BASHIQA // Iraqi Kurdish forces have seized the town of Bashiqa from ISIL, an official said on Tuesday, one of the final steps in securing the eastern approaches to Mosul.
South of Mosul, Iraqi investigators carried out an initial examination of a mass grave discovered in the area of Hamam Al Alil, a town seized from ISIL on Monday.
Bashiqa was under the “complete control” of Kurdish peshmerga forces, said Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the Kurdish regional ministry responsible for the fighters.
“Our forces are clearing mines and sweeping the city.”
The peshmerga, however, said there were still some suicide bombers and snipers inside Bashiqa, and that about five per cent of the town remained under militant control.
At least three air strikes hit the town on Tuesday and gunfire and an explosion was heard from inside.
Iraqi forces launched an offensive to retake Mosul on October 17, and last week elite troops breached the city’s limits.
Baghdad scored another victory against ISIL on Monday by establishing full control over Hamam Al Alil, about 15 kilometres from the edge of Mosul and the last significant town on the way to the city from the south.
The same day Iraqi forces said a mass grave had been found at an agricultural college in the area. The offensive’s Joint Operations Command said “100 bodies of citizens with their heads cut off” had been uncovered.
On Tuesday men in Iraqi security forces uniforms used ropes to pull two bodies, one of them headless, from the grave, and also removed a decapitated head.
“Today, the team conducted an initial examination,” said Mohammed Taher Al Tamimi, an Iraqi cabinet official.
Mr Al Tamimi said the victims had been blindfolded and had their hands and feet bound.
He said around 25 bodies were initially visible but that investigators believed there were “very large numbers” of corpses at the site.
The United Nations said on Tuesday that ISIL fighters had forced thousands of civilians to retreat with them from Hamam Al Alil to Mosul airport on November 4.
The UN has been warning for weeks that ISIL is making civilians living in districts around Mosul move into the city.
Also on Tuesday, officials from the mainly Shiite Iraqi militias advancing on the ISIL-held town of Tal Afar said their forces planned to seize a nearby military airbase from the extremists.
The town of Tal Afar, and its airbase, are located on the main road west of Mosul. Capturing them would help cut ISIL supply lines between Mosul and its Syrian territories, and offer a base for the militias’ stated plan of ultimately taking their battle with ISIL into Syria.
Capturing an airbase would point to the growing muscle of the Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitary forces, which officially report to the Shiite-led government of prime minister Haider Al Abadi but are also backed by Tehran and often fly the banners of Iran’s Supreme Leader.
“Now we are 25km from the Tal Afar airbase,” said Kareem Alewi, a commander of one of the Hashed brigades and a member of the Badr Organisation, the most powerful force within the militia alliance.
He said it would be the first military base controlled by the Hashed, who could take their fight across the frontier once Mosul is taken. “If Iraq is liberated, no doubt our second goal will be to pursue Daesh inside Syria,” he added.
* Agence France-Presse, Reuters
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
On Instagram: @WithHopeUAE
Although social media can be harmful to our mental health, paradoxically, one of the antidotes comes with the many social-media accounts devoted to normalising mental-health struggles. With Hope UAE is one of them.
The group, which has about 3,600 followers, was started three years ago by five Emirati women to address the stigma surrounding the subject. Via Instagram, the group recently began featuring personal accounts by Emiratis. The posts are written under the hashtag #mymindmatters, along with a black-and-white photo of the subject holding the group’s signature red balloon.
“Depression is ugly,” says one of the users, Amani. “It paints everything around me and everything in me.”
Saaed, meanwhile, faces the daunting task of caring for four family members with psychological disorders. “I’ve had no support and no resources here to help me,” he says. “It has been, and still is, a one-man battle against the demons of fractured minds.”
In addition to With Hope UAE’s frank social-media presence, the group holds talks and workshops in Dubai. “Change takes time,” Reem Al Ali, vice chairman and a founding member of With Hope UAE, told The National earlier this year. “It won’t happen overnight, and it will take persistent and passionate people to bring about this change.”
