The Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch has lost more than half its fighters due to Afghan and U.S. airstrikes, and ground operations conducted by Taliban fighters, according to a recent inspector general report. Officials with U.S. Forces Afghanistan said it was hard to estimate the number of remaining ISIS fighters in Afghanistan, but U.S. officials claimed in September the terror group was capable… Read more »
In first interview since losing appeal, 20-year-old says she was not surprised by decision. Shamima Begum has said her “whole world fell apart” when she discovered that she had been stripped of her British citizenship, in her first interview since she losing the appeal against the decision. Pictured in a tent where she now lives in a refugee camp in north-east… Read more »
At least 20 civilians, including nine children, were killed in Syrian army strikes in the Idlib region on Tuesday, a Syrian human rights monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said schools and hospitals were among the targets. Regime forces have been fighting a fierce offensive to seize Idlib, the last major territory in Syria still controlled by rebels… Read more »
Iran has responded to coronavirus in characteristically counterproductive fashion. The Iranian government has covered up an outbreak of coronavirus that now threatens the Middle East and has led to border closures and hospitalizations in five countries. Over the weekend of February 21, president Hassan Rouhani and other Iranian officials downplayed the growing crises as Iran’s death toll from the virus climbed…. Read more »
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said two Turkish troops have been killed in Libya where they back the UN-recognised government in the North African state’s conflict. Turkey provides military support to the Government of National Accord (GNA), which is based in the capital, Tripoli. Since April, the city has been under an assault by forces loyal to renegade military commander… Read more »
As the year 2010 drew to a close, the unprecedented happened: mass anti-government protests began in Tunisia – soon lighting the spark for a series of revolts in countries across the Middle East and North Africa, notable among them Egypt. On January 25, 2011, marches, demonstrations and civil resistance began in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and continued for 18 days until… Read more »
The African Union (AU) has announced the temporary deployment of a 3,000-strong force in West Africa’s Sahel region where countries have struggled to combat multiple armed groups amid a swiftly deteriorating security situation. Smail Chergui, head of the AU’s Peace and Security Commission, said on Thursday the decision was taken during the bloc’s annual summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis… Read more »
Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and two others wounded in an air strike in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib as Turkey-backed Syrian rebels regained a key town during heavy fighting. Hours after the seizure of Saraqeb, Syrian government forces launched a major counterattack. The retaking of Saraqeb that sits on the highway is a setback for Syrian President Bashar… Read more »
Putin recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss President Trump’s Middle East plan and the plan for a jailed Israeli woman in Moscow. Immediately following Netanyahu’s visit to Washington DC, he stopped in Moscow, but President Putin had no desire to publicly support or refute Trump’s plan. A more successful part of the meeting was the pardoning… Read more »
Following a Twitter post by Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr which called for gender segregation in the anti-government rallies, hundreds of women gathered to demand their rights. On Thursday, February 13, Baghdad’s Tahrir Square was filled with defiant chants of “Stop discrimination against women, stop gender segregation.” In response to the protest, al-Sadr took to Twitter, calling the march sinful and… Read more »
