MIDDLE EAST

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that extremists belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) would have reached Beirut if it were not for his party’s decision to send fighters to Syria. During a meeting of al-Mahdi Scouts Association on Sunday, he said, “Had we not interfered in Syria at the appropriate moment, ISIL would …

Syria on Sunday freed former horse rider Adnan Qassar, said to be a rival horse rider of one of President Bashar Assad’s late brothers, after spending 21 years in jail. Qassar’s release is part of an amnesty Assad decreed last week – around 1,500 people have so far been freed from Syrian prisons due to the amnesty, the Syrian Observatory …

Clashes between Shi’ite Huthi groups and government forces in Northern Yemen have led to the deaths of several dozen people in the past 24 hours after a ceasefire between both parties had collapsed, military and tribal sources said. According to sources, the fighting began on Sunday, and continued intermittently on Monday near the Jabal al-Dhine region, a mountainous area around …

On Monday, Kuwait’s Prime Minister and a senior Royal filed two different lawsuits at the Attorney General’s office, demanding an inquiry into allegations of a coup plotted against the government and a massive corruption scandal. Kuwait was shaken about two months ago when news of videotapes allegedly showing several former government officials plotting a coup surfaced, and only last week, …

Security forces battled against militants for control over a strategic location in northern Iraq on Monday, thereby forcing half the region’s population to abandon their homes. Meanwhile, the United States of America have mulled over the thought of using drone strikes against the militant forces leading the charge. John Kerry, US Secretary of State, said that he was also willing …

On Wednesday, Yemeni warplanes struck tribesmen suspected of damaging power lines on Tuesday, an act that left the country without any electricity and caused angry protests in the capital city of Sana’a. Officials had also accused the tribesmen of blocking the road that connects Sana’a to the province of Marib to the east, thus making it almost impossible to carry …

An Egyptian court on Wednesday handed a 15-year jail sentence to leading activist Alaa Abdel Fattah for violating a protest law, among other charges, Fattah’s lawyer said. 33-year-old Fattah became a symbol of the uprising against Hosni Mubarak in 2011 due to his prominent role in demonstrations and on social media. The court handed out 24 other people the same …

On Wednesday, the United States of America vowed to increase aid to Iraq, after scrambling to respond to a Jihadist offensive that has already captured two Iraqi cities and is heading towards Baghdad. Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the State Department, said that the United States is committed to “working with the Iraqi government and leaders across Iraq to support a …

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat on Wednesday called for immediate international action against Israel regarding its detention of over a 100 Palestinians who have been on a hunger strike since they were held without charges. “I am writing on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization and President Mahmud Abbas to request your immediate intervention on behalf of the approximately 130 …

Jihadists on Tuesday seized control of the Iraqi city of Mosul, and the surrounding province of Nineveh. The move is a major blow for the government as it questions its competence while combating militant forces. The pre-dominantly Sunni Muslim province of Nineveh has for a long time been a militant bastion, and one the Iraq’s most dangerous province. Iraqi Prime …