Reuters: U.S.-backed Iraqi forces closing in on the Islamic State-held western half of Mosul prepared on Tuesday to storm the airport and a nearby military base on its southern outskirts to create a bridgehead for a thrust into the city. Since ousting the militant group from eastern Mosul last month, Iraqi forces have advanced in sparsely populated outlying areas but… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Unidentified gunmen have opened fire on a convoy carrying the prime minister of Libya’s UN-backed government, Fayez al-Sarraj, in Tripoli without causing any casualties, according to his administration.
Al Jazeera: Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-US secretary of state John Kerry, former US officials confirmed.
Al Jazeera: Aid organisations are racing against the clock to prepare for what is expected to be a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of civilians from Mosul as Iraqi forces advance west of Mosul in the final stage of the battle for Mosul to recapture the city from the Islamic State or Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Amman – Protests are erupting across Jordan in response to rising prices and the government’s decision to raise taxes on food items and services that was enacted last week.
Recently, President Donald Trump when accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a statement declaring that a two-state solution is no longer the ultimate solution for peace in the region. Setting aside the fact that he’s discarded two decades of precedent, this declaration of his has only served to further militarize the Palestinian State, namely the Hamas organization… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Iraqi security forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at thousands of supporters of an influential Shia leader demonstrating near Baghdad’s Green Zone to press for electoral reform. Four protesters and one police officer were killed during Saturday’s protests, Baghdad’s governor told Al Jazeera. Police and hospital officials said hundreds of protesers and seven other policemen were also injured… Read more »
Al Jazeera: At least eight women and a child were killed in an overnight air raid on a funeral reception near the Yemeni capital Sanaa, medics said. At least 10 more women were reported wounded in the raid on Thursday, which hit the women’s reception area at a funeral in Arhab district, 40km north of Sanaa. Medics dispatched to the incident… Read more »
Al Jazeera: The UN and the Arab League have issued a joint statement in support of the establishment of a Palestinian state, after US President Donald Trump dropped his country’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The statement on Thursday came a day after Trump and the visiting Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, refused to endorse the two-state… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Hamas members in the Gaza Strip have elected Yahya Sinwar to head its Gaza political bureau to succeed outgoing leader Ismail Haniya. Sinwar will take over from Haniya, who served out his two-term limit some time in April. Sinwar was jailed by Israel in 1988 and spent the next 23 years in prison, where he was a key leader… Read more »