Israel strikes kill dozens as Gaza death toll soars

GAZA CITY: Israeli strikes killed at least 13 women and children in Gaza on Tuesday, medics said, as the army announced the deaths of two more soldiers in the two-week conflict.

The fatalities, which were among nearly 40 on Tuesday alone, brought the total death toll to more than 600 Palestinians, according to Gaza´s emergency services, and 29 Israelis -- 27 soldiers and two civilians.

A child and three women, one of them pregnant, were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes in Zeitun, in the central Gaza Strip, and Beit Hanun, in the north, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Gaza bloodbath: Five children die; toll 572

GAZA CITY: The death toll in Gaza rose to 572 on Monday. And the Israeli army said another seven soldiers had been killed in fighting in Gaza, raising the overall Israeli death toll to 27, all but two of them soldiers.

Six top Al Qaeda leaders killed in US Drone strikes

BANNU: At least six Al Qaeda commanders were killed during the recent US drone attack in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan tribal region, Al Qaeda leadership confirmed, ACCORDING to a report PUBLISHED in The News.

The head of the Al-Qaeda victory Committee, Sanafi al-Nasr, who is based in Syria, confirmed via a SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE that six of his members belonging to the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group were killed in the July 10 drone attack.

Five Kuwait politicians' citizenship revoked

Kuwait has stripped five well-known opposition figures of their citizenship, including the owner of a newspaper and television station.

The official Kuwait News Agency announced the decision by Kuwait's cabinet on Monday, which approved a draft decree to revoke the citizenship of the five.

Among those named in the decision is Abdullah al-Barghash, a former Islamist opposition legislator, and three other members of his family.

Diplomatic drive intensifies as Gaza death toll reaches to 350

GAZA: Fresh Israeli bombardments killed five people in Gaza Sunday, hiking the death toll from the assault to over 350.Israel pressed its air, sea and ground offensive against the besieged coastal territory.Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Qatar to discuss an Egyptian-proposed truce on Sunday, and the movement said it had received an invitation to Cairo for ceasefire talks.

Turkey, US in row over Erdogan’s remarks on Israel

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strong-worded criticism against Israel and the United States over the former’s military operations in Gaza has transformed into a diplomatic spat between Ankara and Washington, with Erdogan calling for the U.S. to be “self-critical” over its Israel policy.

“If America is still saying that ‘Israel is using its right to self-defense’ then it should be critical of itself. It’s America who is offensive,” Erdogan told TGRT on July 20 in an interview.

Battle for Libya airport leaves at least 47 dead

Islamist-led militiamen have stepped up their assault on Libya's main airport, controlled by rival fighters, which the health ministry said on Monday had left at least 47 dead in a week.

The fighting, which erupted on July 13 and shut Tripoli international airport, also injured 120 people, according to figures for the week until Saturday.

Egypt proposes ceasefire in -IsraeliPalestinian conflict

Egypt has proposed a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza that would start on Tuesday, ending a week of cross-border warfare, and be followed by talks to prevent further hostilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to convene his decision-making security cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the proposed truce, an Israeli official said.

The official appeared to put a positive spin on the Egyptian initiative, saying Hamas had been weakened military by Israeli air and sea bombardments.

Jihadists execute four Syrian ‘spies’ in Iraq

Jihadist militants publicly executed four Syrian men in a western Iraqi town for allegedly spying for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, witnesses and a doctor said on Monday.

Militants flying the flag of the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group brought the men to a main street in al-Qaim, near Iraq’s border with Syria, in a convoy of trucks on Sunday, witnesses said.

One militant then announced that they were spies for Assad’s regime, which the IS is fighting in Syria, and the men, their hands bound, were shot dead one by one.

Iraq forces advance into militant-held Tikrit: officials

KIRKUK: Iraqi security forces advanced into militant-held Tikrit on Tuesday in an assault aimed at revitalising flagging efforts to retake the city, officials said.

Security forces began the attack in morning and have succeeded in retaking government facilities in the city's south.

Syrian troops advance in key city of Aleppo

Syrian troops have advanced inside and near northern Aleppo in what appears to be an attempt to lay siege to rebel-held parts of the country's largest city, activist say.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Monday that reinforcements, including members of Iran's elite Republican Guards and allies from Lebanon's Hezbollah group, had recently arrived in Aleppo.

Rockets from Gaza follow Israeli air strikes

Jerusalem - Israeli officials say the army will carry out more air raids on the Gaza Strip overnight and call up 1,500 military reservists, as the country moves closer to its third major offensive in the Palestinian territory in six years.

Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli army, posted a tweet late on Monday saying that the military had launched "Operation Protective Edge" and would be targeting the Palestinian faction Hamas.

Two police officers killed in Egypt bomb

Two Egyptian police officers have been killed and several others wounded in a small explosion near the presidential palace in Cairo's Heliopolis district, the Interior Ministry has said.

Security forces were defusing one makeshift bomb found at a street intersection near the presidential palace on Monday when a second device exploded, the ministry said in a statement.

Israel finds bodies of three teens in West Bank

JERUSALEM: Israel on Monday confirmed finding the bodies of three teenagers who disappeared in the southern West Bank on June 12, blaming the Hamas movement for their kidnapping and murder.

"During the search for Eyal Ifrach, Gilad Shaer and Naftali Frankel, the IDF discovered 3 bodies near Hebron," the Israeli Army said in a statement on Twitter.

Nato to convene as Kerry backs Iraq against militant threat

BAGHDAD: Nato foreign ministers convene Tuesday to discuss the Iraq crisis after US Secretary of State John Kerry pledged “intense” support to Baghdad in the fight against militants pushing towards the capital.

Kerry made a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday as Sunni insurgents led by the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, seized a strategic town in the northern part of the country, while security forces retook a border crossing with Syria.

Anti-government cleric returns to Pakistan, supporters clash with police

A prominent cleric landed in Pakistan on Monday after his plane was diverted from the capital Islamabad where his supporters clashed with police amid government concerns about the return of a man who describes himself as a revolutionary.

Tahirul Qadri, a Pakistani preacher turned political activist who usually lives Canada, is a divisive figure in Pakistan where he made headlines last year when he led mass rallies against the previous government.

The plane carrying Qadri circled above Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad for an hour and a half before it was diverted to the eastern city of Lahore.

Egypt confirms 183 death sentences, including Brotherhood chief

MINYA: An Egyptian court on Saturday confirmed death sentences for 183 Islamists, including Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie, a prosecutor said, after a speedy mass trial that sparked an international outcry.The court in the central city of Minya had initially sentenced 683 people to death, but on Saturday it commuted death sentences of four to life in prison, including two women, and acquitted 496 other defendants.

Palestinian teen killed by Israel army in West Bank – medics

Israeli soldiers shot dead a 14-year-old Palestinian in overnight clashes in the occupied West Bank as they pressed a hunt for three missing Israeli teenagers, medical sources said Friday.

The teenager was killed in Dura, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, which has been the principal focus of the massive Israeli operation.
Palestinian security forces identified the boy killed as Mohammed Dudin.

Egypt Muslim Brotherhood chief given new death sentence

An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced to death Muslim Brotherhood General Guide Mohammad Badie and 13 others over violence that killed 10 people in Cairo in summer 2013.

The court referred its decision to the country's Grand Mufti, who must give an opinion on death sentences before they can be confirmed.

Five NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan - officials

Five NATO soldiers were killed in an incident in southern Afghanistan, coalition officials said Tuesday, without giving the cause of the deaths or releasing the nationalities of the victims.