BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi security forces killed at least four anti-government protesters on Thursday as they sought to push them back to their main camp in central Baghdad, police and medics said, but demonstrations resumed at the same spot later in the day. The violence shattered two days of relative calm in Baghdad after weeks of bloody unrest that has… Read more »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has set up a helicopter base at an airport in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, the Russian Defence Ministry’s Zvezda TV channel said on Thursday, a move designed to increase Moscow’s control over events on the ground there. Two Mi-35 helicopter gunships were shown flying low over desert terrain before landing at the new base,… Read more »
(Al Jazeera) Beirut, Lebanon – Protesters burned tyres, threw stones at soldiers, and blocked roads across Lebanon as the country’s anti-government protests entered their fifth week. Demonstrators marched towards the Presidential Palace in Baabda, incensed by President Michel Aoun’s assertion in a televised interview on Tuesday that if those demonstrating “see no decent people in this state, let them emigrate. They won’t get into… Read more »
(Al Jazeera) Gaza Strip – Hundreds of Palestinians carrying black Islamic Jihad flags gathered at Al-Mujahideen Mosque in central Gaza on Thursday to attend funeral prayers for eight members of the Abu Malhous family. The eight family members were killed by Israeli air raids in the early hours of Thursday in Deir al-Balah. They were among 34 Palestinians killed by Israeli air raids… Read more »