BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces boosted their presence and measures around the Shiite city of Karbala on Saturday, a day after a deadly bombing hit a minibus packed with passengers outside the city. “Twelve civilians have been killed and five wounded in an explosion on a bus at the main checkpoint for the northern entrance to Karbala,”…
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WASHINGTON, DUBAI: The US announced on Friday that it was sending military reinforcements to the Gulf region following attacks on Saudi oil facilities that it attributes to Iran, just hours after President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on Tehran. Separately, Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday denounced renewed US sanctions against its central bank as an…
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ALGIERS: Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Algerian capital on Friday in defiance of a heavy security presence to demand the ouster of the country’s army chief.Demonstrators gathered near the capital’s main post office square, the epicentre of Algeria’s protest movement that forced longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down in April,…
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Thousands protest in Algiers despite tight security /node/1557291/middle-east Updated 20 September 2019 September 20, 2019 14:29 0 Thousands protest in Algiers despite tight security Salah on Wednesday ordered police to block protesters from outside Algiers entering the capital to boost numbers at the anti-regime rallies Friday’s protest marked Algeria’s 31st consecutive week of rallies Updated…
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RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Israel’s army raided the offices of a prominent Palestinian NGO early Thursday, its director said, in an operation Amnesty International said aimed to “crush peaceful activism.”Israeli soldiers forced their way into the offices of prisoner support group Addameer in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah at around 2:00 am, the organization’s…
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RIYADH: The Arab coalition intercepted and destroyed a Houthi boat laden with explosives on Thursday. The boat, that was launched from the governorate of Hodeidah, was destroyed in the southern Red Sea, coalition spokesperson Col. Turki Al-Maliki said. Yemen’s Houthis are backed by Iran and have been accused by the Arab coalition of repeatedly attacking shipping in the Red…
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ISTANBUL: Renowned Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart says he has spent as much time in prison and courthouses as he has at work since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power. His latest stint in jail started in April, after an appeals court upheld his sentence of three years and nine months for “helping terrorist organizations.” Released…
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ISTANBUL: Renowned Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart says he has spent as much time in prison and courthouses as he has at work since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power. His latest stint in jail started in April, after an appeals court upheld his sentence of three years and nine months for “helping terrorist organizations.” Released…
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JERUSALEM: The Israeli elections have divided Palestinians between those who feel there is little or no difference between the leading Zionist Israeli parties (Likud and Blue and White) and those who insist that the failure of Netanyahu is of utmost importance. The largest selling Palestinian daily Al Quds led with an editorial on Monday titled…
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JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger Benny Gantz were locked in a tight race in the country’s general election after polls closed on Tuesday, exit surveys showed.Three separate exit polls carried by Israeli television stations showed Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud and Gantz’s centrist Blue and White alliance with between 31 and 34…
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KABUL: An American service member was killed in Afghanistan, the US-led NATO mission said Monday, the latest US fatality after talks between Washington and the Taliban crumbled.“A US service member was killed in action today in Afghanistan,” NATO’s Resolute Support mission said in a brief statement.The death brings the number of US military personnel killed…
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BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi is putting increased pressure on the nation’s armed factions, including Shiite-dominated paramilitary troops and Kurdish guerrillas, in an attempt to tighten his control over them, Iraqi military commanders and analysts said on Monday. Military commanders have been stripped of some of their most important powers as part of the…
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CAIRO: Egypt says negotiations over an upstream Nile dam being built by Ethiopia have not led to any “breakthrough.”Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters that talks over the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam have stopped for more than a year before restarting in Cairo on Sunday.The long-running dispute centers on the filling and operation…
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WASHINGTON: An American senator has called for Washington to consider an attack on Iranian oil facilities as pressure grows in the US for a firm response to the Saudi Aramco strikes. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the drone attacks on Saturday against the Abqaiq oil processing plant and the Khurais oil field.…
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AP NEW YORK: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres selected a Nigerian general on Friday to lead a UN investigation into attacks on hospitals and other civilian sites in Syria’s last opposition stronghold in the northwest amid protests that its findings will be kept secret. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that the three-member board of inquiry to start…
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TRIPOLI: An airport near the Libyan capital was hit by a new round of rocket fire and airstrikes, the Tripoli-based government said on Saturday, two weeks after it was closed due to repeated attacks. Separately, two commanders of the Libya National Army (LNA) were killed in a drone strike while trying to capture the capital…
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