Air strike in north Iraq killed dozens, including civilians, residents say
IRAQ — An air strike by a U.S.-led coalition flattened an entire neighborhood of a northern Iraqi town controlled by "Islamic State" militants, killing dozens of people, including civilians, witnesses and security sources said. The strike targeted an "Islamic State" bomb-making factory in Hawija overnight on Tuesday, triggering a...Iran sends 15,000 troops to back Assad in Syria
Damascus — Iran has sent 15,000 fighters to Syria to reverse recent battlefield setbacks for Syrian government troops and wants to achieve results by the end of the month, according to numerous reports. The militia force, made up of Iranians, Iraqis and Afghanis, the source said, arrived in...Israel bombs Gaza sites after rocket attack claimed by ISIS sympathizer
GAZA — Israel retaliated on Thursday for rockets fired at it from Gaza with bombing raids against three militant training camps, and a radical group sympathetic with Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks on Israel. Witnesses and medics said the predawn attacks on two camps belonging to Hamas, which dominates the Gaza...
U.N. appeals for $500 million in humanitarian aid for Iraq
June 5th, 20150 IRAQ — The United Nations launched an appeal this week for half a billion dollars in international aid to tackle a worsening humanitarian crisis in Iraq triggered by the conflict with "Islamic State" militants. Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said the United Nations would be forced to slash or shut down more...UN: Syrians lose hope in face of shocking carnage, devastation
DAMASCUS — The people of Syria are losing hope in the fifth year of a civil war that has brought levels of death and destruction that are so extreme they should shock the world's collective conscience, the United Nations chief said in a report. The war has killed more than 220,000 people and left a third of the population homeless....Syria says Al Jazeera’s Nusra interview promotes militant group
DAMASCUS — A Syrian envoy said Al Jazeera's interview with the leader of Nusra Front violated U.N. counterterrorism resolutions and was an attempt by Qatar to whitewash the image of the al-Qaeda affiliate, Syria's state news agency reported on Thursday. The Qatari-funded network broadcast the first part of an interview with Nusra...Israel, Palestinians pull back after Gaza exchange of fire
GAZA — Israel and Palestinian militants appeared to be pulling back on Wednesday from further hostilities after Israel responded with air strikes to a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported on either side of the border, and Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon blamed the rocket launching late on Tuesday on...Islamic conference in Kuwait condemns extremism
KUWAIT CITY — Acts of terrorism and the practice of Islamic extremism aim to divide Muslim world, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Wednesday at a meeting of Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries (OIC) in Kuwait. “We have been committed in confronting the challenges of extremism and violence,” Jubeir said in...Iraq exhumes remains of 470 bodies from Tikrit mass graves
"We have exhumed the bodies of 470 Speicher martyrs from burial sites in Tikrit," Adila Hammoud said at a press conference in Baghdad, referring to the nearby military base that the massacre was named after. In June 2014, armed men belonging or allied to the ISIS abducted hundreds of young, mostly Shi'a recruits from Speicher base,...Popular Mobilization Forces lead operation to recapture Ramadi
BAGHDAD — Shi'a militiamen, supported by a smaller group of government troops, advanced on Tuesday to within a few kilometers of a university on Ramadi's southwestern edge, police sources and Sunni tribal fighters allied to the government said. As they passed through farmland south of Ramadi, the militiamen told people to return...Tunisia arrests second suspect in the Bardo Museum attacks
TUNIS — Tunisia has arrested a second Moroccan suspect over a deadly attack in March on the Bardo Museum in Tunis, detaining him at the border with Libya, the interior ministry said Thursday. Noureddine al-Naibi was arrested on Sunday at the Ras Jedir border post on suspicion of indirect involvement in the attack, ministry spokesman...Tony Blair steps down as Middle East envoy
JERUSALEM — Former British prime minister Tony Blair is standing down as the Quartet representative in the Middle East, the organization said on Wednesday, after eight years struggling to break ground in peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians. Officials close to the Quartet of the United States, European Union, United Nations...Egyptian court clears state security officer of killing detainee
CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted a state security officer who had been convicted of torturing a detainee to death, in a case that has fueled anger over police brutality in the weeks before the 2011 uprising. Mohamed Abdel Rahman al-Shemi had been sentenced to 15 years in prison, but Egypt's highest civil court...Iraq exhumes remains of 470 bodies from Tikrit mass graves
BAGHDAD — Iraq has exhumed the remains of 470 people believed to have been executed by ISIS near Tikrit last year in what is known as the Speicher massacre, the health minister said Thursday."We have exhumed the bodies of 470 Speicher martyrs from burial sites in Tikrit," Adila Hammoud said at a press conference in Baghdad, referring...Seven members of Yemeni family killed in Saudi-led strike
A Houthi follower hangs a banner outside the Saudi embassy with photos of people killed by Saudi-led air strikes, Sanaa, May 25ADEN — Seven members of a family were killed in an overnight strike by Saudi-led warplanes on a border village in northern Yemen, residents said, as heavy clashes erupted across the frontier after Houthi fire......
Students respond with “leg selfies” to Algerian university dress code
ALGIERS — Algerians are revealing some leg on Facebook in solidarity for a girl who was banned from taking a law exam in because the university thought her skirt was too short. The dean of the University of Algiers’ Faculty of Law stands by the decision. He told news website TSA Algérie, “Wearing a short skirt is not...Palestinians to press on suspending Israel from FIFA
RAMALLAH — FIFA President Sepp Blatter saw his Mideast peacemaking mission crumble Wednesday after the Palestinians vowed to press efforts to have Israel suspended at the upcoming World Football Congress. After months of rising tensions over plans by the Palestinian Football Association to have its Israeli counterpart expelled from......
ISIS captures Gaddafi’s hometown
Libya Dawn fighters fire an artillery cannon at ISIS militants near Sirte, March 19.TRIPOLI — "Islamic State" militants have effectively taken over former dictator Muammar Gaddafi's home city of Sirte as they exploit a civil war between two rival governments to expand in North Africa. Libya, which has descended into near anarchy...
The war against ISIS fails in Ramadi
May 22nd, 20150 "A setback." That's how President Obama described the fall of Ramadi to ISIS, after nine months of bombing the terrorist group. But a quick look at the geo-military map, specifically at the vast swaths of land seized by ISIS in Anbar, tells a different story. The strategic location of the city— which is the capital of...Egyptian court sentences Morsi and 106 supporters to death
CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Saturday sought the death penalty for former president Mohamed Morsi and 106 supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood in connection with a mass jail break in 2011. Morsi and his fellow defendants, including top Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, were convicted for killing and kidnapping policemen, attacking...Hezbollah warns of partition, commits to Syrian war
BEIRUT — Hezbollah says the Middle East is at risk of partition and sees no end to the war in Syria, where it is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad against insurgents supported by his regional enemies. Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of the Iranian-backed group, said the insurgents would be unable to topple the Assad......
ISIS seizes Syria’s ancient Palmyra
DAMASCUS — "Islamic State" militants tightened their grip on the historic city of Palmyra in Syria, days after capturing a provincial capital in neighboring Iraq, suggesting the growing momentum of the group which a monitor says now holds half of Syrian territory. The twin successes pile pressure not just on Damascus and Baghdad,...Nasrallah to declare victory in Qalamoun
DAMASCUS — Lebanon's Hezbollah and Syria's army made big advances against insurgents in mountains north of Damascus on Wednesday, Hezbollah and Syrian state media said, shoring up President Bashar al-Assad's grip on the border zone. The Arab American News correspondent in Beirut, Nabil Haissam, learned from sources close to Hezbollah......
Nakba should be the center of the Palestinian strategy
May 22nd, 20150 “What is the Palestinian strategy?” is a question that I have been asked all too often, including on May 15, the day that millions of Palestinians around the world commemorated the 67th anniversary of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1947-48. The question itself doesn’t require much...The Palestinian Nakba becomes the Arab Nakba
Palestinian refugees at the Jaramana Refugee Camp, Damascus, 1948.In a western capital far away from Gaza and Cairo, I recently shared a pot of tea with an “Egyptian refugee.” The term is familiar to me, but never have I encountered an Egyptian who refers to himself as such. He stated it as a matter of fact by saying: “As an......