Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Israel tried to ban pro-BDS Dublin mayor, but failed, due to 'spelling error'

A tit-for-tat row has kicked off between Israeli ministries over the bureaucratic bungling

Lord Mayor of Dublin Mícheál Mac Donncha (Screengrab)

Wednesday 11 April 2018

Israel tried to bar Dublin's mayor Mícheál Mac Donncha from entering the country on Tuesday night but failed because it misspelt his name.

Both the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and the Ministry of Interior flagged Mac Donncha's name. But a typo led the Israeli immigration officers at Ben Gurion airport in Lod city, to look for the wrong person.

Aryeh Deri, Israel's minister of interior, called on Wednesday for an investigation on Mac Donncha's success at entering the country after admitting that "we made a mistake at the border crossing."

Deri said that he has also now ordered the immigration officers to give Mac Donncha a letter forbidding him from entering Israeli territory in the future, on his way back to Dublin.

Mac Donncha tweeted last night from his hotel room in Ramallah, saying that he arrived through Ben Gurion airport, despite news sites reporting that he was barred entry to attend a conference in Ramallah.

"I can confirm I am in Ramallah and preparing for tomorrow's conference," Mac Donncha said.

A spokesperson at the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs told the Middle East Eye that the decision regarding the Dublin mayor remaining in the country is still being deliberated on.

"We had heard about his entry last night. But his name will stay on the barring entry list in the future," he added.

The mayor's office told MEE that he is on a three-day-visit to Ramallah and Jerusalem and is due to return to Ireland on 13 April, and that he was invited by the Palestinian Authority to speak on the significance of the city of Jerusalem at The Ninth International Bayt Al Maqdis Conference.

"The Lord Mayor travelled via Frankfurt and Tel Aviv Airports and encountered no difficulties during his journey," the office's statement to MEE said.

It added that Mac Donncha is going to meet Palestinian PA figures, including Mayor of Ramallah, Musa Hadeed, and that he "expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine, as repeatedly expressed by the elected members of Dublin City Council."

Tit-for-tat row

Mac Donncha's ability to enter Israel, despite his name supposedly being on a "blacklist" has led to a tit-for-tat row between Israel's Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Strategic Affairs over the bureaucratic bungling.

A source at the Ministry of Interior told the Ynet news site that the Ministry of Strategic Affairs is responsible for the error.

The source said that details of Mac Donncha's ban were not sent alongside a copy of his passport.

"The Ministry of Strategic Affairs misspelt the man's name in the document it gave to border control, and that's how it was entered into the system. If someone is barred from entering, the system should produce a warning as soon as the name is entered, but when someone arrives with a passport bearing a different name, there's no way of knowing about the ban," he told Ynet.

But the Ministry of Strategic Affairs claimed that they gave the Ministry of Interior the Dublin mayor's full and correct name "as it is spelt on his official website [of Dublin city]."

The official also provided a screenshot from the website that it says was sent to the Ministry of Interior through WhatsApp, according to Ynet.

It appears the mayor's surname was written with spaces on his passport, and without a period on the official city website.

A screenshot provided by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs to the Ministry of Interior with Mac Donncha's name spelt wrong according to Ynet (Screenshot)

'Good friend of Palestinians'

Mac Donncha was elected in June 2017 as the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

He is a member of the leftist Sinn Féin party, one of the main political parties in Ireland.

Sinn Féin is known for its support for the Palestinian cause. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Irish Republic Army (IRA), which is historically linked to Sinn Fein, shared close relations since the 1970s.

Recently, Dublin’s city council passed two resolutions in support of Palestine.

One endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a global campaign that "works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law," according to BDS' official website.

The second, proposed by Mac Donncha, called on the Irish national government to expel Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Ze’ev Boker, which has yet to go to a vote.

Willie Howard, an organiser in the Irish Unite the Union, told MEE that Mac Donncha "is a good friend of the Palestinians."

"He went there to visit the Palestinians on their invitation, and it is not an Israeli decision to make and bar him entry. He is not there to visit Israelis," Howard said.

He added that Dublin city council is very active in supporting Palestinians and that it replaced Irish flags with Palestinian flags in 2017, to mark the 50th anniversary of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 war.

"Israel's decision is a disgrace. He is an elected politician and no democratic country would do that," Howard added.

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Blacklisted: Why I will not allow Israel defeat me

The Ministry of Strategic Affairs is a body that was founded in 2006, designed to coordinate with the Ministry of Interior to work against the BDS movement.

Last January, it issued a list that included almost 20 international NGOs, whose their members will be denied entry into Israel.

Also, last January, an inquiry in the Seventh Eye, an independent Israeli website, revealed that through the Ministry, the Israeli government allocated more than $100m in support of “hidden propaganda” against the BDS movement and its sympathisers.

Gilad Erdan, the Minister of Strategic Affairs, said that the policy of the ministry is "clear."

"The policy I set is clear: He who works consistently to boycott Israel will not enter here," he said.

Currently, Mac Donncha is in Ramallah on the invitation of the Palestinian Authority, to attend a conference held on the status of the city of Jerusalem.

Trump says missiles ‘will be coming’ to Syria, taunts Russia for vowing to block them

President Trump at a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven at the White House last month. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By Anne Gearan, John Wagner and Anton Troianovski April 11 at 2:52 PM

President Trump warned Wednesday that U.S. airstrikes on Syria “will be coming” in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack, although he did not say when, and he taunted Syrian ally Russia for a pledge to shoot down American missiles.

Both the United States and Russia escalated a war of words over claims of indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Syria, raising the possibility of open military conflict between the old Cold War adversaries.

“Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to missile strikes that have appeared likely since the weekend deaths of more than 40 Syrian civilians, including children.

It was the first explicit U.S. statement that a military response is in the offing, and it marked a turnabout for a president who ridiculed his predecessor, Barack Obama, for allegedly telegraphing military strategy.

By addressing his warning to Russia, Trump effectively acknowledged that Syria could become a proxy battleground. Russia is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest military defender. The United States conducts counterterrorism operations in Syria and backs some anti-Assad rebels.

Moscow bureau chief Anton Troianovski describes Russia’s tensions with the U.S. and how state media are covering the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria. (Sarah Parnass, Anton Troianovski/The Washington Post)

“You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!” Trump wrote, in one of his most direct criticisms of Moscow.

U.S. officials, while stressing that planning for airstrikes has been careful and orderly, and has involved diplomatic and intelligence agencies as well as the Pentagon, said Trump’s direct threat Wednesday took government officials by surprise. Trump’s description of “smart” weaponry appeared to flow at least partly from briefings Monday and Tuesday that included options involving guided missiles, a senior U.S. official said.

The official requested anonymity because the U.S. plan is not final.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not directly respond to Trump’s threats when he appeared at the Kremlin several hours later, at a ceremony welcoming new foreign ambassadors to Moscow. But he told the assembled diplomats that “the state of things in the world cannot but provoke concern.”

“The situation in the world is increasingly chaotic,” Putin said. “Nevertheless, we hope that common sense will prevail in the end and that international relations will become more constructive — that the whole global system will become more stable and predictable.”

Earlier this week, Trump said his administration was working on a response to the suspected chemical attack on Saturday, including military options. He said Monday that a decision would come in 24 to 48 hours, a time frame that has now elapsed and has been complicated by the advent of an international inspection of the attack area.

President Trump said "nothing's off the table" in responding to a chemical attack in Syria, and that he'd be "very tough" on Russia if they were involved. (Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia did not plan to respond in kind to Trump’s tweeted taunt.

“We do not participate in Twitter diplomacy,” Peskov said, according to Russian news reports. “We are supporters of serious approaches. We continue to believe that it is important not to take steps that could harm an already fragile situation.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that a missile strike could undermine the work of international inspectors who will examine the site of the suspected chemical attack.

“Smart missiles should be fired at terrorists and not at the legitimate government which has been fighting terrorists,” Zakharova wrote on Facebook. “Or is the trick to destroy all the traces with a smart missile strike and then there will be no evidence for international inspectors to look for?”

Trump appeared to be referring to a comment from Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, who was quoted by a Lebanese news outlet Tuesday as saying that Russia would confront a U.S. strike on Syria by shooting down missiles and striking their launchpads or points of origin.

The missiles most likely to be used in a U.S. attack would probably be launched from U.S. warships, opening the possibility that the Russian diplomat was threatening open warfare.

Two Navy destroyers were used to launch more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base in April 2017 in response to a nerve-agent attack that Trump blamed on Assad. The destroyers were underway in the Mediterranean Sea when the missiles were launched from hundreds of miles away. That position was beyond the range of Syrian air defenses, but within range of potential Russian defenses.

The 2017 U.S. assault is probably the best guide for what Trump may do now, but he could choose other launch options. The strike a year ago made good on Trump’s vow not to let the use of chemical weapons go unpunished, but it failed to deter Assad from using them again.

[Experts see hallmarks of nerve gas in Syria attack]

The United States has been building a circumstantial case, based largely on videos and photographs, that a chemical attack by Syrian forces took place in the rebel-held town of Douma in the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus.

Such a finding of fault would be the justification for a U.S. or allied military response that Syria and Russia would surely call a violation of international law. The finding would also help British and French leaders justify military participation with the unpopular American president.

Syria and Russia have insisted that no chemical attack occurred and that only the opposition groups they call “terrorists” possess chemical weapons.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was at the White House on Wednesday afternoon for meetings expected to focus on Syria. Beforehand, he was asked whether he has seen sufficient evidence to blame the Assad government for the attack.

“We’re still assessing the intelligence, ourselves and our allies,” Mattis replied.

“We stand ready to provide military options if they are appropriate, as the president determined.”
Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, has said the military would hit back if U.S. airstrikes endangered Russian servicemen in Syria.

“Regarding the question of what will happen in the event of this or that strike, one still wants to hope that all sides will avoid steps that (a) are not provoked by anything in reality and (b) could significantly destabilize the already fragile situation in the region,” Peskov said Wednesday.

Vladimir Shamanov, chairman of the defense committee of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Russia is in contact with the Pentagon and NATO about the situation in Syria, according to Russian news reports.

“Everybody can live peacefully and accomplish their objectives, because the state agencies of military, diplomatic and political administrative bodies are working around the clock for the third day in a row,” Shamanov said in an interview on the Rossiya 1 network.

Meanwhile, a top Russian military official said Russian military police would enter Douma on Friday. He continued to dispute U.S. claims that a chemical attack took place in the town.

The official, Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir, deputy chief of operations of the Russian General Staff, said the United States should instead pay attention to the humanitarian situation in the city of Raqqa, which Kurdish-led forces and their American allies captured from the Islamic State last year.

“Rather than declare its readiness to strike Syria with missiles, the United States should work on rebuilding the destroyed city and offer comprehensive help to the population,” Poznikhir said.

In a later tweet Wednesday morning, Trump asserted that “our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War.”

“There is no reason for this,” Trump wrote. “Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?”

He later wrote that “much of the bad blood” with Russia was the result of an ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He called the investigation “Fake & Corrupt.”

Trump charged that the investigation is “headed up by all Democrat loyalists.” He cited special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whom he called the “most conflicted of all,” and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the probe.

Both Mueller and Rosenstein are Republicans.

With his series of tweets, Trump did precisely what he vowed he would never to do: telegraph his moves.

During his 2016 campaign, Trump regularly attacked Obama for previewing U.S. military strategy, which he argued gave the enemy an advantage by allowing it to fortify itself for the coming attack.

“I have often said that General MacArthur and General Patton would be in a state of shock if they were alive today to see the way President Obama and Hillary Clinton try to recklessly announce their every move before it happens — like they did in Iraq — so that the enemy can prepare and adapt,” Trump said in an August 2016 speech on terrorism.

As president, Trump has boasted that he does not disclose his plans ahead of time. In April 2017, as he contemplated a strike in Syria, Trump said, “One of the things I think you’ve noticed about me is: Militarily, I don’t like to say where I’m going and what I’m doing.”

In 2013, he advised against any military intervention in Syria, suggesting it was a waste of U.S. energy and money. He also blasted Obama for signaling that a strike was imminent.

“We have given Syria so much time and information-there has never been such an instance in wartime history. Syria is now fully prepared!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Sept. 1, 2013.

Troianovski reported from Moscow. Philip Rucker in Washington and Louisa Loveluck in Istanbul contributed to this report.

Michael Cohen: Why the raid on Trump's lawyer is a big deal

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcher

The FBI has raided the office, home and hotel room of Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's long-time personal lawyer, business adviser and fixer-of-uncomfortable-problems. Now Mr Cohen himself has become the uncomfortable problem, with no easy fix in sight.

There's basically no precedent for this sort of action in modern US presidential politics. And Mr Trump's response on Monday afternoon - an unprompted, extended tirade that used the word "disgrace" or "disgraceful" nine times - hints that the president is concerned… and angry.

Here are a few reasons why the Cohen raid is a significant development in the ongoing presidential investigations - and a growing headache for the White House.

The man under the microscope

Fifty-one-year-old New Yorker Michael Cohen has a law degree, but his past duties for Mr Trump were not typical attorney obligations.

While he did provide counsel, he also was one of the Trump Organization's lead negotiators on foreign business dealings, the man who would send threatening legal letters to Trump critics and - at least in the Stormy Daniels episode - someone who would arrange to keep potentially embarrassing information about Mr Trump under wraps.

"They say I'm Mr Trump's pitbull, that I'm his right-hand man," Mr Cohen said in 2011. "What I am is a loyal employee. I like the man a lot."

In other words, Mr Cohen - although he severed his ties with the Trump business organisation in 2017 - has been deeply embedded in the Trump world for roughly a decade.

If he is under legal scrutiny, it could open a vast window into the inner workings of the president's business empire. His real estate dealings in Russia had already attracted the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller's team, and he was featured prominently in the now-notorious Christopher Steele dossier.

Even if the search leads nowhere, federal agents scrutinising a presidential lawyer's business is still a remarkable development. At the moment, however, there's no telling what law enforcement's efforts on Monday could turn up.

A second investigation

The issue isn't just what happened - federal investigators reportedly collecting documents and related information about Mr Cohen's tax records, business dealings and six-figure payment to secure the silence of Daniels, an adult film star who says she had an affair with Mr Trump. It's also who is doing the investigating.

According to media reports, the search was the result of information originally discovered by Mueller's investigation, but his office wasn't involved in the search. Instead, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein instructed the Mueller team to refer the matter to the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, which requested and executed the warrant.

Media captionStormy Daniels: 'I was threatened'

Geoffrey Berman has served as the acting US attorney for the Southern District for more than a year, after Mr Trump fired his predecessor, Preet Bharara. He's a long-time Republican donor, including to Mr Trump's presidential campaign, and has reportedly recused himself from the investigation.

Because this is being handled by his office and not the special counsel, however, any move Mr Trump makes against Mr Mueller will have no impact on this inquiry, which appears to be focused on whether the payment to Daniels - and perhaps other women who have alleged romantic involvement with Mr Trump - violated tax, banking or campaign finance laws.

Mr Cohen says he made a $130,000 payment to Daniels in October 2016 out of his own funds in exchange for her silence. If that turns out not to be the case, or if the payment is considered to be the equivalent of campaign contribution, it could run afoul of federal disclosure rules.

Should Trump be worried about Stormy Daniels?

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards faced criminal prosecution in 2011 for undisclosed campaign payments he made to a former mistress.

In other words, this is not an academic consideration.

Privilege threatened

The FBI-conducted raid of Mr Cohen's property isn't a garden-variety search, either. Because Mr Cohen is the president's personal attorney, federal investigators had to comply with extra safeguards to avoid infringing on a client's right to confidential legal counsel.

Top-level Justice Department officials had to approve of the move, and extra personnel were involved in the process to ensure that "privileged" communications between Mr Cohen and his clients, including Mr Trump, were not disclosed to the investigatory team.

The sensitivity of the search was probably on the president's mind on Tuesday morning when he tweeted, "Attorney-client privilege is dead!"

Media captionSchumer to Trump: Attorney raid not an attack on US

The lawyer protections aren't iron-clad, however. There are exceptions to the rules, such as in cases where the lawyer is discussing topics outside the realm of agreed legal representation or the parties are involved in committing or concealing criminal activity.

If investigators conclude there is reason to believe that Mr Cohen's payment to Daniels violated banking, tax or campaign finance laws - and is able to convince a judge to concur - then material related to that act, even if it includes otherwise protected communications, could be admissible in court.

A storm is brewing

During a meeting with his military advisers on Monday the president embarked on extended remarks about what he viewed as the impropriety of the Cohen search.

He called his lawyer a "good man" and claimed that law enforcement "broke into" his office. Mr Cohen told CNN that FBI agents "were extremely professional, courteous and respectful".

Mr Trump reiterated that the investigations - including, presumably, the one involving Mr Cohen - were a "witch hunt". He again questioned the impartiality of those investigating him, asserted that there was no evidence of "collusion" between his campaign and Russia, and said Democrats should be the focus of scrutiny.

He called the investigation an "attack on our country" and "on what we all stand for" and entertained the possibility of firing Mr Mueller, as "many people" are saying he should do.

"So we'll see what happens," the president said.

Media captionTrump: FBI raid of my lawyer's office is "a whole new level of unfairness"

The most significant development out of the Cohen raid, then, is what it could set in motion.

The president relied on many of his worn phrases - "many people are saying" and "we'll see" - that have, in the past, hinted at future action. He has reportedly considered firing Mr Mueller in the past. Would the special counsel's role in all this be enough to push the president over the top?

Mr Trump again took swipes at his own attorney general and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein - himself a past target of presidential ire - who approved the New York office's raid. Could their positions be in jeopardy?

In a Russia investigation that has moved by increments over the past few months, the Cohen search represents a stunning development. There's a new front in the political and legal warfare, and a new series of exposures for the president and those closest to him.

Even if the president decides to act, however, the scope of the inquiry - and the potential damage that could result - just became much more challenging to contain.

More from Anthony:

New documents reveal Cambridge Analytica pitched ‘unique’ social media data in multiple US election campaigns

Kylie Morris-10 Apr 2018Washington Correspondent
According to previously unseen documents obtained by Channel 4 News, Cambridge Analytica was pitching its “unique” social media data and “psychographic profiling” to multiple Republican election campaigns in the US after harvesting the profiles of up to 87 million mostly American Facebook users.

Channel 4 News can reveal the company boasted that the social media data was used to create “message concepts”, “creative concepts” and “scripting for direct voter contact programs” to micro-target voters.

The company claimed the data it had gathered was successfully used by the North Carolina Republican Party, the advocacy group For America, the Senate Majority Fund’s campaign in Colorado and campaigns run by the John Bolton Super PAC supporting Republican candidates in Arkansas, North Carolina and New Hampshire.

The company’s work for the Bolton Super PAC was first reported by the New York Times.

In the pitch document, Cambridge Analytica boasts about the “unique” data it used to identify voters for the North Carolina GOP.

“Harnessing our unique data-rich voter file, we were able to accurately predict partisanship, turnout, issue importance and build psychographic profiles for all voters in North Carolina. We produced clusters of voters based on the modeled data to maximize campaign impact, which enabled the creation of tailored messages directed to specific voter groups.”

In its work for the advocacy group For America, CA claimed it had boosted turnout among target voters by an average of 8%.

“Using detailed audience modeling techniques, CA Political created Internet banner advertisements based on the modeled importance of issues amongst target groups. Some were issues of broad national significance, while others spoke to candidates’ key issues in their respective campaigns.

“Every advert contained creative collateral that was tailored to voter personality profiles, and had clear calls to action which reminded target audience members to vote… Overall, CA Political was successful in increasing turnout amongst previously low-turnout voter audiences: postelection analysis of voter turnout revealed an average increase of 8%.”

The company also provided further details of the work it carried out in state elections in Colorado in 2014.

“The CA Political team designed and wrote copy for issue-specific mailers to be disseminated to target populations according to modeled issue importance and psychographic profiles.

“For the first six weeks following deployment, voters would receive one issue-specific direct mail product per week, with the focus shifting towards the promotion of specific candidates and their individual selling points in the later stages of the campaign.

“In the final two weeks of the campaign, the CA Political team prepared GOTV mail pieces and lists of voters identified as likely Republicans with moderate propensity to vote.

The messaging on these GOTV mail products was also formulated for specific psychographic profiles identified amongst the target population, and emphasized the social importance of voting as well as issue-specific messages likely to influence voting behavior amongst turnout targets.”

In North Carolina the company explained how it had segmented voters into different groups according to their personality types. The work was used in the 2014 Senate election, where Thom Tillis was the Republican candidate.

The document states: “Voter groups were segmented by their personality, psychographic profiles and ranking of issue importance. Post-campaign independent testing revealed statistically significant increases in the number of people who identified national security as their primary issue across groups.

“North Carolina Group 3 consisted of young, female voters who displayed high neuroticism and cared most about the economy, national security and immigration. These voters were shown advertisements that highlighted the failures of the current administration’s national security policy.

“North Carolina Group 4 consisted of an even split of male and female voters who displayed high conscientiousness and agreeableness. These voters cared most about the economy and education, so were shown advertisements that positioned national security as a family and social issue.”

Video commercials were created appealing to these different groups.

The document explains how “high neuroticism” voters were targeted with ads focusing on fears about national security:

“High Agreeable and conscientiousness” voters were “microtargeted” with a different message featuring children running through parks, and sunny cornfields:

Tonight, Facebook told Channel 4 News: “Cambridge Analytica certified to us that they had destroyed the data in 2015. The UK data regulator is now investigating to find out if this claim was in fact true. We have started notifying everyone who might have been affected and have announced a number of measures to tighten our systems and restrict the data that apps can request.”

In a press release issued last night, Cambridge Analytica stated it’s “Time for facts not conjecture.”

Additionally, Cambridge Analytica has made clear to Channel 4 News that the data in question was not Facebook data. They say that they and a different company called ‘Cint’ generated new data from a survey of over 40,000 users with their consent.

Watch the entire Channel 4 News “Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks” investigation.

More than 250 dead in Algerian military plane crash

Il-76 transporter was carrying soldiers and their families when it crashed soon after takeoff

Military plane crash kills more than 250 in Algeria – video report

Ruth Michaelson-Wed 11 Apr 2018

A military plane carrying soldiers and their families has crashed soon after takeoff in northern Algeria, killing 257 people in what appears to be the worst plane crash in the north African country’s history.

The defence ministry said 247 passengers, made up of Algerian soldiers and their relatives, died along with 10 crew members when the plane crashed into a field on Wednesday, next to an airbase in the town of Boufarik, 20 miles (30km) from the capital, Algiers.

The cause of the crash was unclear and an investigation had been launched, the ministry said. The head of the Algerian army, the vice-minister of defence, and military chief of staff visited the crash site to inspect the wreckage.

Rescue workers attend the scene of the crash. Photograph: AP

Video taken close to the crash site and published by the local news site Algérie24 showed a plume of black smoke billowing into the air. Pictures showed the burnt-out tail section of the aircraft separated from the rest of the fuselage, which was being attended to by rescue workers.

The private Algerian TV network Ennahar published images of body bags lined up in the field. It is the deadliest plane crash since Malaysian Airlines flight MH17was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board.

The aircraft that crashed on Wednesday was a Russian-built Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane. The Il-76 has been involved in a number of crashes, most recently in 2016 when one on a firefighting mission crashed near Lake Baikal in north-east Siberia, killing all 10 crew members on board.

An Il-76 owned by the Iranian air force also crashed near Varamin in 2009, killing seven people, but the cause is disputed.

Wednesday’s flight was en route to the Algerian region of Tindouf before heading south to Béchar, according to the defence ministry. Tindouf borders Morocco and the restive Western Sahara, which is claimed by Morocco and the Polisario Front.

A member of Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party told Ennahar that about 26 of the dead included members of the Polisario Front, according to Reuters, and Algérie24 reported that 26 of those killed were citizens of Western Sahara.

The Polisario Front is a separatist group that promotes independence for the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara, some of whom live in Tindouf.

The previous most deadly crash on Algerian soil occurred in 2003, when 102 people were killed after a civilian airliner crashed at the end of the runway in Tamanrasset. There was a single survivor.

An Algerian air force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashed in a mountainous area of the Oum El Bouaghi province in 2014, killing more than 70 people on board and leaving just one survivor. The defence ministry said poor weather conditions had been the likely cause.

Burma soldiers sentenced to 10 years hard labour for Rohingya massacre

2018-02-08T000000Z_462823567_RC1342112300_RTRMADP_3_MYANMAR-RAKHINE-EVENTS-940x580 — Ten Rohingya Muslim men with their hands bound kneel in Inn Din village September 1, 2017. Picture taken September 1, 2017. Source: Handout via Reuters

Ten Rohingya Muslim men with their hands bound kneel in Inn Din village September 1, 2017. Picture taken September 1, 2017. Source: Handout via Reuters

SEVEN Burmese soldiers have been jailed for 10 years with hard labour for the massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in Rakhine state last September, the military said on Tuesday.

A statement from the Tatmadaw, another name for the military, said the soldiers were also permanently expelled from the army and have had “action taken against them” for “contributing and participating in murder.”

“Four officers were denounced and permanently dismissed from the military and sentenced to 10 years with hard labour at a prison in a remote area. Three soldiers of other rank were demoted to the rank of ‘private’, permanently dismissed from the military and sentenced to 10 years with hard labour at a prison in a remote area,” read the military statement.

SEE ALSO: Burma: Military admits to murdering 10 Rohingya found in mass graves

It added that legal proceedings against the police personnel and civilians “involved in the crime” were still under way.

The case resulted in a rare admission of wrongdoing by the military, who have been conducting a crackdown against the Muslim minority since August. In January, the army said the soldiers had confessed to killing the 10 Rohingya villagers and burying them in a mass grave in the coastal village of Inn Din.

The statement, posted on the Facebook page of commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, claimed the men were “terrorists” who had attacked security forces.

2018-03-07T101110Z_2001545552_RC1B3AD2B8B0_RTRMADP_3_MYANMAR-JOURNALISTS

Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone is escorted by police after a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar March 7, 2018. Source: Reuters/Stringer

The massacre was being investigated by two Reuters journalists who were subsequently arrested on charges of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo remain behind bars. News of whether their case will be dismissed is expected today.

SEE ALSO: Burma: ICC seeks power to investigate, prosecute crimes against humanity

An internal military investigation into the massacre found it was unrelated to the reporters, who are accused of obtaining unrelated secret government papers.

The United Nations estimates close to 700,000 Rohingya Muslim have fled across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh since August after militant attacks triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations has said is a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Burma has repeatedly denied the accusations, maintaining that it is carrying out a legitimate campaign against armed terrorists who attacked government forces.

Additional reporting by Reuters