Middle East & North Africa

ANKARA, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish government has granted citizenship to a total of 72,000 Syrian refugees, Hurriyet daily reported on Monday.

Turkey issued citizenship to 36,000 Syrian adults and 36,000 children, said Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu addressing lawmakers at the parliament.

Some 380,000 Syrian refugee babies were born in Turkey, the minister said, expressing his individual wish to issue them citizenship as well.

"That will be the biggest investment in our brothership for another century," he stated.

TEHRAN, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the U.S. sanctions have failed to change Iran's policies, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.

"Sanctions have never worked," Zarif was quoted as saying.

"They hurt Iranians but don't change (Iran's) policy," he added.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iranian international nuclear deal, calling it "the worst deal ever."

MOGADISHU, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States army said Monday it conducted a total of six airstrikes over the weekend, killing 62 al-Shabab militants in a region southwest of the capital, Mogadishu.

The U.S. Africa Command (Africom) said no civilian was killed in the latest strikes which were carried out on Saturday and Sunday in coordination with Somali government in the vicinity of Gandarshe, about 48 km southwest of Mogadishu.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has stressed his country's resolve to support Syria to surpass all of the troubles caused by the more than seven-year war, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper said Sunday.

"We are determined to stand by the side of Syria to overcome all the woes that it has been through over the past seven years," the Russian official told al-Watan in an interview.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia issued an unusually strong rebuke of the U.S. Senate on Monday, rejecting a bipartisan resolution that put the blame for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi squarely on the Saudi crown prince and describing it as interference in the kingdom’s affairs.

ISTANBUL, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkish security forces would enter the northern Syrian town of Manbij if the United States doesn't remove the Kurdish militia from the area.

"They promised us that they would remove them to the east of the Euphrates," Erdogan said at a conference in Istanbul.

"If you will not clean the area, we will enter Manbij," he stressed.

Erdogan said that Turkey had lost enough time in intervening in the region, adding "from now it will not tolerate a single day delay."

RAMALLAH, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian sources declared that three young men were killed by Israeli forces in West Bank's Ramallah and Nablus Wednesday night and East Jerusalem Thursday dawn.

Local sources said that around dawn call for prayers, Israeli police forces shot down a Palestinian after he allegedly attacked two police officers leaving them moderate wounds. The officers, one male and one female, were rushed to the hospital, but the suspected Palestinian perpetrator was fatally shot on the spot.

13 Dec 2018; AFP: A Palestinian shot dead two Israelis and wounded at least two others at a bus stop in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the army said.

"A Palestinian opened fire at a bus stop killing 2 Israelis, severely injuring 1 & injuring others at Asaf Junction, north of Jerusalem," the Israeli military said on its Twitter account.

An army spokesperson was unable to confirm reports that the assailant targeted Israeli soldiers.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A high-speed train hit a railway engine and crashed into a pedestrian overpass at a station in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday, killing nine people and injuring 47 others, officials said.

The 6:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) train from Ankara to the central Turkish city of Konya collided head-on with the engine, which was checking the tracks at the capital’s small Marsandiz station, Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan told reporters after inspecting the site. The high-speed train transits that station without stopping.

TEHRAN, December 8. /TASS/. Washington uses terrorists as an instrument of pressure and a pretext to intervene in the affairs of sovereign states, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday at the second conference of Parliament speakers from Afghanistan, China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey on fight against terrorism and strengthen regional cooperation.