Middle East

KABUL, Afghanistan—A high-level meeting to lay out security plans for Afghanistan’s upcoming parliamentary elections had just concluded when an elite Afghan guard turned his gun on Oct. 18 on the departing delegation in an attack that killed the powerful Kandahar police chief but missed the top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller. The […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the ISIS terrorist group took nearly 700 hostages, including American citizens, in Syria. However, U.S. military officials have cast doubts on his claims. Putin said the terrorist fighters seized the hostages south of the Euphrates River and issued an ultimatum promising to execute 10 people every day, Reuters reported. […]

These days, the diamond industry is experiencing a decline in Israel.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan—Gen. Abdul Razeq, one of Afghanistan’s most powerful security officials, was killed on Oct. 18, when a bodyguard opened fire following a meeting in the governor’s compound in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said. Gen. Scott Miller, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan who had been at the meeting with Razeq only moments […]

WASHINGTON—The United States will merge the U.S. Consulate General, which serves Palestinians, with its new embassy into a single diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Oct. 18. “This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations,” Pompeo said in a statement. “It […]

Turkish investigators probing the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian citizen who worked for the Washington Post, took DNA samples from the Saudi consulate in Turkey, according to state-run Turkish media. Saudi officials let Turkish investigators into the consulate, where the investigators used the chemical luminol as a spray and a special light to reveal […]

JERUSALEM—A rocket fired from Gaza struck a residential home in southern Israel early Oct. 17 and the Israeli military began attacking Hamas terrorist sites in Gaza in response as days of rising tensions appeared to be erupting into a new round of violence. The Magen David Adom medical service said a woman and her three […]

Iran said that it has increased the range of its land-to-sea missiles to 435 miles, according to a senior official in the regime’s military. “We have managed to make land-to-sea ballistic, not cruise, missiles that can hit any vessel or ship from 700 km,” said Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ airspace division, […]

For 45 years, it’s been considered out of bounds for Saudi Arabia. But all of a sudden, Riyadh made what many read as a veiled threat to use the kingdom’s oil wealth as a political weapon—something unheard of since the 1973 Arab embargo that triggered the first oil crisis. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil […]

Attorneys from the Southern District of New York have submitted documents showing that Patrick Ho Chi-ping, a Hong Kong representative of China’s CEFC who was arrested by U.S. authorities in 2017, skirted sanctions by selling weapons to buyers in Libya, South Sudan, Qatar, and other countries. On Oct. 2, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, three […]

President Donald Trump dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia on Oct. 15 after speaking with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who told the president he has no knowledge of what happened to missing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. “I asked the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to immediately get on a plane, go to […]

NAIROBI, Kenya—A suicide bomber detonated in a restaurant in the Somali town of Baidoa and another blast struck a hotel nearby, leaving at least 16 people dead and more than 30 wounded, authorities said Oct. 13. Most of the casualties were caused by the bomber who walked into the restaurant with explosives strapped around his […]

KABUL, Afghanistan—A motorcycle rigged with explosives detonated at an election rally in northeastern Afghanistan on Oct. 13, killing at least 14 people, including civilians and security forces, officials said. Khalil Aser, spokesman for the provincial police chief in Takhar province, said 32 others were wounded when the explosives-laden motorbike parked near the rally in Rustaq […]

Turkish officials have audio and visual evidence that missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured and killed inside the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul, according to multiple reports. An unnamed source told CNN that foreign intelligence, which received a briefing on the evidence from Turkish officials, found the material “shocking and disgusting.” Khashoggi, a vocal critic of […]

A pro-government newspaper in Turkey said they have identified a 15-member intelligence team allegedly involved in the mysterious disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Daily Sabah published images and security video of the so-called “assassination squad” as they entered the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul where Khashoggi—a prominent Saudi journalist and regime critic—was last seen entering […]

AMMAN—Jordan said on Oct. 9 more talks with Syria were needed before an important border crossing shut for three years as a result of its neighbor’s war could reopen to serve regional trade. The closure of the Nassib crossing in 2015 cut a crucial transit route for hundreds of trucks a day transporting goods between […]

The U.S. State Department has called on Saudi Arabia to conduct a “thorough” probe into the mysterious disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose case sparked international concern over the kingdom’s apparent crackdown on dissent. Khashoggi, a regime critic and prominent journalist in Saudi Arabia, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Officials in Turkey […]

The killing of an Instagram model has shocked Iraqis after a spate of suspicious deaths of high-profile women in the past few weeks. Tara Fares was shot dead in broad daylight last week by an unknown gunman, while driving her luxury Porsche convertible in the Baghdad neighborhood of Camp Sarah. CCTV footage showed the car […]

HASANKEYF, Turkey—Hundreds of people displaced by a huge dam in southeast Turkey fear they could go homeless because resettlement laws prevent them from moving into a new government-built town above the rising Tigris River waters. The Ilisu dam, which Turkey planned to fill this year, will generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity but has been criticized […]

JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, appeared in court on Oct. 7 for the first hearing in the fraud trial against her, in which she is alleged to have misused state funds in ordering catered meals. According to the indictment, Sara Netanyahu, along with a government employee, fraudulently obtained from the state more than […]