ERBIL: Iraqi Kurdish authorities announced Saturday they had arrested two suspects involved in the murder of three people, including a Turkish diplomat, in the regional capital Erbil this week.
The autonomous region’s security council first said its counterterrorism unit had arrested “the main perpetrator” Mazloum Dag, a 27-year-old from Turkey’s Diyarbakir region.
The council had put out a wanted notice for Dag a day earlier in connection to Wednesday’s killing of Turkish Vice Consul Osman Kose and two Iraqi nationals.
It later announced it had also arrested Mohammad Biskesiz, identifying him as “one of the accomplices of Mazloum Dag”.
It did not specify Biskesiz’s nationality or whether he was apprehended with Dag or separately.
Turkey’s Anadolu state news agency said Dag is the brother of Dersim Dag, a member of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, the People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
The HDP, the country’s second largest opposition group, is regularly accused by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of links to Turkey’s outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The HDP “strongly” condemned the Erbil attack, calling it an “absolutely unacceptable provocation attempt”.
It also slammed the accusation that one of its deputies was “designated as a target because of his brother”, without mentioning any names.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Ankara on Thursday launched a “comprehensive air operation” against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Qandil mountain area.
Since May, Turkey has been conducting a ground offensive and bombing campaign against Qandil to root out the PKK, considered a “terror organisation” by Ankara for its three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
Other air strikes Thursday night targeted “PKK bases and members” in the Makhmur area south of Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, wounding two in a displacement camp, local sources told AFP.
The attack on Wednesday saw at least one gunman with two pistols fire on a group of diplomats in a restaurant in Erbil.
Kose and one Iraqi died Wednesday, while the second Iraqi succumbed to his wounds overnight.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia sent a crew member of an Iranian ship to Oman on Saturday.
The sailor had previously been evacuated from the ship off the Yemeni port of Hodeidah for medical reasons.
After receiving necessary medical treamtent in Jazan, the Iranian citizen was sent to Oman after Saudi Arabia received an Iranian request through the Swiss embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Press Agency reported.
Saudi Arabia said in June it had evacuated a crew member for medical reasons from a “suspect” Iranian ship — “Safiz” — northwest of Hodeidah after Riyadh received a request for help from Tehran.

BEIRUT: Retired Lebanese soldiers on Friday came close to clashing with the country’s army when weeks of protests over planned benefit cuts reached boiling point in the capital Beirut.
Dressed in military uniforms, large numbers of veterans attempted to force their way through barricades set up to stop demonstrators reaching the city’s parliament building where a final vote on a controversial draft austerity budget was taking place.
A military source told Arab News that the Lebanese army leadership had decided to block access to Najma Square, in Beirut’s Central District, where Parliament members were sitting.
But former soldiers, joined by the parents of army martyrs and activists from the Sabaa and Communist parties, surrounded the building in nearby streets before attempting to push through barbed wire, concrete and metal barriers erected by the Lebanese army and the Internal Security Forces.
The protesters, waving Lebanese and army flags, got as far as the entrance to Maarad Street, on which Parliament is located, putting them in direct confrontation with the Lebanese troops.
Ten brigades of reinforcements were drafted in to help push back the veterans before protest leaders eased tensions by calling for a retreat to a nearby square to avoid any further clashes.
The meeting to vote on the 2019 draft budget came after a marathon three days of discussions. Before entering the parliamentary session, Lebanese Minister of Defense Elias Bou Saab said that “misleading the retired soldiers” would be “harmful to the image and demands of the protesters” and called on them to carry out “peaceful demonstrations.” He added that there had been mixed and confused messages regarding benefit cuts.
However, retired Brig. Gen. Georges Nader had vowed that protesters would not back off until the vote on their benefits was dropped.
Discussing the protests in Parliament, Samy Gemayel, president of the Phalange party, objected to the reduction in the army budget, to which Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said: “This has been concluded on the bases of an understanding with the army and the military establishment.”
MP Paula Yacoubian said that “retired soldiers are trying to storm Parliament,” to which Berri said: “Those who want to storm Parliament have not yet been born.”
The row had centered on a controversial article concerning amendments to the country’s income tax act, and Lebanese Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil insisted on defending it. He said: “It does not cost the retired soldiers, for instance, more than 3,000 Lebanese pounds ($2) per month. This amount rises to 400,000 pounds for brigadiers.” He added: “Which country in the world gives a retiree 85 percent of his salary?”
After a meeting between the minister and Nader in Parliament, the retired brigadier general went out to reassure the veterans that cuts from their salaries in respect of medicine and income tax would be reduced. Less intense protests continued for more than three hours before Parliament approved the relevant article in the budget.
Meanwhile, Berri had started the Parliament session by reading a resignation submitted by Hezbollah MP Nawaf Musawi.

TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Friday they had confiscated a British tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz for breaking “international maritime rules,” while a US official told CNN that Iran had seized a second tanker, the British-owned, Liberian-flagged MV Mesdar, according to reports.

The Stena Impero tanker “was confiscated by the Revolutionary Guards at the request of Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Organisation when passing through the strait of Hormuz, for failing to respect international maritime rules,” the Guards’ official website Sepahnews announced.

The UK government convened an emergency COBRA meeting to formulate its response and a foreign ministry spokesperson said: “We are urgently seeking further information and assessing the situation following reports of an incident in the Gulf.”

Prime Minister Theresa May’s office declined to comment. 

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office relayed a statement from foreign minister Jeremy Hunt, in which he appeared to confirm the seizure of a second vessel. He said: “I’m extremely concerned by the seizure of two vessels by Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I will shortly attend a COBRA meeting to review what we know and what we can do to swiftly secure the release of the two vessels – a British-flagged vessel and a Liberian-flagged vessel

“Their crews comprise a range of nationalities, but we understand there are no British citizens on board either ship.

“Our Ambassador in Tehran is in contact with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve the situation and we are working closely with international partners.

“These seizures are unacceptable. It is essential that freedom of navigation is maintained and that all ships can move safely and freely in the region.”

Arab News contacted Col. Robert Stewart, Conservative MP and former UN commander in Bosnia, who said that the UK government would have to “look at all the options” in its response to Iran’s behaviour, adding that Iran’s actions were an escalation too far, “of course.”

Refinitiv data showed the Stena Impero was a British-flagged vessel owned by Stena Bulk. It showed the vessel’s destination as the Saudi port of Jubail on the Gulf.

The map tracking the ship’s course showed it veering off course with a sharp turn north at about 15:17 GMT on Friday and heading towards the Iranian coast.

Meanwhile, the head of the UK Chamber of Shipping said on Friday that further protection must be provided for merchant vessels after the seizure.

“We condemn unreservedly the capture of Stena Impero as she transited the Strait of Hormuz earlier today,” the Chamber’s chief executive, Bob Sanguinetti, said in a statement.

“This incident represents an escalation. Whilst we call for measured response, it is also clear that further protection for merchant vessels must be forthcoming to ensure enhanced security to guarantee free flow of trade in the region.” 

The Stena company responsible for the ship also released a statement, which read: “Stena Bulk and Northern Marine Management can confirm that at approximately 1600 BST on 19th July, UK registered vessel Stena Impero (built 2018, 49,683 DWT) was approached by unidentified small crafts and a helicopter during transit of the Strait of Hormuz while the vessel was in international waters. We are presently unable to contact the vessel which is now heading north towards Iran.

“There are 23 seafarers aboard. There have been no reported injuries and their safety is of primary concern to both owners and managers. The priority of both vessel owner Stena Bulk and ship manager Northern Marine Management is the safety and welfare of the crew.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month accused the UK of “piracy” after the Royal Marines and Gibraltarian police seized a tanker believed to be carrying Iranian crude oil to Syria on July 5, and the Iranian government has demanded its immediate release.

The ship was detained on suspicion it was breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria.

(With Agencies)

JERUSALEM: An Israeli spyware firm thought to have hacked WhatsApp in the past has told clients it can scoop user data from the world’s top social media, the Financial Times reported Friday.
The London paper wrote that NSO group had “told buyers its technology can surreptitiously scrape all of an individual’s data from the servers of Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, according to people familiar with its sales pitch.”
An NSO spokesperson, responding in a written statement to AFP’s request for comment, denied the allegation.
“There is a fundamental misunderstanding of NSO, its services and technology,” it said.
“NSO’s products do not provide the type of collection capabilities and access to cloud applications, services, or infrastructure as listed and suggested in today’s FT article.”
In May, Facebook-owned WhatsApp said it had released an update to plug a security hole in its messaging app that allowed insertion of sophisticated spyware that could be used to spy on journalists, activists and others.
It said the attack bore “all the hallmarks of a private company that works with a number of governments around the world.”
It did not name a suspect but Washington-based analyst Joseph Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said at the time that the hack appeared related to the NSO’s Pegasus software.
It is normally sold to law enforcement and intelligence services.
Friday’s FT report, citing documents it had viewed and descriptions of a product demonstration, said the program had “evolved to capture the much greater trove of information stored beyond the phone in the cloud, such as a full history of a target’s location data, archived messages or photos.”
NSO says it does not operate the Pegasus system, only licensing it to closely vetted government users “for the sole purpose of preventing or investigating serious crime including terrorism.”
The group came under the spotlight in 2016 when researchers accused it of helping spy on an activist in the United Arab Emirates.
NSO is based in the Israeli seaside hi-tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. It says it employs 600 people in Israel and around the world.
Pegasus is a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s cell phone camera and microphone, and access data on it, effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy.
“Increasingly sophisticated terrorists and criminals are taking advantage of encrypted technologies to plan and conceal their crimes, leaving intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the dark and putting public safety and national security at risk,” the company statement said.
“NSO’s lawful interception products are designed to confront this challenge.”