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Leading Kurdish Parties Strike Broad Provincial Administration Agreement

The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked an agreement on provincial administration. (AFP)
The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked an agreement on provincial administration. (AFP)
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Leading Kurdish Parties Strike Broad Provincial Administration Agreement

The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked an agreement on provincial administration. (AFP)
The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked an agreement on provincial administration. (AFP)

The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked Monday a “comprehensive agreement” on provincial administration following months of arduous talks.

The deal, signed in Erbil by Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Kosrat Rasul Ali of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), should now facilitate the formation of the region’s next government.

Since legislative elections were held last September, political parties in the Kurdistan have struggled to form a new government. The polls saw the KDP win 45 seats in the 111-member Kurdish Assembly and the PUK win 21 seats.

Informed sources said the deal, details of which remain vague, includes 18 items on sharing power and ministerial portfolios between the two parties.

They said the deal should also normalize the administrative situation in the disputed areas between Baghdad and Erbil and that the two parties discussed the appointment of a new governor in Kirkuk.

In principle, the KDP has conceded to the PUK’s demand that the governor be a member of its party.

Officials from both parties said the new four-year agreement is set to replace the so-called “Strategic Agreement” of 2005, which united the Kurdistan Region into a unified KRG administration.

Also, both the PUK and the KDP agreed on the post of Iraqi justice minister, who is traditionally a Kurdish figure.

“Today is a day that will go down in the history of our nation, when the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party signed a political agreement,” said KDP spokesperson Mahmoud Mohammed.

PUK spokesperson Lateef Shiekh Omar told reporters: “It is an agreement that will be the compass and guideline for our joint work for now and the future.”

A committee has been set up to oversee the deal’s implementation.

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Arab World

Israel Says Ready for More Strikes on Hezbollah after Tunnel Detonation

Ali Al-Taher Heights east of the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, with the towns of Kfar Tebnit and Nabatieh al-Fawqa visible below (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat).
Ali Al-Taher Heights east of the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, with the towns of Kfar Tebnit and Nabatieh al-Fawqa visible below (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat).
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Israel Says Ready for More Strikes on Hezbollah after Tunnel Detonation

Ali Al-Taher Heights east of the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, with the towns of Kfar Tebnit and Nabatieh al-Fawqa visible below (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat).
Ali Al-Taher Heights east of the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, with the towns of Kfar Tebnit and Nabatieh al-Fawqa visible below (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat).

Israel said Friday that it was prepared for more strikes on Hezbollah after demolishing tunnels built by the Iran-backed group in southern Lebanon with a massive explosion.

"We are ready and prepared to continue the campaign, to continue striking Hezbollah and at additional locations," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a video message, Reuters reported.

Israel late Thursday blew up what it described as a vast network of tunnels under the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge where Hezbollah kept a command center, living quarters and stocks of weapons with which to strike northern Israel and invading Israeli troops.

A huge fireball was seen in the area, with the US Geological Survey recording a tremor equivalent to a 4.1 magnitude earthquake.

The blast came a week after Israeli troops said they had seized the strategic highlands as they solidified control of a "security zone" in southern Lebanon.

"We promised protection to the residents of the north, and we delivered," Katz said in his message, which came on the Jewish new year and weeks ahead of tight elections.

"Now there is a strong security zone, stronger than ever before, which protects the communities from attack and direct fire, and enables us to maintain control and threaten Hezbollah deep inside the area."

Israel said the tunnel network was built over two decades with the help of Hezbollah's patron Iran, whose clerical government has also backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel and the United States attacked Iran in late February, sparking the Middle East war.

Hezbollah, founded to oppose an earlier Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon that began in 1982, dragged the country into the wider conflict when it fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Iran.

Lebanese authorities say Israeli military operations in the country have killed more than 4,300 people since March.

The Israeli army said that the Ali al-Taher network comprised tunnels extending for more than two kilometres that held dozens of Iranian-made rockets, missiles and drones, as well as other weapons.

The ridge lies on the edge of Israel's self-styled security zone just a few kilometres from the UNESCO-listed Beaufort castle, another strategic site that Israel captured in recent months.

Arab World

Syria Arrests Nine Former Assad-Era Pilots

The Internal Security Forces arrested the nine former military pilots following a series of operations in Latakia. (SANA)
The Internal Security Forces arrested the nine former military pilots following a series of operations in Latakia. (SANA)
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Syria Arrests Nine Former Assad-Era Pilots

The Internal Security Forces arrested the nine former military pilots following a series of operations in Latakia. (SANA)
The Internal Security Forces arrested the nine former military pilots following a series of operations in Latakia. (SANA)

Syrian authorities said Thursday nine former pilots, including three generals, who are accused of having taken part in lethal bombings of towns and villages under the former rule of Bashar al-Assad, had been arrested.

For more than 13 years of a civil war that claimed over half a million lives, Syrian forces relentlessly shelled areas held by the opposition before Assad was toppled in December 2024 and the current government came to power.

Following a series of operations in Latakia in the country's west, the Internal Security Forces arrested nine former military pilots "involved in war crimes against the Syrian people... in several regions", news agency SANA reported, citing authorities.

Among them are generals Menhel Anwar Saleh, Sami Ibrahim Mahmoud, and Ghayath Ali Rehye.

"Their crimes caused a large number of casualties... and inflicted extensive damage on towns and villages, in addition to displacing residents and destroying homes and civilian infrastructure," SANA added.

Since al-Assad was overthrown, the new authorities have arrested dozens of former security officials, and trials began in April.

Syrian authorities said Monday they had arrested a former general accused of involvement in the bloody repression of protests in 2011 that sparked the country's civil war and the 1982 Hama massacre.

Syria sentenced Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, and five other security officials to death in absentia in August for atrocities committed during the civil war, the first such ruling under the new authorities.

The former president fled Syria as his government fell and is believed to be living in Russia.

Arab World

Israel Assassinates Qassam’s Commander of the Khan Younis Brigade

Mohammad al-Yazouri, also known as "Abu Al-Haitham," commander of Gaza's Khan Younis Brigade in the Qassam Brigades.
Mohammad al-Yazouri, also known as "Abu Al-Haitham," commander of Gaza's Khan Younis Brigade in the Qassam Brigades.
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Israel Assassinates Qassam’s Commander of the Khan Younis Brigade

Mohammad al-Yazouri, also known as "Abu Al-Haitham," commander of Gaza's Khan Younis Brigade in the Qassam Brigades.
Mohammad al-Yazouri, also known as "Abu Al-Haitham," commander of Gaza's Khan Younis Brigade in the Qassam Brigades.

The Israeli army assassinated Mohammad al-Yazouri, also known as "Abu Al-Haitham," commander of Gaza's Khan Younis Brigade in the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement.

He and Hudhaifa Abu Muammar, an engineer in the Qassam Brigades, were killed in an Israeli drone strike while they were walking in the Al-Mawasi area at midnight Thursday-Friday.

Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Yazouri was not quickly identified, as he was in pieces and his body, including his face, was disfigured.

The sources revealed that the sudden loss of contact with him prompted some of those close to him to try to find out if he was the target, and it became clear in the early hours of dawn that he was among the victims.

According to two sources, Al-Yazouri assumed responsibility for the Khan Younis Brigade shortly after the assassination of the brigade leaders Ezzedine al-Haddad and Mohammad Oudeh, who were assassinated within ten days in May.

Al-Yazouri was the commander of central and western Khan Younis, before becoming the general commander of the brigade.

He worked for years in other positions within the Qassam leadership, including the intelligence apparatus, which was one of the agencies that worked on gathering security information in preparation for the October 7, 2023, attack.

A third source said al-Yazouri escaped several assassination attempts, whether during the current war or years before it.

One of the most prominent attempts occurred when he was with Rafe Salama, Mohammad Sinwar, and Yahya Sinwar in a tunnel in Khan Younis in 2021. Israeli planes bombed the site with several missiles during what was known as the battle of the "Sword of Jerusalem," which Israel named "Guardian of the Walls." Everyone survived the attack.

Al-Yazouri was one of the leaders who supervised the October 7 attack, and he also played a role in the operations of handing over the abducted Israelis during the exchange deals.

Abu Muammar was an engineer in the Qassam Brigades who was responsible for developing the military capabilities of the brigades and was close to its prominent leaders.

He was responsible for several attacks against Israeli forces during the Gaza war and others before it.