Turkey Accuses ‘Terrorists’ of Targeting Civilians in Iraq's Dohuk https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3770906/turkey-accuses-%E2%80%98terrorists%E2%80%99-targeting-civilians-iraqs-dohuk
Turkey Accuses ‘Terrorists’ of Targeting Civilians in Iraq's Dohuk
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Reuters file photo
Turkey has not carried out any attacks targeting civilians in Iraq's Dohuk province, where a strike killed eight and wounded 23, and Iraqi authorities must not fall for this "trap", Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.
Turkey on Wednesday rejected claims by Iraqi officials and state media that it had carried out an attack on a mountain resort in the northern Dohuk province.
At least four artillery shells struck the resort area of Barakh in the Zakho district in the semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region.
Hundreds of Iraqi tourists come to the Kurdish region from the south during the peak summer months because the weather is relatively cooler.
Iraq summoned Ankara's ambassador to Baghdad over the attack and its state agency said the government will call back its charge d'affaires in Ankara.
Cavusoglu told state broadcaster TRT Haber the Turkish military operations in Iraq have always been against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), saying the attack on Dohuk was also carried out by what he called terrorists.
Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes in northern Iraq and has sent commandos to support its offensives as part of a long-running campaign in Iraq and Syria against militants of the Kurdish PKK and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Ankara regards both as terrorist groups.
Cavusoglu said reports blaming Turkey for the attack were attempts by the PKK to hinder Ankara's counter-terrorism.
"The whole world knows we would never carry out an attack on civilians," Cavusoglu said, adding the Turkish military had told his ministry that no such attack was carried out by Turkey.
"Following this attack, which we believe the (PKK) terrorist organization carried out, we are ready to hold talks with Iraqi officials. We can cooperate for the curtain of fog to be lifted. Until that is lifted, it is not right to blame Turkey," he said.
The top United Nations envoy to Iraq condemned it and called for an investigation.
“Civilians are once again suffering the indiscriminate effects of explosive weapons. Under international law, attacks must not be directed at the civilian population,” said the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
It called for “a thorough investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the attack.”
Dozens of Iraqis gathered on Wednesday outside the Turkish embassy in Baghdad to protest the attack.
Cavusoglu said that while there were protests outside the embassy and other Turkish offices, there were no reports of damage or injuries.
Amnesty Urges Investigating Israeli Attacks on Lebanon as ‘War Crimes’https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5293958-amnesty-urges-investigating-israeli-attacks-lebanon-%E2%80%98war-crimes%E2%80%99
This picture taken from a position in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel shows Israeli military vehicles driving past houses destroyed in Israeli strikes in the southern Lebanese village near the Israel-Lebanon border, on July 1, 2026. (AFP)
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Amnesty Urges Investigating Israeli Attacks on Lebanon as ‘War Crimes’
This picture taken from a position in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel shows Israeli military vehicles driving past houses destroyed in Israeli strikes in the southern Lebanese village near the Israel-Lebanon border, on July 1, 2026. (AFP)
Amnesty International on Thursday accused Israel of wiping out families in its strikes on Lebanon during its war with Hezbollah, calling for these attacks to be investigated as war crimes.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by launching rockets at Israel in support of its backer Iran.
Israel responded with major airstrikes and a ground invasion, killing more than 4,300 people according to Lebanese authorities, including more than 250 children.
Amnesty analyzed three strikes on civilian homes between March 6 and 13, in which 24 civilians were killed, 12 of them children.
The London-based rights group accused Israel of "wiping out families" in those strikes and called for them to be treated as "war crimes".
The group said it reached out to Israeli authorities, who said that some of the attacks "were carried out against Hezbollah military objectives", while others were "referred for examination".
The authorities told Amnesty they were "committed to mitigating harm to civilians during operational activity".
"Despite follow up, the Israeli military did not provide specific information regarding the three attacks... including what the targets may have been," Amnesty added.
Its findings in the investigation were based on interviews with 15 people, including survivors, relatives, paramedics, journalists who visited attack sites and local officials.
"Based on the evidence gathered, in each of these air strikes, Amnesty International has reasonable basis to conclude that Israeli forces violated international humanitarian law, including by failing to distinguish between civilians and military objectives, by carrying out attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects, or by failing to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians," the report read.
Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty's deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said that "within the space of just a week -- the Israeli military obliterated entire families, including a dozen children, in Lebanon, demonstrating a callous disregard for civilian lives".
"States must impose an immediate comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and use universal and extraterritorial jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute those responsible," she added.
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said, in a statement on Thursday, that the military's operations in Lebanon were a response to attacks by Hezbollah.
"The terrorist organization Hezbollah has attacked Israel twice on its own initiative," Katz said, without specifying whether he was responding to Amnesty's report.
"Israel responded with force and, over the past two and half years, has crushed most of Hezbollah's capabilities and its leadership," adding that Israeli forces would remain in their self-declared "security zone" inside occupied Lebanese territory "as long as necessary" to protect Israel's northern communities.
Last month, Lebanon and Israel concluded a US-backed framework agreement aiming to pave the way for a permanent end to hostilities.
It was preceded by a memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States to end the broader Middle East conflict, which included a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Despite this, Israel still carries out intermittent strikes on southern Lebanon, some of them deadly.
How a Palestinian Town Is Defending Itself from Israeli Settler Attackshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5293953-how-palestinian-town-defending-itself-israeli-settler-attacks
Jawaher Foqahaa walks past the tall metal fencing installed by the Israeli military that closed off four of the five entrances to their town and runs directly past the family home, in Sinjil, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 26, 2026. (Reuters)
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How a Palestinian Town Is Defending Itself from Israeli Settler Attacks
Jawaher Foqahaa walks past the tall metal fencing installed by the Israeli military that closed off four of the five entrances to their town and runs directly past the family home, in Sinjil, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 26, 2026. (Reuters)
On a cool night in June, some 15 Palestinians from the town of Sinjil in the occupied West Bank gathered on a hilltop to watch the shadowed valleys below for any sign of movement that might signal an impending Israeli settler attack.
They are part of a grassroots volunteer group — similar to others in the West Bank — that has stepped in to defend the town from rising settler violence that Palestinians say the Israeli military and their own government have proved unable or unwilling to prevent.
"We have been left on our own. You are facing settlers supported by their government," said Fadi Alwan, one of the volunteers.
"We have nobody. So we are forced to stay here and protect this town."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government has approved hundreds of new settlements and settler outposts across the West Bank, the smaller outposts often serving as staging grounds for violence that has displaced thousands of Palestinians.
The Israeli government has said that through the strategic placement of settlements it plans to thwart a Palestinian state with the West Bank at its heart — a Palestinian objective key to the two-state solution long backed by world powers.
Most of the world considers all Israel's settlement activity in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule and the Israeli military operates freely, as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this view.
Palestinians say that when they call the Israeli police or the military they are either late to respond, or come to the aid of the settlers perpetrating the violence. The military denies this.
"The army protects them and doesn't stop them. We call the army. We call the police. It's useless," said Alwan.
Asked for comment on Sinjil and what residents describe as an escalating campaign of attacks, Israel's military said troops deploy to disperse confrontation but that responsibility for Israeli civilian actions in the West Bank lies with the Israeli police.
Israeli police did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
A man uses a flashlight as other Palestinian volunteers sit around a bonfire as they guard their town against Israeli settler attacks, in Sinjil, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 26, 2026. (Reuters)
SEARCHLIGHTS, WHATSAPP GROUPS TO FEND OFF ATTACKS
On June 26, as the men gathered around a fire on a Sinjil hilltop, one of them used a searchlight to scan the hills for settlers. Others drove on patrols around the town, all of them tuned into community WhatsApp groups where residents can alert one another to potential attacks.
Towns elsewhere in the West Bank also have groups, though the patrols around Sinjil appear unusually organized.
"If they get close to the houses, we go confront them, we send (messages out) on the WhatsApp groups," Alwan said.
Just a few days earlier, Alwan said he was beaten by a settler wielding a spiked club in a daytime attack as he attempted to harvest wheat. He lifted his shirt to show his wound, still fresh.
He said settlers last year shot live bullets at a tent erected by the volunteers, only missing the young men inside by luck. He said the next day troops came and dismantled the tent.
Israel's military did not immediately provide comment on allegations that they dismantled the watch tent.
Alwan and other residents said they believed most of the settlers perpetrating violence against their town came from the six settler outposts perched on the hills around them.
The Yesha Council, an organization that represents settlers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on events in Sinjil and what local regional councils are doing to curb violence.
Palestinians cross a blocked gate at the main entrance of the West Bank village of Sinjil after the Israeli army imposed a closure of all entrances to the village, 01 July 2026. (EPA)
GRASSROOTS SOLUTION
Sinjil sits along the main road between the Palestinian urban centers of Ramallah and Nablus, and the hills north of the village are dotted with settlements and outposts.
Deepening the town's isolation, local officials say Israel's military closed off four of its five entrances, and has built a metal wall around the town cutting it off from 2,000 acres of private land.
Moataz Tawafsha, the head of Sinjil's municipality, said that after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, settler attacks escalated and the town needed to find a way to protect itself.
"We really feel as if we are living in a collective prison," Tawafsha said. "As a result, the municipality has taken primary responsibility for providing protection."
Since October 2023, settler attacks have killed two people and displaced more than 100 from the Bedouin Palestinian community living on town land, according to Tawafsha.
The violence has displaced a further 20 families from their homes in the town's core during the same period, he said.
CALL FOR HELP
Some Sinjil residents credit community protection for their survival.
Abed Foqahaa installed metal bars over the windows of his house and built a tall metal fence around his garden after settlers threw a Molotov cocktail through his window while he and his family were inside around two years ago.
"The fire broke out and we couldn't control it. We tried to save the house, but all of us suffered from the smoke," said Foqahaa.
Foqahaa used the town WhatsApp group to call for help. Young men from the town, initially stopped by the Israeli military, arrived and helped carry out Foqahaa's wheelchair-using father, he said.
"God bless them, they really helped us," Foqahaa said.
Drill Boosts Military Ties between Egypt and Türkiyehttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5293927-drill-boosts-military-ties-between-egypt-and-t%C3%BCrkiye
Drill Boosts Military Ties between Egypt and Türkiye
Egyptian and Turkish forces participating in the "Golden Eagle" exercise on Wednesday. (Egyptian Military Spokesperson on Facebook)
The joint Egyptian-Turkish military drill "Golden Eagle" kicked off on Wednesday with the participation of the Egyptian Airborne Forces, Egyptian Thunderbolt Forces and the Turkish Special Forces.
The drill is part of the growing military cooperation between Cairo and Ankara and is in line with the military framework agreement signed during Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan’s visit to Egypt in February.
The first phase of the drill included a series of theoretical lectures on various subjects aimed at unifying operational concepts and boosting integration and interoperability among the participating forces. An exhibition of the weapons and equipment used during the exercise was also organized.
Military and strategic expert and president of the Arab Foundation for Development and Strategic Studies Samir Ragheb said the drill reflects the extent of the development of military relations between Egypt and Türkiye, which, in turn, is a reflection of their political rapprochement.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the two countries are increasing the number of drills between them.
Egypt also recently joined Türkiye’s program to develop the KAAN stealth fighter jet, he noted.
Last month, Egypt’s Chief of Staff Ahmed Khalifa met with his Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu in Cairo, underlining the importance of coordinating efforts and supporting military cooperation with Türkiye to achieve common interests.
Egypt and Türkiye signed a military cooperation agreement during Erdogan's visit to Cairo in February. (Egyptian Presidency)
Adel Al-Omda, military adviser at the Military Academy for Postgraduate and Strategic Studies, noted that Egypt is facing “grave international challenges from all directions, which demands ongoing tactical and information cooperation.”
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that cooperation means that these challenges can be confronted, offering a reassuring message to the people.
Military cooperation with a major regional power such as Türkiye will yield positive results and counter some challenges, he remarked.
So long as there is military cooperation, political and economic agreement can be ensured, he added.
Ragheb noted that the military drill sends a positive message that relations are strong and stable.
It also sends a message that the countries are prepared to stop wars as neither of them want to be embroiled in the regional conflict. They have both played mediator roles in Gaza, Iran, Yemen and Syria.
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