DAMASCUS, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Up to 291 Syrian soldiers and Islamic State (IS) militants have been killed in confrontations between the two sides since the beginning of this year, a war monitor reported on Friday night.
The death toll includes 136 members of IS killed by Russian airstrikes in desert regions of the provinces of Homs, Sweida, Hama, Raqqa Deir al-Zour and Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
ISTANBUL (AP) — A passenger bus collided Saturday with emergency teams handling an earlier road accident in southern Turkey, leaving at least 15 people dead and nearly two dozen injured, officials said.
Three firefighters, two paramedics and two journalists were among those killed on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tweeted. The other eight fatalities were on the bus, he added.
Gaziantep Gov. Davut Gul said 22 other people were injured in the incident.
19 August 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's Central Bank shocked markets, Thursday, with a cut to its benchmark policy rate, despite inflation in the country sitting near 80 per cent, Financial Times reports.
According to the report, the Turkish Central Bank's statement, Thursday, said that the committee expects the "disinflation process to start" and that there are signals of a "loss of momentum in economic activity."
19 August 2022; MEMO: The Head of Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed group, Hezbollah, said on Friday the outcome of nuclear talks in Vienna would have no impact on maritime talks aimed at delineating Lebanon's border with Israel, Reuters reports.
"Whether a nuclear deal with Iran is signed or not, if the US mediator does not give Lebanon what it asked for in terms of its rights, we are heading towards an escalation – we are heading towards a problem," said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech, without elaborating.
19 August 2022; MEMO: Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Friday, met Iraqi Shia Cleric, Ammar Al-Hakim to discuss the lingering political crisis in Iraq, Anadolu News Agency reports.
The meeting came after the leader of Iraq's Hikma Movement, a political coalition, arrived in the Kingdom on an unannounced visit, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
The Agency reported that, during the meeting, Saudi-Iraqi relations alongside a number of issues of common interest were discussed.
19 August 2022; MEMO: The international football governing body FIFA said that 2.45 million tickets have been sold for the 2022 World Cup which is set to be held in Qatar.
BEIRUT, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The head of Lebanon's pro-Iran group Hezbollah said on Friday he had no immediate comment on the stabbing attack against Indian-born author Salman Rushdie in the United States because the group was still gathering information.
Speaking in a televised address, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah added that he saw an "urgent need" for his group to make a statement on the attack, which has been blamed on a 24-year-old American citizen of Lebanese origin.
BEIRUT, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon must send back Syrian refugees inside the country despite the reported lack of support from donor countries in facilitating the plan, the country's minister of the displaced said Friday.
Hosting a significant number of refugees has so far cost almost 33 billion U.S. dollars, "which constitutes a huge burden on the Lebanese economy," Issam Charafeddine told Radio Liban Libre.
"The direct cost incurred by Lebanon covers wheat, electricity, water, educational policy, infrastructure and environmental pollution," Charafeddine explained.
DAMASCUS, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 people, including children, have been killed and over 50 others injured in a fresh round of fighting between Syria and the Turkish-backed militia in northern Syria, a war monitor said Friday.
A total of 14 civilians, including five children, were killed and 38 others injured in a Syrian shelling on al-Bab, a city controlled by Turkish-backed rebels in the northern province of Aleppo on Friday, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
ANKARA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Türkiye and Russia have been in constant dialogue over the presence of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Syria.
On his flight back home from Ukraine, Erdogan told reporters that a possible Turkish military operation against YPG was an important topic of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Aug. 5, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
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