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Iraq to Redeploy Federal Forces Along Border with Iran, Türkiye

Members of the Iraqi army - File Photo/AFP
Members of the Iraqi army - File Photo/AFP
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Iraq to Redeploy Federal Forces Along Border with Iran, Türkiye

Members of the Iraqi army - File Photo/AFP
Members of the Iraqi army - File Photo/AFP

Iraq announced on Wednesday it planned to redeploy federal guards along its border with Iran and Türkiye, after repeated bombardments from both neighboring countries against Kurdish, Turkish and Iranian rebel groups in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

The announcement appeared to respond in particular to Iran, which had publicly urged such a move.

Authorities have decided to "establish a plan to redeploy Iraqi border guards... along the border with Iran and Türkiye", a statement said, issued after a government security meeting overseen by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

The initiative will be "in coordination with the government of the Kurdistan region and the peshmerga ministry", the statement added, referring to the Kurdish regional forces whose chief was also present at the meeting.

On Wednesday, Lawk Ghafuri, head of foreign media relations in Kurdistan, also told AFP that the "Kurdistan regional government will be sending peshmerga forces as reinforcement at the border".

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Report: France Issues New Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad

A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Report: France Issues New Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad

A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)

Two French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant against ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes, the second such move by France's judicial authorities, a source said on Tuesday.

Assad, who was ousted late last year in a lightning offensive by opposition forces, is held responsible in the warrant issued on Monday as "commander-in-chief of the armed forces" for a bombing in the Syrian city of Daraa in 2017 that killed a civilian, a source close to the case, asking not to be named, told AFP.

This mandate was issued as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabout, a 59-year-old Franco-Syrian national and former French teacher, who was killed on June 7, 2017 following the bombing of his home by Syrian army helicopters.

The French judiciary considers that Assad ordered and provided the means for this attack, according to the source.

Six senior Syrian army officials are already the target of French arrest warrants over the case in an investigation that began in 2018.

"This case represents the culmination of a long fight for justice, in which I and my family believed from the start," said Omar Abou Nabout, the victim's son, in a statement.

He expressed hope that "a trial will take place and that the perpetrators will be arrested and judged, wherever they are".

French authorities in November 2023 issued a first arrest warrant against Assad over chemical attacks in 2013 where more than a thousand people, according to American intelligence, were killed by sarin gas.

While considering Assad's participation in these attacks "likely", public prosecutors last year issued an appeal against the warrant on the grounds that Assad should have immunity as a head of state.

However, his ouster has now changed his status and potential immunity. Assad and his family fled to Russia after his fall, according to Russian authorities.