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LNA Says Tripoli Fully Besieged

Sick children arrive from Libya to Ciampino in Rome, Italy, 17 December 2019. Five Libyan children will be treated in Rome. EPA/Telenews
Sick children arrive from Libya to Ciampino in Rome, Italy, 17 December 2019. Five Libyan children will be treated in Rome. EPA/Telenews
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LNA Says Tripoli Fully Besieged

Sick children arrive from Libya to Ciampino in Rome, Italy, 17 December 2019. Five Libyan children will be treated in Rome. EPA/Telenews
Sick children arrive from Libya to Ciampino in Rome, Italy, 17 December 2019. Five Libyan children will be treated in Rome. EPA/Telenews

Libya’s capital, Tripoli, has been fully besieged, the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Marshal Khalifa Haftar announced on Wednesday.

According to a report by the Arabic website of Russia’s Sputnik news agency, LNA official Brigadier General Khalid al-Mahjoub pointed out that the security cordon on the capital was completed.

Regarding Berlin's plan to hold an international conference on Libya and international calls for a political solution to the country’s crisis, Mahjoub said: “We believe that the elimination of militias is the only solution.”

Last week, Haftar urged his forces to advance towards the center of Tripoli in what he said would be the "final battle" for the capital.

He launched an offensive in April to take Tripoli from militias backing the Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez al-Sarraj.

On Wednesday, Sarraj discussed with his Interior Minister the security situation in Tripoli and the military and security coordination in the face of the attack launched by the LNA.

On Tuesday, Haftar met with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio and his accompanying delegation in Benghazi.

In a statement following the meeting, Haftar described the meeting as very positive, adding that they discussed the latest political developments and bilateral cooperation in all fields.

Upon returning to Italy, Di Maio announced that Haftar will pay Rome a visit in the coming weeks, affirming that he will stay in touch with Sarraj over the phone.

He also pointed out that the Italian government will soon appoint a special envoy to Libya in order to “establish a high-level, continuous and intensive political relationship with all Libyan parties.”

In the battlefield, forces loyal to Sarraj’s GNA in the coastal city of Sirte, some 450 kilometers east of Tripoli, have admitted to coming under an LNA air attack that left two people dead and three wounded.

In other news, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Heiko Maas discussed Wednesday the situation in Libya, according to a statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry and reported by Sputnik.

Regarding Berlin's plan to hold the Libya conference, the statement said the situation in Libya was discussed with a focus on promoting a political settlement through a comprehensive dialogue with the participation of all parties to the conflict.

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Arab World

Israel’s Security Cabinet Approves 19 New Settlements in West Bank

A helicopter flies over the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2025. (AFP)
A helicopter flies over the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel’s Security Cabinet Approves 19 New Settlements in West Bank

A helicopter flies over the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2025. (AFP)
A helicopter flies over the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2025. (AFP)

Israel's security cabinet approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number approved over the past three years to 69, an official statement said Sunday.

"The proposal by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz to declare and formalize 19 new settlements in Judea and Samaria has been approved by the cabinet," a statement from Smotrich's office said, without specifying when the decision was taken.

"On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state. We will continue to develop, build, and settle the land of our ancestral heritage, with faith in the justice of our path," Smotrich said in the statement.

Arab World

Iraq Top Judge Says Armed Factions to Cooperate on Weapons

Cars drive through central Baghdad as a thick fog blankets the Iraqi capital on December 11, 2025. (AFP)
Cars drive through central Baghdad as a thick fog blankets the Iraqi capital on December 11, 2025. (AFP)
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Iraq Top Judge Says Armed Factions to Cooperate on Weapons

Cars drive through central Baghdad as a thick fog blankets the Iraqi capital on December 11, 2025. (AFP)
Cars drive through central Baghdad as a thick fog blankets the Iraqi capital on December 11, 2025. (AFP)

The head of Iraq's highest judicial body said Saturday that the leaders of armed factions have agreed to cooperate on the sensitive issue of the state's monopoly on weapons.

However, the powerful Kataib Hezbollah group said that it would only discuss giving up its arms when foreign troops leave the country.

"The resistance is a right, and its weapons will remain in the hands of its fighters," the group said in a statement.

The leaders of three other pro-Iran factions designated by Washington as terrorist groups said that it is time to restrict weapons to state control, although they too have stopped short of committing to disarm -- a long-standing US demand.

Faiq Zidan, the head of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, in a statement thanked "faction leaders for heeding his advice to coordinate together to enforcing the rule of law, restrict weapons to state control, and transition to political action after the national need for military action has ceased".

After Iraq's general elections in November, the United States demanded that the new government exclude six groups it designates as terrorists and instead move to dismantle them, Iraqi officials and diplomats told AFP.

But some of the groups have increased their presence in the new parliament and are members of the Coordination Framework, a ruling alliance of Shiite parties with varying ties to Iran that holds the majority.

The blacklisted groups are part of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces, a former paramilitary alliance that has integrated into the armed forces. But they have also developed a reputation for sometimes acting on their own.

They are also part of the Tehran-backed so-called "Axis of Resistance" and have called for the withdrawal of US troops -- deployed in Iraq as part of an anti-ISIS coalition -- and launched attacks against them.

These groups include the powerful Asaib Ahl al-Haq faction, which won 27 seats in the elections.

Earlier this week, the group's leader, Qais al-Khazali, a key figure in the Coordination Framework, said "we believe" in "the slogan to restrict weapons to the state", and "we are now part of the state".

Two other groups, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya and Kataeb Imam Ali, said on Friday that it is time to "limit weapons to the state".

Arab World

Israeli Military Says Killed Two Palestinians in West Bank

A Palestinian flag flutters in front of Israeli soldiers standing near their military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank on December 15, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian flag flutters in front of Israeli soldiers standing near their military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank on December 15, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Military Says Killed Two Palestinians in West Bank

A Palestinian flag flutters in front of Israeli soldiers standing near their military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank on December 15, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian flag flutters in front of Israeli soldiers standing near their military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank on December 15, 2025. (AFP)

Israel's military said it killed two Palestinians in the north of the occupied West Bank Saturday, accusing one of throwing "a block" and the other an explosive at its soldiers.

In a statement the military said that during an operation "in the area of Qabatiya, a terrorist hurled a block toward the soldiers, who responded with fire and eliminated the terrorist".

"Simultaneously, during an additional operation in the Silat al-Harithiya area, a terrorist hurled an explosive toward the soldiers, who responded with fire and eliminated the terrorist."

Both locations are near the city of Jenin.

The Israeli military reported no injuries among its troops.

The Palestinian health ministry said that a 16-year-old boy died "from wounds caused by a bullet of the Israeli occupation forces", according to the official Wafa news agency.

It also reported that a 22-year-old man was killed by "a bullet to the chest during an occupation forces raid" on Silat al-Harithiya.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has soared since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 triggered the Gaza war.

It has not subsided despite the truce between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in October.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, many of them gunmen, but also scores of civilians, in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.

At least 44 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.