World Echo

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday will attend a meeting in Riyadh of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee established under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, an alliance founded in August with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. According to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources, Fidan, National Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Chief of General Staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu will also attend the committee meeting in the Saudi capital. At the meeting, Fidan is expected to share Turkiye's views on the institutionalisation of the alliance and steps to be taken in the coming days, as well as assessments of threats to peace and stability in the Middle East. Fidan is also expected to express Turkiye's views on regional developments concerning the allies' collective security and note that the progress achieved in the alliance's work in the short time since it was founded is valuable from the perspective of establishing lasting stability in the region. Re...

Yemen's armed forces said ‌early on Sunday it was conducting strikes against the Houthis in the capital Sanaa and the group's ​stronghold Saada. A spokesperson for Yemen's armed forces, ​which are aligned with the internationally recognised government, ⁠said forces were targeting what he described ​as "vital targets", without providing further details. Yemen's Houthi-run Al ​Masirah TV reported earlier an attack it said was carried out by Saudi Arabia on Sanaa. There was no ​immediate Saudi confirmation on the report. Read: Yemen sees widest escalation in 3 weeks as displacement nears 200,000 The conflict between ​the Houthis and forces aligned with the government ‌mostly ⁠stopped after a 2022 truce, but fighting has broken out again in a spillover from the wider war between Iran and the United States. Hostilities ​resumed this ​year after ⁠the Houthis declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in July and began ​attacking Saudi ter...

Israeli assessments indicated that an attempt to assassinate senior Hamas figure Ali al-Amoudi in an airstrike on Gaza City likely failed, Israeli Army Radio said Saturday evening. "Assessments are leaning toward the failure of the attempt to assassinate Ali al-Amoudi, a prominent leader in Hamas' political wing in Gaza, last night," according to the radio. Israel's Channel 12 said it was too early to reach a definitive conclusion but Israel was struggling to obtain confirmation that the assassination attempt had succeeded despite the hours that had elapsed. Earlier Saturday, Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported that the Israeli army had attempted to kill al-Amoudi in a strike overnight Friday into Saturday. It described him as Hamas' de facto leader in Gaza and a leading candidate to formally head the movement in the territory in anticipated secret internal elections. Read: Hamas commander killed in Israeli strike The broadcaster said reports fro...

The Israeli army killed five Palestinians and wounded six others in the Gaza Strip on Saturday in Tel Aviv's continuing violations of a ceasefire in place since October 2025. Four women, including two Christians, and a young man were among the victims of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential apartment in western Gaza City, a medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital told Anadolu. Local sources and eyewitnesses also said that Israeli warplanes launched at least two missiles at an apartment in the Asala residential building early Saturday, destroying the targeted apartment and causing extensive damage to neighbouring homes. A fire also broke out as a result of the bombardment. Local sources also said the Israeli army carried out a demolition operation targeting buildings and facilities in areas under its control east of the neighbourhood of Tuffah in northeastern Gaza City. Read More: 5 Netanyahu claims at UN that clash with documented findings In the southern Gaza St...

Yemen witnessed its widest military escalation in three weeks in recent hours between government forces and the Houthi group, as the displacement crisis caused by the fighting continued to worsen. Clashes were concentrated in the southwestern provinces of Taiz and Lahej, marking the most intense escalation since Sept. 10, when the Houthis took control of the strategic city of Mokha, according to Anadolu’s monitoring. Amid the escalation on the ground, the number of people displaced since military operations intensified in July approached 198,000, according to government data. Fierce clashes The army said on Thursday that it foiled a major Houthi attack on several fronts in Taiz and Lahej, while carrying out airstrikes on the group’s positions and vehicles. Read: Trump's national security team holds unannounced Camp David talks on Iran war, Yemen: Axios “The armed forces’ warplanes carried out six airstrikes on positions and vehicles belonging to th...

Nepal will kick off a high-stakes effort this fiscal year to drain four glacial lakes perched high in the mountains, as it scrambles to reduce flood risks, officials said, after a recent disaster that killed more than 1,400. Rescuers are still searching for more than 5,000 people missing in the border region with China after August's glacier collapse unleashed landslides and a flash flood that tore through valleys. "Our aim is to lower the risk of the lakes breaching their natural dams and reduce the risk of downstream floods," said Subash Tuladhar, an expert with a government research centre tasked with overseeing the new project. Canals will drain water into nearby rivers in a regulated way, he said, adding that workers faced health risks as a result of the lengthy periods of high-altitude work required, in addition to the dangers of sudden flooding. Read: Floods, landslides kill 56 in India and 14 in Nepal Design work and detailed studies targeting t...