Syria conflict: Russia wants 'co-ordination' against IS

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a regional "co-ordinating structure" against Islamic State (IS).

Mr Putin reiterated his support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who Western countries and the Syrian opposition have said must go.

The crisis is expected to be high on the agenda as world leaders gather at the UN in New York.

Mr Putin will hold rare talks with US President Barack Obama to discuss the issue later on Monday.

Relations between Russia and the West have been strained over Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula last year and support for separatist rebels.

In a separate development, UK Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to soften his stance against Mr Assad in a speech this week.

He is due to tell the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly that Mr Assad could remain temporarily in power at the head of a transitional government.

Mr Cameron - along with Mr Obama and French President Francois Hollande - has previously demanded that Mr Assad be removed from power as a condition of any peace deal, a position consistently rejected by Mr Putin.

Speaking as he arrived in New York on Sunday, Mr Cameron said: "[Bashar al-] Assad can't be part of Syria's future. He has butchered his own people. He has helped create this conflict and this migration crisis. He is one of the great recruiting sergeants for Isil [IS]."

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani - a key regional ally of President Assad - said the government in Damascus "can't be weakened" if IS militants were to be defeated.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

European leaders are intensifying calls for a diplomatic push in Syria in the wake of a massive influx of refugees heading for Europe.

Image copyrightReuters

Image captionUS Secretary of State John Kerry (L) discussed the crisis with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Sunday

The urgency of finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict has also been reinforced by a Russian military build-up in Syria in support of Mr Assad's regime.

Iraq on Sunday announced that it had signed an agreement on security and intelligence co-operation with Russia, Iran and Syria to help combat IS.

US 'concerns'

In an interview with CBS television, Mr Putin said the Syrian president's troops were "the only legitimate conventional army there".

He said the troops were fighting terrorist organisations, and Russia "would be pleased to find common ground for joint action against the terrorists".

US Secretary of State John Kerry, however, said the efforts were "not yet co-ordinated" and the US had "concerns about how we are going to go forward".

---

Analysis: Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East Editor

Two factors have put Syria on the priority list for the leaders gathering in New York for the UN General Assembly. One is the threat posed by the jihadists of Islamic State. The other is the refugee emergency, which means that the reverberations of the Syrian war have reached Western Europe.

Now, the military priority is hitting IS.

The British hope that their new stance on President Assad might help to break the deadlock over Syria in the UN Security Council, which has crippled diplomatic attempts to find a way to stop the war.

If the rift in the Security Council over Syria cannot be repaired, Mr Cameron's call for a new diplomatic initiative to end the war won't change anything.

Diplomatic goals behind Putin's Syria build-up

Migrant crisis: Fleeing life under Islamic State in Syria

Syria's civil war explained

The battle for Syria and Iraq in maps

---

On Sunday, France said it had carried out its first air strikes against IS in Syria, destroying a training camp.

A US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq for more than a year. France, like the UK, has previously confined its air strikes against the Islamic State group to Iraqi airspace.

The UK announced earlier this month it had carried out a drone strike against two British citizens in Syria but has yet to fly manned operations in Syrian airspace.

More than 200,000 Syrians have been killed since the country erupted into civil war in 2011, and Islamic State took control of swathes of the country in 2014. Mr Assad has been accused of killing tens of thousands of his own citizens with indiscriminate bombing in rebel-held areas.

Approximately four million Syrians have fled abroad so far - the vast majority are in neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan - and more are on the move.

Hajj stampede: Saudi king orders safety review

• 1 hour ago
 
• From the sectionMiddle East

Jump media player

Media player help

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.

Media captionBBC reporter Tchima Illa Issoufou: "I lost my aunt as a result of the stampede"

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered a safety review for the Hajj pilgrimage after at least 717 people died in a stampede near the holy city of Mecca.

Another 863 people were injured in the incident at Mina, which occurred as two million pilgrims were taking part in the Hajj's last major rite.

It is the deadliest incident to occur during the pilgrimage in 25 years.

The king said there was a need "to improve the level of organisation and management of movement" of pilgrims.

In pictures: Aftermath of the stampede

Accounts from BBC staff in Mina

Was stampede preventable?

In the latest reaction:

• A commission to investigate the crush has been formed by the Saudi government
• The Saudi health minister, Khaled al-Falih, said the crush occurred because many pilgrims moved "without respecting the timetables" established by authorities
• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, which lost at least 95 of its citizens in the crush, said the Saudi government "must accept the huge responsibility", adding that "mismanagement and improper actions" were to blame
• Pope Francis, who is visiting the US, expressed his "sentiments of closeness" with Muslims, during a prayer service at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

It is the second disaster to strike Mecca in two weeks, after a crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque, killing 109 people.

Jump media player

Media player help

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.

Media captionFootage from Saudi television shows ambulances and people with stretchers tending to injured pilgrims

As part of the Hajj, pilgrims travel to Mina, a large valley about 5km (3 miles) from Mecca, to throw seven stones at pillars called Jamarat, which represent the devil.

The pillars stand where Satan is believed to have tempted the Prophet Abraham.

Why do millions gather in Mecca every year?

The accident occurred at 09:00 local time (06:00 GMT) as pilgrims were walking towards the five-storey structure which surrounds the pillars, known as the Jamarat Bridge.

Maj Gen Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry, said the crush occurred when two large groups of pilgrims converged from different directions on to one street.

Photographs showed the bodies of dozens of pilgrims on the ground, some piled high. They were all dressed in the simple white garments worn during the Hajj.

Image copyrightAFP/Getty Images

Image caption"Dead bodies stretch as far as my eyes can see," one BBC employee in Mina said

Image copyrightSPA

Image captionHundreds of thousands of people continued to the Jamarat pillars despite the tragedy earlier

Image copyrightAP

Image captionPilgrims converge on Mina to cast stones at three pillars representing the devil

"I saw someone trip over someone in a wheelchair and several people tripping over him," Abdullah Lotfy, from Egypt, told the Associated Press. "People were climbing over one another just to breathe."

"Dead bodies stretch as far as my eyes can see," said Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi, the BBC's Abuja editor, who is in Mina.

The civil defence directorate said the victims were of "different nationalities", without providing details.

The BBC understands at least three Indonesians, and some pilgrims from Niger, are among the dead.

The UK Foreign Office said it was urgently seeking more information about whether British nationals were involved.

Hajj: Previous tragedies

2006: 364 pilgrims die in a crush at foot of Jamarat Bridge in Mina

1997: 340 pilgrims are killed when fire fuelled by high winds sweeps through Mina's tent city

1994: 270 pilgrims die in a stampede during the stoning ritual

1990: 1,426 pilgrims, mainly Asian, die in a stampede in an overcrowded tunnel leading to holy sites

1987: 402 people die when security forces break up an anti-US demonstration by Iranian pilgrims

Afghan Taliban: Mullah Mansour's battle to be leader

Image copyrightAP

Image captionMany Taliban have known no other leader than Mullah Omar - until now

Taliban conflict

• Video Just who was Taliban's Mullah Omar?
• Mullah Omar: Reclusive figure
• Mullah Omar: The myth and the movement
• Who are the Taliban?

The Afghan Taliban say they have put aside disagreements and rallied around their new leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.

The announcement followed weeks of intensiveefforts to unite the movement behind the man who succeeded Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Following the announcement of Omar's death in July, Mullah Mansour was quickly installed as the new Amir ul-Mumineen, Commander of the Faithful.

The decision was initially opposed by some of Mullah Omar's followers.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionMullah Omar (left) died two years ago and his deputy Mullah Mansur swiftly replaced him

Image copyrightBBC Sport

Image captionAnnouncement on the Taliban website saying Mullah Omar's family had pledged allegiance to the new leader

The new emir's main challengers were Mullah Omar's brother and eldest son - until now relatively unknown, who questioned the way he was appointed.

But both eventually pledged loyalty to Mullah Mansour.

"Mullah Yaqoub, the son and Mullah Manan, the brother of Mullah Omar, swore their allegiances to the new leader in a splendid ceremony," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the BBC last week, without revealing the location of the gathering.

"Now the movement will continue in a united manner."

In recent weeks, hundreds of Taliban commanders, fighters and clerics travelled in and out of Pakistan to try to overcome the open divisions.

Reports from the Pakistani city of Quetta near the Afghan border said the consultations required local supporters to host hundreds of Taliban in mosques, madrassas and private houses, and organise transport and supplies.

The task of unifying the movement appears as yet incomplete with some senior figures still threatening to disobey Mansour and run their own faction and their own insurgent attacks.

The people who make last wishes come true

Earlier this year a photograph was released showing a woman on a stretcher in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. She was there to take a final look at her favourite Rembrandt painting. Her visit had been made possible by a Dutch charity that helps terminally ill patients fulfil their last wish.

"I've learned that people who are going to die have little wishes," says Kees Veldboer, the ambulance driver who founded the Stichting Ambulance Wens - or Ambulance Wish Foundation - after an impulse to help a patient.

In November 2006 he was moving a terminally ill patient, Mario Stefanutto, from one hospital to another. But just after they put him on the stretcher, they were told there would be a delay - the receiving hospital wasn't ready. Stefanutto had no desire to get back in the bed where he had spent the past three months, so Veldboer asked if there was anywhere he would like to go.

The retired seaman asked if they could take him to the Vlaardingen canal, so he could be by the water and say a final goodbye to Rotterdam harbour. It was a sunny day, and they stayed on the dockside for nearly an hour. "Tears of joy ran over his face," says Veldboer. "When I asked him: 'Would you like to have the opportunity to sail again?' he said it would be impossible because he lay on a stretcher."

Image copyrightStichting Ambulance Wens

Image captionKees Veldboer and his colleague Linda take Mario Stefanutto to see the harbour

Veldboer was determined to make this man's last wish come true. He asked his boss if he could borrow an ambulance on his day off, recruited the help of a colleague and contacted a firm that does boat tours around Rotterdam harbour - they were all happy to help, and the following Friday, to Stefanutto's astonishment, the ambulance driver turned up at his hospital bedside to take him sailing.

In a letter written weeks before his death Stefanutto wrote, "It does me good that there are still people who care about others… I can tell you from my own experience that a small gesture from someone else can have a huge impact."

Image copyrightStichting Ambulance Wens

Image captionThe first wish comes true - Mario Stefanutto on a Spido tour of Rotterdam's harbour

That was the genesis of the Stichting Ambulance Wens. Veldboer and his wife Ineke, a nurse, started it at their kitchen table - eight years on it has 230 volunteers, six ambulances and a holiday home, and is fast approaching 7,000 fulfilled wishes. Sometimes wishes are fulfilled the day they are made. On average, the charity helps four people a day - they can be any age and the only stipulation is that patients are terminally ill and can't be transported other than on a stretcher.

"Our youngest patient was 10 months old, a twin. She was in a children's hospice and had never been home - her parents wanted to sit on the couch with her just one time.

"And our oldest patient was 101 - she wanted to ride a horse one last time. We lifted her on to the horse with the help of a truck, and later we moved her to a horse-drawn carriage - she was waving at everyone like royalty. That was a good wish," says Veldboer.

Image copyrightStichting Ambulance Wens

Image captionThe 101-year-old whose last wish was to go riding one more time

Although other charities offer terminally ill patients a day out, the Stichting Ambulance Wens was the first to provide an ambulance and full medical back-up. There is always a fully-trained nurse on board, and the specialist drivers tend to come from the police and fire brigades. The specially-designed ambulances have a view, and every patient receives a teddy bear called Mario, named after Stefanutto.

Image copyrightStichting Ambulance Wens

Image captionIneke and Kees Veldboer have helped thousands of people fulfil their last wish

Find out more

• Kees Veldboer spoke to Outlook Listen to the interview on iPlayer
• Listen to more extraordinary stories from Outlook on the BBC World Service

---

"It gives us volunteers so much satisfaction to see people enjoying themselves," says Roel Foppen, a former soldier who acts as a driver. Over the past six years he has helped to fulfil 300 wishes.

Once he went as far as Romania, a 4,500km (2,800 mile) round-trip. It was for a woman called Nadja, who had lived in the Netherlands for 12 years. Her children, aged three and seven, were already back in Romania with her family, and she wanted to go there to die.

"She was so ill we couldn't even touch her," says Foppen. They left on a Thursday morning, but as they were driving through Germany Nadja's condition deteriorated, so they stopped at a hospital. Doctors recommended Nadja stay there, but she wanted to see her children - and her wish was what counted. After a three-hour delay they carried on, through Austria, then Hungary - when they reached the Romanian border, Nadja said, "Take the stretcher out, now I can die!"

Foppen said, "It's just another 600km to your mother and your children - could you hang on just a little longer?" On the Saturday the ambulance arrived in Bucharest for an emotional reunion. Then the crew drove back, leaving Nadja behind. Her family sent a card to say she died two weeks later.

Image copyrightStichting Ambulance Wens

Image captionNadja wanted to go back to Romania to die with her family

"If people know we're coming, they find new reserves of energy," says Foppen. "Often the family tell us they were about to cancel because the patient was so ill, but when we arrive they are beaming, ready for their day out."

It was Foppen who took the famous photograph in the Rijksmuseum. He was on the other side of the gallery with his colleague Mariet Knot, fulfilling someone else's wish. They were looking after a man called Donald, who used to visit the museum regularly with his partner of 30 years - the two men had married the week before. "What was great was that he was very much in charge," says Knot. "He told us which paintings he wanted to see and was able to tell us a lot about them, so we could enjoy it too."

The last work in the exhibition was one Donald had never seen before - Simeon with the Christ Child in the Temple, a painting that remained unfinished at the time of Rembrandt's death. Donald was deeply moved by it. "I realise now that a life is never finished. My life is unfinished, and this painting is unfinished," he told them.

Then, after a pause, "I have seen what I wanted to see, we can go now