Tehran has seen some of the biggest crowds on the streets since the 2009 “Green Movement” opposition demonstrations, as an estimated 2.5 million people gathered to bid farewell to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the man universally known as “Hashemi”. An eyewitness told BBC Persian that the crowds were sharply divided between hardliners and moderates, but it was clear many people had… Read more »
They died in blasts at the governor of Kandahar’s guesthouse on Tuesday, where at least six others were killed including the deputy governor, two senior Afghan officials and two MPs. The governor and the UAE ambassador were among at least 18 wounded. The attack was one of several in Afghanistan on Tuesday. The Taliban admitted attacks in the capital Kabul… Read more »
The joint counter-espionage IDF Military Intelligence and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operation against Hamas that was cleared for publication on Wednesday has revealed that the Gazan terror organization is now equipped with a cyber unit, which possesses considerable abilities. This Hamas cyber unit has been aided by foreign experts in the field. Hamas’s efforts to gain access to IDF… Read more »
Oman is negotiating with wealthy Gulf Arab states to secure a multi-billion dollar deposit in its central bank, two sources have told the Reuters news agency, although the Sultanate denied the report. The sources, declining to be named because the matter is not public, said Omani officials had met in recent weeks with officials of the finance ministries of Kuwait, Qatar and… Read more »
About 10 Syrian rebel groups announced Monday they were suspending talks about planned peace negotiations this month in the Kazakh capital Astana, due to “violations” by Damascus of a four-day old truce. “As these violations are continuing, the rebel factions announce… the freezing of all discussion linked to the Astana negotiations,” they said in a joint statement, referring to talks… Read more »
Two years after the jihadists seized the city of 1.5 million people and declared a caliphate from there encompassing tracts of Iraq and Syria, a force of some 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Sunni tribal fighters began to advance. Helicopters released flares and explosions could be heard on the city’s eastern front, where Reuters watched Kurdish fighters move… Read more »