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Türkiye's Foreign Minister to Visit Iraq to Discuss Kurdish Militants and Security

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer (both not pictured) in Ankara, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer (both not pictured) in Ankara, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Türkiye's Foreign Minister to Visit Iraq to Discuss Kurdish Militants and Security

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer (both not pictured) in Ankara, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer (both not pictured) in Ankara, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will visit Iraq on Sunday for talks with officials on the fight against Kurdish militants, security issues and bilateral ties, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Saturday.

Ties between the neighbors have been rocky in recent years due to Ankara's cross-border military operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants based in northern Iraq's mountainous regions.

However, they have improved since Baghdad labelled the group a "banned organization" last year and the countries agreed to hold high-level security talks.

Fidan's visit comes amid repeated calls from Türkiye for the Kurdish YPG militia in northeastern Syria to disband following the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month, with Ankara warning of a new incursion unless its concerns are addressed.

The YPG spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Türkiye deems them terrorists that are an extension of the PKK, which the West also considers a terrorist organization.

The source said Fidan would meet Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, and other Iraqi officials during the visit, adding he would repeat Ankara's expectation for Iraq to label the PKK a terrorist organization and remove it from its lands.

Fidan will emphasize the need for regional countries "to act together against this terrorist organization's attempts to gain legitimacy and ground," the source said, with bilateral ties and trade also be on the agenda.

On Thursday, Hussein said Türkiye attacking Kurdish forces in northern Syria would be dangerous and create more refugees.

Since Assad's toppling by an administration friendly towards Ankara, Syria's Kurdish factions have been on the back foot, and negotiators from the United States, Türkiye, Damascus and the SDF have been zeroing in on a potential deal on the group's fate.

Fidan's visit also comes amid a domestic political effort to end the decades-old conflict between Türkiye and the PKK.

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Arab World

US Says ‘Key Participant’ in 2012 Attack on Benghazi Mission Arrested

Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, appears before reporters at the Justice Department, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington, to announce the capture of a key participant in the 2012 attack on a US compound that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. (AP)
Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, appears before reporters at the Justice Department, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington, to announce the capture of a key participant in the 2012 attack on a US compound that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. (AP)
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US Says ‘Key Participant’ in 2012 Attack on Benghazi Mission Arrested

Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, appears before reporters at the Justice Department, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington, to announce the capture of a key participant in the 2012 attack on a US compound that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. (AP)
Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, appears before reporters at the Justice Department, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington, to announce the capture of a key participant in the 2012 attack on a US compound that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. (AP)

One of the "key participants" behind the 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi that left the ambassador and three other Americans dead has been arrested, officials said Friday.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the suspect, Zubayr al-Bakoush, has been brought to the United States and will face murder and other charges.

Speaking at a press conference, Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel declined to say where Bakoush was arrested, saying only that it was "overseas."

"Bakoush will now face American justice on American soil," Bondi said. "We will prosecute this alleged terrorist to the fullest extent of the law. He'll face charges related to murder, terrorism, arson, among others."

Fox News broadcast what it said was exclusive footage of Bakoush's arrival at a military base in Virginia outside Washington.

In the footage, an elderly grey-haired man struggles to descend a flight of stairs from a plane and is then placed on a stretcher, where he lies shivering.

US ambassador Chris Stevens and three American staff were killed in the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in Libya's second-largest city -- an assault blamed on an Al-Qaeda-linked group.

Militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades stormed the US compound at a time when the oil-rich North African country was torn by civil war.

They set the building ablaze, killing Stevens and IT specialist Sean Smith through smoke inhalation, and then also attacked a CIA annex where two contractors died, both former Navy SEALs.

The assault, the first to claim the life of an American ambassador since 1979, deeply shocked the United States and caused a political storm for then President Barack Obama's administration.

The State Department, then headed by Hillary Clinton, was accused by its political foes of deadly mistakes and negligence over the bloodshed, which came 11 years to the day after al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks.

The United States has previously convicted at least two Libyans for involvement in the Benghazi attack.

Ahmed Abu Khatallah was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2018 and Mustafa al-Imam was sentenced to nearly 20 years in 2020.

Arab World

Hezbollah Accepts Resignation of Senior Security Official Wafiq Safa amid Restructuring

Lebanon’s Hezbollah members carry Hezbollah flags during the funeral of a fellow fighter, in al-Ghaziyeh village, southern Lebanon May 26, 2015. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
Lebanon’s Hezbollah members carry Hezbollah flags during the funeral of a fellow fighter, in al-Ghaziyeh village, southern Lebanon May 26, 2015. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
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Hezbollah Accepts Resignation of Senior Security Official Wafiq Safa amid Restructuring

Lebanon’s Hezbollah members carry Hezbollah flags during the funeral of a fellow fighter, in al-Ghaziyeh village, southern Lebanon May 26, 2015. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
Lebanon’s Hezbollah members carry Hezbollah flags during the funeral of a fellow fighter, in al-Ghaziyeh village, southern Lebanon May 26, 2015. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

Lebanon's Hezbollah accepted the resignation of senior security official Wafiq Safa on Friday, the first time an official of his rank has stepped down, sources familiar with the group's thinking told Reuters. 

Safa, who heads Hezbollah's liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, survived an Israeli assassination attempt in October 2024. 

A source said "the resignation and ‌its acceptance were ‌part of an internal restructuring ‌move" ⁠following losses ‌Hezbollah sustained in last year's war with Israel, adding that southern commander Hussein Abdullah was appointed to replace Safa. 

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024 to end more than a year of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, ⁠which had culminated in Israeli strikes that severely weakened the ‌Iran-backed group. Since then, the ‍sides have traded ‍accusations of ceasefire violations. 

Lebanon has faced growing ‍pressure from the US and Israel to disarm Hezbollah, and its leaders fear that Israel could dramatically escalate strikes across the battered country to push Lebanon's leaders to confiscate Hezbollah's arsenal more quickly. 

Hezbollah has fought numerous conflicts with Israel since ⁠it was founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982. It kept its arms after the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, using them against Israeli troops who occupied the South until 2000. 

Safa, whom Middle East media reports said was born in 1960, oversaw negotiations that led to a 2008 deal in which Hezbollah exchanged the bodies of Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for Lebanese ‌prisoners in Israel. The 2006 incident triggered a 34-day war with Israel.  

Arab World

Lebanon and Syria Ink Deal on Prisoner Handover

People carry Syrian flags of the opposition as they celebrate the ouster of the Assad regime in Damascus, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, 08 December 2024. (EPA)
People carry Syrian flags of the opposition as they celebrate the ouster of the Assad regime in Damascus, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, 08 December 2024. (EPA)
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Lebanon and Syria Ink Deal on Prisoner Handover

People carry Syrian flags of the opposition as they celebrate the ouster of the Assad regime in Damascus, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, 08 December 2024. (EPA)
People carry Syrian flags of the opposition as they celebrate the ouster of the Assad regime in Damascus, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, 08 December 2024. (EPA)

Lebanon inked an agreement with Syria on Friday to hand some 300 convicts over to Damascus, a move seen as key to helping turn a new page in ties between the countries.

Overcrowded Lebanese prisons hold more than 2,200 Syrians held on various charges.

Many of them are still awaiting trial, while hundreds accused of "terrorism" or related offences including attacks on Lebanese forces have been brought before military courts, according to AFP.

Others are in custody for alleged membership in militant or armed groups that were opposed to now ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who was supported by Lebanon's Hezbollah group during the Syrian civil war.

Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri and Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais announced the signing of the agreement at a press conference in Beirut.

Wais called it "an important step on the path to justice in addressing the situation of convicts who have spent a long time in prison and whose cases were among the most complex legally".

The agreement covers around 300 convicts, while the remaining detainees require "long procedures" before a similar agreement on them can be reached, Wais said.

The deal reinforces "the trust and political will that already exists between the two countries", he said, expressing hope it would help improve ties.

Lebanese authorities have said that the convicts who meet the requirements, including having spent at least 10 years behind bars, will be handed over to Syria where they will serve the rest of their sentences.

Mitri told AFP that cooperation extended beyond the issue of convicts, with officials working to "resolve all common issues that will set bilateral relations right".

The first step following the deal's signing would be a cabinet decision to "abolish the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council", an Assad-era body.

Authorities will also review "unfair agreements concluded during the time of Syrian tutelage in Lebanon, as well as the demarcation of the land and maritime borders", Mitri added.

Syria's army entered Lebanon in 1976 as part of an Arab force that was supposed to put an end to the Lebanese civil war which began a year earlier.

Instead Syria became the dominant military and political force in Lebanon, looming over all aspects of Lebanese life.

Syrian forces only withdrew from the country in 2005 after enormous pressure following the assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri, a killing attributed to Damascus and its ally Hezbollah.