Author: Steven Sahiounie

On June 5, unidentified gunmen attacked two soldiers of the Turkish Armed Forces in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib. According to the Step News Agency, the attack took place on a road between the town of Sarmin and Idlib city, less than 2 km away from a checkpoint manned by militants of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). “Turkish forces found two soldiers who were shot, one of whom was dead and the other in critical condition,” Step’s reporter in Idlib, Omar al-Omar, said. The dead service member was reportedly shot in the head, while the other received a…

Late on June 5, a large explosion rocked the Turkish-occupied town of Ras al-Ain in the northern countryside of Syria’s al-Hasakah. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a booby-trapped vehicle exploded near the al-Hasakah roundabout in the center of Ras al-Ain. “Two civilians, one of them a child, were martyred as an initial toll, and seven others were injured, some of them sustained dangerous wounds,” the monitoring group said in a report. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, yet. Kurdish forces are usually blamed for such bombings. However, ISIS or other terrorist groups may…

Currently, the number of US troops permanently assigned in Germany is 34,500. US President Donald Trump has directed the Department of Defence to remove 9,500 US troops from Germany by September, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing US government officials. Trump also ordered to reduce the total number of US troops that may be stationed in Germany at any one time from 52,000 to 25,000, the paper said. Discussions about the reduction of US troops in Germany started in September and the move is not linked to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision not to take part in the G7 summit…

Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem opened on Sunday, it was closed for 70 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Live feed from outside Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem as Friday prayers restart following the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Al-Aqsa Mosque is located in the Old City of Jerusalem, and is considered the third holiest site in Islam. A week ago the country lifted the last serious restrictions associated with the coronavirus. Cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars and swimming pools reopened.

Syrian air defences repelled a reported Israeli missile attack over the city of Masyaf in Syria’s Hama province on Thursday night, with multiple missiles shot down by air defences while others hit the outskirts of the city. Palestinian political force and militant group Hamas has sharply condemned Thursday’s missile attack on Syria, allegedly carried out by Israel, accusing Tel Aviv of targeting Muslims across the region and being egged on by the United States. “The attack on the Syrian territories proves that the Zionist project has set the entire Muslim world as its target, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said, as quoted…

The incident comes amid ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran in the Persian Gulf region, which began last year with mysterious sabotage attacks against several oil tankers off the Emirati coast. Iranian cargo ship the Behbahan has sunk in Iraq’s territorial waters, Maritime Safety and Port Protection Organization director Nader Pasandeh confirmed Friday. One crew member of the ship is said to have died in the incident, with two others missing, and four people rescued, the official said, as cited by Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency. The two missing persons include one Iranian and one Indian national. According to Pasandeh, the…

Ordinary Syrians are the ones who are most deeply harmed by the “illegal and inhumane” sanctions administered by the United States and the European Union against Damascus, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Friday. “The most negative consequences of the sanctions will be on the Syrian people and ordinary citizens,” Mousavi said, as quoted by the official Tehran-based IRNA news agency. Mousavi called on the US and the EU to lift all restrictions against Damascus and also expressed Iran’s support for the Syrian government and people. On 28 May, the EU Council extended restrictions against the Syrian government…

Earlier on Friday, Prague announced the expulsion of two Russian diplomats amid allegations of a plot to bring ricin poison to the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic will face a proportional response to the expulsion of two Russian embassy employees, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Prague acted dishonourably and unworthily, taking this unfriendly step, the ministry’s statement says. Moscow added that Prague’s actions in relation to the expelled Russians would be taken into account while deciding on Russia’s policy towards the Czech Republic. Prague announced earlier in the day that it was expelling two Russian diplomats over reports that a Russian…

Facebook says it plan to label media outlets which it says are “government-run”. But Facebook said it would not label any US media outlets because it believes they all have editorial independence. Is that true? In an interview on Thursday, 4 June, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the California-based social media giant would begin to label foreign “state-controlled media outlets” like Russia’s Sputnik News, Xinhua News from China and Iran’s Press TV. He said: “We’re providing greater transparency into these publishers because they combine the influence of a media organization with the strategic backing of a state, and…

Relations between the two economic superpowers have sunk to new lows in recent months, with Washington and Beijing sparring over who’s to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, and engaged in separate spats on the Hong Kong protests, technology theft and trade. US President Donald Trump says he doesn’t know whether China and the US will be able to get along after Beijing gave America the “very bad gift” of the coronavirus. “Getting along with China would be a good thing. I don’t know if that’s gonna happen. I think they want to get along very much with us,” Trump said, speaking…