Libya's Channel has more -- though no answers -- on the unconfirmed reports that unidentified jets struck IS positions near Sirte yesterday. The reports remain a mystery.
The air raid reportedly hit an IS convoy between the group’s strongholds of Sirte and Bin Jawad, around 150km to the east, according to local witnesses.
The country’s official air force, which answers to the internationally-recognized parliament anchored in the east, said they were not behind the sorties.
There was speculation it could have been ordered by West Libya’s Chief of Staff Jadallah al-Obeidi, who is loyal to the country’s rival administration Libya Dawn, that controls Tripoli. Last week Al-Obeidi’s planes carried out strikes in the nearby Oil Crescent in coordination with forces in the eastern city of Ajdabiya.
Other reports circulating on social media pointed to French planes but none of the accounts could be independently verified.
An Iraqi man has been arrested in Finland on suspicion of war crimes, Finnish police have said. The man is suspected of carrying out the crimes while fighting alongside Iraqi forces against IS.
AP report:
Detective Superintendent Jari Raty says the 23-year-old man is suspected of being involved in war crimes in Tikrit while fighting on the side of Iraqi forces when they recaptured the city from the Islamic State group in April 2015. Raty did not specify the nature of the alleged crimes or give further details about the suspect pending the outcome of an investigation.
Residents of the besieged Syrian city of Madaya have expelled the head of the rebel military council in the city from his place of residence after he tried to direct aid shipments into warehouses, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is reporting, citing several sources in the city.
The residents demanded that the aid be given to them directly, SOHR says.
The Red Cross, Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the UN sent an aid convoy to Madaya today.
SOHR adds:
Reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the distribution will as following:
after the entry of the aid they will be distributed to warehouses in Madaya, then the shares will be delivered to each family according to the list of the relief office, each share will be handed to the head of the household, while the surplus of the aid will be distributed after the completion of the first round of distribution in Madaya.
This just in from AFP regarding the planned Syrian peace talks:
Humanitarian aid trucks have now entered the Syrian town of Madaya near the Lebanese border, Reuters is reporting, citing a local witness.
Red Crescent and U.N. vehicles drove into Madaya hours after departing from Damascus, while a separate convoy was set to enter two villages in the northwest of Syria under the deal.
The first three trucks of aid have entered Madaya, the BBC's Kriszta Satori tweets.
AFP has more on the reports that the coordinator of the Syrian opposition has said that there will be no talks with the Syrian government while "foreign forces" are bombing the country.
"We cannot negotiate with the regime while there are foreign forces bombing the Syrian people," [Riad] Hijab said after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris.
This just in from AFP.