BEIRUT: Syria’s civil war has killed more than 200,000 people in less than four years, a monitoring group said yesterday, adding that most were fighters from the two sides. “We have documented the killing of 202,354 people since March 2011,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that more than 130,000 of them were combatants. “Of the total, 63,074 of the killed were civilians, including 10,377 children,” said Abdel Rahman. “Among the anti-regime fighters, 37,324 were Syrian rebels, while 22,624 were non-Syrian jihadists,” he added. “On the regime side, there were 44,237 soldiers, 28,974 members of the (paramilitary) National Defence Force, 624 members of (Lebanon’s Shia) Hezbollah, and 2,388 pro-regime Shia fighters from beyond Syria and Lebanon,” Abdel Rahman said. Another 3,011 were unidentified, he added. He also said some 200,000 people are being held in Syria’s infamous jails, including 20,000 who have gone missing entirely.
New parliament meets in Tunisia
TUNIS: Tunisia’s new parliament held its inaugural session yesterday. Lawmakers took their seats following the first parliamentary election in the North African nation since the overthrow of strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali four years ago. “Tunisia has managed to secure a peaceful power transfer in a fluid and civilised manner that will ensure the gradual introduction of democratic traditions,” Mustapha Ben Jaafar, Speaker of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), a transitional body, told deputies. After the singing of the national anthem, Ben Jaafar opened the gathering of 217 members of the new parliament who were elected in October. The secular Nidaa Tounes party won 86 seats in the October 26 legislative polls, beating moderate Islamist movement Ennahda into second place with 69 seats. Under Tunisia’s electoral system, the party with the largest number of votes has a mandate to form a coalition government. Nidaa Tounes has said it will not form a government before the second round of voting in a presidential election is completed at the end of December.
Pro-reform party launched in Iran
TEHRAN: A new pro-reform party was launched in Iran yesterday to contest legislative elections due in March 2016, targeting the votes of supporters of moderate President Hassan Rowhani. Nedaye Iranian (The Call of Iranians) was “born of the new atmosphere” created by Rowhani’s victory in the June 2013 presidential election, it said in a statement announcing the launch. Mohammad Sadegh Kharrazi, a former ambassador to France and representative to the United Nations as well as adviser to reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami, is listed among leaders of the party.
Agencies
