IRAQ

New push focuses on Islamic State

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces on Saturday launched an operation to push Islamic State fighters out of territory on the western edge of the country near the border with Syria. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the push during a visit to Karbala during a pilgrimage to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Iraqi forces retook Iraq’s border crossing with Syria earlier this month in a US-backed operation. (AP)

SOMALIA

US drone strike targets Al Shabab

MOGADISHU — The US States military said Saturday that it killed several militants in a drone strike against the Al Shabab extremist group in Somalia. The US Africa Command said the strike was carried out Friday night in Lower Shabelle region, about 20 miles north of Mogadishu. It came a day after another strike in the Bay Region, about 100 miles west of the capital. (AP)

BAHRAIN

Militants blamed for pipeline blast

BURI — An explosion ripped through a pipeline belonging to Bahrain’s state-run oil company and sent flames shooting up into the night sky, with government officials on Saturday blaming the blast on an attack by militants guided by Iran. No one was injured in the explosion late Friday night near the Shi’ite village of Buri and no group claimed responsibility for the blast. However, it opens a new front in the insurgency plaguing Bahrain since its 2011 Arab Spring protests. (AP)

GAZA STRIP

Gazans mark date of Arafat’s death

GAZA CITY — Tens of thousands of Gazans marked the anniversary Saturday of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s death for the first time since the Hamas group seized the territory a decade ago. Amid a possible reconciliation between Hamas and the Fatah party Arafat founded, Fatah supporters flocked to al-Saraya Square in Gaza City from all over the coastal enclave. Arafat died in France in 2004 after two years of an Israeli siege on his West Bank headquarters. (AP)

FRANCE

Suspects charged in terrorism sweep

PARIS — Preliminary terrorism charges have been handed to eight suspects in a French-Swiss counterterrorism sweep earlier this week. The eight were charged with associating with a terrorist network. Seven are in custody and one is under judicial supervision. Ten people suspected of using encrypted social networks to prepare a possible attack were arrested on Tuesday during operations in France and Switzerland. (AP)