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Reports say clashes between Gen Khalifa Haftar's rebels and pro-government groups are taking place in three suburbs to the south of the city. Tripoli is the base of the UN-backed, internationally recognised government. The UN's Libya envoy has insisted that a planned conference on possible new elections will still go ahead. In a televised address the head of the UN-backed government, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, accused Gen Haftar of launching a coup. Mr al-Sarraj said his government had "extended our hands towards peace", but said Gen Haftar will now be met with "nothing but strength and firmness". Tripoli residents have...

European officials are hoping Donald Trump’s surprise expression of support for the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar can be reversed amid division in Washington over US policy on the north African country. A clarification of US policy is considered necessary in order to build an international consensus condemning the attack on Tripoli that has claimed nearly 300 lives and injured more than 1,000, including migrants trapped in detention centres, since it began this month. Haftar is seen by Britain and the UN as the immediate aggressor in the conflict. Diplomats were surprised last week when an official White House readout of...

The EU and US urge "strongman" Khalifa Haftar to return oil ports to the "Libyan people". We're glad that Washington has a sense of humor ___ Libya was the richest, most developed, most educated country in North Africa. It was a model of much-needed stability in the region, with a government that was considerably less terrible than NATO's numerous medieval dictator-allies. Before the "revolution", the Libyan government used oil revenues to subsidize a whole range of social benefits for its citizens. And now that Libya is a moon crater, the U.S. and its European poodles are whining about "returning oil...

An armoured vehicle of Libyan forces allied with the U.N.-backed government is pictured during a battle with Islamic State militants in neighbourhood Number Three in Sirte, Libya October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny ************************************************************* TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan pro-government forces are advancing into the last area controlled by Islamic State in the coastal city of Sirte, surrounding the militants after a five-month campaign backed by U.S. air strikes, military officials say.At least eight pro-government fighters were killed over the weekend as their forces pushed into the 600 block, an area in central Sirte, with snipers and boobytraps posing the main obstacles...

Libyan renegade general Khalifa Haftar, who leads the Libyan militias fighting against Islamists in eastern Libya, has said he does not mind "cooperating with Israel and receiving various forms of support from it". General Haftar initially fought on the side of Muammar Gaddafi, before turning against him to fight with Islamist groups in 2011. He recently re-emerged as the leader of a military campaign to eradicate Islamist factions in the country. The editor in chief of Egypt's Al-Mesryoon newspaper, Gamal Sultan, quoted a statement made by Haftar during an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Sunday, in...

A statement shown on screen on An-Nabaa television, regarded as close to the Islamists, said: "Fajr Libya announces that it totally controls Tripoli international airport." Earlier on Saturday, leaders of the Islamist coalition, partly comprising men from Misrata, east of Tripoli, said their forces were advancing on the airport, having taken a bridge and a military base. The strategic site 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the Libyan capital, has been shut since July 13 amid skirmishes between the Islamists and the Zintan force, allies of rogue general Khalifa Haftar, based at Benghazi in eastern Libya and hostile to the...

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi checked on the forces in the Western Military Zone Saturday telling them, "The Egyptian Army is one of the strongest in the region. Yet, it is a wise army that protects but doesn't threaten, and is able to defend the national security of Egypt within and beyond its borders." The president said that the Air Force, the Special Forces, and the Border Guards have been securing 1,200 kilometers of borders with Libya for seven years, and accomplishing missions that have not been disclosed... The president warned in his speech in Sidi Barani district in Matrouh Governorate...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:30 A.M.) – On Saturday, the Greek Army announced its readiness to respond to any steps by Turkey, threatening to “burn everyone who sets foot on Greek soil.” A Greek news website quoted the statements of the Chief of Staff of the Greek Army, Constantius Florus, who did not rule out the occurrence of a “military conflict with Turkey in the event that Ankara proceeded to cross the red lines,” noting that “the military conflict is possible, and no one can exclude this possibility. And if anything like that happens, this will not be limited to one point,...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan has again upset the Christian world with his plans to reconvert the world-famous Agia Sophia in Istanbul, currently functioning as a museum, back into a mosque. Agia Sophia was built in the 6th century as an Orthodox Christian cathedral and served in the capacity until the fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman invaders in 1453, after which it was converted into a mosque. A 1934 presidential decree secularized the building and turned it into a state museum. But now, on July 2, the State Council of Turkey will review the possibility of changing the status...

Last month has proven to be catastrophic for the credibility of one of Russia’s most touted air defense systems. The troubles for the Pantsir S1 air defense system in Libya began when Khalifa Haftar’s yearlong Tripoli offensive against the Ankara-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) began to collapse. Believed to have been supplied to the Libyan strongman as early as last year by his backers in the Gulf, the Russian system was meant to be used as a trump card against Turkey’s combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) air interdiction operations. Yet, after a major GNA counteroffensive last month, and the...

Dr. Reza Parchizadeh, a political theorist and analyst, recently noted on Twitter that “the Iranian regime has turned the late #George_Floyd into Saint George, Shiite-style!” And sure enough, Parchizadeh posted a painting of Floyd depicting him in the way Shi’ite Muslims often depict their holy figures: in a green robe and surrounded by an aura of holy light. The Iranian regime has turned the late #George_Floyd into Saint George, Shiite-style! #Beware_Foreign_Influence pic.twitter.com/ofTtW5J3px— Dr. Reza Parchizadeh (@rezaparchizadeh) June 1, 2020 As incongruous as the image is, it’s perfectly fitting: Floyd, whose murder touched off the rage for destruction that is...

As if we didn’t have enough already going on in 2020, now we are facing the possibility that several regional wars may erupt. China and India had both been pouring troops into a disputed border region, and now there has been an incident where they were actually killing each other. On the Korean peninsula, North Korea just blew up “a joint liaison office” that it had used for talks with the South Korean government. And in the Middle East, Turkey is warning of grave consequences if Israel goes ahead with a plan to annex portions of Judea and Samaria. If...

Syria devalued its currency by 44% on Wednesday, announcing a new official exchange rate for the pound amid chaos in the market, hours before new U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off revenue for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government took effect. The sanctions, known as the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, are the toughest set of measures to be imposed on Syria yet, preventing anyone around the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or from participating in the country’s reconstruction... Syria’s already troubled economy has sharply deteriorated, prices have soared and the national currency, the Syrian...

The journey of two senior Al Qaeda-aligned commanders in northwestern Syria on Sunday was suddenly cut short by a targeted U.S.-led strike — only it doesn't appear that they were killed by explosives, but a missile packed with knives. Video of the aftermath circulating on social media shows that the vehicle of the terrorist leaders – Jordanian Qassam ul-Urdini and Yemeni Bilal al-Sanaani – was mostly untouched, with just one side severed and the roof smashed in, prompting defense analysts to point to the use of a "secret" missile jointly developed by both the Department of Defense and the Central...

France is decending into a war zone with guns.  Both muslim gangs are armed. https://twitter.com/descifraguerra/status/1272576971445280770 https://twitter.com/DawkinsReturns/status/1272631024305004545 https://twitter.com/Sotiridi1/status/1272590419868688385 https://twitter.com/EncartL/status/1272598686439108610 https://twitter.com/DarrenPlymouth/status/1272629102042918920 https://twitter.com/BasedPoland/status/1272580808893763585

Once secular, Turks are now born and bred on hating infidels. Islamic terror attacks that target Christians in Turkey are not uncommon.  Around Christmas of 2011, a large-scale al-Qaeda plot to bomb “all the churches in Ankara” was exposed.Right before Christmas 2015,  ISIS issued death threats, including “upsetting videos and pictures,” to at least 20 Protestant churches, and warned that “Koranic commandments… urge us to slay the apostate like you.” More spectacularly, a gunman dressed as Santa Claus entered a nightclub in Istanbul during New Year celebrations, 2017, and massacred 39 people.  A “heroic soldier of the caliphate,” the Islamic State...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:40 P.M.) – Two commanders from the Hurras Al-Deen group were killed on Sunday, when a drone struck their positions in the Idlib Governorate. According to the preliminary reports, the two leaders, Bilal Al-Sanani (Yemeni national) and Qassam Al-Urdoni (Jordanian national), were killed by a U.S. Coalition drone in the Idlib city. The drone strike targeted the vehicle carrying both men and their associate, Mohammad Al-Ahmad, who was seriously wounded as a result of the U.S. Coalition attack. The attack appears to have been carried out by a U.S. ninja drone, as the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was...

The Chinese government has drawn wide international condemnation for its harsh crackdown on ethnic Muslims in its western region, including holding as many as a million of them in detention camps. Now, documents and interviews show that the authorities are also using a vast, secret system of advanced facial recognition technology to track and control the Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority. It is the first known example of a government intentionally using artificial intelligence for racial profiling, experts said. The facial recognition technology, which is integrated into China’s rapidly expanding networks of surveillance cameras, looks exclusively for Uighurs based on...

Videocamera captured the moment of atrocity commuted by the Greek Couast Guard. Video cameras captured the moment, as the forces of the Hellenic coast guard in the Aegean sea dragged back the rubber boat with a group of migrants on B board. In recent days, thousands of migrants wishing to reach Europe, headed overland to the border crossing in Edirne and across the sea to the Greek coast. On the of the coast guard Forces of Greece withdraw a rubber boat with a group of illegal migrants from the territorial waters of Greece. Migrants on boat were rescued by the...

June 9, 2020: Despite the financial crises, continuing anti-government protests and growing criticism from government and military leaders, the senior clerics who run Iran believe that there is a good chance the American presidential elections in November will put a more pro-Iran and anti-Israel government in power. While this is a possibility, many Iranians don’t believe the clerics can hang onto power until the end of the year. Poverty is growing in Iran and the government continues to spend lots of money on military operations in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. Syria is the costliest foreign adventure. So far this...