Tag Archives: Shiites

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon’s armed Shi’ite movement Hezbollah, said on Monday that a first ship carrying Iranian fuel oil to help Lebanon through its financial crisis had docked in Syria on Sunday. Nasrallah had announced last month that he had organised purchases of fuel from Iran, Hezbollah’s main …

The US led on Sunday the global condemnation of a recent escalation in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Houthi militia launched three ballistic missiles toward the Kingdom on Saturday, two targeting the southwestern cities of Najran and Jazan. A third missile was launched at Dammam in the Eastern Province. …

Iraqi populist Shi’ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Friday that he and his supporters would take part in an October general election, reversing a decision last month to stay out. Sadr’s bloc is part of a coalition that holds the most seats in parliament now, and is likely to …

Hezbollah’s insistence on imposing its hegemony on the Lebanese state is the main cause of Lebanon’s problems, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. Speaking at an international conference on Lebanon marking the first anniversary of the Beirut Port explosion, Prince Faisal bin Farhan urged Lebanese politicians to confront the …

An explosion ripped through a busy market in the Iraqi capital Monday killing at least 35 people, according to medical sources, in an apparent suicide bombing ahead of Eid holiday celebrations. In one of the worst attacks in Baghdad in recent years, body parts of victims lay scattered across the …

Three rockets were fired at the US embassy in Iraq early Thursday, the Iraqi army said, at the end of a day marked by rocket and drone attacks on bases hosting American forces in Iraq and Syria. The embassy itself was not hit, the army said, but three nearby places …

The US has carried out air strikes against Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region. Sunday’s strikes hit “operational and weapons storage facilities”, in response to drone attacks on US forces, the Pentagon said in a statement. President Joe Biden would “act to protect US personnel”, it added. The Pentagon …

Yemenis from all walks of life have hailed the UN blacklisting of Iran-backed Houthis for killing children in the war-torn country and renewed calls for tougher measures against the rebels, including designation as a terrorist organization. Yemeni politicians, human rights activists and journalists who have long advocated shaming and naming …

An Iraqi militia commander whose arrest last month sparked a standoff between the government and paramilitary groups was freed Wednesday after a judge ordered his release. The release of Qassim Mahmoud Musleh came as Iranian Gen. Esmail Ghaani, head of the expeditionary Quds Force, arrived in Baghdad to meet with …

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday laid out his vision for the Kingdom’s foreign policy, with the US as a strategic partner and working with allies to find solutions to Iran’s “negative behavior.” In a 90-minute TV interview to mark the fifth anniversary of Vision 2030, the ambitious …

Yemeni government officials and local human rights activists have accused the Houthis of brainwashing and training primary school students for war. Their criticism came as videos on social media showed pupils wearing military attire and inciting each other to take up arms to fight the Houthis’ enemies. In one video, …

Bahrain’s Cabinet amended its Press, Printing and Publishing Law on Monday that included the abolition of jailing journalists, and the addition of a major section regarding digital media, Bahraini daily Al-Ayyam reported. The Cabinet also approved a memorandum of the Ministerial Committee for Legal and Legislative Affairs regarding the amendments …

Tehran supports attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ overseas Quds Force has admitted. Ismail Qaani told a conference in the northeastern city of Mashhad that the Houthis had launched  “18 operations in less than 10 days” targeting …

Pope Francis on Sunday met the father of Alan Kurdi, the boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach six years ago became an image of the suffering of Syrians trying to escape war. The pontiff, winding up a historic trip to Iraq, met Abdullah Kurdi at the end …

The United States will do what it sees as necessary to defend its interests after a rocket attack last week against Iraq’s Ain al-Sada airbase, which hosts American, coalition and Iraqi forces, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Sunday. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program, Austin said the United …

Pope Francis headed to Iraq on Friday for his most risky foreign trip since his election in 2012, and said he felt duty-bound to make the “emblematic” visit because the country had suffered so much for so long. An Alitalia plane carrying him, his entourage, a security detail, and about …

Abu Arkan Ibrahim picked up a rifle and joined the Iraqi insurgency against U.S. troops when they occupied his hometown of Fallujah in 2003. He was badly burned in the fighting. Now, he fears the departure of the Americans he once battled. Over the past 17 years, the municipal employee …

Yemen’s internationally recognized government has called for pressure to stop the Houthi offensive and siege on several villages in the southern province of Taiz, the official Saba news agency reported. Prime Minister Maeen Abdul Malik Saeed said during a phone call with the Taiz governor, Nabil Shamsan, that Houthi crimes …

The United States on Tuesday designated the Bahrain-based Saraya al-Mukhtar group as a terrorist organization, accusing it of being backed by Iran and of having plotted attacks against U.S. personnel in the Gulf Arab state. The move, which comes amid a slew of sanctions announced by Washington as President Donald …

The Iraqi military is training a former member of an Iran-backed militia, who is under U.S. sanctions for killing protesters, to become a high-ranking officer in the army, according to six government, security and militia officials. They said that Hussein Falih Aziz, known as Abu Zainab al-Lami, had been sent …

Washington has made preparations to withdraw diplomats from Iraq after warning Baghdad it could shut its embassy, two Iraqi officials and two Western diplomats said, a step Iraqis fear could turn their country into a battle zone. Any move by the United States to scale down its diplomatic presence in …

The British embassy in Baghdad said that a British diplomatic vehicle was hit buy an IED on Tuesday morning on the airport road in Baghdad, but caused no injuries. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Separately, at 1 a.m. on Tuesday, two Katyusha rockets landed inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified …

President Donald Trump will announce a further drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq on Wednesday, a senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday. That announcement will be followed by another one in the coming days on a further reduction in U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the official said. The decision comes …

Kuwait and Iraq separately denied an attack took place against a convoy carrying equipment for American forces. An explosion near the Jraischan border crossing between Iraq and Kuwaiti on Monday evening targeted a convoy carrying equipment for US forces, three Iraqi security forces told Reuters. It was not immediately clear …

Graham E. Fuller — The Trump administration has just delivered several dozen military strikes against Syria purportedly aimed at chemical production and storage facilities. It was an act the international community feared might lead to overt war in Syria between the US, Iran and Russia, but it came off a bit …

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo said on Saturday he sent a letter to Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani and Iranian leaders expressing concern regarding Iran’s increasingly threatening behavior in Iraq. Speaking during a panel at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Southern California, Pompeo said he sent …

Aden’s Security Department yesterday inaugurated ‘Section 1’ and correctional centre at the Mansoura Central Prison. Many human rights and civil society organisations attended the event. Brigadier General Shalal Shaya, Aden’s Security Director thanked the UAE for its support, which was involved in the rebuilding and maintenance of the prison. Aden …

Russia is set to close major arms deals with two nations, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, once vehemently opposed to Moscow’s presence in the Middle East. In a historic visit to Moscow, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to discuss oil, Iran’s growing …

Saudi Arabia and its allies are pushing back on a renewed effort to establish a United Nations-backed independent international panel to investigate human rights abuses in Yemen. A draft resolution, proposed by a small bloc of Western countries, seeks to create a commission of inquiry, similar to one for the …

A division of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has arrested a Takfiri terrorist linked to a Daesh-affiliated ring, which planned to carry out hundreds of terror attacks in the capital, Tehran. The Daesh element was apprehended in the Andisheh town in Shahriar County, Tehran Province, Colonel Amin …

It is 4:30 a.m. and pitch dark when the sick Syrian children and their mothers begin to cross into ­Israel. There’s a 1-year-old girl with a squint, and a 2-year-old with a birth defect that prevents him from walking. The family of a slight 12-year-old is concerned that she is …

Leaders of the Houthi group and loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, allies in Yemen’s civil war, said on Tuesday they had agreed to ease tensions between them after three people were killed in a clash. The violence late on Saturday between members of the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saleh …

Militant group Islamic State on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul that began with a suicide bomber blowing himself up at the main gate, allowing gunmen to enter the building and battle security forces. The assault came a week after 35 people were killed …

Three car bombs exploded in Damascus on Sunday, state media reported, and seven people were killed in one of the blasts, a police officer said, the biggest such attack in the Syrian capital since a series of suicide attacks in March. One of the suicide bombers blew himself up in …

The Levant News — Bahrain is targeting its Shi’ite Muslim community through arrests and prosecutions of clerics, activists and entertainers, a group of United Nations-appointed independent experts said on Tuesday. In a statement, the experts urged Bahraini authorities to halt what they said were “arbitrary arrests” based on religion and …

Tensions ran high in eastern Iraq on Friday between Kurdish and Shi’ite fighters, highlighting divisions hampering efforts by the U.S.-backed government to blunt the momentum of Islamic State militants. There were conflicting reports on what transpired in Diyala province after Kurdish peshmerga fighters attempted to dig a trench to separate …