Al Azhar, Sunni Islam’s top body, has condemned the horrific and barbaric crime perpetrated by the terrorist organisation, Daesh, against 21 innocent Coptic Egyptians in Libya, stressing that this barbaric crime has no relationship whatsoever with any religion, and saying that these crimes come from ‘sick minds that seek to spread chaos throughout the world, through the killing of innocent people for no reason’.

Al Azhar last night stressed the need for the international community to take effective measures against this terrorist organisation and its ugly crimes to achieve justice, calling on all Egyptians to be alert and to be united in the face of terrorism.

Al-Azhar offered condolences to Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and to the victim families of terrorist incident.

According to the Israeli website rotter.net, the drone entered the Israeli airspace from the Lebanese border village of Naqoura just after 1 a.m. on Sunday (2300 GMT Saturday) and hovered over Israel for around twenty minutes.

The drone then flew back safely to Lebanon without being intercepted by Israel.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah had previously sent drones deep into Israeli airspace in 2012 and 2013.

The development comes more than two weeks after Hezbollah killed two Israeli soldiers and destroyed at least nine Israeli military vehicles in a retaliatory attack on a military convoy in northern occupied territories on January 28.

Israel has repeatedly attacked Lebanon over the past decades. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli regime’s war on Lebanon in 2006.

In August 2012, Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah had both the capability and the courage to defend Lebanon and that the movement’s missiles were ready to strike certain targets inside Israel in self-defense if Tel Aviv launches an attack on Lebanon.

Source:  albawaba

Battles between ISIL terrorists and Kurdish forces near the Syrian town of Kobani have left at least 35 militants killed.

The militants suffered the casualties in three separate clashes in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on Sunday.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 22 of the militants were killed in battles on the border between Aleppo and Raqa province.

Fighters from Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have been engaged in mop-up operation around Kobani since January when they recaptured the town from the militants.

The liberation of the strategic town, which is also known as Ayn al-Arab, marked a significant breakthrough for the YPG after nearly four months of fighting with the terrorists.

However, Sunday clashes was the first time YPG fighters approached the edge of the Raqa city right close to the area which is regarded as the de facto capital of the militants.

Four Kurdish forces were also killed in the operation which saw the Kurds capture Tal Baghdaq hilltop.

According to reports, the fighting between Aleppo and Raqa was one of the heaviest confrontations between the two sides in months.

Other ISIL militants were killed in clashes close to Kobani, while international coalition airstrikes also backed the attacks against the, the observatory said.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by militant groups has so far claimed the lives of over 210,000 people.

The ISIL terrorists have also expanded their battles into the neighboring Iraq, where they engaged in large-scale violence against the civilian population.

Source:  albawaba

The United Nations passed a resolution Sunday that demands the Houthis relinquish their hold on Yemen’s government, according to the AP, a move that has pushed the country to the brink of a collapse.

The 15-nation council unanimously voted on the resolution in an emergency meeting, AP reported, after what Arab countries have been calling an “illegitimate seizure of power” by the rebel group. The resolution stated that the group should “immediately and unconditionally” withdraw its forces from the government but only calls for “further steps” if the Yemeni rebels fail to implement it, AP reported.

“It was clear the world was waiting for a powerful message from the UN Security Council,” British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told the council. “The Houthis must take responsibility for their actions and stop using violence and coercion as political tools.”

But the resolution does not grant the UN military power or provides specifics on sanctions against countries that hamper “the process of peaceful transition of power,” AP said. According to the AFP, the Houthis plans to remain defiant regardless of the UN’s demands. AP said previous UN-led talks in Sanaa “have made little ground.”

The Shiite militant group took control of the capital in September and forced Western-backed President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to resign. Since then the UN has refused to legitimize Houthi powers and their newly formed constitutional declaration for the country.

Source: albawaba

No fewer than 10 persons were confirmed dead and 31 injured on Sunday in a suicide attack carried out by a female suicide bomber, Yobe Police command has said.

The attack took place at the Damaturu Central Motor Park near a police station that was burnt in January by the Boko Haram insurgents.

The Police Public Relation Officer for Yobe State, Toyin Gbadegesin, said the bomber made several failed attempts to bomb the military outfit inside the park before she boarded a half-filled Sharon car in which she blew off herself, killing 10 others.

Gbadegesin said at about 12.10 hrs, Hijab-wearing female suicide bomber came into the park and went to the security vehicle there but was turned away after suspecting her movement.

“She then went to a commercial Sharon car that was half-filled and the bomb exploded.

“In the blast, 10 people were killed while the 31 others critically injured were rushed to General Sani Abacha Hospital in Damaturu.

“We have cordoned off the area while investigations are currently going on,” he stated.

The PPRO said the suicide bomber was about 21 years of age.

Source:  dailyindependentnig.com

Following the release of a video showing ISIL militants beheading 21 Egyptian Christian Copts, Egypt’s Air Force bombed Islamic State positions in Libya at dawn Monday, according to local state television.

Egyptian President Abdel Sisi said Cairo “reserves the right to respond in any way” after the brutal killings.

An influential Sunni leader disputed U.S. claims that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is on the defensive in a key province and warned that the area could fall “within hours” to the extremists, CNN reported Saturday.

The network quoted Sunni Albu Nimr tribal leader Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud as saying that the Islamic State is gaining further ground in Anbar province, an area that extends from western Baghdad to Iraq’s Jordanian and Syrian borders.

The report follows escalating violence in the area and raises questions as to whether the Islamic State is reconstituting itself in Anbar. On Friday, 20 to 25 Islamic State fighters attacked a major Iraqi base located in Anbar province that houses U.S. forces.

The fighters used a combination of suicide bombers and a follow-up force to attempt to penetrate the base’s perimeter, the Pentagon said. The attack was repelled by Iraqi security forces and all the Islamic State fighters were killed, the Pentagon said.

The attack by the Islamic State on Al Asad air base follows continuous indirect fire attacks upon the base earlier this week and the capture of the nearby town of Al Baghdadi by Islamic State.

On Friday the Pentagon said that the Islamic State’s taking of Al Baghdadi, while concerning, needed to be put in context and that it did not mean that the entire province was in jeopardy of falling to the Islamic State.

“Anbar has long been … a contested environment,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday. The capture of Al Baghdadi, however was the first time in “at least a couple of months, if not more, where they have had any success at all at taking any new ground, Kirby said.

“It’s one town. It’s not all of Al Anbar. It’s not all of Iraq. We need to keep it in perspective,” he said.

On Friday, after the seizure of a major oilfield during the week by one of the violent radical groups pushing the country toward chaos, Libya’s National Oil Corporation warned on its website that it would shut production at all of its oilfields if the country’s factional security forces were unable to provide adequate protection for its employees.

The Libyan crisis was one of the factors behind another big weekly rise in the oil price, with North Sea Brent crude futures finishing the week at US$61.52, a gain of 7 per cent on the week and up 32 per cent from the lowest point this year in mid-January.

Libyan oil production had already been severely hit by the violence in recent months. This month, the Paris-based energy watchdog, International Energy Agency, reported that Libyan crude oil production had fallen to 489,000 barrels per day in December from a high of 887,000 bpd in October. That production level may now be down as low as 200,000 bpd after a fire at a pipeline carrying crude to the port of Hariga, according to newswire reports.

On Friday, the Bahi oilfield was the latest to come under attack from one of the radical groups trying to seize control. The field is 59 per cent owned by NOC, with the American companies Marathon Oil, ConocoPhillips and Hess holding the remaining share.

“If these incidents continue, National Oil Corp will regrettably be forced to stop all operations at all fields in order to preserve the lives” of employees, the company warned on its website.

Libya, which has Africa’s largest proven oil reserves at about 48 billion barrels, was exporting 1.6 million bpd before the civil war in 2011, during which the dictator Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown.

Since then, oil production has been wildly erratic, falling from an average of just below 1 million bpd in 2013 to an average of just over 200,000 bpd in the second quarter of last year.

The focus has turned to the Libyan disruptions while the oil market has been in recovery, but the turmoil there was largely ignored during the sharp downturn in the past few months. As the IEA reported last month, the losses in Libyan production were more than made up for by gains elsewhere within Opec, especially in Iraq, so that overall Opec production increased during the month by more than 140,000 bpd.

Julian Jessop, an economist at Capital Economics, said the record declines in oil rig usage in the US in recent weeks had probably been a bigger factor than Libya in the oil market’s bounce.

He does not expect the market’s momentum to last, but believes the sell-off has run out of steam.
“With declining rig counts in the US unlikely to have much impact on production just yet and seasonal demand weak, the rally in the oil price may falter soon. But the fears that oil prices would remain in freefall in 2015 have at least been confounded,” said Mr Jessop.

Source: thenational.ae

In a recent mission in Kuwait, a combat team worked with soldiers from Jordan and the UAE, training them for possible missions against IS.