Author: Steven Sahiounie

The US Department of Defense is reporting 92 new COVID-19 cases among its service members, family members and civilian workers, the Pentagon revealed in a press release on Tuesday. To date, the Defense Department has a total of 7,526 cumulative cases of COVID-19 and 27 deaths caused by the disease. A total of 4,967 US service members have contracted the disease, with 100 currently hospitalized and 1,844 recoveries reported, the release said. The United States, as of Tuesday afternoon, has about 1.19 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 70,000 deaths caused by the disease, according to the Johns…

The US established a military presence in oil-rich northeastern Syria in 2017 after Syrian Kurdish militias backed by US airpower drove the Daesh (ISIS)* terrorists from the region. Damascus has repeatedly demanded that Washington relinquish its presence and return control over the area to Syria’s internationally recognized government. US troops in two helicopters, flanked by six vehicles and Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces militia forces carried out an operation in northeast Hasakah governorate on Monday, kidnapping two civilians and leaving the area, the Syrian Arab News Agency has reported, citing local civilian sources. US and SDF forces were said to have targeted…

Militants from ISIS sleeper cells attacked a police station in Diyala, Iraq, killing and injuring 11 civilians and policemen.. The Security Media Cell in Iraq issued a statement saying that ISIS members attacked a police station in Zaganiya in Al-Abara district in the Baqouba Kaza in Diyala east Iraq. ISIS members opened fire intensively, claimimg the lives of three policemen and a civilian and injuring two policemen and five civilians. ISIS members targeted a patrol of the Eighteenth Brigade of Iraqi army with an explosive device in the al-Hitawin area in al-Azim district in Diyala, killing a soldier and wounding…

In a sudden change in its policies and statements on Syria, the US called all foreign forces present in Syria, including its own forces to withdraw. However, the US considered Russian forces an exception to the matter. The US special envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey, stated that Washington insists on the withdrawal of all foreign forces that entered Syria after 2011, including the American, Iranian, Turkish and (Israeli) forces. As for the Russian forces, they are an exception. Jeffrey said that the American policy pivots on the departure of Iranian forces from all Syrian territories, along with all other foreign…

With the deadline for reviewing the coronavirus lockdown fast approaching, the government is coming under increasing pressure from the business community to significantly ease restrictions in the weeks ahead. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC – which represents 75,000 businesses across the UK) has called on the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to be “bold” as he reviews the situation on May 07. Perhaps taking a cue from the Irish government – which has introduced a five-stage phase out – the BCC is calling for the “carefully phased” ending of the lockdown. In a letter addressed to the PM, BCC president, Baroness Ruby…

The Yemeni Media Union says the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against the war-ravaged Arab country has resulted in the death of approximately 300 journalists and damaged nearly two dozen media institutions. The union, in a statement issued on Sunday on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, announced that the Saudi-led acts of aggression have claimed the lives of more than 290 journalists, and led to the demolition of 23 media institutions over the past five years. The statement noted that the Saudi-led military coalition’s strikes “have killed about 90 war journalists during the fifth year [of the war],” bringing the…

Syria has strongly lambasted Israel’s plan for annexing much of the occupied West Bank and roundly rejected statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to grab more Palestinian lands in the occupied region. In a statement carried by the country’s official news agency SANA on Sunday, Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates stressed that Netanyahu’s statements came in the context of the “aggressive expansionist behavior of the usurping Zionist entity.” This came after the Israeli premier stressed that he would start plans for annexing more areas in the occupied West Bank on July 1 according to US President Donald Trump’s so-called Mideast plan. Defying international outcry,…

Russian military police units in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah have reportedly prevented a US convoy from entering a strategic city, amid escalation between the two sides over freedom of movement in the mainly Kurdish-inhabited region. The Arabic-service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported that Russian forces blocked the main road of Tannuriyah village, which lies 10 kilometers (six miles) east of Qamishli, for the first time on Saturday and did not allow American troops to continue their journey towards the city. The report added that at least eight Russian armored vehicles stopped the American patrol for several hours, in a retaliatory move…

Clashes in Socotra continued as the United Arab Emirates funded STC fought to wrest control of the provincial capital Hadebo. Explosions rocked Yemen’s Socotra archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage site, Friday, as an armed unit funded by the United Arab Emirates fought to wrest control of the provincial capital Hadebo, the former prime minister and witnesses said. The unit is part of the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council, which declared self-rule earlier this week in the south, sparking fears of new violence in the country already mired in more than five years of civil war. The governors of Socotra and several other southern provinces rejected the…

Damascus has estimated that it will cost between $200 and $400 billion to rebuild the infrastructure damaged or destroyed during the foreign-backed-civil war which kicked off in 2011. It remains unclear where the money will come from, as the US and its Syrian Kurdish militia allies have taken control of much of Syria’s oil-rich eastern territories. Syrian troops have demined another 1.7 hectares (4.2 acres) of territory in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defence Ministry’s Centre for Reconciliation has reported. “Over the past 24 hours, Syrian Army engineering units performed mine clearance in Abril, Duma, Mazraat Mahmoud and Haush…