A car bombing in the northern Syrian city of Afrin on Monday killed six people, including at least one Turkey-backed rebel fighter, a war monitor said.
An AFP video journalist saw civil defence members douse the charred remains of a car with water, as rescue workers carried away what appeared to be a victim’s remains under a blanket on a stretcher.
Iraqis made their way to the ballot boxes to cast their votes for the council of representatives, as results show significant surprises.
Iraq’s parliamentary elections on Sunday were held in a quiet environment compared to previous elections.
Security measures meant to ensure a smooth and safe process were largely successful, as only 75 complaints during public voting and 16 complaints from the special voting of security forces were submitted to the independent electoral commission.
Just last week Erdogan boasted about potential new defense deals with Russia, including aircraft purchases.
Turkey has requested to purchase 40 US-made F-16 fighter jets and dozens of modernization kits for aircraft it already owns, according to reports in both the Greek and the Turkish press.
News of the request, which has not been publicly confirmed by the US State Department, comes just days after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government was planning to expand defense ties with Russia.
Turkish intelligence helped Iraq capture a senior Islamic State leader who had been hiding out in northwestern Syria, three security sources said on Tuesday, in an operation that points to closer cooperation against remnants of the jihadist group.
Iraq announced on Monday that its security forces had captured Sami Jasim, an Iraqi national, in what it described as “a special operation outside the borders”. It did not give details on when or where he was seized.
The US-led Coalition confirmed on Tuesday that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carried out a succesful anti-ISIS raid in the countryside Deir al-Zor, resulting in the arrest of four ISIS suspects.
Two years since its last Syria incursion, Ankara is hinting at a new cross-border military operation in response to a spate of attacks near its southern border, one of which killed two Turkish police officers Sunday.
In a press conference Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the nation would “do what is necessary for its security,” saying Turkey would seek to clear border areas of US-backed Syrian Kurdish militants with the People’s Defense Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a national security threat and an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
With the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, there’s a new enemy ascending.
The Islamic State group threatens to usher in another violent phase. Except this time the former insurgents, the Taliban, play the role of the state, now that the U.S. troops and their allied Afghan government are gone.
The Taliban promised the United States to keep the extremist group in check during successive rounds of peace talks. Under the 2020 U.S.-Taliban accord, the Taliban guaranteed that Afghanistan would not become a haven for terrorist groups threatening the U.S. or its allies.
Marib is a flashpoint city and key stronghold in the Yemen conflict
More than 150 Houthi rebels were killed in air raids south of Marib, a major hotspot of Yemen’s civil war, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the militants said on Monday.
Hundreds of migrants protested for the 10th straight day Monday outside a United Nations facility in Libya’s capital of Tripoli demanding evacuation from the North African nation.
The gathering outside the U.N. refugee agency’s facility began after Libyan authorities launched a massive crackdown on migrants earlier this month in the western town of Gargaresh, detaining more than 5,000 people.
At least four people were killed when a car bomb exploded in the Syrian city of Afrin on Monday, a medical source said, the latest such attack in the northwestern region that is controlled by Turkey and Syrian rebels it supports.