Off the wire
• Yemeni outgoing president rejects Houthi takeover of power  • German minister says Rwanda's economic outlook attractive  • 6 killed in fresh mortar attack in Syria's Aleppo  • Bahrain cracks down on rampant cyber crime cases  • Nigeria flushes Boko Haram terrorists out of northeast Baga town  • News Analysis: Greece wins time with Eurogroup deal, more tough challenges ahead  • Kiev swaps war prisoners with militia  • 10 killed as commercial building set ablaze in Abu Dhabi  • Gunmen kidnap 89 children in South Sudan: UNICEF  • Police officer in Minnesota state shot inside car  
You are here: 　 Home

Xinhua Middle East news summary at 2200 GMT, Feb. 21

Xinhua, February 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Islamic State (IS) militants burned up to 43 people alive, in Iraq's western province of Anbar, a provincial security source said Saturday.

Earlier, IS fighters captured those 43 Iraqis from the albu-Obeid Sunni tribe in the battlefield town of al-Baghdadi, some 200 km northwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, said the source. (Iraq-IS-Execution)

- - - -

KHARTOUM -- Unidentified gunmen kidnapped 89 children on Saturday near the town of Malakal, capital of the oil-rich Upper Nile state in South Sudan, according to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

UNICEF said in a statement that "gunmen have gathered outside a residential area, and carried out the inspection from house to house, and kidnapped the children, the majority of whom over the age of 12 years." (S.Sudan-Kidnapping)

- - - -

SANAA -- Yemen's outgoing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Saturday denounced the Shiite Houthi group's takeover of power, as the negotiations among political parties came to a deadlock.

In a statement released by al-Jazeera TV, Hadi insisted on his legitimacy and called on the international community to reject the Houthi's unilateral move. (Yemen-Politics)

- - - -

DAMASCUS -- At least six people were killed and 10 others wounded on Saturday by a fresh mortar attack against government-controlled districts of the country's northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group reported.

The rebels fired many mortar shells that slammed into two districts in the government-controlled part of Aleppo city, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Syria-Attacks) Endit