Author: Steven Sahiounie

On the evening of April 9th, the Government of National Accord’s air force, and very likely with assistance from Turkey, carried out heavy drone strikes on Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) positions in Tarhuna. Tarhuna is located southeast of Tripoli. Around the same time LNA air defense reportedly shot down an UAV at Tenai near Bani Walid. A tweet reported that an Italian helicopter landed on the shore near Tripoli, in a tweet that has since been deleted. However, a photograph remains of the purported helicopter about to land. The GNA said that the situation in Tripoli…

A newly-established Iraqi armed group identifying itself as Qabdat al-Hudaa (QH) has threatened the American and British ambassadors in the capital, Baghdad. In a statement released on April 9, the mysterious group called on both ambassadors to depart the country within 48 hours, vowing to kill them “According to information we received, the American forces of evil are planning to carry out an attack against the blessed Islamic resistance factions and the Iraqi people, so we tell them that out eyes are monitoring you in everywhere, and to the American and British ambassadors in Baghdad [we say] if you don’t…

Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and militant group, has played a key role in Syria’s fight against a broad collection of terrorist groups in recent years. At the same time, the group is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and its US and European allies. The Israeli military has published a video which it says shows a meeting between a senior Syrian military commander and Hezbollah militia somewhere in Syria, warning that Tel Aviv “won’t allow” the militia “to entrench itself militarily” in the Arab Republic. “Look closely. See the man with white hair? That’s the head of the…

The first confirmed Covid-19 case has been recorded in war-torn Yemen as the devastated nation braces for the pandemic to hit. A local health official has warned that up to 90 percent of the population could become infected. The first case of the disease was recorded in the large eastern Hadhramaut Province, the country’s emergency committee to combat Covid-19 announced on Friday. The patient is in stable condition and is receiving treatment, the officials said. Yemen has been devastated by a bloody civil war, which began after the Houthi rebel movement toppled President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who went into exile…

Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi says Iran is worried about the lives of nearly 6,000 Palestinian prisoners kept in Israeli jails as well as the people of the Gaza Strip who are living in the “world’s biggest prison” amid the coronavirus outbreak. “Today, nearly 5,800 Palestinian men and women are imprisoned by the Zionists, and we are worried about their lives, especially given the fact that over 200 women and children are jailed undersuch worrying situation,” Raisi said. Speaking in a phone conversation with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, Raisi said the release of Palestinian inmates innocently jailed by the Zionist regime is more…

Yemen has reported its first case of infection with the novel coronavirus in a southern province under the control of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to the country’s former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. This has raised fears of an outbreak in an impoverished country where five years of a bloody campaign led by the regime in Riyadh have shattered the health system. The supreme national emergency committee for COVID-19 in Yemen said in a posting on its Twitter page on Friday that the case was diagnosed in the oil-producing Hadhramaut province. The committee said the infected patient has been identified in…

The Afghan government has reported that they released 100 Taliban prisoners on Wednesday, a move that came a day after the Taliban ended talks with them trying to secure the releases, declaring it to be a waste of time. The first releases of prisoners, 5,000 of which were promised in the US peace deal, was supposed to begin weeks ago. The Ghani government has repeatedly delayed releases since then, arguing that the Taliban can’t be trusted. The Taliban hasn’t been able to confirm the release yet, but they could either take the lesson that the Ghani government is slowly coming around, or…

Lebanese Prime Minister Dr. Hassan Diab received on Wednesday morning the Commander of the International Emergency Forces operating in southern Lebanon, General Stefano Del Cole in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Zina Akar, the Director of Intelligence in the Lebanese Army, and Brigadier Tony Mansour. “The situation is stable along the Blue Line,” Del Cole said. Diab said he “sent complaints about Israel’s violation of Lebanese airspace to the United Nations Secretariat and the UN Security Council,” stressing “the need to end Israeli violations with the help of the Security Council.” In turn, Diab expressed…

The Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) forces announced on Wednesday, the arrival of a ship from Egypt to Libya carrying military equipment for the Libyan National Army (LNA). The media center for the “Anger Volcano” operation, which is being carried out by the GNA to repel the LNA attack on the capital, Tripoli, in a brief statement via Facebook that the ship arrived from Egypt to the port of Tobruk on Wednesday. The GNA forces stated that the ship had transported “40 containers containing military supplies and quantities of ammunition” and that it had been supplied to what it…

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a raft of US sanctions do not stop humanitarian aid from reaching Tehran, even as the UN and rights groups say the penalties are crippling Iran’s healthcare system. “I’ve heard people talking about sanctions. The world should know there are no sanctions that prevent humanitarian assistance, medical supplies, pharmaceuticals from going to Iran,” Pompeo told reporters at a White House briefing on Wednesday, adding that the US offered to send aid but Iran refused. Tehran has repeatedly slammed the US pressure campaign – which makes effectively impossible the bank transactions necessary to purchase vital supplies…