Syria’s new leader remains an al Qaeda operative Those celebrating the fall of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad are feeling the need to whitewash his replacement’s bloody past. 12/13/2024 - 10:49 am | View Link
Top Biden Aides Head to Mideast in Diplomatic Push on Syria, Gaza WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's top aides were heading to the Middle East on Wednesday seeking to advance efforts to reach an elusive Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal and help ensure ... 12/11/2024 - 4:46 am | View Link
Syrian rebel leader who toppled Assad has roots in al Qaeda, but says he’s reformed — could all be a ‘smoke show?’ The military chief leading Syria’s rebel forces who ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has roots in Islamic extremist groups — including past ties al Qaeda. Now, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — who ... 12/9/2024 - 11:08 am | View Link
Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani: former al Qaeda chief who led overthrow of Syria's Assad? As the commander of al Qaeda's franchise in the Syrian civil war, Abu Mohammed al-Golani was a shadowy figure who kept out of the public eye, even when his group became the most powerful faction ... 12/8/2024 - 3:45 am | View Link
Who Is the Leader of Syria’s Rebel Offensive? By Sunday, rebels were celebrating in Syria’s capital, Damascus, and declared it free of Mr. al-Assad. Syria’s longtime leader left the country after holding talks with “several parties of the armed ... 12/8/2024 - 12:15 am | View Link
On a gray, blustery November afternoon in Detroit, John Kish watches vigilantly as his four-year-old grandson, also named John, frolics on a towering play slide. If the day was sunny, there might be a line to use it, but given the weather, they have it to themselves.
“It’s a long climb, but it gives them something to do,” Kish says, laughing, as the youngster carefully crosses a bridge within the structure.
Will the second Trump Administration greenlight Israeli annexation of the West Bank? Several of the President-elect’s recent appointments have suggested at least a friendliness to the idea. Donald Trump’s choice for U. S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who has said in the past that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” has told Israel’s Army Radio that “of course” Israeli annexation is a possibility, though nothing has been decided.
MOSCOW — An explosive device planted close to a residential apartment block in Moscow killed the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces, Lt. General Igor Kirillov, early Tuesday, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
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Kirillov’s assistant also died in the blast, triggered by the device which was placed in a scooter, officials said.
The bomb was triggered remotely, Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing unnamed sources in the emergency services.
Russian investigators have opened a case into the two deaths, according to the committee’s spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko.
“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” she said in a statement.
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Every dramatic development in the Middle East this year has left Iran weaker. In 2024, the Islamic Republic lost in Gaza, in Lebanon, and, most spectacularly, in the Syrian Arab Republic, the linchpin of the “Shiite Crescent” collapsing so quickly this month that Tehran had to scramble to evacuate its officers of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force.
(BERLIN) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament on Monday, putting the European Union’s most populous member and biggest economy on course to hold an early election in February.
Scholz won the support of 207 lawmakers in the 733-seat lower house, or Bundestag, while 394 voted against him and 116 abstained.