Middle Orient

Germany and Israel are at odds over an incident involving attack on a German naval vessel patrolling the Lebanon coast as part of an international peacekeeping force, reported Reuters. While German Defence Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe says that six Israeli F-16 jets had flown very low over the

Iraqi Mujahideen fighters attacked a US checkpoint located in the al-Mal’ab in ar-Ramadi, about 110km west of Baghdad,  inflicting dead and wounded on the Americans. Two American ambulances were seen racing to the stricken checkpoint, the Al Basrah  reported.

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in a raid on the Gaza Strip Monday during festivities marking the end of Ramadan, in an operation President Mahmoud Abbas slammed as a “massacre”.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a bid for political survival, struck an alliance Monday with a tough-talking politician who has called for stripping Arab Israelis of their citizenship, executing lawmakers for talking to Hamas and bombing Palestinian population centres.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The prime minister on Monday announced a military crackdown to tame the country’s staggering armed violence, taking special aim at continuing lawlessness in the southern city of Amarah, where police have fled the streets as Mehdi Army fighters hunt them down in a brutal Shiite-on-Shiite settling of …

TEL AVIV — Aghast at the destruction that ensued as Israel’s army and Hizbollah fighters waged war in Lebanon this year, Israeli David Sasson felt compelled to try to make contact with the Lebanese side.

GAZA — Fear of an escalating power struggle between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas added to the gloom on Monday for Palestinians marking a Muslim holiday that would normally be a festival of joy.

RAMALLAH — Last May Adel Samarra’s wife of 31 years left the West Bank to go to Jordan to renew her Israeli visa for the 126th time. On the 125 previous occasions the process had gone off without a hitch for the US passport holder, but five months ago Samarra’s …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — The United States has shown “arrogance” and “stupidity” in Iraq, a senior US diplomat said in an interview aired on Sunday, after US President George W. Bush said he was flexible on tactics, if not strategy. In an attack that highlights the problems Washington faces in recruiting …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army dropped phosphorous bombs against Hizbollah targets in Lebanon during the war there this summer, an Israeli Cabinet minister said Sunday, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time. Phosphorus weapons can cause severe burns and are banned for use in civilian areas, but Israel …