Middle East
-
Jun- 2020 -12 June
‘Capture Not Possible:’ France’s Desert Operation Against Al-Qaeda Chief
The French military, for the first time, provided details on Thursday of how late last week it 'neutralized' Abdelmalek Droukdel, the 'the third deputy' of Al-Qaeda's leader.
Read More » -
9 June
First Civilian Killed in NW Syria Raid Since March: Monitor
Russian air strikes on northwestern Syria killed a civilian Tuesday, the first such fatality since a ceasefire went into force three months ago, a war monitor said.
Read More » -
9 June
Syria Jihadist-Regime Clashes Leave 41 Fighters Dead
An Al-Qaeda offshoot led an offensive Monday against regime forces in northwest Syria, sparking clashes that left 19 pro-government fighters and 22 jihadists dead, a war monitor said.
Read More » -
5 June
Pompeo Presses Nations to Fund IS Fight Despite Budget Crunch
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday urged allies to make up a shortfall in funding to defeat the Islamic State movement despite a budget crunch after the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic. The United States and Italy led a meeting of 31 nations on fighting the extremists, held virtually due to precautions to stop the virus. A US raid last year killed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, shortly after President Donald Trump declared the group that once ruled vast swathes of Syria and Iraq had been defeated on the battlefield. “That said, our fight against ISIS continues, and will for the foreseeable future. We cannot rest,” Pompeo told the conference. “We must continue to root out ISIS cells and networks and provide stabilization assistance to liberated areas in Iraq and Syria,” he said. “It’s true that the pandemic is putting enormous pressure on all of our budgets, but we urge your nations to pledge toward our goal of more than $700 million for 2020.” The funding drive by the coalition, which seeks to bring stability to Iraq and Syria, has raised only $200 million this year as of May 26, a State Department spokesperson said. The United States has pledged …
Read More » -
3 June
First Russian Strikes in 3 Months Hit NW Syria: Monitor
Russian air strikes have hit Syria’s last major rebel bastion for the first time since a March ceasefire came into force, a war monitor said on Wednesday. The Russian strikes on Tuesday evening and at dawn on Wednesday hit an area of the northwest where the boundaries of Hama, Idlib, and Latakia provinces meet, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance (HTS), led by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate, and its hardline allies enjoy a significant presence in the area, the Britain-based monitoring group added. Home to some three million people, the Idlib region of the northwest is controlled by HTS and affiliated rebel groups. A Russian-backed government offensive between December and March displaced nearly a million people in the region. Some 840,000 of the nearly one million remain displaced, while some 120,000 have returned to their home communities since the ceasefire went into force, according to the United Nations. The truce, which coincided with the coronavirus crisis, had put a stop to the relentless air strikes by government forces and their Russian allies that killed at least 500 civilians in four months. The Observatory said the latest strikes were intended to push jihadists away from the …
Read More » -
3 June
UAE Still a Top Client as French Arms Sales Fall
French arms sales dropped nearly 8.6 percent last year to 8.3 billion euros ($9.3 billion) from 2018, with the United Arab Emirates — a key player in the Yemen conflict — still a leading client, a government report said Tuesday. France is regularly criticized by rights groups for arms sales to clients such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are embroiled in a long campaign against Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen that has claimed tens of thousands of civilian lives. A report presented to the French parliament Tuesday showed orders from Europe had grown to 3.47 billion euros — 45 percent of the total, up from a mere quarter the previous year. Belgium accounted for 1.8 million euros in sales. Middle Eastern clients represented about 30 percent last year with 2.15 billion euros in sales — down from almost 50 percent in 2018 — headed by the UAE with 1.5 billion euros and Saudi Arabia with 208.9 million euros. The numbers, “achieved in a context of particularly fierce competition confirming America’s supremacy and the emergence of new major exporters, particularly China … consolidates France’s place in the top five of global exporters,” said the report. In terms of deliveries, 2019 …
Read More » -
May- 2020 -28 May
Iran Guards Warn US After Receiving New Combat Vessels
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday warned the United States against its naval presence in the Gulf as they received 110 new combat vessels. The vessels included Ashura-class speedboats, Zolfaghar coastal patrol boats, and Taregh submarines, state television reported. “We announce today that wherever the Americans are, we are right next to them, and they will feel our presence even more in the near future,” the Guards’ navy chief Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said during a ceremony in southern Iran. Iran and the United States have appeared to be on the brink of an all-out confrontation twice in the past year. The latest confrontation between the arch-foes came after the United States accused the Guards of harassing its ships in the Gulf in mid-April. “Advancing while remaining defensive is the nature of our work,” said Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami. “But this does not equal passivity against the enemy,” he added, noting that Iran “will not bow down to any foe.” According to Salami, the Guards’ navy had been instructed to expand Iran’s naval power until it can adequately defend “territorial independence and integrity, protect naval interests and pursue and destroy the enemy.” Decades-old acrimony between the two worsened in 2018 when …
Read More » -
28 May
Turkish Soldier Killed in Syria’s Idlib
One Turkish soldier was killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday while on patrol in Syria’s Idlib region, the defense ministry said. The soldier “succumbed to his injuries after being taken to hospital,” the ministry said. The private DHA news agency said a bomb exploded on the key M4 highway in Idlib as a Turkish military convoy passed by. It is an area where Turkish-Russian joint patrols take place but it was not immediately clear if the Russian military were present at the time of the blast. In March, Russia and Turkey launched their first joint military patrol along the M4 highway following a ceasefire agreement. The deal raised hopes of an end to one of the bloodiest phases in the 9-year conflict in Syria. A Russian-backed government offensive on the last rebel bastion in the country has killed hundreds of civilians since December and displaced close to a million people.
Read More » -
26 May
Russia Sent Warplanes to Back Mercenaries in Libya: US Military
Russia recently sent fighter jets to Libya to support Russian mercenaries fighting for strongman Khalifa Haftar, the U.S. military command for Africa (Africom) said Tuesday, in a major escalation in the long-running conflict. The military fighter aircraft left Russia and first stopped in Syria where they “were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin” before arriving in Libya, said Stuttgart-based Africom. The U.S. military did not specify when exactly the jets arrived, only saying that it was “recently.” The announcement comes a day after Libya’s U.N.-recognised government said hundreds of Russian mercenaries backing rival military commander Haftar had been evacuated from combat zones south of the capital Tripoli. The retreat follows a series of setbacks for Haftar’s years-long offensive to seize the capital from the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA). The Kremlin has always denied involvement in the conflict. But United Nations experts said in a report last month that the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian paramilitary organization seen as close to President Vladimir Putin, had sent fighters to back Haftar. “For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict. Well, there is no denying it now,” said U.S. Army General Stephen Townsend …
Read More » -
22 May
Iran’s Khamenei: Fight to ‘Liberate Palestine’ Is ‘Islamic Duty’
Iran’s supreme leader said it was an “Islamic duty” to fight for the “liberation of Palestine” in a landmark speech Friday amid rising tensions with regional arch-enemy Israel. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out at Western governments and their Arab “puppets” for supporting the Jewish state, in his first ever address marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day. The 80-year-old leader also appeared to confirm for the first time that Iran has helped to provide Palestinians with arms. The remarks came at the end of a week that saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launch a Twitter tirade against Khamenei and reports that the two sides carried out cyber attacks on each other. “The aim of this struggle is the liberation of the entire Palestinian land” and “the return of all Palestinians to their country,” Khamenei said in the speech broadcast live on state television. “The policy of normalizing the presence of the Zionist regime in the region is one of the major policies of the United States of America,” he said. “Some Arab governments in the region, which play the role of U.S. puppets, have provided the necessary preconditions for this, such as economic ties and the like; these efforts are completely fruitless and sterile. …
Read More »