Iraq’s parliament elected Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al-Halbousi as speaker on Saturday, marking an important step towards establishing a new government four months after an inconclusive national election. Parliament had been due to elect a speaker and two deputies during its first meeting on Sept 3, but failed to do so as lawmakers were unable to determine which competing bloc had the most… Read more »
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the shooting down of a Russian military plane near Syria’s seacoast was accidental as Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu expressed sorrow at the deaths but blamed the Syrian military. Russia’s Defence Ministry said earlier that the aircraft was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft systems, but accused Israel of indirectly causing the incident, saying Israeli jets operating nearby… Read more »
Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr called Thursday for “radical” solutions to a health crisis which has sparked mass rallies and left seven protesters dead this week. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in the southern city of Basra, angry at pollution of the water supply which has put 30,000 people in hospital. Seven demonstrators have been killed in… Read more »
Moscow on Monday announced new security measures to protect its military in Syria, including supplying the Syrian army with a new S-300 air defence system and jamming radars following the downing of a Russian plane last week. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that President Vladimir Putin has ordered additional security measures after a Syrian Soviet-era S-200 air defence missile shot down a Russian military plane by… Read more »
More than five million children are at risk of famine in Yemen as the ongoing war causes food and fuel prices to soar across the country, charity Save the Children warned Wednesday. Disruption to supplies coming through the embattled Red Sea port of Hodeida could “cause starvation on an unprecedented scale,” the British based NGO said in a new report. Save the… Read more »
In northwest Syria tensions have been increasing. However, a temporary solution has been put into place. Vladimir Putin and Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan the two countries agreed to create a demilitarised zone 15-20km into opposition-control territories along the de-facto front line by October 15. THis includes withdrawing all fighters, guns, tanks rockets, and other weapons. The two rulers also… Read more »
The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah movement says it has acquired sophisticated rockets despite Israel’s efforts to prevent it obtaining them. Hassan Nasrallah told supporters it did not matter what the Israelis did to try to cut supply routes because the group already possessed “precision rockets”. He did not produce evidence of this. Israel, which in 2006 fought a war… Read more »
DUBAI: Civil society organizations in Yemen sent an appeal to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday to increase the level of support to the National Commission of Inquiry in Human Rights Violations in Yemen and to reflect this support in the purported resolution on Yemen in the 39th Session of the Human Rights Council. The statement… Read more »
A suicide bomber has attacked a government office in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, causing a nearby school to collapse, police say. The car bomb in Howlwadag district killed three soldiers and injured 14 people, including six children, local officials told BBC Somali. The blast also damaged nearby houses and blew the roof off a mosque. The militant group al-Shabab, which has waged… Read more »
BEIRUT — A top U.N. official warned Monday that an attack on rebel-held parts in Syria’s Idlib in coming months could lead to this century’s worst loss of life as government forces pounded the area from the air and ground. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock’s comments in Geneva came days after Iran and Russia backed a military campaign in the rebel-held area… Read more »