Middle Orient

Turkish army working with Iran on PKK strikes

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s military is cooperating with Iran by sharing information and coordinating strikes against PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq, a senior Turkish general said on Thursday. “We haven’t done it (coordinated strikes) for one or two months but we would do it if necessary,” General Ilker Basbug, head …

Read More »

Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian in Hebron: medics

HEBRON (Reuters) – Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian witnesses and medical workers said on Thursday. Witnesses said the man, Adham al-Rajabee, was armed and was fighting in a clan feud that has killed two people in the past two days. …

Read More »

Syria says Israel terms signal not serious on peace

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said if Israel keeps insisting that peace talks resume from scratch it would show the Jewish state was not serious about reaching a deal with Syria. Israel and Syria said last month they had launched indirect peace talks mediated by Turkish officials, the …

Read More »

Assad says Syria may open embassy in Lebanon

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his country will consider opening an embassy in Lebanon for the first time once its smaller neighbor forms a government able to foster good ties with Damascus. Assad said Syria had raised the issue in 2005, when Syrian troops left Lebanon after …

Read More »

Suicide bomber kills 13 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed at least 13 people in an attack aimed at a senior Iraqi police officer in Baghdad on Wednesday and gunmen shot dead three U.S. soldiers in northern Iraq, officials said. The U.S. military said separately that at least 10 decaying bodies had been …

Read More »

Israel halts Gaza fuel after depot attack

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel suspended fuel deliveries to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Wednesday after a mortar fired by Palestinian militants struck the territory’s only fuel depot, wounding a Palestinian worker. Israel blamed Islamist Hamas, which opposes coexistence with the Jewish state, for the attack on Nahal Oz border crossing. …

Read More »

Peace in 2008 would be miracle-Palestinian envoy

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Impediments in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks mean a “miracle” would be required to meet the U.S.-set goal of an accord by the end of 2008, the chief Palestinian negotiator said on Wednesday. “All the issues were discussed with the Israeli side and there has been no …

Read More »

Iraq sends teams to study other U.S. military pacts

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq, negotiating an agreement on keeping U.S. forces in the country, has sent teams to study military pacts Washington has with other nations, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday. The United States, which invaded Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein, is negotiating an agreement …

Read More »

U.N. envoy to raise Afghan, Iraqi killings with U.S.

GENEVA (Reuters) – A U.N. human rights investigator making an official visit to the United States later this month said on Wednesday that he would raise allegations of American troops killing Afghan and Iraqi civilians. Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said he would …

Read More »