Middle Orient

Israel’s retreat from two strategic Lebanese towns it captured during its ongoing war against Lebanon is a military tactic shell Hizbullah’s bunkers with laser-guided bombs it recently obtained from Washington, a Lebanese military expert said on Friday, July 28.

ZABADANI, Syria (Reuters) – Lebanese refugees gather around a small black and white television set at this Syrian summer resort chanting “God is great” every time Hizbollah’s station announces Israeli casualties.

The decision was made at a meeting of Israel’s Security Cabinet. The Cabinet meeting, which went an hour over its scheduled time, came a day after nine Israeli troops were killed in heated battles with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) – The death of nine Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, Israel’s deadliest day of the war so far, left ordinary citizens all the more determined on Thursday that the army should forge ahead with its 15-day offensive.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli attacks killed three people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a day after fighting that left 24 Palestinians dead, Palestinian medical workers said.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The failure by major donors to follow through on aid pledges to Afghanistan could undermine its efforts to quell an insurgency in the impoverished Muslim state, NATO warned on Thursday. The alliance is set to takeover military operations from the U.S.-led coalition in the violent south of …

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) – The death of nine Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, Israel’s deadliest day of the war so far, left ordinary citizens all the more determined on Thursday that the army should forge ahead with its 15-day offensive.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters)- An international press freedom group on Thursday asked Pakistan to investigate the deaths of seven Pakistani journalists as vigorously as it did the slaying of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO has approved plans to take charge of security responsibilities in Afghanistan’s volatile south in what will likely be one of its most testing missions ever, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Tire, Lebanon (Reuters) – Car after car races north along the coastal road toward Lebanon’s capital Beirut. Each vehicle is adorned with white: white flags, white T-shirts, white sheets, white plastic bags, white rags.