GLOBAL NEWS & VIEW
US-LED FORCES CONDUCT 16 AIRSTRIKES ON ISIS IN SYRIA
The US-led coalition reported conducting a series of 16 airstrikes Saturday against the Syrian city of Raqa, which is controlled by the Islamic State militant group. It “was one of the largest deliberate engagements we have conducted to date,” coalition spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gilleran said, adding that it goal was to deny the Islamists the ability to move its troops.
ISRAELI PM BLASTS PROGRESS IN IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS
The talks in Vienna that could result in a comprehensive deal over Iran’s controversial nuclear program do not represent a “breakthrough, but rather a breakdown,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday. Netanyahu has been a staunch opponent of the talks. Israel accuses Iran of trying to build a nuclear weapon and says the deal, which would lift international sanctions from Tehran in exchange for scaling down its nuclear program and opening it up to inspections, would bring Iran closer to its goal.
ISIS ATTACKS POWER PLANT IN NORTHEASTERN SYRIA
Islamic State militants have blown a truck with explosives near a power plant in the city of Hasaka (Al-Hasakah) in the far northeastern corner of Syria, the Syrian army said. According to Syrian TV, the blast caused “material damage” and triggered“casualties.” The northeastern corner of Syria is considered strategically important as it connects the areas controlled by IS in Syria and Iraq.
TUNISIAN PRESIDENT IMPOSES STATE OF EMERGENCY FOLLOWING DEADLY HOTEL ATTACK
The Tunisian government has declared a state of emergency following last week’s Sousse hotel attack, the president’s office reports, according to state media. President Beji Caid Essebsi has elevated the status on Saturday morning, after last week saw 38 foreign tourists die, the TAP news agency says. The state of emergency will afford the security service more authority and will limit the right to public assembly. It will be imposed for at least 30 days. The last such case was in 2011, during protests against the government of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
BRITISH FAMILY OF 12 ‘SUCCESSFULLY JOINS’ ISIS CALIPHATE IN SYRIA
The British family of 12 suspected of having moved to Syria to live in the Islamic caliphate set up by the Islamic State terrorists (IS/ISIS, formerly ISIL) appears to have gone through with the plan, British media report. The Mannan family, from Luton, released a statement on a site affiliated with the militants saying “we are in the Islamic State” and “we feel safer than we have ever felt before.” They have not been heard from since May 17. They had travelled to their home country, Bangladesh, on April 10, followed by Turkey a week later, leading to a police effort in Bedfordshire to try to locate them. The statement describes their escape as one from the “so-called freedom and democracy” enjoyed by a “totalitarian” West.
MIGRANTS DISRUPT EUROTUNNEL TRAFFIC BETWEEN FRANCE AND UK
Dozens of migrants trying to stow away on vehicles crossing the Channel by tunnel between France and England broke through perimeter fences at Calais overnight, temporarily halting traffic, Reuters reported. “At around 7 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday there were migrants all around the perimeter trying to break through the fences,” a Eurotunnel spokesman said. The disruption was the latest in a series of incidents involving some 3,000 migrants, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, who are camped around the northern French port in the hope of reaching the UK.
