Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they fired missiles and drones at militant targets in the Kurdish region of neighbouring northern Iraq, where authorities said 13 people were killed.
The strikes were reported after Iranian authorities accused armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents of involvement in unrest now shaking Iran, especially in the northwest where most of the country’s population of over 10 million Kurds live.
Iranian forces launched scores of ballistic missiles and explosive drones at the positions of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region on Wednesday, killing 13 people and wounding 58, most of them civilians.
President Erdogan and Foreign Minister Cavusoglu say Turkey will send more troops and arms to northern Cyprus after the Biden administration lifts defense trade restrictions to Greek Cypriots.
Demonstrations were organized against the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army in the city of al-Bab, during which protesters demanded that the factions return their houses and farms that had been seized after the FSA took control of the city in 2017.
Iran has vowed to respond to any “hostile actions” after an Iranian drone was reportedly shot down en route to Erbil.
The chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Mohammed Bagheri, vowed Friday to respond to any “hostile actions” targeting Iranian drones, Iranian news outlets reported.
The Black Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world. Its 730-mile long coastline spans two continents and six countries and every region that fronts the sea’s shoreline has its own affinity with the water. For the most part, there’s humble yet passionate surf communities — and even some like in Turkey that has a surf culture dating back more than a millennium.
The Eastern Mediterranean gas play extends across the offshore areas of Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Cyprus and, by its own insistence, even Turkey. The next phase of commercial development is incredibly complicated given the interplay of petroleum geology, national policies and regional politics, competing energy markets (local gas versus global LNG), existing infrastructure and corporate strategies.
As Turkey is gearing up for one of the most momentous elections in recent history, early campaigning has shown that any issue — from national security to foreign policy — can quickly turn into campaign material.
Nearly one year after Iraq’s October 2021 parliamentary elections, the government has yet to be formed. The government formation power struggle pits the Sadrist Movement, led by populist Shi’a cleric Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, against the Coordination Framework (CF),1 a loose association of Shi’a parties, united mostly by their opposition to the Sadrist Movement. Central to the dispute are longstanding political rivalries and personal feuds in competition over government postings. Upon Sadr’s instructions, Sadrist MPs resigned from parliament in June after opponents’ efforts and a judicial decision thwarted his attempts to form a national majority government. Sadr’s supporters staged a nearly month-long sit-in that eventually ended when they stormed another government building in the Green Zone and armed groups aligned with the CF fired on protesters and clashed with Saraya al-Salam, the Sadrist Movement’s armed wing. The clashes left more than 30 dead and in the aftermath, Sadr announced his “resignation”2 from politics. Political downtime observed during the Arba’een religious pilgrimage ended on Sept. 17 and negotiations have since recommenced. Despite the ongoing national dialogue (which the Sadrists have declined to join thus far), deadlock continues and many fear future violence unless both camps can agree on mutually acceptable concessions.
