Forbes | Iran's Road Ahead Signals International Isolation Forbes With the presidential election set aside, what is the road ahead for Iran, domestically and abroad? Is Iran seeking to establish relations with the international community, especially the United States? Is this regime interested in engaging the world ... |
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Iran's Road Ahead Signals International Isolation - Forbes
Members of the national Iranian mens volleyball team rejoice after winning the Pool A1 - Group 1 match against Poland at the 2017 FIVB Volleyball World League in Adriatic Arena, Pesaro, Italy, on June 4, 2017.
The national Iranian mens volleyball team has upset world champion Poland to achieve its first victory at the 2017 Fdration Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) World League.
On Sunday evening, the Iranian squad defeated the Biao-Czerwoni Orze 3-1 (18-25, 25-23, 25-23 and 25-22) at the end of a Pool A1- Group 1 match at the Adriatic Arena in Pesaro city, on the eastern side ofcentral Italy.
The Poles served for the first point and Micha Kubiak earned the opening score for his team. The Eastern Europeans continued to impose the pace and led 11-7 later on.
The Persians then sprang into action and reduced the gap to 9-12. The Polish outfit did not capitulate and Kubiak dragged his teammates to the second technical time out 16-10.
Iran did not manage to find its rhythm in this first set, and Poland easily got the first set 25-18.
The second set started tightly and it was a point to point battle to the first technical time out, where Iran finally took the lead at 8-7.
Iran, helped by the great support of its passionate fans, could surge ahead and claimed the set 25-23 at last.
The Iranian volleyball playerskept the momentum as the match extended into the third set. The Persians did not show any intention to let it go, and Amir Ghafours light speed spike delivered the set to Iran 25-23.
Iran was fearless in the fourth set, and continued with the killer points signed by Milad Ebadipour and Mohammad Javad Manavinejad.
Poland was unable to assume control of the match. Iran took the set 25-22 at last and clinched the match.
I am very proud of my team. We grow every day through constant trainings, and I am very proud of my players and of the team spirit they were able to show tonight. They faced (Saeed) Maroufs injury well and they showed a good reaction in difficult situations, Irans head coach Igor Kolakovic said after the match.
This victory is so important for us to build up our self-confidence! The teamwork allowed us to win this match, because we were able to help each other on the court. We were able to reopen the match and I am very satisfied, Iranian player Ghafour said.
Iran played with a lot of motivation. We started with intensity but then we started to struggle facing their attacks. We need to learn a lesson tonight because this is a sign that we need to have a more mature approach towards matches, Polands head coach Ferdinando De Giorgi commented.
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Iranian volleyballers edge past Poland in 2017 FIVB World League - Press TV
The gravestone of an unidentified man found dead in a trench in Gogjali and buried by residents.
In 15 of the cases, local armed forces told a foreign journalist that the men were extrajudicially killed by government security forces who had them in custody under suspicion of Islamic State (also known as ISIS) affiliation. In the remaining cases, reported by local and international sources, the sites of the apparent executions all in government held territory raise concerns about government responsibility for the killings. A foreign journalist also said that a government official told them that a Sunni Popular Mobilization Forces (known as the PMF or Hashd al-Sha'abi) unit, which is part of the government forces working to retake Mosul, was responsible for the extrajudicial killing of 25 men in their custody and dumping the bodies in the Tigris River.
Extrajudicial executions during an armed conflict are war crimes and if widespread or systematic, carried out as part of policy, would constitute crimes against humanity.
On May 13 and 15, 2017, two groups of aid workers and a foreign journalist said that they saw groups of corpses, 15 bodies in all, by the side of a road between the village of Athba and town of Hammam al-Alil, about 15 kilometers south of west Mosul. The area is entirely under the control of Iraqi government forces. One group said they had driven past the area a day earlier and the bodies had not been there, suggesting they were killed on May 12 or 13.
Local armed forces at the nearest checkpoint told the journalist that they saw Iraqi security forces bring the men to the area and shoot them. The journalist observed many bullet casings in the area on May 15. The journalist found an identity card on one of the bodies and confirmed with a contact within the National Security Service, a security body under the ultimate control of the prime minister, that the name was on their government database of about 90,000 people wanted for ISIS-affiliation.
Human Rights Watch obtained seven photos of the bodies at the site, which show the corpses in various lying and kneeling positions, all blindfolded with their hands bound with plastic handcuffs or fabric.
Human Rights Watch shared these photos with Stefan Schmitt of the International Forensic Program at Physicians for Human Rights, who said that there were no indications that the bodies were dragged or placed in the locations, such as drag marks or shifting of clothing. The positioning of at least two of the bodies was consistent with kneeling prior to execution and then falling forward, he said, and he concluded that it was likely the victims were executed in the place they were found.
An officer of the PMF 90th Brigade told Human Rights Watch over the phone that his forces were holding detainees in bathrooms of abandoned homes in Safina, a village 20 kilometers north of Qayyarah, along the Tigris River, and said they had business with the men they were holding. He said no visitors were allowed at the detention sites. On May 21, a foreign journalist told Human Rights Watch that a government official informed them that the 90th Brigade was holding alleged ISIS affiliates in the same village. According to the journalist, the official said the 90th Brigade had been holding detainees there for at least four months, and he personally knew of at least 25 detainees held there whom the 90th Brigade had executed and dumped into the river.
In several other cases, bound and blindfolded corpses of men whose bodies bore signs of being executed were found in government held parts in and around Mosul, aid workers and journalists told Human Rights Watch.
At the end of April 2017, an aid worker visited the morgue at Qayyarah hospital that had reopened about two months earlier. Human Rights Watch reviewed a photo the aid worker took inside the morgue of a large pile of bodies. On the top of the pile was a man who had been shot. He was lying chest down, with a blindfold and with his hands bound with plastic handcuffs. Human Rights Watch visited the hospital in mid-May and two head doctors told researchers that they had received orders from the health and defense ministers that they were not to respond to any information requests on the morgue, or allow any visitors. They did not provide a reason, but said it was a red line.
In late January, another foreign journalist showed Human Rights Watch pictures of the bodies of two bound men in a residential neighborhood of east Mosul fully under the control of Iraqi forces that he had taken two days earlier. Residents said they knew nothing about the identities of the men or circumstances of their death. Also in late January, Human Rights Watch interviewed a resident of the outskirts of Gogjali, a suburb of east Mosul, who pointed out a spot where he had found the body of a blindfolded man in the mud next to a trench. He and neighbors had buried the body. He said he knew nothing about the mans death or identity.
If Iraqi authorities want civilians who spent over two years living under ISIS to feel safe and protected, they need to ensure that anyone responsible for murdering prisoners is brought to justice, Fakih said.
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Iraq: Dozens Found Handcuffed, Executed in, around Mosul ... - Human Rights Watch
SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 4, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 32 strikes consisting of 65 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 23 strikes consisting of 27 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Abu Kamal, three strikes destroyed two ISIS wellheads and an ISIS pump jack.
-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three ISIS wellheads and a vehicle.
-- Near Palmyra, a strike destroyed an ISIS pump jack.
-- Near Raqqa, 16 strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units; destroyed 17 fighting positions, three vehicles and an ISIS excavator; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.
Strikes in Iraq
In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 38 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Qaim, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle, a heavy machine gun and an ISIS staging area.
-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building and an ISIS staging area.
-- Near Kisik, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a weapons cache.
-- Near Mosul, four strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units; destroyed 13 fighting positions, four mortar systems, four medium machine guns, two rocket-propelled-grenade systems, two vehicle-borne bombs and a heavy machine gun; damaged six fighting positions; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.
-- Near Rawah, a strike destroyed an ISIS staging area.
June 2 Strikes
Officials also reported that six strikes were conducted June 2 in Syria and Iraq for which details were not available in time for yesterday's report:
-- Near Abu Kamal, Syria, a strike destroyed four ISIS oil separation tanks and three oil storage tanks.
-- Near Raqqa, Syria, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three fighting positions.
-- Near Mosul, Iraq, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and a sniper; destroyed six medium machine guns, four heavy machine guns, a rocket-propelled-grenade system and an unmanned aerial vehicle; damaged 11 ISIS supply roads; and suppressed a medium-machine-gun team.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.
The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.
Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.
For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.
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Strikes Continue in Effort to Defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq - Department of Defense
Common Dreams | In Iraq and Syria, US-Led Coalition Killing Increasing Number of Civilians Common Dreams With its latest official declaration estimating the number of innocent people killed by airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. military has admitted killing 484 civilians since beginning a bombing campaign and ground operations to unseat the Islamic ... After tour of Iraq, R.I.'s Sen. Reed warns of post-ISIS dangers Strikes Continue Against ISIS Targets in Syria, Iraq Coalition praises Shia paramilitary forces for their fight against ISIS in Iraq |
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In Iraq and Syria, US-Led Coalition Killing Increasing Number of Civilians - Common Dreams