Author: Steven Sahiounie

By: Jerome Hughes Anti-war groups are expressing disbelief that NATO defense ministers have agreed to actually increase military personnel numbers in Iraq. Last month, Iraq’s parliament passed a resolution calling on the government to expel foreign troops from the country as Iran-US tensions escalated following the killing of a top Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani, and the Iraqi armed group leader in a US airstrike in Baghdad. Perhaps that’s why the announcement to enhance NATO’s military presence was made somewhat sheepishly.  Donald Trump is also calling the shots when it comes to NATO’s military spending. The defense ministers signed off…

Thousands of Algerians marched on Friday, a year since the start of weekly protests calling for a complete overhaul of the ruling elite, an end to corruption, and the army’s withdrawal from politics. “We will not stop,” chanted a crowd in the center of the capital, Algiers, despite a large police presence. Over the past year, the protesters have changed the face of Algeria’s power structure, causing the fall of a veteran president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and the arrest of dozens of leading figures, including a once-untouchable former intelligence chief. However, while the new president has released people detained in the protests, set…

The conflict between the US military and Syrians occurred on 12 February at a checkpoint in a village east of the town of Qamishli in north-eastern Syria. The footage shows a military convoy carrying US flags moving along the road. From the side of buildings, local residents start throwing stones at the military vehicles. According to the official military spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) Myles Caggins, the incident came after US-led coalition forces were blocked at a checkpoint.

Saudi Arabian authorities have launched a new campaign of “arbitrary” arrests against Palestinian expatriates living in the conservative kingdom on charges of supporting the Hamas resistance movement. The Prisoners of Conscience, a non-governmental organization advocating human rights in Saudi Arabia, announced in a post on its official Twitter page that the kingdom had detained a number of Palestinians, including the relatives or children of those imprisoned last April for the same reason. On October 21 last year, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Arabic-language Shehab news agency in an exclusive interview that Palestinians being held at prisons and detention centers in Saudi Arabia…

Moscow has called for restraint after a Turkish parliamentarian blamed Russia for the recent deaths of Turkish troops in clashes with Syrian government forces attempting to liberate the militant-held Idlib province. Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP), had argued in the Turkish parliament that Moscow and Damascus were responsible for the deaths of 13 Turkish soldiers over the past week. “We consider it unacceptable to use the tragic events to ‘score points’ in the domestic political debate,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday, adding that Turkish lawmakers ought to “refrain from provocative comments,…

Syria’s air defenses have thwarted a missile attack, intercepting several “hostile targets” launched towards the capital, Damascus, Syrian state media reported. The attack reportedly did not result in any damage or casualties. “The hostile missiles came from the occupied Golan… and they were downed before they reached their targets,” a military source said, as cited by Syrian SANA news agency. The agency reported earlier, citing its own correspondent, that the missiles came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel, which usually does not comment on its bombing incursions into Syria, is known to have repeatedly struck the Damascus countryside,…

by Demond Cureton The Chinese telecoms giant hit back at US officials publishing an alleged ‘bombshell’ report accusing them of using secret technology to spy on its customers. The news comes as tensions grow between the US and European allies as member-states have announced they will not block Huawei on 5G cooperation. Huawei Technologies slammed a Wall Street Journal report stating that the tech giant has a capability to extract data from mobile networks using “backdoors” in their 5G equipment, Huawei Central reported on Thursday. “The Wall Street Journal is clearly aware that the US government can’t provide any evidence to support their allegations,…

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have been simmering for over a month now after a US drone strike assassinated Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3. Meanwhile, this week, Iran and Israel once again exchanged threats, this time regarding one another’s operations in Syria. The US assassination of long-time Revolutionary Guards Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Shia militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis will lead to the “liberation of Jerusalem” from Israel, IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Ramezan Sharif has announced. “The cowardly and craven assassination of commander Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by the Americans will lead to the liberation…

There have been no immediate reports of casualties. A rocket attack hit an Iraqi base in the province of Kirkuk where US troops are stationed, AFP reported, citing Iraqi and US security sources. The Katyusha rocket hit the base at about 8:45 local time (17:45 GMT), the agency added, quoting three separate Iraqi security sources. No reports of casualties have been made so far. The base is located 15 km to the northwest of Kirkuk and it houses US military forces as well as Iraqi forces from the Federal Police and Counter-Terrorism Service. Last time the K1 base was attacked was on…

A financier of the Daesh terror group*, who has raised over 25 million rubles ($3.94 million) for the needs of terrorists, has been detained in the Moscow region, the Russian Federal Security Service said on Friday. “We have thwarted the activity of a member of an undercover cell that raised and transported funds for the needs of the Daesh,” the Federal Security Service said in a press release. The service added it had exposed the scheme of Daesh funding, through which over 25 million rubles had been raised. A criminal case has been opened against the detained financier, who is…