WASHINGTON:

US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan met Wednesday with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s 73rd meeting in New York.

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement that during the meeting, Sullivan and the Qatari Foreign Minister discussed “a range of regional and bilateral topics, including ways to promote regional ties, security, and stability.”

Sullivan and Sheikh Mohammed “agreed on the importance of urgently assisting the thousands of Iraqis affected by the water crisis in Basrah.” (KUNA)

DUBAI: Police in Oman say 10 members of a single family have died after suffocating in a fire at their home in the sultanate.

The Royal Oman Police said on Twitter on Thursday that the fire happened at a home in the village of Khor al-Hamam in the country’s Saham region. (AP)

GAZA CITY: Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad selected a new leader for the first time in more than 20 years Thursday, a senior official said, but is likely to remain close to Iran.

Syria-based Ziad al-Nakhala will take over as the movement’s secretary general from Ramadan Shalah, who has been suffering from serious health issues for months, the official said on condition of anonymity. (AFP)

WASHINGTON: More than 1,100 civilians have been killed in US-led strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the US military said on Thursday.

The coalition fighting Islamic State militants said in a statement that during the month of August it had determined that an additional 53 civilians had been killed unintentionally, bringing the total to at least 1,114 civilian deaths since August 2014. (RTRS)

NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed credit for saving Syria’s rebel-held province of Idlib from an assault that would have “killed millions of people” and “would have been a shame.”

Trump told a news conference in New York that he gave the order “don’t let it happen” to his secretary of state and national security advisor and: “It stopped.” (AFP)

GENEVA: The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has said Israel will be sorry if it continues to attack Syria’s army and its allies.

Iran and Russia have both backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a seven-year war against rebels. (RTRS)