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.



Syria’s Al-Sharaa Hosts Ukraine’s Foreign Minister

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa looks on as he meets with senior Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 30, 2024. (Reuters)
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa looks on as he meets with senior Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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Syria’s Al-Sharaa Hosts Ukraine’s Foreign Minister

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa looks on as he meets with senior Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 30, 2024. (Reuters)
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa looks on as he meets with senior Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 30, 2024. (Reuters)

Syria's de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa held talks on Monday with a senior Ukrainian delegation led by Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, the Syrian state news agency (SANA) reported, as Kyiv moves to build ties with the new leadership in Damascus.

SANA provided no immediate details about their talks, held in Damascus, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last Friday his country had sent its first batch of food aid to Syria, which is traditionally a close ally of Russia.

Zelenskiy said that 500 metric tons of wheat flour were already on their way to Syria as part of Kyiv's humanitarian "Grain from Ukraine" initiative in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Program.

Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, has said it wants to restore relations with Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad and his flight into exile in Russia.

Ukraine, which has been battling invading Russian forces for nearly three years, traditionally exports wheat and corn to countries in the Middle East, but not to Syria, which in the Assad era imported food from Russia.

Russian wheat supplies to Syria have been suspended because of uncertainty about the new government in Damascus and payment delays, Russian and Syrian sources told Reuters in early December.

Russia had supplied wheat to Syria using complex financial and logistical arrangements to circumvent Western sanctions imposed on both Moscow and Damascus.

The ousting of Assad by al-Sharaa Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group has thrown the future of Russia's military bases in Syria - the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia and the Tartous naval facility - into question.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the status of Russia's military bases would be the subject of negotiations with the new leadership in Damascus.

Al-Sharaa said this month that Syria's relations with Russia should serve common interests.