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France Says It Carried Out Missile Strikes against ISIS in Syria Last Weekend

French Minister of Defense Sebastien Lecornu leaving the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris after the weekly cabinet meeting, on October 1, 2024. (AFP)
French Minister of Defense Sebastien Lecornu leaving the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris after the weekly cabinet meeting, on October 1, 2024. (AFP)
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France Says It Carried Out Missile Strikes against ISIS in Syria Last Weekend

French Minister of Defense Sebastien Lecornu leaving the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris after the weekly cabinet meeting, on October 1, 2024. (AFP)
French Minister of Defense Sebastien Lecornu leaving the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris after the weekly cabinet meeting, on October 1, 2024. (AFP)

France carried out missile strikes last weekend in Syria, targeting ISIS sites in the country, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Tuesday.

"On Sunday, French air forces carried out targeted strikes against Islamic State sites based on Syrian territory," Lecornu wrote on social media platform X.

The French airstrike followed a similar military strike by the United States in Syria, which the US said had killed two ISIS operatives.

Syria faces an uncertain political future after the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group ousted former President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8.

The lightning campaign led by HTS ended a 13-year civil war, but it has left a host of questions about the future of a multi-ethnic country where foreign states including Türkiye and Russia have strong and potentially competing interests.

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Arab World

Israeli Fire Kills Priest in South Lebanon's Qlayaa

Israeli tanks gather at a position along the Israel-Lebanon border on March 8, 2026. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Israeli tanks gather at a position along the Israel-Lebanon border on March 8, 2026. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
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Israeli Fire Kills Priest in South Lebanon's Qlayaa

Israeli tanks gather at a position along the Israel-Lebanon border on March 8, 2026. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Israeli tanks gather at a position along the Israel-Lebanon border on March 8, 2026. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

A south Lebanon parish lost its priest on Monday when Father Pierre al-Rai of Al-Qlayaa died of wounds sustained from Israeli tank fire, according to state media and a medical source.

The border village had not previously been caught up in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

The National News Agency (NNA) reported that a house in the Christian town was "hit twice in succession by artillery shelling from a hostile Merkava tank" on Monday.

The first strike wounded the homeowner and his wife, according to NNA. After several neighbours, including Rai, and Red Cross paramedics rushed to the scene, the house was hit a second time, wounding Rai and three others.

The priest later died of his wounds, a medical source told AFP.

It was not clear why Israeli forces targeted the house, which is located on the outskirts of the town.

On Friday, Rai had taken part in a gathering organized by locals in the neighboring town of Marjayoun, where they said they were determined to remain in their homes despite evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli army to all residents south of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres from the border.

In a speech, Rai had said: "When we defend our land, we defend it peacefully, and we carry only the weapons of peace, goodness, love and prayer."

"We are compelled to remain in danger because these are our homes and we will not leave them."

Residents of Christian towns along or near the border are trying to stay out of the confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel.

Arab World

Iraq: Strike Hits Former PMF Base Near Mosul

Iraqi Army soldiers secure streets in then-recently liberated village occupied by ISIS militants outside Mosul, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)
Iraqi Army soldiers secure streets in then-recently liberated village occupied by ISIS militants outside Mosul, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)
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Iraq: Strike Hits Former PMF Base Near Mosul

Iraqi Army soldiers secure streets in then-recently liberated village occupied by ISIS militants outside Mosul, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)
Iraqi Army soldiers secure streets in then-recently liberated village occupied by ISIS militants outside Mosul, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

An airstrike on Monday hit a base belonging to the paramilitary coalition Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) coalition in northern Iraq, according to officials from the former paramilitary alliance, which includes pro-Iran factions.

One of the officials blamed the strike on the United States, saying it hit a base in Bartella area near the city of Mosul in Nineveh province, AFP reported.

Another PMF source and a local official confirmed the attack, with no casualties reported.

The PMF is an alliance of factions created in 2014 to fight militants and is now integrated into the Iraqi armed forces.

Iran-backed groups have brigades that operate within the PMF, but have a reputation for acting on their own.

Since the start of the Middle East war, bases belonging to PMF have been hit several times, with strikes targeting Tehran-backed armed groups.

These groups are also united under a loose alliance called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has claimed attacks against US bases in Iraq.

Arab World

US Labels Sudan's Muslim Brotherhood as 'Terrorists'

A man photographs the main entrance of the original Muslim Brotherhood office, that is sealed with official wax after it was raided and shut down by police, in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - AP
A man photographs the main entrance of the original Muslim Brotherhood office, that is sealed with official wax after it was raided and shut down by police, in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - AP
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US Labels Sudan's Muslim Brotherhood as 'Terrorists'

A man photographs the main entrance of the original Muslim Brotherhood office, that is sealed with official wax after it was raided and shut down by police, in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - AP
A man photographs the main entrance of the original Muslim Brotherhood office, that is sealed with official wax after it was raided and shut down by police, in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - AP

The United States said Monday it will label the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan as a terrorist organization and accused the group of receiving support from Iran.

The designation, which will be effective in a week, comes after the United States in January declared several other Muslim Brotherhood branches to be terrorist organizations, including in its historic base of Egypt.

"The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood uses unrestrained violence against civilians to undermine efforts to resolve the conflict in Sudan and advance its violent Islamist ideology," the State Department said in a statement.

The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood "has contributed upwards of 20,000 fighters to the war in Sudan, many receiving training and other support from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," the elite ideological wing of Tehran's military, the State Department said.

The State Department accused the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood of having "conducted mass executions of civilians in areas they captured."

The army has been engaged for nearly three years in a brutal civil war against the Rapid Support Force (RSF), with the fighting claiming tens of thousands of lives, displacing more than 11 million people and plunging areas into famine-like conditions.