Author: Steven Sahiounie

China said it was conducting military exercises Saturday off its coast opposite Taiwan after warning Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the US House of Representatives to scrap possible plans to visit the island, which Beijing claims as part of its territory. The ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, was conducting “live-fire exercises” near the Pingtan islands off Fujian province from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., the official Xinhua News Agency said. The Maritime Safety Administration warned ships to avoid the area. Such exercises usually involve artillery. The one-sentence announcement gave no indication whether Saturday’s exercise also might include…

The deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation reports on Al-Nusra Front bombings in the de-escalation zone in Idlib. The Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria announced Wednesday evening that the militants of the Al-Nusra Front organization carried out eight bombing operations in the de-escalation zone in Idlib in northwest Syria. Yevgeny Gerasimov, deputy chief of the Center, said that eight bombings by the terrorist Al-Nusra Front group were recorded in the de-escalation zone in Idlib. Gerasimov indicated that six bombings were recorded in the Aleppo governorate and one bombing each in Idlib and Latakia governorates. A few days ago, the Hay’at…

In the early morning of July 29, Kiev’s forces shelled a detention center for Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in the village of Elenovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The blow was struck precisely at the barracks in which the captured soldiers of the Ukrainian Nazi Azov regiment were held. The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed the attack. According to the Russia’s Defense Ministry and local authorities, Ukrainian troops used US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to strike the detention center. Initially, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that 40 Ukrainian POWs were killed and 75 others were injured. Later, the DPR territorial…

US-made HIMARS are “a good first step,” but Kiev needs the means to take accurate shots, a senior Ukrainian official has said The deliveries of US-made HIMARS rocket systems are “a good first step”, but the West did not provide Kiev with the necessary technologies to accurately hit targets, a high-ranking Ukrainian official complained in an interview published on Thursday. “HIMARS and heavy artillery are a good first step, but if we do not have the technology to find and correct targets for artillery strikes, then we’re just shooting blind,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal…

A Yemeni source announced on Thursday night that another group of US forces entered the Al-Mahra province in eastern Yemen. On Tuesday, these soldiers entered Al-Ghaizah airport in Al-Mahrah province. There is no mention of the number of American soldiers who entered Yemen. Al-Ghaizah airport is a military base that was built illegally by the British and Zionist forces in 2017. These military forces are transported from Al-Ryan airport located in Al-Mukalla city; The capital of Hadhramout province. This action comes after Sheikh Ali Al-Harizi, the head of the anti-occupation sit-in committee, made a revelation and reported on the huge looting of…

The Kremlin on Friday offered strong support to China amid the tensions over Taiwan, warning the United States against any “provocative” moves that could exacerbate the situation. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in China’s dealings with Taiwan during a phone call Thursday with US President Joe Biden. Speaking in a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia staunchly supports China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “We believe that no other country has the right to call (that) into doubt or take any provocative steps,” Peskov said. He warned the US against “destructive” moves, adding that “such…

Lebanon has seen rising discriminatory acts against Syrian refugees over the past weeks fuelled by a bread shortage, the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday. “Lebanon is witnessing an increase in tensions and incitement between different communities, leading to localized violence in the streets, including against refugees,” it said in a statement. The UN refugee agency said it is increasingly concerned with these “restrictive practices and discriminatory measures based on nationality.” Lebanon has been suffering from a worsening wheat crisis since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, leading to some scuffles between the Lebanese citizens and…

Late on July 28, the US-led coalition fired several projectiles from the Green Village base which is located in al-Omar oil fields in the southeastern countryside of Syria’s Deir Ezzor. The unidentified projectiles, possibly artillery shells or anti-aircraft missiles, were allegedly fired following a rocket attack on the Green Village base. According to a number of news sources, at least two rockets landed in the outskirts of the base. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that four of the projectiles fired by the coalition hit an area in the government-held part of the southern Deir Ezzor countryside where Iranian-backed…

Hundreds of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday broke into the Iraqi parliament building in central Baghdad to protest against the nomination of Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani for the post of prime minister. The riot police fired tear gas canisters and warning shots to disperse the protesters, but there were no clashes between the protesters and the security forces, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Many videos aired by TV channels and social media showed dozens of demonstrators inside the parliament building waving Iraqi flags and chanting slogans hailing Moqtada al-Sadr. Iraqi Prime Minister…

Four members of the Kurdish security forces, known as Assayish, were killed by an armed Turkish drone in Syria’s northern province of Raqqa on Thursday, a war monitor reported. The Turkish drone fired at an Assayish vehicle in the vicinity of the Tal Samen town in the northern countryside of Raqqa, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. With this attack, Türkiye has carried out 42 such drone strikes on Kurdish fighters since the beginning of 2022, according to the monitor. This is part of the tension between Türkiye and the Kurdish militia in northern Syria, which has been growing…