Middle Orient

US-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria announced on Thursday that they had safely deactivated explosives that had been attached to a vehicle outside the city of Hasakah on the previous day. “On the 22nd of this December, the special units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defused a car bomb …

Turkey’s economic turmoil might challenge Ankara’s grip over opposition-held areas in Syria, where in-house rivalries among the armed factions over financial resources have escalated. With economic turbulence rattling Turkey’s economy, the question is rising of whether Ankara can maintain its grip on Syria’s opposition-held areas where the Turkish lira is …

Many Iran-backed militias rejected the results of the October election in which they performed poorly. Iraq’s Supreme Court today certified the results of the October elections. Judge Jasim Muhammad Abud announced the decision in a statement that was published by the official Iraq Media Network. Iraq held nationwide elections in …

Iraqi security forces have captured and killed a number of key Islamic State facilitators and others in the past month amid a US mission transition and concerns over coordination. Iraqi security forces continued their operations against Islamic State (IS) cells and sources of funding in December with a number of …

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls Idlib in northwestern Syria, is supporting development projects in various economic sectors. A food market has been opened in the city of Sarmada, north of Idlib, under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The opening ceremony, which was held Dec. 12, was attended by …

Relocating its weekly meeting to the Golan Heights Kibbutz Mevo Hama, the government approved a 1 billion-shekel plan for the development of the region. Israel’s Cabinet approved Dec. 26 a 1 billion-shekel ($317 million) plan for encouraging demographic and economic growth in the Golan Heights. Aiming at doubling the Israeli …

A Yemeni rebel attack on Saudi Arabia’s southern border town of Jizan killed two people and wounded seven more late Friday, Saudi state-run media reported. Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a projectile that killed a Saudi citizen and Yemeni resident in the southwestern Saudi province of Jizan, the official Saudi Press …

Turkey froze the assets of 770 Turkish nationals and a Chicago-based foundation, according to a decision published Friday in the country’s official gazette. The list of targets includes 454 people with alleged links to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States. The Turkish government accuses Gulen and …

When the news broke on December 7 that the Syrian port of Latakia had been bombed, and that an Israeli military spokesperson had declined to comment, a natural first reaction was that this air strike was the latest of hundreds over the past few years, targeting Syrian government facilities in …

Taliban officials in Afghanistan confirmed Friday that they had discussed plans with a joint delegation from Turkey and Qatar for firms from the two countries to run airports in Kabul and other Afghan cities. The talks came as the international community looks for ways to scale up delivery of urgently …