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Iraqi Pre-Emptive Strikes Hit Syria

A US F-16 fighter jet is seen during an official ceremony to receive four of three aircraft from the US, July 20, 2015. Reuters
A US F-16 fighter jet is seen during an official ceremony to receive four of three aircraft from the US, July 20, 2015. Reuters
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Iraqi Pre-Emptive Strikes Hit Syria

A US F-16 fighter jet is seen during an official ceremony to receive four of three aircraft from the US, July 20, 2015. Reuters
A US F-16 fighter jet is seen during an official ceremony to receive four of three aircraft from the US, July 20, 2015. Reuters

Iraqi warplanes attacked on Thursday positions in Syria as officials from Iraq, Russia, Iran and the Bashar Assad regime were meeting in Baghdad.

The pre-emptive attacks came ahead of a US plan to withdraw from Syrian areas east of the Euphrates River.

"Our heroic air force carried out deadly air strikes against ISIS sites in Syria on Thursday near the border with Iraq," said a statement issued by the office of the Iraqi Prime Minister.

It added that the attacks aim to counter dangers posed by militants to Iraqi territories and is proof of the improved military capabilities of the armed forces in fighting terror.

PM Haider al-Abadi had stated earlier that Iraq would take all necessary measures against ISIS if their militants threaten the security of his country.

Iraqi warplanes have previously attacked ISIS positions inside Syrian territories. However, it is the first time that such attacks coincide with a meeting of military and security officials from Iraq, Iran, Russia and Syria in Baghdad to coordinate their efforts in “fighting terrorism,” according to Iraqi sources.

Meanwhile, it is still unknown whether international chemical weapons inspectors had entered the location of a suspected poison gas attack in the Syrian town of Douma.

The inspectors had delayed their entry after gunfire at the site during a visit by a UN security team last Tuesday.

On Thursday, the US State Department accused Russian and Syrian regime officials of denying an investigative team access to the alleged chemical weapons attack sites as they sanitize them and remove incriminating evidence.

At the political level, Ankara said Thursday that the next round of the intra-Syrian talks would be held between May 14 and 15 in Astana.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will be visiting Moscow on Friday to discuss means for improving efforts to hold a new round of Syrian talks in Geneva.

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Arab World

Gaza's Christians 'Heartbroken' for Pope Who Phoned them Nightly

A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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Gaza's Christians 'Heartbroken' for Pope Who Phoned them Nightly

A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Members of Gaza's tiny Christian community said they were "heartbroken" on Monday at the death of Pope Francis, who campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave and spoke to them on the phone every evening throughout the war.

Across the wider Middle East, Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, praised Francis' constant engagement with them as a source of solace at a time when their communities faced wars, disasters, hardship and persecution.

"We lost a saint who taught us every day how to be brave, how to keep patient and stay strong. We lost a man who fought every day in every direction to protect this small herd of his," George Antone, 44, head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, told Reuters.

Francis called the church hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Antone said, the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war. He would make sure to speak not only to the priest but to everyone else in the room, Antone said.

"We are heartbroken because of the death of Pope Francis, but we know that he is leaving behind a church that cares for us and that knows us by name - every single one of us," Antone said, referring to the Christians of Gaza who number in the hundreds.

"He used to tell each one: I am with you, don't be afraid."

Francis phoned a final time on Saturday night, the pastor of the Holy Family parish, Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, told the Vatican News Service.

"He said he was praying for us, he blessed us, and he thanked us for our prayers," Romanelli said.

The next day, in his last public statement on Easter, Francis appealed for peace in Gaza, telling the warring parties to "call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace".

'PEACE IN THIS LAND'

At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, on the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, the superior of the Latin community, Father Stephane Milovitch, said Francis had stood for peace.

"We wish that peace will finally come very soon in this land and we wish the next pope will be able to help to have peace in Jerusalem and in all the world," he said.

In Lebanon, where a war between Israel and Hezbollah caused widespread casualties and extensive damage last year, sending millions from their homes, members of the Catholic Maronite community spoke of Francis' frequent mentions of their plight.

"He's a saint for us because he carried Lebanon and the Middle East in his heart, especially in the last period of war," said a priest in the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish, which was badly damaged during Israel's military campaign last year.

"We always felt he was very involved and he mobilized all the Catholic institutions and funds to help Lebanon throughout the crises that we went through," said Marie-Jo Dib, who works at a social foundation in Lebanon.

"He was a rebel and I really pray that the next pope will be like him," she added.

Francis made repeated trips to the Middle East, including to Iraq in 2021 where he learned that two suicide bombers had attempted to assassinate him in Mosul, a once cosmopolitan city where the ISIS terror group proclaimed a so-called caliphate from 2014-17.

He visited the ruins of four destroyed churches there and launched an appeal for peace.

In Syria, Archbishop Antiba Nicolas said he was holding mass at the historic Damascus Zaitoun church when he was handed a slip of paper with the news.

"He used to say 'dearest Syria' every time he spoke of Syria. He called on all international organisations to support Syria, the Christian presence and the church in Syria during the crisis in the past years," Nicolas said.