BEIRUT (AP) — Israel strikes crowded neighborhood in Beirut as part of its biggest attacks on Lebanese capital since start of the war.
The jihadi rebels who toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad say they want to build a unified, inclusive country. For Syria’s Kurdish minority, America’s closest ally in the country, the struggle for a new order is entering a potentially even more challenging phase. Over the course of Syria’s civil war, Kurdish fighters have fended off an array of armed factions, partnered with the U.S. to rout the Islamic State group and carved out a largely autonomous region in the country’s oil-rich east.
President Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow on Sunday with his family
It did not require much in Bashar al-Assad’s Syria to run into trouble with the secret police – and it always ended badly.
At least three of Haqqani’s bodyguards were also killed and eight others wounded in the suicide bombing claimed by Isis, officials say
American Travis Timmerman was found by Syrian rebels, as Israel continues its bombardment around much of the country
Slender shoulders, a limp handshake and soft-spoken lisp. Those were the most vivid memories from my meeting with Bashar al Assad.
The US, Israeli, and Turkish militaries all hit targets in Syria over the past few days in service of their national security interests.
The collapse of the Assad regime has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes at military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years.
Once again, Ali Ghulam receives mourners at his home -- his brother and nephew killed 40 years apart in the same sectarian conflict that was reignited this year in northwest Pakistan, claiming 200 lives since July alone.- 'Murdered my dreams' - Ghulam's nephew was killed along with at least 42 others last month, when Sunni gunmen opened fire on a convoy of Shiites being escorted by the police to their homes.
Rebel fighters have set fire to the coffin of Bashar al-Assad’s father in a symbolic moment for Syria as it grapples with what shape the country will take next.
Israel's arrest of almost 30 mostly Jewish citizens who allegedly spied for Iran in nine covert cells has caused alarm in the country and points to Tehran's biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch foe, four Israeli security sources said. Among the unfulfilled goals of the alleged cells was the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officials, while one group gathered information on military bases and air defences, security service Shin Bet has said. Last week, the agency and Israel's police said a father and son team had passed on details of Israeli force movements including in the Golan Heights where they lived.
Mali’s armed forces, supported by Russian mercenaries, committed abuses against civilians since the withdrawal of a U.N. peacekeeping mission late last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday. Malian armed forces and the Russia-backed Wagner Group deliberately killed at least 32 civilians, including seven in a drone strike, kidnapped four others, and burned at least 100 homes in towns and villages in central and northern Mali since May, the rights group said. Human Rights Watch also accused jihadi groups in the region of having summarily executed at least 47 civilians and displaced thousands of people since June.
Twenty-three-year-old Syrian military conscript Farhan al-Khouli was badly paid and demoralized. For years, the Islamist rebels of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had sat behind the nearby frontline, with Syria's long civil war frozen.
Israel has launched more than 350 air and naval strikes against Bashar al-Assad’s military since he was toppled on Sunday, destroying about 80 per cent of Syria’s military capabilities.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as an ending of the country's longest war that freed resources for other conflicts, in testimony in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. "Our adversaries, including Russia, would have been delighted if we had doubled down and remained stuck in Afghanistan for another 20 years," Blinken told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, in what is likely his final public testimony to lawmakers before leaving office next month. Blinken's appearance came after a long dispute with the Republican-led committee over when he would testify about one of the darkest incidents of Democratic President Joe Biden's presidency.
Turkey accuses Israel of displaying occupier mentality and UN envoy says airstrikes must cease
A U.S.-based charity, the World Central Kitchen, fired dozens of Palestinians working for the charity in the Gaza Strip, at least three workers told Reuters, after Israel said at least 62 staff were linked to militant groups. In a message to staff, WCK confirmed that it had "made changes" after Israel demanded an investigation into its hiring practices in Gaza. "This should not be taken as a conclusion by WCK that the individuals are affiliated with any terror organization," it said, adding that Israel had not shared its intelligence and "we do not know the basis for Israel’s decision to flag these individuals."
The Biden administration said Tuesday it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the U.S. would work with groups in Syria and regional partners to ensure that the transition from President Bashar Assad’s deposed government runs smoothly. The qualified pledge of support for a post-Assad Syria comes as the Biden administration targets Islamic State fighters to try to prevent the group from reemerging as an international threat and maintains support for Israel as its forces conduct their own operations inside Syria.
Thousands of pro-European protesters rallied against Georgia's government Tuesday for a 13th consecutive day, after the European Union warned it could punish authorities for their crackdown on demonstrators.On Tuesday, the EU said the bloc's foreign ministers will discuss "additional measures" against Georgia's authorities next week after what Brussels called "credible concerns" of torture against demonstrators.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday urged the release of protesters "arbitrarily" arrested in a crackdown on pro-EU demonstrations in Georgia, in telephone talks with the billionaire former premier Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Elysee said.Macron in the telephone talks expressed regret that Georgia had "diverged from its European path" and said "the relationship between the European Union and Georgia would necessarily be affected", the Elysee said.
