By Bernd Debusmann Jr & Tom Bateman
BBC News, Washington
Friday February 2, 2024

The US has approved plans for a series of strikes on Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq, officials have told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

The strikes will take place over a number of days, officials said, and weather conditions will likely dictate when they are launched.

It comes after a drone attack killed three US soldiers in Jordan, close to the Syrian border, on Sunday.

The US blamed an Iranian-backed militia group for that attack.

That group, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, is believed to contain multiple militias that have been armed, funded and trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards force. It has said it was responsible for Sunday’s strike.

Iran, meanwhile, has denied any role in the attack which injured 41 other US troops at the military base, known as Tower 22.

US officials have said that US intelligence believes that the drone used to attack the facility was manufactured by Iran – and is similar to the drones Iran has been sending to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

At a news conference on Thursday, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin defended the delayed military response, saying: “We will respond where we choose, when we choose and how we choose.”

“I think everyone recognises the challenge associated with making sure that we hold the right people accountable,” he said, adding that there is no “set formula for doing this”.

“There are ways to manage this so it doesn’t spiral out of control. And that’s been our focus throughout,” Mr Austin continued.

The officials who spoke to CBS News did not give an exact timeline on the potential strikes. They said the US military could launch them in bad weather, but preferred to have better visibility to reduce the risk of inadvertently hitting civilians.

President Joe Biden has been under mounting pressure from Republican lawmakers, including some of Washington’s most hawkish voices on Iran, to strike targets on Iranian soil.

But while the US has repeatedly pledged to respond to the drone attack, Mr Biden and other defence officials have said Washington is not seeking a wider war with Iran or an escalation of tensions in the region.

“That’s not what I’m looking for,” Mr Biden told reporters at the White House earlier this week.

The reportedly approved plans appear to keep the targeting to Iranian targets Syria and Iraq, rather than inside Iran.

Several Iran-backed groups have increased attacks on US and Israeli-linked entities since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October.

The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, for example, have attacked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, prompting strikes from the US and its allies.

A US defence official told CBS that a drone was shot down overnight in the Gulf of Aden, while an unmanned sea drone was struck and destroyed in the Red Sea.

Citing unnamed sources, Reuters on Thursday reported that Iran had withdrawn senior officials from Syria following a series of Israeli airstrikes in a bid to avoid being directly drawn into a wider conflict in the region.

US officials told CNN this week that there were signs that the Iranian government was becoming increasingly concerned about the actions of its proxy groups in the region, who have launched over 160 attacks on US forces since October.

The bodies of the three US soldiers killed in the attack in Jordan are expected to be repatriated to a Delaware Air Force base on Friday. The White House has announced that President Biden will attend.

The three soldiers have been named as William Jerome Rivers, 46, Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23. All three were part of an army reserve unit based in Fort Moore, Georgia.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
Friday February 2, 2024

An Ethiopian opposition lawmaker has been arrested by government security forces in the country’s capital Addis Abbaba, his family members said.

Dessalegn Chanie’s relatives told the BBC no official reason has yet been provided for his detention.

Mr Dessalegn won a federal parliamentary seat representing opposition party National Movement of the Amhara (Nama) in 2021.

Due to Mr Dessalegn’s status as an MP he is entitled to immunity from prosecution.

Parliament is meant to convene and revoke this immunity before a lawmaker is arrested, but this has not happened.

He is the second opposition legislator to be arrested, since fighting in the Amhara region began last year.

Last August, Christian Tadele, an MP from the Nama, was arrested and still remains in custody.

Both lawmakers were known for voicing strong criticisms against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration.

These arrests come as the conflict between local militia and the army in Amhara continues to rage on.

Prime Minister Abiy imposed a six-month state of emergency in early August to try to stop the clashes.

Fighting has continued to be reported in some areas in Amhara, with media outlets affiliated with the militias accusing government forces of killing unarmed civilians in a small town called Merawi, 35 km south of the regional capital Bahirdar.

The authorities have not yet responded to the accusations and the BBC has not independently confirmed the allegations.

Friday February 2, 2024

Somalia is the latest African country to ban single-use plastics, potentially boosting the growing campaign to limit the use of non-biodegradable packaging material in the war against global warming.

A decree issued on Thursday by the Environment and Climate Change Ministry indicated that the country will stop single-use plastics from June 30, 2024, providing a five-month grace period for importers and users to adjust.

“All businesspeople engaged in bag importation, manufacturers, retailers and commercial establishments within the country are hereby notified that as of June 30, 2024, the importation and use of single-use bags shall be prohibited,” read a statement issued by the Ministry.

Somalia said the grace period should also give firms involved in the production or importation of plastics time “to explore environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic bags” and that it will work with stakeholders to identify options.

Somalia’s move is significant because it joins other East African Community (EAC) member states Kenya and Rwanda which completely banned single-use plastics.

Uganda and Tanzania have also technically banned the plastics but have struggled with implementing the ban as well as the smuggling of the carrier bags between neighbouring countries.

Like peers in the EAC, the ban means production, importation, trading in it or distribution of single-use plastics is prohibited after June 30, 2024.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Khadija Mohamed Al-Makhzoumi said the move is part of local efforts by her country to “proactively address environmental challenges.”

A study by the Geneva Environmental Network shows plastics have toxic chemical additives and pollutants that threaten human health with health effects including causing cancer or changing hormones that can affect reproductive, growth, and cognitive impairment.

Friday February 2, 2024

Washington, DC – A new Republican firestorm has ignited around United States Congress member Ilhan Omar — this time over alleged statements she made during a speech to Somali Americans.

The only problem, according to two independent analyses of the speech, is that the words that fuelled the uproar appear to be mistranslated.

Omar is accused of saying in Somali that she would put foreign interests before those of the US — but multiple news outlets have since debunked the accusations, pointing to major flaws in a viral translation of her speech.

That, however, did not stop firebrand Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from seizing on the speech. On Thursday, she introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to censure Omar, who is the first Somali American and first former African refugee to serve in the US Congress.

Greene accused Omar of “serving as a foreign agent for a foreign country”. In an apparently intentional gaffe, she referred to Omar as the representative from “Somali — I mean, Minnesota”.

Her resolution comes one day after House Majority Whip Tom Emmer demanded an ethics investigation into Omar. Florida governor and former Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis also called for Omar to be “deported”.

For her part, Omar quickly rejected the attacks, saying they were only the latest attempt by Republicans to weaponise her ethnicity and religion.

In a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Omar called the attacks “not only completely false, they are rooted in xenophobia and Islamophobia”.

“This is a manufactured controversy based on an inaccurate translation taken entirely out of context,” she said.

Critics also see the controversy as the Republican Party’s latest attempt to attack a group of progressive Democrats known as the “Squad”.

In February 2023, Omar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a vote divided along party lines, amid accusations that she had voiced “anti-Semitic” and “anti-Israel” rhetoric. At the time, Omar said she was being targeted because of her identity as an African Muslim woman.

In November, the House also voted to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib for comments critical of Israel. Tlaib has stood by her remarks, rejecting claims they were anti-Semitic.

Mistranslated speech
The Star Tribune — a newspaper based in Minneapolis, Minnesota — and another publication, the Minnesota Reformer, have both independently translated Omar’s speech, which was delivered to Somali Americans in the state on January 27.

Both found the words that stoked the Republican ire were not actually what Omar said.

The flawed translation, which spread widely on social media, read: “The US government will only do what Somalians in the US tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders, and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia … Together we will protect the interests of Somalia.”

According to the more accurate translation, verified by the Star Tribune, Omar expressed a different message, one that encouraged civic engagement among Somali Americans.

“My answer was the US government will do what we tell the US government to do. We as Somalis should have that confidence in ourselves. We live in this country. We pay taxes in this country. It’s a country where one of your own sits in Congress … The woman you sent to Congress is aware of you and has the same interest as you,” she said.

According to the Star Tribune, Omar used the speech to recount how she had responded to constituents’ concerns over a new agreement between Ethiopia and the self-governing region of Somaliland, which Somalia claims as its own. The agreement would see Ethiopia lease a portion of Somaliland’s coastline, a move vehemently opposed by Somalia.

Observers have noted the Congress member was also speaking in support of longstanding US policy. The US maintains some ties with Somaliland — but does not recognise its independence or its authority to unilaterally strike a deal with landlocked Ethiopia.

While that position has stoked condemnation from Somaliland officials, Democrats have roundly rejected the notion that it indicates Omar is working on behalf of Somalia or that she puts her Somali roots before her congressional duties.

On Thursday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned Greene’s move to censure Omar as “frivolous”. He called it “designed to inflame and castigate and further divide us”.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA