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at 05:14 0
                     Iran on Map. [Photo credit: Operation World]

No fewer than 10 Iranian security personnel, including Revolutionary Guards, were kidnapped at the border with Pakistan on Tuesday, state media has reported.

The media also reported that a separatist group had claimed that it had seized the personnel as revenge for the oppression of Sunni Muslims.

The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s top security force, said in a statement on state television that some of its members had been abducted by a militant group at a border post in Mirjaveh, Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Iranian officials held talks with the Pakistani Ambassador in Tehran and called on Islamabad to “use all possible means’’ to free them.

The Guards did not say how many were kidnapped, but state news agency, IRNA, quoted an unnamed official as saying that 14 people were kidnapped at about 4 a.m.

The Guards said that they believed the Iranian forces had been deceived by “insiders’’, but did not elaborate.

Fars news agency said there were reports that Iranian forces had been poisoned by food before being captured and taken to Pakistan.

Ebrahim Azizi, spokesman for Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni militant group, said the group had seized more than 10 people.“This morning, Jaish al-Adl forces attacked a border post in Mirjaveh and captured all their weapons,” Azizi said in an audio message sent to Reuters.The group also claimed responsibility on its Twitter account.

Azizi said the attack was retaliation for what he called the Iranian state’s oppression of Sunnis in Sistan-Baluchestan, a mainly Sunni province with a long history of separatist unrest.

Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim authorities say militant groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qasemi, was quoted as saying that Pakistani ambassador had attended a meeting in the ministry.

Iran asked Islamabad to “use all possible means, without any delay’’ to free those abducted.

The Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that “we expect Pakistan to confront these terrorist groups that are supported by some regional states, and immediately release the kidnapped Iranian forces.’’In previous cases of cross-border clashes, Iran threatened to hit militants’ bases in Pakistan unless Islamabad took action.

But this time, Brig.-Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, head of the Guards’ ground forces, said Iran was ready to conduct “joint military operations with Pakistan’’ against the militant groups to release the kidnapped personnel.Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of funding separatist groups on its territory. Riyadh has denied any involvement in Iranian internal affairs.

In September, the Revolutionary Guards killed four Sunni militants at a border crossing with Pakistan, including the second-in-command of Jaish al-Adl.Jaish al-Adl kidnapped five Iranian border guards in 2014, releasing four of them two months later after mediation by local Sunni clerics.

(Reuters/NAN)

Source: PremiumTimes
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at 19:08 0

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tour damage from Hurricane Michael in Lynn Haven, Florida, October 15, 2018. SAUL LOEB / AFP
President Donald Trump on Monday toured areas of Florida devastated by Hurricane Michael last week, and met some of the thousands of people still struggling to survive without running water or electricity.

Flying in the Marine One presidential helicopter over Mexico Beach, one of the towns worst hit by the Category 4 storm, Trump surveyed uprooted trees, rows of roofless homes, some of them torn from their foundations, downed water towers and a parking lot where 18-wheel trucks had been scattered like children’s toys.

“It is incredible, the power of the storm,” Trump said in televised remarks. “Somebody said it was like a very wide, extremely wide tornado. That’s really what this was. This was beyond any winds that they’ve seen.”
Michael smashed into Florida’s western coast on Wednesday, packing winds of 155 miles (250 kilometres) per hour as it began a northern march through several states on the United States’ southeast coast, killing at least 17 people.

Trump was accompanied by his wife Melania and Florida’s outgoing Republican governor Rick Scott and Kirstjen Nielsen, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, as he inspected damaged homes and businesses.

The president praised Scott — who is running for the Senate in next month’s mid-term elections — for “doing an incredible job.”
The governor thanked Trump for federal aid, saying that everything the state asked for had been delivered.

– ‘Just survival’ –

Florida’s Panama City, along with the smaller resort of Mexico Beach, were left particularly devastated, with thousands of homes and businesses destroyed.

Power lines and telephone networks remained out of service in many neighbourhoods, with only major highways cleared.
“You wouldn’t even know they had homes,” Trump said of people whose houses were swept off their foundations as the monster storm hit.
Relief workers who arrived in the aftermath of the hurricane set up water and food distribution centres, as cars formed long queues in front of the few gas stations open for business.

More than half of Bay County, which includes Panama City, was still without electricity Monday morning, while several inland counties were more than 80 per cent cut off, according to emergency service officials.
“Right now it’s just survival,” said Daniel Fraga, a resident of Panama City. “The good thing is we all came together, we all help each other. We are in this together.”

The US Army, National Guard and police have been crisscrossing the area, which at dusk goes dark.

Tyndall Air Force Base, located between Panama City and Mexico Beach, suffered extensive damage and reports had speculated on the fate of a number of F-22 fighter jets that could not be flown out ahead of Michael’s arrival.

The unit cost of the aircraft is around $150 million, which soars to over $330 million when research and development are priced in.
“Visually, they were all intact and looked much better than expected considering the surrounding damage to some structures,” the Air Force said in a statement.

“Our maintenance professionals will do a detailed assessment of the F-22 Raptors and other aircraft before we can say with certainty that damaged aircraft can be repaired and sent back into the skies.”
Trump’s tour took him past the base before he took off again in Air Force One for Georgia, which also suffered damage as the storm ploughed across the southeast of the country.

AFP

Source: ChannelsTv
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at 10:19 0
A general view of a tsunami devastated area in Talise beach, Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Sunday. Photo EPA-EFE/Mast Irham

The death toll of an Indonesian earthquake and subsequent tsunami has more than doubled to 832, officials announced Sunday.
The magnitude-7.5 earthquake’s epicenter was near the city of Palu in the province of Central Sulawesi, where 821 fatalities have been confirmed. Another 11 have been confirmed dead so far in Donggala, The Jakarta Post reported.

The earthquake struck at about 6 p.m. Friday and was followed by a six-meter high tsunami. First responders have found hundreds of the dead on beaches in the area and are still trying to reach others trapped under rubble, The Guardian reported.

Some parts of Sulawesi have been inaccessible after the earthquake, national disaster agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
“The deaths are believed to be still increasing since many bodies were still under the wreckage while many have not able to be reached,” Sutopo said.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the death toll could rise into the thousands.

“This was a terrifying double disaster,” Jan Gelfand, an official in Jakarta for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told The Guardian.

“We have heard nothing from Donggala and this is extremely worrying. There are more than 300,000 people living there. This is already a tragedy, but it could get much worse.”

Source:
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at 19:14 0
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei addressing a group of war veterans in Tehran on September 26, 2018 (Photo by Leader.ir)
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has lashed out at Western countries for adopting a double-standard policy toward the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), reminding them of their support for slain Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his war on Iran in the 1980s.
The Leader made the remarks on Wednesday in a meeting with a group of war-time commanders, veterans and artists on the occasion of the Sacred Defense Week marking the anniversary of the eight-year-long war on Iran.
Despite the West's current "ballyhoo over accusations of using chemical weapons, they provided the Saddam regime with chemical weapons used not only in the war fronts but also in cities like Sardasht [against civilians]," Ayatollah Khamenei stated.
The Leader said the Islamic Republic was under economic and political sanctions in those years, and the Iranian nation’s voice could not be heard in the world as global media was "under the hegemony of Zionists."
Referring to France and Germany's support of the Iraqi regime during the war, the Leader said, “Why shouldn’t the French and German nations know what their governments did to the Iranian nation in those eight years?”
During the Iraqi-imposed war, "Iran was not even allowed to use the most basic equipment and facilities like barbed wires, while the other side was provided with the most modern war equipment and even chemical weapons,” he added.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranian people were killed in the eight-year war Saddam imposed on Iran and many more were affected by the chemical weapons like mustard gas used by the Iraqi regime.
Sardasht was the third populated city in the world, after Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to be deliberately targeted with weapons of mass destruction. It was also the first city in the world to be attacked with poisonous gas.
Thanks to the support offered by the US and other Western states, Iraq once possessed a huge arsenal of chemical weapons.
Reports say the CIA knew about Iraq’s use of chemical weapons as early as 1983, but the US took no action against the violations of international law, and even failed to alert the UN.

Source: Presstv
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at 03:37 0
Iran test-fires ballistic missiles during large-scale drills, March 9, 2016. (Photo by IRNA)
Iran test-fires ballistic missiles during large-scale drills, March 9, 2016. (Photo by IRNA)
Iran says its latest launch of ballistic missiles does not violate the nuclear agreement it reached with the P5+1 group of countries and is not in contravention of a United Nations Security Council resolution.
The missile launch is “neither inconsistent with Iran’s commitments under the JCPOA, nor is it against the Security Council Resolution 2231,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi-Ansari said on Thursday
He was referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed between Tehran and the P5+1 group –  Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany – last year.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) successfully test-fired two more ballistic missiles on Wednesday as part of military drills to assess their capabilities.
The missiles dubbed Qadr-H and Qadr-F were fired during large-scale drills, code-named Eqtedar-e-Velayat.
Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Division Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said Qadr-H missile has a range of 1,700 kilometers while Qadr-F missile can hit targets some 2,000 kilometers away.
On Tuesday, Iran fired another ballistic missile called Qiam from silo-based launchers in different locations across the country.
Jaberi-Ansari said none of Iran’s missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads and thus, their production and test “are not in contravention of Resolution 2231 and its appendices.”
The resolution, adopted by the Security Council on July 20, 2015, bars Iran from developing missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will not compromise over its security and defensive power," said Jaberi-Ansari.
Iran, he said, "will continue its completely defensive and legitimate missile program with the framework of its legitimate defense requirements."
Tehran will observe "its international commitments without entering into the fields of either nuclear warheads or designing missiles capable of carrying such warheads," he added.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday the missile launch did not constitute a breach of the JCPOA.
Iran has repeatedly assured other countries that its military might poses no threat to other states, insisting that its defense doctrine is entirely based on deterrence.
A ballistic missile is launched during large-scale drills in northern Iran, March 9, 2016. (Photo by IRNA)
Zarif-Kerry conversation untrue
Also on Thursday, an informed source at Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry had phoned Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to discuss the tests.
A US State Department spokesman claimed on Wednesday that the two sides had discussed the issue earlier in the day.
The Iranian source said Kerry had sent an email to Zarif a week ago, asking for a phone conversation, but the minister has not responded yet because of his current busy tour of six Southeastern Asian and Pacific nations.
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at 03:24 0

The file photo of an underground IRGC missile facility (Fars News Agency)
The file photo of an underground IRGC missile facility (Fars News Agency)
The Aerospace Division of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is holding the final stage of large-scale missile drills.
The final phase of the exercises, codenamed Eqtedar-e-Velayat, saw ballistic missiles fired from silo-based launchers in different locations across the country on Tuesday.
The maneuvers are aimed at displaying Iran’s “deterrence power” and the country’s “full readiness to confront all kinds of threats against the Revolution, establishment and territorial integrity,” the IRGC said.
IRGC commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari and commander of the IRGC Aerospace Division Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh oversaw parts of the drills.
Last October, Iran successfully test-fired its precision-guided long-range Emad missile, sparking an uproar among US politicians.
The file photo shows the test-firing of the long-range Emad missile (Fars News Agency)
In January, the US Department of the Treasury imposed new sanctions against Iranian citizens and companies over the country’s ballistic missile program.
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan has asserted that the Emad missile is a conventional weapon.
Last December, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif defended Iran’s right to carry out missile tests, saying none of Iranian missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly said that its military might poses no threat to other countries, reiterating that its defense doctrine is merely based on deterrence.
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at 02:32 0
 War crimes of foreign invaders and their internal stooge forces (February 2016)

On Tuesday 2nd February, a woman and a child were martyred and another woman and a man were injured in the indiscriminate artillery fires of the internal mercenary forces in ‘Umar Khail’ and ‘Shair Mohammad’ areas of ‘Ali Abad’ district in ‘Kunduz’ province.
On Friday 5th February, an ordinary villager (named ‘Haji Mubeen’) was brutally beaten and martyred by the local unrestrained Arbaki militiamen in ‘Kanava’ area of ‘Yahya Khail’ district in ‘Paktika’ province.
On Friday 5th February, houses of civilian people were searched during a raid of internal stooge soldiers in ‘Tore’ village of ‘Nakka’ district in ‘Paktika’ province, in which, several people were badly beaten and four ordinary persons were incarcerated too.
On Saturday 6th February, a boy and two Mulla Imams (the one who leads congregational prayers) were taken away as prisoners during a raid of internal mercenary forces in ‘Navaqil’ area of ‘Batikot’ district of ‘Nangarhar’ province.
On Sunday 7th February, two children were martyred and a woman was injured in the indiscriminate mortar shelling of internal amateurish soldiers in ‘Band’ village of ‘Sarobi’ district in ‘Kabul’ province.
On Monday 8th February, houses of ordinary countrymen were heavily fired during a raid of foreign occupying forces collaborated by their internal stooge soldiers, the latest in the sting of their night operations, in ‘Chinar’ and Tambail’ villages in ‘Khakraize’ district of ‘Kandahar’ province. When the people left their houses in panic and fear, they were indiscriminately targeted by drone strikes, in which, at least, thirteen people were martyred and eight others were injured.
On Thursday 11th February, four innocent civilians were detained and taken away as prisoners by foreign occupying forces during their night operations in ‘Shna Jama’ area of ‘Nad Ali’ district in ‘Helmand’ province.
On Thursday 11th February, the chieftains of embattled ‘Baghlan’ province revealed, in a meeting held in Kabul, the immensity of losses and casualties suffered by the civilian people in ‘central Baghlan’, ‘Dand-i-Ghori’ and ‘Dand-i-Shihabuddin’ areas in the wake of those military operations which were launched by the mercenary forces of puppet regime in the closing days of last January. They said that at least 125 civilian countrymen were martyred in the military operations of stooge government forces, including 40 women and children. 650 people were injured too.
These chieftains added that mercenary forces of this puppet regime deliberately demolished their orchards and destroyed their crops, justifying that their armed opponent might take shelter there.
It was also revealed in this meeting that nearly 17,000 families had left their houses and villages in the wake of these indiscriminate military operations and had settled in various other areas. Distressing pictures of destroyed houses, mosques, public places and vast demolition of several villages were exhibited in this gathering, while demanding the earliest possible end of these brutal military operations; but their demands and slogans fell flat on the puppet regime and the operations are incessant in the area, in which, the ordinary people are still suffering and complaining.
On Tuesday 16th February, the internal mercenary forces broke the gates of civilian houses in ‘Abdullah Khail’, ‘Navi Kala’ and ‘Zara Kala’ villages of ‘Najrab’ district in ‘Kapisa’ province, in which, several people were beaten and four of them were taken away as prisoners.
On Wednesday 17th February, the only hospital in ‘Tangi Bazaar’ of ‘Jalga’ district in ‘Maidan Wardak’ province, funded by Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, was attacked by brutal foreign occupying forces collaborated by their internal mercenary forces, in which, four patient under treatment were martyred on the spot; doctors and other medical staff were tortured and threatened. Moreover, medical supplies and equipment of this hospital were looted and its building was severely damaged.
On Thursday 18th February, a 12-year-old boy (named Yasir s/o Fazl-i-Rabbi) was relentlessly martyred by the internal stooge soldiers in ‘Mamlo’ area of ‘Said Abad’ district in ‘Maidan Wardak’ province.
On Thursday 18th February, two ordinary people were martyred and another one was injured in the indiscriminate artillery shelling of internal amateurish soldiers in ‘Adisa’ area of ‘Dasht-i-Archi’ district in ‘Kunduz’ province.
On Friday 19th February, a private health clinic and a civilian vehicle were blasted and three ordinary people were taken away as prisoners by the internal stooge soldiers in ‘Sara Baghal’ area of ‘Maiwand’ district in ‘Kandahar’ province.
On Saturday 20th February, hundreds of civilian dwellers of ‘Shilgar’ district in ‘Ghazni’ province protested against the indecencies of local unrestrained Arbaki militiamen in the central Ghazni city. The demonstrators told that ordinary people are beaten and threatened; people are abducted for ransom; their cash money is looted and innocent people are beaten to death for various lame excuses by these notorious militiamen. They told that a teacher and another villager were beaten to death by these Arbakis in ‘Kajir’ area of this district. ‘These unrestrained militiamen will no longer be tolerable for them’, they added while demanding the puppet regime to remove them from their area as soon as possible, otherwise it will be responsible for the bitter consequences.
On Friday 26th February, five ordinary villagers were detained and taken away as prisoners by the brutal foreign occupying forces during a raid in the string of their night operations in the suburbs of ‘Asmat Bazaar’ area in ‘Nad Ali’ district of ‘Helmand’ province.
On Saturday 27th February, the foreign occupying forces raided ‘Laam’ area in ‘Khakraize’ district in ‘Kandahar’ province in the series of their brutal night operations, in which, five innocent civilians were incarcerated.
On Saturday 27th February, two ordinary shopkeepers were relentlessly martyred by the unrestrained Arbaki militiamen to avenge the killing of their two commanders in ‘Angoat’ area in the suburbs of central city of ‘Saripul’ province. This incident resulted in severe clashes between civilian people and these Arbaki militiamen, in which, twenty innocent people, including women and children, were martyred in the indiscriminate firing of Arbakis. It is reported that later, several houses of these civilian people were first looted and then put on fire by these vicious Arbaki militiamen.
On Sunday 28th February, four children belonging to one family were injured and another one was martyred in the random mortar shelling of internal incompetent soldiers in ‘Siri’ village of ‘Marawara’ district in ‘Kunar’ province.
Sources: (BBC, Radio Liberty, Afghan Islamic News Agency, Pajhwok, Khabaryal, Larawbar, nunn.asia and Benawa websites.)
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at 03:54 0

Fierce fight for Helmand as Afghan Taliban gain ground

 Enemy sanctuary overrun in Takhar

District falls to Taliban a day after Helmand deputy governor warned government was in danger of losing key province.

The Sangin district of Afghanistan's Helmand province has fallen to the Taliban just a day after Helmand's deputy governor used Facebook to plead with the Afghan president for help in holding off the group. 
Sangin fell to the Taliban after hours of fierce clashes that killed more than 90 soldiers in two days, an Afghan police spokesperson told Al Jazeera, with the Taliban taking over police and military installations.
The Taliban also confirmed the siege to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera's Abdullah Shahood, reporting from the capital Kabul, said fighting was ongoing.
"The special forces unit has arrived and are planning a massive operation led by the Afghan forces," he said. "Some families have been displaced because of the clashes and many are trying to leave."
I cannot be silent any more ... as Helmand stands on the brink. Ninety men have been killed in Gereshk and Sangin districts in the last two days.
Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, Helmand deputy governor
Afghanistan's chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, told a press conference on Monday that "an urgent meeting will happen soon to take immediate security action in Helmand".
"The action will repel enemy attack," he said.
OPINION: Kunduz did not happen overnight
Helmand's deputy governor, Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, in a post on Facebook on Sunday, had asked President Ashraf Ghani for urgent intervention to save a province that British and US forces struggled for years to defend.
"I know that bringing up this issue on social media will make you very angry," Rasoolyar wrote in the post, which was addressed to Ghani.
"But I cannot be silent any more ... as Helmand stands on the brink. Ninety men have been killed in Gereshk and Sangin districts in the last two days."
Local officials backed Rasoolyar's assertions, saying the Taliban were making steady gains in districts such as Sangin.
"These clashes between the Taliban and Afghan forces have been going on for many days now. The Taliban are not far from taking over the entire province as we see," Ali Ahmad, a Lashkar Gah resident told Al Jazeera.
READ MORE: The Afghan battlefield has become more complicated
"The government is not taking necessary actions at all. If they did ahead of time, the situation would not have been this bad."
Responding to the post, deputy presidential spokesperson, Syed Zafar Hashemi, said the "president is aware of the Facebook post and is taking immediate necessary actions".
Facebook frustration
The northern city of Kunduz briefly fell to the Taliban in September - the biggest victory for the group in 14 years of war. The fall of Helmand would deal another stinging blow to the country's NATO-backed forces as they struggle to rein in unrest.
This month marks a year since the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan transitioned into an Afghan-led operation, with allied nations assisting in training local forces.
US President Barack Obama in October announced that thousands of US troops would remain in Afghanistan past 2016, back-pedalling on previous plans to shrink the force and acknowledging that Afghan forces are not ready to stand alone.
Rasoolyar is the second official to take to Facebook to air his frustration.
Afghanistan's spy agency chief resigned earlier this month after a scathing Facebook post against Ghani's diplomatic outreach to Pakistan - the Taliban's historic backers - aimed at restarting peace talks with the armed group.
Rahmatullah Nabil's resignation raised uncomfortable questions about a brewing leadership crisis in Afghanistan as the Taliban unrest gains new momentum.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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at 15:46 0
This file photo shows remains of an Israeli rocket fired into Lebanon.
This file photo shows remains of an Israeli rocket fired into Lebanon.
The Israeli regime’s military forces have fired artillery into Lebanon, one day after killing a veteran fighter of the Hebzollah resistance movement in Syria.
The Israeli military claimed that the artillery fire came in response to the firing of three Katyusha rockets from Lebanon earlier on Sunday.
Hezbollah senior fighter Samir Qantar was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Saturday night.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it has "responded" to the Lebanese rocket with "targeted artillery fire."
Lebanon's national news agency NNA reported that Israel fired nine rounds of artillery at the south.
Qantar was released from an Israeli prison during a prisoner swap between Hezbollah and Israel in 2008 after serving 29 years in detention.
Israel launched wars on Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. About 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, were killed in the 33-Day War of 2006. On both occasions, however, Hezbollah fighters defeated the Israeli military and Tel Aviv was forced to retreat without achieving any of its objectives.
The Tel Aviv regime launched an intelligence war against Hezbollah following its defeat in the two wars on Lebanon.
A file photo of Israeli forces near Lebanon's border
In September, the Lebanese army said it had discovered a rock-shape Israeli espionage device in a district of the southern town of Bani Hayan. The device was connected to four large electric batteries and was equipped with a hidden camera and some transmission devices.
Israel also violates Lebanon’s airspace on an almost daily basis through sending reconnaissance drones, claiming the flights serve surveillance purposes.
Lebanon’s government, the Hezbollah resistance movement, and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, have repeatedly condemned the overflights, saying they are in clear violation of UN Resolution 1701 and the country’s sovereignty.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the 2006 war, calls on Israel to respect Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
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at 08:28 0

Government and Houthis honour deal to free prisoners despite low expectations for breakthrough at talks in Switzerland.

A tenuous ceasefire is holding in Yemen despite alleged violations by both sides [Abdulnasser Alseddik/AP]
A tenuous ceasefire is holding in Yemen despite alleged violations by both sides [Abdulnasser Alseddik/AP]
A mass prisoner exchange is under way between Houthi fighters and government forces in Yemen amid UN-sponsored talks to end the fighting in the Arabian Peninsula country.
Expectations for a deal at the peace talks in Switzerland are low as both sides seem to be failing to honour a week-long ceasefire.
There were reports on Wednesday of heavy fighting between pro-government forces and Houthis around the city of Taiz in central Yemen.
The swap was taking place a day after the truce came into force to halt fighting in nine months of civil war between the Iran-allied Houthis, based in Yemen's north, and Arab coalition-backed fighters loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
 
Khaled al-Yamani, the UN envoy to Yemen, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that government forces would respect the ceasefire even in case of violations from the Houthi side.
"We think that this is the only option for us to go down the path of peace and achieve peaceful resolution to the conflict in Yemen," he said.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from the talks venue near the Swiss city of Biel, said the prisoner swap was "undoubtedly a positive development" in the civil war, which has killed almost 6,000 people and led to a humanitarian disaster in Yemen.
Humanitarian groups warn of health system collapsing in Yemen
"The prisoner swap is taking place, mediated by tribes on the ground," she said.
She said the exchange did not appear to be in response to the Yemeni government's demands for Houthis to release a number of senior officials in their custody.
Earlier, Mokhtar al-Rabbash, a member of the prisoners' affairs committee which is close to the Yemeni government, said an agreement was in place to swap 375 rebels for 285 pro-Hadi fighters.
An official of the Houthi-run prisons authority in the capital, Sanaa, said southern prisoners boarded buses on their way to the swap venue in central Yemen.
Witnesses in Aden said they saw buses guarded by local fighters travelling through the city, apparently heading to the exchange venue, the Reuters news agency reported.
Despite the swap deal, the two sides have accused each other of violating the truce, which include a pause in air strikes by the Arab coalition.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency quoted Brigadier-General Sharaf Luqman, a spokesman for Yemeni forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Yemeni president, as saying that a "serious escalation by land, sea and air is taking place by the alliance in various areas".
Saleh is currently allied with the Houthis.
READ MORE: Yemen's widows 'weakest victims of the war'
Luqman said strikes from the sea were being launched on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, ground forces were carrying out attacks on Taiz, and air strikes by the Arab coalition had not stopped.
"We will not stay hand-tied but we will respond strongly towards the breaches that are taking place by the alliance and their mercenaries," Luqman said.
On the other hand, the Hadi-run sabanew.net news agency blamed the deaths of five loyalist fighters and three civilians on Houthi shelling in Taiz shortly after the ceasefire began.
 
The Saudi daily Al-Riyadh quoted Brigadier-General Ahmed al-Asseri, the Arab coalition spokesman, as saying that forces were committed to the ceasefire but were also ready to respond to any violation by the Houthis.
Despite the mutual accusations, Al Jazeera's Khodr said the two groups were still moving ahead with the peace talks in Switzerland.
"The fact that we are in day two and no one has walked out is progress in itself," she said.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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at 03:30 0
By MATTHEW LEE and BRADLEY KLAPPER
Associated Press
AP Photo
AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev







MOSCOW (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday accepted Russia's long-standing demand that President Bashar Assad's future be determined by his own people, as Washington and Moscow edged toward putting aside years of disagreement over how to end Syria's civil war.
"The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change," Kerry told reporters in the Russian capital after meeting President Vladimir Putin. A major international conference on Syria would take place later this week in New York, Kerry announced.
Kerry reiterated the U.S. position that Assad, accused by the West of massive human rights violations and chemical weapons attacks, won't be able to steer Syria out of more than four years of conflict.
But after a day of discussions with Assad's key international backer, Kerry said the focus now is "not on our differences about what can or cannot be done immediately about Assad." Rather, it is on facilitating a peace process in which "Syrians will be making decisions for the future of Syria."
Kerry's declarations crystallized the evolution in U.S. policy on Assad over the last several months, as the Islamic State group's growing influence in the Middle East has taken priority.
President Barack Obama first called on Assad to leave power in the summer of 2011, with "Assad must go" being a consistent rallying cry. Later, American officials allowed that he wouldn't have to resign on "Day One" of a transition. Now, no one can say when Assad might step down.
Russia, by contrast, has remained consistent in its view that no foreign government could demand Assad's departure and that Syrians would have to negotiate matters of leadership among themselves. Since late September, it has been bombing terrorist and rebel targets in Syria as part of what the West says is an effort to prop up Assad's government.
"No one should be forced to choose between a dictator and being plagued by terrorists," Kerry said. However, he described the Syrian opposition's demand that Assad must leave as soon as peace talks begin as a "nonstarting position, obviously."
Earlier Tuesday in the Kremlin, Putin noted several "outstanding issues" between Russia and its former Cold War foe. Beyond Assad, these include which rebel groups in Syria should be allowed to participate in the transition process and which should be deemed terrorists, and like the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, combatted by all.
Jordan is working on finalizing the list of terrorist vs. legitimate opposition forces. Representatives of Syria's opposition themselves hope this week to finalize their negotiating team for talks with Assad's government. The U.S., Russia and others hope those talks will begin early next year.
Appearing beside Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hailed what he described as a "big negotiating day," saying the sides advanced efforts to define what a Syrian transition process might look like.
The two countries also have split on Ukraine since Russia's annexation of the Crimea region last year and its ongoing, though diminished, support for separatist rebels in the east of the country. The U.S. has pressed severe economic sanctions against Russia in response and has insisted that Moscow's actions have left it isolated.
That wasn't the case on Tuesday.
"We don't seek to isolate Russia as a matter of policy, no," Kerry said. The sooner Russia implements a February cease-fire that calls for withdrawal of Russian forces and materiel and a release of all prisoners, he said, the sooner that "sanctions can be rolled back."
The world is better off when Russia and the U.S. work together, he added, calling Obama and Putin's current cooperation a "sign of maturity."
"There is no policy of the United States, per se, to isolate Russia," Kerry stressed.
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Klapper reported from Washington.
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