BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Thursday ordered its citizens out of Lebanon in its first concrete action against the Mediterranean country, while officials in Beirut demanded the immediate return of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who abruptly announced his resignation last week in a television appearance from the kingdom, where he has been holed up … Continue reading
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has slammed President-elect Donald Trump over his “escalating statements… against Islam and Muslims,” and criticized him for not distinguishing between radical and moderate Muslims. In written statement issued Thursday, the influential anti-U.S. cleric responded to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election saying “Even if the president … Continue reading
TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — Abdel Mowgood Hassan climbs over toppled bricks and a torn-away front door to enter his uncle’s house in Tikrit, the first of his relatives to make a cautious return home since Islamic State militants were driven out. “It’s safe,” Hassan calmly says. “I checked for booby traps.” He is one in … Continue reading
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — For most of his 20s, all Badr al-Enezi could think about was becoming a jihadi fighter. After getting in touch with former Guantanamo Bay prisoners who had returned to militancy, he began plotting how to take up arms. Instead, he was caught by Saudi authorities and spent six months in … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State militants have destroyed two historic mausoleums in Palmyra, Syria’s top antiquities official said Wednesday, raising fears that the extremists could next target the town’s famed Roman ruins. Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the government’s Antiquities and Museums Department, told The Associated Press that the extremists destroyed the grave of Mohammad … Continue reading
BAGHDAD (AP) — It’s the modern era’s military strategy of choice: overwhelming air power delivering precision-guided punishment backed by intelligence on the ground, with minimal exposure for soldiers of the striking side. Seductive though it is to risk-averse governments with war-weary publics, the approach has its limits — and these are on display in … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — The mother of an American journalist missing in Syria for nearly three years pleaded on Tuesday for information about him, saying she believes that he is still alive. Austin Tice, of Houston, Texas, disappeared in August 2012 while covering Syria’s civil war. A video released a month later showed the journalist blindfolded … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 