Author: Steven Sahiounie

Egyptian security forces have killed 21 suspected Takfiri terrorists in the restive North Sinai region, part of a terror group that the interior ministry says was planning to carry out attacks during Eid al-Fitr holiday. According to a statement by the Ministry of Interior on Saturday, 14 Takfiri terrorists were killed during a raid on their hideout, located in a farm in the volatile region, earlier in the day. The police forces found 13 automatic rifles, three explosive devices, an explosive belt and a wireless radio in the hideout. It added that based on received intelligence the slain…

The self-styled commander of the rebels in Libya, Khalifa Haftar, has called on his forces to rally against Turkey, which militarily backs the government in the country’s capital, Tripoli. Haftar urged his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) forces in an audio message on Saturday to battle the “colonial” intervention by Turkey, in an allusion to the time Libya was controlled by the former Ottoman Empire. Forces aligned with the Tripoli-based government have made major advances in recent weeks and retaken areas controlled by the rebels, including a key air base on the outskirts of the capital. The rebels, backed by…

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will be sending back its ambassador to Baghdad as Riyadh seeks closer ties with Iraq following the defeat of the Daesh terrorist group. Iraqi officials have frequently accused Riyadh of aiding Daesh. In 2016, Iraq’s former ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Ali al-Hakim, accused Saudi Arabia of financing the Daesh terrorist group. The announcement on Saturday was made by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan after meeting Ali Allawi, Iraq’s deputy premier and acting minister of finance and oil, who was in Riyadh on an official visit, according to the Saudi Gazette newspaper. “This comes in order to…

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has outlined his policies for further boosting his country’s nuclear “deterrence” capabilities amid stalled denuclearization talks with the United States. After a three-week-long absence from public view, the 36-year-old leader made the comments at a meeting of his party’s powerful Central Military Commission, after a previous absence that gave rise to intense global speculation that he might have health issues or even been brain-dead. According to a report by North Korea’s state news agency KCNA on Sunday, the meeting revolved round measures to bolster the peninsular country’s armed forces and “reliably contain the persistent big…

Infighting between rival groups in Syria’s northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib has ended in the killing and injuring of several Turkish-backed Takfiri militants. Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that fierce clashes broke out between militants affiliated to the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front, and terrorists controlling several neighborhoods in Ariha town, located south of Idlib, upon a conflict over influence and sharing properties left by their owners, who fled the area after the Turkish incursion in October The Jabhat Fateh al-Sham outfit later dispatched a convoy of terrorists, armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades…

Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden has blasted President Donald Trump for his decision to play golf during the holiday weekend as the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic continues to rise in the United States. The Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee showed in a 30-second clip accompanying his tweet on Saturday that Trump was playing a round of golf at his club in the US state of Virginia on Memorial Day Weekend. “Nearly 100,000 lives have been lost, and tens of millions are out of work,” the former vice president said in his tweet. “Meanwhile, the president spent his day golfing.” The death toll is…

French Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin expressed confidence in an interview with Le Figaro that the country’s state debt would exceed 115 percent of the GDP by the end of year. “France’s debt will no doubt exceed 115 percent of the country’s GDP, which will be the result of measures aimed at supporting the economy in connection with the health crisis,” Darmanin said. The minister did not provide a more accurate forecast noting that the debt will “certainly” be more than the 115 percent of the GDP. Darmanin explained that the government would exempt a number of industries particularly hit by…

The ongoing crisis on the energy market could be a blessing in disguise for American energy companies, who are using it to replenish their stockpiles of a valuable resource and at a discounted rate. Little over a month ago market analysts forecast that oil reservoirs would soon be filled to the max due to low demand and the high supply of crude. But it seemingly failed to stop American refineries from buying more oil, including Russian stocks. According to data from maritime monitoring services, seven oil tankers carrying up to 6 million barrels of Russian oil are on their way to the…

Iraqi security forces have begun interrogating Abdel Nasser Qardash, a member of the Daesh* terrorist group who was tapped as its new leader, according to an armed forces spokesman. “Qardash is being held by Iraqi intelligence. The information he has is very important. This man is seen as a ‘databank’ and his capture is essentially a huge blow for [Daesh],” Yahya Rasool said. Iraq announced Qardash’s capture on Wednesday. He has long been seen as the group’s second-in-command, and poised to take over after the purported death of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria last autumn. According to US President Donald…

Relations between Washington and Beijing recently deteriorated as the US accused China of misinformation about the coronavirus crisis. The countries have also clashed over the situation in Hong Kong, as well as territorial disputes in the South China Sea, economic issues, and US dependency on Chinese resources. “It has come to our attention that some political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on Sunday. He noted that the two nations have to find a way for peaceful coexistence,…