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BAGHDAD (REUTERS) - An Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant linked to the deadly 2015 attack on French weekly Charlie Hebdo could be still be alive, the Iraqi military said on Saturday (April 15).

Boubaker el-Hakim was reported by American defence officials to have been killed in November, in a US drone strike in Raqqa, ISIS' de facto capital in Syria.

Iraqi intelligence supplied information to the Syrian airforce to carry out a series of strikes on ISIS headquarters and hideouts in Syria, including one believed to belong to el-Hakim, an Iraqi military statement said.

Aircraft from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's airforce targeted several locations in Raqqa and Albu Kamal, near the Iraqi border, said the statement, without indicating the location of el-Hakim's headquarters or the date of the raids.

An Iraqi military spokesman told Reuters el-Hakim's headquarters were destroyed but it wasn't clear if he was killed.

In 2015, Iraq and Syria established a joint committee with Russia and Iran, Assad's main foreign backers, to share intelligence about ISIS.

El-Hakim was believed to have been involved in planning the January 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for its satirical covers ridiculing political and religious leaders.

Two Islamist militants broke into an editorial meeting of the weekly, raking it with bullets, killing 17 people. Another militant later killed a policewoman and took hostages at a supermarket, killing four before police shot him dead.

ISIS declared a "caliphate" spanning parts of Iraq and Syria after it captured the Iraqi city of Mosul in mid-2014.

The hardline Sunni group has since lost most cities it captured in Iraq and its fighters are now surrounded in parts of Mosul by US-backed Iraqi government forces.

A US-backed offensive is also under way to capture Raqqa, involving a Syrian Kurdish-Arab militia alliance.

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ISIS militant linked to Charlie Hebdo attack could still be alive: Iraq - The Straits Times

Seven-year-old Iraqi boy was born with an extremely rare condition where his conjoined twin didn't fully form and was partially absorbed, resulting in eight additional limbs in Karam.

However, after his father brought him India for a surgery, all of Karam's unnecessary limbs were surgically removed in a three-stage process.

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The operation took place in Noida's Jaypee Hospital and has been termed as the world's first. Currently, there are only five or six such cases known in the world, making the task even trickier for doctors, said Gaurav Rathore, an orthopaedic consultant who was also a part of Karam's surgical team.

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"He was brought to us when he was just two weeks old and his condition was quite unique. Most of the surgeries we performed had not been attempted before," said Dr Rathore.

In the three-stage operation, the doctors first removed Karam's additional limbs protruding from his stomach before correcting a cardiac complication. The final stage removed all of Karam's extra limbs.

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The doctors added that the boy would have to undergo procedures in future to correct other anomalies.

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Baby From Iraq Born With Eight Limbs Successfully Goes Under Surgery In Noida - Indiatimes.com

Ireland has pledged 6m in humanitarian support for severe crises in Yemen and Iraq.

Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and Minister of State Joe McHugh say Ireland will providetwo-thirds of the aid (4m) to the United Nations Humanitarian Pooled Fund in Yemen.

This is in response to the needs of nearly 19 million people there - two-thirds of the population - affected by two years of civil war.

In February this year, the UN appealed for US$2.1bn (1.97bn) to avert famine for 12 million people.

Minister Flanagan said: "The scale of humanitarian need in the world today is unprecedented and with the severe situation in Syria in the world headlines, crises like that in Yemen are in danger of being forgotten.

"The UN has warned that Yemen is on the brink of famine - a famine caused, not by natural disaster or drought, but by conflict.

"It is crucial that the international community works together to alleviate the suffering of the people of Yemen through humanitarian assistance and working to support a peaceful solution to the conflict."

In March 2015, the president of Yemen, Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi, was forced to flee the country by Houthi rebels.

The Zaidi Shia Houthis were supported by elements of Yemen's military loyal to the country's former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In response, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of a dozen countries to restore Yemen's internationally recognised government to power.

The European Council on Foreign Relations says: "Two years since the launch of the Saudi-led campaign, peace in the troubled country seems as far off as ever.

"President Hadi and his prime minister, Ahmed Obaid bin Daghir, now govern from the port city of Aden, which they declared the temporary capital."

An additional 2m is being given to the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund in response to the needs of almost 11 million Iraqi people affected by violence linked to ISIL, and the counter-insurgency operation launched by the Iraqi Government.

This pooled fund is managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who will disburse the funding to meet critical humanitarian needs.

Minister of State Joe McHugh said: "Ireland's funding to the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund will provide assistance to people affected by the crisis in Iraq including families and children, who are often the worst affected by conflict.

"Providing funding through Pooled Funds means that the most urgent needs can be met quickly, be they for food, shelter, health or protection for the most vulnerable".

Ireland provided 4.1m in humanitarian funding to the crisis in Yemen in 2016, and gave 2.5m last year to the crisis in Iraq through the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund.

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Ireland announces 6m in humanitarian aid for Yemen and Iraq - Newstalk 106-108 fm

Italian rescue ships have plucked some 2,000 migrants from unseaworthy smugglers' boats off the coast of Libya, with hundreds of them arriving Saturday in southern Italian ports.

One rescue ship brought 504 migrants and one corpse to Pozzallo, Sicily, and another boat brought about 500 other migrants to Augusta, Sicily.

In all, Italy's coast guard co-ordinated about 20 separate rescues on Friday. The rest of the migrants were due to reach Calabria on the Italian mainland on Sunday.

Separately, authorities said Saturday that 40 Algerians in three small boats had reached Sardinia's coast.

So far this year, some 29,000 migrants, most of them fleeing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, have arrived in Italy after being rescued by European military ships or private charity organizations. Their numbers are expected to rise with spring's good weather.

A migrant child rests on the MOAS ship Phoenix after being rescued from a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean. (Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

In Spain, the country's maritime rescue said Saturday it had rescued 125 migrants in three small boats trying to make nighttime crossings from Africa in three smuggling boats.

The first boat, carrying 41 men and 11 women of sub-Saharan origin, was located by rescue teams shortly after midnight in the Alboran Sea east of the Strait of Gibraltar. A second group of 51 North African men and 11 boys was packed into a wooden boat when rescued just west of the Strait in the Atlantic Ocean.

Eleven more migrants were pulled from a small vessel in the Mediterranean Sea after a NATO aircraft alerted the rescue service.

A Somali migrant carries her 12-day-old baby on board a rigid-hulled inflatable boat during a rescue operation off the coast of Libya. (Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

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2000 people rescued off the coast of Libya so far this weekend - CBC.ca

UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that Libya risks a return to widespread conflict, citing the volatile security situation in Tripoli and fighting in the eastern oil crescent and elsewhere.

The U.N. chief expressed alarm in a report to the U.N. Security Council at the renewed military escalation and ongoing political stalemate in the country.

Guterres said the Islamic State extremist group no longer controls territory in Libya, but its operatives have been sighted, it has been blamed for a number of attacks in different areas, and the international community in the country remains a target.

He said in the report released Thursday that the potential for an escalating conflict remains due mainly to unaddressed political issues and the multiplicity of armed actors on the ground with conflicting agendas.

The overthrow of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 has spawned chaos in Libya. The power and security vacuum turned the country into a breeding ground for militias and militants, including Islamic State extremists and al-Qaida affiliates. It has also made Libya a gateway for thousands of migrants from Africa and elsewhere seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.

Since 2014, Libya has been split between rival governments and parliaments based in the western and eastern regions, each backed by different militias, tribes and political factions.

A U.N.-brokered deal in December 2015 to create a unity government has failed because the U.N.-backed government now in Tripoli has been unable to win the endorsement of Libyas internationally recognized Parliament in eastern Tobruk, which is a prerequisite to assume power.

Guterres said the U.N.-backed Presidency Council and government remain constrained in their ability to govern effectively and to provide much needed basic services and security to the population.

He said the 2015 political agreement continues to be supported by the majority of Libyans and interested countries as the only political framework to lead the country forward.

An emerging consensus on the need for limited amendments to the agreement represents an opportunity to overcome the current political stalemate and move the transition forward, he said.

Guterres urged all parties in Libya to address the key issues blocking implementation of the agreement including the composition of various institutions, especially the executive authority and military command.

The secretary-general said he remains deeply alarmed by the human rights situation in the country where violations of international law continue to be perpetrated by all parties to the conflict.

Armed groups from all sides continued to abduct, torture and kill civilians, he said. In addition, ordinary crime was endemic, mainly owing to the state of general lawlessness and the weakness of judicial institutions.

Between Dec. 1 and Feb. 17, Guterres said the U.N. political mission in Libya documented 24 deaths and 24 injuries of civilians, mainly by gunfire, airstrikes, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices.

Migrants and refugees in Libya also continue to suffer horrific abusers and risk death while transiting the country and across the Mediterranean Sea, he said.

While forces allied to the U.N.-backed government routed IS from its stronghold in Sirte in December, Guterres said remnants are still active in the hinterland of the city.

They also maintain a presence in the desert and mountainous areas south of Bani Walid and areas further south and west, and there are reports of IS sleeper cells in western coastal areas and the greater Tripoli area, he said.

Guterres also expressed grave concern at the deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

He said 1.3 million people need humanitarian aid, the health care system is on the brink of collapse and the U.N. has received only $9 million of the $151 million it appealed for to help 900,000 people.

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UN chief: Libya runs risk of return to wide conflict - The Denver Post