Syria frees 62 women in hostage deal

THE Syrian government has released a total of 62 women detainees as part of a three-way prisoner exchange, Al Jazeera has learned. Sources said yesterday that the women had been released over the past two days. “We can expect more releases, but we have no confirmation that this will take place,” Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from the Bakaa Valley, said.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian officials. Nine Lebanese Shia hostages held for 17 months by a rebel group in northern Syria were exchanged on Saturday for two Turkish pilots held in Lebanon since August.

The release of scores of female detainees held in government jails formed part of the deal arranged by Turkey, Qatar and Lebanon.
The correspondent said the deal has prompted a belief that many more deals between the Syrian government and the opposition might be forthcoming.

Most of the women were released at the Masnaa crossing, near Lebanon. Many have since returned to their homes in Syria.
Tens of thousands of people are being detained by the Syrian government, many of them without trial, activists say. Rights groups say torture and ill-treatment are systematic in Syria’s jails.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged President Barack Obama to end drone strikes in Pakistan, touching on a sore subject just as relations between the two countries have been improving after years of suspicion over the US-led campaign in Afghanistan and the “War on Terror”.

“I also brought up the issue of drones in our meeting, emphasizing the need to end … such strikes,” Sharif told reporters after meeting with Obama in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

With US forces preparing to pull out of Afghanistan next year, Obama pledged to brief Sharif fully and to work towards an Afghanistan that is “stable and secure, its sovereignty respected.”

“I’m confident that, working together, we can achieve a goal that is good for Afghanistan, but also helps to protect Pakistan over the long term,” Obama told reporters at the Oval Office.

In a joint statement, the two leaders came together to urge the Taliban “to join the political process and enter into dialogue with the Afghan government.”

But to Sharif’s urgent call for an end to the US campaign of drone strikes, which have infuriated many Pakistanis who see them as a violation of the country’s sovereignty, Obama stayed silent.

The US president acknowledged tensions and “misunderstandings” between the two countries, and said the two leaders had pledged to work together on security issues in ways that “respect Pakistan’s sovereignty”.

“We committed to working together and making sure that rather than this being a source of tension between our two countries, this can be a source of strength for us working together,” Obama said.

The US has quietly restarted security assistance to Pakistan after freezing much of that aid during a period of strained relations following the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Amnesty International in a report said that the United States may have violated international law by killing civilians.
It pointed to an attack in October 2012 in which it said that a 68-year-old grandmother was blown to pieces as she picked vegetables.
The rights group charged that Pakistan, despite its routine public protests, likely has given a quiet green light to the attacks in its remote areas.-AlJazeera.