War

Iran says that it has the right to develop and test missiles for purposes of self defense and has no intention to fit the missiles with nuclear warheads and attack other counties, like Israel for example. On Thursday officials said recent ballistic missile tests did not violate any nuclear deal made with the international community. The latest missiles can reach Israel who already has an unofficial arsenal of nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

Hillary Clinton has called for new sanctions against Iran over their recent test-firing of ballistic missiles. On Tuesday Iran test fired several long range ballistic missiles as part of an ongoing military drill in different parts of the country.

ISIS have shelled a Kurdish-controlled village in Northern Iraq using “poisonous substances” according to a Kurdish official. Referring toan attack on the village of Taza, Kirkuk province governor Najmuddin Kareem told reporters: “There were poisonous substances in these shells. We don’t know what” A Syrian Kurdish group also reported that Islamist opposition fighters had used yellow phosphorous in a chemical attack on a mainly Kurdish residential district in the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday.

Russia has warned its ally North Korea to stop threatening “preventive nuclear strikes” against others as  it could leave the door open for an international military intervention based on the legal ground of the right to self defense. The Guardian reports: The Russian foreign ministry statement, which follows a North Korean threat to “annihilate” the US and South Korea, also criticises Washington and Seoul for launching the largest joint military drills yet to be held on the peninsula.

Syrian government forces have made rapid progress in liberating eastern parts of the Homs province and have forced ISIS militants and their families to evacuate from the ancient city of Palmyra . Alalam reports: “The Takfiri terrorists have launched an evacuation operation in Palmyra and are rapidly transferring their families from the city to al-Sakhanah East of Homs or to Raqqa province,” the sources said.