared belief in the need to build a world based on peace, dialogue, and justice, against the various challenges currently facing humanity”.

Modi says India, Israel agree ‘no place for terrorism in the world’

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that India and Israel had pledged to fight terrorism “shoulder to shoulder”, as he concluded a two-day visit focused on deepening strategic ties.The trip, which has drawn criticism at home, marks Modi’s second visit to Israel as prime minister since he took office in 2014.”India and Israel are clear that there is no place for terrorism in the world, in any form… We will oppose it shoulder to shoulder. We will always oppose it in the future,” Modi said, standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.”Humanity must never become a victim of conflict,” he added.Modi, who addressed Israel’s parliament a day earlier, spoke of future cooperation between Israel and India in a variety of fields including technology and energy.”Together, we will move forward towards joint development, joint production, and the transfer of technology,” Modi told journalists.”At the same time, we will also advance our cooperation in areas such as civil nuclear energy and space.”Both leaders used the visit to announce a series of initiatives aimed at deepening trade and technological cooperation.They highlighted progress towards a free trade agreement and expanding investment and innovation links — from semiconductors and artificial intelligence to digital payments integration, including bringing India’s UPI system into the Israeli market.Israeli officials had framed the visit as an expression of a robust and expanding partnership, with Netanyahu describing Modi as “more than a friend, a brother”.”The future belongs to those who innovate, and Israel and India are bent on innovation,” Netanyahu said on Thursday, standing next to Modi.”We’re proud ancient civilisations, very proud of our past. But absolutely determined to seize the future, and we can do it better together.”On Thursday, in the presence of the two leaders, more than a dozen agreements were signed between the two countries in fields such as education, geophysical exploration and artificial intelligence.- ‘We feel your pain’ -Modi’s visit came as tensions in the Middle East and around the Gaza conflict continue to shape diplomatic calculations in the region.Despite strengthening ties with Israel, India has sought to maintain a broader regional balance — historically supporting Palestinian statehood while deepening cooperation with Israel.Modi’s visits and statements often reflect this dual approach: affirming strategic partnership with Israel while reiterating support for peace and diplomatic solutions in the wider Middle East.He first visited Israel as prime minister in 2017, later travelling separately to Ramallah.Under Modi, India has taken a “conscious decision… to delink India’s relationship with Israel — from India’s relationship and solidarity with the Palestinian people,” said Ashok Malik from the New Delhi-based think-tank The Asia Group.”Both are important for India, but both are separate.”In a separate press briefing on Thursday, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, when asked if India would be part of the International Stabilisation Force for Gaza, said that New Delhi was awaiting greater clarity “on the ground”.”But I can tell you with some conviction…  we do have the capacity to contribute at the right time on the ground,” he said.On Wednesday, Modi told lawmakers at the Israeli parliament that his country stood “firmly” with Israel following Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.”I… carry with me the deepest condolences of the people of India for every life lost and for every family whose world was shattered in the barbaric terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7,” Modi said in the Knesset.”We feel your pain, we share your grief. India stands with Israel firmly with full conviction in this moment and beyond.”A senior figure of India’s Congress party, Priyanka Gandhi, had criticised Modi’s visit before he arrived in Israel.In a social media post, Gandhi said she hoped that Modi would mention the killing of “thousands of innocent men, women and children in Gaza” during his address to the Israeli parliament.In his speech to Israeli lawmakers, Modi did not say that explicitly, but said that India “supports all efforts that contribute to durable peace and regional stability”.