(BBC News) Russia’s military says rebel groups have increased attacks in Syria despite a ceasefire and has urged the US to act or be responsible for its collapse. Russian generals said attacks by rebels, some US-backed, had increased sharply over the past 24 hours. Gen Viktor Poznikhir said the rebel groups had “not met a single obligation” of the truce.
(The Telegraph) The United Nations Security Council has convened at the behest of the Russians after dozens of Syrian soldiers were accidentally killed in a US coalition bombing raid. It met within hours of the Obama administration expressing its regret at the strikes on Jabal Therdeh, southwest of the Deir Ezzor airport in eastern Syria. According to Russian estimates 62… Read more »
(The Independent) Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawaris offers to ‘buy island’ in Mediterranean to help refugees An Egyptian billionaire says he has considered buying an island in the Mediterranean to help house refugees fleeing conflict and instability. Naguib Sawiris tweeted his “crazy idea” earlier this week, offering to purchase one of the empty islands that cluster off the coasts of Italy… Read more »
(Al Jazeera) The United States and Russia hailed a breakthrough deal on Saturday to put Syria’s peace process back on track, including a nationwide ceasefire. The deal, agreed upon by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, aims at halting fighting in Syria and moving towards a political transition after over five years of combat… Read more »
(France 24) With Iranians blocked from this month’s hajj pilgrimage, their supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a furious rebuke to rival Saudi Arabia, saying the Muslim world should challenge its management of Islam’s holiest sites. “Saudi rulers… who have blocked the proud and faithful Iranian pilgrims’ path to the Beloved’s House, are disgraced and misguided people who think their… Read more »
A senior military commander and founding member of the Syrian rebel group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, has been killed by a US air strike that hit a meeting of the group’s leaders, rebels said. Abu Hajer al-Homsi, whose real name was Abu Omar Saraqeb, was killed in a raid on a rural part of Aleppo… Read more »
(Reuters) A suspected chlorine gas attack on an opposition-held neighborhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo caused dozens of cases of suffocation on Tuesday, rescue workers and a monitoring group said. The Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue workers’ organization that operates in rebel-held areas, said government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs containing chlorine on the Sukari neighborhood in eastern Aleppo…. Read more »
(BBC News) Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has said Iranians are “not Muslims”, a day after Iran’s supreme leader denounced its management of the Hajj pilgrimage. Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh, the grand mufti, said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s accusations were “not surprising”. “They are the sons of the Magi,” he said, referring to Zoroastrianism, a religion that once dominated Iran. Deep suspicions… Read more »
(Haaretz) North African countries should be cooperating more to stop ISIS fighters who are fleeing their Libyan stronghold of Sirte from returning to their homelands and causing trouble there, Tunisia’s defense minister said on Tuesday. Libyan forces aligned with the UN-backed government in Tripoli launched their campaign to recapture Sirte in May and are advancing on the last areas under its… Read more »
(BBC News) Turkey has sent more tanks into northern Syria, in an operation against the Islamic State (IS) group, Turkish media reports say. The tanks crossed the border near the Turkish town of Kilis and journalists later heard firing and saw plumes of smoke rising on Syrian territory. Civilians were seen fleeing as the Turkish military advanced. Syrian rebels backed… Read more »