By Mirwais Harooni and Jessica Donati KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban fighters were holding out against Afghan troops in Kunduz on Friday, a day after government forces recaptured most of the northern city that had fallen to the militants in their biggest victory of a 14-year insurgency. The Taliban said it had shot down the aircraft, but the U.S. military, which still has several thousands troops in Afghanistan after NATO’s combat
A spokesman for Yemen’s Saudi-backed government denied a television report on Friday that it had decided to break off diplomatic relations with Iran. “The cabinet has not discussed until now the matter of severing diplomatic relations with Iran and no decision was taken,” spokesman Rajeh Badi said, commenting on the unsourced report from state-owned Aden television. Iran is an ally of the Houthi fighters who seized control of the country
By Anton Zverev MOSCOW (Reuters) – International monitors say they have spotted a new kind of Russian weapons system in rebel-held Ukraine this week, possible evidence of Moscow’s continued interest in Ukraine even as it focuses on Syria. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is monitoring a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, reported that its monitors had seen a mobile TOS-1 ‘Buratino’ weapons system for the first time.
By Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations backed a Saudi-led resolution on Friday to support Yemen in setting up a national inquiry into human rights violations, having ditched an attempt led by the Netherlands to mandate an independent U.N. investigation. Human Rights Watch, criticizing the move, said Yemeni authorities had neither investigated nor prosecuted serious international crimes committed since 2011, “nor has the Saudi-led coalition
By Ivana Sekularac and Gergely Szakacs BATROVCI, Serbia/BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Border closures and tighter controls caused by record numbers of migrants are clogging up trade in southeast and central Europe, driving up costs and forcing transport companies to seek other routes. Freight traffic through Serbia was severely disrupted when Hungary and Croatia closed their borders last month to cope with tens of thousands of migrants, most bound for richer nations
By Leila Bassam and Andrew Osborn BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, Lebanese sources said on Thursday, a further sign of the rapid internationalization of a civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake. Russian warplanes, in a second day of strikes, bombed a camp run by
By Hamid Shalizi KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Afghan troops recaptured the center of the strategic northern city of Kunduz on Thursday amid fierce clashes with Taliban militants, three days after losing the provincial capital in a humbling defeat for Kabul and its U.S. allies. “There are military helicopters in the sky and government forces everywhere,” said Abdul Ahad, a doctor in the city. “Dead Taliban are on the streets, but
By Parisa Hafezi and Lesley Wroughton UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran is unlikely to normalize relations with the United States despite a landmark nuclear deal reached with America and other major powers and the first handshake between a U.S. president and a high-ranking Iranian official in more than 30 years. Pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani, whose 2013 election paved the way for Iran’s diplomatic thaw with the West, has signaled his
Loyalist Yemeni troops and Gulf Arab forces seized the Mandab Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden from Houthi fighters, reasserting control over the strategic sea lane, a government spokesman said on Thursday. “In a large-scale military operation launched today, Yemeni government, resistance and coalition forces liberated the Bab al-Mandeb strait and Mayun island with the goal of safeguarding this key sea route,” Rajeh Badi told Reuters
By Marton Dunai ZAKANY, Hungary (Reuters) – A small gap in coils of newly laid razor wire is all that remains of the Zakany-Botovo border crossing between Hungary and fellow European Union member Croatia, as Budapest prepares to close off another route for migrants flocking to Europe. Heavy machinery is clearing trees and a 3-metre-high fence is taking shape along the line of the razor wire. The border, still traversed