Author: Steven Sahiounie

Palestinian people in Gaza Strip have staged an anti-occupation rally despite concerns about the spread of coronavirus. The Monday rally was held in the besieged enclave on the anniversary of the Palestinian Land Day, which is marked on March 30 every year. From March 30, 2018 onward, Palestinians in Gaza have held weekly “Great March of Return” protest rallies against the Israeli occupation of their lands, demanding the return of those driven out of their homeland by Israeli aggression during the past decades. According to the Palestinian Information center, Israeli forces have killed some 350 protesters during the weekly demonstrations.…

Iraqi resistance forces say they stand fully ready to confront any possible act of aggression by the US military, which is widely reported to be gearing up for operations against the positions of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) — an elite pro-government anti-terror force. Mohammed Muhyee, spokesman for the Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades), which is a major PMU faction, warned on Monday that the latest activities by the American occupation forces in Iraq were “not accidental,” the Arabic-language Almaalomah news agency reported. He said Washington considered Kata’ib Hezbollah the main obstacle to its schemes in Iraq, and therefore sought to…

Both sides of the Russian-Turkish commission monitoring the implementation of the Syrian truce has recorded no ceasefire violations in Syria over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defence Ministry said in its daily bulletin on Monday. “The Russian side of the Russian-Turkish joint commission reviewing issues related to the ceasefire violation has not recorded any cases of truce breaches. The Turkish side has not registered any cases of firing”, the bulletin said. In a separate bulletin, the ministry reported that no Syrian refugees had returned to their home country from foreign states over the last 24 hours Additionally, the Syrian army engineering…

On 29 March, the Saudi military shot down three rockets during attempted strikes on the capital city of Riyadh and the port city of Jazan, near the border with Yemen, the broadcaster Al-Arabiya reported. The Saudi-led coalition has carried out several strikes on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, Reuters reported citing witnesses. A military spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed a day earlier that the group targeted Riyadh and several southern Saudi cities with drones and rockets overnight. The attacks were reportedly launched in retaliation for airstrikes by the Saudi-led military coalition on Houthi positions in Yemen’s capital Sanaa and areas close to…

On Sunday, the US-led coalition officially handed over the K1 Air Base in northern Iraq’s Kirkuk province to the Iraqi Army in a pre-planned move that they said was unrelated to recent attacks by Shiite militias against Iraqi bases hosting foreign troops. The US-led international coalition’s headquarters in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh near the Syrian border has been transferred to Iraq’s army, the country’s Baghdad Al Youm news outlet reports. According to Baghdad Al Youm, the coalition forces transferred the Nineveh headquarters on Monday as part of the process of withdrawing foreign troops from some Iraqi provinces. At…

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is coordinating closely with Turkey, including processing samples in Turkish laboratories to prevent COVID-19 from spreading into northwestern Syria, the head of the WHO’s operation in northwestern Syria has said in an interview. “WHO’s work in northwest Syria is based on a Security Council resolution that permits delivery of humanitarian relief from across Turkey’s border into NW Syria. In the context of the pandemic, WHO is working closely with Turkish authorities on access, coordination, and processing of samples in Turkish laboratories”, Mahmoud Daher said. The WHO official also stressed that their operation in government-controlled areas…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator While the COVID-19 pandemic has taken center stage of the global media, there is little attention paid to a tragedy playing out in southeastern Syria.  Far away from the western media coverage of the “Islamic State of Idlib”, the scene is set in a desolate area on the border between Syria and Iraq, adjacent to the illegal US military base of ‘Al Tanf’.  The ‘Rukban Camp’ holds 13,500 Syrian civilians, who are displaced, and 6,000 armed Radical Islamic terrorists of Maghawir Al-Thawra and their families.   On March 28 the Russian-Syrian Coordination Committee released a…

Late on March 29, Turkish-backed militants attacked several positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern Raqqa countryside. The attack was carried out by the 20th Division of the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA). SDF positions in the vicinity of the town of Sayda, on the strategic M4 highway, were the main target of the attack. Suhib Jabber, a spokesman for the 20th Division, told the Nedaa Syria outlet that many fighters of the SDF were killed or injured in the attack. A truck-mounted 23 mm machine gun and other vehicles were also destroyed, according to the spokesman’s claims. The…

The Houthis announced on March 29 that they had carried out the “largest ever” special operation against Saudi Arabia. In an official statement, the group’s spokesman said “sensitive” targets in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, were targeted with Zulfiqar missiles and Samad-3 suicide drones The Houthis’ Air Force and Missile Force also targeted economic and military targets in the southern Saudi provinces of Jizan, Najran and Asir. Many Badir-1 artillery rockets and Qasef-2K suicide drones were used in the attack. “We promise the Saudi regime with painful and hurtful operations if it continues its aggression and blockade on our country,” the…

Libyan government forces have launched an attack on rebel forces commanded by renegade general Khalifa Haftar, killing a number of their top commanders in an airstrike on the country’s volatile north. Muhammad Gununu, a spokesman for government forces, said early on Sunday that the airstrike had targeted a commanding center of the so-called Libyan National Army led by Haftar near the al-Washka area on the outskirts of the northern coastal city of Sirte, according to Turkey’s Anadolu. Gununu said the attack killed 10 high-ranking commanders at the site, including Salem Deriaq — the commander of a rebel offensive that led…