Iraqi security forces have launched an investigation into the deaths of 20 civilians during an operation to capture two terrorist suspects on Thursday. The tragedy occurred in Rashayed village in the central province of Babylon, just south of Baghdad, when special forces and intelligence officers prepared to raid the home …

The Islamist militants attacked the radio station for years, because it played music, because it hired women, because its liberal values posed a challenge to Syria’s zealous men with guns. Lately, though, the attacks on the station have stopped, and its tormentor — a militant group once affiliated with al-Qaeda …

Eylül 2021’de her şey değişti. “Faiz enflasyonun altında olmayacak” diyen Merkez Bankası Başkanı birden ağız değiştirdi. Ve “çekirdek enflasyona bakarım” diyerek fitili ateşledi. 24 Eylül itibariyle de beklenen faiz indirimlerine başlamış oldu. Merkez Bankası 24 Eylül’de yüzde 19,00 olan politika faizini aralık ayında yüzde 14,00’e kadar indirdi. Ama faiz indirimi …

A court certified October’s parliamentary vote that gave Muqtada al-Sadr’s party a plurality of seats, clearing a path for a government to be formed. Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Monday upheld the results of the country’s October parliamentary elections, resolving a dispute that had stalled the formation of a new …

With tensions ratcheting up between the Israelis and the leaders of the Palestinian groups in the West Bank and Gaza, yet another wave of violence appears imminent. Hamas officials have been vowing renewed violence for weeks as they have criticized Egyptian mediators who have been trying to hammer out a …

Hezbollah has not yet responded to statements that over the past three years, the Israeli army has attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets in Syria, a senior Israeli security official said on Saturday. This is surprising since the attacks severely hampered the organization’s logistical and operational efforts to establish itself in …

How Self-Dealing Elites Failed in Both Countries In 2005, I visited a branch of Afghanistan’s national bank in Kandahar to make a deposit. I was launching a cooperative that would craft skin-care products for export, using oils extracted from local almonds and apricot kernels and fragrant botanicals gathered from the …

The Race to Consolidate Power and Stave Off Disaster Xi Jinping is a man on a mission. After coming to power in late 2012, he moved rapidly to consolidate his political authority, purge the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of rampant corruption, sideline his enemies, tame China’s once highflying technology and …

Russia Seeks to Stop NATO’s Expansion, Not to Annex More Territory As 2021 came to a close, Russia presented the United States with a list of demands that it said were necessary to stave off the possibility of a large-scale military conflict in Ukraine. In a draft treaty delivered to …

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is offering to mediate the crisis, but its not clear Turkey has enough leverage to do so effectively. Turkey’s top diplomat publicly urged Russia’s government to drop what he called Moscow’s “one-sided” demands regarding NATO and Ukraine. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Russia should take a …