QAMISHLI, Syria: The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Friday they had arrested more than 100 “terrorists” in an eight-day operation against Daesh militants.
Kurdish-led forces launched the sweep dubbed Operation Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt last week, after thwarting an Daesh attempt to free fellow militants from prison in Raqqa, the extremist group’s former Syrian stronghold.

JERUSALEM: Khaled Shurrab had been waiting more than half his life to get out of Gaza.
The 27-year-old had never left the coastal enclave, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007.
He could not find a job — the territory’s youth unemployment rate is over 60 percent.
Like a growing number of Gazans, he packed his life into a suitcase and eventually made it to Turkey, where he set out on a treacherous sea voyage to Greece last October. When his rickety boat went down, his body disappeared into the sea.

AMMAN: Jordan has said that it never occupied the West Bank, as claimed by Israel, insisting its presence in the disputed territory was part of an administrative arrangement with the Palestinians.

During the UN Security Council’s special session on Jerusalem on Thursday, the Tel Aviv ambassador claimed that Jordan occupied the West Bank in 1950, a suggestion described by his Jordanian counterpart as “lies and misleading information.”

GAZA CITY: Israel has started construction on a concrete wall to protect highways near the Gaza Strip from anti-tank missiles.

The country’s Ministry of Defense said on Thursday that the building of the 4.6-kilometer-long wall bordering the Gaza Strip aimed at protecting Israeli towns against attacks.

It added that work had begun on the security corridor project in the Gaza Strip, which aims to allow the movement of residents in times of emergency without fear of attack.

BEIRUT: A judicial delegation from France, Germany and Luxembourg will open its investigation into the activities of Lebanon’s central bank and its governor, Riad Salameh, in Beirut on Monday. It is expected to continue until Friday.

Salameh is facing prosecution in cases relating to money transfers from Lebanon to banks in those European countries, the sources of the funds and the extent to which they might be linked to corruption, money laundering and financial crimes in Europe.