Int'l Coalition Raids ISIS Sites in Northern Iraq

US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt-2 (File photo: Reuters)
US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt-2 (File photo: Reuters)
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Int'l Coalition Raids ISIS Sites in Northern Iraq

US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt-2 (File photo: Reuters)
US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt-2 (File photo: Reuters)

US-led international coalition warplanes raided a number of ISIS sites in Wadi al-Sham area of Kirkuk governorate, northern Iraq, announced the Joint Operations Command.

The Security Media Cell said in a statement Monday, that the Joint Operations Command ordered the attack after receiving accurate intelligence information from the Iraqi National Intelligence Service.

Following the strikes, the joint force from the 45th Brigade of the 8th Division of the Iraqi army accompanied by a unit of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service in Kirkuk combed the area and found seven dead terrorists, whose identities and ranks will be identified, according to the statement.

It also indicated that the forces found two explosive belts and a cache of weapons and light ammunition.

The raids came two days after NATO announced it was going to expand the scope of its operations in Iraq and increase the number of its forces from 500 to 4,000.

NATO announced the increase days after the missile attacks on Erbil that killed and injured a number of citizens and coalition servicemen.

On Monday, Erbil Health Directorate announced the death of Nawaf Rashid, 31, after sustaining injuries during the attack. He was wounded after a missile landed near a livestock market.

The directorate stated that one wounded person, from Syria's Kobani, is still in hospital.

Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) revealed new information regarding the missile attack on Erbil international airport.

The government issued a statement announcing that some people infiltrated the Kurdistan region and carried out the attacks that targeted the airport and some residential neighborhoods.

It emphasized the importance of coordination between the regional government, the federal government, and the international coalition to confront outlaws.



Israeli Forces Kill 14 People in Gaza, Force New Displacement in the North

 A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Forces Kill 14 People in Gaza, Force New Displacement in the North

 A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli military strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israeli forces deepened their incursion into Beit Hanoun town in the north, forcing most remaining residents to leave.

Residents said Israeli forces besieged shelters housing displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.

Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.

Israel's campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, has fueled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.

"The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction," said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.

"North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world," he told Reuters via a chat app.

Saed was referring to the 1948 Middle East Arab-Israeli war which gave birth to the state of Israel and saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their hometowns and villages in what is now Israel.

NO PLANS FOR SETTLERS' RETURN

The Israeli military has denied any such intention, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. Hardliners in his government have talked openly about going back.

It said forces have killed hundreds of Hamas fighters in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun during its new military offensive, which began more than a month ago. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad armed wing claimed killing several Israeli soldiers during ambushes and anti-tank rocket fire.

On Tuesday, the United States stressed at the United Nations that "there must be no forcible displacement, nor policy of starvation in Gaza" by Israel, warning such policies would have grave implications under US and international law.

Medics said five people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people outside Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya, while five others were killed in two separate strikes in Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip where the army began a limited raid two days ago.

In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, one man was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike, while three Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, medics added.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel last October, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than 2 million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.