Articles written by Bassem Mroue
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Mediator says talks on Gaza not 'progressing as expected' after momentum in recent weeks
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Talks on a potential cease-fire deal in Gaza "have not been progressing as expected" in the past few days after good progress in recent weeks, key mediator Qatar said Saturday, as Israel's prime minister accused the Hamas m...
An apparent Israeli drone strike in Lebanon kills 2 in one of the deepest hits in weeks
BEIRUT (AP) — An apparent Israeli drone strike hit a car near Lebanon's southern port city of Sidon on Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding two others, security officials said. The strike came as tensions across the Middle East grow w...
Apparent Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure in Beirut and raises fears conflict could expand
BEIRUT (AP) — An apparent Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed Hamas' No. 2 political leader Tuesday, marking a potentially significant escalation of Israel's war against the militant group and heightening the risk of a wider M...
Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's military pushed ahead with its punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday, bolstered by a U.S. veto derailing U.N. Security Council efforts to end the war and word that an emergency sale of $...
US launches airstrikes in Syria after drone kills US worker
BEIRUT (AP) — A strike Thursday by a suspected Iranian-made drone killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six other Americans in northeast Syria, and U.S. forces retaliated with airstrikes on sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran's R...
Officials long warned of explosive chemicals at Beirut port
BEIRUT (AP) — At least 10 times over the past six years, authorities from Lebanon's customs, military, security agencies and judiciary raised alarm that a massive stockpile of explosive chemicals was being kept with almost no safeguard at the port i...
A tense Russia-Turkey truce in Syria halts bombing campaign
BEIRUT (AP) — Idlib's skies were completely free of Russian and Syrian government warplanes for the first time in weeks Friday, and residents reported a relative but tense calm as a cease-fire deal brokered by Turkey and Russia took hold in S...
Airstrike in northwest Syria kills 15 ahead of Moscow summit
BEIRUT (AP) — An airstrike on a rebel-held village in northwest Syria hit a poultry farm where several displaced families were sheltering early Thursday, killing at least 15 people including children while wounding several others, opposition a...
Syrian army captures village, missile kills 8 civilians
BEIRUT (AP) — A missile struck a school building in northwestern Syria on Tuesday morning, killing eight civilians, opposition activists said, as government forces captured a key village held by al-Qaida insurgents in the war-torn country's last r...
Lebanon's journalists suffer abuse, threats covering unrest
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese journalists are facing threats and wide-ranging harassment in their work — including verbal insults and physical attacks, even death threats — while reporting on nearly 50 days of anti-government protests, despite Lebanon's rep...
Turkish invasion raises fears of Islamic State prison break
BEIRUT (AP) — In the sprawling al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, Islamic State wives and widows have set up special courts, stabbed to death at least two people accused of apostasy and wielded knives and pistols in clashes with their Kurdish g...
Turkey begins an offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria
AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Turkey launched a military operation Wednesday against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria after U.S. forces withdrew from the area, with activists reporting airstrikes on a town on Syria's northern border. Turkish P...
US sanctions squeezing Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon
BEIRUT (AP) — The conflict between Iran and the U.S. that has created tensions throughout much of the Middle East is now also being felt in Lebanon, where Washington has slapped sanctions on the Iran-backed Hezbollah and warned they could soon e...
Once again, Iraq caught up in tensions between US and Iran
BAGHDAD (AP) — When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sat down with Iraqi officials in Baghdad last week as tensions mounted between America and Iran, he delivered a nuanced message: If you're not going to stand with us, stand aside. The m...
Once again, Iraq caught up in escalating US-Iran tensions
BAGHDAD (AP) — When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sat down with Iraqi officials in Baghdad last week as tensions mounted between America and Iran, he delivered a nuanced message: If you're not going to stand with us, stand aside. The m...
Anti-Kurdish protests in east Syria could endanger US plans
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces took credit for defeating the Islamic State group in its last stronghold in eastern Syria, celebrating the victory in front of throngs of journalists at a ceremony in March following a bloody f...
US strikes IS-held mosque as Syria battle intensifies
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday it struck a mosque that had allegedly been used as an Islamic State control center, as American-allied Syrian forces battled the extremists in their last stronghold in eastern Syria amid reports of more c...
US-backed fighters launch final push to defeat IS in Syria
BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces said Saturday they have launched a final push to defeat the Islamic State group in the last tiny pocket the extremists hold in eastern Syria. Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustafa Bali t...
Syria attack kills 4 Americans, raising questions on pullout
WASHINGTON (AP) — A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians, in northern Syria on Wednesday, just a month after President Donald Trump declared that IS had...
Report: Israeli attack near Syrian capital wounds 3 soldiers
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon fired missiles toward areas near the Syrian capital of Damascus late Tuesday, hitting an arms depot and wounding three soldiers, Syrian state media reported, saying that most of the missiles were s...
After defeat in Iraq, IS fights on in last enclave in Syria
BAGHDAD (AP) — A year after it was routed from Iraq in a devastating war that left entire neighborhoods and towns in ruins, the Islamic State group is fighting to hang on to its last enclave in eastern Syria, engaging in deadly battles with U...
Buffer zone brings fragile calm to Syria's rebel-held Idlib
BEIRUT (AP) — A month after Russia, Turkey and Iran came together in a last-ditch effort to avert a potentially catastrophic Syrian government offensive in Idlib, they appear to have succeeded in creating a buffer zone around the northern r...
Lebanon's cannabis heartland, Bekaa, hopes for legalization
YAMMOUNE, Lebanon (AP) — In the fields of this quiet village surrounded by mountains, men and women work clearing dirt and dry leaves from around cannabis plants, a major source of livelihoods in this impoverished corner of Lebanon, The fertile Bekaa...
Under Assad's grip, uneasy co-existence with former rebels
TALBISEH, Syria (AP) — Former rebel commander Omar Melhem has nearly come full circle. He was a colonel in the Syrian army when the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in 2011. He defected a year later and joined the armed revolt against t...
Syrian troops recapture vital border crossing with Jordan
JABER AS-SARHAN, Jordan (AP) — Syrian government forces recaptured a vital border crossing with Jordan on Friday and raised the national flag for the first time in years, restoring sovereignty over a key region and potentially reopening a gateway f...
