Daesh attack in Syria kills three soldiers: war monitor

Daesh attack in Syria kills three soldiers: war monitor
Daesh group militants killed three Syrian soldiers in an attack Tuesday on an army position in the Badia desert, a war monitor said. (AP/File)
Short Url
Updated 21 May 2024
Follow

Daesh attack in Syria kills three soldiers: war monitor

Daesh attack in Syria kills three soldiers: war monitor
  • The militants “attacked a site where... regime forces were stationed“
  • The Syrian army had sent forces to the area, where Daesh attacks are common

BEIRUT: Daesh group militants killed three Syrian soldiers in an attack Tuesday on an army position in the Badia desert, a war monitor said.
The militants “attacked a site where... regime forces were stationed,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that a lieutenant colonel and two soldiers died.
The Syrian army had sent forces to the area, where Daesh attacks are common, ahead of an expected wider sweep, said the Britain-based Observatory which has a network of sources inside the country.
In an attack on May 3, Daesh fighters killed at least 15 Syrian pro-government fighters when they targeted three military positions in the desert, the Observatory had reported.
Daesh overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a so-called caliphate and launching a reign of terror.
It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants still carry out deadly attacks, particularly against pro-government forces and Kurdish-led fighters in Badia desert.
Syria’s war has claimed more than half a million lives and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with Damascus’s brutal repression of anti-government protests.


Jordanian king arrives in UK ahead of US visit

Jordanian king arrives in UK ahead of US visit
Updated 10 sec ago
Follow

Jordanian king arrives in UK ahead of US visit

Jordanian king arrives in UK ahead of US visit
  • King Abdullah II met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in London
  • He will meet with US President Donald Trump next week in Washington, D.C.

LONDON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II arrived in the UK on Thursday afternoon ahead of a visit to the US next week.

He met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in London. They discussed historical relations between the two kingdoms, Petra news agency reported.

The Jordanian king will meet US President Donald Trump next week in Washington, D.C. Their talks are expected to focus on events in the Gaza Strip. The king is also scheduled to visit Boston and will be accompanied by Crown Prince Hussein during his trip, Petra added.


Egypt says it will not be part of any proposal that displaces Palestinians

Egypt says it will not be part of any proposal that displaces Palestinians
Updated 51 min 59 sec ago
Follow

Egypt says it will not be part of any proposal that displaces Palestinians

Egypt says it will not be part of any proposal that displaces Palestinians
  • Egypt denounced expressions of support by Israeli cabinet members for the plan to create a “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza
  • The ministry said: “Egypt stresses the catastrophic consequences of this irresponsible act“

CAIRO: Egypt rejects and will not be part of any proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, following President Donald Trump’s plan for the US to take over the enclave and his call to Egypt to take in resettled Palestinians.
Egypt, which borders the tiny enclave, denounced expressions of support by Israeli cabinet members for the plan to create a “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza under US control.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the army on Thursday to prepare a plan to allow for the voluntary departure of Gaza residents from the strip, Israeli media reported.


Apparently referring to Katz’s order, the ministry said: “Egypt stresses the catastrophic consequences of this irresponsible act which weakens the ceasefire negotiations, and would squash them and incite a return of fighting.”
In January Egypt, alongside Qatar and the US, brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas ending a 15-month-long war that upended the Middle East. Talks about the second phase of the deal were supposed to get under way this week.


Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees

Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees
Updated 06 February 2025
Follow

Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees

Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees
  • The court handed the soldier a suspended sentence and demoted him to the rank of private.
  • The military said the soldier had served as a security guard at the detention center but did not say what rank he had held

JERUSALEM: An Israeli soldier who was found to have struck Palestinian detainees while they were restrained and blindfolded has been sentenced to seven months in jail by an Israeli military court.
The Israeli military on Thursday announced the court had accepted a plea agreement with the soldier, a reservist who it said admitted to having “severely abused” Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman military detention center near the border with the Gaza Strip.
“The defendant was convicted of several incidents in which he struck detainees with his fists and his weapon while they were bound and blindfolded,” the military said. It did not name the soldier or detail the charges he was convicted of.
The military statement did not identify where the Palestinian detainees were from, why they had been detained or whether they had since been charged or convicted of crimes or released from detention.
In addition to seven months imprisonment, the court handed the soldier a suspended sentence and demoted him to the rank of private. The military said the soldier had served as a security guard at the detention center but did not say what rank he had held. Israeli media reported the soldier’s jail sentence included time that he had already spent in detention.
The military court found that other masked soldiers had participated in the abuse but that their identities had not been determined, the military said, without saying how many.
The convicted soldier had beaten the detainees in front of other soldiers, some of whom had told him to stop, the military said, adding that a recording of the abuse had been found on the mobile phone of the convicted soldier.
The military has been investigating allegations that soldiers had abused Palestinians from Gaza held in military detention since the start of the war in October 2023. The military on Thursday did not say whether investigations were still ongoing or if any other soldiers had been charged.
In July last year, right-wing Israeli protesters broke into Sde Teiman detention facility and another Israeli military compound after investigators arrived to question soldiers about suspected abuse.
Sde Teiman was opened after the war started and held captured Palestinians from Gaza. Israel last year said it would close the facility.


UAE Sheikha Fatima’s aid ship for Palestinians in Gaza arrives at Al-Arish Port

UAE Sheikha Fatima’s aid ship for Palestinians in Gaza arrives at Al-Arish Port
Updated 06 February 2025
Follow

UAE Sheikha Fatima’s aid ship for Palestinians in Gaza arrives at Al-Arish Port

UAE Sheikha Fatima’s aid ship for Palestinians in Gaza arrives at Al-Arish Port
  • Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak is a prominent advocate for women’s education and children’s well-being
  • Ship carries 5,800 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, shelter, medical essentials

LONDON: A ship from the UAE carrying almost 6,000 tons of aid relief to Palestinians arrived on Thursday at Al-Arish Port in Egypt, destined for the Gaza Strip.

The aid shipment is a gift from Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the wife of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the late founder and first president of the UAE.

Known as the Mother of the Nation, she is a prominent advocate for women’s education and children’s well-being.

The ship carries 5,800 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, shelter materials, and medical essentials. It sailed from Al-Hamriyah Port in Dubai on Jan. 20 as part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, aimed at addressing the urgent needs of Palestinians in Gaza.

The aid vessel’s timely arrival before the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, ensures emergency relief for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, the Emirates News Agency reported.

Maitha bint Salem Al-Shamsi, the Emirati minister of state; Rashid Mubarak Al-Mansouri, secretary-general of the Emirates Red Crescent; and Maj. Gen. Khaled Megawer, governor of North Sinai, received the ship at Al-Arish Port.

The delegation visited the UAE Floating Hospital in Al-Arish, which provides medical care to Palestinians, and learned about the services available for the injured.

Emirati aid to Palestinians in Gaza was made possible through contributions from the Emirates Red Crescent, the Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan Foundation, the Khalifa bin Zayed Foundation, the Dar Al-Ber Society, and Sharjah Charity International.


Three PKK fighters killed in Iraq strike blamed on Turkiye

Three PKK fighters killed in Iraq strike blamed on Turkiye
Updated 06 February 2025
Follow

Three PKK fighters killed in Iraq strike blamed on Turkiye

Three PKK fighters killed in Iraq strike blamed on Turkiye
  • Turkiye often carries out ground and air operations in northern Iraq against the PKK
  • The strikes “killed a military commander and two other PKK fighters” in the Mawat area

IRBIL: Drone strikes killed a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) commander and two fighters in northern Iraq on Thursday, Kurdish authorities said, blaming Turkiye for the attack.
Turkiye often carries out ground and air operations in northern Iraq against the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Ankara.
Turkish drones “struck between 10:45 and 11:00 am (0745 and 0800 GMT) two cars and a hideout of the PKK,” said the counterterrorism services of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
The strikes “killed a military commander and two other PKK fighters” in the Mawat area in the northen Sulaimaniyah province, it said, adding two other fighters were missing.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkiye and its Western allies, holds positions in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, where Turkiye also maintains military bases.
During a January visit to Baghdad, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called for regional efforts to combat the PKK in Iraq, as well as Kurdish fighters in neighboring Syrian Arab Republic, whom Ankara accuses of having links to the outlawed group.
Baghdad has recently sharpened its tone against the PKK, quietly listing it as a “banned organization” last year.
But Ankara wants Iraq to go further and officially declare it a terrorist group.
In August, Baghdad and Ankara signed a military cooperation deal to establish joint command and training centers with the aim of fighting the PKK.