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Iraq, Iran in Show of Force on Kurdistan Border

Iraq and Iran kicked off joint military drills near the Iraqi Kurdistan border. (AFP)
Iraq and Iran kicked off joint military drills near the Iraqi Kurdistan border. (AFP)
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Iraq, Iran in Show of Force on Kurdistan Border

Iraq and Iran kicked off joint military drills near the Iraqi Kurdistan border. (AFP)
Iraq and Iran kicked off joint military drills near the Iraqi Kurdistan border. (AFP)

Iranian and Iraqi forces kicked off on Monday joint military drills near the Iraqi Kurdistan Region border, announced an Iraqi Kurdish official.

Shwan Abu Bakr, the Kurdish customs chief at the Bashmakh border post, said: “The Iranian and Iraqi forces launched the exercises 250 meters away from the Kurdistan border.”

The development comes a week after Kurdistan Iraq voted in an independence referendum that has been rejected by Baghdad, Tehran and Ankara.

"Iraqi forces are dressed in black and there is a large number of Iranian forces," Abu Bakr added according to Agence France Presse.

The black uniforms indicate that the Iraqi forces were from the country's elite Counter Terrorism Service.

The customs chief also noted armored vehicles and tanks and infantry units taking part in the military drills.

The Iranian military on its website announced joint military exercises with units of the Iraqi army involving armor and artillery units, as well as drones and other air units.

It appeared the maneuvers were the first joint military exercises between Iran and Iraq since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

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Arab World

Palestinian Factions, Arab Countries Condemn Israel’s ‘Heinous’ School Massacre

A young man mourns over the corpse of a person killed in an Israeli strike on a school used by displaced Palestinians as a temporary shelter in Gaza City on August 10, 2024, that killed more than 90 people. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A young man mourns over the corpse of a person killed in an Israeli strike on a school used by displaced Palestinians as a temporary shelter in Gaza City on August 10, 2024, that killed more than 90 people. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Palestinian Factions, Arab Countries Condemn Israel’s ‘Heinous’ School Massacre

A young man mourns over the corpse of a person killed in an Israeli strike on a school used by displaced Palestinians as a temporary shelter in Gaza City on August 10, 2024, that killed more than 90 people. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A young man mourns over the corpse of a person killed in an Israeli strike on a school used by displaced Palestinians as a temporary shelter in Gaza City on August 10, 2024, that killed more than 90 people. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Israel’s recent airstrike on a Gaza school sheltering displaced people drew a wave of condemnations from Palestinian factions and Arab countries on Saturday.
Palestinian sources had previously reported that more than 100 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the school in Gaza.
The strikes hit when people sheltering at the school were performing dawn prayers, leading to many casualties, the Hamas media office said in a statement. Medics had not yet been able to reach all the bodies, it said.
Hamas condemned the crime saying the “massacre at the (al-Tabe'een) school in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City is a horrific crime that represents a dangerous escalation in the unprecedented series of crimes and massacres in the history of wars, committed in the Gaza Strip by the new Nazis”.
“The escalation of Zionist criminality and widespread violations against civilians would not have continued without American support for the extremist government”, said Hamas in a statement reported by the Palestinian News Agency (Safa).
Moreover, the Fatah Movement said: “The heinous bloody massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces at al-Tabe’een school...is the peak of terrorism and criminality by the fascist occupation government”.
It added that Israel’s crimes are an unequivocal confirmation of its efforts “to exterminate our people through a policy of cumulative killing and collective massacres”.
For its part, Egypt’s foreign ministry accused Israel of repeatedly committing “large-scale crimes”, and deliberately targeting vast number of unarmed civilians whenever there is an international push for a ceasefire
It said Israel’s bombardment “is an unprecedented disregard of international law”.
Jordanian spokesperson Ambassador Sufyan Qudah expressed Jordan's absolute condemnation of Israel’s ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law, calling for an immediate halt to the aggression on Gaza.
He criticized the lack of a firm international stance to curb Israeli Occupation's actions, which have led to unprecedented human suffering.
Ambassador Qudah also noted that this attack, occurring as mediators attempt to negotiate a ceasefire and prisoner exchange, indicates Israeli Occupation's intent to disrupt these efforts.