Middle East & North Africa

BAGHDAD, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Monday reiterated that Iraq wants to end the presence of the U.S.-led international coalition in the country.

Al-Sudani made the remarks during his meeting with the Dutch Ambassador to Iraq Hans Sandee, whose country is scheduled to assume the presidency of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mission in Iraq in mid-May, according to a statement issued by al-Sudani's media office.

JERUSALEM, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli woman was killed and at least 17 others injured in car-ramming and stabbing incidents in central Israel on Monday that the police said was "a serious terror attack."

Commander of the Central District of the Israeli Police Avi Bitton said that two Palestinian suspects had been arrested after the attack at the scene and were under investigation. He identified them as cousins from the Hebron area in the occupied West Bank.

Gaza (AP) —Israeli strikes hit Gaza City and soldiers battled militants in southern Gaza on Monday after the U.S., its top ally, said it was time to scale back operations. Palestinian authorities said the death toll in the enclave passed 24,000.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Missile fire struck a ship Monday just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, less than a day after Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, officials said.

Details remained scarce on the missile strike, though it marked the latest attack roiling global shipping amid Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Suspicion immediately fell on the Houthis.

BAGHDAD, Jan 14 (NNN-NINA) – Up to 88 Iraqi lawmakers submitted yesterday, a proposal for a draft law, requiring the end of the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, after repeated U.S. attacks against Iraqi security forces.

Falih al-Khazali, a member of the Iraqi parliament, said in a press conference that, the proposal was signed by 88 lawmakers from the Coordination Framework, the largest parliamentary alliance and an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties.

AKROTIRI, Cyprus Jan 14 (Reuters) - Pro-Palestinian activists protested at the gates of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on Sunday, angry that the British base was used as a launch pad for strikes against the Houthi militia in Yemen.

U.S. and British warplanes, ships and submarines launched dozens of air strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen overnight Thursday to Friday in retaliation for attacks on Red Sea shipping that the Iran-backed group says is a response to the war in Gaza.

RAF Akrotiri was used as a staging point for Typhoon fighter jets involved in the operation.

JERUSALEM, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A guided missile launched from Lebanon killed a 76-year-old woman and her son in a village in northern Israel on Sunday, medical officials said, hours after the Israeli military said it killed four heavily armed militants trying to enter from Lebanon.

Fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement has surged in parallel with Israel's more than three-month-old Gaza war against Palestinian Hamas, another ally of Tehran.

BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi parliament failed Sunday to elect a new speaker to replace the sacked speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi due to political wrangling among parliamentary political blocs.

The parliament session began on Saturday afternoon and was chaired by Mohsen al-Mandalawi, the first deputy of the parliament speaker, with the attendance of 314 lawmakers out of the parliament's 329 seats and continued until the early hours of Sunday, according to a statement issued by the parliament.

BEIRUT, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Four militants were killed in armed clashes with an Israeli force after the armed group managed on Sunday dawn to infiltrate the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua the unidentified armed group was able to break through the barbed wire fence placed by the Israeli army in the Baathail Lake and enter within an unspecified distance into an occupied area of the Shebaa Farms located between the Israeli sites of Ruwaisat al-Alam and al-Samaqa.

BAGHDAD, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Iraqis held a rally on Saturday in Iraq's capital Baghdad in protest against the U.S.-Britain strikes against some Houthi military sites in Yemen.

The protest was held in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, where demonstrators chanted anti-U.S. slogans and raised banners denouncing Israel and the United States.

Many demonstrators said the air strikes represent American arrogance that does not respect international laws and norms.