Middle East & North Africa

PARIS, Feb. 21, 2019 -- French national Fabien Clain has been killed during an air strike by the international coalition on a holdout of IS group in Syria, state-run radio France Info reported on Thursday.

Known as the "official voice" of the French IS group, Clain was killed on Wednesday following an air strike which targeted the cell's last pocket of resistance in Baghouz near the Iraqi border. His brother, Jean-Michel, was seriously wounded, the report added.

JERUSALEM, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main challengers announced on Thursday that an alliance has been formed for the upcoming elections, the first plausible alternative to Netanyahu's long-time rule.

Benny Gantz, 59, Israel's former Chief of the General Staff, and Yair Lapid, chair of centrist party Yesh Atid, announced they would present a joint list for the April 9 elections.

In a joint statement, the two said their list "will constitute the new Israeli ruling party, in a move "motivated by national responsibility."

21 Feb 2019; DW: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Thursday handed over more than 150 Iraqi and foreign Islamic State (IS) fighters and their families to Iraq, according to Iraqi military sources and a local mayor.

Ten trucks transported the IS fighters and their families to Iraq where they are in a "safe place" and being investigated, an Iraqi security official said. 

KAYSERI, 19 Feb 2019; AA: Turkish police have seized a 13th-century painting depicting the crucifixion of Jesus, security sources said on Tuesday.

The find came when police raided the office of a suspected antiquities smuggler in the central Turkish province of Kayseri, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

JERUSALEM; 20 Feb 2019; AA: Israeli forces Tuesday evening attacked Palestinian Muslim worshippers inside the Al-Aqsa mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem, leaving many of them wounded, while arresting others, according to eyewitnesses.

The Israeli attack took place near the Al-Rahma gate of the flashpoint mosque, the eyewitnesses added, without specifying the number of soldiers.

ANKARA; 20 Feb 2019; AA: Turkey’s president said Tuesday that the country would not be able to shoulder a new potential migration wave on its own.

Speaking in Istanbul at the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Budapest Process on Migration, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said building higher walls with barbed wire was no way to prevent irregular migration.

HAMA, Syria, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Ali Bakeer, a medical engineering student in Syria, has developed a prosthetic hand meant to help the disabled people who suffered injuries during the war.

Born in the town of Rabia in the central province of Hama, the 22-year-old man, who is a third-year college student, said he had a strong interest in electronics as a boy.

The idea of creating the prosthetic hand was driven by the needs of the injured during the war, according to Bakeer.

GAZA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 Palestinians were shot and wounded on Tuesday evening during clashes between hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, told reporters that 20 Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli gunfire on the border between northern Gaza Strip and Israel.

TEHRAN, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian military commander said Tuesday that the security forces have arrested two Pakistani nationals as the suspects linked to the recent terrorist attack in southeastern Iran.

"The suicide bomber and two elements of the terrorist team targeting IRGC forces were Pakistanis," Commander of the Ground Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Pakpour, was quoted as saying by Press TV.

Pakpour identified the suicide bomber as Hafiz Mohammad Ali.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations condemns the bombings in the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria, which caused civilian deaths and injuries, a UN spokesperson said Tuesday.

In the bombings on Monday, at least 17 people were reportedly killed in twin explosions in the al-Qusor neighborhood in Idlib, and nearly 100 people reportedly injured, including civilians and aid volunteers, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said at a press briefing.