Mena Today

Two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Syria on Saturday by a suspected Islamic State attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, the U.S. military said.

The Israeli military said it killed senior Hamas commander Raed Saed, one of the architects of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, in a strike on a car in Gaza City on Saturday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, fresh from a meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin, said he hopes to discuss a Ukraine-Russia peace plan with U.S. President Donald Trump, adding that "peace is not far away".

Iranian authorities detained 18 crew members of a foreign tanker seized in the Gulf of Oman on Friday that they said was carrying 6 million litres of smuggled fuel, Iranian media reported on Saturday, citing the Hormozgan province judiciary.

International human rights groups on Saturday condemned the reported re-arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi in Iran, with the Nobel committee calling on the Iranian authorities to immediately clarify her whereabouts.

International troops could be deployed in the Gaza Strip as early as next month to form a U.N.-authorized stabilization force, two U.S. officials told Reuters, but it remains unclear how Palestinian terrorist group Hamas will be disarmed.

A joint Saudi-Emirati military delegation arrived in Aden to discuss measures aimed at defusing tensions in southern Yemen, days after the country’s main southern separatist group claimed broad control across the south, a government source told Reuters on Friday.

The United States Central Command will host a conference in Doha on December 16 with partner nations to plan the International Stabilization Force for Gaza, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday.

Tehran called on the United Nations to intervene in what it called the "tightening of restrictions on Iran's diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York", according to a foreign ministry statement published on Thursday.

A new report by Amnesty International has found that Palestinian militant group Hamas committed crimes against humanity during its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 and against hostages it took to Gaza.

The European Union has approved €132 million in support to Lebanon aimed at reinforcing security, stability and institutional capacity, Lebanon’s Finance Ministry announced. 

The alleged leader of a failed coup in Benin has sought refuge in neighbouring Togo, two Beninese government officials told Reuters on Wednesday, demanding his immediate extradition.