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SDF Chief: Turkey Hinders Anti-ISIS Operations

Kurdish National Council offices set on fire in northeast Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kurdish National Council offices set on fire in northeast Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
    Qamishli - Kamal Sheikho
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SDF Chief: Turkey Hinders Anti-ISIS Operations

Kurdish National Council offices set on fire in northeast Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kurdish National Council offices set on fire in northeast Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi said Turkey has intensified attacks against SDF-run areas east of the Euphrates, violating international covenants with the guarantor countries.

He pointed to the Turkish attacks targeting Syria’s Ain al-Arab (Kobani) and the drone attacks that have killed innocent civilians and administrative figures.

He said in a tweet on his official page on Saturday that these provocative attacks threaten peace and security and hinder anti-ISIS operations in these areas.

Abdi’s remarks followed a series of violent attacks targeting SDF sites in the countryside of Aleppo, Hasakeh and Raqqa governorates in northeastern Syria.

Since early April, the Turkish army has targeted nine SDF military sites and posts in its areas of influence east of the Euphrates, killing six military personnel, including three women, one of whom was a prominent leader in the SDF women's wing, and injuring 17 others.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava) denounced in a statement published on its official Facebook page on Saturday Turkey’s constant brutal attacks and policy of genocide adopted against Kurdish areas, the latest of which was targeting a car in Kobani, in which head of the Defense Office and her companions were killed.

It further slammed Turkey’s “systematic” escalation against its regions and warned that this policy will affect Syria and the region.

It urged Moscow and Washington, guarantors of the ceasefire agreements with Ankara, to prevent escalation, the risks of ISIS return and the deepening of the role played by Turkish-supported mercenaries to divide Syria and implement its occupying policies in the war-torn country.

The statement underlines Turkey’s exploitation of the worsening global situation, especially Russia’s war in Ukraine, to pass its hostile policies against the residents of the Autonomous Administration areas.

Separately, the office of a party linked to the Kurdish National Council (KNC) was set on fire on Friday in Qamishli city. The attack was the eighth in a week and resulted in material damages.

The Yekiti Kurdistan Party accused an armed group affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) of carrying out the attack.

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Arab World

Israeli Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque Under Military Protection

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard in Jerusalem on July 23, 2026 (Reuters)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard in Jerusalem on July 23, 2026 (Reuters)
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Israeli Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque Under Military Protection

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard in Jerusalem on July 23, 2026 (Reuters)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard in Jerusalem on July 23, 2026 (Reuters)

Dozens of Israeli settlers entered Al-Aqsa Mosque area in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday through the Morocco Gate in several groups, making provocative visits to its courtyards under the protection of Israeli military forces, who continue to enforce strict military controls at the gates, blocking visitors and worshippers from entering, SPA reported.

Settlers also began expanding a settlement outpost north of Jerusalem, while attacks by Israeli military forces and settlers on Palestinian cities and towns increased to support settlement growth.

In a separate incident, several Palestinians suffered breathing problems from inhaling toxic gas during a raid by Israeli military forces on the market in Balata refugee camp, east of

Arab World

Lebanon Passes Sweeping Amnesty Law for Prisoners, Wanted People

Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
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Lebanon Passes Sweeping Amnesty Law for Prisoners, Wanted People

Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)

Lebanon's parliament on Wednesday passed a sweeping and long-awaited amnesty law that should benefit thousands of prisoners and wanted people, in the first legislation of its kind since 1991.

The law, which had been a demand of various political factions and a topic of debate for years, aims to reduce prison overcrowding with many inmates awaiting trial for years.

The office of the country's parliament speaker announced the "approval of a draft law aimed at granting a general amnesty and exceptionally reducing the terms of certain sentences".

Authorities did not immediately announce the number of people that would benefit from the law.

According to Imad al-Hout, one of the lawmakers in favor of the bill, the law reduced the sentences of those facing death and life imprisonment to 17 prison years.

That is equivalent to 12 years and nine months of actual imprisonment in Lebanon, where a prison year is calculated as nine months.

The law also calls for the release of inmates detained for more than 12 prison years without charges as their trial continues.

In its 2025 report, the country's National Human Rights Commission said that prisons had an overcrowding rate of 300 percent, with prison authorities reporting at least 6,268 inmates by the end of March.

But general amnesty was brought back into the limelight after the 2024 fall of longtime Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, as many extremist prisoners in Lebanon were jailed over events linked to the Syrian civil war.

Most of them are accused of crimes that include attacking the Lebanese army, participating in clashes and planning bombings.

Other political forces, including Iran-backed Hezbollah, have been demanding amnesty for their communities.

Thousands of families from the eastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, bastions of Hezbollah and its ally Amal where illicit cannabis cultivation is widespread, have been demanding amnesty for drug-related offenses and car theft for years.

Christian parties meanwhile have pushed for the law to include the families of those who joined an Israeli-backed proxy and fled to Israel after its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, fearing reprisals, particularly from Hezbollah and its supporters.

Lebanon previously passed a general amnesty law in the wake of its 1975-90 civil war, allowing former warlords to transition into politics without facing trial for crimes committed during the conflict.

Arab World

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan
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RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched drone strikes on capital Khartoum and other army-controlled cities on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent, witnesses and an army source said, in what appeared to be their largest coordinated attack in months.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been ravaged by war between its regular military, led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Burhan's former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The capital Khartoum, which was recaptured by the army last year, has been targeted by drone strikes before but enjoyed relative calm for months.

A source in the army said the RSF attacked the capital, the Kordofan city of El-Obeid, and the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer "with a large number of drones, which our anti-aircraft defenses engaged with".

El-Obeid is located nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles) from Khartoum and around 650 kilometers from Atbara.

An AFP correspondent in the capital reported a drone attack at 5 am (0300 GMT) along with the sound of anti-aircraft missiles from the direction of the army's Wadi Seidna base, just north of the twin city of Omdurman.

In Khartoum North (Bahri), just across the Nile River, two drones hit a mosque and an electricity transformer in the El-Droshab area, according to an eyewitness.

It was not immediately clear if air defenses had shot them down.

Witnesses in the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer -- both also under army control -- gave similar reports of hearing explosions and seeing drones in the sky.

Some 120 kilometers southeast, in the town of Tamboul, civilians were in a "state of fear" after drones appeared above them, a witness told AFP.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attacks, including in the Khartoum North mosque which worshippers had recently emptied after dawn prayers.

Across the country, aid workers estimate more than 200,000 people have been killed in what the UN calls a "war of atrocities". The conflict has also caused the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

- Retaliatory strike -

The RSF has seemed to be on the back foot since the army last month pushed them off a key highway connecting Khartoum to El-Obeid, the southern Kordofan region's largest city, which they had tried to seize for months.

Daglo in the aftermath said he would "unleash" his fighters -- already accused of war crimes including genocide -- and his fighters have since repeatedly threatened a large-scale retaliatory attack.

Burhan and Daglo, allies until they fell out in a bitter power struggle, have spent most of the war in a relative stalemate, unwilling to hold negotiations while vying for a decisive battlefield advantage.

The RSF last year consolidated its hold on the vast western region of Darfur, and has since pushed to seize territory in Kordofan and along the southeastern Ethiopian border.

The army holds the country's center, north and east, and has tried to project an image of a return to normalcy in areas it controls.

But in Khartoum, 2.3 million people have returned from displacement, only to find vast amounts of uncleared war remnants, dilapidated infrastructure and limited electricity and water.

According to an eyewitness, Wednesday's drone attack "caused an explosion in an electricity transformer" in Khartoum North, where over half a million people already live without power.

Even parts of the city that have had more reliable services than Khartoum North have been without power for weeks.