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  Ain Issa/ AFP A US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance launched an offensive on Sunday on the IS group’s de facto Syrian capital Raqa, upping pressure on the extremists after Iraqi forces entered their Iraqi bastion Mosul. “The major battle to liberate Raqa and its surroundings has begun,” Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said at a press ...

  Kirkuk /AFP Suicide bombings claimed by the IS group killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 30 in two cities north of Baghdad on Sunday, officials said. One bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at the southern entrance to Tikrit, while the other blew up an ambulance in Samarra, the officials said. Jassem Al-Jbara, the head of Salaheddin ...

  Aden / AFP Fresh clashes in two different parts of Yemen on Sunday killed 14 pro-Iran rebels and six fighters loyal to the internationally recognised government, military officials said. Among them was loyalist General Yehia al-Khayati who died at a Saudi hospital where he was taken after being wounded in clashes in Midi, a northwestern town close to the Saudi ...

  Mosul / AFP Iraqi forces battled extremists inside Mosul for the third day running on Sunday while civilians risked their lives dodging bombs and snipers to slip out of the city. The IS group put up fierce resistance to defend the city it seized more than two years ago and also claimed responsibility for deadly suicide attacks further south. ...

  London / AFP President Bashar al-Assad claimed Western powers are “becoming much weaker” in Syria, in a confident interview published Sunday in The Sunday Times. “In the past if I said anything, people would say the Syrian president is disconnected from reality. Now it’s different. The West is becoming much weaker,” told the British weekly. “They don’t have a leg ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party on Sunday said it was pulling out of parliament after nine of its MPs including the two co-leaders were arrested in an unprecedented crackdown. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third-largest party in this legislature, said it would no longer be taking part in general sessions of parliament or commission work. The ...

  Istanbul /AFP A Kurdish militant group that has carried out a string of attacks in Turkey this year on Sunday claimed a bombing on the southeastern city of Diyarbakir that killed 11, a report said. The claim by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), seen as an splinter group of the better-known Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), came after a news ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Sunday attended the inaugural Abu Dhabi CEO Roundtable, at which 20 of the world’s leading oil and gas companies gathered to discuss strategies for future growth and how to stay competitive in ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM The Abu Dhabi Energy Authority sought to strengthen ties with Singapore, especially in the Water and Energy Sector. Working closely with Singapore was discussed at the end of the Authority’s recent participation at Singapore International Energy Week, under the leadership of Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohammed Bin Butti Al Hamed, member of the Abu Dhabi Executive ...

  DUBAI / WAM Emaar Malls, the shopping malls and retail business majority-owned by global property developer Emaar Properties, recorded a net profit of AED 1.42 billion during the first nine months (January to September) of 2016, an increase of 16 per cent over the same period last year at AED1.22 billion . The total revenue for the first nine ...