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Cairo, Washington to Coordinate over Egypt's Hosting of COP27

Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. (Egyptian Government)
Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. (Egyptian Government)
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Cairo, Washington to Coordinate over Egypt's Hosting of COP27

Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. (Egyptian Government)
Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. (Egyptian Government)

Cairo and Washington expressed on Thursday a desire to cooperate ahead of the 27th session of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), expected to be held in Sharm El Sheikh at the end of the year.

During a telephone call, Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry agreed to form a joint working group to prepare for the upcoming Summit.

An Egyptian government statement said Fouad stressed that both sides agreed on the importance of building on the outcomes of COP26, which was held in Glasgow in November 2021.

The two sides tackled the Egypt-US joint cooperation program meant to confront climate change consequences within the framework of the 2050 climate change national strategy.

They agreed on working on implementing climate mitigation and adaptation actions.

“Developed countries need to fulfill their pledges to provide the necessary funding,” the two officials said.

Fouad and Kerry then discussed the prospects of the private sector’s engagement in Egypt’s climate-related projects in the energy sector.

According to the statement, Kerry conveyed the US keenness on supporting Egypt to host the COP27.

He said his country is keen to cooperate with several countries, including Mexico, India, and South Africa, to support their efforts to counter the effects of climate change.

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Arab World

Trump Pledges Retaliation After 3 Americans Killed in Syria

Trump Pledges Retaliation After 3 Americans Killed in Syria
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Trump Pledges Retaliation After 3 Americans Killed in Syria

Trump Pledges Retaliation After 3 Americans Killed in Syria

US President Donald Trump said Saturday “there will be very serious retaliation” against ISIS after three Americans, two soldiers and their civilian interpreter, were killed by a single gunman in an ambush targeting a joint US-Syrian government patrol in central Syria.

“We mourn the loss of three great patriots in Syria. We know how it happened, an ambush,” he told reporters at the White House.

Earlier, the Pentagon said initial assessments showed the attack was carried out by ISIS.

However, a Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson said the attacker was a member of the Syrian security forces who held extremist ideas.

Nour Eddin al-Baba said Syrian forces had issued intelligence warnings to US-led forces and that the assailant was known to authorities ahead of the deadly attack.

He told Syrian state television that leadership in the country’s Internal Security Forces in the Badia region had alerted the US-led international coalition against ISIS in Syria about preliminary information “indicating a possible breach or expected ISIS attacks.”

“However, (coalition) forces did not take the Syrian warnings into account,” al-Baba said.

According to the Pentagon, the attacker was killed by “partner forces,” in a sign to the Syrian government forces.

Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a security source as saying that Syrian service personnel were injured, without providing further details.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on X, “Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.”

The US-led coalition has carried out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria targeting ISIS suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria's security forces. Syria last month also carried out a nationwide campaign arresting more than 70 people accused of links to the group.

The United States has troops stationed in northeastern Syria as part of a decade-long effort to help a Kurdish-led force there.

Arab World

6 Peacekeepers Killed in Drone Strike on UN Facility in Sudan

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese people, who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, receive rice portions from Red Cross volunteers in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese people, who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, receive rice portions from Red Cross volunteers in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
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6 Peacekeepers Killed in Drone Strike on UN Facility in Sudan

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese people, who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, receive rice portions from Red Cross volunteers in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese people, who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, receive rice portions from Red Cross volunteers in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo

A drone strike hit a United Nations facility in Sudan on Saturday, killing six peacekeepers, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

The strike hit the peacekeeping logistics base in the city of Kadugli, in the central region of Kordofan, Guterres said in a statement.

"Attacks as the one today in South Kordofan against peacekeepers are unjustifiable. There will need to be accountability," he said in a statement.

Eight other peacekeepers were wounded in the strike. All the victims are Bangladeshi nationals, serving in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei, UNISFA.

“Attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law,” said Guterres.

The Sudanese military blamed the attack on the Rapid Support Forces, RSF.

The attack “clearly reveals the subversive approach of the rebel militia and those behind it,” the military said in a statement.

The military posted a video on social media showing plumes of dense black smoke over what it said was the UN facility.

In a statement, the Sovereignty Council headed by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called the attack a "dangerous escalation.”

The RSF in a statement on Telegram said it rejected "the claims and allegations... regarding an air attack that targeted the United Nations headquarters in Kadugli, and the accompanying false accusations against our forces of being behind it through the use of a drone.”

Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus in a statement said he was "deeply saddened" by the attack.

He asked the UN to ensure that his country's personnel were offered "any necessary emergency support.”

"The government of Bangladesh will stand by the families in this difficult moment," Yunus added.

Dhaka's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemned" the attack.

Abyei is a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, and the UN mission has been deployed there since 2011 when South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan.

Guterres also called for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan to allow “a comprehensive, inclusive and Sudanese-owned political process” to settle the conflict in the country.

Sudan was plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country. The conflict has killed over 40,000 people — a figure rights groups consider a significant undercount.

The fighting has recently centered on Kodrofan, particularly since the RSF took control of el-Fasher, the military’s last stronghold in the western region of Darfur.

Arab World

2 US Service Members and One American Civilian Killed in Ambush in Syria, US Central Command Says

Residents ride a motorcycle along a war-damaged street in Palmyra, Syria. (AP)
Residents ride a motorcycle along a war-damaged street in Palmyra, Syria. (AP)
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2 US Service Members and One American Civilian Killed in Ambush in Syria, US Central Command Says

Residents ride a motorcycle along a war-damaged street in Palmyra, Syria. (AP)
Residents ride a motorcycle along a war-damaged street in Palmyra, Syria. (AP)

Two US service members and one American civilian were killed and three other people wounded in an ambush on Saturday by a lone member of the ISIS group in central Syria, the US military’s Central Command said. 

The attack on US troops in Syria is the first to inflict casualties since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad a year ago. 

Central Command said in a post on X that as a matter of respect for the families and in accordance with Department of Defense policy, the identities of the service members will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified. 

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.” 

The shooting took place near historic Palmyra, according to the state-run SANA news agency, which earlier said two members of Syria’s security force and several US service members had been wounded. The casualties were taken by helicopter to the al-Tanf garrison near the border with Iraq and Jordan. 

SANA said the attacker was killed, without providing further details. 

The US has hundreds of troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the ISIS group. 

Last month, Syria joined the international coalition fighting against the ISIS as Damascus improves its relations with Western countries following the ouster of Assad when opposition factions overthrew his regime in Damascus. 

The US had no diplomatic relations with Syria under Assad, but ties have warmed since the fall of the five-decade Assad family rule. The interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, made a historic visit to Washington last month where he held talks with President Donald Trump. 

ISIS was defeated on the battlefield in Syria in 2019, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in the country. The United Nations says the group still has between 5,000 and 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq. 

US troops, which have maintained a presence in different parts of Syria, including al-Tanf garrison in the central province of Homs, to train other forces as part of a broad campaign against ISIS, have been targeted in the past.  

One of the deadliest attacks occurred in 2019 in the northern town of Manbij when a blast killed two US service members and two American civilians, as well as others from Syria while conducting a patrol.