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by Xinhua writer Wang Qiang
CAIRO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Conflicts and accidents dominated news headlines for the Middle East in the week that ended on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016, as the Syrian army and allied fighters fully recaptured a key rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo and waves of wildfire broke out across Israel, causing tens of thousands of people to flee.
SYRIAN OFFENSIVE TO RETAKE REBEL-CONTROLLED EASTERN ALEPPO
The Syrian military forces retook the Masaken Hanano area, largest rebel-held district in eastern Aleppo, following intense battles with the rebels' Jaish al-Fateh, or the Army of Conquest, during which assorted kinds of weapons were used amid artillery shelling that targeted the rebels' supply lines in the area.
Observers say capturing the Hanano area will expose the Sakhour neighborhood to the Syrian army, enabling it to isolate the northern part of the rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo from the southern one.
For months, the Syrian government and Russia have been urging rebels to leave Aleppo, offering them safe passages to other rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib. The rebels, however, turned down all offers, resulting in intensified violence.
WILDFIRE ROARS THROUGH ISRAEL
A new massive forest fire broke out late Friday near Jerusalem, while tens of thousands of people in the northern Israel were allowed to return home amidst a wave of wildfires.
The entire community of Nataf, which lies in Jerusalem hills, was evacuated for the second time on Friday since the wave of fires started on Monday.
In Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, residents were allowed to return home one day after 60,000 people, about a quarter of Haifa's population, were evacuated.
IRAQI FORCES CONTINUE FIGHTING IS IN MOSUL
Iraqi security forces continued heavy fighting against the Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul and so far the troops have freed a total of 20 districts in eastern part of the city, after more than a month since a major offensive was launched to drive out the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in the country.
The troops inside Mosul have met stubborn resistance from the extremist militants, who are fighting in small groups and moving quickly throughout the districts in the eastern side of the city.
DEADLY TRAIN COLLISION SHOCKS IRAN
At least 43 people were killed in a collision between two trains in Iran's northern province of Semnan Friday.
It is possible that freezing of electronic system of Svznbany, which controls the movements of the trains, was the cause of the accident as the temperature had reached minus 12 degrees Celsius in the region.
EU-TURKEY DISPUTES
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday threatened to open borders to illegal migrants to flood into Europe, one day after European lawmakers voted to freeze talks over Ankara's accession to the European Union.
"If you go further, those border gates will be opened. You should know that," the president, who had made similar threat in the past, said at a meeting in Istanbul.
While Ankara has spent 15 billion U.S. dollars for more than three million refugees being sheltered on its soil, the European Union has only offered some 700 million dollars in aid, the Turkish leader said.
IRAQI SUICIDE BOMB ATTACK KILLS IRANIAN PILGRIMS
At least 40 Iranian pilgrims were killed in Iraq's Thursday suicide bomb attack, and 20 others were injured.
A suicide tanker truck bomb attack on Thursday killed some 80 Shiite pilgrims and wounded 31 at a fuel station in Babil province in south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
SAUDI-LED AIRSTIKES KILL 12 CIVILIANS IN YEMEN
Twelve Yemenis were killed and six others were wounded by the Saudi-led airstrikes in the northwest province of Hajja on Wednesday after a 48-hour ceasefire ended in violations on Monday.
The campaign is attempting to restore to power expelled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, whom Houthi rebels exiled to the Saudi capital of Riyadh in 2014.
Thousands of airstrikes failed to restore Hadi or defeat the Houthis, yet killed over 10,000 Yemenis, mostly children and women, and displaced over three million Yemenis.
LIFE SENTENCE AGAINST MORSI OVERTURNED
An Egyptian court overturned on Tuesday a life sentence against former president Mohamed Morsi in Hamas espionage case, and ordered retrial.
Morsi, the first democratically elected president after 2011 revolution was overthrown by the army in response to mass protests against his one year rule in July 2013.
SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN UN AND DAMASCUS
The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said on Nov. 20 that he had "substantial differences" with the Syrian government regarding solving the Aleppo crisis.
The difference, Mistura said, is about the Syrian forces' bombing of hospitals in the rebel-held part east of Aleppo, as Mistura said that the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem totally denied the claims.
The Syrian government views the evacuation of rebels as a priority for restoring security in Aleppo, while the UN envoy apparently has other plans.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Conflicts and violence will likely remain on top of news items from the Middle East in the week starting Nov. 27, 2016, as the battles in Syria, Iraq and Yemen will continue unabated in the coming winter. Enditem
