MIDDLE EAST

Iraqi police fire shots, tear gas at protesters; 23 killed

12:44 am October 26, 2019

Baghdad: Iraqi police fired live shots into the air as well as rubber bullets and dozens of tear gas canisters Friday to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters, sending young demonstrators running for cover and enveloping a main bridge in the capital Baghdad with thick white smoke. Twenty-three protesters were killed and dozens were injured, security […]

Moscow, Damascus deploy forces to Syria-Turkey border

8:05 pm October 25, 2019

Qamishli (Syria): Damascus and Moscow deployed extra forces Friday to Syria’s border with Turkey, even as Washington partially reversed a drawback to boost its own military presence near key Syrian oil fields. The United States earlier this month announced a pullout from Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria, allowing Damascus, Ankara and Moscow to carve up […]

Kurds welcome German plan for international force in Syria

11:15 pm October 24, 2019

Qamishli (Syria): The top commander of Syria’s Kurdish force on Thursday welcomed a German proposal for an international force to establish a security zone in the north of the country. “We demand and agree to this,” Mazloum Abdi, head of the Syrian Democratic Forces — the moribund autonomous Kurdish region’s de facto army — told […]

France reopens disputed ancient tomb in Jerusalem

8:40 pm October 24, 2019

Jerusalem: An ancient tomb in Jerusalem prized for its archaeological and religious importance was reopened for visits Thursday by France, which owns it, after a dispute over access scuttled an earlier attempt. The site known as the Tomb of the Kings in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem can now be visited during set hours twice per week, […]

Will Trump's mishandling of records leave a hole in history?

Trump lifts Turkey sanctions, quits ‘blood-stained’ Syria

2:04 pm October 24, 2019

Washington: President Donald Trump ended sanctions against Turkey on Wednesday, drawing a line under American involvement in “blood-stained” Syria, as Turkish and Russian troops seized territory previously held by US troops and their beleaguered Kurdish allies. “Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand,” Trump said in a White House speech that formalized the […]