The US-backed assault to drive the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from its Syrian capital Raqqa in 2017 killed more than 1,600 civilians, a figure 10 times what the coalition has acknowledged, according to a new report. The investigation, published by Amnesty International and the monitoring group Airwars on Thursday, urged top coalition members to “end almost… Read more »
The United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was set to hold a meeting on Yemen with his Saudi, and Emirati counterparts, as well as the representatives of the United States and the United Nations, amid fears that the peace process in the poorest country in the Middle East has faltered. The meeting in London on Friday is expected to discuss… Read more »
The United States Treasury, moving to boost pressure on Hezbollah, imposed sanctions on Wednesday against two people and three firms that Washington accuses of being involved in schemes to help the group avoid American sanctions. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it was targeting Belgium-based Wael Bazzi because he acted on behalf of his father Mohammad Bazzi, a Hezbollah financier…. Read more »
Tunisian authorities stopped 13 citizens of Francewith weapons and diplomatic passports as they were attempting to cross into the country from neighbouring Libya last week. In a separate incident, the defence ministry said 11 people of different European nationalities also tried to enter Tunisian waters from Libya in two rubber dinghies. Since the incidents occurred, there have been various explanations given by the countries involved,… Read more »
A powerful explosion on Wednesday in Syria‘s rebel-held northwest killed 18 people – including more than a dozen civilians – as rescuers searched for victims trapped under the rubble. A building of at least four storeys collapsed in the town of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province, a region controlled by Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate. A structure opposite partially caved in while… Read more »
Ankara, Turkey – Washington’s unilateral decision to impose sanctions on Iran is set to hit Turkey next week, when an exemption on buying Iranian oil expires for the energy-hungry nation. When US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran last November – after backing out of an internationally brokered deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme – Turkey was among eight nations granted a six-month waiver on oil… Read more »
The United Nations refugee agency evacuated 325 refugees from a detention centre on the southern outskirts of Tripoli amid escalating violence near the Libyan capital. UNHCR said in a statement on Wednesday those rescued from the Qasr bin Ghashir centre were transported to another detention facility in Az-Zawiyah, northwestern Libya, where they were “at reduced risk of being caught up” in ongoing fighting between renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar’s eastern… Read more »
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarifdoes not believe US President Donald Trump wants war with Iran, but he has told Reuters news agency that Trump could be lured into a conflict. “I don’t think he wants war,” Zarif said in an interview at the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York on Wednesday. “But that doesn’t exclude him being basically lured into one.” The… Read more »
Two runaway Saudi sisters have urged Apple and Google to pull an “inhuman” app allowing men to monitor and control female relatives’ travel as it helped trap girls in abusive families. Maha and Wafa al-Subaie, who are seeking asylumin Georgia after fleeing their family, said Absher – a government e-services app – was bad for women as it supported Saudi Arabia‘s strict male guardian… Read more »
The humanitarian situation has greatly deteriorated in and around the Libyancapital Tripoli, where “densely populated residential areas are gradually turning into battlefields”, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said. Hospitals are struggling with chronic shortages of medical supplies amid power outages and weakened water pumping stations, the aid agency said on Thursday, after three weeks of clashes around the… Read more »