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Iraq’s Closure of Al-Sheeb Border Crossing Fuels Tensions with Iran

A image posted on social media show's Iraq's Al-Sheeb crossing on the border with Iran.
A image posted on social media show's Iraq's Al-Sheeb crossing on the border with Iran.
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Iraq’s Closure of Al-Sheeb Border Crossing Fuels Tensions with Iran

A image posted on social media show's Iraq's Al-Sheeb crossing on the border with Iran.
A image posted on social media show's Iraq's Al-Sheeb crossing on the border with Iran.

Iraq’s closure of the Al-Sheeb border crossing with Iran has triggered protests in the southern Maysan province and heightened tensions with Tehran, as Iran-aligned armed factions accuse Washington of interfering in Baghdad’s internal affairs.

Dozens of protesters blocked the main road leading to oil companies in Maysan on Sunday, demanding that the crossing reopen.

According to Shafaq News, demonstrators shut down the vital Bazargan road amid a heavy security deployment.

Maysan Provincial Council Chairman Mustafa Duaier al-Mohammadawi gave Baghdad until Thursday to reverse the decision, threatening civil disobedience, further roadblocks and even Maysan’s separation from Iraq.

The closure has disrupted trade with Iran, driving up fruit and vegetable prices in local markets, Shafaq News reported.

The Iraqi government ordered the crossing closed indefinitely on October 20, citing incomplete technical and development requirements.

Government spokesman Haider al-Aboudi told the Iraqi News Agency that the suspension would allow improvements to technical and logistical readiness, while other crossings continued facilitating trade with Iran.

Tehran objected, with its Interior Ministry maintaining that Baghdad had provided no advance notice.

The Iranian Embassy also condemned remarks by Abdul Amir Taiban, adviser to Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on tribal and marshland affairs, who linked the Al-Sheeb and Shalamsheh crossings to drug and counterfeit currency smuggling from Iran.

Rejecting what it called “false allegations,” the embassy urged Iraqi authorities to respond to statements damaging bilateral relations.

Baghdad has neither publicly responded to the embassy nor reversed the closure.

Influencing the govt

Iran-aligned Iraqi armed factions accused the United States of influencing government decisions concerning airports and border crossings with Iran.

They claimed to have documented 171 violations of Iraqi airspace by US fighter and reconnaissance aircraft between September 30 and October 23.

Describing the flights as violations of sovereignty and bilateral agreements, the groups demanded clarification from Baghdad about its understandings with Washington.

They also questioned the independence of Iraqi decision-making, linking the alleged incursions to border and airport restrictions.

The statement provided no locations or aircraft details, and no independent evidence was presented to substantiate allegations of US interference.

Fresh test

The dispute comes amid fears of a wider confrontation between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other.

Baghdad previously announced understandings brokered by mediators from the Shiite Coordination Framework with armed factions refusing to surrender their weapons.

An initial truce, lasting until the end of 2026, commits the groups to refraining from attacks on US interests in Iraq and neighboring countries.

A second arrangement, running until June 2027, concerns disarmament and participation in the political process.

However, the factions’ latest accusations and the Al-Nujaba Movement’s rejection of political participation in exchange for surrendering its weapons have raised doubts about the agreements’ durability.

The government has not clarified whether the truce remains intact.

The Al-Sheeb dispute now extends beyond the technical reasons cited by Baghdad, combining local economic grievances, Iranian objections and pressure from armed factions.

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Arab World

Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills Three Including Child

Children react as people take cover from a reported drone strike while they were queuing to receive meals from a charity kitchen in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2026. (AFP)
Children react as people take cover from a reported drone strike while they were queuing to receive meals from a charity kitchen in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills Three Including Child

Children react as people take cover from a reported drone strike while they were queuing to receive meals from a charity kitchen in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2026. (AFP)
Children react as people take cover from a reported drone strike while they were queuing to receive meals from a charity kitchen in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2026. (AFP)

Three Palestinians, including a young girl, were killed Monday in an Israeli airstrike on a camp for displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip, medical sources and first responders said.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said a total of 11 people had been killed and 50 wounded by Israeli fire and airstrikes in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

"We transported three martyrs, including a child, following an Israeli airstrike targeting a camp for displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis," Bassal told AFP.

Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis confirmed the three deaths.

"Their bodies were torn apart by direct hits from shrapnel from the Israeli missile," the hospital said, adding that several wounded people, including a child and a woman, had also come in for treatment.

The hospital identified the deceased as Hossam al-Zamli, Tamer Abu Sneima, and Jouri al-Soufi, a young girl. The Gaza education ministry gave her age as seven.

Israel's military told AFP it was looking into reports of the strike.

A security source in Gaza told AFP that "several tanks and military vehicles, accompanied by a military bulldozer, advanced on Monday morning into the area west of the Yellow Line in the eastern part of Deir al-Balah", in central Gaza.

After a US-brokered ceasefire took hold in Gaza in October 2025, the so-called Yellow Line was established to divide the areas under Israeli control -- more than 60 percent of the territory -- from those under Hamas control.

The military advance Monday coincided with "heavy gunfire by the occupation forces towards the eastern and northern areas" of Deir al-Balah, home to hundreds of displaced families, the source added.

Since the ceasefire began last year, more than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry.

The war began on October 7, 2023, following an unprecedented attack by Hamas on southern Israel that killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel responded with a massive military campaign that has destroyed much of Gaza and killed more than 74,500 people, according to the territory's health ministry, which operates under Hamas and whose figures are considered accurate by the United Nations.

Arab World

Mass Outages in Sudan After RSF Drones Hit Five Power Stations

People walk through a vegetable market in El Obeid, as drought and heat linked to El Nino threaten harvests, livestock, and water supplies in Sudan's war-affected Kordofan region, El Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
People walk through a vegetable market in El Obeid, as drought and heat linked to El Nino threaten harvests, livestock, and water supplies in Sudan's war-affected Kordofan region, El Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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Mass Outages in Sudan After RSF Drones Hit Five Power Stations

People walk through a vegetable market in El Obeid, as drought and heat linked to El Nino threaten harvests, livestock, and water supplies in Sudan's war-affected Kordofan region, El Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
People walk through a vegetable market in El Obeid, as drought and heat linked to El Nino threaten harvests, livestock, and water supplies in Sudan's war-affected Kordofan region, El Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched a coordinated drone attack Monday against five power stations, causing mass power outages across the country's east, a government official told AFP.

The drones hit two power stations each in the states of Al-Jazira and Gedaref, and one in White Nile state, "resulting in power outages across large parts of these three states", the official said on condition of anonymity.

All three states are controlled by the Sudanese army, which has since April 2023 been at war with its former ally, the RSF.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned that regular attacks on power stations threaten health and services for millions of people, already facing the world's largest hunger crisis.

An AFP correspondent in Al-Jazira state reported the electricity had been out since 2 am (0000 GMT).

Babiker Youssef, a resident of Al-Fao in Gedaref, said the power there had also been out since the same time.

"My son is diabetic, his insulin has to be stored in the fridge," he told AFP over the phone, scared he would not be able to replace the medication if it spoils.

"We have no idea when the power will come back," he added.

Electricity has been cut for days at a time after past paramilitary drone strikes on power stations and hydroelectric dams, compounding the suffering of nearly 20 million people facing extreme hunger.

- 'Losing our stock' -

Sudan's war is currently being fought primarily via drones, with both sides launching sophisticated attacks from across the country, killing dozens of civilians at a time.

In the first three weeks of October alone, drone strikes killed over 300 people and injured hundreds more, according to a UN tally.

Africa's third-largest country, home to an estimated 50 million people, has been ravaged by the war, which aid workers estimate has killed more than 200,000 people.

The majority of Sudan's hospitals have been forced shut, at least eight million children are out of school and swathes of the country cannot access basic services.

"The electricity had just started to improve three months ago, the power station the militia had destroyed was just repaired and we had hope our irrigation pumps would finally start running again," a 54-year-old farmer, Abdelhafez Daafallah, told AFP over the phone from Al-Jazira's Al-Junaid town.

"We hoped we would be able to finally get back to farming, but now the station has been hit," he said, frustrated after nearly four years unable to till his land.

Farmers in Al-Jazira have struggled to rehabilitate and re-plant their land since the army recaptured the state from the RSF last year.

Further east, in Gedaref, grocer Ibrahim Mohammed, 37, said he was "already facing power cuts for hours before the strike".

"Now I have chicken in the fridge, we either lose our entire stock, or will be forced to sell it off at any price, which is still a loss."

Sudan is also grappling with unprecedented inflation and a currency in freefall, having lost over 25 percent of its value in recent weeks.

Arab World

Syrian Official: 25% of Displaced People Have Left Northern Camps

A convoy carrying 108 displaced families from the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, north of Aleppo (Syrian Civil Defense). 
A convoy carrying 108 displaced families from the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, north of Aleppo (Syrian Civil Defense). 
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Syrian Official: 25% of Displaced People Have Left Northern Camps

A convoy carrying 108 displaced families from the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, north of Aleppo (Syrian Civil Defense). 
A convoy carrying 108 displaced families from the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, north of Aleppo (Syrian Civil Defense). 

Around 25% of displaced Syrians living in camps in northern Syria have returned to their home areas since the launch of the “Syria Without Camps” initiative in May, Deputy Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Ahmed Ekzayez told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Ekzayez explained that the initiative goes beyond closing displacement camps, focusing instead on restoring conditions in areas of origin to enable safe, voluntary, and dignified returns.

This includes rehabilitating hospitals, clinics, schools, water and sanitation networks, communications and roads, alongside creating employment opportunities for returnees.

Hundreds of Families Return Home

The Syrian Civil Defense reported that approximately 233 families left displacement camps in northern Idlib on Sunday for their home areas in Rural Damascus, Latakia, Homs, Deir Ezzor, Hama and the southern and eastern Idlib countryside.

The returns were organized under the auspices of Idlib governorate, in cooperation with social affairs and emergency management authorities, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the Muzn Organization and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. A UN delegation attended the aid distribution.

Most returning families originated from southern Idlib and northern Hama, according to the official SANA news agency.

Meanwhile, the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, eastern Aleppo province, were officially closed after approximately 108 displaced families returned to their home areas in Aleppo and Idlib.

Aleppo’s Directorate of Social Affairs and Labor confirmed the closures following the departure of the final convoy on Sunday.

The Civil Defense Directorate reported that additional voluntary return convoys departed camps in the Idlib and Aleppo countryside under the supervision of the national committee overseeing the “Syria Without Camps” initiative.

Emergency and Disaster Management Ministry teams helped secure the convoys and provide healthcare services.

The operations form part of efforts to implement Decree No. 59, which provides for rehabilitating damaged areas and creating suitable conditions for displaced residents to return.

Plan to Close Camps by 2027

The Syrian government launched its “Syria Without Camps” initiative on May 9, 2026, aiming to resolve internal displacement and dismantle camps by September 2027.

More than 200 camps were closed over the past year, but approximately 140,000 families, representing more than 700,000 people, remained in camps as of September 2026.

Speaking Friday at a UN side event on reconstruction and sustainable solutions to internal displacement following widespread destruction caused by conflict and disasters, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, appealed for international assistance.

He emphasized the need to rebuild affected communities, restore essential services and create livelihoods to support sustainable returns.

Olabi maintained that the government had addressed the root causes of internal displacement but warned that ensuring lasting returns would require substantial resources.

He also cautioned that the actions of Israeli forces in southern Syria were generating a new wave of displacement.

Sharp Decline in Northern Camps

Before the fall of the Assad government, northern Syria had more than 1,500 displacement camps and shelters, including 1,146 camps in Idlib alone.

Over nearly two years, the number of camps in the north fell to approximately 1,025, comprising 634 in Idlib and 391 in Aleppo.

The number of displaced families living in northern camps also declined from 261,000 to around 140,000, including approximately 82,000 in Idlib and 55,000 in Aleppo.

Across Syria, however, some 1,247 camps and shelters remain, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing authorities as they seek to end prolonged displacement.