NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Scores killed as IS bombs hit Syrian strongholds
By PHILIP ISSA
Associated Press
BEIRUT — A series of
coordinated blasts hit bus
stations, an electricity plant
and a hospital across two
Syrian cities Monday, killing
at least 80 people in the fi rst
major security breach of
President Bashar Assad’s
coastal strongholds in the
country’s fi ve-year war.
The Islamic State group
claimed responsibility for
the attack on social media.
The militants are not known
to maintain a presence in the
surrounding countryside, an
area in which mainstream
rebels and al-Qaida affi liated
insurgents form the predom-
inant opposition to Assad’s
forces.
The seven closely-coor-
dinated morning blasts in
the pro-government cities of
Tartus and Jableh targeted
civilians in large numbers,
and seemed intended to send
a message that no part of
Syria is safe from violence.
They also underlined the
worrying inability of world
powers to jumpstart Syrian
peace talks in Geneva as the
violence worsens.
A coalition of nearly 30
rebel factions said Sunday
they would give the govern-
ment 48 hours to end its
offensives around besieged
opposition-held suburbs of
Damascus or they would
consider the partial cease-
fi re brokered in late February
“dissolved.” Yet fi ghting had
Islamic State advances in eastern Syria
The Islamic State group launched an offensive in Deir el-Zour
on Saturday. Government-held areas in the city have been
under a months-long siege and the U.N. has been airdrop-
ping aid to residents amid food and medicine shortages.
TURKEY
Syria
Aleppo
Raqqa
SYRIA
Med.
Sea
Homs
IRAQ
Deir
el-Zour
50 mi
50 km
Palmyra
LEB.
Damascus
ISR.
IS fighters captured
several buildings
including a hospital
JORDAN
SOURCE: Maps4News/HERE
SANA via AP
In this photo released by the Syrian offi cial news agency SANA, Syrians gather
in front of a burning car at the scene where suicide bombers blew themselves up
Monday, in the coastal town of Tartus, Syria.
already resumed in earnest
around the country by late
April.
The peacefulness of the
two coastal cities meant
they housed hundreds of
thousands of internally
displaced people who fl ed
violence from other parts of
the country — and who are
now coming under suspicion
by shell-shocked long-term
residents and government
security forces.
Syria’s state news agency,
SANA, reported that four
explosions struck Jableh,
the result of three suicide
attacks and a car bomb. The
targets included the emer-
gency entrance of the Jableh
National Hospital, it said.
Shortly
afterward,
suicide bombers followed
by an explosives-laded car
tore through a packed bus
station and a petrol station
in Tartus, minutes apart, TV
reports and residents said.
More than 38 people were
killed and many injured in
those blasts, Syrian state
media reported.
A resident said she heard
the fi rst explosion, followed
by the wail of ambulance
sirens rushing to the scene.
The bombs struck busy
areas of the city, she said.
The bus stop would have
been crowded with school
students, who had just
fi nished taking their exams
when the blasts occurred just
after 9.30 a.m. local time. On
most mornings more than
100 cars would have been
lining up at the targeted gas
station, because of petrol
shortages.
She spoke on condition of
anonymity, citing fears for
her own safety.
The Syrian Observatory
Offi cer cleared of all charges in Gray case
By JULIET LINDERMAN
Associated Press
BALTIMORE — Prose-
cutors failed for the second
time in their bid to hold
Baltimore police accountable
for the arrest and death of
Freddie Gray when an offi cer
was acquitted Monday in the
racially charged case that
triggered riots a year ago.
A judge cleared Offi cer
Edward Nero of assault,
reckless endangerment and
misconduct,
concluding
that Nero played little role
in Gray’s arrest and wasn’t
responsible for the failure to
buckle the black man into the
police van where he suffered
a broken neck.
Upon hearing the verdict,
Nero hugged his attorney and
appeared to wipe away a tear.
Nero, who is white, was
the second of six offi cers
charged in the case to stand
trial. The manslaughter case
against Offi cer William
Porter ended in a mistrial
in December when the jury
deadlocked. Prosecutors plan
to retry him in September.
Nero’s lawyers said he
and his wife and family are
“elated that this nightmare is
fi nally over.”
“The state’s attorney
for Baltimore City rushed
to charge him, as well
as the other fi ve offi cers,
completely
disregarding
the facts of the case and the
Dayr az Zawr
Hassakeh
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Protesters gather outside of a courthouse after Offi cer
Edward Nero, one of six Baltimore city police offi cers
charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, was
acquitted of all charges Monday in his trial in Baltimore.
applicable law,” they said in
a statement.
Prosecutors
had
no
comment; they are under a
gag order.
Trial No. 3 — that of van
driver Caesar Goodson, who
prosecutors believe is most
culpable in Gray’s death — is
set to begin in two weeks. He
is charged with second-de-
gree murder.
David
Weinstein,
a
Florida attorney and former
federal civil rights prosecutor
who has been following the
case, said the verdict will
probably serve as a “wake-up
call” for prosecutors.
“This speaks to the notion
a lot of people had when this
fi rst happened, which is that
it was a rush to judgment,”
Weinstein said. “The state’s
attorney was trying to
balance what she had with
the public outcry and call to
action given the climate in
Baltimore and across the U.S.
concerning policing, and I
think she was overreaching.”
Gray died a week after
suffering a spinal injury in
the back of the van while he
was handcuffed and shackled
but not belted in.
His death set off looting
and arson that prompted
authorities to declare a
citywide curfew and call
out the National Guard to
quell unrest in Baltimore for
the fi rst time since the riots
that erupted in 1968 over
the assassination of the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Gray’s name became a
rallying cry in the growing
furor over the deaths of black
men in clashes with police.
Nero, 30, waived his
right to a jury trial, choosing
instead to let Circuit Judge
Barry Williams decide his
fate. The assault charge alone
carried up to 10 years in
prison.
“The state’s theory has
been one of recklessness and
negligence,” the judge said in
his ruling . “There has been
no evidence that the defen-
dant intended for a crime to
occur.”
Nero remains on desk duty
and still faces a departmental
investigation that could result
in disciplinary action.
About a dozen protesters
gathered
outside
the
courthouse as the verdict
was read, but they were far
outnumbered by members of
the media.
Mayor Stephanie Rawl-
ings-Blake noted the depart-
mental review and pleaded
for calm.
“We once again ask the
citizens to be patient and
to allow the entire process
to come to a conclusion,”
she said. “In the case of any
disturbance in the city, we are
prepared to respond. We will
protect our neighborhoods,
our businesses and the people
of our city.”
AP
for Human Rights, an
opposition monitoring group
based in Britain, put the
death toll much higher than
Syrian government sources,
saying that more than 145
had been killed.
The four explosions in
Jableh and three in Tartus
ripped through both loca-
tions almost simultaneously,
indicating a high degree of
organization.
They sparked a backlash
against
the
displaced,
including a reprisal attack on
a camp for those internally
displaced by war located
in Tartus. Parts of the
al-Karnak camp were burned
down, according to Ghassan
Hassan, who heads the
Tartous2day media agency.
Some 700,000 refugees
from the war-torn Aleppo,
Idlib, and Raqqa governor-
ates are settled in Tartus,
Hassan said. Security forces
arrested dozens of refugees
in sweeps of Jableh and
Tartus, the Observatory
reported.
The local community of
Tartus and Jableh had co-ex-
isted relatively well with the
tens of thousands of refugees
they host.
Russia, which is heavily
invested in the Syrian war
on behalf of Assad’s govern-
ment, keeps a naval base in
Tartus, the only such base
on the Mediterranean. It also
has an air base in Latakia
province, about three miles
north of Jableh.
School threats could
be latest in ‘swatting’
DENVER (AP) —
Threats made against
schools across the United
States led to the evacuation
of students Monday in what
could be the latest example
of so-called “swatting”
against schools.
In recent months, hoaxers
playing online games
have allegedly used proxy
servers and other high-tech
identity-disguising
tools
to anonymously threaten
schools online or in phone
messages with electronic
voices to trigger a huge
police response, including
SWAT teams.
The latest threats led to
the evacuation of schools in
Colorado, Utah, Delaware,
Minnesota, New Hampshire
and Wisconsin. Media outlets
in the United Kingdom also
reported evacuations.
The threats were made
against elementary, middle
and high schools, with
some schools choosing to
continue classes and others
to put buildings on lock-
down rather than evacuate.
Some schools resumed
classes after sweeps by
authorities failed to turn up
explosives or other threats.
Some offi cials described
Monday’s threats as auto-
mated or robotic and at least
two — at Lakewood High
School outside Denver and
at Ben Franklin Elemen-
tary School in Rochester,
Minnesota — came in just
before noon local time. Also
in Minnesota, Forest Lake
Elementary in the city of
Forest Lake was evacuated
after getting a bomb-threat
call around 12:15 p.m.
Meanwhile, students at
Murray High School outside
Salt Lake City were sent
home and bomb-sniffi ng
dogs were brought in. No
explosives were found.
Two elementary schools
were evacuated in Colorado
— Liberty Point Elemen-
tary School in Pueblo
West and Cherokee Trail
Elementary in the Denver
suburb of Parker.
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Sanders: Dem
convention could
be ‘messy’
LOS ANGELES
(AP) — Bernie Sanders
predicted Monday that
the Democratic National
Convention in Philadelphia
could be “messy” as he
pushed the party to adopt
his progressive agenda, but
added, “Democracy is not
always nice and quiet and
gentle.”
The Democratic
presidential candidate
said in an interview with
The Associated Press that
his supporters hoped to
see a platform at the July
convention that refl ects the
needs of working families,
the poor and young people
as opposed to one that
represents Wall Street and
corporate America.
The Vermont senator said
he will “condemn any and
all forms of violence” but
his campaign was bringing
in newcomers to the process
and fi rst-time attendees of
political conventions. He
said the Democratic Party
could choose to be more
inclusive.
“I think if they make
BRIEFLY
the right choice and open
the doors to working-class
people and young people and
create the kind of dynamism
that the Democratic Party
needs, it’s going to be
messy,” Sanders said.
“Democracy is not always
nice and quiet and gentle but
that is where the Democratic
Party should go.”
Asked if the convention
could be messy, Sanders
said: “So what? Democracy
is messy. Everyday my life
is messy. But if you want
everything to be quiet and
orderly and allow, you know,
just things to proceed without
vigorous debate, that is not
what democracy is about.”
Obama lifts
Vietnam arms
embargo
HANOI, Vietnam (AP)
— Eager to banish lingering
shadows of the Vietnam War,
President Barack Obama
lifted the U.S. embargo on
selling arms to America’s
former enemy Monday and
made the case for a more
trusting and prosperous
relationship going forward.
Activists said the president
was being too quick to
gloss over serious human
rights abuses in his push to
establish warmer ties.
After spending his fi rst
day in Vietnam shuttling
among meetings with
different government
leaders, Obama will spend
the next two days speaking
directly to the Vietnamese
people and meeting with
civil society groups and
young entrepreneurs.
It’s all part of his effort
to “upgrade” the U.S.
relationship with an
emerging economic power in
Southeast Asia and a nation
that the U.S. also hopes can
serve as a counterweight to
Chinese aggression in the
region.
Tracing the arc of
the U.S.-Vietnamese
relationship through
cooperation, confl ict,
“painful separation” and
a long reconciliation,
Obama marveled during a
news conference with the
Vietnamese president that “if
you consider where we have
been and where we are now,
the transformation in the
relations between our two
countries is remarkable.”
President Tran Dai Quang
said later at a lavish state
luncheon that he was grateful
for the American people’s
efforts to put an end to “an
unhappy chapter in the two
countries’ history,” referring
to the 1965-1975 U.S. war
with Vietnam’s communists,
who now run the country.
The confl ict killed 57,000
American military personnel
and as many as 2 million
Vietnamese military and
civilians.
Iraqi leader cites
early success in
Fallujah offensive
BAGHDAD (AP) —
Iraq’s prime minister hailed
“big successes” Monday
by government troops after
launching an offensive to
retake Fallujah from Islamic
State militants, but the
operation promises to be one
of the toughest challenges
yet for the country’s
struggling security forces.
Troops recaptured
some agricultural areas
in Garma, a district along
the northeastern edge of
Fallujah, under intensifi ed
Iraqi airstrikes and heavy
artillery, said Col. Mahmoud
al-Mardhi, who leads
Shiite militia forces in the
operation.
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healthinfo@gshealth.org