Unifil soldier is slapped in southern Lebanon
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Khaleej Times
34 minutes ago
- Khaleej Times
Dubai: Accident on E311 near Airport Road exit; motorists warned
Dubai Police issued a traffic advisory on Sunday (July 27) following an accident on Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, also known as E311. In a social media post, the authority said the accident occurred on E311 heading towards Abu Dhabi after the Airport Road exit. Details about the accident itself, including the number of vehicles involved or any potential injuries, were not immediately released.
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Powerful Iran-backed militia clashes with Iraqi troops in Baghdad over government appointment
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani has ordered an investigation, after clashes erupted in Baghdad on Sunday between Iraqi security troops and a powerful Iran-backed Shiite militia after the group stormed a government office to reinstate a dismissed official by force, security authorities said. The militants entered the building of an office linked to the Ministry of Agriculture where the new director was holding a meeting with employees 'causing panic among the employees, who immediately called for security assistance', the Interior Ministry said. When units of the Federal Police and Emergency Response Teams arrived they 'came under direct fire from the gunmen', it said. A number of security troops were injured and at least 14 militants arrested, it said. The Joint Operation Command identified the arrested militants as affiliated to Brigades 45 and 46 in the Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella group of paramilitaries of influential Tehran-backed Shiite militias. When ISIS swept through large parts in northern and western Iraq, US-trained security troops collapsed in a humiliating defeat. To face the advancing extremist militants, thousands of Shiite volunteers answered the call to arms by Iraq's influential Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani. At the time, the government of former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki had already formed the PMF to organise and supervise the volunteers as parallel forces. Shortly after its formation, several powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias joined the PMF. By then, some of them were fighting alongside Bashar Al Assad's forces in Syria 's civil war. During the fight against ISIS, some of these militias were accused of human rights breaches against civilians in Sunni areas. The Iraqi government and PMF acknowledged these breaches as 'individual acts'. The US has blacklisted several PMF leaders in a bid to increase pressure on Iran's proxies in Iraq, sanctioning senior figures between 2019 and 2021 under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Since declaring ISIS defeated in late 2017, the PMF and mainly Tehran-aligned militias have emerged as a powerful force in Iraq and grown more defiant towards the government and opposition groups.
The National
9 hours ago
- The National
Iran executes two members of exiled group for carrying out attacks
Iran on Sunday executed two men after convicting them of carrying out attacks on behalf of the exiled opposition People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), the country's judiciary said. "The death sentences of two operational members of the... terrorist group were carried out this morning after legal procedures and confirmation by the supreme court," the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported. Mehdi Hasani and Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamloo were found guilty of manufacturing improvised launchers and mortars and launching attacks on civilians and infrastructure, the judiciary said, adding that they "aimed to disrupt social order and endanger the safety of innocent civilians". "The terrorists, in co-ordination with MEK leaders, had set up a team house in Tehran, where they built launchers and hand-held mortars in line with the group's goals, fired projectiles heedlessly at citizens, homes, service and administrative facilities, educational and charity centres, and also carried out propaganda and information-gathering activities in support of the MEK," the report said. The defendants were indicted with "moharebeh", an Islamic term meaning waging war against God, destroying public property and "membership in a terrorist organisation with the aim of disrupting national security". The report did not state when the attacks took place and whether it was related to last month's Israel-Iran war, during which Tehran accused opposition groups, such as MEK, for providing support to Israel from inside the country. Since the war, Iran has cracked down on suspected Mossad affiliates or members. Both suspects were described as long-time members of the MEK, a group designated as a terrorist group by Iran. The MEK was a leftist-Islamist group that staged bombing campaigns against the shah's government and US targets in the 1970s but ultimately fell out with the other factions of the 1979 Islamic revolution. The group has since been exiled. It was also listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union until 2021.
