Sky video
Video Shows Black Man Being Stopped From Boarding Train By Supporters

PARIS (Reuters) - The victim of a racist incident involving Chelsea soccer fans in the Paris metro did not know the incident had been filmed and widely broadcast and will now lodge an official complaint with police, he told French daily Le Parisien.

"I don't speak a word of English ... but it was clear to me they were picking on me because of the color of my skin," the victim, identified by Le Parisien as Souleymane, 33, said.

The Paris prosecutor's office has started an investigation to find the people responsible for chanting: "We're racist and that's the way we like it" as they stopped a black man boarding a metro train in Paris on Tuesday.

The incident was captured on video by another passenger on the platform at the Richelieu-Drouot metro station before English club Chelsea played Paris St Germain in a Champions League match at the Parc des Princes in the French capital.

After the incident, which Souleymane said lasted six or seven minutes: "I took the next metro and went back home without telling anyone, not even my wife or kids. What would I have told my kids? That daddy was pushed in the metro because he's black?"

Police said no arrests were made in relation to the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw, but amateur footage posted on The Guardian newspaper website (www.theguardian.com) clearly showed the incident, which has been widely condemned by the soccer authorities including FIFA president Sepp Blatter and both clubs.

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Des supporters de Chelsea empêchent un homme noir de monter dans le métro parisien, le 17 février 20 …

"We firmly condemn this intolerable act of discrimination. Only the values of sport should inspire the football fans. They value the gathering of all, whatever their origins," a statement from PSG club president Nasser al-Khelaifi said.

"Sport must carry the spirit of fraternity. This problem concerns all club officials and calls for vigilance."

French League (LFP) president Frederic Thiriez said the LFP was considering filing a civil suit.

"What happened is intolerable," Thiriez said in a statement.

"Football must fight racism on a daily basis. It's a priority. And it's in the name of that priority that we wish to file a civil suit. I welcome the English authorities and Chelsea FC's reactivity, who are at our side in that fight."

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is expected to address the incident at a press conference on Friday while the English Premier League's only black manager Chris Ramsey, in charge of Queens Park Rangers, said the club should not be blamed for the behavior of their fans.

Souleymane told Le Parisien he was used to racism but it was the first time it happened to him in the Paris underground.

"I didn't know I had been filmed. Talking about this now encourages me to lodge a complaint with the police," he said.

The Metropolitan Police in London have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

(Reporting by Ingrid Melander and Julien Pretot; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Justin Palmer)

BEIRUT (AP) — As the Islamic State group tries to expand and take root across the Middle East, it is struggling in Syria — part of its heartland — where it has stalled or even lost ground while fighting multiple enemies on several fronts.

Signs of tension and power struggles are emerging among the ranks of its foreign fighters.

The extremists remain a formidable force, and the group's hold on about a third of Iraq and Syria remains firm. But it appears to be on the defensive in Syria for the first time since it swept through the territory last year and is suffering from months of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and the myriad factions fighting it on the ground.

"They are struggling with new challenges that did not exist before," said Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

Kurdish forces dealt the Islamic State its heaviest setback by driving it from the border town of Kobani in northern Syria last month. Since then, those forces have joined with moderate Syrian rebels to take back about 215 villages in the same area, according to Kurdish commanders and activists, including the Britain-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The gains have strained supply lines between the Islamic State group's westernmost strongholds in Aleppo province from its core territory in eastern Syria. The Kurdish-rebel forces are now expected to take the fight to some of those strongholds, particularly the large towns of Minbij and Jarablus, as well as Tal Abyad, a border crossing with Turkey that is a major avenue for commerce for the extremists.

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FILE - In this undated file image posted on Monday, June 30, 2014, by the Raqqa Media Center of the …

Around the town of al-Bab, one of the IS group's westernmost strongholds, the extremists are making tactical withdrawals. Residents have noted a thinner militant presence in al-Bab.

The militants are also finding themselves bogged down in costly battles with the government forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The extremist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has been stuck in fierce fighting with the Syrian army near the Deir el-Zour air base, the last major Syrian military stronghold in the eastern province. IS launched an unsuccessful attack to seize the base last month, and it continues to try.

It is too early to call the shifts a turning point, but they represent the slow grind of the international campaign against the Islamic State group, which long seemed unconquerable as it seized territory stretching from outside the city of Aleppo in northern Syria's at one end to the outskirts of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad at the other.

In Iraq, the combination of coalition airstrikes, Kurdish forces, Shiite militias and Iraqi troops have pushed IS back around the edges, but the militants succeeded this week in taking new territory for the first time in months. They also raised new alarms with the presence of their affiliate in Libya.

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FILE - In this undated file photo posted on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014 by the Raqqa Media Center of th …

But it was in the Syrian town of Kobani that the Islamic State suffered its worst single loss — more than 1,000 militants killed — and much of its heavy weaponry and vehicles destroyed. The January defeat followed five months of fighting by mostly Kurdish ground forces and coalition airstrikes that left about 70 percent of the town in ruins and sent tens of thousands of its residents fleeing over the nearby border into Turkey.

After the loss of Kobani, signs of fissures within the IS group have emerged.

Bari Abdellatif, a resident of al-Bab who also has fled to Turkey, said friction between Chechen and Uzbek militants recently led to clashes between the two that ended only with the intervention of Omar al-Shishani, a prominent Chechen IS commander. At least two senior figures were killed because of the internal strife, he said.

"The prolonged battle for Kobani caused a lot of tensions — fighters accused each other of treachery and eventually turned on each other," Abdellatif said.

Several other activists confirmed recent clashes between factions from different national backgrounds within IS.

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FILE - In this June 25, 2014, file photo, a Kurdish peshmerga fighter carries his weapon walks onto …

Last month, a senior official with the group's Hisba, or vice police, was found beheaded in Deir el-Zour province. A cigarette was stuffed in his mouth, apparently trying to show he was killed for smoking, which is banned by IS, but there are suspicions the official — an Egyptian — was killed by the extremists who suspected him of spying.

An activist based in the group's de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, said foreign fighters bicker over administrative and financial issues. Several militants have been killed on suspicion of spying or trying to defect.

"Daesh tries to portray itself as one thing, but beneath the surface there's a lot of dirt," the activist said, using the Arabic acronym for the group and speaking on condition of anonymity out of concern for his security.

Earlier this month, the extremists dismissed one of the group's religious officials in Aleppo province and referred him to a religious court after he objected to the immolation of a captured Jordanian air force pilot, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"IS is now beginning to struggle to keep its own forces coherent — and this is separate from all the external factors that are impacting it negatively," Khatib said.

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FILE - This undated file photo posted on Monday, Nov. 4, 2014 by the Raqqa Media Office of the Islam …

She said the new troubles have a lot to do with the fact that IS in Syria is operating in the context of a civil war where people become greedy and refuse to cede power to others.

"Even ISIS is not immune from the warlord phenomenon that takes place in the context of civil war and is being witnessed in Syria today," she said.

In Raqqa, stepped-up coalition airstrikes in response to the Jordanian pilot's killing has shaken the group, activists say.

An anti-IS media collective called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said the extremists have been forcing residents to donate blood after dozens of fighters were seriously wounded. It also reported that the group recently imposed a nighttime curfew and put up nighttime roadblocks to curb desertions by members trying to reach Turkey.

While foreigners from around the globe have joined IS, many disillusioned new recruits have left or are trying to leave, finding life to be very different and more violent than they had expected.

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FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2014, file photo, Yazidi fighters gather on the summit of Mount Sinjar as th …

The Observatory says the militant group has killed more than 120 of its own members in the past six months, most of them foreign fighters hoping to return home.

"When we take all these little puzzle pieces together and we assemble our mosaic, it's very clear that they're having issues. ... I believe that they are hurting," said Scott Stewart, vice president of Tactical Analysis at Stratfor, a global intelligence and advisory firm.

Faysal Itani, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said it has become more difficult for IS to make substantial territorial progress, but the group still does not face any significant challenge to its rule in its strongholds.

"ISIS continues to build support among tribal groups, and attract fighters defecting from other insurgent groups," he said.

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Follow Zeina Karam on http://twitter.com/zkaram

Reuters Videos
Soldiers killed in Debaltseve withdrawal, Ukraine calls for peacekeepers

DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine (AP) — For the rebel fighters who seized control of this strategic town, Thursday was a day of jubilation and bragging of victory. The retreating Ukrainian soldiers were grim, stunned and relieved to have escaped with their lives as the scope of their losses became clearer: at least 13 dead and hundreds missing, captured or wounded.

Rebel fighters roamed the debris-littered streets of Debaltseve, laughing, hugging and posing for photos a day after the fall of the furiously contested railway hub. Associated Press journalists found its neighborhoods destroyed and all under the control of the rebels.

On the road out of town, dozens of Ukrainian military vehicles, many riddled with bullet holes and with their windshields smashed, were heading to the government-held city of Artemivsk.

The soldiers inside described weeks of harrowing rebel shelling, followed by a hasty retreat.

"We left under heavy fire, driving on back roads," said a soldier who gave only his first name, Andrei. "As we were leaving, we were attacked by artillery and grenade launchers. We came under repeated attack by tanks and assault groups."

As rebels waved separatist flags, Nikolai Kozitsyn, a Russian Cossack leader and prominent warlord in the rebel-controlled east, drove around in a Humvee-like vehicle captured from Ukrainian troops.

All around lay the wrecked remains of Ukrainian armored vehicles. Rebel fighters, many of them Cossacks, searched through the bunkers and tents of an abandoned military encampment, looking to salvage equipment and clothing left behind.

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A pro-Russia rebel holds a flag of the rebel-held city of Luhansk in Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine, Th …

Two rebel fighters inspected an abandoned tank, declaring it a "gift" from the Ukrainian army. They then grabbed a bloodied blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag and ground it into the frozen earth with their boots.

But in a reminder of the dangers, one vehicle carrying Cossacks hit a land mine, killing one rebel fighter and wounding another.

Cossacks, who spearheaded imperial Russia's expansion and helped guard its far-flung outposts, trace their historic roots to both Ukraine and southern Russia. They faced persecution under Bolshevik rule but resurfaced after the 1991 Soviet collapse and are now recognized in Russia as an ethnic group who consider themselves descendants of the czarist-era horsemen.

By Thursday, 90 percent of government forces had been withdrawn, a military spokesman said, though he gave no precise figure. Late Wednesday, President Petro Poroshenko said 2,475 soldiers were safely pulled out.

The official toll stood at 13 soldiers killed, 157 wounded, more than 90 captured and at least 82 missing. But retreating soldiers spoke of many more casualties during a hasty and disorderly withdrawal, and the death toll was likely to rise.

Rebel leaders also claimed the Ukrainian casualties were far higher and bragged about seizing large numbers of heavy weapons abandoned by the government forces.

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In this late Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015 photo, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speaks in Kiev, Uk …

The capture of Debaltseve, a key railroad junction that straddles the route between the separatists' two main cities, Donetsk and Luhansk, was a significant military victory for the rebels.

However, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the three-week siege had left the town's infrastructure in ruins. "A strategic rail hub has stopped its existence the way it was," he said Thursday in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

The retreating soldiers appeared shell-shocked as they described the harrowing battle.

"Starting at night, they would fire at us just to stop us from sleeping. They did this all night," said Andrei, the Ukrainian soldier. "Then in the morning, they would attack, wave after wave. They did this constantly for three weeks."

The battle for Debaltseve defied a cease-fire for eastern Ukraine that was supposed to go into effect Sunday. While the truce mostly held elsewhere, Ukrainian military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh said the rebels had repeatedly shelled a village on the outskirts of the strategic port city of Mariupol over the past 24 hours.

The war in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 5,600 people and forced over a million to flee their homes since fighting began in April, a month after Russia annexed the mostly Russian-speaking Crimean Peninsula. Russia denies arming the rebels or supplying fighters, but Western nations and NATO point to satellite pictures of Russian military equipment in eastern Ukraine.

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A pro-Russian rebel cossack, second left, hugs another rebel in Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine, Thursda …

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke Thursday with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders about cease-fire violations and their consequences. The Kremlin confirmed the four leaders spoke by phone and praised the cease-fire deal, saying it has led to "a reduction in the number of civilian casualties."

France and Germany, which oversaw marathon peace talks last week between Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, both signaled they were determined to salvage the cease-fire agreement and keep the two sides talking.

The German government said the four leaders had agreed "to stick to the Minsk agreements despite the serious breach of the cease-fire in Debaltseve." It said "immediate concrete steps" were necessary to ensure the truce is fully implemented and heavy weapons are withdrawn.

The warring sides were supposed to pull back their heavy weapons from the front lines beginning Tuesday, but international monitors said they had not seen either doing so.

"We have not observed the withdrawal of heavy weapons, however we have observed and reported on the movement of heavy weapons," said Michael Bociurkiw of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Poroshenko suggested that the European Union deploy a peacekeeping mission to help ensure the observance of the cease-fire, but the EU has remained non-committal and Russia reacted negatively, saying that the OSCE monitors could do the job.

Paris and Berlin appeared to hope that, with the disputed territory of Debaltseve in rebel hands, the cease-fire can now take hold.

A top French official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the ongoing negotiations, described the attitude as "pragmatic," saying continued fighting "was not acceptable to us."

Germany has lowered expectations for the cease-fire in Ukraine.

Merkel told supporters that "Germany and France together, will not ease off on doing everything so that Ukraine can go its way and have its territorial integrity — but we want to do it with Russia, not against Russia."

Analysts said that despite public anger in Kiev over the fall of Debaltseve, an overall cease-fire for eastern Ukraine was probably more important than who controlled one town.

Germany is "more clearly aware than many in Kiev that Ukraine basically needs a cease-fire or a freezing of the conflict more urgently than Moscow," said Gustav Gressel, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. "Kiev needs to see sooner or later how it gets out of the war."

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Associated Press writers Balint Szlanko in Artemivsk, Ukraine; Jim Heintz in Kiev, Laura Mills in Moscow, Lori Hinnant in Paris, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Wochit
Turkey, U.S. Sign Deal to Train and Equip Syrian Opposition: Official

By Tulay Karadeniz and David Alexander

ANKARA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Turkey signed an agreement on Thursday to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition fighters, and Ankara will provide an equal number of trainers to work alongside their American military counterparts, a U.S. official said.

The deal with Turkey formalized plans for one of four known sites to be used in a broader program to train Syrian rebels opposed to Islamic State militants. A deal for a facility in Jordan is imminent and locations in Saudi Arabia and Qatar could be ready in a few months, the U.S. official said.

The effort to train and equip Syrian moderates to fight Islamic State rebels began to pick up steam after months of planning. The Pentagon said on Wednesday it had identified some 1,200 Syrian opposition fighters for potential training.

The U.S.-Turkey deal was signed by an undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry and the U.S. ambassador, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said.

It provides a training facility that will require only modest security upgrades, work Ankara has already begun, an official at the U.S. military's Central Command told reporters.

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Rebel fighters of the Al-Furqan brigade prepare Grad rockets to be launched towards forces loyal to …

"The site that they have offered is a brand new facility. It is one that we would be proud to call our own," said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the training site Jordan planned to provide also was new and ready to use.

"We're working through some final technical agreements with them (Jordan) that we anticipate being signed any day, if it has not already been signed," the official said.

A site offered by Saudi Arabia will be ready for use within 30 to 90 days, "so it will come into the picture shortly after Jordan and Turkey," the official said. A site offered by Qatar could be ready within six to nine months, he said.

The U.S. official said Turkey demanded an equal role in the training mission and would provide the same number of trainers at its facility as the American side.

U.S. officials have said they plan to train about 5,000 Syrian fighters a year for three years under the program, which is due to begin in March. Turkey hopes the training will also bolster the weakened and divided Syrian opposition in their war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Grant McCool)

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Boko Haram militants suffered heavy casualties when Chadian troops pushed into Nigeria this week, residents who fled the fighting told AFP on Thursday.

Chad's army said on Tuesday evening that they had seized control of the town of Dikwa, which is about 50 kilometres (31 miles) southwest of the Nigerian border town of Gamboru.

The offensive deep inside Nigerian territory was a first and suggested a strategy to tackle other rebel-controlled areas in northeastern Borno state, which is the group's stronghold.

The Chadians are part of a four-country coalition mounting a regional fight-back against the Islamists.

"Chadian soldiers took over Dikwa from Boko Haram after heavy fighting on Tuesday," Bababura Diwa, who lives in the town, said by telephone from Fotokol, across the border in northern Cameroon.

Diwa said the Chadians came from Gamboru, which they previously recaptured, with heavy artillery power and overpowered a group of militants at Lomani village, 15 kilometres from Dikwa.

"When they came into Dikwa there was intense fighting but at last they subdued the Boko Haram fighters," he added.

"They killed many of them, including Abu Ashshe, their commander who was notorious for seizing cattle in the area.

"I used the opportunity provided by the presence of the Chadian troops to leave the town. I was afraid to leave when Boko Haram took over the town for fear of being branded a traitor and killed."

Diwa's account was backed up by several other residents, who took advantage of the Chadian advance to flee the ancient town, which is near Boko Haram's makeshift camps in the Sambisa Forest.

Jidda Saleh, another resident, said Chadian troops launched heavy aerial and ground attacks on the Kala-Balge area, particularly on Nduwu village, which he said was a "major Boko Haram stronghold".

"The whole village was bombarded and it is obvious Boko Haram suffered heavy casualties from the aerial attack. Ground troops moved in later," he added.

"Meleri, which has a huge Boko Haram concentration, was also bombed by Chadian military jets and then taken over by ground troops.

"By the time we left we learnt the Chadian soldiers were on their way to Kushimori village where Boko Haram keep the livestock they seize from people.

"They have kept thousands of livestock there. They sunk boreholes and recruited people to rear the animals for them".

Algoni Wal-Amire, another Kala-Balge resident, welcomed the offensive.

"Living under Boko Haram was like living in a minefield. You are always afraid your next step could be your last. I thank God I'm now safe from them," he said.