BAGHDAD: Iraq launched an air strike on a Daesh target inside neighboring Syria on Thursday, the military said.
F-16 fighter jets destroyed a building where members of the ultra-hard-line group’s leadership were operating, it said in a statement.
Daesh, which once occupied a third of Iraq’s territory, has been largely defeated in the country but still poses a threat along its border with Syria.
“Iraqi F-16 jets bombed this morning on Thursday a so-called command and control center containing leaders and fighters belonging to the Daesh terrorist gang in the Hajjin inside Syrian territory,” the statement said.
The Iraqi air force has carried out several air strikes against Daesh in Syria since last year, with the approval of the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and the US-led coalition fighting Daesh.
Iraq has good relations with Iran and Russia, Assad’s main backers in the Syrian civil war, while also enjoying strong support from the US-led coalition.
Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi declared final victory over Daesh in December but it still operates from pockets along the border with Syria and has continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings across Iraq.
Daesh has resorted to guerrilla tactics since it abandoned its goal of holding territory and creating a self-sufficient caliphate that straddles Iraq and Syria.
Iraq launches air strike against Daesh in Syria
Iraq launches air strike against Daesh in Syria
- F-16 fighter jets destroyed a building where members of the ultra-hard-line group’s leadership were operating
- Daesh, which once occupied a third of Iraq’s territory, has been largely defeated in the country but still poses a threat along its border with Syria
Fledgling radio station aims to be ‘voice of the people’ in Gaza
- The electricity crisis is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip, says Shereen Khalifa Broadcaster
DEIR EL-BALAH: From a small studio in the central city of Deir El-Balah, Sylvia Hassan’s voice echoes across the Gaza Strip, broadcast on one of the Palestinian territory’s first radio stations to hit the airwaves after two years of war.
Hassan, a radio host on fledgling station “Here Gaza,” delivers her broadcast from a well-lit room, as members of the technical team check levels and mix backing tracks on a sound deck. “This radio station was a dream we worked to achieve for many long months and sometimes without sleep,” Hassan said.
“It was a challenge for us, and a story of resilience.”
Hassan said the station would focus on social issues and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which remains grave in the territory despite a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas since October.
“The radio station’s goal is to be the voice of the people in the Gaza Strip and to express their problems and suffering, especially after the war,” said Shereen Khalifa, part of the broadcasting team.
“There are many issues that people need to voice.” Most of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people were displaced at least once during the gruelling war.
Many still live in tents with little or no sanitation.
The war also decimated Gaza’s telecommunications and electricity infrastructure, compounding the challenges in reviving the territory’s local media landscape. “The electricity problem is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip,” said Khalifa.
“We have solar power, but sometimes it doesn’t work well, so we have to rely on an external generator,” she added.
The station’s launch is funded by the EU and overseen by Filastiniyat, an organization that supports Palestinian women journalists, and the media center at the An-Najah National University in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.
The station plans to broadcast for two hours per day from Gaza and for longer from Nablus. It is available on FM and online.
Khalifa said that stable internet access had been one of the biggest obstacles in setting up the station, but that it was now broadcasting uninterrupted audio.
The Gaza Strip, a tiny territory surrounded by Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea, has been under Israeli blockade even before the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strictly control the entry of all goods and people to the territory.
“Under the siege, it is natural that modern equipment necessary for radio broadcasting cannot enter, so we have made the most of what is available,” she said.
