Middle Eastern Headlines at 12:57 a.m. GMT
Israel kills a top militant in its deadliest West Bank raids since the Gaza war began
Israel kills a top militant in its deadliest West Bank raids since the Gaza war began
US media say the operation included special forces who rappelled down from helicopters.
A leaked audio recording of a heated exchange between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the family of a hostage killed by Hamas is sparking reaction in Israel. CNN’s Nic Robertson reports.
Israel has launched multiple strikes on southern Lebanon over the last day, including one which killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
After meetings with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday, Palestinian militant group Hamas reiterated its "readiness" to adopt US President Joe Biden's long-gestating Gaza ceasefire deal, originally proposed in May, as pressure grows on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring home hostages. A Hamas delegation met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday to discuss a truce in Gaza and a potential hostage and prisoner exchange, the militant group said in a statem
“Safe passage to him and whoever he wants to join him out of Gaza,” Israel’s Coordinator for Hostages and the Missing Gal Hirsch told CNN’s Jessica Dean on Sunday.
The Palestinian Hamas group said on Wednesday that its negotiators reiterated its readiness to implement an "immediate" ceasefire with Israel in Gaza based on a previous U.S. proposal without new conditions from any party. The Palestinian group said in a statement that their negotiation team, led by senior official Khalil al-Hayya, met mediators on Wednesday including Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Doha to discuss the latest developments in Gaza. Lingering issue include control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow stretch of land on Gaza's border with Egypt, persisting.
KYIV (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had anticipated Moscow's counteroffensive in the Russian region of Kursk, his first comments on the pushback this week more than a month after Ukraine's cross-border incursion. Ukraine's troops captured an enclave of western Russian territory in a surprise raid that began in early August, a move aimed at wresting the battlefield initiative from Russia including by diverting Moscow's forces from the eastern front. Its forces made rapid initial gains before stalling, while the situation around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, which has been the focus of Russia's main offensive operations in recent weeks, remained perilous.
He was the commander of Israel’s elite 8200 intelligence unit, which critics say played a pivotal role in failing to prevent the October 7 attacks.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces have begun a significant counter-offensive against Ukrainian troops who smashed their way into western Russia last month, and have taken some territory back, pro-Moscow war bloggers and a senior Russian commander said. Ukraine on Aug. 6 launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two, bursting through the border into the region of Kursk with thousands of troops supported by swarms of drones and heavy weaponry, including Western-made arms. Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechnya's Akhmat special forces fighting in Kursk, said that Russian troops had gone on the offensive and taken back control of about 10 settlements in Kursk, TASS reported.
Several serving and former Australian military commanders have been stripped of medals over allegations of war crimes committed during the Afghanistan war, Defense Minister Richard Marles said Thursday. Holding commanders to account for alleged misconduct of Australian special forces between 2005 and 2016 was recommended by Maj. Gen. Paul Brereton in his war crime investigation.
As hopes for a cease-fire and hostage deal fade, it is worth considering who benefits from continued conflict: Yahya Sinwar, Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump and Iran.
Large crowds of protesters gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced off in a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center on September 10.This footage, filmed by Karen Closkey, shows a large group pro-Palestine protesters marching through the streets of Philadelphia, as well as a smaller group of pro-Israel demonstrators.An earlier clip shows a truck hauling a statue of Trump dressed in a prison uniform near the debate site.According to local media citing authorities, police arrested around “half a dozen protesters” on Tuesday night.The Philly Palestine Coalition, who organized the pro-Palestine protest, called for “a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo” in an Instagram post. Credit: Karen Closkey via Storyful
STORY: Kosovo indicted 45 suspects on terrorism charges on Wednesday (September 11).The charges stem from a brazen attack almost a year ago when around 80 Serb gunmen stormed a north Kosovo village and battled police in a shootout...and barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery, before the survivors fled on foot back to Serbia.The shootout left four people dead - including a Kosovo police officer. It marked the most violent incident in Kosovo since the republic declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and aggravated tensions between Pristina and Belgrade. Blerim Isufaj, the chief prosecutor of the Special Prosecution of Kosovo, told a press conference that the leader of the group, Milan Radoicic is among the accused. The man highlighted by Kosovo police on screen is said to be that suspect - but Reuters cannot independently verify his identity. Radoicic, a former top Kosovo Serb politician who lives in Serbia, has publicly admitted taking part in the gunbattle. All the suspects, some of whom are Kosovo citizens, are believed to be in Serbia. That makes it unlikely they will be handed to Kosovo authorities, as Belgrade doesn't recognize Kosovo's independence and still considers the republic part of its own territory.Kosovo blames Serbia for the attack, a charge Belgrade denies.
Hours after Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin rebelled against his country’s top military leaders, his private army’s biggest client in Africa panicked, turning for help to his foe in the West. Officials from Central African Republic, where some 1,500 of Prigozhin’s shadowy Wagner Group mercenaries were stationed, wrote a letter that day, requesting to “rapidly” arrange a meeting with a private U.S. security firm to discuss collaboration. Dated June 23, 2023, the day Prigozhin launched the armed rebellion, the letter sparked a series of private meetings, culminating in a deal with the central African nation and Bancroft Global Development.
One of two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups deployed to the Middle East in part to deter Iran from carrying out a threatened attack against Israel has departed the region, the Pentagon said on Thursday. The decision to end the dual-carrier presence came nearly three weeks after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group to remain in the Middle East, even after the arrival of the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to replace it.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday condemned the death of American activist Aysenur Eygi, who was killed at a protest last week in the occupied West Bank by Israeli soldiers.
New York City's Noguchi Museum said on Wednesday it fired three employees after they violated its updated dress code by wearing keffiyeh head scarves, which have become an emblem of solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Across the world in protests demanding an end to Israel's war in Gaza, demonstrators have worn the black-and-white keffiyeh head scarf, saying it identifies with Palestinian self-determination.
More than 100 Pakistan police who provide security for polio vaccination teams in restive border areas went on strike on Thursday after a string of deadly militant attacks this week. "Any constable who learns of the protest is leaving their polio duty to join the demonstration," the second officer told AFP. At least two police officers and one polio worker have been shot dead in separate attacks in rural districts near the border with Afghanistan since the launch of the latest vaccination drive
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday slammed the West, saying that Israel is “committing massacres” in the war in Gaza and using European and American weapons to do so. Pezeshkian, who spoke in Baghdad at the start of his first visit abroad since taking office, is hoping to cement Tehran’s ties to Baghdad as regional tensions increasingly pull both majority Shiite countries into the widening Middle East fray. Iran has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian militant Hamas group since its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan Thursday on a visit hailed by the regional president as the first by an Iranian president to the autonomous region.Barzani hailed the first visit by an Iranian president to the region, describing it as a "historic day".