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Anadolu Agency submits 292 pages of evidence to International Criminal Court detailing chemical attack in Syria on April 5

Army units, Hashd al-Shaabi secure Tal Afar’s Khader Elias shrine, according to Iraqi military sources

Iraqi forces secure Tal Afar shrine

Top spy agency to report to president

Turkish ministry reinstates hundreds of police officers

Govt to hire new police, judicial officials

Anadolu Agency files evidence at Hague war crimes court

Fitch says Turkish banks largely well-capitalized

Economy>> Foreigner visits to Turkey soar in July

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By Ilker Girit

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency submitted a 292-pages-long file to the International Criminal Court at The Hague on Friday detailing the evidence of Bashar al-Assad regime’s chemical attack on civilians in Syria last April.At least 100 people were killed and hundreds others injured in the chemical attack on April 4 in Khan Sheikhun town in western Idlib province.Anadolu Agency correspondents and

photographers were the first members of the media to arrive at the scene a day after the attack.They interviewed eyewitnesses and civil defense units, and captured footage of the area that was strewn with wreckage and rocket shrapnel.The evidence detailed in the file mainly includes photographs of the dead and severely-injured Syrian civilians; video interviews of neighborhood residents; and pictures and videos of the attack site, including aerial photography.

The file also quotes doctors who “observed that the weapons used were weapons of mass destruction and contained chlorine gas”.“Anadolu Agency reporter Abdurrauf Kantar, who was first to arrive at Khan Sheikhun, was exposed to the poisonous gas and hospitalized,” the file added.The Assad regime carried out 207 chemical attacks since the first one in western Homs province’s Al-Bayyada district on Dec. 23, 2012, according to a report released on the fourth...

ANKARA - Turkey’s intelligence service will report to the president from Friday, the Official Gazette said.The National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) had previously reported to the prime minister but, in a decree issued under emergency powers introduced following last year’s defeated coup, it will now answer to the president.The gazette also announced that the president would head the National Intelligence Coordination Board, which oversees the intelligence activities of MIT, the military and police.The changes give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan control over domestic and overseas intelligence gathering.For the first time, MIT will be able

to gather intelligence on armed forces and Defense Ministry personnel, something previously carried out by the military.The president will also control any potential investigation by prosecutors into the head of MIT, currently Hakan Fidan.A prosecutor wishing to investigate the MIT director will need to gain permission from the president. If permission is denied, the prosecutor can appeal to the Council of State (Danistay) within 10 days.Any investigation of the MIT chief will be passed to the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals (Yargitay).A state of emergency introduced days after the July 15 failed coup gives government the power to rule by decree.

By Ali Sheikho and Ali Jawad

BAGHDAD - Iraqi forces have captured a prominent shrine revered by Shia Muslims in Iraq’s northern Tal Afar district from the Daesh terrorist group, a top army commander said Friday.“Army units, together with Hashd al-Shaabi fighters, have entirely liberated Tal Afar’s southern Al-Jazeera neighborhood,

including the shrine of Khader Elias,” Army Lieutenant-General Abdul-Amir Yarallah, who is leading the campaign to retake the district, said in a statement.Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, launched fresh military operations on Sunday aimed at decisively wresting Tal Afar from the grip of the terrorist group.A largely Shia fighting force, the Hashd

al-Shaabi was incorporated into the Iraqi army last year and now fights alongside regular army troops in the ongoing campaign to extirpate Daesh from the country.“Army troops and Hashd fighters also stormed Tal Afar’s eastern Al-Mahlabiya neighborhood on Friday,” Police First Lieutenant Bahaa al-Mobahi told Anadolu Agency.

ANKARA - The Interior Ministry Friday reinstated hundreds of police officers who had been suspended from their jobs for suspected links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).In a statement, the ministry said 734 police officers would be reinstated.Earlier Friday, the government officially fired 928 public workers suspected of having links to terrorist organizations and groups

seen as a threat by the National Security Council (MGK), while giving some workers sacked before a chance to return as civil servants.The two new comprehensive decrees published in the Official Gazette Friday had been debated at an Aug. 15 Cabinet meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.After the defeated coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which martyred 250 people and injured...

ANKARA - New police, judge, and prosecutor positions were created in Turkey under a statutory decree published in the Official Gazette on Friday as part of the state of emergency.Nearly 32,000 new police officer positions were created for the central and peripheral organization of the Turkish police, according to the decree.In addition, 4,000 judge and prosecutor positions and 2,000 judge candidate positions were established for Justice Ministry

peripheral organizations.In the ministry’s central structure, one Human Rights Department chair and four department chair positions were created.Also under the decree, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) will report to the president instead of the prime minister, and the president will also become head of the intelligence coordination board.Turkey has been moving to a presidential...

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