You are here

  • Home
  • Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Security Council announces arrest of top aide of former Daesh leader

Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Security Council announces arrest of top aide of former Daesh leader

Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Security Council announces arrest of top aide of former Daesh leader
The Kurdish Regional Security Council announced in a statement on Friday that it captured a senior Daesh figure, Socrates Khalil. (AFP/File)
Short Url

https://arab.news/2w4hr

Updated 17 May 2024
Reuters
Follow

Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Security Council announces arrest of top aide of former Daesh leader

Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Security Council announces arrest of top aide of former Daesh leader
  • Khalil made bombs for the Daesh and was entrusted by Al-Baghdadi with various major operations
Updated 17 May 2024
Reuters
Follow

BAGHDAD: The Kurdish Regional Security Council announced in a statement on Friday that it captured a senior Daesh figure, Socrates Khalil.
Khalil was known to be a confidant of the late Daesh leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
“After spending five years in Turkiye, Khalil returned to Kurdistan with a forged passport and was swiftly apprehended,” the statement said.
Khalil made bombs for the Daesh and was entrusted by Al-Baghdadi with various major operations, the statement added, saying that he was instrumental in the 2014 Daesh takeover of Mosul, and participated in many battles against Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga forces.

Topics: Iraq Daesh Kurdish Regional Security Council Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

Related

Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq
Middle-East
Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq
Iraqi security forces stand guard in the capital Baghdad. (AFP file photo)
Middle-East
Five Iraqi soldiers killed in Daesh attack, sources say

Iraq PM says Mosul airport to open in June, 10 years after Daesh capture

Iraq PM says Mosul airport to open in June, 10 years after Daesh capture
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Iraq PM says Mosul airport to open in June, 10 years after Daesh capture

Iraq PM says Mosul airport to open in June, 10 years after Daesh capture
  • On June 10, 2014, the Daesh group seized Mosul
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani on Sunday ordered for the inauguration of the airport in second city Mosul to be held in June, marking 11 years since Islamists took over the city.
On June 10, 2014, the Daesh group seized Mosul, declaring its “caliphate” from there 19 days later after capturing large swathes of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
After years of fierce battles, Iraqi forces backed by a US-led international coalition dislodged the group from Mosul in July 2017, before declaring its defeat across the country at the end of that year.
In a Sunday statement, Sudani’s office said the premier directed during a visit there “for the airport’s opening to be on June 10, coinciding with the anniversary of Mosul’s occupation, as a message of defiance in the face of terrorism.”
Over 80 percent of the airport’s runway and terminals have been completed, according to the statement.
Mosul’s airport had been completely destroyed in the fighting.
In August 2022, then-prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi laid the foundation stone for the airport’s reconstruction.
Sudani’s office also announced on Sunday the launch of a project to rehabilitate the western bank of the Tigris in Mosul, affirming that “Iraq is secure and stable and on the right path.”

Topics: Iraq Mosul

Related

‘A symbol of resilience’ — workers in Iraq complete reconstruction of famous Mosul minaret
Middle-East
‘A symbol of resilience’ — workers in Iraq complete reconstruction of famous Mosul minaret
WATCH: Rebuilding of Mosul’s famous leaning minaret nears completion video
Middle-East
WATCH: Rebuilding of Mosul’s famous leaning minaret nears completion

Turkiye’s top diplomat meets Syria’s new leader in Damascus

Turkiye’s top diplomat meets Syria’s new leader in Damascus
Updated 22 December 2024
AFP
Follow

Turkiye’s top diplomat meets Syria’s new leader in Damascus

Turkiye’s top diplomat meets Syria’s new leader in Damascus
  • Hakan Fidan had announced on Friday that he planned to travel to Damascus to meet Syria’s new leaders
  • Turkiye’s spy chief Ibrahim Kalin had earlier visited the city on December 12, just a few days after Bashar Assad’s fall
Updated 22 December 2024
AFP

ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Ankara’s foreign ministry said.
A video released by the Anadolu state news agency showed the two men greeting each other.
No details of where the meeting took place in the Syrian capital were released by the ministry.
Fidan had announced on Friday that he planned to travel to Damascus to meet Syria’s new leaders, who ousted Syria’s strongman Bashar Assad after a lightning offensive.
Turkiye’s spy chief Ibrahim Kalin had earlier visited the city on December 12, just a few days after Assad’s fall.
Kalin was filmed leaving the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, surrounded by bodyguards, as broadcast by the private Turkish channel NTV.
Turkiye has been a key backer of the opposition to Assad since the uprising against his rule began in 2011.
Besides supporting various militant groups, it has welcomed Syrian dissenters and millions of refugees.
However, Fidan has rejected claims by US president-elect Donald Trump that the militants’ victory in Syria constituted an “unfriendly takeover” of the country by Turkiye.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Turkiye Ahmed Al-Sharaa

Related

Turkey says it has no preconditions for dialogue with Syria
Middle-East
Turkey says it has no preconditions for dialogue with Syria
Special Turkey shelves Syrian offensive after Russian objection
Middle-East
Turkey shelves Syrian offensive after Russian objection

Syria’s de facto ruler reassures minorities, meets Lebanese Druze leader

Syria’s de facto ruler reassures minorities, meets Lebanese Druze leader
Updated 22 December 2024
Reuters
Follow

Syria’s de facto ruler reassures minorities, meets Lebanese Druze leader

Syria’s de facto ruler reassures minorities, meets Lebanese Druze leader
  • Ahmed Al-Sharaa said no sects would be excluded in Syria in what he described as ‘a new era far removed from sectarianism’
  • Walid Jumblatt said at the meeting that Assad’s ouster should usher in new constructive relations between Lebanon and Syria
Updated 22 December 2024
Reuters

Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmed Al-Sharaa hosted Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt on Sunday in another effort to reassure minorities they will be protected after Islamist militants led the ouster of Bashar Assad two weeks ago.
Sharaa said no sects would be excluded in Syria in what he described as “a new era far removed from sectarianism.”
Sharaa heads the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the main group that forced Assad out on Dec. 8. Some Syrians and foreign powers have worried he may impose strict Islamic governance on a country with numerous minority groups such as Druze, Kurds, Christians and Alawites.
“We take pride in our culture, our religion and our Islam. Being part of the Islamic environment does not mean the exclusion of other sects. On the contrary, it is our duty to protect them,” he said during the meeting with Jumblatt, in comments broadcast by Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed.
Jumblatt, a veteran politician and prominent Druze leader, said at the meeting that Assad’s ouster should usher in new constructive relations between Lebanon and Syria. Druze are an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam.
Sharaa, dressed in a suit and tie rather than the military fatigues he favored in his militant days, also said he would send a government delegation to the southwestern Druze city of Sweida, pledging to provide services to its community and highlighting Syria’s “rich diversity of sects.”
Seeking to allay worries about the future of Syria, Sharaa has hosted numerous foreign visitors in recent days, and has vowed to prioritize rebuilding Syria, devastated by 13 years of civil war.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Ahmed Al-Sharaa

Related

Analysis What Israel’s capture of Syrian territory as Assad fell signifies for the Middle East
Middle-East
What Israel’s capture of Syrian territory as Assad fell signifies for the Middle East
Syria’s new rulers name HTS commander as defense minister
Middle-East
Syria’s new rulers name HTS commander as defense minister

Pope Francis again condemns ‘cruelty’ of Israeli strikes on Gaza

Pope Francis again condemns ‘cruelty’ of Israeli strikes on Gaza
Updated 22 December 2024
AFP
Follow

Pope Francis again condemns ‘cruelty’ of Israeli strikes on Gaza

Pope Francis again condemns ‘cruelty’ of Israeli strikes on Gaza
  • Comes a day after the pontiff lamented an Israeli airstrike that killed seven children from one family on Friday
  • ‘And with pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty’
Updated 22 December 2024
AFP

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis doubled down Sunday on his condemnation of Israel’s strikes on the Gaza Strip, denouncing their “cruelty” for the second time in as many days despite Israel accusing him of “double standards.”
“And with pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty,” the pope said after his weekly Angelus prayer.
It comes a day after the 88-year-old Argentine lamented an Israeli airstrike that killed seven children from one family on Friday, according to Gaza’s rescue agency.
“Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” the pope told members of the government of the Holy See.
His remarks on Saturday prompted a sharp response from Israel.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman described Francis’s intervention as “particularly disappointing as they are disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism — a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7.”
“Enough with the double standards and the singling out of the Jewish state and its people,” he added.
“Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children; cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them,” the Israeli statement said.
This was a reference to the Hamas Palestinian militants who attacked Israel, killed many civilians and took hostages on October 7, 2023, triggering the Gaza war.
The unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
That toll includes hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
At least 45,259 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in the Palestinian territory, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Those figures are taken as reliable by the United Nations.

Topics: War on Gaza Pope Francis Gaza Israel

Related

Israel accuses Pope of ‘double standards’, after Gaza criticism
Middle-East
Israel accuses Pope of ‘double standards’, after Gaza criticism
Update Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children
World
Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children

Iran’s supreme leader says Syrian youth will resist incoming government

Iran’s supreme leader says Syrian youth will resist incoming government
Updated 6 min 48 sec ago
AP
Follow

Iran’s supreme leader says Syrian youth will resist incoming government

Iran’s supreme leader says Syrian youth will resist incoming government
  • Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war
  • Iran’s supreme leader accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad’s government
Updated 6 min 48 sec ago
AP

TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday said that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after the overthrow of President Bashar Assad as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country.
Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his family’s decades-long rule. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose” and suffers from insecurity following Assad’s fall.
“What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity,” Khamenei said. “God willing, he will overcome them.”
He accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad’s government in order to seize resources, saying: “Now they feel victory, the Americans, the Zionist regime and those who accompanied them.”
Iran and its militant allies in the region have suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.
Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their own beliefs and that the Islamic Republic did not depend on them. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Bashar Assad Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Related

Update Turkiye, Iran leaders call for Syria unity at Muslim summit in Cairo video
Middle-East
Turkiye, Iran leaders call for Syria unity at Muslim summit in Cairo
Iran in direct contact with groups in new Syrian leadership, Iranian official says
Middle-East
Iran in direct contact with groups in new Syrian leadership, Iranian official says

Latest updates

Closing Bell: Saudi main index slips to close at 11,849
Closing Bell: Saudi main index slips to close at 11,849
Riyadh festival strengthens Saudi-Iraqi cultural bonds
Riyadh festival strengthens Saudi-Iraqi cultural bonds
Suspect in German Christmas market attack held on murder charges
Suspect in German Christmas market attack held on murder charges
Iraq PM says Mosul airport to open in June, 11 years after Daesh capture
Iraq PM says Mosul airport to open in June, 11 years after Daesh capture
Salam Equine Hospital takes the reins of equine healthcare
Salam Equine Hospital takes the reins of equine healthcare

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.