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Former President George W. Bush has told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he was "frustrated" when the U.S. pulled troops out of Iraq in 2011, clearing the way for ISIS to be formed from the remains of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

"I think what people have got to realize is this bunch of thugs can be defeated, because we did so with the surge," Bush said in a portion of the interview broadcast Monday. "And we can win again."

BUSH BREAKS SILENCE ON TRUMP, URGES 'WELCOMING' IMMIGRATION POLICY

"I've heard both Presidents [Obama and Trump] say we're going to degrade and defeat ISIS and I say 'go get 'em' because they can be degraded and defeated," Bush added. "It's very important, in my mind, that we do so, so that people know they can rely upon us and the people -- not only governments but people on the ground."

SEE MORE OF GEORGE W. BUSH ON 'HANNITY' EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK ON FOX NEWS CHANNEL

Bush sat down with Hannity ahead of the release of "Portaits of Courage" a book featuring Bush's paintings of almost 100 military veterans. Bush said the idea to do the portraits came from one of his art instructors, who advised him to "paint people nobody knows."

"And it just dawned on me ... warriors," Bush said. "And so I did, I painted all these warriors. Ive known every one of them. I know their stories ... and I admire them greatly."

A companion exhibit to the book will be on view at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas beginning Thursday and continuting through Oct. 1.

"This exhibit," Bush said, "honors those who heard the call and volunteered and were willing to risk their lives to not only defend ourselves, but to advance liberty."

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George W. Bush: US troop pullout from Iraq 'frustrated me' - Fox News

Mudhafar Abdulwahid Khaleefa in the Amman hospital

In a hospital for reconstructive surgery in Amman,Jordan, war-wounded patients from Iraq receive treatment for complex injuries. The project was established by Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) in 2006 when it became clear that no such care existed for victims of the war in Iraq. It has since expanded to receive patients from Gaza, Yemen and Syria.

Since the project opened, MSF has treated approximately 4,500 patients and performed nearly 10,000 surgeries. Iraqis are the largest patient group, with 2,442 patients referred from Iraq since the start of the project.

Dr Omar Adil Alani manages patient referrals in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. He has worked with the MSF hospital in Amman since the beginning of 2014.

"The need for reconstructive surgery in Iraq is very big due to the continuous conflict since 2003 and the financial situation our country is facing," says Dr Omar. "While they may receive initial care for their wounds, our patients do not usually have access to specialised surgical procedures. Through this project, MSF offers surgery to treat complications that appear months after the first intervention complications that were hard to predict in the initial life-saving stage and that have a serious impact on the patient's recovery."

The hospital in Amman provides a comprehensive care package for its patients, which includes physiotherapy and psychosocial support alongside specialised surgery. Patients are also provided with accommodation and financial assistance with travel to and from the hospital as well as in-between treatments if the care plan is prolonged.

In Baghdad, Dr Omar coordinates a team of medical liaison officers who identify and refer patients from Iraq.

"The medical liaison officers are in close contact with nine hospitals in Baghdad that deal with trauma cases," says Dr Omar. "We also reach out to other parts of Iraq through a network of medical doctors, the Directorates of Health, MSF offices and other organisations that are present in the field and that meet people in need of reconstructive surgery."

The patients referred to Amman for treatment include people with injuries caused by bombs, explosions and shells. Some have bones that are not just broken but completely shattered. Others have severe burns injuries that cover much of their body. Others have facial injuries, which can include serious damage to lower and upper jaws, making eating or even breathing difficult. Many patients have lost mobility in parts of their body; some have undergone amputatations. Most of the patients need advanced reconstructive surgery, often over many months or even years. The criteria for referrals are strict: they include only those patients whose abilities can be improved with surgery; aesthetics are considered secondary.

Mudhafar Abdulwahid Khaleefa, 43, was injured when armed men stormed the building where he worked. During the attack, he fell from the third floor and suffered multiple fractures to his leg and hip, as well as an injury to the spine. Over the following year, he had seven rounds of surgery, but the bone fractures failed to heal.

"In the end, the doctors recommended amputation above the knee," says Mudhafar. "The bone in my leg was infected and it wouldn't heal. I was starting to feel very bad emotionally. Then I was put in contact with MSF and after a medical assessment I was accepted for treatment in the hospital in Amman. Over four months they operated on my leg several times, first to treat the infection and then to progressively restore the functionality of the leg. Now I don't need a wheelchair anymore and I can walk with crutches."

Many patients who come to MSF's hospital in Amman have already undergone multiple rounds of surgery and received courses of various antibiotics. Some develop resistance to the drugs, and face having their limbs amputated in an attempt to control the infection. In Amman, these patients have the possibility of taking last-line antibiotics to save the limb.

After successful surgery, patients move on to physiotherapy and other types of support. Every year, hospital staff conduct almost 2,000 physiotherapy sessions, while 22 per cent of the patients receive mental health support. Their emotional wounds are not visible but are often deep, and can have a major impact on the patient's life and ability to recover. Most patients have had extremely distressing and traumatic experiences, and their lives have been changed forever by their injuries and the loss of loved ones.

"The psychological support I received in Amman was very important for my physical recovery," says Mudhafar.

Dr Omar describes another patient for whom the mental health support provided by the MSF team has made a huge difference. "A pregnant woman who was on a street in Baghdad when a car bomb exploded was severely burnt over most of her body and lost her baby. When she came to us she was very depressed, she had divorced her husband and wanted to commit suicide. Because of the burns on her face she had difficulties speaking and breathing. She has now had multiple surgeries in Amman and is making good progress.

In Baghdad, Dr Omar and his team plan to expand their work so that they also have a permanent presence in Iraqi Kurdistan, increasing their ability to find patients whose lives could be changed by specialised surgery.

"The situation here in Iraq is very difficult and many patients who need this specialised treatment don't have access to it," says Dr Omar. "I'm very happy to be in this position, because it allows me to help fellow Iraqis. To see a patient who was in a wheelchair for a long time come back from Amman walking by himself that is an amazing feeling."

MSF has worked continuously in Iraq since 2006. In order to ensure its independence, MSF does not accept funding from any government, religious committee or international agency for its programmes in Iraq, and relies solely on private donations from the general public around the world to carry out its work. In Iraq, MSF currently employs over 900 staff.

Excerpt from:
Jordan/Iraq: A new life for war-wounded Iraqis - Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) International

Children outside a government-run detention centre in Libya. Photograph: Romenzi/Unicef

Women and children making the dangerous journey to Europe to flee poverty and conflicts in Africa are being beaten, raped and starved in living hellholes in Libya, the United Nations childrens agency, Unicef, has said.

Children are being sexually abused, coerced into prostitution and work, and held to ransom for months in squalid, overcrowded detention centres, as they flee war and poverty in Africa to undertake one of the most dangerous journeys in the world to Europe, the agency warned in a new report.

Last year, more than 181,000 refugees and migrants, including more than 25,800 unaccompanied children, arrived in Italy via the central Mediterranean smuggling route, through Libya. Thousands of people died on the way.

Unofficial detention centres controlled by militia serve as lucrative businesses that profit from trafficking, and are no more than forced labour camps and makeshift prisons, Unicef said. For the thousands of migrant women and children incarcerated, [the centres] were living hellholes where people were held for months.

Three-quarters of migrant children interviewed in Libya by the International Organisation for Cooperation and Emergency Aid, (IOCEA) a Unicef partner, reported experiencing violence, harassment or aggression at the hands of adults during their journey to Italy. The snapshot survey of 122 women and child migrants also found a growing number of teenage girls forced by smugglers to have Depo-Provera contraceptive jabs, so they could be raped without becoming pregnant.

Sexual violence and abuse was widespread and systematic at crossings and checkpoints. A third of the women and children interviewed said their assailants wore uniforms or appeared to be associated with the military. Nearly half of the women and children reported sexual abuse during migration, often multiple times and in multiple locations, the report found.

The central Mediterranean from north Africa to Europe is among the worlds deadliest and most dangerous migrant routes for children and women, said Afshan Khan, Unicef regional director and special coordinator for the refugee and response crises in Europe. The route is mostly controlled by smugglers, traffickers and other people seeking to prey upon desperate children and women who are simply seeking refuge or a better life. We need safe and legal pathways and safeguards to protect migrating children that keep them safe and keep predators at bay.

The Unicef study, A Deadly Journey for Children (pdf), found most women and children had paid smugglers at the beginning of their journey, under pay as you go schemes, leaving many of them in debt and vulnerable to abuse, abduction and trafficking.

The study found that children whose parents have not paid enough money to smugglers were held to ransom for thousands of dollars, mostly between Sudan or Libya, or in Libya itself.

Most said they expected to spend extended periods working in Libya to pay for the next leg of the journey. One Nigerian boy, aged 15, who was held in a Libyan detention centre, told IOCEA: Here they treat us like chickens. They beat us, they do not give us good water and good food. They harass us. So many people are dying here, dying from disease, freezing to death.

A survey by IOM in October found that 70% of migrants travelling overland through north Africa to Europe have become victims of human trafficking and exploitation along the way, and a pattern of torture, forced labour and arbitrary detention of migrants and asylum seekers in Libya has been documented by the UN.

This year is proving the deadliest yet for the central Mediterranean migration route, a billion-dollar industry controlled by criminal networks. The International Organisation for Migration reported 326 people travelling from Libya to Italy died at sea, between 1 January and 22 February, a 300% increase on the same time last year when 97 died. Last year, 4,579 people died making the crossing between the Mediterranean between Libya and Italy equivalent to one in 40 including an estimated 700 children. The UN has said nightmarish conditions in Libya were helping drive a surge in the numbers of migrants attempting to reach Italy in the depths of winter.

Some 34 detention centres have been identified in Libya, holding between 4,000 and 7,000 detainees, of which 24 are run by the Libyan government department for combating illegal migration (DCIM). Unicef, which only has access to fewer than half of the government-run centres and none of those run by militia, reported some had 20 people crammed into cells not larger than two square metres for long periods of time, it said.

Justin Forsyth, deputy executive director of Unicef, said: The results of this rapid assessment demand action. We cant have a situation where children and women disappear into a hellhole. They are being sexually assaulted, abused, exploited and killed.

The report called on Libya, the EU and the international community to establish safe and legal pathways for children fleeing war or poverty along the route.

This month the EU backed an agreement between Italy and Libya to stem the arrival of migrants to Europe, which prompted condemnation by human rights groups.

Lily Caprani, Unicef UKs deputy executive director, urged MPs to vote to support more unaccompanied child refugees in a vote on Tuesday in parliament. She said: Because the safe and legal routes available are so limited, traffickers and smugglers control the route, preying on vulnerable children seeking a better life in Europe and UK. Even when children reach Europe, the traffickers and smugglers continue to control and coerce these children. The stories revealed in this work are harrowing no child should face these horrors.

The UK government deserves credit for supporting vulnerable children in conflict affected states, but it must also protect these vulnerable children in Europe by providing safe and legal pathways to the UK for those who have a legal claim.

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Refugee women and children 'beaten, raped and starved in Libyan hellholes' - The Guardian

The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) forced nurses to treat its fighters in the coastal Libyan city of Sirte and provided them with courses in nursing and emergency care, a Filipina nurse said Monday.

The group occupied the hometown of deposed dictator Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi for more than a year, before militias allied to the U.N.-backed government in Libyaousted the group in December after a month-long battle.

In Sirtes recapture, authorities freed the nurse and six other women, some of whom were medical colleagues, alongside a man and a 10-month-old child.

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The Filipino nurses were already working in the Libyan city when ISIS overran the coastal hub in June 2015.

The radical militants imprisoned the nurses, but upon discovering they were Muslim, released themon condition that they residein the citys main hospital to provide medical care and teaching to wounded fighters. Thisincluded basic measures on how to give first-aid to their fellow jihadists, according to the unidentified medical worker.

When they found out we were Muslim they released us but under a strict condition that we will have to work as nurses in their hospital and we had to train ISIS on emergency care and nursing course, the nurse told reporters in Tripoli, Libyas capital, Reuters reported.

It was a horrible time. Each day we lived in fear. We didn't know what was going to happen next. And they threatened to kill us if we left Sirte.

Read more: ISIS loses Libya's Sirte, the only city it controlled outside Iraq and Syria

ISIS held several foreign hostages in the city, where it had imposed its brutal brand of ultra conservative Islam, hanging residents from lampposts, lashing and crucifying dissenters and imposing extortionate taxes on the population it controlled to instil an environment of fear. It also killed Dutch photojournalist Jeroen Oerlemans as the battle for the city raged. Libyan forces say they freed at least five other foreign hostages: two Turkish nationals, two Indians and one Bangladeshi.

The extremist group capitalized on the five years of instability in Libya after the NATO-led ousting of Qaddafi in 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring. But several opposing forces have since beaten the group back in what had become its North African hub outside of its self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

While militias allied to the Tripoli-based, U.N.-backed government fight the group, so to are the forces of General Khalifa Haftar, who presides over what he calls the Libyan National Army, a fighting force allied to a rival government in eastern Libya.

The U.S. military has conducted airstrikes against the group near the western Libyan town of Sabratha, where it has established training camps in close proximity to the porous Tunisian border. French and British special forces have also been reported to operate in the country, aiding the different factions fighting ISIS.

Read more here:
ISIS Forced Philippine Nurses to Treat Militants in Libya's Sirte - Newsweek

Tripoli - The head of Libya's embattled unity government Fayez al-Sarraj will visit Moscow this week, a government source said on Monday, after a key rival sought to build ties with Russia.

A source from the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) said Sarraj would begin a visit to Moscow on Thursday, without providing further details.

The visit comes as Libya continues to be submerged in chaos, six years after the ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed armed uprising.

Sarraj's fragile GNA, formed under a UN-backed deal signed in late 2015, has struggled to impose its authority, particularly in eastern Libya where a rival administration holds sway.

Military strongman Khalifa Haftar is aligned with the rival administration and commands the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army which is battling jihadists and controls key oil export terminals.

In November Haftar travelled to Moscow to seek support for an end to a UN arms embargo and in January visited a Russian aircraft carrier off the coast of Libya.

Earlier this month, dozens of his fighters were flown to Russia for medical treatment.

Analysts believe that Russia, emboldened by its military success in Syria, is seeking a foothold in oil-rich Libya with support for Haftar.

On February 14 Russia tried to mediate a meeting between Sarraj and Haftar in Cairo, but the bid fell through.

Sarraj's visit also comes after Russian oil giant Rosneft and Libya's National Oil Corporation last week signed a deal to explore possible cooperation in various fields, including exploration and production.

Mattia Toaldo, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the agreement was "a good example of Russia's options in Libya".

"Russians could provide military support to Haftar but they would risk an indefinite escalation that would jeopardise their interests," said Toaldo.

"It is much more convenient for them to emphasise their political role as mediators between Sarraj and Haftar while deepening their business and military presence," he added.

Toaldo said he expected Sarraj to seek Russia's support for a review of the deal which paved the way for the GNA's creation.

The aim, he said, would be for Russia to persuade Haftar to support the GNA in exchange for a bigger role on the political scene.

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Libya PM heading to Moscow to seek better ties - News24