Author: Mideast discourse

Latest attack comes as UN warns both sides to cease fighting near the facility Ten shells launched by the Ukrainian army landed near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant on Thursday, according to regional authorities. The facility is located in southeastern Ukraine but is currently under the control of Russian troops. Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Zaporozhye Region military-civil administration, explained that five explosives landed near the commandant’s office at the plant, next to a welding site and a radioactive substance storage facility, causing grass in the area to catch fire. Another five shells landed near the fire station beside…

The death toll from the clashes between rival security forces in the Yemeni oil-rich province of Shabwa increased to 28, and the injuries to 68, a medical official told Xinhua on Thursday. “Figures by the local medical centers confirmed that a total of 28 people were killed and more than 68 others injured following days of fighting across Shabwa’s streets,” the local medical source said on condition of anonymity. “All the wounded from both sides are receiving medical care in the public and private hospitals in Shabwa,” he said. On Monday, deadly clashes erupted between rival security units across residential…

The Russian military continues to hunt down the heavy weapons which were recently supplied by the West to Kiev forces. On August 11, Russian sources shared footage showing a Russian strike on a battery of three French-made CAESAR 155 mm self-propelled howitzers near an unspecified front in Ukraine. The strike destroyed or damaged the howitzers and their ammunition. Manufactured by the partly state-owned arms maker Nexter Systems, the CAESAR is a 155mm 52-caliber howitzer mounted on a six-wheeled truck chassis. The howitzer can fire up to six rounds per minute and has a firing range of around 42 kilometers using…

Forty-two Malian soldiers have died in a sophisticated weekend attack by suspected terrorists using drones artillery, authorities said Wednesday, the latest violent incident to rock the troubled Sahel country. A “complex and coordinated” weekend attack in Mali’s restive central region killed 42 soldiers, the country’s military government has said, sharply raising the earlier death toll of 17 soldiers. The assault in the town of Tessit in the Gao region on Sunday was one of the deadliest in recent years for Mali’s security forces fighting armed groups in the region, Al Jazeera reported. Authorities on Monday had said at least four…

 News sources reported a Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack in northern Syria which resulted in the killing of some people. The attacks were carried out on a village in the western region of Qamishli, located in the northern suburbs of al-Hasakah. Syrian sources announced that a Turkish UAV attacked a vehicle on the outskirts of the village, leaving several people killed. Some news sources reported that three people had been killed in the attack. Turkiye continuously conducts air raids on Syria and Iraq under the pretext of fighting PKK terrorists. The action has been met with strong reactions from…

On August 10, the Afrin Liberation Forces (ALF) claimed responsibility for three recent attacks that targeted installation of the Turkish military in the northern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo. In a statement, the Kurdish guerilla group said that its fighters destroyed a surveillance system of the Turkish military that was installed in a key base near the town of al-Bab on August 5. The ALF also took responsibility for the August 6 and 7 indirect fire attacks which targeted two bases of the Turkish military near the towns of Inab and Kaljibrin. The group claimed that the attacks killed six Turkish service members and…

According to the statement, Russia allegedly has for many years supported and financed terrorist regimes and organizations in various ways The Parliament of Latvia (the Saeima) has declared Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, the parliament said in a statement published on its official website on Thursday. On August 11, the Saeima adopted a statement, which recognizes activities of Russian troops in Ukraine as terrorism and declares “Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.” “The Saeima’s statement calls on EU countries to immediately suspend the issuance of tourist and entry visas to Russian and Belarusian citizens,” the statement reads. Members…

International politics is largely about applying double standards, Josep Borrell acknowledged The EU’s foreign-policy chief Josep Borrel has admitted that double standards permeate international relations, after being asked in an interview why Brussels was far more willing to support the people of Ukraine than the people of Gaza. The Middle East conflict is not in the EU’s hands, he said, pointing the finger at the US. “We are often criticized for double standards. But international politics is to a large degree about applying double standards. We do not use the same criteria for all problems,” he told El Pais newspaper, as…

 A militant group’s attack was repelled by Syrian forces in the Idlib province in the northwestern part of the country on Wednesday, according to state news agency SANA. The report said that the army forces stopped a “terrorist group composed of fighters from foreign nationalities” from entering the town of Jobas in the eastern countryside of Idlib by sneaking from the Nayrab region. The majority of the militants were either killed or wounded, it said. Although some rural areas in Syria are under government control, Idlib has been the last significant militant stronghold in the country. Meanwhile, another report indicates…

US Commerce Department accused the Chinese Far East Cable company of violating US export controls related to shipments of telecommunications equipment to Iran. Far East Cable, China’s largest wire and cable manufacturer, agreed in 2013 to buy equipment from Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corporations, Euro news reported. According to the U.S. Commerce Department charging letter issued on Thursday, Far East Cable, after dealing with ZTE, contracted with Iranian companies to supply telecommunications equipment. U.S. Commerce Department said it accused Far East Cable of 18 violations of U.S. export controls between September 2014 to January 2016. Far East Cable contracted with Telecommunications Company of…