Latest news with #militia
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Needing Dollars, Iran-Backed Militias Turn to Visa and Mastercard
Iraq was a minor market for Visa and Mastercard a couple of years ago, generating just $50 million a month or less in cross-border transactions at the start of 2023. Then it exploded to around $1.5 billion in April that year, a 2900% increase almost overnight. What changed? Iraqi militia groups figured out how to squeeze dollars on an industrial scale from Visa and Mastercard's payment networks for themselves and for their allies in Iran, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
ISIS claims responsibility for 2 bomb explosions in Syria
May 31 (UPI) -- The Islamic State claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks in a remote region in southern Syria on Wednesday and Thursday. The twin bombings mark the first time ISIS has attacked the new Syrian government that took power in December and occurred in the remote Sweida Province. ISIS posted two online statements on Thursday claiming responsibility for the bombings that killed and wounded Syrian soldiers and militia members who are allied with the Syrian government, The New York Times reported. An attack occurred on Wednesday and struck a Syrian Army reconnaissance group that was tracking ISIS activities in the remote desert area, CNN reported. Those wounded in that attack are members of the Syrian Army's 70th Division, and the man who died was assisting the soldiers, according to The New York Times. ISIS used a remote-controlled land mine to target the vehicle in which they were traveling, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced. That attack occurred in the eastern portion of the Sweida Province and was the first attack carried out by ISIS and targeting forces allied with the new Syrian government. A second bombing occurred on Thursday in the same region, according to news reports and ISIS. ISIS said it killed and injured seven soldiers for the "apostate Syrian regime" by using an explosive device on a road in the Talul al Safa area in the Suwayda province in southern Syria, Al Jazeera reported. Both attacks occurred near Sweida in southern Syria, which is a mountainous desert area in which ISIS has operated for many years. Neither the Syrian government nor the Free Syrian Army has commented on either bombing. The United States backs the Free Syrian Army, which operates in the Sweida region's al Tanf Deconfliction Zone that is located near Syria's borders with Jordan. The United States maintains a small outpost in the area. ISIS also has operated in the area for a long time due to its "extremely rugged and dangerous" terrain, CNN reported. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump said he he was lifting "crippling" U.S. sanctions on Syria originally imposed to block flows of money into Syria, including aid, to put pressure on the brutal regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad. He met with the country's transitional leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May14. Al-Sharaa, who was appointed president in January, has promised to hold elections once a new constitution is in place in around four years.
Asharq Al-Awsat
4 days ago
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
RSF Drone Strike Kills Several in Sudan Hospital
Sudan's Rapid Support Forces bombarded El-Obeid on Friday, killing six people in a hospital in the key southern city, medical and army sources said. "The militia launched a drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, killing six and wounding 12, simultaneously attacking residential areas of the city with heavy artillery," an army source told AFP, adding that the bombardment had also hit a second hospital in the city center. A medical source at El-Obeid Hospital, the city's main facility, confirmed the toll, adding that the Social Insurance Hospital had been forced shut "due to damage" sustained in the drone strike. El-Obeid, a strategic city 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of Khartoum which is the capital of North Kordofan state, was besieged by the RSF for nearly two years before the regular army broke the siege in February. It was one of a series of counteroffensives that also saw the army recapture Khartoum, but El-Obeid has continued to come under RSF bombardment. The city is a key staging post on the army's supply route to the west, where the besieged city of El-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under its control. The RSF and the army have clashed repeatedly along the road between El-Obeid and El-Fasher in recent weeks. On Thursday, the RSF said they retaken the town of Al-Khoei, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of El-Obeid, after the army recaptured it earlier this month. The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million since it erupted in April 2023. The United Nation says the conflict has created the world's biggest hunger and displacement crises. It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the centre, east and north, while the RSF forces and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south. Since losing Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a two-prong strategy: long-range drone strikes on army-held cities accompanied by a counteroffensive in the south. On Thursday, the RSF also announced they had recaptured Dibeibat, in South Kordofan state some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of El-Obeid, another town that the army had retaken earlier this month. Swathes of South Kordofan are controlled by a rebel group allied with the RSF, Abdelaziz al-Hilu's faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North.
Arab News
4 days ago
- Health
- Arab News
RSF drone strike kills six in Sudan hospital: army source
KHARTOUM: Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces bombarded El-Obeid on Friday, killing six people in a hospital in the key southern city, medical and army sources said. 'The militia launched a drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, killing six and wounding 12, simultaneously attacking residential areas of the city with heavy artillery,' an army source told AFP, adding that the bombardment had also hit a second hospital in the city center. A medical source at El-Obeid Hospital, the city's main facility, confirmed the toll, adding that the Social Insurance Hospital had been forced shut 'due to damage' sustained in the drone strike. El-Obeid, a strategic city 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Khartoum which is the capital of North Kordofan state, was besieged by the RSF for nearly two years before the regular army broke the siege in February. It was one of a series of counteroffensives that also saw the army recapture Khartoum, but El-Obeid has continued to come under RSF bombardment. The city is a key staging post on the army's supply route to the west, where the besieged city of El-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under its control. The RSF and the army have clashed repeatedly along the road between El-Obeid and El-Fasher in recent weeks. On Thursday, the paramilitaries said they retaken the town of Al-Khoei, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of El-Obeid, after the army recaptured it earlier this month. The war between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million since it erupted in April 2023. The United Nation says the conflict has created the world's biggest hunger and displacement crises. It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the center, east and north, while the paramilitaries and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south. Since losing Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a two-prong strategy: long-range drone strikes on army-held cities accompanied by a counteroffensive in the south. On Thursday, the paramilitaries also announced they had recaptured Dibeibat, in South Kordofan state some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of El-Obeid, another town that the army had retaken earlier this month. Swathes of South Kordofan are controlled by a rebel group allied with the RSF, Abdelaziz Al-Hilu's faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Libya Detains Three in State Oil Attack to Defuse Supply Threat
Libya's attorney general ordered the detention of three people accused of storming the state oil company's headquarters after authorities in the country's eastern half threatened to shut oil output in response to the episode. A militia from a city near the capital Tripoli barged into the National Oil Corp.'s headquarters Wednesday, demanding jobs protecting the facility, people familiar with the events said earlier. The attorney general's office ordered the arrest of other suspects, it said in a Facebook post.
