Author: Philip Issa
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US pulls nonessential staff from Iraq amid Mideast tensions
BAGHDAD • The U.S. on Wednesday ordered nonessential government staff to leave Iraq, and Germany and the Netherlands both suspended their military assistance programs in the country in the latest sign of tensions sweeping the Persian Gulf region over still-unspecified threats that the Trump administration says are linked to Iran. Recent days have seen allegations…
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Israel shoots down Syrian jet; Syrian forces reach Golan
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save BEIRUT — Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet it said had breached its airspace on Tuesday while advancing Syrian government forces retaking territory from rebels reached the Golan Heights frontier for the first time in seven years. The Israeli military said it monitored the…
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UN team fired on at suspected Syria chemical attack site
BEIRUT — Assailants opened fire at a U.N. security team visiting the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, an official said Wednesday, forcing it to retreat to its base and further delaying a fact-finding mission by outside experts to examine the claims. Gunmen shot at the U.N. team in Douma on Tuesday…
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Syrian rescuers, medics say gas attack near capital kills dozens
BEIRUT — Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said Sunday that a poison gas attack on a rebel-held town near the capital killed at least 40 people, allegations denied by the Syrian government. The alleged attack in the town of Douma occurred late Saturday amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of…
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Syrian media claims Israel attacked installation near Damascus
BEIRUT — An apparent Israeli missile attack on a Syrian military installation near Damascus International Airport shook the capital early on Thursday morning and raised tensions between the two hostile neighbors. The Syrian military said in a statement that the attack, which could be felt at least 15 kilometers (9 miles) away, was carried out…
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US: Errant strike killed 18 allied Syrian forces
BEIRUT — A misdirected airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition earlier this week killed 18 allied fighters battling the Islamic State group in northern Syria, the U.S. military said Thursday. U.S. Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, for the strike on Tuesday that…
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UN Security Council to discuss suspected chemical attack in Syria
BEIRUT — A suspected chemical attack in a town in Syria’s rebel-held northern Idlib province killed dozens of people on Tuesday, opposition activists said, describing the attack as among the worst in the country’s six-year civil war. Eyewitnesses said the attack was carried out by jets operated by the Russian and Syrian governments, but both…
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Aleppo cease-fire collapses, threatening evacuation plans
BEIRUT — A cease-fire deal between rebels and the Syrian government in the city of Aleppo effectively collapsed on Wednesday, with fighter jets resuming deadly air raids over the opposition’s densely crowded enclave in the east of the city. The attacks threatened to scuttle plans to evacuate rebels and tens thousands of civilians out of…