Middle East

The US Department of Defense confirms the death of al-Qaeda external operations leader Mohammad Habib Boussadoun al-Tunisi in a January 17 counterterrorism strike near Idlib in Syria, department spokesperson Peter Cook said in a release on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, has announced that it will invest some $30-$50 billion toward renewable energies in the coming years. As a part of Vision 2030, the kingdom intends to develop solar, wind and geothermal sources of energy.

Saudis want to turn the Gulf kingdom into the energy powerhouse, developing and exporting wind, solar and nuclear energy, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, Khalid Falih, said Thursday.

Arrow-3, a missile-defense system capable of destroying targets in space, codeveloped by Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing, has officially entered service, according to Jerusalem.

The US jets killed in airstrike an al-Qaeda memeber on Tuesday near Saraqib, Syria, US Department of Defense spokesperson Peter Cook confirmed in a release.

On Wednesday, the Russian military confirmed that Russian and Turkish combat aircraft had carried out their first joint aerial operation against targets in Syria. Speaking to Sputnik, Turkish defense analyst Koray Gurbuz said that the joint operation has effectively forced the US-led anti-Daesh coalition to remember that there's a war on.

Considering importance of the demining task in Syria's Aleppo for implementation of humanitarian programs it is necessary to provide international assistance to Russia both on bilateral and multilateral basis, according to a diplomatic source.

More than a million civilians in Mosul face a catastrophic humanitarian situation which is not receiving the media attention it deserves, Becky Bakr Abdulla of the Norwegian Refugee Council told Radio Sputnik.

Senior adviser to the UN special envoy for Syria said that Syria's Deir ez-Zor has lost its only lifeline, as humanitarian supply deliveries were cut to the town due to the air drop zone being surrounded by Daesh militants.

Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook confirmed the death of Abu Anas al-Iraqi, a member of Daesh senior leadership council.

According to a Syrian opposition source, the delegation of Syrian opposition is planning to discuss at the Astana talks the possibility of forming joint units with the Syrian army.

Ozturk Yilmaz, a deputy chair of the Republican People's Party (CHP), expressed hope the military cooperation between Russia and Turkey would contribute to the Syrian settlement.

Mohammed Alloush said that Syrian militants will fight to the bitter end if the upcoming talks in Astana yield no positive results.

An Iranian female bodybuilder has been arrested after posting too-revealing pictures of herself working out, local media reported.

French Foreign Ministry said that Paris welcomes the success of the Iraqi forces and the international coalition in liberating the eastern part of the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Daesh terrorists.

Commenting on the number of important deals recently signed between Syria and its regional neighbor Iran on the post-war reconstruction of the war-torn country, the current advisor to Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Sheikholeslam, told Sputnik what helped Tehran become among the first to help its neighbor.

Operation Inherent Resolve said that US-led coalition against the Daesh carried out 26 airstrikes consisting of 69 engagements in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday.

The recent statement of Israeli Ambassador to Russia Gary Koren about potential relocation of Russia's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem could be a joke, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Thursday.

The strike over Israeli actions in Umm al-Hiran Bedouin village organized by the Arab follow-up committee and the high commission for the Negev Bedouins’ affairs, includes official organizations, schools, local communities, according to local media.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani issued an executive order Thursday, in which he called upon Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli to investigate the cause of fire which led to the collapse of the Plasco Building in central Tehran.