Middle East

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers are aiming to restart education for girls and women by late March, the government's chief spokesman told The Associated Press in an interview, offering the first-ever timeline for addressing a key demand of the international community. (AP Photo/Mohammed Shoaib Amin)

Taliban pledge all girls in schools soon

Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers say they hope to be able to open all schools for girls across the country after late March, their spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday, offering the first timeline for addressing a key demand of the international community.

RELATED UN launches $5 billion appeal for Afghanistan, its largest ever for country in humanitarian distress

U.S. soldiers with the 1st Armored Division dismount from their M2 Bradley in Syria, Oct. 25, 2020.

US troop level reduction in Middle East likely as focus shifts elsewhere

The U.S. military is likely to reduce the number of troops it keeps in the Middle East and Central Asia while remaining engaged in those regions to counter Iran and extremist threats, experts said.

Bedouin protesters clash with Israeli forces following a protest against an afforestation project by the Jewish National Fund in the southern Israeli village of Sa'we al-Atrash in the Negev Desert, southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Police disperse Bedouin protesters in southern Israel

Israeli police on Thursday fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of Bedouin Arabs protesting a tree-planting campaign they say is aimed at pushing them off disputed land.

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Women chant slogans against the killing of demonstrators in street protests triggered by an October military coup, in the twin city of Omdurman, about 18 miles northwest of the capital Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022.

Egypt president urges Sudanese to talk, denies backing coup

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday urged rival factions in Sudan to engage in talks to move forward in their transition to democracy after a coup toppled the civilian-led government.

Yemeni fighters backed by the Saudi-led coalition ride on the back of an armored vehicle as they leave the front lines of Marib, Yemen, on June 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

UN: Yemen's escalating war spurs hunger and collapse

Escalating military action in Yemen displaced more than 15,000 people over the past month, killed or injured more than 350 civilians in December and left the Arab world's poorest nation facing growing hunger and economic collapse with no political solution in sight.

FILE - Serda Alshehabi comments on the verdict in front of the building of the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, Feb. 24, 2021. The court in the German city of Koblenz is scheduled to deliver its ruling Thursday in the trial of Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian secret police officer who is accused of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago.Victims of torture in Syria and human rights activists say they hope the upcoming verdict in a landmark trial will be a first step toward justice for countless Syrians who suffered abuse at the hands of President Bashar Assad's government in the country's long-running conflict. (Thomas Frey/dpa via AP, file)

For victims, Syria torture trial is first step toward justice

A court in the German city of Koblenz is scheduled to deliver its ruling Thursday in the trial of Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian secret police officer who is accused of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago.

Israel says it took down Iranian spy ring targeting women

Israel's Shin Bet internal security service said a suspected Iranian intelligence operative identified himself as Rambod Namdar on Facebook and claimed to be a Jewish man living in Israel. He appears to have targeted Israelis of Iranian descent.

Mahmad Ali, a disabled war veteran, slowly accompanies the wheelbarrow of donated food he has just received in Kabul on Jan. 4, 2022. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Pamela Constable

UN launches $5 billion appeal for Afghanistan, its largest ever for country in humanitarian distress

The United Nations on Tuesday launched a funding appeal for more than $5 billion for Afghanistan this year, its largest request ever for a single country in humanitarian distress.

USS Lewis B. Puller crew helps rescue mariners in Gulf of Oman

The USS Lewis B. Puller, an expeditionary sea base platform, and the USS Sirocco, a patrol craft, saw mariners who were in distress and injured in some kind of an explosion, and sent sailors to save them.

A woman waves before boarding a commercial flight taking evacuees from Afghanistan to the United States. The Boeing 767 departed Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Aug. 26, 2021, for Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.

With at least 200 Afghan refugees moving to Savannah, Ga., by February, one family tries to find a home

Inspiritus, an Atlanta-based resettlement agency that serves people displaced by domestic violence, natural disasters, and international conflicts throughout the Southeastern United States, coordinated the family's move from Wisconsin to Savannah.

Sgt. 1st Class Robert Nicoson in an undated photo. Nicoson was acquitted recently of all court-martial charges related to a firefight in Syria with Syrian government forces in 2020.

Soldier in 82nd Airborne acquitted in court-martial stemming from fatal gunfight in Syria

An 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper was cleared of all charges related to a deadly 2020 gunfight in Syria between U.S. troops and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

FILE - A nurse checks the weight of a child in a makeshift clinic organized by World Vision at a settlement near Herat, Afghanistan, Dec. 16, 2021. In a statement Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, the White House announced $308 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, offering new aid to the country as it edges toward a humanitarian crisis since the Taliban takeover nearly five months earlier. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov, File)

US announces $308 million in aid for Afghans as crisis grows

The new aid will be used to provide shelter, health care, winterization assistance, emergency food aid, water, sanitation and hygiene services.

FILE - Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud makes statements during his visit in Athens, Greece on Jan. 4, 2022. Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states are visiting Beijing for meetings with officials from the world's second largest economy, a leading consumer of oil and source of foreign investment. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas, File)

Middle East foreign ministers head to China for meetings

The meetings running through Friday will include the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, along with the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

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WFP director for Afghanistan warns of ‘tsunami of hunger’

Sanctions and censorship are making the Internet in Iran less accessible, analysts say

Report: Iran launched solid-fuel satellite rocket into space

Iraqi officials: 4 rockets target US Embassy in Baghdad

Sudan's anti-coup protests violently dispersed; 2 killed

UN hails German court’s landmark conviction of senior Syrian official

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