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Swiss Prosecutor Indicts Former Algerian Minister

FILE - Former Algerian Defense Minister and retired Gen. Khaled Nezzar smiles as he answers reporters at the Paris courthouse Monday, July 1, 2002. (AP Photo/Amel Pain, File)
FILE - Former Algerian Defense Minister and retired Gen. Khaled Nezzar smiles as he answers reporters at the Paris courthouse Monday, July 1, 2002. (AP Photo/Amel Pain, File)
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Swiss Prosecutor Indicts Former Algerian Minister

FILE - Former Algerian Defense Minister and retired Gen. Khaled Nezzar smiles as he answers reporters at the Paris courthouse Monday, July 1, 2002. (AP Photo/Amel Pain, File)
FILE - Former Algerian Defense Minister and retired Gen. Khaled Nezzar smiles as he answers reporters at the Paris courthouse Monday, July 1, 2002. (AP Photo/Amel Pain, File)

The office of Switzerland's Attorney General has filed an indictment against Algeria's former military chief for suspected crimes against humanity during the country's 1990s civil war, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The indictment against former Defense Minister Khaled Nezzar, who is believed to live in Algeria but who could be tried in his absence, relates to alleged crimes committed between 1992 and 1994, Reuters quoted the statement as saying.

Swiss-based non-governmental organisation TRIAL International brought a criminal complaint against Nezzar under a law passed in Switzerland in 2011, which allows prosecution for serious crimes committed anywhere, under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Reuters could not immediately contact Nezzar, or a Geneva-based lawyer who has previously represented him, for comment. Nezzar has previously denied accusations of wrongdoing during the war in comments to Algerian media.

Nezzar was arrested in Geneva in 2011, but he was released after two days of hearings and was believed to have returned to Algeria.

The new indictment means there will be a trial even if Nezzar, who is in his 80s, is not present, TRIAL International said.

The Attorney General's office said its investigations had been "complex" and at one stage temporarily abandoned the proceedings amid questions over its own jurisdiction to assess alleged war crimes.

Nezzar is set to be the highest-level military official ever to be tried using universal jurisdiction laws, according to TRIAL.

It would be one of only a handful of such cases to be heard in Switzerland and the second-ever hearing for crimes against humanity after a case against a Liberian warlord concluded this year.

Nezzar became Algeria's defense minister in 1990 and was involved when its military seized power the following year and overturned a parliamentary election that had been won by the Islamic Salvation Front.

The ensuing violence, dubbed the "dirty war", lasted until 1999 and some 200,000 people died, mainly civilians massacred by groups the military said were Islamist fighters.

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Arab World

Kurdish-led SDF Says Armed Group Attacks Shaddadi Prison as Syrian Forces Tighten Grip

A member of Syrian military police stands guard near Raqqa prison, after the army took control of the city of Raqqa, Syria January 19, 2026. (Reuters)
A member of Syrian military police stands guard near Raqqa prison, after the army took control of the city of Raqqa, Syria January 19, 2026. (Reuters)
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Kurdish-led SDF Says Armed Group Attacks Shaddadi Prison as Syrian Forces Tighten Grip

A member of Syrian military police stands guard near Raqqa prison, after the army took control of the city of Raqqa, Syria January 19, 2026. (Reuters)
A member of Syrian military police stands guard near Raqqa prison, after the army took control of the city of Raqqa, Syria January 19, 2026. (Reuters)

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Monday that forces affiliated with the Syrian government attacked Shaddadi prison in Hasaka in Syria's northeast, where it said thousands of ISIS militants were being held.

The SDF said it confronted the attackers at Shaddadi and repelled them several times, but that dozens of its fighters had been killed. US-led coalition forces did not intervene despite repeated calls for help, the Kurdish group said.

Earlier, the SDF said it had also clashed with Syrian government forces near the Al-Aqtan ‌prison on the ‌outskirts of Raqqa, another facility holding ‌ISIS ⁠detainees. Raqqa was ‌once the center of the group's short-lived "caliphate".

The SDF described the clashes as a "highly dangerous development", warning that any seizure of the prison by government forces "could have serious security repercussions that threaten stability and pave the way for a return to chaos and terrorism".

Syria's ministry of defense denied that government forces attacked the prisons. It said its forces had ⁠arrived at Al-Aqtan and had begun "securing" the facility and its surroundings. The army did ‌not enter Shaddadi prison, the ministry said ‍in a statement.

The Syrian army also ‍accused the SDF of being responsible for the release of ‍ISIS detainees from Shaddadi prison. It said the prison would be handed over to the ministry of interior after a security process.

The SDF said nine of its fighters were killed and 20 wounded in clashes around Al-Aqtan.

Under a sweeping integration deal agreed with Damascus on Sunday, responsibility for prisons housing ISIS detainees was ⁠meant to be transferred to the Syrian government.

After days of fighting with government forces, the SDF - once the main US ally in Syria - agreed on Sunday to withdraw from two Arab-majority provinces it had controlled for years, including oil fields.

Syrian government troops tightened their grip on Monday across swathes of northern and eastern territory abruptly abandoned by the SDF, in a dramatic shift that strengthened President Ahmed al-Sharaa's rule.

In Raqqa, government internal security forces and military police set up checkpoints and checked IDs. Security sources said the city had been cleared ‌of SDF fighters overnight.

Arab World

Syria Deal Could Remove Main Obstacle to Türkiye -PKK Peace, Turkish Officials Say

A crossing at the Syrian-Turkish borders. (AFP)
A crossing at the Syrian-Turkish borders. (AFP)
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Syria Deal Could Remove Main Obstacle to Türkiye -PKK Peace, Turkish Officials Say

A crossing at the Syrian-Turkish borders. (AFP)
A crossing at the Syrian-Turkish borders. (AFP)

A deal under which Kurdish forces abandoned long-held ​territory in Syria to the Syrian government could pave the way for Türkiye to advance its stalled effort to end its decades-long conflict with the PKK, Turkish politicians and officials said on Monday.

After days of fighting, the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed on Sunday to bring Kurdish authorities under the control of Damascus. By Monday, SDF fighters had pulled out of swathes of territory which were now under control of the Syrian military.

Neighbour Türkiye has long considered the SDF ‌in Syria ‌to be an offshoot of the banned PKK, or ‌Kurdistan ⁠Workers ​Party, which decided ‌in May last year to disarm, disband and end its decades-long war against the Turkish state.

Turkish officials have long said that as long as the SDF controlled a swathe of territory across the border, it was difficult to end the war with the PKK. But now, with the SDF pulling out of two Syrian provinces, Turkish leaders see progress resuming.

 

EFFORTS TO DERAIL PEACE THWARTED, ERDOGAN'S PARTY SAYS

 

Omer Celik, spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling ⁠AK Party, said Syrian government forces' recent advances had "thwarted" efforts by Kurdish groups to derail Türkiye's peace process.

Feti ‌Yildiz, a deputy leader of the government-allied Turkish nationalist MHP ‍party, said Sunday's agreement in Syria would ‍have "a favorable impact".

"Things will become easier," Yildiz told reporters in the Turkish parliament ‍when asked how the Syrian deal affects the PKK process. "It had been standing like an obstacle, and for now it looks as though that obstacle has been removed."

The PKK itself had yet to comment on the SDF's withdrawal as of Monday afternoon. Türkiye 's pro-Kurdish DEM ​Party, which has previously criticized the Syrian offensive against Kurdish forces, has also not yet reacted.

Turkish security sources, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, ⁠called the deal a historic turning point and said stability in Syria was vital to Ankara's goal of eradicating terrorism in Türkiye, where the PKK has fought an insurgency since 1984 in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

Though the PKK symbolically burned weapons in July, the peace process has since shown little sign of progress: a months-long parliamentary commission has so far revealed no details on legal or reform measures.

Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said the deal ended the Kurdish hope of retaining a large measure of autonomy and would benefit Turkey.

"Erdogan is undoubtedly rejoicing at the news, which will greatly weaken the PKK and ‌any lingering Kurdish aspiration for an independent Kurdistan. Syria will become stronger economically and militarily, and Türkiye will profit from this," Landis said on X.

 

 

 

 

 

Arab World

Yemen Humanitarian Crisis to Worsen in 2026 amid Funding Cuts, Says UN

Children wait for lunch at their hut in Sanaa, Yemen August 29, 2022 (Reuters)
Children wait for lunch at their hut in Sanaa, Yemen August 29, 2022 (Reuters)
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Yemen Humanitarian Crisis to Worsen in 2026 amid Funding Cuts, Says UN

Children wait for lunch at their hut in Sanaa, Yemen August 29, 2022 (Reuters)
Children wait for lunch at their hut in Sanaa, Yemen August 29, 2022 (Reuters)

The UN warned on Monday that the humanitarian situation in Yemen is worsening and that gains made to tackle malnutrition ​and health would go into reverse due to funding cuts.

"The context is very concerning... We are expecting things to be much worse in 2026," Julien Harneis, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, told reporters in Geneva.

Some 21 million people will need humanitarian assistance this year, an increase from ‌19.5 million the ‌previous year, according to the ‌UN. ⁠The ​situation ‌has been aggravated by economic collapse and disruption of essential services including health and education, and political uncertainty, Harneis said.

The US slashed its ⁠aid spending this year, and leading Western donors also pared back help ‌as they pivoted to raise defense ‍spending, triggering a funding ‍crunch for the UN.

Yemen has been the ‍focus of one of the world's largest humanitarian operations in a decade of civil war that disrupted food supplies.

"Children are dying and it's ⁠going to get worse," Harneis said. Food insecurity is projected to worsen across the country, with higher rates of malnutrition anticipated, he stated.

"For 10 years, the UN and humanitarian organizations were able to improve mortality and improve morbidity...this year, that's not going to be the case."

He said Yemen’s humanitarian crisis threatened the region with diseases like measles and polio that could cross borders.

In 2025 680 million dollars was afforded to ‌the UN in Yemen, about 28% of the intended target, Harneis said.