11 Dead in Iraq Attack Blamed on ISIS

A view of the old city of Mosul and buildings destroyed during past fighting with ISIS militants, in Mosul, Iraq February 22, 2021. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
A view of the old city of Mosul and buildings destroyed during past fighting with ISIS militants, in Mosul, Iraq February 22, 2021. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
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11 Dead in Iraq Attack Blamed on ISIS

A view of the old city of Mosul and buildings destroyed during past fighting with ISIS militants, in Mosul, Iraq February 22, 2021. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
A view of the old city of Mosul and buildings destroyed during past fighting with ISIS militants, in Mosul, Iraq February 22, 2021. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

ISIS militants killed 11 people including a woman on Tuesday in an attack on a village in Diyala province, east of Iraq, the country's Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

The attack that targeted "defenseless civilians" in the village of Al-Hawasha, near the town of Muqdadiya, injured others, it added.

The attack left "11 dead and 13 wounded", a local security source said.

Another said that civilians were among those killed by small arms fire in the village, home to many members of the security services.

The area has been sealed off and reinforcements sent to hunt for the attackers, the first source said.

Both sources said most of the village's inhabitants belong to the same Bani Tamim tribe as the Diyala provincial governor.

ISIS surged to control large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, but its "caliphate" later crumbled under successive attacks.

Iraq declared it defeated in 2017 and the group was smashed in neighboring Syria in 2019.

But the extremist threat remains and the group continues to carry out attacks.

A UN report published early this year estimated that around 10,000 ISIS fighters remained active across Iraq and Syria.



Israel Carries Out More Airstrikes Deep inside Lebanon

File photo: This picture taken from an Israeli position along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above the Lebanese village of Adaisseh during Israeli bombardment on January 22, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AFP)
File photo: This picture taken from an Israeli position along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above the Lebanese village of Adaisseh during Israeli bombardment on January 22, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AFP)
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Israel Carries Out More Airstrikes Deep inside Lebanon

File photo: This picture taken from an Israeli position along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above the Lebanese village of Adaisseh during Israeli bombardment on January 22, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AFP)
File photo: This picture taken from an Israeli position along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above the Lebanese village of Adaisseh during Israeli bombardment on January 22, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AFP)

Israeli warplanes carried three airstrikes deep into eastern Lebanon on Friday for the second time since a ceasefire ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel a month ago, Lebanon’s state-run news agency said.
No casualties were reported in the strikes on the Bekaa Valley town of Qousaya and the target remained unclear. The Israeli military said its air force struck “infrastructure used to smuggle weapons via Syria” to Hezbollah near the Janta crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border, about 9 kilometers (5 miles) north of Qousaya. Israel accused Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 of overseeing smuggling operations from Iran through Syria, adding that it had killed the unit’s commander in early October, reported The Associated Press.
Since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27, the Israeli army has conducted near-daily operations in southern Lebanon, including shootings, house demolitions, excavations, tank shelling and airstrikes. These actions have killed at least 27 people, wounded more than 30 and destroyed residential buildings, including a mosque.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, said it has observed “concerning actions” by Israeli forces, including the destruction of homes and road closures.
On Thursday, the Lebanese army accused Israeli troops of breaching the ceasefire by encroaching into southern Lebanon. Israeli bulldozers erected dirt barricades to block roads in Wadi Al-Hujayr.
The Lebanese army later on Thursday said that following intervention by the ceasefire supervision committee, Israeli forces withdrew, and Lebanese soldiers removed the barriers to reopen the road in the area.
The US-brokered ceasefire, which ended the 14-month war, demands that Hezbollah and Israeli forces withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, allowing Lebanese troops to gradually deploy south of the Litani River.