Air Force calls number of sex assaults 'appalling'

Turkey: Syrian regime's actions equal war crimes

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, is seen during a press conference on Syria at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Syria's bombardment of its citizens should be declared a war crime and aid groups must be given greater access to the millions suffering there, Turkey's foreign minister told the World Economic Forum.

Syria has seen a rise in violence recently, including a government rocket attack Wednesday, in the two-year-old conflict the U.N. says has killed more than 60,000 people. The seemingly unstoppable carnage in Syria was one of the major topics Wednesday at the global gathering of corporate and political leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos.

"There should be a clear signal to the Syrian regime that what they have been doing, bombarding cities by airplanes, is a war crime," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, adding that he expected the U.N. Security Council to step in "to stop this bloodshed."

"People are dying in Syria ... How long will we wait? ... The silence of the international community is killing people," he added.

At other sessions, Arab officials and Middle East observers echoed a theme of exasperated dismay combined with a lack of clarity about what exactly should be done.

"What's happening in Syria goes beyond tragedy," said Saudi Prince Turki Al Faisal, a former intelligence chief and ambassador to the United States. "It is truly a shameful situation where the world sits by and people are being killed every day, and nobody is ready to put a stop to it."

His country is a rival of Iran, one of the main backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Faisal identified another problem, saying the Arab world "doesn't have the means to get involved... It doesn't have the air force, the navy, the army, the intelligence-gathering machinery to go and surgically stop this fighting."

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Ann Amos, meanwhile, emphasized how urgent the need was in Syria.

"The humanitarian situation in Syria is already catastrophic and it's clearly getting worse," said Amos. "What we are seeing now are the consequences of the failure of the international community to unite to resolve the crisis."

The world has been grappling with how to deal with the Syrian war ever since protests against Assad erupted in March 2011. But beyond calls and symbolic gestures such as last fall's recognition by many countries of the opposition as the legitimate government of Syria, there has been no intervention on the ground.

Russia has given Assad's embattling regime significant diplomatic cover — which has of late has been eroding — and there has been widespread reluctance in the West to arm the rebels due to concerns about the influential role of anti-Western jihadi elements in the rebellion.

In the meantime, Amos said, 4 million people in Syria "face unrelenting violence and violations of their human rights" — living in constant fear of bombing and lacking food, shelter or medical attention.

In all, she said, at least 650,000 people have fled Syria and another 2 million people are internally displaced. She said UN relief agencies, working with Syrian aid agencies, were feeding more people every month but added "we cannot keep pace with the rising number of people in acute need."

Ertharin Cousin, the executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Program, said the organization hoped to expand beyond the 1.5 million people it was aiding in Syria but needed more resources and better access.

Davutoglu said at the very least the world community should set up humanitarian access to cities inside Syria like Homs and Hama, which aid workers have found largely unreachable so far.

"Urban areas are being bombarded indiscriminately," he said. "Even in a war, this is a criminal act."

Davutoglu said one possibility was setting up a no-fly zone but another alternative would be "a clear decision by the U.N. Security Council declaring this a war crime and taking this to international justice."

He said Turkey was housing 160,000 Syrians in 16 refugee camps and up to 70,000 others in its cities, and had spent $500 million on housing, food, education and health services.

"We don't see them as refugees but we see them as our guests," he said. "We will never close our border."

Vali Nasr, dean of the school of advanced international studies at Johns Hopkins University, warned that even if Assad fell, "more than likely the civil war will continue" in the absence of any international force to stop the violence.

He said Syria occupies a key place in international politics.

"It can have a major blowback effect in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq and also touch off a much broader regional rivalry between Turkey and Iran, and Iran and Saudi Arabia," he said.

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Palestinians say they may have no choice but to take Israel to Hague court

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Palestinians declared Wednesday that they will have no choice but to complain about Israel to the International Criminal Court if the Jewish state proceeds with plans to build housing on land the Palestinians want for a future state.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Middle East, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said his government's decision will largely depend on what the Israelis do with the so-called "E1" area outside the Arab suburbs of East Jerusalem.

"If Israel would like to go further by implementing the E1 (settlement) plan and the other related plans around Jerusalem then yes, we will be going to the ICC," he said. "We have no other choice. It depends on the Israeli decision."

The Palestinians have previously suggested that bringing their various disputes with Israel to the Hague-based court was an option, but Malki's remarks on Wednesday were the most direct threat his government has made against the Jewish state to date.

The International Criminal Court prosecutes charges of genocide, war crimes and other major human rights violations. The Palestinians must first apply to join the court, and once a member they could refer Israel for investigation.

The Palestinians became eligible to join the ICC after the U.N. General Assembly upgraded the Palestinians' status at the world body in November from "observer entity" to "non-member state," a move that was widely seen as a de facto recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

After the November 29 vote - on the 65th anniversary of the adoption of U.N. resolution 181 that partitioned Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states - Israel announced it would build 3,000 more settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are areas the Palestinians want for a future state, along with Gaza.

E1 covers some 12 square km (4.6 square miles) and is considered particularly important because it not only juts into the narrow "waist" of the West Bank, but also backs onto East Jerusalem, where Palestinians want to establish their capital.

Approximately 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The United Nations deems all Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal.

'STATE OF PALESTINE'

U.N. Special Coordinator of the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, told the 15-nation Security Council settlements were contrary to international law and "increasingly an obstacle to peace." But he also warned the Palestinians against pursuing international action.

The council meeting on the Middle East represented its first public debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the Palestinian U.N. status upgrade. Malki and a number of council members referred to the "State of Palestine" in their speeches.

The words "State of Palestine" were also emblazoned on the name plate for the Palestinian delegation.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice made clear to the council that such public references to the "State of Palestine" do not make it a sovereign state.

"Any reference to the 'State of Palestine' in the United Nations, including the use of the term 'State of Palestine' on the placard in the Security Council or the use of the term 'State of Palestine' in the invitation ... do not reflect acquiescence that 'Palestine' is a state," she said.

The United States, Israel and seven other members of the 193-nation General Assembly voted against the Palestinian U.N. status upgrade in November.

The White House on Wednesday renewed its call for a resumption of long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in the wake of Israeli elections in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerged the winner but with a weaker-than-expected showing for his right-wing bloc.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Suicide blast at funeral kills 25 in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a packed funeral ceremony at a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens in an attack likely to further deepen the country's ethnic and sectarian rifts.

The bomber detonated his explosives at the Sayyid al-Shuhada mosque in Tuz Khormato as mourners marked the death of a government employee who was killed in a drive-by shooting a day earlier, according to witnesses. A number of provincial officials were among those hurt in the attack.

Mayor Shalal Abdoul said that at least 25 people were killed and more than 90 were wounded, including some who remain in critical condition.

The scene was chaotic at a nearby hospital where many victims were taken. Associated Press television footage showed medics rushing to treat some of the wounded on a blood-streaked floor as bystanders carried in more victims arriving in pickup trucks and the backs of compact cars.

Yalmaz Ogolu, the owner of a television channel in the nearby city of Kirkuk, said he was just leaving the funeral when the attack occurred.

"I heard a thunderous boom come from the mosque," he said. "Seconds later, I saw panicked people fleeing the mosque while others carried bodies and wounded people out."

"Police soon showed up and started shooting in the air," presumably to disperse the crowd in case of a follow-up blast, he said.

The attack underscores the challenges facing Iraq's government as it struggles to maintain law and order more than a year after the last U.S. troops left.

Wednesday marked at least the fifth time this month that insurgents managed to carry out attacks claiming more than 20 lives in a single day.

The bombing came a day after a string of attacks, including three car bombs in and around Baghdad, killed at least 23 people Tuesday.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad quickly condemned the bombing, saying it intentionally targeted men, women, and children.

"The deliberate targeting of innocent civilians is cowardly and reprehensible. This attack is meant to incite others into violence and is harmful to the interests of all Iraqis," the embassy said.

The upsurge in violence has coincided with a wave of Sunni-led protests against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government over what the Sunnis see as unfair treatment of their sect.

Ethnic tensions are also rattling Iraq's stability.

Tuz Khormato, where Wednesday's attack struck, sits in a band of territory contested by Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad.

The town was the scene of an exchange of fire in November that pushed the Iraqi government and the Kurds, who have their own armed force, into a military standoff along the disputed territories that has yet to be resolved.

Those wounded in Wednesday's attack include the deputy governor of Salaheddin province, Ahmed Abdul-Jabar, and provincial council member Ali Hashim Mukhtar, said Kirkuk mayor Munir al-Qafily, who was also hurt in the blast.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. But it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida's local franchise, which often uses indiscriminate, high-profile killings to sow fear and undermine the government's authority.

Violence has fallen since the peak of the insurgency in Iraq several years ago, but lethal attacks launched primarily by Sunni extremists still occur frequently.

The attacks exacerbate Iraq's struggle to maintain stability amid a series of political crises that have wracked the country since the U.S. military withdrawal in December 2011.

Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb apparently intended for a passing police vehicle in Baqouba hit a minibus instead, killing one and wounding four, according to police.

In another attack near Fallujah, police said gunmen killed a local leader of the Sahwa, a group of Sunni fighters who joined forces with the U.S. military to fight al-Qaida at the height of Iraq's insurgency.

Sunni insurgents frequently target Sahwa members, because they consider them to be traitors.

A suicide bomber last week assassinated Sunni lawmaker Ifan Saadoun al-Issawi, who was one of the main founders of the Sahwa in Fallujah. A day later, a series of blasts struck the northern city of Kirkuk, which like Tuz Khormato is home to a mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, who all have competing claims to the oil-rich area.

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