Liz Sly
@LizSly
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Journalist-at-large. Former Washington Post covering global affairs and Middle East, and much of the world for Chicago Tribune, LAT
Joined April 2009
Hearing reports that the British ambassador and German embassy staff are staying behind at Kabul airport to process visas for Afghans who worked for them. Shower them with medals and ❤️.
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The US military confirms an ongoing rocket attack on Al-Asad airbase where US troops are based. It’s the one Trump said Iraq would have to pay for if the US leaves.
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There couldn’t be a more powerful sign of which way the wind is blowing in Ukraine. China meeting with Ukraine officials in Lviv. “We have seen how great the unity of the Ukrainian people is” the Chinese ambassador is quoted as saying.
"China will continue to be a force for good for Ukraine": both economically and politically, said Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong during a meeting with the head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, Maxim Kozytsky. Source: Lviv Regional State Administration
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When Russian troops surged into Ukraine, a clandestine network of brave Belarusians set about sabotaging the railway lines on which Russia relied for its supplies. They may have played in a bigger role in the Russian failure around Kyiv than is realized
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Iceland currently has the highest per capita coronavirus infection rate in the world. But that’s not a bad thing. Because of its small population it is testing everybody, revealing a lot about the virus. Eg, half of all carriers exhibit no symptoms at all.
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This is sickening to watch. Desperate people at risk of capsizing being shot at by Greek forces. What has happened to the world.
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People are asking. Is what’s happening in Baghdad a Benghazi moment? A Lebanon 1984 moment? .It’s bigger than both, because of the vast U.S. investment in Iraq. It’s more like Saigon. After today, how do the Americans trapped inside the embassy leave except by helicopter?.
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The Kabul airport attack has nixed hopes of evacuation for the last thousands still hoping to make it out. Am hearing the US military is sealing shut the airport gates. The casualty numbers are growing by the minute. A tragedy piled on a tragedy.
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People coming out of Mosul. I don't think we have any idea what a humanitarian tragedy this has been
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US officials have been lying to Trump - and the American people - about the true number of US troops in Syria in order to deter him from withdrawing them, according to the outgoing Syria envoy. Trump thinks it’s 200 😂😂. By @KatieBoWill
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The absence of protesters' voices in US coverage is striking. In Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon etc we sought out protesters, explained their motives, profiled them. Who are these US protesters? What are their stories? A whole piece of the story is missing.
One difference: protestors voices not heard much, coverage dominated by wide shots, narrarated by pundits, show hosts. Whereas in Lebanon, reporters passed mic around to crowd for hrs, allowing them to speak for themselves, uncensored #atlantaprotest #SanJosé #Minneapolis #Floyd
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Beirut has gone into spontaneous, panicked, near-total lockdown because of coronavirus. Not by any government instruction. This is a city with long experience of knowing when to freak out and when not to
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What's happening in Syria tonight above all represents a massive failure of US diplomacy. The US kept troops there to leverage US influence in peace negotiations to secure US goals. Now they're leaving in disarray & the opposite is happening - Iran & Russia are moving in.
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So many lovely people asking if I m ok after the Beirut explosion. I’m fine, thanks so much. Cant say the same for the apartment or the neighborhood. Bleeding people, wreckage piled all over.
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Egyptians are taking to the streets tonight to call for the fall of Sisi. How incredibly brave after everything that’s happened. The Arab Spring is not over yet
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Jamal Khashoggi’s last column, published only now that it seems sure he’s not coming back. “Arab governments have been given free reign to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate.” RIP.
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Astonishing scenes as protests erupt in Tehran tonight. They chant that Iran’s leaders are the enemy, not the US. And, “Soleimani was a killer.” The fallout from his assassination continues to take unexpected turns
Protests continue in Tehran. Protesters are chanting many of the same slogans from #IranProtests of November 2019. They're chanting: "The regime told us our enemy is the US. But actually, our enemy is right here" [in reference to the regime itself].
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Bucha officials are as close as they're ever likely to be to a final reckoning of the toll of Russia’s murderous rampage in Bucha: 458 bodies - 366 men. 86 women. 5 in too bad condition to determine. 9 children. Our story:.
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Turkey, Spain & Czech are throwing out 1000s of tests sent by China because they don’t work. The Netherlands just announced nearly half of its Chinese tests are faulty. China’s coronavirus diplomacy suddenly not going so well.
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Saudi Arabia is sending a delegation to Washington to urge restraint with Iran on behalf of Gulf states. The message will be: “please spare us the pain of going through another war” .(aka, be careful what you wish for)
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This doesn’t yet feel like a major escalation. The US military was anticipating an attack and personnel had taken cover. Iran can claim it took revenge. Feels more like an escalation to deescalate.
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BREAKING: The US military sends a letter to the Iraqi military announcing the “onward movement” of US troops “in due deference to the sovereignty of Iraq & as requested by the Iraqi Parliament & the Iraqi PM”. It’s a withdrawal.
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An Iraqi translator for the 101st Airborne & one whose wife worked for a US contractor are detained on arrival in US
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At least six rockets so far tonight on Al-Asad airbase which hosts US troops in Iraq. Reports of an earlier attack on Taji were false - US military official.
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BREAKING - Hundreds of Kataib Hezbollah supporters are swarming the US embassy in Baghdad. No attempt to stop them by Iraqi forced guarding the Green Zone. No way out for diplomats. V. dangerous situation
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Here is one of the horrifying videos coming out of Douma in Syria tonight showing the aftermath of what seems to be a chemical gas attack. These people were hiding underground from the bombing, leaving them more vulnerable to gas.
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A child is born amid the blood & chaos of the Beirut explosion. 👇This is more powerful than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate. By a long way.
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This is the Raqqa the US will leave behind when it pulls out of Syria. A destroyed mess
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Lebanon’s Tripoli is out of control tonight. Fires burning, shots fired, people injured. The economy is in total free fall, aggravated but not caused by the coronavirus lockdown. People are desperate.
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NEW: US public opinion remains strongly behind for Ukraine: 80 percent support sanctions, 76 percent support welcoming Ukrainian refugees, 72 percent support sending weapons. @ChicagoCouncil poll
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Iran's Deputy Health Minister has announced he has coronavirus, a day after he was seen sweating profusely at a news conference telling journalists the situation was under control.
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General Milley has just said the letter regarding troop movements out of Iraq was a draft, and releasing it was a "mistake." It was however delivered to the Iraqi military. It seems the U.S. military is as confused as everyone else about what their intentions are.
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After they accidentally killed Jamal Khashoggi, they accidentally cut him into pieces.
Turkish official confirms to CNN that Jamal Khashoggi’s body was cut into pieces after he was killed.
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A profoundly symbolic moment for Syria: the toppling of Assad’s statue in Homs after the rebels took control, facing little resistance. Homs is regarded as the capital of the Syrian revolution that began in 2011 & suffered one of the most brutal crackdowns
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The Russian Defense Ministry has just reported the staggering figure of 9861 Russians killed & 16,153 injured in Ukraine. That's 379 dying every day, 1000 a day being taken off the battlefield - or between 1/4-1/3 of their committed combat forces 1/3.
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Waad al-Kateab, the Syrian filmmaker from Aleppo who made the heartbreaking “For Sama”, has shown up at the Oscars tonight wearing a dress embroidered with the words: “we dared to dream.” And, “we don’t regret asking for our dignity”. Incredible movie, deserves to win
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New U.S. travel advice for Iraq:.-Depart Iraq immediately.-Depart via airline “while possible” .-Failing that, to “other countries via land” (what other countries? Iran? Syria?).-U.S. citizens should not approach the embassy.
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Some terrible images coming out of Russian/Syrian airstrikes in Idlib today. A headless child. A breathing, bleeding fetus. A boy shredded from the chest down. They're too awful to post. But it doesn't stop.
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The 11-year old boy who escaped from Ukraine to Slovakia on his own was fleeing war for the second time. He was born in Syria to a Syrian father & was taken to Ukraine as a baby when the war broke out there. His father is missing in Syria. By @ellen_fra
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Footage from Baghdad suggests the US drone strike that killed 3 people with Kataib Hezbollah hit precisely the car they were traveling in, on a busy Baghdad street, but caused no other damage. CENTCOM says no collateral damage or casualties
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Disturbing reports tonight of some kind of poison gas attack in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta in Syria that has killed as many as 110 people so far. Some shocking photos of dead children, recalling the 2013 attack, in the same location.
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Kataib Hezbollah protesters breaching the gates of the US embassy in Baghdad. They say they will stay till US troops leave. It’s the biggest US embassy in the world & supposedly secure but hard to see how diplomats can remain now
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MSF (Doctors Without Borders) on the situation in Gaza: 55 Palestinians dead, 2,271 injured, including 1,359 wounded by live ammunition. "It is unbearable to witness such a massive number of people being shot in such a short time.".
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Whoever wins this election, it is now clear that Trump is not an aberration. He is a real thing and Trumpism as an ideology isn’t going away. That’s the big takeaway for the world.
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The Pentagon says “more than a dozen” ballistic missiles were launched from Iran at two locations in Iraq where US troops are based, Al-Asad and Erbil. “These bases have been on high alert due to indications that the Iranian regime planned to attack our forces & interests”.
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A deeply disturbing trend is emerging in Iraq: the assassination of women personalities. Last month, 2 well-known Baghdad beauty salon owners. Two days ago, a female political activist in Basra. Today, a model/social media figure.
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Ryanair has quite literally airbrushed Roman Protasevich from the record. It says "nothing untoward" took place and the aircraft departed Minsk "with passengers & crew" - neglecting to mention that one passenger was kidnapped & taken away.
Our FR4978 flight has landed safely in Vilnius at 19:25hrs UK time (21:25hrs local time). Here is Ryanair’s statement on today’s diversion to Minsk Airport 👇
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On the wall of a bombed out building in Idlib, northwest Syria. This was someone’s home
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Erik Prince is back in Iraq, with the Dubai subsidiary of his FSG company. Working out of Basra, for China. Buzzfeed scoop
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One of the clearest videos yet showing the moment of the Beirut blast. You can hear the plane-like roar that immediately preceded it
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The IRGC statement indicated that the Al Asad attack tonight was the revenge that was promised. Let’s hope that’s it. Whether this escalates any further is now entirely up to Trump.
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UPDATE: Ryanair has now amended its statement on the abduction of the Belarus journalist from its plane in Minsk. "Nothing untoward" has been changed to "an act of aviation piracy."
Ryanair has quite literally airbrushed Roman Protasevich from the record. It says "nothing untoward" took place and the aircraft departed Minsk "with passengers & crew" - neglecting to mention that one passenger was kidnapped & taken away.
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The Russians haven’t managed to take Kyiv yet but they’ve lost access to parts of Europe, the SWIFT banking system, Nord Stream 2, Chelsea Football Club, the Eurovision Song Contest, perhaps billions of $ and a chunk of the world vodka market.
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Damascus is shrugging off the US strikes, which turned out to be more limited than feared. People are dancing in the streets, waving Assad’s portrait & saying Trump has failed. With @leloveluck
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3. No confirmation that of the much higher figure of 30 rockets fired.
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More from Egypt tonight, because, wow. This is Mahalla which you could argue is where the Arab Spring really began, on April 6, 2008.
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Wow. The CIA has concluded that Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of Khashoggi. Based on multiple sources, including a phone call in which brother Khaled told Khashoggi it would be safe to go to the Istanbul consulate to get his marriage paper.
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It's over for the US in Syria. Trump has "directed that we begin a deliberate withdrawal of forces", Esper says. It comes after a chaotic day in which US supply lines were cut, another base was abandoned and hundreds of Islamic State detainees appear to have escaped.
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There’s still utter chaos in Baghdad. It’s turning into an all-out revolt. Security forces are overtly trying to kill protesters - here firing what seems to be an RPG straight at them.
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Meanwhile, it’s not only in Syria. Putin is in Saudi Arabia today, the UAE after. We have officially entered the post-American Middle East.
Watch: Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in his first official visit since 12 years.
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The US obliged the Kurds to destroy the tunnels and berms they had dug to defend against a Turkish invasion, as part of the negotiations for a safe zone. Now the US has walked away, the Turks have entered & the Kurds don’t have fortifications.
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The US has given the personal details of Iraqis working with the US military to the Iraqi military, which is infiltrated by Iran-backed militias opposed to the US. Lists of names are now circulating & Iraqis who work with the US fear for their lives.
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The US govt has said that Yazidis are victims of genocide. The US govt today barred Yazidis from entering the US
Iraqi Yazidis - among the biggest ISIS victims - denied boarding on US-bound flights despite visas. Cleared Iraqi refugees also barred.
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"Glad you're alive." ."Glad you're alive.".-Is how people in Beirut are greeting each other these days.
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Video of people celebrating the fall of Assad in the heart of Damascus. It’s over.
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It was the Russians who carried out the air strike against the US garrison at al-Tanf in Syria on Wednesday. Russian planes have also been harassing US forces on the US side of the deconfliction line in eastern Syria
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So Pompeo traveled all the way to Cairo to say that Obama was wrong to withdraw from Iraq right after his boss ordered US troops to withdraw from Syria. "When America retreats, chaos follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds.".
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The American University Hospital in Beirut was once the best in the Middle East. It will close on Monday unless someone gives it fuel to run the generator. Hundreds of people on life support, dialysis etc will die. There is no electricity. Lebanon is truly heading to disaster.
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There’s another bit where you can see the Greek boat seemingly try to ram or capsize the dinghy full of people. Video c/o the Turkish government.
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There will be no special relationship for Britain’s Boris Johnson with Biden, who sees him as racist & Trump-like. “Biden’s got a long memory & Boris is not in his good books” said a Democrat source
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4. The IRGC has claimed the attack on US troops at Al-Asad in a statement. It says “tens” of ballistic missiles were fired to avenge Qasem Soleimani in an operation called Operation Martyr Soleimani. A video shows the ballistic missiles purportedly being fired.
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When Trump announced the suspension of arrivals from Europe, he triggered a chaotic surge of U.S. citizens back to the the US that probably sealed America's coronavirus fate. The covid-19 cases in the US have almost all been traced to Europe.
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To be clear, what’s happening in Lebanon is not caused by covid or the lockdown. It’s the result of years of govt ineptitude, greed and corruption that have bankrupted the country on a scale not fully realized yet. Covid maybe accelerated it, but this was coming regardless.
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How did the Taliban take back Afghanistan almost without a fight? By cutting deals and buying off officials from top to bottom nationwide. “Some just wanted the money. others wanted to secure their place on the winning side”. By @sgreports
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The Army is telling people in the vicinity of Beirut port to evacuate as another huge fire rages. This video is circulating showing workers fleeing the area
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This is the first person to be given the coronavirus vaccine. Margaret Keenan, 90, in the UK. The beginning of the end.
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UPDATE: Iraqi protesters have got a little way inside the US embassy in Baghdad. They’re setting fires. Video by @Mustafa_salimb
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Oh look a happy story. A 95-year old grandma becomes the oldest person to recover from coronavirus. She’s called Alma Clara Corsini. 👏👏👏👏👏
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Honestly one of the bravest jobs in the world right now is to be an Iraqi journalist. Ahmed Abdul Samad and his cameraman Safaa Ghali were shot dead in their car in Basra right after Ahmed broadcast a video accusing militias of arresting activists. RIP
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As everyone tries to find out what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, remember another journalist missing in the Middle East: Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria over 6 years ago. Still no answers. @FreeAustinTice.
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Iraqi state TV is reporting the "martyrdom" of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Mohandis on the Baghdad airport road.
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Macron just pushed aside bodyguards to hug a woman. It's an amazing scene. A world president striding among angry crowds at the scene of a Middle East explosion. Usually VIPS just shake hands with officials and get out fast.
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Israel just brought down the media building where BBC Al Jazeera etc do their live shots. People live there too. It was filmed live on Al Jazeera
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Russia warns the US not to strike Syria after the chemical attack: "Military intervention under false & fabricated pretexts in Syria, where Russian servicemen stay at the request of the legitimate government, is absolutely unacceptable and may trigger the gravest consequences.".
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Though the letter doesn’t bear a signature, the US military has confirmed its authenticity. Not clear yet whether it’s a full or partial withdrawal, but the reference to deference to the Iraqi parliament’s decision makes it seem pretty definitive.
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The rate at which coronavirus is being detected in the United States means that by Friday it will probably overtake China to become the country with the most cases in the world
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This story. Wow. On the phone call with Turkey's Erdogan, Trump "quickly capitulated by pledging to withdraw. Caught off guard, Erdogan cautioned Trump against a hasty withdrawal.".By @APDiploWriter & @sgreports .
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Ali al-Samudi, a journalist with Al-Qods, describes the killing of Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in an interview with the Washington Post from his hospital bed. He was shot in the back moments before she was shot in the head…THREAD
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CCTV footage shows panicked ISIS prisoners & guards fleeing a prison outside Qamishli this afternoon after a mortar strike. The SDF says 5 ISIS prisoners got away
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Netanyahu boasted that he was the one who convinced Trump to pull out of the Iran deal. Now that things are inevitably escalating between Iran & the US, he's saying: "Keep us out of it."
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Russia is expected to seize Kyiv in the next 4-6 weeks. The war overall is likely to last 10 or 15 or 20 years and “ultimately, Russia will lose” - US officials speaking to CBS and Congress
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In response to criticisms that my tweet of a beautiful Syrian vase proves that I am a) pro-Assad and b) anti-Assad, here is another exquisite Syrian vase. Also 13th century, from Raqqa ❤️❤️❤️
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These are the exact same conditions set by the administration before Trump’s withdrawal announcement. In other words, the troops stay indefinitely. Except now everyone else is confused and already making other plans.
@realDonaldTrump The President will make sure any withdrawal from Syria will be done in a fashion to ensure:. 1) ISIS is permanently destroyed. 2) Iran doesn’t fill in the back end, and . 3) our Kurdish allies are protected.
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A dog has detected life under the rubble at this spot in Gemmayze, a whole month after the Beirut explosion. Rescue teams are digging. Let there be a miracle.
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