Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border. August 11, 2014. Photo by Reuters
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Latest updates:
7:11 P.M. Al-Qaida in Yemen offers bounty for Houthi leader
Al-Qaida has offered a bounty of 20 kilograms (44 lb) of gold for the capture or killing of the leader of Yemen's Houthi forces and his ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the SITE monitoring group said on Wednesday.
The offer was made in a video distributed by Al-Qaida's media arm, SITE said.
Yemen's Shi'ite Muslim Houthis, led by Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, seized control of the capital Sanaa six months ago and launched an offensive in southern Yemen last month, backed by soldiers loyal to Saleh. Saudi Arabia launched air strikes against the Iran-allied Houthis, seeking to drive back their advance and restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the jihadi movement's Yemeni wing, has exploited the conflict, storming the town of Mukalla last week and freeing a jailed local Al-Qaida leader. (Reuters)
6:50 P.M. UAE says sees Iranian meddling in Yemen, region
Iran is meddling in Yemen's conflict and elsewhere in the region, the United Arab Emirates foreign minister said on Wednesday, and Gulf Arab states had little grounds for hoping they could build normal ties with Tehran.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed added at a news conference that a Saudi-led coalition now attacking Iranian-allied Houthi fighters in Yemen wanted a UN Security Council resolution requiring all parties to take part in dialogue and imposing a ban on arms purchases by Houthis and other groups "that are out of line." (Reuters)
6:00 P.M. ISIS releases more than 200 captive Yazidis in Iraq
More than 200 elderly and infirm Yazidis were freed on Wednesday by Islamic State militants who had been holding them captive since overruning their villages in northwestern Iraq last summer.
A Reuters reporter saw the group of 216 people, which included two Christians, handed over to Kurdish forces near the city of Kirkuk. Some were too exhausted and disoriented to speak.
One elderly woman said she had been captured by the insurgents last August when they overpowered Kurdish forces in the Sinjar area and proceeded to purge its Yazidi population, killing hundreds and taking thousands captive.
It was not clear why the radical jihadists had decided to release the Yazidis, whom they consider devil-worshippers, but the group previously freed 200 more it was holding under similarly mysterious circumstances. (Reuters)
5:55 P.M. U.S.-led forces conduct 6 air strikes in Iraq, Syria
U.S.-led forces targeted Islamic State militants with four air strikes in Iraq and two in Syria since early Tuesday, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
In Iraq, the air strikes hit Islamic State positions near Bayji and Kirkuk, among other places, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement.
In Syria, the air strikes hit Islamic State positions near Al Hasakah and Kobani, it said.
5:36 P.M. ISIS bombs target Syria rivals, kill 31
Two car bombs set off by Islamic State insurgents killed at least 31 people in northern Syria including a senior rival fighter from Al-Qaida's Nusra Front, a group monitoring the war said on Wednesday.
The bombs were detonated on Tuesday in the town of Marea, around 40 kilometers north of Aleppo city, targeting the headquarters of rival insurgents and another area where they were operating, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Among the dead in Tuesday's bombings were a "local emir" from Nusra Front, and two leaders of insurgent Islamist factions in the area, the Observatory said. It collects its information from a network of sources on the ground.
Nusra Front said online that one of its leaders was killed in an Islamic State car bomb attack in the area and posted a picture of what appeared to be his body on a blanket. (Reuters)
4:14 P.M. Muslim cleric critical of Assad shot dead in London
A Syria-born Muslim cleric has been shot dead in London. Police say a man in his late 40s was found in a car in the Wembley area Tuesday with gunshot wounds to his chest. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Police did not identify the man, but family and his former mosque named him as Abdul Hadi Arwani, former imam at the An-noor mosque in west London.
A statement posted at the building Wednesday read: "We have with great sadness heard of the unfortunate death of Shaykh Abdulhadi Arwani ... He will be sadly missed."
His daughter, Elham Arwani, told the Evening Standard newspaper that Arwani had been critical of Syria's President Bashar Assad, but the family did not believe that was the motive for his killing.
2:25 P.M. Iran deploys two warships off Yemen's coast
Iran sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, state media reported, establishing a military presence off the coast of Yemen where Saudi Arabia is leading a bombing campaign to oust the Iran-allied Houthi movement.
The Alborz destroyer and Bushehr support vessel sailed from Bandar Abbas on a mission to protect Iranian shipping from piracy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said in comments cited by Press TV.
Iranian warship Alborz prepares before leaving Iran's waters, April 7, 2015.Photo by AP
Saudi Arabia and several Arab allies have imposed an air and naval blockade on Yemen as part of a two-week campaign to oust the Houthis, who have taken most of the country and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh.
Iran has condemned the campaign and called for dialogue. Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of providing military support to the Houthis, a charge the Islamic Republic denies.
The Iranian ships will patrol the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen, and the Red Sea, Sayyari said. The area is one of the world's most important shipping routes and a gateway between Europe and the Middle East. (Reuters)
1:26 P.M. Two Saudi policemen shot dead in Riyadh
Shots fired from an unidentified car killed two Saudi Arabian policemen in an eastern district of the capital Riyadh in the early hours of Wednesday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported citing an unnamed police spokesman.
The policemen were patrolling in their vehicle at 1:30 A.M. when shots were fired at them, killing Thamer Amran al-Mutairi and Abdulmohsen Khalaf al-Mutairi. Last month two policemen were shot and injured in a similar attack in Riyadh. (Reuters)
1:07 P.M. Son of former Iran president appeals 15-year prison sentence
A lawyer for the son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says his client has appealed a court verdict that sentenced him to 15 years in prison over security and corruption charges.
Mahmoud Alizadeh is quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying Mahdi Hashemi Rafsanjani had initially refused to appeal the sentence out of protest, but changed his mind at the last minute at the urging of his mother.
Iran's Revolutionary Court, which mainly hears security-related cases, last month approved the 15-year sentence and an unspecified cash fine. It also banned the younger Rafsanjani from public office.
The younger Rafsanjani was briefly imprisoned before standing trial on charges of fomenting unrest in the aftermath of Iran's disputed 2009 presidential election, won by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (AP)
12:43 P.M. Oxfam: War and blockade threaten Yemen with humanitarian catastrophe
A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Yemen as conflict and a Saudi-led blockade rapidly worsen existing food and water shortages, Oxfam warned on Wednesday.
No food has been brought into Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition supporting President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi blocked the country's sea ports to cut off supplies to the Shiite Houthi rebels, the Britain-based charity said.
That threatens catastrophe for a country where, even before the conflict, 10 million out of 24 million inhabitants did not have enough to eat and imports provided 80 to 100 percent of key foodstuffs, Oxfam country director Grant Pritchard told DPA.
"We think that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the day and a humanitarian disaster is unfolding," Pritchard said.
"There is a lack of basic services and basic commodities. There are fuel and food shortages as well as (shortages of) medicine supplies," he added.
The problems are compounded by deteriorating electricity and water supplies, which are hard to address as there is no security on the ground, Pritchard said.
"This is why Oxfam is calling on all parties to stop violence and reach a peaceful solution," he told DPA.
"Humanitarian actors need access in a safe and secure manner. Fourteen out of 22 governorates [provinces] are affected by the conflict. We need this conflict to stop immediately," he said.(DPA)
12:08 P.M. Houthis, local militiamen clash in Aden, Yemen as mosques call for jihad
Dozens of Yemeni Houthi fighters clashed with local militiamen in the central Aden district of Crater on Wednesday and mosques broadcast calls for jihad to combat the Houthi forces trying to take over the southern Yemeni port city, residents said.
They said several houses were on fire after being hit by rockets, and families stayed indoors as fighting raged from street to street.
The Houthis, who are allied to soldiers loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, advanced into Crater on Wednesday morning with a tank and two armored vehicles, one resident said.
Mosques in Crater called on the population to wage holy war against the Houthis, their loudspeakers, usually reserved for sermons and the call to prayer, broadcasting: "God is the greatest! Rise for jihad!"
The battle in the old center of Aden came a day after fighters from the city said they had pushed the Houthis and allied troops from positions in northern Aden neighborhoods, which they said cut Houthi supply lines into the center.
One fighter, Yasser Mahmoud, said the Houthis had been pushed from the Dar Saad neighborhood at the northern approach to Aden. He said 22 Houthi fighters were killed when a tank and an armoured vehicle were destroyed.
Three explosions shook northern areas of Aden on Wednesday, in what residents said were air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition which is two weeks into a campaign to stem Houthi advances. They said the attacks appeared to target weapons depots. (Reuters)
11:55 A.M. Turkish prosecutor asks for dismissal of Dutch journalist's trial
A Turkish prosecutor requested Wednesday the dismissal of the trial against a Dutch journalist accused of spreading terrorist propaganda, in a case Amnesty International said is baseless and should be dropped.
The judge at the courthouse in Diyarbakir, in the south-east, said a verdict on Frederike Geerdink's case would be issued on Monday.
Geerdink, who tweeted from her trial, said it appeared likely she would be acquitted, after the prosecutor appeared to back her defence.
Geerdink, who faces up to five years in jail, was accused of supporting the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). She noted that this was the first trial of a foreign reporter in Turkey since the 1990s.
Her home was raided by anti-terrorism police in January, in a move she described as shocking.
Writing before her trial, Geerdink, who is based in the mostly Kurdish south-east of the country, said she was determined to fight her case in court.
"I stand up for my work," she said, denying spreading any propaganda for the armed Kurdish group. (DPA)
8:27 A.M. Al-Qaida making gains in Yemen amid turmoil, U.S. defense chief says
Al-Qaida militants have seized the opportunity of the disorder in Yemen to make gains on the ground there, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday.
"The situation (in Yemen) is still obviously very unsettled and there are a number of different warring parties, the Houthis are one and AQAP is another, that have seized the opportunity of the disorder there and the collapse of the central government," Carter said during a visit to Tokyo.
Speaking at a news conference, Carter said the United States was particularly concerned about Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the powerful regional wing of the jihadist movement, as in addition to its regional ambitions it had the ambition to strike Western targets, including the United States.
Referring to AQAP activity in Yemen, he said, "we see them making direct gains on the ground there as they try to take territory, seize territory in these battle lines ...we are observing that - AQAP participating in that kind of fighting."
He said the United States, which has waged a covert drone campaign against AQAP, would continue to combat the threat posed by the militants.
"Obviously it's always easier to conduct counter-terrorism operations when there is a stable government willing to cooperate in place. That circumstance obviously doesn't exist in Yemen. That doesn't mean we don't continue to take steps to protect ourselves. We have to do it in a different way, but we do and we are," Carter said. (Reuters)
2:01 A.M. Saudi pumps up oil production to record high 10.3 million barrels per day
Saudi Arabia has revved up crude production to its highest rate on record, feeding unexpectedly strong demand from foreign refiners and increased capacity at home.
Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters late on Tuesday that the Kingdom produced some 10.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in March, a figure that would eclipse its previous recent peak of 10.2 million bpd in August 2013, according to records going back to the early 1980s.
Naimi did not say why production had increased last month. He said in the speech in Riyadh that the Kingdom's output would likely remain around 10 million bpd.
The increase in output reaffirms Saudi Arabia's vow not to cede market share to higher-cost producers, such as U.S. shale drillers or Russian giants. The Kingdom and others in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have refused to cut production to shore up fallen oil prices.
It also highlights the surprising strength of end-user fuel demand, which has helped lift global refinery profit margins to their highest levels in years. (Reuters)
12:10 A.M. U.S., allies conduct three air strikes in Syria and 12 in Iraq against ISIS militants. (Reuters)
12:04 A.M. Car bomb hits Syrian rebel base, killing at least 7
A car bomb blew up at a rebel base north of the Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday, killing at least seven people, two activist groups said.
The attack targeted a compound of Islamist armed opposition fighters in the town of Marea, some 30 kilometers north of Aleppo. The town, long a stronghold for Syrian rebels, has been near the front lines since the ISIS advanced into the area several months ago.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll in the bombing at seven people, including two rebel leaders. It said dozens were also wounded. The Aleppo Media Center activist group said at least 12 people were killed and more than 15 wounded.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Islamic State group, which frequently uses suicide attacks. (AP)
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