Middle East • Page 348 of 453 • The Defense Post

May- 2020 -

20 May

30 Years After Unity Dream, Fragmented Yemen Faces Reality

Thirty years after unification, Yemen is on the verge of fragmentation as a result of armed conflicts, regional rivalries, and foreign interference.

19 May

The attack in December 2019 occurred at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida

Staff Writer With AFP

Saudi Attacker on US Base Had Longstanding Al-Qaeda Ties: US

The Saudi military student who killed three Americans at a U.S. naval base in December had longstanding ties to Al-Qaeda and planned an attack before he arrived in the United States, U.S. justice officials said Monday. The December 6 attack by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Royal Saudi Air Force flight student at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, “was actually the culmination of years of planning and preparation,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. Evidence discovered on an encrypted cell phone shows he was radicalized at least as far back as 2015, and had since been associating with “dangerous” operatives from the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Wray added. The FBI and Justice Department revealed their findings after a months-long effort to crack the encryption on Alshamrani’s iPhone, which they said Apple refused to help with. U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr accused Apple of putting its own financial interests ahead of the nation’s. “If not for our FBI’s ingenuity, some luck, and hours upon hours of time and resources, this information would have remained undiscovered,” Barr said. “The bottom line: our national security cannot remain in the hands of big corporations who put dollars over lawful access and public safety. The …

Apr- 2020 -

29 April

Jared Szuba

Amid condemnation, Syria’s YPG disavows deadly car bomb in Efrin

Syria's Kurdish-led YPG denied responsibility for a truck bomb in the Turkey-occupied city of Efrin that killed at least 40 people

27 April

Staff Writer With AFP

Syria says air defenses intercept missiles near Damascus

Syrian air defense intercepted several missiles fired during an "Israeli" airstrike against targets near the capital Damascus

24 April

Staff Writer With AFP

Saudi-led coalition extends Yemen ceasefire by a month

The Saudi-led coalition said it was extending a unilateral ceasefire in Yemen by one month due to coronavirus, even as fighting persists

23 April

Staff Writer With AFP

Iran’s IRGC head vows ‘decisive response’ to any US hostility in Gulf

The counter-threat came a day after President Donald Trump said he ordered the Navy to "shoot down" any hostile Iranian boat in the Gulf

23 April

Staff Writer With AFP

First Syrian state torture trial begins in Germany

Two alleged former Syrian intelligence officers go on trial in Germany, accused of crimes against humanity in the first court case over state-sponsored torture

22 April