ADEN, Yemen -- At least five soldiers of Yemen's government forces were killed and several others injured in an intense clash with al-Qaeda militants in the country's turbulent southern province of Abyan on Thursday, a military official said.
The soldiers were killed in an hours-long battle with the al-Qaeda militants after the government forces carried out a carefully planned operation to eliminate al-Qaeda's presence in the valley of Rafadh, the official said on condition of anonymity. (Yemen-Government Forces-Al-Qaeda Militants-Clash)
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JERUSALEM -- Israel announced Thursday that it had signed a record-breaking 3.5-billion-U.S. dollar agreement with Germany to sell its Arrow-3 hypersonic missile defense system to the European country.
The Israeli Defense Ministry said in a statement that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius signed the agreement in Berlin on Thursday. The two ministers also signed a joint statement, pledging to enhance bilateral security ties (Israel-Germany-Missile Defense System)
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CAIRO -- The central banks of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed on Thursday a currency swap deal, agreeing to exchange up to 42 billion Egyptian pounds (about 1.36 billion U.S. dollars) and 5 billion UAE dirhams at nominal value.
The agreement comes within the framework of strengthening relations between Egypt and the UAE at all levels and contributes to increasing their trade volume, a statement from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) quoted the bank's governor Hassan Abdallah as saying. (Egypt-UAE-Currency Swap)
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ISTANBUL -- Two people were killed and four others injured on Thursday in an explosion in Türkiye's largest city Istanbul, according to the Istanbul Governor's Office.
In a written statement, the office said the explosion took place in a building in the Bahcelievler District on the European side of the city and was caused by natural gas compression. (Istanbul-Explosion-Casualty)
