Middle East & North Africa

Turkey steps up airstrikes against Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq after 12 soldiers were killed

QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — Turkey intensified its airstrikes against Kurdish groups in Syria and northern Iraq in retaliation for the deaths of 12 Turkish soldiers in Iraq over the weekend.

The Turkish defense ministry said in a statement Monday that it had killed at least 26 militants in the strikes.

Egypt floats an ambitious plan to end the Israel-Hamas war as Netanyahu vows to expand Gaza combat

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has put forward an ambitious, initial proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war with a cease-fire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts who would administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat said Monday.

Hamas says lost contact with group responsible for five Israeli hostages

CAIRO, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Hamas said on Saturday it has lost contact with a group responsible for five Israeli hostages being held captive in the Gaza Strip due to Israeli bombardment.

The Palestinian Islamist group believes the hostages were killed during an Israeli raid, Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, al-Qassam Brigades, was quoted as saying in a statement on the group's Telegram channel.

Reuters was not able to verify the report and there was no immediate response from the Israeli authorities.

Yemen's warring parties commit to ceasefire steps - U.N. special envoy

ADEN, Dec 23 (Reuters) - The Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Iran-aligned Houthis have both committed to steps towards a ceasefire, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen said on Saturday.

The Houthis, which control north Yemen, have been fighting against a Saudi-led military alliance since 2015 in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and left 80% of Yemen's population dependent on humanitarian aid.

Iran, Azerbaijan agree to open transit passage at border

TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Azerbaijan have agreed to open a new transit passage at their shared border in the near future, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported Friday.

In a phone call with Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash discussed the latest developments in bilateral relations, especially in the economic, transportation and energy sectors, the report said.

Israeli strike kills 76 members in one Gaza family, rescue officials say as combat expands in south

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike killed 76 members of an extended family, rescue officials said Saturday, a day after the U.N. chief warned again that nowhere is safe in Gaza and that Israel’s ongoing offensive is creating “massive obstacles” to the distribution of humanitarian aid.

U.S. Forces Transfer “Stolen Syrian Oil” To Bases In Iraq

DAMASCUS, Dec 22 (NNN-SANA) – A 44-tanker convoy, carrying oil, stolen from Syrian oil fields, departed Syria’s north-eastern al-Hasakah province, for U.S. bases in neighbouring Iraq, yesterday.

According to local sources, the convoy exited the Yarubiya countryside, on the Iraqi-Syrian border, through the unauthorised Mahmoudiya crossing,

The incident came, days after the U.S. forces took 95 tankers of oil and a truckload of grains, from north-eastern Syria on Dec 17.

Türkiye nabs 304 suspects over links to IS

ISTANBUL, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Turkish police on Friday arrested 304 people over their suspected links to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in an operation that targeted 32 cities.

In a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Yerlikaya said 86 out of the 304 suspects were detained in Istanbul and 20 in the western city of Izmir in the operation codenamed HEROES-34.

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza health officials say

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The war in Gaza has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, health officials in the Hamas-run territory said Friday, a new reflection of the staggering cost of Israel’s military offensive as pressure grows to scale it back.

The figure, amounting to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population, is just one measure of the devastation wrought by the conflict that over 11 weeks has displaced nearly 85% of Gaza’s people and leveled wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave.

Lavrov slams 'klepto' German authorities for plans to seize Russian assets

TUNISIA, December 21. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described the German authorities as "kleptomaniacs" while commenting on the German Prosecutor General's Office’s call to seize Russian assets.

"They are kleptos. We realized this a long time ago. They have been duplicitous all along in political terms, you know: in the sense of defaulting on agreements and trying to deceive someone. Now they have turned out to be kleptocratic in the literal sense of this word," Lavrov told a news conference following his visit to Tunisia.

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