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Arab World

Erdogan Says Putin Asked Him to Cooperate with Assad Regime

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin... Close Relations and Coordination in Syria (DPA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin... Close Relations and Coordination in Syria (DPA)
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Erdogan Says Putin Asked Him to Cooperate with Assad Regime

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin... Close Relations and Coordination in Syria (DPA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin... Close Relations and Coordination in Syria (DPA)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin asked him to cooperate with Bashar al-Assad’s regime to resolve the Syrian crisis.

He assured Putin that the Turkish intelligence service is cooperating with the Syrian intelligence in this regard, but what is important is the outcome of this coordination.

“As long as the two intelligence services are working on the matter, we need Russia’s support, and there are agreements and understandings between the two countries in this regard.”

Erdogan made the remarks from the plane on his way back to Turkey, a day after the two leaders met at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The meeting reaffirmed the divergence of positions between the two sides and underscored Moscow’s rejection of a possible Turkish military operation in northern Syria.

Erdogan said Putin adheres to a “fair approach” to Turkey on the Syrian issue and supports Ankara in the fight against terrorism.

The Turkish leader said he discussed with his Russian counterpart the possibility of carrying out a cross-border operation in Syria.

He pointed to their discussion on steps to be taken against terrorist organizations in Syria and agreed to take necessary actions to protect the country’s territorial integrity.

“We agreed on the decision to grant Turkey the right to respond to attacks on its security forces and squadrons of killers who attack civilian citizens,” Erdogan stressed.

In a statement issued after the talks that lasted four hours, Putin and Erdogan underlined the “key importance of sincere, frank and trusting ties between Russia and Turkey for regional and global stability.”

Since May, Erdogan has been talking about Turkey’s plans to launch a new military operation in Syria against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in an effort to link up two areas already under Turkish control in the northern region near the Turkish border.

Erdogan said the aim is to create a 30-km safe zone along the Turkish border with Syria.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU. The PKK has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years.

However, the United States and European countries rejected such step, and so did Russia and Iran, which support the Syrian regime.

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Arab World

ISIS Carries Out Deadly Attacks on Pro-government Forces in East Syria

An aerial picture shows farmers harvesting strawberries in a field in Bidama village in Syria's opposition-held northwestern Idlib province on April 26, 2024. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP)
An aerial picture shows farmers harvesting strawberries in a field in Bidama village in Syria's opposition-held northwestern Idlib province on April 26, 2024. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP)
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ISIS Carries Out Deadly Attacks on Pro-government Forces in East Syria

An aerial picture shows farmers harvesting strawberries in a field in Bidama village in Syria's opposition-held northwestern Idlib province on April 26, 2024. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP)
An aerial picture shows farmers harvesting strawberries in a field in Bidama village in Syria's opposition-held northwestern Idlib province on April 26, 2024. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP)

Suspected members of ISIS attacked three posts for Syrian government forces and pro-government gunmen early Friday killing at least 13, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media reported.

The attack wounded others who were taken to hospitals in the central province of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said 15 were killed in the attacks on three posts near the central town of Sukhna and blamed ISIS.
The conflicting casualty counts could not immediately be reconciled.
Pro-government media outlets said 13 soldiers and pro-government gunmen were killed in the attacks and that ISIS gunmen were behind it. They gave no further details.

Local sources later said that the death toll rose to 17.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but the area was once a stronghold of the extremist group that was officially defeated in Syria in March 2019.
However, ISIS sleeper cells have been blamed for deadly attacks against both Syrian government forces and against members of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria.

Arab World

Violence Shuts Crucial Aid Corridor into Sudan's Darfur

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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Violence Shuts Crucial Aid Corridor into Sudan's Darfur

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Violence around the city of al-Fashir in Darfur, Sudan, has blocked a recently opened humanitarian corridor from Chad and time is running out to prevent starvation in the vast region, the UN World Food Program said on Friday, according to Reuters.

Attacks around al-Fashir, the Sudanese army's last holdout in Darfur and home to some 1.6 million residents, have led to dire warnings of a new wave of mass displacement and inter-communal conflict in Sudan's year-old war.

The conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has also led to worsening hunger, with some people eating soil or leaves as famine looms.

Aid officials say both sides have been looting aid or blocking it from reaching areas where starvation is taking hold, contributing to a humanitarian crisis.

The latest violence around al-Fashir halted aid convoys coming through Chad's Tine border crossing, while restrictions by authorities aligned with the army were preventing deliveries of assistance through the only other aid corridor from Chad at Adre, WFP said.

Only small quantities of aid have entered al-Fashir during the war, the sole army-approved conduit for shipments to other parts of Darfur.

Since the end of March, 23 villages near al-Fashir have been razed, potentially by the RSF, according to a study of satellite imagery by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab published on Thursday.

In the city itself, more than 600 buildings have been damaged by burning during the same period, including in areas where the army is reportedly carrying out bombardments, the study said.

Analysis of whether the RSF was responsible for widespread damage inflicted on a single area on April 28-29 was ongoing, it added.

In the Zamzam refugee camp in North Darfur, where there have been no official food distributions since May 2023, 30% of at least 46,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition "revealing a massive crisis in the making", medical charity MSF said on Thursday.

"Despite being aware of the severity of the situation, and despite famine alerts coming from UN agencies themselves, the UN are doing far too little to prevent the malnutrition crisis in Zamzam from falling further into catastrophe," MSF said in a statement.

At least 1,000 Sudanese refugees have fled a camp run by the United Nations in northern Ethiopia following a series of shootings and robberies, three of the refugees and the United Nations said.
The refugees said about 7,000 of the 8,000 residents of the Kumer camp left on foot early on Wednesday morning after they were attacked and robbed by local militiamen.
They said they were detained by the police shortly after leaving the camp, which is 70 km (43 miles) from the Sudanese border in Ethiopia's Amhara region. They asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said it was aware that 1,000 people had left Kumer on Wednesday because they felt unsafe after a series of security incidents.
Spokespeople for the Ethiopian government, the Amhara regional administration, the federal police and the national refugee agency did not respond to requests for comment.
More than 1.6 million Sudanese people have fled their country since civil war broke out in April 2023 between the army and the RSF. About 33,000 have crossed into Ethiopia, according to UNHCR.

Arab World

Rafah Operation Could Be a ‘Slaughter’, Warns UN Official

A young boy looks on as relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing, mourn near their corpses in the yard of the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (AFP)
A young boy looks on as relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing, mourn near their corpses in the yard of the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Rafah Operation Could Be a ‘Slaughter’, Warns UN Official

A young boy looks on as relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing, mourn near their corpses in the yard of the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (AFP)
A young boy looks on as relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing, mourn near their corpses in the yard of the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (AFP)

An Israeli incursion in Rafah would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Gazans at risk and be a huge blow to the humanitarian operations of the entire enclave, the UN humanitarian office said on Friday.

Israel has warned of an operation against Hamas in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where around a million displaced people are crowded together in shelters and makeshift accommodation, having fled months of Israeli bombardments triggered by Hamas fighters' deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7.

"It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, at a Geneva press briefing.

Aid operations run from Rafah included medical clinics and food distribution points, including centers for malnourished children, he said.

A World Health Organization official said at the same briefing that a contingency plan for an incursion had been prepared, which included a new field hospital, but said it would not be enough to prevent a substantial rise in the death toll.

"I want to really say that this contingency plan is a band-aid," said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory via video link. "It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity posed by a military operation."

He added that he was "extremely concerned" that any incursion would close the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt which is currently being used to import medical supplies. 

Arab World

Türkiye Says It Killed 32 Kurdish Militants in Northern Iraq

An armed Kurdish militant of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) wearing a mask and a scarf covering his head aims his weapon in Diyarbakir in September 2015. (AFP)
An armed Kurdish militant of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) wearing a mask and a scarf covering his head aims his weapon in Diyarbakir in September 2015. (AFP)
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Türkiye Says It Killed 32 Kurdish Militants in Northern Iraq

An armed Kurdish militant of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) wearing a mask and a scarf covering his head aims his weapon in Diyarbakir in September 2015. (AFP)
An armed Kurdish militant of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) wearing a mask and a scarf covering his head aims his weapon in Diyarbakir in September 2015. (AFP)

Türkiye’s military has "neutralized" 32 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) across various regions of northern Iraq, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

The ministry's use of the term "neutralized" commonly means killed. The PKK, which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.

The ministry said the militants were found in the Haftanin, Gara and Hakurk regions of northern Iraq, as well as in a region where Türkiye frequently mounts cross-border raids under its "Claw-Lock Operation".

Türkiye’s cross-border attacks into northern Iraq have been a source of tension with its southeastern neighbor for years. Ankara has asked Iraq for more cooperation in combating the PKK, and Baghdad labelled the group a "banned organization" in March.

Last month Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with officials in Baghdad and Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, about the continued presence of the PKK in northern Iraq, where it is based, and other issues. Erdogan later said he believed Iraq saw the need to eliminate the PKK as well.

Arab World

Hostage Held in Gaza Dies as Israel and Hamas Work on a Ceasefire Deal

People walk near posters calling for the release of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk near posters calling for the release of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
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Hostage Held in Gaza Dies as Israel and Hamas Work on a Ceasefire Deal

People walk near posters calling for the release of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk near posters calling for the release of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)

Dror Or, a 49-year-old held captive in Gaza, has died, the Hostages Families Forum said Friday. Or marks the 38th hostage killed, the forum said.

He was one of about 250 people abducted when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel says gunmen still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Or and two of his children were abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7 and his wife, Yonat, was killed. His children, 17-year-old Noam and 13-year-old Alma, were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November.

Israel says Hamas is holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Israel and Hamas appear to be seriously negotiating an end to the war in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages.

A leaked truce proposal hints at compromises by both sides after months of talks languishing in a stalemate. Hamas said Thursday that it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further ceasefire talks, in a new sign of progress.

Some families worry that Israel’s war aims of eliminating Hamas and launching an incursion into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah will derail negotiations.

Dozens of people demonstrated Thursday night outside Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to release the hostages.

The Israel-Hamas war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities, and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.

The death toll in Gaza has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials, and the territory's entire population has been driven into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Arab World

Attack on ICRC Convoy in Sudan’s South Darfur Kills Two Drivers, Injures Three

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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Attack on ICRC Convoy in Sudan’s South Darfur Kills Two Drivers, Injures Three

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)

An attack by gunmen on a humanitarian convoy of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sudan's South Darfur killed two drivers and injured three other staff on Thursday, the ICRC said in a statement.

The team was on its way back from Layba to assess the humanitarian situation of communities affected by armed violence in the region when the incident occurred, the ICRC said.

More than a year of war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has driven at least 8.5 million people from their homes. Fighting tore through the capital and has unleashed waves of ethnically-driven violence in the western region of Darfur.

The ICRC did not say who was to blame for the deaths and called for the immediate protection of all civilians, including humanitarian workers and medical personnel.

"Reports today of the deaths of two ICRC staff members and the injury of three staff members in South Darfur is further evidence of this war's horrific cost. These dedicated employees became victims of the violence and suffering they were working to mitigate," US Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, said on X on Friday.

Arab World

Lebanon: TikTok Gang Bust Exposes Criminal Exploitation of Social Media

An Internal Security Forces patrol in Beirut (ISF Media).
An Internal Security Forces patrol in Beirut (ISF Media).
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Lebanon: TikTok Gang Bust Exposes Criminal Exploitation of Social Media

An Internal Security Forces patrol in Beirut (ISF Media).
An Internal Security Forces patrol in Beirut (ISF Media).

Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces arrested a gang of TikTokers who lure children and molest them, a criminal act shedding light on networks exploiting social media platforms to implicate people in various sorts of crimes.
At least six suspects have been arrested, the ISF said in a statement on Wednesday, including a famous TikToker and three minors also famous on TikTok as part of a gang carrying out sexual assaults against children.
They were of Lebanese, Syrian, and Turkish nationalities.
The scandal uncovered certain criminal networks that were exploiting social media, using it as a tool to falsely incriminate Lebanese individuals in unlawful acts.
A judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that preliminary investigations have shown that the matter has been ongoing for months, and that certain factors have helped it be uncovered.
The source assured that the file gains special attention because the victims are children who were “drugged, assaulted and filmed naked to intimidate and blackmail them, and forced to comply with the gang’s demands”.
He affirmed that the judiciary will impose the harshest measures and penalties against this gang and all those colluding with its leaders, “some of whom are known professionally and socially”.
“The ISF’s Intelligence Unit and the office of combating financial crimes, as well as the General Security apparatus, are working to track down dangerous gangs that plan to implicate people in crimes,” a security source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“In the last three years, the agencies have gotten hold of a substantial number of networks exploiting social media to lure people and implicate them in drug, prostitution, and theft networks. Mossad networks and its agents have also succeeded in recruiting many Lebanese youth through these means”, he added on condition of anonymity.
The source noted that criminals have exploited Lebanon’s economic and financial crisis taking advantage of the victims who need money.
“The economic crisis has also affected the capabilities of the security services, and has limited their role in the field of proactive security,” he said.
He noted that the state has failed to provide modern and sophisticated technologies capable of monitoring these networks, and also prevented the training of investigative agencies to keep pace, track and prosecute the development of network activities.

Arab World

US Defense Secretary Says There Was No Indication Hamas Planning Attack on US Troops

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin listens during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense budget hearing Fiscal Year 2025 on Capitol Hill, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (AP)
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin listens during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense budget hearing Fiscal Year 2025 on Capitol Hill, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (AP)
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US Defense Secretary Says There Was No Indication Hamas Planning Attack on US Troops

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin listens during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense budget hearing Fiscal Year 2025 on Capitol Hill, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (AP)
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin listens during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense budget hearing Fiscal Year 2025 on Capitol Hill, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (AP)

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday he did not see any indication Hamas was planning any attack on US troops in Gaza but added adequate measures were being put in place for the safety of military personnel.

"I don't discuss intelligence information at the podium. But I don't see any indications currently that there is an active intent to do that," Austin said during a press briefing.

"Having said that ... this is a combat zone and a number of things can happen, and a number of things will happen."

A maritime pier constructed by the US military to speed the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza should be open within a matter of days, despite poor weather hampering preparations, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.

The United States has called on both Israel and Hamas to ensure that aid bound for civilians in Gaza is not disrupted, after a shipment from Jordan was attacked by Israeli settlers and subsequently diverted by Palestinian gunmen.

Arab World

Political Agreement in Iraq Leads to Postponement of Kurdistan Elections

Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani. (AP file photo)
Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani. (AP file photo)
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Political Agreement in Iraq Leads to Postponement of Kurdistan Elections

Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani. (AP file photo)
Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani. (AP file photo)

Shiite and Kurdish forces have reached an agreement to postpone the parliamentary elections in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region that were set for June, said Iraqi sources.

They said Kurdistan President Nechervan Barzani was expected to make an official announcement over the issue.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Masoud Barzani, had announced in March that it was going to boycott the polls, threatening to quit the political process in Iraq should political powers in Baghdad fail to respect agreements that led to the formation of the Baghdad government.

Masoud Barzani was objecting at the time to the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq’s decision to divide Kurdistan into four electoral districts and eliminating the quota of minorities.

It had also tasked the Independent High Election Commission with overseeing the elections instead of the Kurdistan region commission, sparking objections from the KDP.

A Kurdish source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Nechervan Barzani, who had paid two visits to Baghdad in the past two months, had finally reached a political settlement to postpone the elections.

It remains unclear what guarantees he received in return for the postponement.

A source close to the leaderships of the pro-Iran Shiite Coordination Framework told Asharq Al-Awsat that the visits played a decisive role in reaching an agreement over the postponement.

It explained that the majority of the players in the Framework recognize the importance of the KDP taking part in the elections because it is a strategic partner of the Shiite forces in spite of the tensions that have emerged between them in recent years.

They expected President Barzani to make an announcement over the elections next week. This will allow the KDP to submit its candidacies to the elections commission.

The source was not briefed on the guarantees and concessions that President Barzani received while he was in Baghdad.

On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stressed during talks with the commission the need to hold the Kurdistan elections with the “participation of all parties” - a reference to the KDP.

Arab World

Iraq Cracks Down on ISIS Remnants in 3 Cities

Iraqi soldiers during a mission to crack down on ISIS remnants. (Iraq Defense Ministry)
Iraqi soldiers during a mission to crack down on ISIS remnants. (Iraq Defense Ministry)
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Iraq Cracks Down on ISIS Remnants in 3 Cities

Iraqi soldiers during a mission to crack down on ISIS remnants. (Iraq Defense Ministry)
Iraqi soldiers during a mission to crack down on ISIS remnants. (Iraq Defense Ministry)

Iraq’s national security service announced on Thursday the arrest of 20 members of an ISIS cell in the Nineveh, al-Anbar and Kirkuk regions.

During interrogation, four of the detainees in Nineveh disclosed the location of their hideout where several light and medium weapons and explosive devices were found.

In Kirkuk, the security forces arrested a prominent ISIS terrorist.

The agency said he played an influential role in Iraq when the “terrorist gangs controlled some parts of the country.”

On Tuesday, Iraq received 185 relatives of ISIS members who were held in Syria's al-Hol camp that holds extremists.

The relatives have been moved to a rehabilitation center in the al-Jadaa region, said Nineveh MP Sherwan Al-Doberdani.

The return of relatives of ISIS terrorists is a contentious issue in Iraq, which waged three years of war against the extremists from 2014 to 2017 that ended with ISIS’ defeat.

At the height of its power, the group had seized nearly a third of Iraq. Remnants of the group remain active in the country despite the defeat.

Iraqi authorities often make announcements of the arrest of its members and cells.

In early 2024, Iraq erected a border fence with Syria to tighten security along the porous border that Iraq has said has been easily infiltrated by terrorists.

The wall stretches 160 kms from the al-Qaim region and rises up to three meters.