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[MIDDLEEAST]Protestsleave
Lebanoninflames
AdemonstratorholdingaLebanese
flagsitsnearburningtires,in
Dora,Lebanon,onFriday,during
aprotestoverthecountry’s
deterioratingeconomicsituationMOHAMEDAZAKIR/REUTERSClaiming new progress against Is-
lamic State extremists in Syria,
U.S. President Donald Trump
said Friday that some European
countries are now willing to take
responsibility for detained IS
fighters who are from their coun-
tries.
“Anyway, big progress being
made!!!!” he exclaimed on Twit-
ter. A day earlier, he had pro-
claimed that a U.S.-brokered
cease-fire deal with Turkey
marked “a great day for civiliza-
tion,” although the deal’s effect
was largely to mitigate a foreign-
policy crisis widely seen to be of
his own making.
At the Pentagon, Defence Sec-
retary Mark Esper said U.S. troops
are continuing their withdrawal
from northern Syria. He also said
no U.S. ground troops will partici-
pate in enforcing or monitoring
the cease-fire that Vice-President
Mike Pence announced on
Thursday in Ankara.
“The force protection of our
service members remains our
top priority and, as always, U.S.
forces will defend themselves
from any threat as we complete
our withdrawal from the area,”
Mr. Esper told reporters.
In a series of tweets, Mr.
Trump said he had spoken on Fri-
day to Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan amid reports that
fighting actually had not ended.
“He told me there was minor
sniper and mortar fire that was
quickly eliminated,” Mr. Trump
tweeted, adding that there is
“good will on both sides.” He
said, “The U.S. has secured the Oil
& the ISIS Fighters are double se-
cured by Kurds & Turkey.”
Later, in comments to report-
ers, Mr. Trump again spoke of
taking oil. “We’ve taken control
of the oil in the Middle East,” he
said. White House officials had
no immediate explanation for
the comment, which seemed dis-
connected to any known devel-
opments in Syria or elsewhere in
the Middle East.
Officials have said a number of
IS fighters, likely just more than
100, have escaped custody since
Turkey launched its invasion last
week.
Mr. Trump said nothing fur-
ther about the European coun-
tries he contended had agreed to
take some of the IS fighters.
After hours of negotiation in
Ankara, the two countries on
Thursday agreed to a five-day
cease-fire in the Turks’ deadly at-
tacks on Kurdish fighters in
northern Syria, but some fighting
continued early on Friday in a
northeast Syrian border town.
The Kurds were U.S. allies in the
fight against the IS group, but
came under assault after Mr.
Trump ordered U.S. troops to
leave the area earlier this month.
The agreement requires the
Kurds to vacate a swath of territo-
ry in Syria along the Turkish bor-
der in an arrangement that large-
ly solidifies Turkey’s position and
aims in the week-long conflict.
Mr. Pence, who reached the
deal with Mr. Erdogan, hailed the
agreement as the way to end the
bloodshed caused by Turkey’s in-
vasion.
But he remained silent on
whether it amounted to a second
abandonment of the United
States’ former Kurdish allies,
many of whom are branded asterrorists by Ankara. The deal in-
cludes a conditional halt to
American economic sanctions
and no apparent long-term con-
sequences for Turkey for its ac-
tions.
Turkish troops and Turkish-
backed Syrian fighters launched
their offensive against Kurdish
forces in northern Syria a week
ago, two days after Mr. Trump
suddenly announced he was
withdrawing the U.S. military
from the area. Mr. Trump was
widely criticized for turning on
the Kurds, who had taken heavy
casualties as partners with the
U.S. in fighting IS extremists
since 2016.
While U.S. officials have insist-
ed that Mr. Trump did not autho-
rize Turkey’s invasion, the cease-
fire codifies nearly all of Turkey’s
stated goals in the conflict.
Mr. Trump seemed to endorse
the Turkish aim of ridding the
Syrian side of the border of the
Kurdish fighters. “They had to
have it cleaned out,” he said.
While the ceasefire seemed
likely to temporarily slow legisla-
tion in Congress aimed at puni-
shing Turkey and condemning
Mr. Trump’s U.S. troop withdraw-
al, lawmakers gave no sign of
completely dropping the mea-
sures.
Shortly before the announce-
ment of the pause in hostilities,
Republican Senator Lindsey Gra-
ham and Democrat Chris Van
Hollen introduced legislation
that would bar U.S. military aid to
Turkey, seek to curb foreign arms
sales to Ankara and impose sanc-
tions on top Turkish officials un-
less Turkey withdraws its forces.ASSOCIATEDPRESSTrumpclaimssomecountries
willingtotakeISprisoners
ZEKEMILLERWASHINGTON
An explosion rocked a mosque in eastern Afghanistan as
dozens of people gathered for Friday prayers, causing the
roof to collapse and killing 62 worshippers, provincial offi-
cials said. The attack underscored the record-high number
of civilians dying in the country’s 18-year war.
Attahullah Khogyani, spokesmanfor thegovernor of
Nangarhar Province, said the militant attack wounded 36
others. He said it was not immediately clear if the mosque
was attacked by a suicide bomber or by some other type of
bombing.
“Both men and children are among those killed and
wounded in the attack,” he said.
Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani, strongly condemned the attack on his official Twitter
account. “The Afghan govern-
ment strongly condemns today’s
suicide attack in a mosque in
Nangarhar province,” he tweet-
ed.
No one immediately claimed
responsibility for the attack, but
both the Taliban and the Islamic
State group are active in eastern
Afghanistan, especially Nangar-
har province.
However, Zabihullah Mujahid,
the Taliban’s spokesman in a
statement condemned the attack
in Nangarhar and called it a seri-
ous crime.
Zahir Adil, spokesman for the public-health department
in Nangarhar Province, said 23 of the wounded were trans-
ferred to Jalalabad, the provincial capital, and the rest were
being treated in the Haskamena district clinic.
The violence comes a day after a United Nations report
said that Afghan civilians are dying in record numbers in
the country’s increasingly brutal war, saying that more civil-
ians died in July than in any previous one-month period
since the UN began keeping statistics.
The report said thatpro-government forces caused 2,
civilian casualties, including 1,149 killed and 1,199 wounded,
a 26-per-cent increase from the same period in 2018.
The report said 2,563 civilians were killed and 5,676 were
wounded in the first nine months of this year. Insurgents
were responsible for 62 per cent. July to September were the
deadliest months so far this year.
ASSOCIATEDPRESSScoreskilledinbombing
atAfghanistanmosque
RAHIMFAIEZKABULTheviolencecomes
adayafteraUnited
Nationsreportsaid
thatAfghancivilians
aredyinginrecord
numbersin
thecountry’s
increasingly
brutalwar.