Author: Steven Sahiounie

A Pakistan International Airlines plane en route from Lahore to Karachi crashed near Karachi’s Model Colony area, according to media reports. According to reports, the A320 Airbus was carrying at least 90 people and was scheduled to land at Jinnah International Airport. Rescue teams and law enforcement are at the crash site and have started rescue operations. The plane crashed at the Jinnah Ground area near the Jinnah International Airport, according to reports. According to Geo News citing the Civil Aviation Authority, communications with the plane were lost one minute before landing. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is Grateful to…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Among the most popular drama series this 2020 Ramadan season, has been “Hares Al Quds”, which is translated in English as “The Guardian of Jerusalem”.  Syrian director Basil Al Khatib has used the 30 episode format to narrate the life of Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, who was born George Capucci in 1922 in Aleppo, Syria. He was ordained a Greek Melkite priest in 1947, and he was elected archbishop of Caesarea in 1965.  The Syrian cast includes Rashid Assaf who plays the older Capucci, Amal Arafa, who plays a woman from Aleppo, Sabah al-Jazairi, who…

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) intercepted a U.S. military convoy that was attempting to pass their checkpoint in the northeastern region of Syria on Wednesday. According to a local source in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, the Syrian Arab Army intercepted the U.S. military convoy as it was attempting to bypass their checkpoint near the small village of Umm Al-Khayr. The source said the confrontation did not last long and the U.S. military ultimately turned around to find another route to their intended destination in the Tal Tamr countryside. As shown in the video footage above, the standoff was non-violent and did…

A suspected leader of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) has been captured somewhere in Iraq, multiple media outlets have reported citing sources within Iraqi intelligence. Reports on Wednesday evening local time spoke of the arrest of an individual, identified as Abd Nasser Qardash or Abdel Nasser Qirdash. Other reports, likewise unconfirmed, identified the captive as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurashi – the name IS gave in October 2019 as the successor to their first leader Abu Bakr al-Bahgdadi, confirming his death in a raid by US special forces. Al-Baghdadi had been hiding in Syria’s Idlib province, the last holdout of militants…

Kiev should “insist” that NATO pays out $200 billion for Ukraine’s decision to abandon nuclear weapons more than a quarter of a century ago, a former Ukrainian lawmaker said, arguing that the move saved the alliance a fortune. Back in the mid-1990s Ukraine ditched the nuclear arsenal that it inherited from the Soviet Union in exchange for security guarantees provided by the US, the UK and Russia as part of the so-called Budapest Memorandum. Now, the time has come for Kiev’s “Western partners” to pay up – in cash – Andrey Senchenko, a former Verkhovna Rada deputy and interim deputy head of…

Prices of key global oil benchmarks Brent and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) have surged on Wednesday following positive news on crude inventories. Brent crude futures were up over four percent, climbing above $36 per barrel for the first time since April 9. Meanwhile, WTI contracts for July delivery jumped more than five percent to $33.62 per barrel. Both benchmarks extended Tuesday’s gains, which came thanks to positive data from the American Petroleum Institute (API). The estimates showed that US crude inventories fell by 4.8 million barrels to 521.3 million barrels in the week ending May 15, instead of the…

The United States is considering fresh sanctions and legal action to deter Iran from exporting fuel to Venezuela, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The threat of more penalties comes as five Iranian gasoline tankers are sailing toward Venezuela – which the US sees as a potential lifeline for President Nicolas Maduro’s government, the report added. Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Hatami warned earlier on Wednesday that the country will hesitate if the US attempts to impede the passage of its ships to Venezuela. Separately, an unnamed military source told the ISNA news agency that the US navy’s fresh warning…

On May 19th, a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter crashed, while flying out of Egling AFB in Florida. The pilot safely ejected, was taken to hospital and is in stable condition. If the F-35 is destroyed, it would be the third crash of an F-35 that resulted in a total write-off of the airframe. This is the second crash of an aircraft operating out of the base in less than a week, with an F-22 Raptor going down on May 15th. Eglin AFB is home to a large number of aircraft. It is a major training base for F-35, and more…

The Government of National Accord (GNA) operations room “Anger Volcano” announced on May 20 that its combat drones had targeted four Pantsir-S1 air-defense systems of the Libyan National Army (LNA). Col. Mohamad Qununu, a spokesman for the operations room, said three of the systems were targeted in the vicinity of the town of Tarhunah, while the fourth щту was targeted near the town of al-Wishka. The Libya al-Ahrar TV shared a video showing the destruction of two Pantsir-S1 systems near Tarhunah. Another video shared by a Turkish outlet, Clash Report, shows a third system being targeted on a road near…

On May 19, the al-Quds Brigade, a Palestinian group supporting the Damascus government, carried out a combing operation in the eastern Homs countryside. During the operation, a large area between Haribshi and Faydat Umm Muyni’a was cleared. The water-rich area was reportedly infested with ISIS cells. The terrorists left behind equipment and few pick-up vehicles, which were seized and destroyed. A day earlier, the National Defense Forces (NDF) announced that fresh reinforcements will be deployed in “al-Badiya” [the central desert region] to clear it from ISIS terrorists. ISIS cells in the Homs desert intensified their attacks recently. Last week, the terrorists set…