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SHAFAQNA –The Houthi forces, backed by the Yemeni Republican Guard, seized a number of points inside the Midi Desert near the Saudi-Yemeni border today, advancing as far north as the Jizan Region of Saudi Arabia. According to Al-Masdar’s Yemen War correspondent, Tony Toh, the Houthi forces and their allies killed 41 fighters from the Saudi-led Coalition on Monday after seizing a number of sites from the latter. Making matters worse for the Saudi-led Coalition, the Houthi forces continued their advance in the Najran Valley, as they capturednew points near the provincial capital. The Saudi-led Coalition’s recent losses in the Jizan and Najran regions has taken a toll on their morale, as they ...

SHAFAQNA –I’ve changed my profile picture on social media many times since terror came in horrific waves, drowning the world in sorrow over the last year. But I could only use the official Facebook profile filter to show solidarity for Paris since a filter wasn’t available for Aleppo, Lahore, Istanbul, or many other attacks. I am a Syrian Muslim living in Dubai; I lost my home in Damascus at the begiing of the Syrian war in 2011. It saddens me when I read on Facebook that someone on the other side of the world thinks that because of who I am and where I live, I’m used to bombs and terror and therefore not as worthy of sympathy. Maybe that’s because the West is a place where war has been a f...

SHAFAQNA-Female police officers in Turkey will now be able to wear a headscarf as part of their uniform, according to a new ruling published on Saturday. Turkey’s Official Gazette carries a new rule which will allow policewomen to wear a headscarf under their caps or beret on condition it be the same color as the uniform and without a patte. Back in 2013, then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan introduced the lifting of headscarf bans in Turkey’s civil service as part of a broader democratization package. Elsewhere, Police Scotland recently aounced that the hijab would become an optional part of its uniform to encourage more female Muslims to consider policing as a career option. Muslim w...

SHAFAQNA –A suicide bomber reportedly targeted a wedding ceremony in the city of Gaziantep in southe Turkey near the border with Syria on Saturday night. The local goveor said it was carried out by “terrorist organizations.” Turkish national broadcaster NTV confirmed the news, saying a “terrorist attack” had targeted a wedding celebration. Gaziantep’teki hain saldırıda çok sayıda can kaybı ve yaralı var. Teröre, teröriste ve destekçisine lanet olsun pic.twitter.com/qzOFRxZN8o — Hasan Cücük (@HasanCucuk) August 20, 2016 Gaziantep Goveor Ali Yerlikaya has released a statement saying the blast was an attack by “terrorist organizations,” according to Turkish Haberturk news outlet. Infam...

SHAFAQNA –Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi strongly condemned terrorist blasts early this moing in two Turkish cities of Van and Elazig. “Enemies with their dirty hands have intensified their desperate efforts to create insecurity and instability in the region, especially in Islamic countries,” Ghasemi said, calling upon the watchful consciences in the inteational community, especially those in the region, to take a swift action to prevent and stop such savage slaughters. Undoubtedly, he stressed, these inhumane terrorist acts can never help terrorists reach objectives, but establish solidarity among more people in the region to fight these barbaric acts. “As we have repeate...

SHAFAQNA –Chief Minister of Balochistan Sanaullah Zehri on Tuesday paid a visit to civil hospital and met with the victims of Quetta blast. According to details, the minister inspected the bomb site and directed the investigation officers to launch complete probe into the explosion that killed 71 people and injured more than hundred. CM Balochistan said that militants would not be left free in the country as anti-terrorism operation would be continued. He said that there is no place for state’s enemies in the country while combat operation would be ta...

SHAFAQNA –Death toll from the Quetta attack reached 72 as two more people succumbed to their wounds on Tuesday. Earlier today, 27 injured of the Quetta Attack were brought to a Pakistan Air Force base in Karachi in a C130 aircraft. They have been admitted at a private hospital at Stadium Road for further medical treatment. According to hospital sources six of the victims are in critical condition. At least 70 people were killed and as many as 112 people injured when a powerful explosion ripped through Quetta’s Civil Hospital on Monday. The explosion took place when Balochistan Bar Association President Bilal Kasi’s body was bei...

SHAFAQNA –A Muslim mixedmartial arts fighter – who trains boxing champ Amir Khan – has slammed British Islamic extremists as “uneducated monkeys” in a heated social media rant. Tam Khan has urged all Muslims living in Britain to “respect” the country’s culture and traditions – and says anyone who doesn’t should be thrown out. Tam Khan, pictured with boxing world champion Amir Khan, has told Muslims to ‘stop becoming militants and extremists’ The MMA fighter tued entrepreneur has waed that fellow Muslims must intervene “We need to fix this epidemic of inbreds from doing these despicable crimes,” hetold his 6,000 Facebook followers. “Sorry I don’t care if you think I’m being harsh. “Isla...

SHAFAQNA –The United States has welcomed 8,000 Syrian refugees so far and will settle 2,000 more by the end of September, a US official says. “We can now say we have welcomed 8,000 Syrian refugees so far this year and we are very confident we will welcome at least 10,000 refugees from Syria by the end of this fiscal year,” Ae Richard, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said in a conference call with reporters Friday. Up until April, some 1,300 had been settled in the country and the US State Department said it was way behind the projected schedule that was first set by President Barack Obama last September. On July 12, Secretary of State John ...

Inteally displaced children attend a class inside a cave in the rebel-controlled village of Tramla, in Idlib province, Syria March 27, 2016. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi SHAFAQNA –With just 60 days to go before the start of the new school year, hundreds of thousands of Syrian parents are faced with the stark choice of whether to feed their children or send them to school, experts said on Wednesday. Nearly 1 million Syrian refugee children are out of school in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan which host the vast majority of the nearly 5 million refugees created by Syria’s civil war. Many Syrian children are forced to work to help make ends meet, or unable to pay for transport to school, according to a rep...

SHAFAQNA –If you ever lose faith in the power of hope, not to mention the importance of never giving up, remind yourself of the story of Mohammed Kosha. A 16-year-old Syrian refugee living in Lebanon, Mohammed has overcome obstacles that most of us caot even imagine, in order to excel in his education. World leaders should take note. Four years ago, Mohammed and his family fled their home in the town of Darya, a suburb of Damascus, to escape relentless bombardment by Syrian armed forces. Having already lost a year of primary education in his hometown, where it was simply too dangerous to attend school, he then spent another year out of the classroom when the family arrived in Lebanon, where...

SHAFAQNA –It depends on Ankara whether Turks will enjoy visa-free travel to Europe, Germany’s vice chancellor has said, adding that it was the right decision to ban a live broadcast by the Turkish president to a rally in Cologne on the weekend. “It is up to Turkey if there is or there isn’t visa liberalization,” Reuters quoted German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel as saying while on an official visit to northe Germany. “Germany and Europe should under no circumstances be blackmailed,” Gabriel added. The vice chancellor also welcomed the move by Germany’s highest court to block a livestream address by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to a rally of Turkish nationals in Cologne on Sunday....

SHAFAQNA –As I write these lines much of the world media community is still attempting to work its way through the maze of information, misinformation and potential geopolitical repercussions Turkey’s attempted, and failed coup will likely bring in its wake. As bloggers, political analysts and various pundits have ferociously attempted to rationalize, label, and let’s say it sanitize Turkish President Erdogan’s retu to power, I fear we stand all collectively clueless … at least when it comes to those hands which in the shadow orchestrated Turkey’s change in leadership. How many of us can say they truly saw it coming? I’m not discussing here whether or not the military coup was justified, or...

SHAFAQNA –Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Geady Gatilov said that the Russian military experts will continue the work on the comparison of the maps piing down locations of terrorists in Syria. Russian military experts will arrive in Geneva on Friday to meet with their US counterparts to discuss the situation in Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Geady Gatilov said on Thursday. “Our military experts will arrive [in Geneva] tomorrow,” Gatilov said. He added that the military experts will continue the work on the comparison of the maps piing down locations of terrorists in the war-to country. SHARE Facebook Twitter Previous articleArmed Police raid German mosque in search of...

SHAFAQNA –Severely malnourished children are dying in large numbers in northeast Nigeria, the former stronghold of Boko Haram militants where food supplies are close to ruing out, Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Wednesday. The medical charity, also known as Doctors Without Borders, urged the United Nations to set up emergency food transports to the area, where up to 800,000 civilians have been cut off for over a year, it said “The situation is a large-scale humanitarian disaster…. There is a vital need to have a food pipeline in place to save the population that can be saved,” MSF general director Bruno Jochum told a news briefing. “We are talking at least about pockets of what is close to...

SHAFAQNA – Prominent Syrian political analyst: Kevork Almassian speaks a few truths on Terror.  ...

SHAFAQNA –Dozens of people were reportedly killed by US airstrikes in northe Syria last week in what may amount to the greatest loss of civilian life in the coalition’s two-year war against so-called Islamic State. UK-based group Airwars, which monitors coalition action in Iraq and Syria, estimated that between 74 and 203 civilians were killed on 19 July near the village of Manbij, where the US is backing rebels in their assault on IS. The higher number comes from sources Airwars considers less reliable. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said US Central Command would investigate reports of civilian casualties and “continue to do all we can to protect civilians from harm”. “Fighting and violence ...

[embedded content] SHAFAQNA –More than half of the nearly 500,000 school-age Syrian children registered in Lebanon are not enrolled in formal education. Although Lebanon, which is hosting 1.1 million registered Syrian refugees, has allowed Syrian children to enroll for free in public schools, limited resources and Lebanese policies on residency and work for Syrians are keeping children out of the classroom. Let's block ads! بخوانید...

SHAFAQNA –A massive explosion has rocked the diplomatic district of the Afghan capital, Kabul, the Interior Ministry has confirmed. A mortar hit a school building that was empty at the time, causing no fatalities. Police say at least five people are being treated for cuts from broken glass dispersedby the blast, according to Kabul joualist Bilal Sarwary. The incidentcomes a day after a twin bombing of Shiite demonstration killed at least 80 people in the city. The Sui group Islamic State has taken responsibility for the Saturday attack, the bloodiest in 15 years. SHARE Facebook Twitter Previous articleFrance opens up its eyes to Salafism, rethinks counterterrorism Le...

SHAFAQNA –Patriarch Younan is denouncing the West’s faulty presentation of a peaceful Islam The Catholic patriarch in Syria is saying Muslims who take their Quran literally are radical. The patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch, Ignatius Youssef III Younan, spoke recently in Rome on the devastation his country has faced in the last five years at the hands of Muslims. The patriarch, who oversees some 200,000 Catholics, condemned Weste politicians and media for what he called an intentional misunderstanding of political Islam and its objectives. During the interview, Patriarch Younan referred to the bodies of nine Italians arriving in Rome killed by Muslim terrorists in Banglades...