Iraq in new offensive on DAESH

RIYADH:

A court in Saudi Arabia has ruled that a Yemeni man be executed for attacking and wounding dancers and a security guard during a performance on stage at a park in Riyadh, state media reported Sunday.

The Specialized Criminal Court found the man guilty of attacking a security guard and members of a dance troupe, the state-owned Al-Ekhbariya news channel reported. He was also found guilty of intimidating the public, creating chaos and terror, attempting to derail entertainment activities in Saudi Arabia and inciting violence.

The court also found the man guilty of acting on the orders of a senior al-Qaeda leader in Yemen. The name of the alleged al-Qaeda leader was not made public. (AP)

RIYADH:

Saudi Arabia on Sunday announced the killing of two terrorists and the arrest of a third during a security operation that took place in the eastern city of Dammam a few days ago.

“As a result of the follow-up of terrorist activities, the competent authority in the presidency had what indicates that there are arrangements to carry out an imminent terrorist operation in which the terrorist elements in charge of the operation use a vehicle they are preparing with explosives,” the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted an official spokesman for the Saudi State Security Presidency as saying.

The spokesman noted that the authorities were able to monitor the presence of the vehicle and is being led by two terrorists on King Saud Street in the city

Two Lebanese anti-government protesters wear the national flag as hundreds gather outside the residence of Hassan Diab, Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate on Dec 28, in Beirut. About 300 protesters rallied, chanting: ‘We don’t want Hassan Diab’, or ‘Don’t dream of it,

Diab’. (AP)

of Dammam last Wednesday morning. (KUNA)

SANAA:

A ballistic missile ripped through a military parade for a Yemeni southern separatist group that’s backed by the United Arab Emirates, killing at least six troops and four children, a spokesman said Sunday.

Maged al-Shoebi, a spokesman for the group, blamed Houthi rebels for the attack.

The explosion took place while the separatists, known as the Resistance Forces, were finishing a parade for new recruits at a soccer field in the capital of Dhale province, al-Shoebi told The Associated Press.

The group is part of the Southern Transitional Council or STC, which seeks the return of the independent state that existed in the south until 1990. (AP)

ALGIERS:

Algeria’s newly elected president reached beyond the political class Saturday to name educator and diplomat Abdelaziz Djerad as prime minister. Djerad said his top challenge is “recovering confidence in our society,” the official APS news agency reported.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune charged him with forming a new government, a delicate task in this North African nation divided since the emergence early this year of a prodemocracy movement that boycotted his Dec 12 election after forcing out predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

In his first public statement, Djerad, 65, stressed the need to work together to meet “social-economic challenges and pull ourselves out of this delicate period.” (AP)

ANKARA:

Turkey’s defense chief said Sunday that his country’s troops won’t evacuate their 12 observation posts in rebel-held northwestern Syria. That’s even as a Syrian government offensive pushed deeper into Idlib province, the last remaining opposition stronghold.

Turkey – a strong backer of some of the rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces – has a dozen observation posts in Idlib province, as part of an agreement reached last year with Russia, a main supporter of Assad. (AP)