Politics

  ERBIL / Reuters The battle for Mosul will be a make-or-break moment for Iraq that could split the country along ethnic and sectarian lines, said the former regional governor who has assembled a force which will take part in the campaign. Iraq has been preparing for more than a year for its offensive to drive IS out of its ...

  Tbilisi / AFP Georgia was probing on Wednesday the attempted murder of an opposition lawmaker whose car exploded in central Tbilisi just days before parliamentary polls. Givi Targamadze, who is running for office for the ex-Soviet republic’s main opposition United National Movement (UNM) party, told journalists that an explosive device planted in the back of his car detonated on ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia on Wednesday said two of its warships were heading back to join its forces in the Mediterranean amid an upsurge in tensions with Washington over Syria. The announcement comes a day after Moscow said it had dispatched its S-300 air defence missile system to its naval facility at Tartus in Syria. The two Buyan-class corvettes ...

  Geneva/ AFP An air strike was responsible for the attack on an aid convoy in Syria that killed 18 people last month, a UN expert said on Wednesday. “With our analysis we determined it was an air strike,” said Lars Bromley, a researcher at the United Nations body UNOSAT, which collects and analyses satellite images. US officials have said ...

  Aleppo / AFP Syrian regime forces advanced against rebels during intense street battles in the heart of Aleppo on Tuesday, after the United States abandoned talks with Russia aimed at reviving a ceasefire deal. The UN rights chief appealed for action to halt the “ghastly avalanche of violence” unfolding in Syria’s second city, which is reeling from some of ...

  Hasakeh / AFP A suicide bomber struck a wedding in northeast Syria as the bride and groom were exchanging vows, killing 34 people and wounding dozens, the local Kurdish government said. The bomber blew himself up late Monday in the village of Tall Tawil in Hasakeh province where a Kurdish party official was getting married. The IS extremist group ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkey on Tuesday suspended more than 12,000 police officers over alleged links to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of masterminding the failed July coup, in the latest move under the controversial state of emergency. Meanwhile, a prominent pro-Kurdish television channel was raided and broadcasts cut under the emergency laws, over accusations of supporting Kurdish militants. Of ...

  Cairo / AFP Egyptian police shot dead two members of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of them a senior leader of the outlawed group, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry charged that Mohamed Kamal headed the military wing of the movement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, although the group has always denied having one. It said that he ...

  Kunduz / AFP Afghan forces were conducting clearing operations in Kunduz early on Tuesday, warning that Taliban militants were hiding in civilian homes after an hours-long assault on the city repelled with the help of NATO air support. Helicopters hovered over the strategic provincial capital and special forces were stationed in the main square, but with fighting still in the ...

  Washington / AFP Donald Trump’s presidential hopes suffered a punishing new setback as authorities clamped down on his charitable foundation, while Hillary Clinton seized the offensive to brand him an unscrupulous businessman. With just five weeks to go before the November 8 election, Trump is seeking to climb out of one of the darkest periods of his White House campaign ...