BEIRUT: US-backed forces are slowing down their offensive against the last Daesh pocket in eastern Syria to protect civilians who remain there, a spokesman for a militia force said on Monday, adding that the battle would still “be over soon.”The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) faced land mines, car bombs, tunnel ambushes and suicide attacks on…
JERUSALEM: Palestinians drove a car into several Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Monday and the three attackers were shot by troops, the military said. Two of the assailants were “neutralized” after they “ran over a number of soldiers” and the third was slightly injured, the military said in a statement. Israeli media…
JERUSALEM: Palestinians drove a car into several Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Monday and the three attackers were shot by troops, the military said. Two of the assailants were “neutralized” after they “ran over a number of soldiers” and the third was slightly injured, the military said in a statement. Israeli media…
CAIRO: Egyptian football club Pyramids FC announced a 10 million Egyptian pound donation for the victims of a deadly train crash that hit Egypt last week. In a statement issued on Sunday, the club said its owner, Saudi investor Turki Al-Sheikh, had donated the amount to the families. The statement said Al-Sheikh and the board…
BAGHOUZ, Syria: Daesh militants are desperately fighting to hang on to the last tiny piece of territory they hold on the riverside in eastern Syria, deploying snipers, guided missiles and surprise tunnel attacks. The resistance prompted a fierce pounding Sunday by the US-led coalition and its ground allies in their final push to end the…
BAGHOUZ, Syria: Daesh militants are desperately fighting to hang on to the last tiny piece of territory they hold on the riverside in eastern Syria, deploying snipers, guided missiles and surprise tunnel attacks. The resistance prompted a fierce pounding Sunday by the US-led coalition and its ground allies in their final push to end the…
CAIRO: Egyptian football club Pyramids FC announced a 10 million Egyptian pound donation for the victims of a deadly train crash that hit Egypt last week. In a statement issued on Sunday, the club said its owner, Saudi investor Turki Al-Sheikh, had donated the amount to the families. The statement said Al-Sheikh and the board…
AMMAN: Jordan’s waqf minister has slammed the Israeli government for barring a top cleric from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, for 40 days. Jordanian Minister of Waqf Abdel Naser Abu Basel described the temporary ban on Sheikh Abdel Hafiz Salhab, head of the Jerusalem Waqf Council, as “unacceptable.” The Israelis have also ordered his…
CAIRO: The Egyptian government has approved tough new laws to fight terrorism in the wake of recent deadly attacks in the country. One of the latest key changes to the legislation will see a tightening up of regulations surrounding the rental of property. Under current rules, anyone leasing furnished real estate in Egypt does not…
BAGHOUZ, Syria: Daesh militants are desperately fighting to hang on to the last tiny piece of territory they hold on the riverside in eastern Syria, deploying snipers, guided missiles and surprise tunnel attacks. The resistance prompted a fierce pounding Sunday by the US-led coalition and its ground allies in their final push to end the…
ABU DHABI: A high-profile meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has pledged its commitment to establishing an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.Delegates at the 46th session of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers concluded their two-day conference in Abu Dhabi by issuing a declaration condemning Israeli…
LONDON: The Stockholm Agreement is now in “last chance saloon,” British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a statement during a visit to Yemen on Sunday. "The process could be dead within weeks if we do not see both sides sticking to their commitments in Stockholm." The British foreign secretary held talks with his Yemeni counterpart in…
DUBAI: Five Yemeni children were killed in an attack on their home in flashpoint Hodeidah province, the UN and medics said, months into a cease-fire agreed by the government and rebels.The UN children’s agency (UNICEF) said that the five children were “playing at home” when they were killed on Thursday.It did not give details on…
BEIRUT: Nearly 300 Syrians suspected of belonging to Daesh have been freed because they have “no blood on their hands,” Kurdish authorities who were holding them said.Their release was announced late Saturday by the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration of northern Syria, which said in a statement that 283 Syrians had been set free.Tribal chiefs and other…
Yemeni government accuses Houthis of planting mines near Hodeidah’s food stores The Houthi militia planted mines and explosive devices around United Nations food storages in Hodeidah, a local minister in Yemen said on Sunday. The chairman of Yemen’s High Relief Committee Abdel-Raqib Fatah claimed that planting landmines near humanitarian aid was a violation that no…
GAZA CITY: Some 800 Palestinians crossed Sunday from the Gaza Strip into Egypt on the initial stage of a minor pilgrimage to Makkah known as the “umrah,” the first time since 2014 Egyptian authorities have granted visas for such a trip.The pilgrims left at around dawn and were to be met by buses on the…
GAZA CITY: Some 800 Palestinians crossed Sunday from the Gaza Strip into Egypt on the initial stage of a minor pilgrimage to Makkah known as the “Umrah,” the first time since 2014 Egyptian authorities have granted visas for such a trip.The pilgrims left at around dawn and were to be met by buses on the…
CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Sunday upheld a five-year prison sentence for the country’s former anti-corruption chief, found guilty of insulting the military, legal sources said.A military court rejected Hisham Geneina’s appeal and confirmed his sentence, a judicial source said, over comments made in an interview with the news website HuffPost Arabi.Geneina was head of…
LONDON: The Dutch husband of Shamima Begum, the British-born teenager who ran away to join Daesh in Syria in 2015, has said he wants her to return to the Netherlands with him.Yago Riedijk and Begum married days after she arrived inside Daesh-held territory aged 15.Riedijk, 27, is being held in a Kurdish detention center in…
Algerian President Bouteflika formally submits candidacy for re-election: Ennahar TV ALGIERS: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has submitted official papers confirming that he will seek re-election, Ennahar TV said on Sunday, despite mass protests against the move. Earlier, anti-government protests resumed in Algeria as tens of thousands gathered in the capital and other towns to demand Bouteflika drop plans to…
