Author: Steven Sahiounie

A series of airstrikes by the Saudi-led military coalition have hit trucks carrying imported food and medicine in Yemen’s central province of al-Bayda, as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its devastating onslaught against the impoverished Arab country. Three drivers were injured and a number of people, including foreign nationals, went missing as the shipments owned by local traders went up in flames, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported. The report added that the bombing happened on Saturday morning, when the trucks were awaiting at a customs zone recently established in the Afar area of the province. The chairman of the…

A major Iraqi resistance group has warned about a fiendish plot by the United States to transfer members and field commanders of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group from neighboring Syria to the Arab country. In a statement published on Saturday, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), or Hashd al-Sha’abi, expressed serious concerns over latest US military activities in Iraq, among them the transfer and relocation of troops and military hardware. The group then dismissed the withdrawal of American troops from a number of bases across Iraq as “a smoke screen operation,” adding that Washington is…

The country was planning to make the newly acquired air defence systems operational in April despite numerous protests from the US, which had been pressuring Ankara to ditch the systems for good. In April, Turkey was unable to deploy the S-400 air defence systems it obtained from Russia last year, as planned due to the ongoing pandemic, but will ultimately do so at a later date, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin stated during an online conference with members of the Atlantic Council. “There has been a delay because of the coronavirus but it will move forward as planned”, the spokesman said.…

In April, US President Donald Trump announced via his Twitter that he had given the green light to the American Navy to attack and sink small Iranian military vessels if they start harassing US military ships. The Iranian news agency Tasnim has quoted the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy Commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri as saying that US actions during last month’s incident in the Gulf rode roughshod over regional security. “They [the US ships] entered the area of our naval drills despite the fact that we earlier announced about holding the exercises. They are looking to undermine security with such steps,…

US servicemen have shot dead a Syrian civilian, who drove a car in the province of Deir ez-Zor, Syria’s state media reported, citing local civilian sources. According to the SANA news agency, the car slanted off the road near the Conoco oil field, which prompted the US servicemen to open fire. The US troops, jointly with the Arab-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, maintain control over parts of northeastern Syria. The American military is concentrated around oil and gas fields in the provinces of Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor. Earlier in the month, an American officer and two members of the Syrian Democratic…

The Lebanese government cannot resolve large-scale political and economic issues that have been developing in the country throughout the past 30 years in one stroke, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said in an interview with Sputnik, calling on citizens to closely observe further developments. “I hope that all the Lebanese officials and political parties have learned well that the Lebanese people lost their temper because of the corruption, job losses and because government funds had been looted for many years. I understand that people want fast and tangible changes, but the consequences of the past 30 years will not be addressed overnight. In…

Kim Jong-un’s well-being has been a matter of speculation over the past several weeks as the North Korean leader has been conspicuously absent from public events which led to rumours that he was either ill or even dead. A video of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a fertiliser plant in Sunchon after his several-week absence from public functions has been shared by the Korean Central News Agency. In the footage, the supreme leader is seen cheered by locals in face masks outside of the plant, waving flowers and flags. Kim himself was filmed talking with top officials, seemingly in good…

At the moment, authorities have not released official information about any damage inflicted by the tremor, or victims from the earthquake. According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, a powerful 6.0-magnitude quake has struck 141 kilometres (87 miles) south of Iraklion, the capital of Crete. In the meantime, several other sources reported the magnitude of the quake as 6.7, also noting that the epicentre of the natural disaster is located at a depth of 10 kilometres (or 6.2 miles).

The government in Afghanistan has decided to release thousands of prisoners to help contain the spread of the coronavirus among inmates. The fear of further spread of coronavirus among 12,000 inmates has turned into a headache for the government. Amid the dilemma, the Afghan government continues to call for foreign aid to help battle the disease.The government says some countries like China and Iran are backing Kabul by providing medical equipment such as test kits.No Taliban militant is among those prisoners who are going to be released in the coming days. The government has already released over 500 Taliban prisoners in an ongoing prisoner…

Russian Ambassador to Iraq Maksim Maksimov says Moscow is prepared to provide Baghdad with advanced S-400 air defense missile systems once the Arab country makes an official request for the military hardware. “The Russian side has, thus far, not received an official request in this regard. There is no doubt that recent developments have increased interest in [procurement of] air missile defense systems, especially the S-400 system,” Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Ahad news agency quoted Maksimov as saying on Thursday. He noted, “It is too early to set out the details. Therefore, I say that we (Russians) will meet the Iraqis’ request once they make such a bid.”…