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A Man Detonates Explosive Belt during Arrest Attempt in Iraq, Injuring 2 Security Members

A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said. (Reuters/File)
A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said. (Reuters/File)
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A Man Detonates Explosive Belt during Arrest Attempt in Iraq, Injuring 2 Security Members

A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said. (Reuters/File)
A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said. (Reuters/File)

A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said.

The raid was being conducted in the al-Khaseem area in Qaim district that borders Syria, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The official added that “preliminary information” confirms that no members of the security forces were killed, while two personnel were injured and transferred for medical treatment, The Associated Press said.

Iraq’s National Security Agency said in a statement that its members besieged a hideout of an ISIS group security official and two of his bodyguards. One bodyguard ignited his explosives belt, killing him. It gave no further details.

ISIS once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate in 2014. The extremist group was defeated on the battlefield in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019 but its sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries.

In December, two US service members and an American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blamed on ISIS. The US carried out strikes on Syria days later in retaliation.

US and Iraqi authorities in January began transferring hundreds of the nearly 9,000 ISIS members held in jails run by the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria to Iraq, where Iraqi authorities plan to prosecute them.

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Arab World

Syria Joining Anti-ISIS Coalition 'Marks New Chapter' in Global Security, US Envoy Says

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
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Syria Joining Anti-ISIS Coalition 'Marks New Chapter' in Global Security, US Envoy Says

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)

The US-led international coalition to fight the ISIS has welcomed Syria in the fight against the extremists, saying that the priorities include the swift transfer of ISIS detainees to Iraq and third-country repatriation of families linked to ISIS held in two camps in Syria.

The State Department also welcomed a recent ceasefire that ended fighting between Syrian government forces and the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that were a main force in the fight against ISIS in Syria, The AP news reported.

Representatives from Syria — which officially joined the global coalition against ISIS in November during a historic visit by Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s to Washington — attended a meeting on Monday of some officials from the 90-member coalition in Saudi Arabia.

“Regional solutions, shared responsibility. Syria’s participation in the D-ISIS Coalition meeting in Riyadh marks a new chapter in collective security,” Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, said in comments posted on X on Tuesday.

The US military began transferring some of the about 9,000 ISIS detainees held in northeastern Syria last month to secure facilities in Iraq, following clashes between government forces and the SDF.

Monday's State Department statement said coalition members “underscored their readiness to work closely with the Syrian government” and encouraged members to provide direct support to Syrian and Iraqi efforts.

It said that in addition to the transfer of detainees to Iraq, the participants reaffirmed their priorities that include “dignified reintegration” of families from the al-Hol and Roj camps, in northeast Syria, to their communities of origin. Syria's government took over al-Hol in late January.

The camps house more than 25,000 mostly women and children linked to ISIS militants, the vast majority of them from Syria and Iraq. The State Department called on dozens of countries other than Syria and Iraq to repatriate their citizens from al-Hol and Roj camps.

“Officials commended Iraq’s efforts to securely detain ISIS militants” the statement said, adding that they also welcomed Syria’s assumption of responsibility for detention facilities and displacement camps housing ISIS militants and their family members.

The SDF, which controls much of the detention facilities in northeast Syria, will merge into the national army as part of a deal reached with the central government last month.

Part of the deal reached last month, government delegations visited over the past days the Qamishli International Airport in the predominantly Kurdish city of Qamishli as well as some oil fields and the headquarters of a national oil company as SDF members withdraw from some of their positions.

Government forces also entered parts of the northeastern city of al-Hassakeh. In the near future, Syria’s central authorities are supposed to take over border crossings with neighboring Iraq and Türkiye.

Arab World

Egypt Approves Cabinet Reshuffle, State Media Say

An Egyptian flag flutters in Cairo, Egypt, January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
An Egyptian flag flutters in Cairo, Egypt, January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
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Egypt Approves Cabinet Reshuffle, State Media Say

An Egyptian flag flutters in Cairo, Egypt, January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
An Egyptian flag flutters in Cairo, Egypt, January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo

Egypt's House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, approved a relatively limited cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday, state media reported.

Mohamed Farid Saleh, who previously served as the executive chairman of the country's Financial Regulatory Authority, was appointed minister of investment and foreign trade, Reuters reported.

Ahmed Rostom was named minister of planning. He was a senior financial sector specialist at the World Bank.

The head of Egypt's State Information Service (SIS), Diaa Rashwan, will lead a revived Ministry of Information.

Meanwhile, the ministers of finance, foreign affairs, petroleum, supply, defense and interior kept their posts.

Arab World

UN Warns Clock Ticking for Sudan's Children

Sudanese children play on a street in Tokar, in Red Sea State, following heavy flooding in October, 2024 © AFP/File
Sudanese children play on a street in Tokar, in Red Sea State, following heavy flooding in October, 2024 © AFP/File
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UN Warns Clock Ticking for Sudan's Children

Sudanese children play on a street in Tokar, in Red Sea State, following heavy flooding in October, 2024 © AFP/File
Sudanese children play on a street in Tokar, in Red Sea State, following heavy flooding in October, 2024 © AFP/File

The United Nations warned Tuesday that time was running out for malnourished children in Sudan and urged the world to "stop looking away".

Famine is spreading in Sudan's western Darfur region, UN-backed experts warned last week, with the grinding war between the army and RSF leaving millions hungry, displaced and cut off from aid.

Global food security experts say famine thresholds for acute malnutrition have been surpassed in North Darfur's contested areas of Um Baru and Kernoi, AFP reported.

Ricardo Pires, spokesman for the UN children's agency UNICEF, said the situation was getting worse for children by the day, warning: "They are running out of time".

In parts of North Darfur, more than half of all children are acutely malnourished, he told a press conference in Geneva.

"Extreme hunger and malnutrition come to children first: the youngest, the smallest, the most vulnerable, and in Sudan it's spreading," he said.

Fever, diarrhoea, respiratory infections, low vaccination coverage, unsafe water and collapsing health systems are turning treatable illnesses "into death sentences for already malnourished children", he warned.

"Access is shrinking, funding is desperately short and the fighting is intensifying.

"Humanitarian access must be granted and the world must stop looking away from Sudan's children."

Since April 2023, the conflict between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and triggered what the UN calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Shible Sahbani, the World Health Organization's representative in Sudan, said the country was "facing multiple disease outbreaks: including cholera, malaria, dengue, measles, in addition to malnutrition".

At the same time, health workers and health infrastructure are increasingly in the crosshairs, he told reporters.

Since the war began, the WHO has verified 205 attacks on healthcare, leading to 1,924 deaths.

And the attacks are growing deadlier by the year.

In 2025, 65 attacks caused 1,620 deaths, and in the first 40 days of this year, four attacks led to 66 deaths.

Fighting has intensified in the southern Kordofan region.

"We have to be proactive and to pre-position supplies, to deploy our teams on the ground to be prepared for any situation," Sahbani said.

"But all this contingency planning... it's a small drop in the sea."