Puerto Rico rocked by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake, with more tremors expected - CNN

The magnitude 5.8 tremor happened at 5:32 a.m. ET, the US Geological Survey said.

It was centered about 8 miles south-southeast of Indios, Puerto Rico, at a depth of about 3.7 miles below ground.

No major injuries were reported, Puerto Rico Director of Emergency Management Carlos Acevedo said.

He said some homes were damaged in Guanica, and a home collapsed in Guayanilla.

Some victims of the earthquake posted photos of deep cracks in walls.

There were also reports of rock slides along Route 2, Acevedo said.

No tsunami warning was issued after the quake. But geologists warn of more tremors to come.

"More earthquakes than usual (called aftershocks) will continue to occur near the mainshock," the USGS said.

"When there are more earthquakes, the chance of a large earthquake is greater which means that the chance of damage is greater."

The agency advised anyone in or near vulnerable structures to be extra cautious and said those caught in potential quakes should drop, cover and hold on.

CNN's Leyla Santiago, Paul P. Murphy and Rosa Flores contributed to this report.

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2020-01-06 14:41:00Z
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India's JNU attack: 'We thought... we all will lose our lives' - Al Jazeera English

New Delhi, India - Surya Prakash - a visually impaired student at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) - says masked assailants broke into his ground-floor room in Sabarmati Hostel and beat him with iron rods.

"I kept shouting that I'm blind but they didn't listen to me," Prakash, 25, who is pursuing his PhD in Sanskrit, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

More:

Prakash's left arm and back are swollen. He told Al Jazeera that he could not say who the attackers were but he was sure that they were "drunk".

He is among at least 26 students and teachers who were injured during Sunday night's violence that has caused an outrage, with people across several cities staging solidarity protests on Monday.

Videos shared on social media appeared to show masked men roaming inside the hostels and attacking students and teachers with iron rods, sticks and sledgehammers and vandalising properties.

Prakash was rescued by other students and taken to All India Medical Institute of Sciences (AIIMS) for treatment. He was discharged after an hour.

Protests have been organised across several Indian cities in solidarity with JNU students [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

"I couldn't sleep all night. I froze in my bed thinking if they come again," he said.

The Sanskrit scholar says he is getting threat calls from unknown numbers for speaking out.

"I'm scared but I do not want to remain silent. I want everyone to know what happened with me. I want them to understand that nobody is safe here," he said, adding that he is not part of any political party and spends most of his time studying in his room.

'Mayhem'

Students and teachers at JNU have been protesting for the past few months against fee rise, which they say will hurt poor students.

The university, a bastion of left-wing student politics, witnessed scuffles between the left-leaning student's body and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) - a student group linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - earlier on Sunday.

I'm scared but I don't want to remain silent. I want them to understand that nobody is safe here.

Surya Prakash, visually impaired student at JNU

JNU Teachers' Association called for a peace march on Sunday evening following the clashes - a move backed by the students' union.

Witnesses said the attacks were carried out by the members of the ABVP - a charge the right-wing student outfit has denied.

Aishe Ghosh - the president of the students' union who was badly injured - and other students and teachers said the violent mob created "mayhem" and "terrorised" the university for close to three hours.

Many Indians took to social media to criticise the handling of the situation by the Delhi police, and some questioned the police on why it did not arrest the perpetrators after the violence.

The incident comes weeks after police were accused of brutalities in handling student protests against new citizenship law at Jamia Millia Islamia university and Aligarh Muslim University.

Meanwhile, the Delhi police have registered a case against unidentified people for rioting and damage to property.

Violence at Sabarmati Hostel

At a news conference on Monday, the JNU Teachers' Association urged the president to dismiss the vice chancellor in the wake of the violence.

"When we saw group wearing masks, we thought we will talk to them and ask them who they are and why are they in the campus wearing masks," Atul Sood, a professor at JNU, told Al Jazeera. "Before we could reach to them, they started throwing stones at us."

"Everyone ran for safety but the mob armed with rods and sticks chased the students inside hostels and beat many of them. It was complete mayhem," he said.

Many of the students chased by the rampaging mob took shelter inside Sabarmati Hostel, where most of the violence happened.

Jyoti, who withheld her surname due to security reasons, said she was in her room when the mob attacked Sabarmati Hostel.

She rushed out into the corridor to see what was happening. "They were about 30 people armed with iron rods, hammers and carrying some spray and beating students," she told Al Jazeera.

The only sound was doors being banged and glasses being broken and students screaming and crying for help

Shreya Ghosh, a PhD student at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU

About a dozen students including Jyoti made a human chain to stop them from entering into their rooms. Jyoti took out her phone and began making videos.

"When they saw me doing the video recording, they beat me with lathis [baton]," she said. "But the other students saved me. Everyone was scared and many students had panic attacks and were rushed to hospital later."

On Monday, the wardens of the hostel resigned, stating in their resignation letters that they were quitting on "moral grounds" as they were unable to provide security to the hostel residents.

Shreya Ghosh, a PhD student at the Centre for Political Studies, was one of the students who took shelter inside Sabarmati Hostel.

She took refuge in a single-occupancy room along with nearly 20 other students. "We put the lights off, mobiles on silent mode. At least 10 of us stood against the door to block it so that attackers could not come in," she said.

"We thought if the door gets unblocked, we all will lose our lives."

"The only sound was doors being banged and glasses being broken and students screaming and crying for help," she told Al Jazeera.

Ghosh and several other students in JNU alleged that police and security personnel did not come in for their help while they were under attack.

"It was an organised mob who were determined to do what they were up to. It was a different sense of fear," she said. "I'm speechless because police knew this is happening, the security knew this is happening and there was no one from them to stop this for one hour despite police being there in the campus and despite students calling for help," she said.

The Delhi police said they were investigating how masked men burst into the university. "Social media and CCTV footage will be part of the investigation," police official Devendra Arya told Reuters news agency.

JNU students and many teachers have faced attacks and have been called "anti-national" for opposing Hindu supremacist agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"If ABVP and this government thinks that we will stop fighting against its brutal policies, they are mistaken. JNU will fight till its last student is alive on the campus. They cannot break our spirit," said another student, Kaushiki.

A general view of a vandalised hostel room on the JNU campus [Money Sharma/AFP]

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2020-01-06 12:20:00Z
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Huge crowds flood Tehran streets for Soleimani's funeral, calling for revenge and retaliation - CNN

The mourners carried photographs of Soleimani, a revered and powerful figure who headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps elite Quds Force and led Iran's overseas operations.

Many of those on the streets of the Iranian capital were visibly upset and angry; others shouted "down with the USA" and "death to the USA." Iranian state television said millions attended, although this was yet to be verified.

Soleimani has been hailed a martyr and a hero inside Iran, especially due to his work in the fight against ISIS. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's ultimate political and religious authority, was photographed praying over Soleimani's body during the funeral ceremony alongside President Hassan Rouhani.

The US, however, has long viewed Soleimani as a terrorist and adversary. Washington claims he is responsible for aiding and abetting attacks by Iran's Shia allies against American troops, many of whom were killed during the bloodiest days of the Iraq War and in sectarian conflicts throughout the Middle East.

President Donald Trump said the decision to kill Soleimani was based on intelligence that he had been involved in planning an "imminent attack" that put American lives at risk.

Washington had already carried out a series of airstrikes in Iraq targeting Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group the US held responsible for a series of rocket attacks on American facilities that killed a US contractor.

Trump said Soleimani was killed "to stop a war," but the action marks a significant escalation that has seen both sides inching dangerously close to the brink of conflict.

Iran has vowed revenge and threatened both the US and Israel. Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, the top military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, told CNN that Tehran would retaliate by targeting military sites. The US operates about 800 military bases and logistical facilities outside its sovereign territory.

And Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the country will no longer limit itself to the nuclear restrictions set forth by the international nuclear deal reached in 2015 between Iran and a handful of other countries. The Trump administration abandoned the deal in 2018.

Trump has responded to Iran's talk of vengeance by threatening to carry out a series of attack a number of Iranian targets, including cultural sites -- a potential war crime.

"Iranian proxy forces in Iraq have thought that they could act with impunity, and that if they acted we wouldn't take strikes against Iran proper," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN when asked about Trump's statement. "We've made clear for months to the Iranian regime that that wouldn't be the case, that we were going to hold responsible the actors, the leaders who took these actions and who orchestrated these actions."

However, the Trump administration's domestic and foreign critics accused the President and his advisers of failing to think through the cost of killing Soleimani.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to her fellow democrats that the decision was "provocative and disproportionate" and argued that it endangered US personnel in the region.

The future of US troops in Iraq

Gulf Arab states and European leaders have called for restraint.

In a joint statement Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there is "an urgent need for de-escalation" concerning rising tensions with Iran.

Iraq's Parliament voted nearly unanimously to force the government to work toward the removal of US and other foreign troops inside the country, a clear rebuke to Washington over the strike that killed Soleimani.

"Iraqi priorities and the US are increasingly at odds," caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said during his address to parliament.

He said a US troop withdrawal was the only way to "protect all those on Iraqi soil," especially American forces that require protection from the Iraqis.

Muqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand Shia cleric and fierce critic of the US, said the response by Iraq's parliament was weak "in comparison to American violations of Iraqi sovereignty."

Meanwhile, Trump said any move to expel US troops from the country would be met with "sanctions like they've never seen before ever."

"It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame," Trump said.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen, Tim Lister, Schams Elwazer, Eric Levenson and Kareem Khader contributed to this report.

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2020-01-06 12:44:00Z
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Huge crowds flood Tehran streets for Soleimani's funeral, calling for revenge and retaliation - CNN

The mourners carried photographs of Soleimani, a revered and powerful figure who headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps elite Quds Force and led Iran's overseas operations.

Many of those on the streets of the Iranian capital were visibly upset and angry; others shouted "down with the USA" and "death to the USA." Iranian state television said millions attended, although this was yet to be verified.

Soleimani has been hailed a martyr and a hero inside Iran, especially due to his work in the fight against ISIS. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's ultimate political and religious authority, was photographed praying over Soleimani's body during the funeral ceremony alongside President Hassan Rouhani.

The US, however, has long viewed Soleimani as a terrorist and adversary. Washington claims he is responsible for aiding and abetting attacks by Iran's Shia allies against American troops, many of whom were killed during the bloodiest days of the Iraq War and in sectarian conflicts throughout the Middle East.

President Donald Trump said the decision to kill Soleimani was based on intelligence that he had been involved in planning an "imminent attack" that put American lives at risk.

Washington had already carried out a series of airstrikes in Iraq targeting Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group the US held responsible for a series of rocket attacks on American facilities that killed a US contractor.

Trump said Soleimani was killed "to stop a war," but the action marks a significant escalation that has seen both sides inching dangerously close to the brink of conflict.

Iran has vowed revenge and threatened both the US and Israel. Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, the top military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, told CNN that Tehran would retaliate by targeting military sites. The US operates about 800 military bases and logistical facilities outside its sovereign territory.

And Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the country will no longer limit itself to the nuclear restrictions set forth by the international nuclear deal reached in 2015 between Iran and a handful of other countries. The Trump administration abandoned the deal in 2018.

Trump has responded to Iran's talk of vengeance by threatening to carry out a series of attack a number of Iranian targets, including cultural sites -- a potential war crime.

"Iranian proxy forces in Iraq have thought that they could act with impunity, and that if they acted we wouldn't take strikes against Iran proper," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN when asked about Trump's statement. "We've made clear for months to the Iranian regime that that wouldn't be the case, that we were going to hold responsible the actors, the leaders who took these actions and who orchestrated these actions."

However, the Trump administration's domestic and foreign critics accused the President and his advisers of failing to think through the cost of killing Soleimani.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to her fellow democrats that the decision was "provocative and disproportionate" and argued that it endangered US personnel in the region.

The future of US troops in Iraq

Gulf Arab states and European leaders have called for restraint.

In a joint statement Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there is "an urgent need for de-escalation" concerning rising tensions with Iran.

Iraq's Parliament voted nearly unanimously to force the government to work toward the removal of US and other foreign troops inside the country, a clear rebuke to Washington over the strike that killed Soleimani.

"Iraqi priorities and the US are increasingly at odds," caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said during his address to parliament.

He said a US troop withdrawal was the only way to "protect all those on Iraqi soil," especially American forces that require protection from the Iraqis.

Muqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand Shia cleric and fierce critic of the US, said the response by Iraq's parliament was weak "in comparison to American violations of Iraqi sovereignty."

Meanwhile, Trump said any move to expel US troops from the country would be met with "sanctions like they've never seen before ever."

"It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame," Trump said.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen, Tim Lister, Schams Elwazer, Eric Levenson and Kareem Khader contributed to this report.

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2020-01-06 11:49:00Z
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Here's just how bad the devastating Australian fires are -- by the numbers - CNN

Millions of acres have been torched and entire homes have been swallowed by flames. More than 20 people have lost their lives. About half a billion animals have been killed in New South Wales by one estimate. And the country's summer is only just beginning.

Along with a series of pictures published on his Facebook, Australian politician Leon Bignell called the reality of the fires "ugly."

"We met some of the many families and individuals who are homeless following the fire and we all need to work together to get them back on their feet as soon as possible. The mental scars though may never heal," he said.

Here's a look at just how bad the blazes have scarred the country so far:

By the numbers:

About 2,700 firefighters were battling the blazes as of Sunday.

Three have been killed.

The Australia Defence Force said Sunday it had called 3,000 army reserve forces and others with specialist capabilities to help fight the flames.

There were about 136 fires burning across NSW Monday.

Of those, 69 are not contained, the NSW Rural Fire Service said Monday.

Officials say 24 people have died nationwide this fire season.

The majority of casualties -- 18 -- are from NSW, which has been hit hardest by blazes. Three people have died in Victoria and another three in South Australia.

Two people are also missing in NSW as of Monday.

About 480 million animals have died across NSW, professor Chris Dickman with the University of Sydney, estimates. "The true mortality is likely to be substantially higher than those estimated," the university said in a statement.

Almost a third of koalas in NSW may have been killed in the fires, and a third of their habitat has been destroyed, said Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.

In December, the smoke in Sydney was so bad that air quality measured 11 times the "hazardous" level.

In total, more than 14.7 million acres have been burned across the country's six states. That's larger than the countries of Belgium and Haiti combined.

Just in NSW, there have been more than 1,300 houses destroyed and 8.9 million acres scorched.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday unveiled a $1.39 billion fund to help rebuild communities hit by the fires.

About $347 million of that will be allocated within this year, Treasurer of Australia Josh Frydenberg added.

The prime minister has already said up to $4,200 will go to each of the volunteer firefighters battling blazes for more than 10 days.

CNN's Isaac Yee, Jessie Yeung and Akanksha Sharma contributed to this report.

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2020-01-06 11:30:00Z
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Successor to Slain Iranian General Vows Revenge: Live Updates - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• Teeming crowds chant “Death to America.”
• Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.
• Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.
• Oil prices surge to more than $70 a barrel.
• China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.
• Evacuations planned and alerts raised for foreigners in Iraq.
• Iraq’s Parliament votes to oust U.S. coalition troops.

Image

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leading a prayer during the funeral for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and others killed with him, in Tehran on Monday.Credit...Office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Teeming crowds chant “Death to America.”

Throngs of people chanting “Death to America” crowded the streets of Tehran on Monday as Iran mourned Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, whose funeral was held in the capital. The military commander was hailed as a martyr, and his successor swore revenge.

“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger,” vowed Esmail Ghaani, the Iranian general who will take over the Quds Force, the foreign expeditionary arm of Iran’s elite paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Certainly actions will be taken,” he added.

State-run news outlets reported that millions had gathered in Tehran, and images showed of a sea of mourners, many wearing black and waving the nation’s flag in an outpouring of grief.

General Suleimani was killed by the United States on Friday in Baghdad in a drone strike. American officials said the general had ordered assaults on Americans in Iraq and Syria and was planning a wave of imminent attacks.

His killing has set off fears of escalating retaliatory actions by Iran and the United States, and of a broader regional conflict. In the aftermath of the attack, Iran said it would no longer abide by a 2015 agreement to suspend uranium production.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, wept openly at the funeral while offering prayers over the general’s coffin. Ayatollah Khamenei had a close relationship with the general, who was widely considered to be the second most powerful man in Iran.

General Suleimani’s daughter, Zeinab Suleimani, said in a eulogy that the United States and Israel faced a “dark day.”

“You crazy Trump, the symbol of ignorance, the slave of Zionists, don’t think that the killing of my father will finish everything,” she said at the funeral.

The general’s funeral was attended by a broad swath of Iranians, including reformers who oppose the government of President Hassan Rouhani but who perceived the killing as an attack on all of Iran.

“I felt like he was our safety umbrella spread above Iran,” said Amir Ali, 22, a university student. “I felt safe knowing he was out there.”

Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.

President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threats to attack Iranian cultural sites and warned of a “major retaliation” if the Iranian government planned tit-for-tat attacks in the aftermath of the killing of a senior military commander.

Mr. Trump defended the drone strike that killed General Suleimani.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump said in a tweet that the United States had selected 52 Iranian sites, some “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” to attack in the event of Iranian retaliation.

That prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to say that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.”

But on Sunday evening, aboard Air Force One on his way back from his holiday trip to Florida, Mr. Trump did not back down.

“They’re allowed to kill our people,” he said to reporters. “They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.

Iran’s government said it would no longer abide by a commitment it made under a 2015 nuclear deal that limited its enrichment of uranium.

The decision to lift all restrictions on the production of nuclear fuel spelled the effective end of the nuclear deal, experts said, though Iran left open the possibility that it would return to the limits if sanctions were lifted.

“It’s finished. If there’s no limitation on production, then there is no deal,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit in Washington.

The announcement came after Iran’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the country’s nuclear policy in the aftermath of General Suleimani’s assassination.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges,” Iran said in a statement. “Therefore Iran’s nuclear program will have no limitations in production including enrichment capacity and percentage and number of enriched uranium and research and expansion.”

The announcement followed several steps by Iran to move away from the terms of the agreement, nearly two years after Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal. Since that renunciation, the Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

The nuclear agreement ended some economic sanctions on Iran in return for its verifiable pledge to use nuclear power peacefully.

Iran’s statement on Sunday did not include details about its enrichment ambitions. And the country did not say that it was expelling the inspectors who monitor its nuclear program.

The European parties to the deal, including Britain, France and Germany, as well as China and Russia, also signatories to the deal, had struggled to preserve the agreement as tensions between the United States and Iran worsened.

Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a daily news briefing that there was still hope for the nuclear deal. He noted that Tehran had said it would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iranian activities under the agreement, and that it could return to the pact under the right conditions.

“We believe that although Iran has been compelled to reduce adherence owing to external factors, it has also demonstrated restraint,” Mr. Geng said.

Oil prices surge to more than $70 a barrel.

Oil prices surged and stock markets in Asia fell on Monday morning, as the impact of General Suleimani’s death ricocheted around the world.

The price of Brent oil, the international benchmark, jumped above $70 in futures trading as markets digested a steady flow of news over the weekend.

The sudden escalation in tensions in a region that supplies much of the world’s petroleum has roiled oil markets. The West Texas Intermediate, the American oil benchmark, rose 1.9 percent to $64.22 a barrel in futures trading.

Analysts at Capital Economics have warned that the price of oil could spike to $150 a barrel if the bellicose rhetoric between the two countries turned into action.

“The price of oil would soar in the event of full-blown military conflict in the Middle East,” said Alexander Kozul-Wright, a commodities economist at Capital Economics.

China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.

Chinese state-controlled news media on Monday condemned the United States for the killing of General Suleimani, amplifying China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who warned of a “vicious cycle of confrontation” between the United States and Iran.

“Solving the conflicts between the United States and Iran can’t be achieved through military strikes or extreme pressure,” People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial. The editorial appeared under the pen name “Zhong Sheng,” which is widely used to offer the paper’s views on foreign affairs.

The editorial likened the latest crisis to the United States-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 and Western intervention in Libya in 2011.

“The facts prove time and again that unilateral resorts to armed force will not solve problems,” the paper said. “Instead the outcome will be the opposite, leading to a cycle of confrontation that will be difficult to clean up.”

China has been reducing its imports of oil from Iran as United States sanctions have deepened, but it remains heavily dependent on crude from the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia. Beijing has also tried to shore up the international agreement that curtailed Iran’s nuclear development.

On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Washington warned Chinese citizens to be extra careful about their safety in the wake of the crisis with Iran.

Fears of worldwide conflict were shared across social media over the weekend, but Xinhua, China’s main official news agency, published a commentary saying that outright war between the United States and Iran still seemed unlikely.

“Faced with the 2020 election, Trump has deliberately used attacking Iran to shift the focus from domestic tensions and add to his electoral chips,” read the commentary, “but he has no intention of launching a war.”

Evacuations planned and alerts raised for foreigners in Iraq.

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines on Monday held an emergency meeting with defense officials to discuss a potential evacuation plan for the thousands of Filipino workers stationed in Iran and Iraq. The Philippines has a huge population of expatriate laborers who live and work in the region.

“President Duterte ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines to be prepared to deploy military assets to repatriate overseas Filipinos in the Middle East, particularly from Iran and Iraq, at any moment’s notice,” said Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, a close ally of Mr. Duterte who was at the meeting, according to The Associated Press.

On Monday, New Zealand became the latest country to advise its citizens to leave Iraq, but officials denied reports that it had decided to withdraw troops stationed there as part of a training mission. The training mission was said to have been postponed as tensions in the region soared.

“New Zealanders currently in Iraq despite our advice who have concerns for their safety are strongly advised to depart as soon as possible,” the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

Iraq’s Parliament votes to oust U.S. coalition troops.

Iraqi lawmakers voted 170-0 on Sunday in favor of expelling American troops from their country.

The vote was not final and many lawmakers did not attend the session. But Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi drafted the language and submitted the bill to Parliament, leaving little doubt about his support.

The drone strike that killed General Suleimani also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias.

The attack was viewed in Iraq as a violation of the nation’s sovereignty, and the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it had summoned the American ambassador in Baghdad.

Iraq’s Parliament was divided over demands from angry citizens to expel American troops. Many of its 328 members, primarily Kurds and Sunnis, did not attend Sunday’s session and did not vote. In his speech to lawmakers, Mr. Mahdi laid out two possibilities: to either quickly end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, or to set a timeline for their expulsion.

The measure approved by Parliament did not include a timeline, and only instructed the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq. Officials said no decision had been made about whether any American troops would be able to stay, or under what conditions.

Iranian officials reacted to the vote with congratulatory messages and said General Suleimani’s death had delivered a huge victory over the United States.

Hesameddin Ashena, a top adviser to President Rouhani, in a Twitter post, said: “Expanding friendship with our neighbors and domestic unity are the best gifts for protecting our national security. America and Israel are the only winners of a rift between neighbors.”

Asked about the vote on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States would continue to battle the Islamic State. “It is the United States that is prepared to help the Iraqi people get what it is they deserve and continue our mission there to take down terrorism from ISIS and others in the region,” he said in an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

Reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Alexandra Stevenson, Farnaz Fassihi, Christopher Buckley, Alissa J. Rubin, Ben Hubbard, Megan Specia, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt, Vivian Yee, David D. Kirkpatrick, Edward Wong and Mark Landler.

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2020-01-06 11:04:00Z
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India protests: Masked men storm New Delhi's JNU campus - The - The Washington Post

Adnan Abidi Reuters Police in riot gear stand guard outside the Jawaharlal Nehru University after clashes at the campus Sunday.

NEW DELHI — Dozens of masked men wielding sticks and iron rods attacked students and professors at one of India’s most prestigious universities late Sunday, injuring more than 30 and heightening concerns about law and order in the world’s largest democracy.

Ten eyewitnesses said the group entered Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and shouted a slogan used by India’s ruling right-wing Hindu nationalist party as they roamed the campus beating students, smashing windows and destroying property.

The incident comes at a moment of high political tension in India, where hundreds of thousands of people — including many students — have participated in protests against a controversial citizenship law passed last month. The law creates an expedited path to citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from three countries, a move that critics say is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The violence at the university was not directly connected to the citizenship law but was rooted in a separate dispute roiling the campus over fees that also pitted student supporters of the government against its opponents.

The accounts of masked men roaming a well-known campus as students cowered in their dormitories and police officers posted at the main gate failed to intervene are inflaming concerns about how Indian authorities treat those they consider adversaries.

Last month, police stormed another university campus in the capital where a protest against the citizenship law turned violent, beating unarmed students and firing tear gas into a library. One student was blinded in one eye. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, police deployed lethal force to put down protests against the citizenship law, leaving at least 19 dead, vandalizing homes and arresting scores of people, most of them Muslims.

[India’s Muslims and activists face mass arrests, beatings amid unrest over citizenship law]

On Monday, fresh demonstrations against the previous day’s campus violence in Delhi took place in at least 19 cities across the country. Some protesters called for the resignation of Amit Shah, India’s powerful home affairs minister who also oversees law enforcement in the nation’s capital.

On Sunday night, several eyewitnesses said police officers stood by as a mob armed with sticks, iron rods and cricket bats entered the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, an influential bastion of left-leaning politics.

The mob yelled “Long live Mother India!” and attacked a meeting led by professors near a main crossroad on campus, hurling rocks at participants, witnesses said. The assailants then smashed through the glass gate at one dormitory, shouting, “We will spare no one today!” Panicked students sent SOS messages to their professors, asking where to hide.

Inside the dorm, Surya Prakash, a visually impaired doctoral candidate in Sanskrit, was sitting at his desk studying. Masked men broke into his ground-floor room and began to beat him with iron rods on his back and arms, he said.

“I pleaded with them that I am blind,” recalled Prakash. “One hit me even harder. There is terror in our hearts.”

Students said that the masked attackers included members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, or ABVP, the student wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Jyoti Kumari, a master’s degree student who filmed some of the violence at the dorm, said she recognized at least five ABVP members in the mob. The ABVP denied the allegation and blamed the violence on “communist goons.”

AFP/Getty Images

Protesters shout slogans outside the Delhi Police Headquarters following clashes at Jawaharlal Nehru University late Sunday.

A senior Delhi police official, Devender Arya, told the television station NDTV that the police responded promptly to calls for help from the university administration and that authorities have begun working to identify the attackers. Arya did not respond to queries about eyewitness accounts of police inaction and allegations that police had also beaten students.

The incident sparked widespread criticism across India’s political spectrum. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar — an alumnus of the university — wrote on Twitter that he condemned the violence “unequivocally” and that it “was completely against the culture and tradition of the university.”

[Why protests are erupting over India’s new citizenship law]

Members of the opposition Congress Party said the brazenness of the attack and the lack of an immediate police response indicated it had some kind of official sanction. “It is an act of impunity and can only happen with the support of the government,” wrote P. Chidambaram, a senior Congress leader.

An official at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, a nearby hospital, said 35 people were admitted with injuries from the incident and that all were discharged by Monday.

Kumari Neelu, who is married to a professor at the university, said she had just stepped outside her home on campus when she saw the approaching mob. As she tried to film them, the men began to run toward her. She fled inside and locked the main door. The mob banged on her door with sticks and rang the bell nonstop. Her husband, Bikramaditya Choudhary, began calling the administration, security officers and the police.

“Nobody responded,” he said. “If the media hadn’t arrived, we may have been butchered.”

Eyewitnesses also alleged that the police not only failed to stop the violence but also beat up students. Vipul Vivek, a master’s degree student in philosophy, watched from behind shrubbery as the violence unfolded. After the mob left, he said, about 30 policemen arrived and beat the students holed up inside the dormitory that was earlier attacked by the mob. He ran toward a forested area and hid for 45 minutes.

“We can’t fight back against the police,” he said.

Tensions also spiked outside the main gate of the university. Hundreds of government supporters assembled and began to shout right-wing slogans in an apparent endorsement of the attack on students.

“Identify the traitors and shoot the bastards!” they yelled. “Get out of India!” At least three journalists were attacked by the same government supporters as they tried to film them.

Amrita Johri, a civil rights activist, said she saw the crowd vandalize an incoming ambulance. “Men whose faces were covered starting hitting and threatening us,” she said. “The police did not intervene even as people pleaded for help.”

 Tania Dutta contributed to this report.

Read more

India’s Muslims and activists face mass arrests, beatings amid unrest over citizenship law

India clamps down on marches, Internet after deadly protests

Protests sweeping India emerge as significant challenge for Modi

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2020-01-06 11:11:00Z
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