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Paris, France (AFP) by Alexandre HIELARD / Murielle KASPRZAK / Daphne ROUSSEAU A 69-year-old gunman opened fire at a Kurdish cultural centre and a hairdressing salon in Paris on Friday, killing three people and injuring three others, witnesses and prosecutors said. The shots shortly before midday (1100 GMT) caused panic in rue d’Enghien in the trendy 10th district of the capital, a bustling area of shops and restaurants that is home to a large […]
Paris, France (AFP) A 69-year-old gunman who opened fire at a Kurdish cultural centre and a hairdressing salon in Paris on Friday was deliberately seeking out foreigners, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. The man, a retired train driver, “was clearly targeting foreigners”, Darmanin told reporters, adding however that it was “not certain” that the man was aiming to kill “Kurds in particular”. Darmanin said: “We yet don’t know his exact motives.” There was also […]
ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AFP) — Russia on Tuesday said it hoped Turkey would exercise “restraint” and refrain from “any excessive use of force” in Syria, where Ankara has carried out air strikes and is threatening to launch a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters. “We hope to convince our Turkish colleagues to refrain from resorting to excessive use of force on Syrian territory” to “avoid the escalation of tensions”, Alexander Lavrentyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy […]
by Tony Gamal-Gabriel Agence France-Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq’s oil wealth is rekindling tensions between federal authorities and the autonomous Kurdish region, in a row that could compromise the lifeline industry and keep investors away, analysts say. The long-simmering dispute came to a head in February — at a time of political deadlock in Baghdad — when the federal supreme court ordered Kurdistan to hand over oil extracted from its territories to the federal […]
A dozen ballistic missiles targeted Iraq’s northern city of Arbil, including US facilities, causing damage but no major casualties early on Sunday, security forces in the autonomous Kurdistan region said. Local authorities said the missiles came from beyond the eastern border, suggesting that the source of the fire was Iran — a country that wields considerable political and economic influence over its neighbour. “Twelve ballistic missiles” on Sunday targeted the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Arbil, […]
AIN AL-BAYDAH, Syria (AFP) — The Islamic State group’s spokesman was killed Sunday in northern Syria, a top Kurdish official said, hours after the jihadists’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was announced dead. The official with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces — who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak on the issue — said IS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir had been killed after SDF chief Mazloum Abdi said he had […]
by Delil Souleiman Agence France Presse TAL TAMR, Syria (AFP) — Deadly Turkish air strikes Friday shattered an hours-old US-brokered deal to stop Ankara’s military offensive against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria. The ceasefire announced late Thursday was meant to provide a pause for the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the battleground border town of Ras al-Ain and other areas Turkey wants to control along its border with Syria. The five-day suspension looked designed […]
by Delil Souleiman QAMISHLI, Syria (AFP) — Syria’s Kurds on Sunday announced a groundbreaking deal with Damascus on a Syrian troop deployment near the border with Turkey, as Ankara pressed a deadly cross-border offensive that has sparked an international outcry. The announcement came as the United States ordered the withdrawal of almost its entire ground force in Syria. Defence Secretary Mark Esper said the move to withdraw 1,000 US troops came after Washington learned that […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Turkey’s deadly assault on Kurdish positions in northeastern Syria has forced 130,000 people to flee their homes, the UN said Sunday, adding it was preparing for that figure to more than triple. “We have moved into a planning scenario where up to 400,000 people could be displaced within and across the affected areas,” Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA told AFP in an email, adding that […]
by Nazeer al-Khatib with Delil Souleiman in Tall Tamr Agence France Presse RAS AL-AIN, Syria (AFP) — Battles raged in Syria as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to press on with a deadly assault against Kurdish forces, while the Pentagon said Friday US troops came under artillery fire from Turkish positions. Erdogan’s pledge to keep up the offensive, which the UN says has displaced more than 100,000 people since it began on Wednesday, […]
by Delil Souleiman TALL TAMR, Syria (AFP) — Syria’s Kurds battled to hold off a Turkish invasion on Thursday as thousands of civilians fled airstrikes and shelling that deepened fears of a humanitarian crisis. US President Donald Trump tried to justify the de facto green light he gave his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for an assault seen as a blatant betrayal of Washington’s erstwhile Kurdish allies. Later Trump suggested that Washington could mediate between […]
by Layal Abou Rahal Agence France-Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon – Turkey said Tuesday its army and allied rebels have surrounded the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, raising the prospect of another devastating siege in the country’s long conflict. Syria’s war enters its eighth year this week with clashes raging on several fronts, including Afrin and the besieged rebel pockets of Eastern Ghouta, which saw their first medical evacuations of civilians on Tuesday. While attention in recent weeks […]
