Middle Eastern Headlines at 8:01 p.m. GMT
Israeli strikes in central Beirut kill at least 20 as diplomats push for a cease-fire
Israeli strikes in central Beirut kill at least 20 as diplomats push for a cease-fire
Russian President Vladimir Putin faces a difficult week as Syria's government collapses, Russian military bases are overrun by rebels, and protests in Abkhazia and Kazakhstan signal a decline in Russian influence in the region.
The DPRK soldiers are expected to be used in the fight for the Kursk region of Russia
Syrian rebels have captured a Russian surveillance radar system near the city of Hama in another significant blow for Bashar al-Assad’s military capabilities.
More than four decades ago, Hafez Assad, then president of Syria, launched what came to be known as the Hama Massacre. Between 10,000 to 40,000 people were killed or disappeared in the government attack on the central Syrian city. It began on Feb. 2, 1982, and lasted for nearly a month, leaving the city in ruins.
Syrian insurgents swept into the central city of Hama on Thursday and government forces withdrew, dealing another major blow to Syrian President Bashar Assad days after insurgents captured much of Aleppo, the country’s largest city. The stunning weeklong offensive appeared likely to continue, with insurgents setting their sights on Homs, the country’s third-largest city.
Israeli forces dressed in civilian clothes raided a hospital in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday night and detained an alleged Palestinian militant who had days earlier been injured in an Israeli airstrike that killed two Hamas militants.
Air strikes targeted a bridge on the highway linking the Syrian cities of Homs and Hama, a war monitor said Friday, as government forces scramble to secure Homs after Islamist-led rebels captured Hama and commercial hub Aleppo."Fighter jets executed several airstrikes, targeting Al-Rastan bridge on (the) Homs-Hama highway... as well as attacking positions around the bridge, attempting to cut off the road between Hama and Homs and secure Homs," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Right
The goal of Syria’s rebel coalition, as it wrests another major city from government control this week, is ultimately to overthrow authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad, according to Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the militant leader of the main group driving the country’s armed opposition.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Wednesday that it strongly backs the actions of the Syrian leadership to counter an offensive by what it said were terrorist groups receiving support, including drones and training, from outside the country. The rebels have staged their biggest advance in years over the past week, first seizing Aleppo and now battling government forces and allied militia near Hama, another major city. "We strongly condemn this attack ... There is no doubt that they would not have dared to commit such an audacious act without the instigation and comprehensive support of external forces that seek to provoke a new round of armed confrontation in Syria, unfurl a the spiral of violence," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.
The Israeli military killed at least 39 Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight, medics said on Thursday, including at least 20 in an attack that set ablaze tents sheltering displaced families in a crowded camp. Residents carried a body wrapped in carpets out of the charred wreckage of the makeshift shelters in Mawasi, near the beach west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have sheltered for months. Israel calls the area a humanitarian zone and has long told people to go there for their safety.
Thousands of people rallied across Georgia on Thursday for a second week of pro-EU protests, after the prime minister threatened to "eradicate" the country's "liberal-fascist" opposition.- Crackdown - Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has refused to back down, saying earlier the government would "do everything necessary to completely eradicate liberal fascism in Georgia".
A huge anti-Israel banner was unfurled outside Parliament by pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday.
Israel has lashed out at Amnesty International after the rights group accused the nation of committing genocide against Palestinians.
Even the brightest experts, with the most well-connected contacts, didn’t see such a decisive military maneuver coming nearly 14 years into the Syrian Civil War.
A Hamas official said Thursday that international mediators have resumed negotiating with the militant group and Israel over a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he was hopeful a deal to end the 14-month war was within reach. Ceasefire negotiations were halted last month when Qatar suspended talks with mediators from Egypt and the United States because of frustration over a lack of progress between Israel and Hamas.
Yan Petrovsky, also known as Voislav Toden, is charged with fighting against Ukrainian forces as part of the neo-Nazi Russian paramilitary unit Rusich.View on euronews
Palestinians were digging through burnt debris searching for bodies Thursday after some 20 people were killed a day earlier in an Israeli strike that set ablaze tents sheltering displaced families in a designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza. Residents carried a body wrapped in carpets out of the charred wreckage of the makeshift shelters in Al-Mawasi, near the beach west of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people have sheltered in the crowded tent camp for months.The tent camp was
Israeli settlers attacked two Palestinian towns early on Wednesday, setting fire to property and hurling stones, after police looked to dismantle an illegal settler outpost in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said. Police and the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service said they had arrested eight people for assaulting security forces and damaging property. Palestinian officials said settlers set one house and two cars ablaze in Huwara, a town near the city of Nablus that has been targeted in the past by radical settlers who want Israel to claim sovereignty over all West Bank territory.
As Syrian rebels continue fighting government forces, outside powers are bracing for the potential fallout should the Assad regime collapse.View on euronews
Amnesty International on Wednesday said that it had gathered “sufficient evidence to believe” that Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza amounts to genocide against the Palestinian people.