عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Libya’s GNA Seizes Another Town

Damage is seen following shelling at Tripoli's Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya May 10, 2020. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny
Damage is seen following shelling at Tripoli's Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya May 10, 2020. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny
TT
TT

Libya’s GNA Seizes Another Town

Damage is seen following shelling at Tripoli's Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya May 10, 2020. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny
Damage is seen following shelling at Tripoli's Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya May 10, 2020. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny

Forces allied with Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) said on Thursday that they have wrestled another key town from the Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Haftar.

Mohamed Gnono, spokesman for the Tripoli-allied forces, announced in a statement posted on social media the fall of the town of al-Asabaa, about 50 kilometers south of Tripoli.

Al-Asabaa is located on a key road that links Haftar's forces besieging Tripoli to Tarhuna, their main western stronghold and supply line southeast of the capital.

On Monday, the GNA of Fayez al-Sarraj seized al-Watiya airbase in Tripoli's southwestern desert reaches.

LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari reiterated that there were 1,500 Turkish military personnel on Libyan soil, fighting on behalf of the GNA.

“The battle is continuing against terrorism, against the Turkish and against the extremists,” he said at a news conference on Thursday.

Turkey has sent armored drones, air defenses and more recently Syrian militants with links to extremist groups to prop up the GNA.

On Wednesday, Haftar’s forces announced they would withdraw up to 3 kilometers from the front line around Tripoli in a humanitarian gesture aimed at giving the residents a respite from the fighting to celebrate Eid al-Fitr.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Sergei Lavrov had a call with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavudoglu, and that they underlined the need for an immediate ceasefire in Libya and the resumption of a political process based on decisions made at a conference in Berlin earlier this year.

Turkey warned that attacks on its interests in Libya by Haftar's forces will have "very grave consequences.”

"In the event Turkish interests in Libya are targeted, this will have very grave consequences," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin was quoted as saying by broadcaster NTV that attacks on Turkish positions would prompt heavy retaliation.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Lebanon's PM Says IMF to Send Mission on Feb 9-13

A photograph released by the Lebanese Government Press Office on December 26, 2025, show Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaking during a press conference after a cabinet session in Beirut on December 26, 2025. (Photo by Handout / Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Government Press Office on December 26, 2025, show Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaking during a press conference after a cabinet session in Beirut on December 26, 2025. (Photo by Handout / Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
TT
TT

Lebanon's PM Says IMF to Send Mission on Feb 9-13

A photograph released by the Lebanese Government Press Office on December 26, 2025, show Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaking during a press conference after a cabinet session in Beirut on December 26, 2025. (Photo by Handout / Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Government Press Office on December 26, 2025, show Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaking during a press conference after a cabinet session in Beirut on December 26, 2025. (Photo by Handout / Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Thursday the International Monetary Fund will send a mission to ‌Lebanon from ‌February ‌9 ⁠to 13 ‌to continue technical discussions, with the aim of agreeing on a ⁠program between Lebanon and ‌the Fund.

Salam ‍said ‍he had ‍held a meeting with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva during the World Economic Forum ⁠in the Swiss resort of Davos and that their discussion had been positive and constructive, reported Reuters on Thursday.

Arab World

Moving ISIS Prisoners from Syria to Iraq Came at the Request of Baghdad, Officials Say

Local youth play atop of a damaged armored vehicle belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at the site of clashes with Syrian government forces in the village of al-Hol in northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh province, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Local youth play atop of a damaged armored vehicle belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at the site of clashes with Syrian government forces in the village of al-Hol in northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh province, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
TT
TT

Moving ISIS Prisoners from Syria to Iraq Came at the Request of Baghdad, Officials Say

Local youth play atop of a damaged armored vehicle belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at the site of clashes with Syrian government forces in the village of al-Hol in northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh province, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Local youth play atop of a damaged armored vehicle belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at the site of clashes with Syrian government forces in the village of al-Hol in northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh province, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

The decision to move prisoners of the ISIS group from northeast Syria to detention centers in Iraq came after a request by officials in Baghdad that was welcomed by the US-led coalition and the Syrian government, officials said Thursday.

American and Iraqi officials told The Associated Press about the Iraqi request, a day after the US military said that it started transferring some of the 9,000 ISIS detainees held in more than a dozen detention centers in northeast Syria controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, in northeast Syria.

The move to start transferring the detainees came after Syrian government forces took control of the sprawling al-Hol camp — which houses thousands of mostly women and children — from the SDF, which withdrew as part of a ceasefire. Troops on Monday seized a prison in the northeastern town of Shaddadeh, where some ISIS detainees escaped and many were recaptured, state media reported.

The SDF said Thursday that government forces shelled al-Aqtan prison near the northern city of Raqqa with heavy weapons, while simultaneously imposing a siege around the prison using tanks and deployed fighters.

Al-Aqtan prison, where some ISIS prisoners are held, was surrounded by government forces earlier this week and negotiations were ongoing on the future of the detention facility.

With the push by government forces into northeast Syria along the border with Iraq, there have been concerns in Baghdad that some of the detainees might become danger to Iraq’s security, if they manage to flee from the detention centers amid the chaos.

An Iraqi security official said that the decision to transfer the prisoners from Syria to Iraq was an Iraqi decision, welcomed by the US-led coalition and the Syrian government. The official added that it was in Iraq’s security interest to detain them in Iraqi prisons rather than leaving them in Syria.

Also Thursday, a senior US military official confirmed to the AP that Iraq “offered proactively” to take the ISIS prisoners rather than the US requesting it of them.

Both the Iraqi and US officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to comment publicly.

Over the past several years, the SDF has handed over to Iraqi authorities foreign fighters, including French citizens, who were put on trial and received sentences.

The SDF still controls more than a dozen detention facilities holding around 9,000 ISIS members, but is slated to hand the prisons over to government control under a peace process that also is supposed to eventually merge the SDF with government forces.

US Central Command said that the first transfer on Wednesday involved 150 ISIS members, who were taken from Syria’s northeastern province of Hassakeh to “secure locations” in Iraq. The statement said that up to 7,000 detainees could be transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities.

ISIS declared a caliphate in 2014 in large parts of Syria and Iraq, attracting large numbers of fighters from around the world. The group was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria two years later, but its sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries. The SDF played a major role in defeating ISIS.

Arab World

Yemen: Coalition Steps Up Engagement with Aden’s Civil Society

Coalition to Restore Legitimacy oversees the normalization of life and improvement of services in Aden (Government Media) 
Coalition to Restore Legitimacy oversees the normalization of life and improvement of services in Aden (Government Media) 
TT
TT

Yemen: Coalition Steps Up Engagement with Aden’s Civil Society

Coalition to Restore Legitimacy oversees the normalization of life and improvement of services in Aden (Government Media) 
Coalition to Restore Legitimacy oversees the normalization of life and improvement of services in Aden (Government Media) 

Amid rapidly evolving developments on the ground led by the leadership of the Coalition Forces to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, efforts are continuing to normalize life in Aden, the country’s temporary capital, within a comprehensive vision aimed at restoring the city’s civil character and strengthening the role of the state and its service and security institutions.

Major General Falah Al-Shahrani, adviser to the Coalition Forces to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, has intensified meetings with representatives of civil sectors, activists, and media professionals, seeking to build broad partnerships with Aden’s community and expand participation in shaping and implementing a plan to restore the city’s civil identity after years of conflict.

Alongside the daily follow-up of plans to remove military camps from Aden and restructure and integrate security units, the adviser to the joint forces is giving particular priority to basic services—especially electricity and water—viewed as a practical gateway to restoring public trust and improving living standards.

Al-Shahrani has also been holding regular meetings with journalists, activists, and community figures, listening to their views on the challenges facing the city and the aspirations of its residents in this new phase. Many hope this stage will restore Aden’s economic, cultural, and social standing as one of the oldest cities that embodied values of coexistence and openness.

Participants in these meetings stressed the importance of granting Aden’s residents a greater and more meaningful role in decision-making, noting that they had suffered marginalization in previous periods and that any successful plan to restore the city’s civil character must begin with their inclusion as direct stakeholders.

They also emphasized the need to give top priority to the education sector, describing it as the cornerstone of reconstruction and sustainable development and the primary foundation for rebuilding civic awareness and entrenching a culture of the rule of law.

Participants further called for directing support toward sustainable projects, foremost among them the rehabilitation of buildings damaged by the Houthi invasion of the city in 2015, given the direct impact of such projects on residents’ lives in terms of housing, services, and economic activity.

They noted that discussions with Al-Shahrani were marked by seriousness and transparency, reflecting the Coalition leadership’s determination to listen directly to public concerns beyond rigid official frameworks.

They affirmed that they sensed a genuine commitment and a clear vision to rebuild what the war had destroyed in Aden and other liberated provinces, in parallel with efforts to consolidate security and stability.