From Dark to Dust It is the news that millions of fans of Philip Pullman’s brilliant fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials have been waiting to hear for years – the English author is ready to further explore the world of heroine Lyra Belacqua, daemons and the Magisterium in another three-book series. Billed as neither prequel nor a sequel but an “equel”, The Book of Dust series will […]
By Tom Perry and John Davison | BEIRUT BEIRUT The U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance has crossed into Deir al-Zor province for the first time as part of an offensive against Islamic State, a Kurdish military source said on Tuesday. The advance into the province, most of which is under the control of the ultra-hardline group, is part of an operation to encircle and ultimately capture […]
Photo A session at the International Conference in Support of Palestinian Intifada in Tehran on Tuesday, where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, urged renewal of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israel. Credit Ebrahim Noroozi/Associated Press TEHRAN — Everything was in place on Tuesday for a gala celebration at Iran’s annual conference in support of Palestine. Awaiting the hundreds of guests was a table piled high […]
BEIRUT: France’s far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen sparked controversy Tuesday during her brief visit to Lebanon when she refused to wear a headscarf to meet the country’s top Sunni Muslim cleric. On her last day in the small Mediterranean country, Le Pen arrived at Sheikh Abdellatif Deryan’s office in Beirut and was offered a white shawl to cover her blonde hair. The National Front candidate promptly […]
By Simon Carraud | BEIRUT BEIRUT French far-right National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen canceled a meeting on Tuesday with Lebanon’s grand mufti, its top cleric for Sunni Muslims, after refusing to wear a headscarf for the encounter. Le Pen, among the frontrunners for the presidency, is using a two-day visit to Lebanon to bolster her foreign policy credentials nine weeks from the April 23 first […]
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | AMMAN AMMAN Islamic State-linked Syrian militant groups on Monday launched a surprise attack on moderate rebels in southwestern Syria near the Golan Heights near where the Jordanian and Israeli borders converge, seizing several villages and a large town, rebels and witnesses said. Rebels said the militants were able to extend their area of control in territory that forms a natural barrier between Syria […]
By Phil Stewart | BAGHDAD BAGHDAD The U.S. military is “not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil”, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump, as he held talks with Iraqi leaders on Monday. Mattis was the highest-ranking Trump administration official to visit Iraq since Trump irked Iraqis with a temporary ban ontravel to the United States and for saying America should haveseized […]
MOSCOW Russia’s combative ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died suddenly in New York on Monday after being taken ill at work, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The ministry gave no details on the circumstances of his death but offered condolences to his relatives and said the diplomat had died one day before his 65th birthday. It declined to comment on reports that Churkin had been […]
Photo Russian soldiers patrolling in Aleppo, Syria, this month. A bomb last week brought the number of Russian combat deaths in Syria to 27. Credit Omar Sanadiki/Reuters MOSCOW — Four Russian servicemen were killed and two were wounded in Syria last week when their car was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday, citing a statement by the Defense Ministry […]
By Stephen Kalin and Maher Chmaytelli | SOUTH OF MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq SOUTH OF MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq U.S.-backed Iraqi forces fought Islamic State fighters on Monday to clear the way to Mosul’s airport, on the second day of a ground offensive on the jihadists’ remaining stronghold in the western side of the city. Federal police and elite interior ministry units known as Rapid Response are leading the charge toward […]
Photo Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, left, with Col. Terry L. Anderson, the military attaché, in Munich on Thursday. Credit Sven Hoppe/DPA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BAGHDAD — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Baghdad on Monday, promising that, despite what President Trump said last month, the administration would not try to seize Iraq’s oil. Nor, he said, would the administration repay Iraqis who have worked […]
OTTAWA One in four Canadians say Ottawa should have adopted a temporary halt on Syrian refugees in response to the United States’ controversial travel ban, though the majority supported the government’s current immigration plan, an Angus Reid Institute poll showed on Monday. Sixty percent of those surveyed in an online poll said the Canadian government had done a good job of resettling Syrian refugees since the Liberals […]
BEIRUT Syrian government forces fired rockets at a rebel-held area on Damascus’s outskirts on Sunday, pressing an attack that began the day before and has killed up to 16 people, a medical worker and war monitors said. The medical worker and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was the biggest attack on the Qaboun area, to the city’s northeast, in at least two years. At […]
ABU DHABI // The British royal navy is strengthening its presence in the Arabian Gulf after it took command of US Task Force 50 – the first time it has led a US force in the Middle East. The force, which has assisted in battling ISIL in Iraq and Syria, plays an important role in the region because it allows free passage of trade throughout the Gulf […]
CAIRO Islamic State published a video on Sunday threatening Egyptian Christians and showing the last statement of a man it said was responsible for the deadly bombing in December of a Coptic cathedral in Cairo. The masked man in battle-dress, whom the group identified as Abu Abdallah al-Masri, is seen encouraging militants all over the world not to give up and promising Islamists jailed in Egypt they […]
AMMAN Syrian rebel groups who have participated in peace talks said on Sunday that an upsurge in Syrian army shelling and bombing was wrecking the prospects of maintaining a Russian-Turkish-brokered ceasefire. The rebel groups, mostly backed by Turkey, who attended two rounds of talks in the Kazakh capital Astana said they had supported a political solution to end the bloodshed, but that war had been “imposed” on […]
Like others interviewed, Abu Marwan, citing concerns about safety, agreed to speak on the condition that his full name not be published. He and others are identified by honorifics or nicknames. Residents said anyone caught using a cellphone risked being beaten or killed by militants. Continue reading the main story Abu Salah, who lives in the Bab al-Tob neighborhood in western Mosul, said the Islamic State, also […]
By Maher Chmaytelli and Isabel Coles | BAGHDAD/SOUTH OF MOSUL, Iraq BAGHDAD/SOUTH OF MOSUL, Iraq U.S.-backed Iraqi forces on Sunday launched a ground offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in Mosul, in the western part of the city, and put an end to their ambitions for territorial rule in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the offensive, asking Iraqi […]
Photo Iraqi forces advance toward western Mosul on Sunday. Credit Khalid Al-Mousily/Reuters ERBIL, Iraq — Iraq’s government announced the beginning of an offensive on Sunday to take back the western half of Mosul from the Islamic State, nearly three years after the city was overrun by the terror group. Overnight, planes crisscrossed the sky over the city’s occupied half, carpeting the ground with leaflets, which made a […]
President Donald Trump took his press-bashing to a new level on Friday when he called journalists from The New York Times, ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC “the enemy of the American people.” The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017 The comment touched off a […]
By Jonathan Landay | MUNICH MUNICH Russia has shown no change in behaviour or policies to embrace U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer of better relations or cooperation in fighting Islamist militants, U.S. officials and lawmakers say. Trump’s latest overture was delivered by Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday to a security conference in Germany held amid European worries over U.S. commitment to the continent’s security and […]
MUNICH A new version of a Trump administration travel ban will not stop green card residency holders or travellers already on planes from entering the United States, U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security John Kelly said on Saturday. U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial attempt to clamp down for security reasons on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries and on refugees snarled to a halt amid a judicial backlash and […]
ABU DHABI – U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday for talks with one of Washington’s closest allies in the Middle East. Jim Mattis, on his debut trip to the region as Pentagon chief, was expected to meet Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan and U.S. embassy representatives. U.S. officials have not disclosed details about his agenda. […]
ISTANBUL: Turkey has presented two proposals to the United States for how to carry out a joint military operation to drive Daesh from its stronghold in the Syrian city of Raqqa, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Saturday.Turkey has said repeatedly that the planned operation should be conducted by local Arab forces, possibly with support from Turkish troops, as opposed to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Force (SDF) — […]
