Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Wednesday that the Lebanese rivals are united concerning the necessity to safeguard the country’s coexistence and diversity, considering that the Christian martyrs increased the power of the Church and helped in spreading the religion. “Lebanon is passing through a delicate situation… and despite the rift, the Lebanese are […]

  BEIRUT: The U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict held a series of meetings with Lebanese officials Wednesday over issues facing woman in conflict-ridden areas in the Middle East. After her meeting with Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Zainab Hawa Bangura said that she was touring the Middle East in order to form an […]

  The presidential elections were postponed once again after parliament failed for the 22nd time to meet the required quorum to hold the polls. Speaker Nabih Berri postponed the elections to May 13. MTV reported that 44 lawmakers were present at the session. Lebanon has been without a president since May when the term of […]

  BEIRUT: Future Movement MP Mohammad Kabbara launched a scathing criticism of Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk Wednesday for measures taken against Tripoli inmates detained in Roumieh Prsion. “It appears as though the interior minister is reading too many police novels,” the Tripoli MP said in a statement. “This why he is exercising a concept of […]

Armin Rosen

The leader of ISIS was reportedly ‘seriously injured’ in a March airstrike, according to the Guardian.

The newspaper reported that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been traveling in a convoy of vehicles targeted in a coalition airstrike near the western town of Baaj on March 18th. Baghdadi had not been the target of the strike, which was aimed at local-level ISIS figures.

If the Guardian report is true  — the Pentagon said it has "no reason to believe it was Baghdadi — then it’s likely that Baghdad’s whereabouts were narrowed to a town about 200 miles west of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the most populous city in ISIS’s self-declared caliphate.

  BEIRUT: Lebanon Monday received its first shipment of French weapons financed by a $3 billion Saudi arms grant announced nearly a year and a half ago. A ceremony marking the arrival of the French arms shipment, which included guided anti-tank missiles, got underway at the Beirut airport airbase at 9:30 a.m. It was attended […]

  BEIRUT: Lebanon Monday received its first shipment of French weapons financed by a $3 billion Saudi arms grant announced nearly a year and a half ago. A ceremony marking the arrival of the French arms shipment, which included guided anti-tank missiles, got underway at the Beirut airport airbase at 9:30 a.m. It was attended […]

  Maronite bishop Samir Mazloum expressed regret on Monday over the verbal spat between political arch-foes over the situation in Yemen, hoping that dialogue would defuse tension and preserve the cabinet. “As long as there is a will to continue talks, then there is hope that we could reach progress,” Mazloum said in comments published […]

  BEIRUT: Police launched a “wide-scale search operation” early Monday morning in Lebanon’s sensitive Roumieh prison following a weekend riot by Islamist inmates, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said. He said a Strike Force unit, part of the Internal Security Forces’ Special Operations Command, carried out the search operation” at Roumieh’s Block D between 5 a.m. […]

  Ten years after my beloved brother Basil’s passing I can still remember that morning in the U.S., when amid the business of the morning rush to work and school on Feb. 14, 2005, we heard the NPR news mention a big explosion in Beirut. It was already afternoon in Beirut. The report was vague […]