Fire Reported at Foreign Oil Companies' Storage Facilities in Iraq after Drone Strike

Members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi forces stand guard during a pro-Iran rally in Tahrir Square in Baghdad on April 2, 2026.  (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
Members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi forces stand guard during a pro-Iran rally in Tahrir Square in Baghdad on April 2, 2026. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
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Fire Reported at Foreign Oil Companies' Storage Facilities in Iraq after Drone Strike

Members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi forces stand guard during a pro-Iran rally in Tahrir Square in Baghdad on April 2, 2026.  (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
Members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi forces stand guard during a pro-Iran rally in Tahrir Square in Baghdad on April 2, 2026. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)

A fire broke out ‌early ‌on Saturday at ‌storage ⁠facilities belonging to ⁠foreign ⁠oil ‌companies ‌west of Iraq's ‌Basra after ‌a ‌drone strike, security ⁠sources told Reuters.



Israeli Strikes Kill at Least Two People in Gaza, Officials Say

The destroyed car after it was targeted by the Israeli military in Gaza City, 27 September 2026. (EPA)
The destroyed car after it was targeted by the Israeli military in Gaza City, 27 September 2026. (EPA)
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Israeli Strikes Kill at Least Two People in Gaza, Officials Say

The destroyed car after it was targeted by the Israeli military in Gaza City, 27 September 2026. (EPA)
The destroyed car after it was targeted by the Israeli military in Gaza City, 27 September 2026. (EPA)

Israeli ‌strikes killed at least two Palestinians and wounded several others on Monday in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip, health officials in the enclave said.

A woman was killed and her husband and others were wounded in one Israeli strike on the rooftop of their building in Gaza City, medics ‌said. Another ‌strike killed a woman ‌and ⁠wounded others in central ⁠Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, they added.

The Israeli military said it struck a militant in Nuseirat, without giving further details. It did not immediately comment on the reported strike in Gaza ⁠City.

Palestinian authorities say more ‌than 73,000 people ‌have been killed in Israel's assault on ‌Gaza, launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about ‌1,200 people in southern Israel in October 2023.

A US-brokered ceasefire agreed last year calls for the eventual reconstruction of the territory, ‌but little progress has been made as negotiators have failed ⁠to ⁠agree terms for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its troops. Israeli airstrikes have continued.

At least 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory's health officials, while the Israeli military says four Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Israel and Hamas trade blame over responsibility for violations of the ceasefire agreement.


Lebanon Hopes for New Staff-Level Agreement with IMF

A view of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo at its headquarters in Washington, DC, US, November 24, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo at its headquarters in Washington, DC, US, November 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Hopes for New Staff-Level Agreement with IMF

A view of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo at its headquarters in Washington, DC, US, November 24, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo at its headquarters in Washington, DC, US, November 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Lebanon hopes for a new staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Yassine Jaber has said, adding that a full IMF program still required Beirut to pass a final law to address losses from its financial crisis.

Lebanon first signed a staff-level agreement with the IMF in April 2022, more than two years after its financial system imploded following decades of profligate spending and corruption in the ruling elite. But it was slow to implement the promised changes.

The current government has fast-tracked ‌reforms, including ‌a bank restructuring law that was welcomed by the ‌IMF ⁠in August.

Jaber was ⁠in Washington on Monday to meet with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. In comments published late on Sunday, Jaber said he would tell her it was imperative to start work on a full IMF program, which would be expected to involve loans, as Lebanon had worked seriously on financial reforms over the last 18 months.

"Lebanon has ⁠accomplished a phase; it passed the banking restructuring law, ‌which was of course a ‌very important message to the Fund and to the world that the parliament ‌and the Lebanese government are serious about reforms," Jaber said ‌in a video released by his ministry.

He said a full-scale agreement with the IMF would have to wait for the passing of the "financial gap law", legislation intended to distribute the losses from the 2019 crash.

In 2022, the ‌government put the losses at about $70 billion, a figure that is likely to be higher now. ⁠Those losses ⁠need to be distributed between the state, the central bank, commercial banks and depositors, to allow depositors who have been frozen out of their savings to gradually recover their money.

A source familiar with the process said a staff-level agreement could be signed as soon as Monday. A second source said it was likely by the end of the year.

A full IMF program in any case takes longer as it requires approval by the IMF board.

The government put forward a financial gap bill last year but it has yet to be passed.

Financial reforms have been repeatedly derailed by political and private interests over the last seven years.


Lebanon Says Israeli Army Set off Large Explosion in South

 Smoke rises in al-Mansouri following Israeli explosions reported by Lebanon’s state news agency NNA as seen from Hinniyeh, southern Lebanon, September 28, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke rises in al-Mansouri following Israeli explosions reported by Lebanon’s state news agency NNA as seen from Hinniyeh, southern Lebanon, September 28, 2026. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Army Set off Large Explosion in South

 Smoke rises in al-Mansouri following Israeli explosions reported by Lebanon’s state news agency NNA as seen from Hinniyeh, southern Lebanon, September 28, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke rises in al-Mansouri following Israeli explosions reported by Lebanon’s state news agency NNA as seen from Hinniyeh, southern Lebanon, September 28, 2026. (Reuters)

The Israeli military set off a significant explosion in the southern Lebanese village of al-Mansouri on Monday, Lebanese state media and AFP correspondents said as Israel said it had completed an operation in the area.

"A massive explosion rocked the town of al-Mansouri in the Tyre district a short while ago. The explosion was carried out by Israeli occupation forces," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.

"The sound of the explosions was heard in the city of Tyre and several surrounding villages," the NNA added.

AFP correspondents saw large clouds of smoke emerge from the largely destroyed town after the loud explosion was heard.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it had completed an operation in al-Mansouri where it dismantled "more than 600 terrorist infrastructure sites" and "eight underground routes".

Lebanese authorities accuse Israel of systematically destroying villages in the south, including homes, schools, places of worship and water and electricity infrastructure.

The town of al-Mansouri, located around nine kilometers (six miles) south of Tyre and 10 kilometers north of Israel, and its surroundings were subjected to several Israeli strikes and to artillery shelling in recent weeks despite a ceasefire that took hold in June.

During the truce, al-Mansouri's municipality had told residents they could return home but that they should avoid the parts that came under Israel's self-proclaimed occupied "security zone".

But last month, the Israeli military had ordered al-Mansouri's residents to evacuate the town before fully occupying it.

It has since regularly carried out demolitions and detonations in the town, which residents in the Tyre region can clearly see, according to correspondents.

Tehran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March this year by attacking Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people.

Violence has decreased since a fragile ceasefire announced in June after a US-Iran understanding on the broader war, while Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement later that month.

But Israel has kept up attacks and maintains troops in the occupied "security zone" running around 10 kilometers (six miles) inside south Lebanon, where it has carried out widespread demolitions in villages it occupies.