Author: Steven Sahiounie

At least 12 people were killed, and 15 more wounded: In non-protest-related violence: An ISIS attack on a police outpost at an oil facility in Baiji left four solders dead and another wounded. One militant was also killed. In Mukhisa, a sniper killed a soldier. A bomb wounded three soldiers. Two people were killed and another was wounded during an ISIS attack in Shoura. Gunmen killed a militiaman and wounded three more in the Hamrin region. In Baghdad, a motorcycle bomb wounded three people in the Bayaa neighborhood. Four people were wounded when a bomb on a motorcycle blew up in Shoala. At least one person was killed in the bombings. These attacks do not appear to be related to protests. Protest News: Gunmen killed…

Hostilities between the United States and its Arab allies, on one side, and Iran, on the other side, shaped this year’s political landscape in the Middle East and brought the region to the brink of an armed conflict. Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, has warned that the possibility of a military conflict in the Middle East persists, even though the escalation of tensions stopped in the past two months. Prince Turki spoke to reporters on Friday as he visited London to promote an exhibition about his father, the late King Faisal. “We have seen…

Militant groups have recruited dozens of former French soldiers, a troubling new report revealed less than three months after a terrorist attack by a staff member at police headquarters in Paris shocked the nation. More than a third of the ex-servicemen are converts to the Wahhabi Islam promoted by Saudi Arabia and groups like Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) and nearly half served in the elite Foreign Legion, parachute, commando or marine units where they acquired expertise in combat and handling weapons and explosives. The conservative newspaper Le Figaro published excerpts on Wednesday from the forthcoming report by the Center for…

By: Drago Bosnic Bolivia’s toppled President Evo Morales warned against regime change plots orchestrated and led at the US diplomatic missions against national governments across the world, just weeks after he won re-election but was forced to resign following a pseudo-coup by the US-backed opposition and armed forces.Can You Afford These Delicacies?InspiredotAd by RevcontentFind Out More > “When I became president in 2006 and 2007, a brother, a victim of the military dictatorship, now exiled, told me, ‘President Evo! watch out, for the united states embassy’,” Morales told The Intercept host Glenn Greenwald in an exclusive interview.“And when I asked…

The United Nations Security Council met Friday to vote on two rival resolutions concerning cross-border aid to Syria, with neither managing to receive the necessary support. Russian UN representative Vasily Nebenzya has expressed disappointment over the Security Council’s move to reject a Russian resolution on cross-border humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria, saying the resolution’s defeat leaves ordinary Syrians at risk. “To be sure, there were no winners today; there are only losers. These are ordinary Syrians who risk being left without assistance in the future,” Nebenzya said, his remarks published on the Russian UN mission’s website. On Friday, the Security Council failed to…

Saudi Arabia has reportedly deployed dozens of combat troops to a major oilfield in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr as the United States and some of its regional allies are vying with one another to seize oil reserves and plunder natural resources in the war-battered country. Informed local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Arabic service of Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency that the Saudi soldiers arrived at Omar oil field aboard helicopters. The sources added that the troops are expected to guard Saudi and Egyptian experts, who arrived at the energy facility a week ago and are believed to…

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) shelled on December 21 a Turkish military convoy that was moving in the southern Idlib countryside. Iba’a, the main news network of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), said that the Syrian artillery pounded the Turkish convoy while it was passing near the town of Kafar Aweed. Opposition sources confirmed the incident. After the attack, the convoy headed to the Turkish observation post near the town of Shir Mughar in northwest Hama, according to local activists. This indicates that the alleged shelling didn’t result in any real losses. A day earlier, the Turkish military’s main observation…

Turkish snipers and storm groups are fighting in the ranks of Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital of Tripoli, a military source in the rival Libyan National Army (LNA) said. “We saw Turkish soldiers fighting on the ground in the direction of Khallet al-Furjan in Tripoli among the GNA armed militias. We saw them with our own eyes… snipers and Turkish storming groups,” the source said. According to the source, the LNA units gain control over new positions in Tripoli daily. “The progress is slow but continuous,” the source added. Earlier in the day, media reported that…

Syria’s Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources said that terrorists had carried out three attacks on oil and gas facilities in the central part of Syria. According to a Facebook post by Syria’s Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources, three oil and gas facilities – the Homs refinery, a gas plant south of the province, and the Al-Rayyan gas station were attacked late Friday, which caused damage to production units. The firefighting teams belonging to the Ministry of Oil supported firefighting units to extinguish the blaze, while the technical workers began repairing operations shortly after the incident. No terrorist group…

By Nauman Sadiq Since the planting of limpet mines on oil tankers off the coast of the UAE in May, the subsequent downing of the US surveillance drone in the Persian Gulf and the brazen attack on the Abqaiq petroleum facility and the Khurais oil field in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia on September 14, choreographed protests have erupted in Lebanon and Iraq since October. Lebanese American journalist Rania Khalek has documented for The Gray Zone [1] the US-backed political forces are spearheading the “color revolution” in Lebanon, where Iran-backed resistance group Hezbollah is part of the coalition government. Similarly, Iraq has been through…