Explosive drone downed near Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq's Kirkuk: Reports
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Arab News
6 hours ago
- Arab News
Iraq says its tip to Lebanon leads to the destruction of an amphetamine factory
BEIRUT: One of Lebanon's largest factories making the highly addictive amphetamine Captagon has been discovered and destroyed as part of rare security cooperation between intelligence agencies in Iraq and Lebanon, Iraq's Interior Ministry said. The announcement late Monday came a month after the Lebanese army issued a statement about the discovery of a drug factory in Yammoune village in the eastern Bekaa Valley with large amounts of drugs inside. Iraq's Interior Ministry said the Lebanese operation in Yammoune in mid-July came after Iraqi authorities gave Beirut information about the factory. A senior Lebanese security official on Tuesday said it was not clear why Iraqi authorities made the announcement Monday, adding that Lebanon's security agencies are always in contact with Arab and international security agencies. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Regional states are intensifying efforts to fight the drug trade. The vast majority of the world's Captagon is produced in neighboring Syria, with some production in Lebanon. Western governments estimate that Captagon has generated billions of dollars in revenue for former Syrian President Bashar Assad, his associates and allies. The former government in Damascus denied the accusations. After Assad was removed from power in December when Islamist fighters took over Damascus, the fight against drug production intensified in Lebanon and Syria. In February, the interior ministers of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq held talks in the Jordanian capital on ways to combat the illegal drug trade and agreed to set up a joint telecommunications cell to exchange information. Smugglers have used Jordan as a corridor to smuggle Captagon pills out of Syria, mainly to oil-rich Arab Gulf states.
Al Arabiya
6 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Intelligence cooperation between Iraq, Lebanon leads to destruction of amphetamine factory
One of Lebanon's largest factories making the highly addictive amphetamine Captagon has been discovered and destroyed as part of rare security cooperation between intelligence agencies in Iraq and Lebanon, Iraq's Interior Ministry said. The announcement late Monday came a month after the Lebanese army issued a statement about the discovery of a drug factory in Yammoune village in the eastern Bekaa Valley with large amounts of drugs inside. Iraq's Interior Ministry said the Lebanese operation in Yammoune in mid-July came after Iraqi authorities gave Beirut information about the factory. A senior Lebanese security official on Tuesday said it was not clear why Iraqi authorities made the announcement Monday, adding that Lebanon's security agencies are always in contact with Arab and international security agencies. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Regional states are intensifying efforts to fight the drug trade. The vast majority of the world's Captagon is produced in neighboring Syria, with some production in Lebanon. Western governments estimate that Captagon has generated billions of dollars in revenue for former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his associates and allies. The former government in Damascus denied the accusations. After Assad was removed from power in December, the fight against drug production intensified in Lebanon and Syria. In February, the interior ministers of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq held talks in the Jordanian capital on ways to combat the illegal drug trade and agreed to set up a joint telecommunications cell to exchange information. Smugglers have used Jordan as a corridor to smuggle Captagon pills out of Syria.
Arab News
8 hours ago
- Arab News
Car set ablaze outside Turkish parliament before meeting on PKK disarmament
ANKARA: A car was set ablaze near Turkiye's parliament on Tuesday in a grim reminder of decades of conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), just hours before families of some victims were to address a commission overseeing the group's disarmament. The PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984, said in May it would disarm and dissolve. The parliamentary commission was launched this month to set a path toward lasting peace, which would also resonate in neighboring Iraq and Syria. The white Renault Toros burned for a short time outside parliament's main gate on Tuesday morning. Police in Ankara said in a statement that a man detained for setting it alight suffered from psychological problems and also had a prior criminal record. In the 1990s, during one of the bloodiest phases of the PKK conflict, such vehicles became notorious in the mainly Kurdish southeast where they were linked to abductions and extrajudicial killings blamed on state-linked groups. More than 40,000 people were killed in the fighting over more than four decades. Families of security personnel and civilians killed in the conflict are due to speak at the parliamentary commission on Tuesday, with some expected to question the peace effort. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies. Its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, had urged it to end the insurgency and some militants burned their weapons last month in a ceremony in northern Iraq — where they are now based — marking a symbolic first step.
