Hezbollah says battle with Nusra Front almost won at Syria-Lebanon border
July 24th, 20170 BEIRUT – Hezbollah said on Monday its battle with Nusra Front jihadists at the Syria-Lebanon border was almost over and urged remaining insurgents in the area to give up, pressing its campaign to take their last foothold at the frontier. With the Nusra Front almost beaten in the mountainous area on the outskirts of the Lebanese town...
Hezbollah, Syrian army launch offensive at Syrian-Lebanese border
July 21st, 20170 BEIRUT — The Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Syrian army launched an offensive on Friday to clear militants from an area of the Syrian-Lebanese frontier, a commander in the military alliance fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad said. The operation is targeting insurgents from the Nusra Front group in the Juroud Arsal...
Al-Aqsa standoff: Palestinian anger mounts over holy site restrictions
July 21st, 20170 JERUSALEM — For the first time in decades, Israel closed the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City to worshipers on Friday, July 14. The closure followed an attack near an entrance to the compound that houses the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites for Muslims, following a deadly shootout that killed two Israelis and...
Iraqi Consul General: Iraqi Americans celebrate victory over ISIS, healthier U.S.-Iraqi ties
July 21st, 20170 SOUTHFIELD — The liberation of Mosul from ISIS was a formidable victory for Iraq. But for Iraqi Americans, it was an exhilarating and unifying experience during a time of great scrutiny. The extremist group had left a trail of devastation wherever they set camp and strained relations between Western and Arab World...
Lebanon names former Bloomfield Hills resident Gabriel Issa as its ambassador to Washington
July 20th, 20170 BEIRUT — On Thursday, the Lebanese Cabinet passed long-awaited diplomatic appointments as President Michel Aoun called for “improving the state's revenues” in the wake of parliament's approval of a new wage scale for civil servants and the armed forces. As per protocol, the names of the appointed ambassadors will be announced...
Saudi prince arrested over bloody “assault” video
July 20th, 20170 DUBAI - A Saudi prince was arrested after a video that appeared to show him assaulting a bloodied man stoked outrage online, Saudi police said, in a rare airing of public anger at a member of the royal family. The clip, apparently filmed by the attacker, shows a Yemeni driver berated for parking in front of the man's house and being...
State Department: Number of terrorist attacks globally dropped in 2016
July 19th, 20170 WASHINGTON ― The number of terrorist attacks worldwide and deaths from such attacks dropped in 2016 for the second straight year, driven by decreases in Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen, the State Department said on Wednesday. The total number of terrorist attacks in 2016 dropped 9 percent compared to 2015, while...
Saudi-led air strikes kill at least 20 Yemeni civilians
July 19th, 20170 DUBAI - At least 20 Yemeni civilians were killed and many others were wounded when a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a village in the south, officials from the armed Houthi movement and the government said on Wednesday. The U.N. said the victims of Tuesday's bombing, which hit al-Atera village in Taiz province where fighting between...
Palestinian driver shot dead after ramming car into Israeli soldiers
July 18th, 20170 JERUSALEM - A Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and was shot dead by the troops, the Israeli military said. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. According to Israel's Magen David Adom, two of their soldiers were slightly wounded. "In...
Israeli ‘counter-terrorism boot camp’ a tourist attraction in occupied West Bank
July 17th, 20170 GUSH ETZION SETTLEMENT, WEST BANK – Taking in the scene of a simulated fruit market in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, a group of tourists ponders whether a poster-size figure of an Arab man holding a cellphone is a threat and should be shot. The aim of the mock scenario is to teach rapt foreign visitors how to deal...
North Korea may have more nuclear bomb material than thought
July 16th, 20170 WASHINGTON - Thermal images of North Korea's main nuclear site show Pyongyang may have reprocessed more plutonium than previously thought that can be used to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile, a U.S. think tank said on Friday. The analysis by 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring project, was based on satellite images...
Iran jails U.S. dual national for 10 years for spying
July 16th, 20170 IRAN- An Iranian court has sentenced a U.S. dual national to 10 years in jail on spying charges, Iran's judiciary spokesman said on Sunday, the latest case involving dual nationals held on security charges in the country. The spokesman did not name the person or give details about when the sentence was passed but said the person was a...
Syrian Observatory: ISIS leader al-Baghdadi is dead
July 11th, 20170 BEIRUT ― The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday that it had "confirmed information" that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed. The report came just days after the Iraqi army recaptured the last sectors of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which Baghdadi's forces overran almost exactly three years...
Iraqi PM declares victory over ISIS in Mosul
July 10th, 20170 MOSUL/ERBIL, IRAQ - Iraq's prime minister declared victory over Islamic State in Mosul on Monday, three years after the militants seized the city and made it the stronghold of a "caliphate" they said would take over the world. "I announce from here the end and the failure and the collapse of the terrorist state of falsehood and...
Muslim leaders begin European tour to protest against terror
July 8th, 20170 Dozens of religious leaders boarded a bus on the Champs Elysees in Paris on Saturday to kick off a European tour of the sites of recent ISIS attacks to remember the victims and condemn violence. Imams from countries including France, Belgium, Britain and Tunisia were joined by representatives of other religious communities at the spot......
Rights group urges Lebanon to probe deaths of Syrians in custody
July 5th, 20170 BEIRUT ― Human Rights Watch on Wednesday demanded an independent inquiry into the deaths of four Syrians who died while in Lebanese army custody and said anyone responsible for wrongdoing should be held to account. The Lebanese army said on Tuesday that the four Syrian men arrested during a raid on a refugee camp on Friday had died...
Iraq declares end of ISIS in Mosul
July 3rd, 20170 MOSUL — After eight months of grinding urban warfare, Iraqi government troops captured the ruined mosque at the heart of ISIS' de facto capital in Mosul, on Thursday and the prime minister declared the group's self styled caliphate at an end. Iraqi authorities expect the long battle for Mosul to end in coming days as remaining ISIS......
Iraqi forces to enclose on ISIS in Mosul’s Old City
June 19th, 20170 ERBIL, IRAQ — Iraqi forces said they were about to complete the encirclement of ISIS's stronghold in the Old City of Mosul, after taking control of a neighboring district on Thursday. Iraq's military said it had captured Bab Sinjar, north of the historic, densely-populated district where the militants launched their cross-border...
FIFA: Qatar World Cup not under threat
June 19th, 20170 DOHA — FIFA president Gianni Infantino does not believe that the diplomatic crisis which has embroiled 2022 World Cup host nation Qatar will threaten its staging of the tournament, he said on Sunday. The global soccer body also confirmed that it had replaced a Qatari refereeing team who were due to officiate at a World Cup...
Lebanese cabinet approves electoral law for parliamentary election next May
June 19th, 20170 BEIRUT — Lebanon is likely to hold long-delayed elections in May 2018, ministers said on Wednesday, after the cabinet approved a new law for a legislative vote that has spared the country a major political crisis. Recent disputes over an election law that is at the heart of the nation's sectarian political system had pushed Lebanon...
Muslims observing Ramadan saved residents in London high-rise fire
June 19th, 20170 LONDON — Early Wednesday morning, a 24-story high-rise in London caught fire, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more. Most people were asleep when the fire broke out, but Muslims awake early for Ramadan helped usher people out of the building. Residents reported that fire alarms didn't go off when the fire broke out......
Saudi air strikes kill dozens at Yemen market
June 18th, 20170 SAADA — At least 25 Yemenis were killed when Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a market in the northern Saada province, a local health official said on Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly incidents in the 27-month-old conflict. Yemen has been torn by a civil war in which the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour...
50 years later, the 1967 Naksa continues to shape policies and inflict misery
June 10th, 20171 DEARBORN — The 1967 Six Day War was one of the most salient events of the Arab-Israeli conflict, its effect evident through its shaping of Israeli and Arab political discourse. While its byproducts continue to resonate, the events of the Six Day War are solidified largely through oration and narrative. "There's historical......
Al Jazeera TV says it’s combating cyber attack, not intimidated by Gulf dispute
June 8th, 20170 DOHA ― Pan-Arab satellite network Al Jazeera is combating a large-scale cyber attack but all its entities remained operational, a company source told Reuters on Thursday. "There were attempts made on the cyber security of Al Jazeera but we are combating them and currently all our entities are operational," said a senior employee who...
Arab powers sever Qatar ties, citing support for militants
June 5th, 20170 DUBAI ― The Arab world's biggest powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday over alleged support for Islamists and Iran, reopening a festering wound two weeks after President Trump's demand for Muslim states to fight terrorism. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed diplomatic relations with Qatar in a coordinated......
