Category: English

DAMASCUS – A car bomb exploded Thursday in the city of Manbij in Aleppo province in northern Syria, killing three people and wounding five others, a war monitor reported.

The car bomb went off near the Zidan Hanizal School in Manbij, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

This incident marks the third major bombing in the region within a week.

On Tuesday, a powerful blast from a similar device rocked an area near a base used by the Türkiye-backed Syrian National Army in Manbij.

Two days earlier, another car bomb killed two fighters from pro-Turkish factions and severely injured a third near the village of Kaber Saghir, also in Manbij’s eastern countryside.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest explosion.

XINHUA

ANKARA, Jan. 23 – The death toll from the devastating fire at Türkiye’s Kartalkaya ski resort in northwestern Bolu province has risen to 78, and 11 people have been detained in connection with the incident, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Thursday.

Among the detainees are Bolu municipality’s deputy mayor responsible for the fire department, the fire chief, and the owner and the manager of the hotel, Tunc said on social media platform X, adding that investigations are ongoing.

The fire, which broke out in the early hours of Tuesday, spread rapidly through the 12-story wooden hotel. Initial investigations suggest that the fire originated in the restaurant area on the fourth floor before engulfing the upper levels.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a national day of mourning on Wednesday.

The hotel was accommodating 238 guests during the busy holiday season.

Kartalkaya is a popular ski resort in the Koroglu mountains, some 300 km east of Istanbul.

XINHUA

NEW DELHI, Jan. 23 – The death toll in the train accident in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has risen to 13, police said Thursday.

According to police, 15 people were injured in the accident, 10 of whom are still in the hospitals.

Of the 13 killed in the accident, police so far have been able to identify only eight.

The accident occurred Wednesday evening after some passengers disembarked from a train following an alarm chain-pulling incident. They were later run over by another train in Pachora of Jalgaon district, about 425 km northeast of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.

Preliminary investigations carried out by the police said that someone had pulled the train’s alarm chain, causing it to come to a halt. Fearing a fire inside the train, many passengers deboarded onto the adjacent tracks, but were mowed down by another passing train.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed grief over the deaths in the accident and announced financial assistance for the victims.

XINHUA

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 23 – Three people lost their lives and six others were injured on Thursday during a large gathering in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, for red packets given by a local tycoon, officials said.

The tragic incident happened around 10:00 a.m. local time when a large crowd of people gathered for red envelopes given by the influential tycoon, Sok Kong, at his mansion on Norodom Boulevard in Duan Penh district.

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Keut Chhe confirmed the tragic incident with Xinhua, saying the injured people had been rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.

Local authorities said the incident was likely caused by suffocation when a large number of people rallied in a densely packed space.

XINHUA

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 – U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to re-designate the Houthis, a Yemen-based militant group, as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).”

According to a fact sheet released by the White House, Trump’s executive order reversed the one issued by Joe Biden four years ago that removed the Houthis from the FTO list, undoing a Trump order issued in the final days of his first presidential term.

“As a result of the Biden administration’s weak policy, the Houthis have fired at U.S. Navy warships dozens of times, launched numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure in partner nations, and attacked commercial vessels transiting Bab al-Mandeb more than 100 times,” the White House said in the fact sheet.

Wednesday’s executive order directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to recommend that the designation take effect within 30 days.

Following the designation, Trump will direct the United States Agency for International Development, after it completes a review, “to end its relationship with entities that have made payments to the Houthis, or which have opposed international efforts to counter the Houthis while turning a blind eye towards the Houthis’ terrorism and abuses.”

XINHUA

ISTANBUL, Jan. 21 – A 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck Türkiye’s northwestern province of Canakkale on Tuesday, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

AFAD said on social media platform X that the earthquake occurred at 11:38 p.m. (2038 GMT) off the coast of Ayvacik district in the Aegean Sea.

Canakkale Governor Omer Toraman shared on X that following the earthquake, relevant units started field surveys, and no reports of damage or casualties have been received so far.

The tremor was felt across a wide range of areas in the Aegean and Marmara regions.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM, Jan. 21 – Four people were injured late Tuesday in a stabbing attack in central Tel Aviv. The attacker, identified as a Moroccan-born U.S. permanent resident, was shot and “neutralized.”

Police Spokesman Aryeh Doron said the assailant, trying to flee the scene, was shot by a civilian passerby, and was “neutralized.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s state-owned Kan TV reported that the suspect was killed and published photos of documents found on his body. The documents indicated he was born in Morocco in June 1995 and had held U.S. permanent resident status since September 2022 — an uncommon profile among individuals involved in attacks targeting Israelis. The suspect had entered Israel three days before the attack.

Eli Bin, director-general of the Magen David Adom rescue service, said two people sustained moderate injuries and two others were lightly injured. All four were taken to a hospital for treatment.

The attack comes after a similar incident on Saturday, when a knife-wielding Palestinian man from the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm carried out a stabbing attack in southern Tel Aviv, seriously injuring a 28-year-old Israeli man. That assailant was shot and killed.

The attack occurred just hours after the military announced the launch of a “significant” operation in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. At least eight people were killed, according to Palestinian health officials, two days after a ceasefire agreement took effect in Gaza, which ended 15 months of Israeli military operations in the enclave.

XINHUA

MOSCOW – Russia on Tuesday slammed US President Donald Trump for reinstating its ally Cuba on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying the measure was aimed at destabilising the island and prompting regime change.

Trump on Monday reversed his predecessor Joe Biden’s decision to remove Cuba from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that the newly-inaugurated Trump’s order was undoubtedly “aimed at further tightening financial and economic restrictions in the hopes of destabilising the situation and changing power in Cuba.”

The move is unjustified because Cuba is an active participant in “international cooperation on counterterrorism,” Zakharova said.

The US must realize such measures “have an extremely negative influence on the quality of life of the island’s population,” she added, suggesting it was aiming to provoke “social discontent.”

Russia will continue to provide “necessary support to Cuba” to back its demands for an “immediate and complete end” to the “illegal and inhumane” US blockade of the island, Zakharova said.

Russia and Cuba have strengthened ties since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022 with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visiting last year.

AN-AFP, Jan 21, 2025

BEIRTU, Lebanon – Six people were killed on Tuesday in Syria’s central Homs province, a war monitor said, as security forces launched a sweep of the area.

The security forces were operating in the area around the village of Ghour Al-Gharbiya in western Homs “against the remaining militias supporting” ousted president Bashar Assad, the official news agency SANA reported.

The operation also targeted drug traffickers and smugglers, SANA said, citing a security source.

An “arms depot and munitions belonging to the ousted regime” were found, it added, reporting that violent clashes had broken out.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people had been killed in the Shiite-majority village, which lies close to the border with Lebanon.

The Observatory later specified that among those killed, two were “armed individuals” who died during clashes with security forces, while the other four were “civilians executed by local gunmen who entered the town” alongside the security forces.

Tanks were also deployed to the area, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that the village “hosted local groups close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah,” adding that those groups had left the area after the fall of Assad on December 8.

Hezbollah was one of Assad’s key backers in the nearly 14-year conflict that broke out with the former president’s violent repression of pro-democracy protests in 2011.

The Observatory said dozens were arrested during the latest security sweep. Recent weeks have seen widespread arrests of those accused of loyalty to Assad.

Islamist-led rebels forced Assad from power last month after a lightning offensive that saw them capture swathes of the country in 11 days.
Rights groups have reported violations by the new security authorities, including summary executions and the seizure of people’s homes.

The new authorities, however, have sought to reassure minorities in particular that their rights will be safeguarded.

AN-AFP, Jan 21, 2025

JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH – Israeli security forces backed by helicopters raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least eight Palestinians in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “large-scale and significant military operation.”

The action, launched a day after US President Donald Trump declared he was lifting sanctions on ultranationalist Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinian villages, was announced by Netanyahu as a new offensive against Iranian-backed militants.

“We are acting systematically and resolutely against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its arms – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said. Judea and Samaria are terms Israel uses for the occupied West Bank.

The move into Jenin, where the Israeli army has carried out multiple raids and large-scale incursions over recent years, comes only two days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza and underscores the threat of more violence in the West Bank.

The military said soldiers, police and intelligence services had begun a counter-terrorism operation in Jenin. It follows a weeks-long operation by Palestinian security forces in self-rule areas of the West Bank to reassert control in the adjacent refugee camp, a major center of armed militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both of which get support from Iran.

Gaza-based Hamas, which has expanded its reach in the West Bank over recent years, called on Palestinians in the territory to escalate fighting against Israel.

As the operation began, Palestinian security forces withdrew from the refugee camp and the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in mobile phone footage shared on social media.

Palestinian health services said at least eight Palestinians were killed and 35 wounded as the Israeli raid began, a week after an Israeli air strike in the Jenin refugee camp killed at least three Palestinians and wounded scores more.

Since the October 2023 start of the war in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and Israel and thousands of Palestinians have been detained in regular Israeli raids.

“Protecting settlers”

Hard-line pro-settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has responsibility for large parts of Israeli policy in the West Bank, said the operation was the start of a “strong and ongoing campaign” against militant groups “for the protection of settlements and settlers.”

Smotrich earlier welcomed Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on settlers accused of violence against Palestinians and said he looked forward to cooperating with the new administration in expanding settlements.

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel captured in 1967. Most countries consider Israel’s settlements on territory seized in war to be illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.

The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule over some territory in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation.

In the days leading up to the Israeli military operation, Palestinians throughout the West Bank said multiple roadblocks had been set up throughout the territory, where violence has resurged since the start of the war in Gaza.

Late on Monday, bands of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, smashing cars and burning property, near the village of Al-Funduq, an area where three Israelis were killed in a shooting earlier this month.

The military said it had opened an investigation into the incident, which it said involved dozens of Israeli civilians, some in masks.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the settler attack in Al-Funduq as well as the sudden appearance of multiple new barriers and roadblocks, which it said were aimed at “dismembering the West Bank.”

“We call on the new American administration to intervene to stop these crimes and Israeli policies that will not bring peace and security to anyone,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office said in a statement.

AN-REUTERS, Jan 21, 2025