OTTAWA: UNITED NATIONS:

Canada’s supposed non-combat role in Iraq is being questioned after a special forces sniper took out an IS fighter in Iraq.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday would have none of it, saying Canadian troops training Kurdish fighters have orders to also fight in defense of coalition soldiers.

“I can tell you that defending our allies in the coalition has been an integral part of our mission,” Trudeau told a press conference marking the end of the parliamentary session.

“This is completely in keeping with our responsibilities as Canadians, as members of the coalition in northern Iraq and it will continue to be that way,” he said.

Iran is accusing US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of “a brazen interventionist plan” to change the current government that violates international law and the UN Charter.

Iran’s UN Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo said in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres circulated Tuesday that Tillerson’s comments are also “a flagrant violation” of the 1981 Algiers Accords in which the United States pledged “not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran’s internal affairs.”

Tillerson said in a June 14 hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the 2018 State Department budget that US policy is to

prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons “and work toward support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government.” (AP)

SANAA:

Three Yemeni soldiers were killed Wednesday when suspected al-Qaeda gunmen opened fire on a military zone in the country’s Hadramawt province, a military source said.

“Three soldiers were killed in the attack on the first military zone in the Al-Qoton district, and the gunmen managed to get away,” the source said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to brief the press. (AFP)

ISTANBUL:

Turkey on Wednesday marked one year since the triple suicide bombing and gun attack on its main international airport in Istanbul that left dozens dead and was blamed on Islamic State jihadists.

Late in the evening on June 28, 2016 three attackers shot randomly at passengers and staff at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport before blowing themselves up. (AFP)

TRIPOLI:

Gunmen attacked a UN convoy on Wednesday near Zawiyah, about 50 kms (30 miles) west of the Libyan capital, a security source in the town said.

The source was unable to say whether there were any casualties among the seven members of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) who came under attack. (AFP)

RABAT:

Nearly 80 police officers were injured in two days of clashes with protesters in Morocco’s restive Rif region, an official said Wednesday, although the number of demonstrators hurt was unknown.

Around 50 members of the security forces were hurt on Monday in the northern city of Al-Hoceima, most of them struck by stones, a high-ranking interior ministry official told AFP. (AFP)