A view of southwestern Syria in late April, from an Israeli lookout post in the Golan Heights. Israel has placed soldiers in the Golan to stand guard against any Syrian attack. Nicholas Casey/The Wall Street Journal GOLAN HEIGHTS—Each morning after sunrise, soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces stand on a hill and look into their binoculars over two parallel fences topped in barbed wire that stretch out […]
Suspected al-Qaida militants have attacked a military checkpoint in southern Yemen, killing at least 14 soldiers. Yemeni security officials say other soldiers were wounded in the attack, which took place on Thursday near a village in Shabwa province. Yemen is the stronghold of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the terror group’s most active branches. An army spokesman said Thursday that at least 500 al-Qaida militants […]
Election officials began counting votes in Syria’s presidential election early on Wednesday as polls closed in government-held areas. State-run media reported that voting closed at midnight and that officials began the process of checking the number of votes against lists of registered voters to ensure the numbers matched. Syrians on Tuesday voted in their first election in nearly 50 years, which the incumbent Bashar al-Assad is widely […]
WASHINGTON — Did the search for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl cost the lives of American soldiers? Since last weekend’s prisoner exchange in which Afghan insurgents turned over Sergeant Bergdahl after five years of captivity, a number of the men who served with him have called him a deserter. Some have gone further, blaming him for the deaths of six to eight soldiers. That second claim is hardening into […]
WASHINGTON — The relatives of three United States citizens killed in American drone strikes without trial, including Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric, have decided not to appeal a federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit they filed against Obama administration officials. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages against several top national security officials for the deaths from two drone strikes in Yemen in 2011; the victims also included […]
PARIS — The three young Frenchmen were arrested as they tried to make their way to Syria to wage jihad. They had not harmed anyone in France or made plans to do so, according to the evidence at their trial in January, but in France these days, seeking to fight in Syria is enough to bring a charge of plotting terrorism — and in this case sentences […]
JERUSALEM — President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority swore in a transitional government on Monday intended to unify the West Bank and Gaza after seven years of division, though the run-up was marred by last-minute disputes over its composition. The move is likely to complicate further the Palestinians’ already fraught relations with Israel and put them under international scrutiny because the new government is supported by […]
A controversy over cutting down centennial trees to pave the way for building a military academy in one of Jordan’s shrinking forests is taking center stage once again. Environmental NGOs and activists held an emergency meeting Saturday to halt what they called an illegal chopping of trees by the Jordan Armed Forces in Bergesh forest, near the city of Ajloun – some 90kms north west of Amman. […]
CAIRO — The Benghazi militant group Ansar al-Shariah is under attack by a renegade former general trying to rid Libya of political Islam. But in response, the militia has taken aim squarely at Washington. “We remind America of their defeats in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia,” Mohammed Ali al-Zahawi, the leader of Ansar al-Shariah, declared this week in a videotaped statement, warning that the United States would face […]
WASHINGTON — A United States citizen working in Syria with a militant group backed by Al Qaeda conducted a suicide bombing there Sunday, in what is believed to be the first time an American has been involved in such an attack, American officials said Wednesday. The suicide attack first surfaced on Tuesday in Twitter messages from the Nusra Front, an Islamist extremist group in Syria aligned with […]
WASHINGTON — Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. faced a legal and bureaucratic dilemma this year: Obama administration officials could not agree about what he should tell the Supreme Court about a lawsuit in which American victims of terrorist attacks in Israel are suing Arab Bank, the largest financial institution in Jordan. The plaintiffs have accused Arab Bank of providing services to terrorists responsible for the attacks. […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — An international team sent to investigate allegations that chlorine gas had been used as a weapon in Syria’s civil war came under attack on Tuesday, forcing it to abort its mission to reach a village where numerous such attacks have been reported. In a statement, the United Nations-backed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said all of its investigators were safe and had […]
JERUSALEM — Making history for the second day running, Pope Francis laid a wreath Monday on the grave of the founder of Zionism, becoming the first pope to do so, a gesture of support to Israel after several symbolic signals the day before that lent a spiritual lift to Palestinian aspirations for sovereignty. At the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Francis added to his marathon morning […]
Egyptians head to the polls in a presidential election that ex-army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is expected to win easily. The two-day vote, which starts at 0600 GMT on Monday, follows more than three years of political turmoil that has seen two presidents overthrown, mass protests, thousands killed in clashes, deadly attacks and a battered economy. About 53 million people are registered to vote. Sisi is expected to trounce […]
An Egyptian elections worker guards boxes of ballots at the Giza courthouse in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, May 25, 2014. TEXT SIZE – + VOA News May 26, 2014 12:35 AM Egyptians go to the polls Monday and Tuesday to elect a new president. Former Egyptian army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who ousted the elected Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi, is widely expected to win. The two-day election caps more than three […]
Even before his inauguration, India’s Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi made waves on the global stage, where once he was treated by many with suspicion – and by some as a pariah – for a rash of Hindu-Muslim violence that erupted 12 years ago in Gujarat, the state he ruled. Modi, 63, has spoken with the presidents of the United States and Russia, and he has become […]
Orthodox Jews protested against the forthcoming visit of Pope Francis to Jerusalem. Josh Mitnick/Wall Street Journal Pope Francis wants to spur interfaith tolerance during a trip to the Holy Land, but a planned Papal mass at a Jerusalem holy site is stoking the embers of religious rivalry that have plagued the city for centuries. Just days before the Pope’s arrival, hundreds of religious Jews turned out at […]
Daraa, Syria TEXT SIZE – + May 23, 2014 3:21 AM Syrian activists say rebels have killed at least 21 people at a campaign rally for President Bashar al-Assad in the southern city of Daraa. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the rebels shelled a tent where Assad’s supporters had gathered late Thursday. The Observatory’s Rami Abd al-Rahman told VOA the victims include both civilians and pro-Assad militiamen. “Twenty-one […]
Suicide bombers and car bombs killed at least 35 Shiite pilgrims and wounded dozens more in attacks in Baghdad on Thursday, security officials said. The pilgrims were on their way to the shrine of a Shiite saint in Kadhimiya, in northern Baghdad, to commemorate the anniversary of his death. A day earlier, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki urged the security forces to protect pilgrims traveling to the […]
Attacks on Nigel Farage, Ukip’s leader, by other politicians have not damaged his standing with voters Photo: EPA Nick Clegg was at his most priggish this week as he sought desperately to persuade the public not to back Ukip in the European elections. Indeed, he laid into not only Nigel Farage, but all those who back him – which, by my reckoning, could be some five million voters. […]
HERMEL, Lebanon — For many months, Shiite communities across Lebanon lived in fear as car bombs tore through their neighborhoods, punishing Hezbollah and its supporters for sending fighters to aid President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war in neighboring Syria. But Hezbollah succeeded on the Syrian battlefield in chasing rebels from the border towns where many of the attacks originated. The bombings have since stopped, leaving Lebanon’s […]
WASHINGTON — To those who lost loved ones in the suicide bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, in April 1983, it is often called “the forgotten bombing” — overshadowed by an even deadlier attack on a Marine barracks at the Beirut airport six months later. Now, a new book shines a spotlight on the embassy bombing, which killed 63 people, 17 of them American, including […]
Egypt’s weak currency, unstable security situation, energy crisis and a government that’s almost bankrupt after three years of political uncertainty hardly make ideal conditions for a market rally. But even as periodic blackouts hit Cairo and Islamist militants carry out attacks on security forces, Egypt this week is welcoming its first initial public offering since a revolution toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Arabian Cement, a […]
Bombings and shootings around Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, killed at least 29 people and wounded dozens on Thursday, officials said. Gunmen killed five off-duty army officers after stopping their car on a road just north of Baghdad, the police said. Earlier, a car bomb in Karrada, a busy commercial area with several government offices, killed four civilians and three police officers and wounded 21, a police officer said. […]
