Palestinians bury baby killed in West Bank arson attack

Hundreds of mourners attend funeral of 18-month old Ali Saad Dawabsheh, as teen shot dead in clashes following attack.

 

Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of the 18-month old Palestinian baby, killed in an arson attack  in the occupied West Bank, as Palestinian leaders condemned Israel's policy on settlements and dubbed the attack as "war crimes".
Family members buried Ali Saad Dawabsheh on Friday afternoon, as his four-year-old brother and their parents, both in extremely critical condition for major burns, are being treated at an Israeli hospital.

In clashes that followed the youngster's death, Palestinians said a 14-year-old named Laith Khaldi was wounded by live fire north of Ramallah and died hours later in hospital.
The Israeli army said Khaldi was shot after throwing a Molotov cocktail at forces at a checkpoint.
Also on Friday, a Palestinian man was killed and another wounded by Israeli fire when they approached a security fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, medical officials said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyuhu's settlement policy is to be blamed for the attacks in the West Bank.

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"When the Israeli government encourages settlements everywhere, they’re also encouraging these thugs to carry out these attacks. This is a war crime and a tragedy for all of us."
"If the Israeli government and the Israeli army wanted to prevent the crime, they could have stopped the terrorists but they chose not to."
The Hamas government in Gaza has also condemned the latest incident, and called for "a day of fury in response to the relentless Zionist assaults on Jerusalem and the murder of toddler Ali in Nablus."

When the Israeli government encourages settlements everywhere, they’re also encouraging these thugs to carry out these attacks. This is a war crime and a tragedy for all of us. Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president

According to the UN, there had been at least 120 attacks by Israeli settlers since the beginning of 2015.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare telephone call to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, condemning the murder of the toddler and pledging a thorough investigation.
"We must fight terrorism together, regardless of which side it comes from," he added.
Netanyahu further told Abbas he had ordered the Israeli security forces to "use all measures to locate the murderers".
After speaking with Abbas, Netanyahu visited the Israeli hospital where the mother and brother of Dawabsheh were being treated for severe burns.
The Israel army issued a statement saying that they were trying to locate the suspects in the attack.
"This attack against civilians is nothing short of a barbaric act of terrorism. A comprehensive investigation is under way in order to find the terrorists and bring them to justice," Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said in the statement.
"The [Israeli army] strongly condemns this deplorable attack and has heightened its efforts in the field to locate those responsible."
The army told Al Jazeera that additional forces were deployed to West Bank, refusing to specify the number of soldiers.

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Mark Regev, a spokesman of Netanyahu, said the government of Israel "unequivocally condemns this heinous crime, this act of terrorism".
"We will fight terrorism. We will defeat terrorism no matter who the perpetrators are."

Palestinian reaction
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Sami Ershied, lawyer and human rights activist, said while Israel condemned the attack, the government of Netanyahu continues to justify the settlement activities in the West Bank.
"This crime was done against the Palestinian people."
Nabil Abu Rdeineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said earlier on Friday that the Israeli government was fully responsible for the crime as it continued to support illegal Israeli settlement activities and the protection of settlers.
He also blamed the international community for silence over crimes against Palestinians.

Two Palestinian houses were burned at the entrance of the village with graffiti left on the walls, reading in Hebrew "revenge" and "long live Messiah".
Witnesses told Al Jazeera that they saw at least two settlers running away from the scene.
Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the European Union envoy to Israel also reacted on Twitter.
There are at least three illegal Israeli settlements near Duma village south of Nablus.
A recent report by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation, showed that more than 92.6 percent of complaints Palestinians lodge with the Israeli police go without charges being filed.

A Palestinian man stands infront of the fire damage to his son's house with graffiti reading in Hebrew 'revenge' in the West Bank [EPA]

Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops in the West Bank on Friday following the funeral of  Ali Saad Dawabsheh [Reuters]

Source: Al Jazeera

Several dead in Turkey in attacks blamed on PKK group

Kurdish fighters attack a police station and fire on railway workers in two separate attacks, Turkish officials say.

 

Violence has flared in Turkey in the past week, shattering a fragile peace process launched in 2012 with the PKK [FILE - Reuters]

Turkish officials say Kurdish fighters have attacked a police station and fired on railway workers in two separate attacks, leaving five people dead.
Mustafa Buyuk, the governor of Adana province, said Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters opened fire at the police station in the town Pozanti, sparking a clash that left two policemen and two attackers dead.
In the eastern province of Kars, PKK fighters detonated a bomb they had placed on rail tracks and later fired on rail workers sent to repair the line, Adem Unal, the region's deputy governor, told the state-run Anadolu Agency. One of the workers was killed.
Violence has flared in Turkey in the past week, after the PKK claimed responsibility for the deaths of two Turkish policemen in the Kurdish majority city of Sanliurfa, near the Syrian border, and the government in response launched aerial strikes against PKK bases in northern Iraq.
The incidents have shattered the fragile peace process launched in 2012 with the Kurds.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said Turkey's actions against the PKK will continue until its fighters lay down their arms.
HDP plea
Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party, the HDP, has called for the resumption of peace efforts - a plea the party's co-chairman renewed on Thursday.
"The dialogue, slow as it was, must resume," Selahattin Demirtas said in televised comments. "Fingers must be removed from the trigger."
Kurdish activists and government critics say Turkey's toughened stance against the PKK is a tactic aimed at strengthening the ruling party and attracting nationalist votes ahead of possible new elections in November.
Davutoglu's Justice and Development Party lost its parliamentary majority in June and has until August 24 to form a coalition government, otherwise new elections will be called.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its western allies, launched its armed campaign for autonomy in Turkey's southeast in 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.
The Kurds declared a ceasefire in 2013 as part of the peace efforts, but halted a planned withdrawal of fighters from Turkish territory, accusing the government of not keeping promises.

Erdogan says Kurdish peace talks impossible to continue

Turkish leader sounds warning after NATO offers support for ongoing military offensive against PKK and ISIL.

 

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says it is impossible to continue a peace process with Kurdish fighters and that politicians with links to "terrorist groups" should be stripped of their immunity from prosecution.
After months of reluctance, Turkey last week started military operations on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in Syria.

The operations came after a bombing last week blamed on ISIL that killed 32 mostly young Kurdish students last week in the Turkish town of Suruc on the border with Syria.
Simultaneously, Turkey started conducting air strikes on Iraqi positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The PKK fought the Turkish state for over 30 years until a 2013 ceasefire was declared as the two sides were engaged in talks.
Throughout last week, PKK has been stepping up its attacks as Turkey keeps on with its air strikes against the group.
"It is not possible for us to continue the peace process with those who threaten our national unity and brotherhood," Erdogan said on Tuesday before departing for an official visit to China.
Erdogan also said a "secure zone" in northern Syria, which Turkey and the US are in talks about establishing, would pave the way for the return of 1.7 million Syria refugees currently being sheltered in Turkey.
The US and Turkey discussed on Monday plans for a military campaign to push ISIL out of such a zone.
NATO's support
Erdogan's statement came after  NATO offered political support  for Turkey's military campaign at a rare meeting in Brussels, with the Turkish government saying the alliance may have a "duty" to become more involved.
The extraordinary meeting at the NATO headquarters on Tuesday was the fifth in the organisation's 66-year history.

'ISIL-free zone' planned for Syria's border with Turkey

The session was requested by Turkey under Article 4 of the treaty that founded the US-led alliance, which empowers its 28 member states to seek such consultations when they consider their "territorial integrity, political independence or security" to be in jeopardy.
"We stand in strong solidarity with our ally Turkey," Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, told alliance ambassadors at the start of a meeting he called right and timely "to address instability on Turkey's doorstep and on NATO's border".
In the run-up, both NATO and Turkey played down any idea that the military alliance might provide air or ground support for Turkey's dramatic change in strategy.
Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, said Turkey got what it wanted from the NATO meeting.
"NATO expressed solidarity and political support for both PKK and ISIL campaigns," he said.
"Turkey has been careful in expressing that they were not targeting Kurdish fighters in Syria, who also fight against the ISIL."

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The NATO meeting also came shortly after PKK-affiliated People's Protection Units (YPG) said that Turkish tanks shelled Kurdish-held villages on Sunday night.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Ankara, Osman Sert, media adviser to Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish prime minister, said: "As long as YPG or other groups fight ISIL and the Syrian regime, we have no problem with them.
"Turkey's borders are also NATO borders. Whenever we need support, we will appeal to the alliance."
Turkey last week entered a long-awaited agreement which allows the US to launch its own strikes from Turkey's strategically located Incirlik airbase.

Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam sentenced to death

Son of slain Libyan leader sentenced in absentia to die by firing squad along with other members of former regime.

 

Saif al-Islam had appeared by video link in sessions at the start of the trial [EPA]

Saif al-Islam, the most prominent son of Libya's slain leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death by firing squad.
He was sentenced in absentia on Tuesday in Tripoli along with eight other senior members of the former regime, which was overthrown in 2011.
They were accused of war crimes and suppressing peaceful protests during the revolution, a state prosecutor said in early June.
The trial had started in April 2014 before fighting between rival factions resulted in a power struggle with two governments competing for authority - one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other one in Tobruk in the east.
Saif al-Islam has been held since 2011 by a former rebel group in Zintan that opposes the Tripoli government.
Abdullah Senussi, the former intelligence chief, was among the former regime officials sentenced, as well as former prime minister Baghdadi Ali Mahmudi.

Salah al-Bakkoush, a Tripoli-based political analyst, said he did not expect the rulings to have strong resonance in Libya.
"Libyans in general have so many problems right now that many were not even following the trial," he told Al Jazeera. "Those who participated in the struggle against the regime of Gaddafi will be following and will be happy."
The International Criminal Court and other human rights organisations worry about the fairness of Libya's justice system although the North African country won the right in 2013 to try Gaddafi's former spy chief at home instead of at the ICC in The Hague.
Saif al-Islam's appearances before the court have been by video link and there have been none since May last year.
The Zintanis have refused to hand him over, saying they do not trust Tripoli to ensure he would not escape, but had agreed before the trial to have him tried in a court there.
Anas El-Gomati, a political analyst and director of Tripoli-based Sadeq Institute, said the trail had been "anything but legal and fair".
"I don't think the Zintanis will give him up," he told Al Jazeera. "They will not look for any solution going forward. These are two [administrations] who oppose each other and show no signs of trying to work together."
Gaddafi was killed in October 2011 after being captured by rebels during Libya's war. He had ruled Libya for four decades.

Turkey denies targeting Kurdish forces in Syria

Reports of shelling of YPG-held villages across border "being investigated" amid Turkish offensive against PKK and ISIL.

 

Last week, Turkey launched two military campaigns, one hitting ISIL in Syria, and the other targeting the PKK in northern Iraq [AP]

Turkey has said its military is not targeting Syrian Kurds after Kurdish forces and a monitoring group claimed its tanks shelled Kurdish-held villages in northern Syria.
Turkey has said it is investigating the reports of shelling even as it continues to round up suspected activists of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group as part of a double offensive.
If confirmed, Sunday's night incident would be the most serious incident yet of Turkey targeting Kurdish-controlled areas in the Syrian conflict.

Kurdish officials told Al Jazeera on Monday that overnight shelling targeted a checkpoint in a village outside Kobane manned by the Burkan al-Furat (Euphrates Volcano) battalion, a coalition of fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four fighters were injured in the shelling.
"A number of shells fired by Turkish tanks fell on the village of Zur Maghar, which is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units [YPG]," the UK-based monitoring group said.
Zur Maghar lies in Aleppo province, along the border with Turkey.
Against this backdrop, Turkey and the US announced on Monday they had agreed on the outlines of a plan to rout ISIL from a strip of Syrian territory along the Turkish border.
The plan opens the possibility of a safe haven for tens of thousands of displaced Syrians but one that also sets up a potential conflict with YPG forces in the area.

A senior Obama administration official said the discussions with Turkey about the safe zone focused on a stretch still under ISIL control.
The US has been conducting air strikes there, which will accelerate now that the US can launch strikes from Turkish soil, the official said.
The YPG has proved to be Syria's most effective force against ISIL, but its successes have been eyed suspiciously by Turkey because of its links to the PKK.
Turkey considers the PKK to be a terrorist organisation.

Earlier this month, Syria's main Kurdish party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), warned Turkey that any military intervention would threaten international peace and said its armed wing, the YPG, would face any "aggression".
Last week, Turkey launched two military campaigns, one hitting ISIL in Syria, and the other targeting the PKK in northern Iraq.
The campaigns came after a suicide bombing on July 20 in the Turkish town of Suruc killed 32 people.
On Monday, a Turkish official told AFP news agency that "the ongoing military operation seeks to neutralise imminent threats to Turkey's national security and continues to target ISIL in Syria and the PKK in Iraq".
The official said the "PYD, along with others, remains outside the scope of the current military effort".
A YPG official told Al Jazeera that in a previous incident, Turkey had fired at a car belonging to the group in Kobane on Wednesday.
"We thought it was a mistake. But last night the shelling lasted for half an hour. So obviously it's not a mistake," the official said.
Mustafa Ebdi, a Syrian Kurdish activist, also reported overnight shelling.
"Now the YPG is facing attacks from IS [ISIL] and Turkey," he told AP news agency.

The deadly bombing in Suruc and the ongoing offensive against Kurdish fighters in Iraq have angered Turkey's Kurdish minority [EPA]

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Turkish soldiers killed in car bomb attack

Two dead and four others wounded in Diyarbakir province as Turkish military campaign in Syria and Iraq continues.

 

Authorities said large-scale operations have been launched to find the perpetrators of the Diyarbakir attack [AP]

Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and four others wounded in a car bomb attack in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, while Turkish aircraft continued bombing ISIL positions in neighbouring Syria and Kurdish fighters in Iraq.
The blast struck a military vehicle passing through the town of Lice on Saturday night.
Local officials and state media blamed the attack on "terrorists", but did not name a specific group. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion.
"Two of our personnel were killed in the heinous attack, four were wounded," a statement from Diyarbakir's governor's office said, adding that large-scale operations have been launched to find the perpetrators.

The attack came amid ongoing military campaigns, which began on Friday, one against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group across the border in Syria, and the other targeting the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

The air raids followed a suicide bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc earlier in the week that killed dozens of Kurdish activists. Turkish authorities blamed ISIL for that attack.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said the military operations would not have a timeframe, indicating a prolonged offensive.
The PKK said Turkish strikes on its bases meant the government in Ankara had ended a fragile 2013 ceasefire between the two sides.
The Kurdish group that seeks self-rule has for decades waged a deadly rebellion in Turkey's southeast that claimed tens of thousands of lives. A peace process that began in 2013 has so far failed to yield a final deal.

Turkey intensifies campaigns in Iraq and Syria

Turkey expands offensive against ISIL and PKK as it demands "safe zones" be established in Syrian areas cleared of ISIL.

 

Turkey has launched more air raids against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and against Kurdish fighters in Iraq.
Saturday's raids are the latest in a campaign that began early on Friday after a suicide bombing at a rally in southern Turkish city of Suruc earlier in the week killed 32 young Kurdish activists.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) responded by killing two Turkish police officers, claiming they collaborated with ISIL in the bombing.
On Saturday, Turkey expanded its campaign to include bases in northern Iraq belonging to the PKK, whose Syrian allies are fighting against ISIL.
Turkish officials appeared to be prepared for a long-term fight.
"Whenever we see a decrease in or the vanishing of the threat, then of course we will make a reassessment," Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister, said at a news conference.
"A third wave of operations are a part of this."
'Dangerous'
The PKK said the strikes on its bases meant the Turkish government had ended a fragile 2013 ceasefire between the two sides.
The president of Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Masoud Barzani, spoke to Davutoglu over the telephone on Saturday and "expressed his displeasure with the dangerous level the situation has reached", according to a KRG statement.

Turkey’s two-pronged offensive

Zeina Khodr reports from Istanbul: For Turkey, ISIL declared war when it bombed a cu

"He requested that the issue not be escalated to that level because peace is the only way to solve problems and years of negotiations are better than one hour of war," the statement said.
"Mr Barzani is ready to do anything within his means to assuage this tension and go back to a situation of peace."
In a related development, Turkish police have been rounding up hundreds of suspected ISIL and Kurdish fighters in cities and towns across the country. As of Saturday, nearly 600 people had been detained.
Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse about 1,000 demonstrators who had gathered in the capital Ankara to protest against the military strikes.
The peace talks between the PKK and Turkey had started in 2012 but have stalled of late.
"The truce has no meaning any more after these intense air strikes by the occupant Turkish army," the PKK said on its website.
Bahtiyar Dogan, a PKK spokesperson in Iraq, told AFP news agency that one fighter was killed and three wounded in the air strikes, which he said started late on Friday and lasted through much of Saturday.
"We are still committed to the directives of our leader [Abdullah] Ocalan ... but it seems Erdogan wants to drag us back into war," Dogan said.
"When things reach this level and when all of our areas are bombed, I think by then the ceasefire has no meaning any more," he said, echoing the statement on the PKK website.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, said it appeared the Turkish government was concerned about both ISIL threatening Syrian opposition groups in their stronghold in Aleppo province that could lead to them taking control of an important border crossing.
Turkey was also worried about the growing strength of Syria's Kurds, a group known as the YPG, which now controls more than half of Syria's 800km border with Turkey.
Turkey earlier this week approved the full use of its airbases by the US-led coalition against ISIL and has been pushing for areas in northern Syria cleared of ISIL fighters to become safe zones, under a deal it has struck with the US.
"(Turkish) Officials even blamed the US airstrikes for helping the Kurds gain ground from ISIL," our correspondent said.
"It seems Turkey's long-time demand for a humanitarian safe zone inside Syria will emerge."
Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Kilis in southern-central Turkey, said Kurdish people in the area were "very worried about what lies ahead in days to come".

Turkey says parts of Syria to become 'safe zones'

Foreign minister says areas cleared of fighters belonging to ISIL can turned into haven for Syrians displaced by war.

 

Turkey's foreign minister said that areas cleared of ISIL fighters in Syria could be used as safe zones for displaced Syrians [Reuters]

Turkey has said areas in north Syria cleared of fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group will be turned into safe zones.
Saturday’s announcement made by Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, came after Ankara began bombing ISIL positions in Syria and and Kurdish fighters' camps in northern Iraq.
"When areas in northern Syria are cleared of the (ISIL) threat, the safe zones will be formed naturally," Cavusoglu told a news conference.
"We have always defended safe zones and no-fly zones in Syria. People who have been displaced can be placed in those safe zones."
Several Turkish media outlets had earlier reported the government was considering setting up a 33km-wide safe zone inside Syria, stretching from the outskirts of Kurdish-held Kobane to areas controlled by pro-Western rebel groups.
Its purpose would be to strengthen the rebels’ hand against ISIL and prevent the Kurdish fighters from capturing new border areas.
Third wave of attacks
Turkish forces on Saturday unleashed a third wave of air strikes and ground attacks against the two targeted factions.
"We have given instructions for a third series of strikes in Syria and Iraq. Air and ground operations are under way," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara, adding that 590 suspected ISIL and PKK members were arrested in raids across Turkey.
The military action by Ankara was seen as a potential game changer in the war against ISIL.
Turkey earlier this week approved the full use of its airbases by the US-led coalition against ISIL, according to the foreign ministry, marking a major change in its policy following a suicide bomb attack in Suruc, bordering Syria.
The offensive against the PKK came after the Kurdish group claimed attacks on security forces in the last days.

Turkey extends bombing raids to PKK targets in Iraq

Air strikes launched for a second night as Ankara is pulled into neighbouring conflicts with ISIL and other groups.

 

In the early hours of Friday, three F-16 fighter jets bombed three ISIL targets from an airbase in southeastern province of Diyabakir [AP]

More to this story

• Suruc survivor who lost cousins says 'I wish I'd died'

Turkish warplanes have bombed military positions of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in neighbouring Iraq, a spokesman for the PKK has said.
The air raids came just hours after Turkish warplanes pounded Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions in Syria on Friday morning, marking a significant shift in Ankara's position on how to deal with armed groups in Syria and Iraq.
"At around 11:00pm (20:00 GMT) tonight, Turkish warplanes started bombing our positions near the border, accompanied by heavy artillery shelling," PKK spokesman Bakhtiar Dogan told the AFP news agency.

He said the strikes targeted mountain positions in the north of the Dohuk province, which is part of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
The PKK, which is banned in Turkey and has long had a presence in Iraq, has several training camps in Dohuk, a province that also borders Kurdish areas of Syria.
Turkish television channels late on Friday reported that F-16 jets had taken off from their base in the southeastern city in Diyarbakir for what they had said would be a second wave of strikes against ISIL.
Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Kilis on the Turkey-Syria border, said that it remains unclear if the Turkish jets flew through either Iraqi or Syrian airspace.
"Turkey's government maintained that Friday morning's bombing raids on ISIL targets in Syria were carried out from Turkish airspace," he said, adding that local Turkish media were reporting that jets flew towards both Syria and Iraq on Friday night.
The military action by Ankara, which has been accused of colluding with ISIL, was seen as a potential game changer in the war against the armed group.
But the Turkish government had also vowed to take action against the PKK, who have claimed attacks on the security forces in the last days.
Turkey also approved the full use of its air bases by the US-led coalition against ISIL, according to the foreign ministry, marking a major change in its policy following a suicide bomb attack  in Suruc, bordering Syria. 

"The cabinet of ministers has given approval for the stationing in our country's bases of manned and unmanned aircraft of the US and other coalition countries ... taking part in air operations against Islamic State," the foreign ministry said, adding that Turkey's own aircraft would also be deployed.

The ability to fly manned bombing raids out of Incirlik, a major base used by both US and Turkish forces, against targets in nearby Syria could be a big advantage.

In the first hours of Friday, three F-16 fighter jets bombed three ISIL targets from an airbase in southeastern province of Diyabakir.
Meanwhile, Turkish police raided more than 100 suspected ISIL, Kurdish and leftist armed group locations across the country in overnight operations late on Thursday.
In total, similar operations were carried out in 13 provinces, resulting in 251 detentions, according to the coordination centre of the Turkish Prime Ministry.

Turkish army trades fire with ISIL fighters in Syria

One army officer killed in Kilis in cross-border gunfire, prompting retaliatory assault on ISIL base, Turkish media say.

 

Armed men attacked police in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Thursday, Turkish media reports say [Getty Images]

One Turkish army officer has been killed and two soldiers injured in cross-border gunfire with Syria.
Turkish media reported on Thursday that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) shot at the Turkish army in Kilis, a Turkish border town, causing the casualties.
Anadolu News Agency reporters told Al Jazeera that the Turkish army immediately retaliated by attacking an ISIL base on Syrian territory, killing at least one fighter.
The agency could not confirm what weapons were used in the ISIL attack.
Turkey has reportedly agreed to allow the US military to launch air strikes against ISIL from a US air base in Incirlik, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing defense officials.
Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Suruc, said there was tension at the Turkish-Syrian border.
"The Turkish media is saying that this [exchange of fire] is very substantial," he said.
"They are calling these violent clashes that Turkish military has had with ISIL. The Turkish military responded to that attack by firing rockets. They say they were able to kill one ISIL fighter on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border.

"We also heard reports that F16 jets were scrambled over the border area after the attack, although the Turkish government and the military are saying that they are just routine surveillance flights.
"Turkish media is calling this the first direct clashes between ISIL and Turkish military"
Clashes were continuing late on Thursday, with the Turkish army heavily targeting ISIL targets in Syria.
The Turkish military released a statement confirming the reports of the officer's death, stating that five ISIL fighters opened fire on the soldiers who then returned fire.
"One officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded," the statement said.
Following the attack, the Turkish governement deployed more forces on the Syrian border.
Earlier on Thursday, Turkish state news reported that armed men attacked Turkish police in the country's mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing one policeman and injuring another.

One of the world's oldest Quran manuscripts found in UK

Radiocarbon analysis dated the manuscripts close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad [Birmingham University]

Fragments of the Quran held by the UK's Birmingham University have been found to be among the oldest in the world.
Following radiocarbon analysis by the University of Oxford, the manuscripts, written on parchments, have been dated to from between AD 568 and 645, with 95 percent accuracy.
The results place the papers close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, who is generally thought to have lived between AD 570 and 632.
Susan Worrall, Director of Special Collections at the University of Birmingham, said: "The radiocarbon dating has delivered an exciting result, which contributes significantly to our understanding of the earliest written copies of the Quran.
"We are thrilled that such an important historical document is here in Birmingham, the most culturally diverse city in the UK."
The two parchments form part of the University’s Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts.
The manuscripts are written with ink in Hijazi - an early form of Arabic. They contain parts of Suras (chapters) 18 to 20.
For many years, the manuscript had been misbound with leaves of a similar Quran manuscript, which is datable to the late seventh century.
Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, Lead Curator for Persian and Turkish Manuscripts at the British Library, said: "This is indeed an exciting discovery. We know now that these two folios, in a beautiful and surprisingly legible Hijazi hand, almost certainly date from the time of the first three Caliphs."

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The manuscripts are written with ink in Hijazi - an early form of Arabic [Birmingham University]

US says air strike in Syria killed Khorasan leader

Pentagon says operation earlier this month killed Muhsin al-Fadhli as he travelled near Sarmada in Syria.

 

A senior al-Qaeda operative who reportedly was given advance notice of the September 11 attacks has been killed in an air strike in Syria, United States officials said.
Muhsin al-Fadhli, who the US says headed the so-called Khorasan group of al-Qaeda operatives, was killed in an air strike on July 8 as he travelled in a vehicle near Sarmada in Syria's Idlib province, said Captain Jeff Davis, the Pentagon's director of press operations.
"Al-Fadhli was the leader of a network of veteran al-Qaeda operatives, sometimes called the Khorasan Group, who are plotting external attacks against the United States and our allies," Davis said in a statement.
"He was a senior al-Qaeda facilitator who was among the few trusted al-Qaeda leaders that received advanced notification of the September 11, 2001, attacks. 
"Al-Fadhli was also involved in terrorist attacks that took place in October 2002, including against US Marines on Faylaka Island in Kuwait and on the French ship MV Limburg. His death will degrade and disrupt ongoing external operations of al-Qaeda against the United States and our allies and partners."
It is not the first time that al-Fadhli has been reported killed by the US. Last September, US officials said they thought they had killed him in an air strike.
Al Jazeera's Jamie McIntyre, reporting from Washington, said that officials were certain that al-Fadhli had been killed this time around.

US drone strike kills AQAP leader in Yemen

"They did not disclose how they have confirmed his identity, but said they were highly confident [he was killed]," he said, adding that there had been a $7m bounty on al-Fadhli's head.
US officials have described Khorasan as a particularly menacing faction of armed fighters who have been using their sanctuary in Syria to try to organise plots to attack US and other Western targets, possibly including airliners.
But Abu Mohammed al-Golani, leader of the Nusra Front group in Syria, denied that the Khorasan group existed in a recent interview with Al Jazeera.
"There is nothing called Khorasan group. The Americans came up with it to deceive the public. They claim that this secret group was set up to target the Americans but this is not right," he said.

US probes 'gun-firing drone built by teenager'

Online footage appearing to show home-made drone firing handgun in Connecticut countryside has gone viral.

 

The device was reportedly created by 18-year-old Austin Haughwout [Youtube/Hogwit]

A viral online video apparently showing a home-made drone firing a handgun in the US is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The announcement came on Tuesday, after the video had been watched more than two million times since being uploaded to YouTube on July 10.
"The FAA will investigate the operation of an unmanned aircraft system in a Connecticut park to determine if any Federal Aviation Regulations were violated," the administration said in a statement.
"The FAA will also work with its law enforcement partners to determine if there were any violations of criminal statutes."
The 14-second video, called "Flying Gun", shows a multi-rotor drone hovering off the ground, buzzing furiously and firing a semi-automatic handgun four times at an unseen target in the countryside.
The device was reportedly created by 18-year-old Austin Haughwout, a university mechanical engineering student from Clinton, Connecticut.
Not a drone
Haughwout's father, Bret Haughwout, denied his son had built a drone.
"People have been playing with RC [remote-controlled] toys for many decades," he told the AFP news agency.
"The proper name for this is an RC quadcopter. The media keeps using the inappropriate word because it helps you to generate fear."
Haughwout said the FAA had not been in touch.
"I don't understand why people are making such a big deal of it. It's not like it's anything new," he said. "He's a mechanical engineering student. He builds all different kind of things."
The video has sparked fresh debate about the still largely unregulated world of civilian drones in the US.
The FAA has a September deadline for a final set of rules to govern civilian drones in crowded US skies, but it is expected to miss it.
The industry argues that strict regulation would mean the US will fall behind other countries in developing high-value drone technology.
In Switzerland, the postal service has begun testing parcel deliveries by drones. In the Indonesian capital, police deployed them for the first time this year to monitor traffic.

Gold plunges to five-year lows after early Asia rout

Gold prices plunged more than 4 percent to five-year lows on Monday as a sudden bout of selling across Shanghai and New York markets during the illiquid early Asian trading hours triggered a mini flash crash, deepening bullion's biggest rout in years.
A wave of sell orders in a one-minute period shortly after the Shanghai Gold Exchange opened on Monday sent the most-active U.S. gold futures contract GCv1 down $48 to as low as $1,080 per ounce, its weakest since February 2010.
Within two minutes, an estimated 33 tonnes of gold in Shanghai and New York worth $1.3 billion changed hands. A lack of liquidity, with Japanese markets closed for a holiday, hastened the slide.
The ferocious selling triggered CME circuit breakers twice within one minute just before 9:30 p.m. EDT (0130 GMT) on Sunday.
The exact cause of the selling was not immediately known, but traders and analysts attributed the massive move to high-frequency trading algorithms as well as stop-loss selling.
"It was just a bit of a bear raid and there was nobody on the other side to mop up the selling," Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar said.
Prices recouped some losses by the end of trading in New York, but the latest slide helped wipe out half the gains from the last decade's historic bull run, taking prices back to a key chart level and threatening a break towards $1,000 an ounce.

The breadth of the latest sell-off will underscore bullion's worsening outlook as the dollar .DXY strengthens and investors brace for the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
The dollar hit a three-month high against a basket of currencies, making dollar-priced gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.
The selling followed China's Friday announcement that it increased its gold reserves much less than expected over the past six years.
Ross Norman, chief executive of bullion brokerage Sharps Pixley, said the narrow window of selling suggests this was a deliberate effort to short the market and had nothing to do with market fundamentals.
"They weren't looking for the best price, they were looking for the biggest impact," he said.
Spot gold prices XAU= were 2.8 percent lower at $1,102.05 an ounce by 3:54 p.m. EDT (1954 GMT), down for the sixth straight session, after falling as far as $1,088.05 an ounce, the lowest since March 2010.
The U.S. August gold futures GCv1 contract settled down 2.2 percent at $1,106.80 an ounce.

Technically, the break through the $1,130 support level leaves bullion looking weak. In the short term, supports are at $1,085 and $1,050, ANZ said.
Turnover in Shanghai and New York were tremendous. A record 3.3 million lots traded on a key contract XAU9999=SGEX on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, compared with fewer than 27,000 lots on Friday, Reuters data showed. Before Monday, the volume for July had averaged fewer than 30,000 lots.
Spot platinum XPT= fell for the fifth straight session, paring losses after dropping 5 percent to a fresh 6-1/2-year low of $942.49 an ounce, due to oversupply, sluggish demand and weaker gold prices, which encouraged speculative selling.
Palladium XPD= dropped as much as 3.4 percent to its lowest since October 2012 at $593 an ounce, before cutting some losses to trade down 1.3 percent at $606.
Spot silver XAG= was down 0.7 percent at $14.76 an ounce.

A woman holds a one-kilogram gold bar at the headquarters of the Australian Bullion Company (ABC) in Sydney April 19, 2013.

US and Cuba restore formal diplomatic relations

Cuban flag raised in Washington DC as US and Cuba reopen their embassies for the first time in more than 50 years.

 

The Cuban flag has been raised over the country's newly restored embassy in Washington DC as the US and Cuba resume diplomatic ties frozen for half a century.
An honour guard in white uniforms marched out of the building in the US capital on Monday to hoist the standard watched by a cheering crowd, only hours after the flag was also put in place at the US State Department.
Bruno Rodriguez, Cuban foreign minister, presided over the flag-raising ceremony, just hours after full diplomatic relations with the US were restored at midnight, when an agreement to resume normal ties on July 20 took effect.
About 500 guests, including a 30-member delegation of diplomatic, cultural and other leaders from the Caribbean nation, attended the ceremony at the 16th Street mansion in Washington DC.

The US was represented at the event by Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of State for western hemisphere affairs, and Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the chief of the US interests section in Havana who will now become charge d'affaires.
Earlier, without ceremony, the Cuban flag was hung in the lobby of the State Department alongside those of other countries with which the US has diplomatic ties.
The US and Cuba severed diplomatic relations in 1961 and since the 1970s had been represented in each other's capitals by limited service interests sections.
Kerry later said the US aimed to live "as good neighbours" with Cuba, but cautioned that the road to full relations remained "long and complex".
Meeting in Havana
Speaking in Spanish alongside Rodriguez just hours after diplomatic ties were restored, Kerry said the US "welcomes this new beginning in its relationship with the people and government of Cuba".
But switching back to English, he said the move did "not signify an end to the many differences that still separate our governments". Kerry will travel to Havana August 14 to preside over a flag-raising ceremony at the US embassy there.
Though normalisation has taken centre-stage in the US-Cuba relationship, there remains a deep ideological gulf between the nations and many issues still to resolve.
Among them: disputes such as over mutual claims for economic reparations, Cuba's insistence on the end of the 53-year-old trade embargo and US calls for Cuba to improve on human rights and democracy.

Some US legislators, including several prominent Republican presidential candidates, have pledged not to repeal the embargo and pledged to roll back Obama's moves on Cuba.
Monday's events cap a remarkable change of course in US policy toward the communist island under President Barack Obama, who had sought rapprochement with Cuba since he first took office and has progressively loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island.
Shortly after midnight, the Cuban interests section in Washington DC switched its Twitter account to say "embassy".
In Havana, the US interests section uploaded a new profile pictures to its Facebook and Twitter accounts that says US EMBASSY CUBA.
Conrad Tribble, the US deputy chief of mission in Havana, said on Twitter: "Just made first phone call to State Dept. Ops Center from United States Embassy Havana ever. It didn't exist in Jan 1961."
Obama's efforts at engagement were frustrated for years by Cuba's imprisonment of Alan Gross, a US Agency for International Development contractor, on espionage charges.
But months of secret negotiations led in December to Gross's release, along with a number of political prisoners in Cuba and the remaining members of a Cuban spy ring jailed in the US.
Diplomatic game changer
Al Jazeera's Latin America Editor Lucia Newman, reporting from Havana, described the latest developments as "a long-awaited game changer".
"This week's renewal of diplomatic relations does not erase political differences but psychologically it raises the curtain for most Cubans," she said.
On December 17, Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced they would resume full diplomatic relations.
Declaring the longstanding policy a failure that had not achieved any of its intended results, Obama declared that the US could not keep doing the same thing and expect a change.

Thus, he said work would begin apace on normalisation.
That process dragged on until the US removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in late May and then bogged down over issues of US diplomats' access to ordinary Cubans.
On July 1, however, the issues were resolved and the US and Cuba exchanged diplomatic notes agreeing that the date for the restoration of full relations would be July 20.
Larry Luxner, the editor of the Washington Diplomat, said it was clear from recent developments in the US relationship with Iran and Cuba that Obama wanted to leave a legacy of improved diplomatic ties.
"It's a new approach by the White House of wanting to correct the wrongs of the past," he told Al Jazeera.

HAVANA, CUBA - Staff at the newly inaugurated US embassy in Havana showed up for work on Monday carrying small American flags. Even local Cuban staff were carrying them.
A woman who went in to request a visa to the US told us that that there is new, more comfortable furniture for those who wait and that the American staff "is more friendly" than before, when they denied her a visa.
Several American citizens who went to the embassy held up their passports and took pictures outside with Cubans to mark the first day of the embassy opening.
The US flag has not been hoisted. That will wait for John Kerry, US secretary of state, when he comes to Havana for the ceremonial opening some time in August, according to US officials.
Cubans are very excited. State TV broadcast the Cuban embassy opening in Washington DC live, calling Monday a historic day for Cuba and Latin America.
"I thought I would never live to see this day," said a tearful Magali Perez , who was 19 years old when the US and Cuba broke diplomatic ties.

Scores killed in Sinai clashes

Egyptian military says operations in violence-hit peninsula have left seven soldiers and 59 fighters dead.

 

Military says two explosive storage facilities and two vehicles used by armed groups have been destroyed [File - Reuters]

Egypt's military spokesman says seven soldiers and 59 fighters have been killed in clashes at the Sinai Peninsula.
The statement from Brigadier-General Mohammed Samir said Saturday's operations also involved air cover, adding that two explosive storage facilities and two vehicles used by armed groups were destroyed.
The spokesman initially said on Sunday that a shell struck a single checkpoint, killing three soldiers and wounding four.
Fighting took place in areas around Rafah, El Arish and Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai governorate.
Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press news agency, said fighters attacked two checkpoints.

In its daily radio broadcast, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group said its fighters attacked multiple checkpoints and military installations on Saturday in North Sinai, naming at least two checkpoints and saying clashes took place near a local airport.
Last year, the main armed organisation operating in Sinai pledged its allegiance to ISIL, which holds large parts of land in Iraq and Syria.
An Egyptian navy vessel was targeted on Thursday by fighters affiliated with ISIL, who claimed they destroyed it with a rocket while it was anchored off the Sinai's Mediterranean coast.
Samir, the military spokesman, said at the time that the vessel caught fire in an exchange of fire with "terrorists" on the shore and that there were no fatalities among its crew members.

Explosions hit cars of Hamas officials in Gaza City

Palestinian security sources say two people injured in blasts targeting officials of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

 

Al Jazeera's correspondent at the scene said authorities had blocked access to the sites of the explosions [Al Jazeera/Tamer Almisshal]

Two people have been injured in multiple car explosions in northern Gaza City, Palestinian security sources said.
The sources said six explosions took place at same time on Sunday morning in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
The cars belonged to officials of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. 
Al Jazeera's Tamer Almisshal, reporting from Gaza, said that both of those wounded were civilians living in a house near one of the blast sites.
Interior ministry spokesman Iyad al-Buzom released a brief statement in which he accused "vandals" seeking to destabilise Gaza of carrying out the explosions.
He said security officials started an investigation and would pursue the criminals.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza noted that Sheikh Radwan witnessed fighting between Hamas security forces and fighters loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in early June.
ISIL threatened Hamas in a video shared online earlier this month, vowing to end the faction's rule in the territory.
Graffiti appearing to show an emblem used by ISIL could be seen behind one of the vehicles targeted in the attacks.

Graffiti of an ISIL flag was seen behind one of the vehicles [Al Jazeera]

The six explosions took place at same time on Sunday morning [Al Jazeera]

Source: Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia arrests hundreds of suspected ISIL members

Interior ministry says operation has helped thwart suicide attacks on mosques, security forces and a diplomatic mission.

 

Saudi Arabia has arrested 431 people suspected of belonging to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) cells, and thwarted suicide attacks on mosques, security forces and a diplomatic mission, the interior ministry has said.
In a statement on Saturday carried on the official state news agency, the Interior Ministry accused those arrested over the "past few weeks" of conducting several attacks, including an ISIL-claimed suicide bombing in May that killed 21 people in the village of al-Qudeeh, in the oil-rich eastern Qatif region. It was the deadliest assault in the kingdom in more than a decade.
The statement said most of the 431 suspects were Saudi nationals, but also included other nationals from the Middle East and Africa.
The report said authorities also stopped six successive suicide operations, which targeted mosques in the Eastern province, and timed with assassinations of security men.

"Terrorist plots to target a diplomatic mission, security and government facilities in Sharurah province and the assassination of security men were thwarted," it said.
Senior Interior Ministry official Bassam Attiyah said the suspects belong to several "cluster cells" who were operating separately from each other.
"They are aiming to spread terrorism in Saudi Arabia, and they wish to create chaos and rift in the country."
Attiyah also said that the suspects used social media to operate and recruit members.

Shia mosque attack
The Interior Ministry also blamed the suspects for the November shooting and killing of eight worshippers in the eastern Saudi Arabian village of al-Ahsa.
The statement said the arrested men were also behind another attack in late May, when a suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up in the parking lot of a Shia mosque during Friday prayers, killing four people.
The Interior Ministry said that in June they thwarted a suicide bomb attack on a large mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia that can hold 3,000 worshippers.
Saudi Arabia has taken several steps to stop its citizens joining fighters in Syria or Iraq, with the country's highest religious authority condeming the armed group as "apostates" and labelling them the "number one enemy of Islam".
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Jamal Khashoggi, editor-in-chief of the Al Arab news channel, said that while the arrests were "good news", they also showed  how ISIL is able to recruit new members in the country.
He said that unless the "chaos" in neighbouring Iraq and Syria are addressed, the "frenzy of recruitment" will continue.
ISIL, which according to reports has recruited thousands of foreign fighters, still controls large parts of Syria and Iraq, where it has been accused of committing mass atrocities against civilians and minority groups.
Saudi nationals have been blamed for several suicide attacks within the country and abroad in recent months.
The main suspect in the deadly suicide bombing attack at a mosque in Kuwait was identified as a Saudi national.

Norwegian killer Breivik wins place at Oslo University

Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011, to study political science from solitary confinement in prison.

 

Breivik killed 77 people in in July 2011, claiming he was fighting against multiculturalism and a 'Muslim invasion' [AP]

Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has won a place to study at the University of Oslo from solitary confinement in prison, despite outrage at his massacre of scores of people four years ago.
Breivik killed 77 people in a rampage in Norway in July 2011, claiming he was fighting against multiculturalism and a "Muslim invasion".
"He meets the admission requirements. We stick to our rules and he will be admitted," Rector Ole Petter Ottersen told the Reuters news agency, adding that prisoners are eligible to study as long as their academic grades are good enough.
Many were appalled when Breivik, who holds far-right anti-Muslim views and has shown no remorse for his actions, applied for the three-year bachelor's programme in political science.
Some students now at the university survived his attacks, while others had friends or relatives killed in the massacre.
"I realise there are many feelings involved here. He tried to demolish the system. We have to stay faithful to it," Ottersen said.
The course includes the study of democracy, human rights and respect for minorities.
'Hall of fame'
Breivik, now 36, planted a bomb on July 22, 2011 in central Oslo that killed eight people and destroyed the government headquarters.
He then travelled to an island where the then-ruling Labour Party was holding a summer camp for youths and shot dead 69 people, many of them teenagers.
Under the terms of his sentence, Breivik is held in solitary confinement and will be unable to attend lectures or seminars.
All his work will go via prison staff, with no direct contact with professors. Breivik has access to books but not the internet.
"His study will be carried out exclusively in his own cell," Ottersen said.
Graduating with a degree is currently not an option for Breivik as five out of the nine courses needed would require him to attend university seminars, the AFP news agency said.
Norway will open a "July 22 Centre" next week in Oslo with information and exhibits about the attacks. Some relatives and survivors fear it risks becoming a Breivik "hall of fame".

Gunman kills four Marines at US military sites

Kuwaiti-born suspect also killed in Tennessee incident, which US attorney called an act of "domestic terrorism".

 

A gunman has killed four United States Marines after opening fire at two military facilities in Chattanooga, in the US state of Tennessee, officials said.
The suspect, identified by the FBI as 24-year-old Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, a naturalised American born in Kuwait who was also killed in the incident on Thursday. Two others, a soldier and a police officer, were wounded, an official said.
US officials said that law enforcement authorities are investigating whether the was inspired by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or a similar armed group.
US attorney Bill Killian called the killings an "act of domestic terrorism", though FBI officials said authorities were still investigating a motive.

The Department of Homeland Security was stepping up security at certain federal facilities "out of an abundance of caution" and supporting the FBI investigation, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement.
Chattanooga is a city of about 173,000 people along the Tennessee River in the southeast of the state.
The US Navy confirmed in a tweet early on Thursday afternoon that a shooting had taken place at a recruitment centre on Amnicola Highway in Chattanooga. Shortly after, the Chattanooga Police Department said the situation had ended.
"Lives have been lost from some faithful people who have been serving our country, and I think I join all Tennesseans in being both sickened and saddened by this," Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam said.
Witnesses and local media reports said the gunman, driving an open-top Ford Mustang, fired at two locations including a military recruiting centre and a US Navy Reserve centre about 10km apart. Witnesses said they heard scores of shots.
US President Barack Obama said early investigations indicated that Abdulazeez was acting alone, but promised a "thorough and prompt" inquiry.
"It is a heartbreaking circumstance for these individuals who have served our country with great valour to be killed in this fashion," he said in a statement from the Oval Office.

The US Navy confirmed in a tweet early on Thursday afternoon that a shooting had taken place at a recruitment centre on Amnicola Highway [Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP]

ISIL-affiliate sets Egypt navy vessel ablaze off Sinai

Fighters calling themselves Sinai Province clash with patrol boat in Mediterranean off Gaza Strip, military says.

 

[Reuters]

An Egyptian naval vessel has caught fire in the eastern Mediterranean during a clash with fighters affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Sinai Peninsula, the military said.

The patrol boat spotted the fighters from the Sinai Province group on the coast of Rafah on Thursday and engaged them, the military's spokesman said in a statement. The boat went up in flames during an ensuing firefight.
The military said it suffered no casualties, in the attack, which Sinai Province later claimed on Twitter.
A series of pictures released by the group, showed a missile approaching and striking the vessel causing a large explosion.
A witness in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, just across the border with the Egyptian town of Rafah, said the boat was struck at least three kilometres from the shore.
"We were sitting on the beach and suddenly there was an explosion," witness Ahmed Nofal told the AFP news agency. Other navy boats came to rescue the crew as their vessel spewed a plume of smoke.
Armed campaign
Sinai Province has killed scores of soldiers and policemen in the peninsula in an armed campaign that followed the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.
It was not immediately clear how the boat was hit on Thursday, but fighters have started to deploy wire-guided missiles against tanks and armoured vehicles.
The fighters have also carried out attacks west of the Suez Canal, which separates the Sinai from the rest of Egypt.
The army said on Wednesday its troops foiled a suicide car bomb attack on a military post between Cairo and Suez that was claimed by the ISIL affiliate.

Sinai Province released photos on Twitter appearing to show the attack on the Egyptian vessel [Twitter]

Car bomb explosion kills one in Saudi capital

Blast kills the driver of the car and wounds two police officers at a checkpoint on Al-Hair Road in Riyadh.

 

A car bomb has exploded at a checkpoint near Saudi Arabia's highest security prison, killing the driver and wounding two security officials, the interior ministry said.
State television said the driver was a teenager on the run after killing his uncle. He triggered the blast after officers surrounded his vehicle south of the capital, Riyadh, on Thursday evening.
State news agency SPA named the bomber as Abdullah Fahd Abdullah al-Rashed. It said he was born in 1997 and had never travelled outside of the kingdom.

SPA named the dead uncle as Rashid Ibrahim al Safyan, adding that Safyan had been a colonel, without elaborating.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has called on supporters to carry out attacks in the kingdom and killed 25 people in two suicide bombings at Shia Muslim mosques in the country's east in May.
"While security officers were manning one of the security checkpoints on Ha'er Road in Riyadh, they directed the driver of a suspected car to stop. The driver initiated an explosion which led to his death," the ministry said in a statement.
The Ekhbariya state TV station, citing unidentified sources, said the teenage driver had killed his uncle that afternoon, and then ran off with his car.
The driver tried to drive bypass the checkpoint, then set off an explosive as security forces tried to surround him, it added.

Tiny Pluto sports big mountains, New Horizons finds

The first close-up views of Pluto show mountains made of ice and a surprisingly young, crater-free surface, scientists with NASA's New Horizons mission said on Wednesday.
The results are the first since the piano-sized spacecraft capped a 3 billion mile (4.82 billion km), 9-1/2-year-long journey to pass within 7,800 miles (12,550 km) of Pluto on Tuesday.
New Horizons is now heading deeper into the Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system beyond Neptune that is filled with thousands of Pluto-like ice-and-rock worlds believed to be remnants from the formation of the solar system, some 4.6 billion years ago.
Scientists do not know how Pluto formed such big mountains, the tallest of which juts almost 11,000 feet (3,350 meters) off the ground, nearly as high as the Canadian Rockies.
Another puzzle is why Pluto has such a young face. The icy body, which is smaller than Earth's moon, should be pocked with impact craters, the result of Kuiper Belt rocks and boulders raining down over the eons.
Instead, New Horizons revealed that the surface of Pluto has somehow been refreshed, activity that may be tied to an underground ocean, ice volcanoes or other geologic phenomenon that gives off heat.
Scientists believe Pluto's mountains likely formed within the last 100 million years, a relative blink compared to the age of the solar system.
New Horizon's first close-up, which covered a patch of ground about 150 miles (241 km) near Pluto's rugged equatorial region, even has scientists wondering if the icy world is still geologically active.
"Pluto has so much diversity. We're seeing so many different features ... there’s nothing like it," New Horizons scientist Cathy Olkin told reporters at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab where the mission control center is located.

Another surprise was Pluto's primary moon, Charon, which was believed to be geologically dead. Instead, New Horizons found troughs, cliffs and giant canyons - all evidence of internal processes.
"Charon just blew our socks off," said Olkin.
So far only a fraction of the thousands of pictures and science measurements collected by New Horizons during its traverse through the Pluto system have been relayed. The data will be transmitted back to Earth over the next 16 months.
"I don't think any one of us could have imagined that it was this good of a toy store," said New Horizons' lead scientist Alan Stern.

Fried batteries delay solar plane's journey until 2016

Lengthy layover in Hawaii for Solar Impulse 2 after batteries overheated during record-breaking Pacific flight.

 

The five-day leg from Japan to Hawaii had been regarded as the most challenging part of the round-the-world journey [AP]

The team behind the record-breaking Solar Impulse 2 have said the next leg of the plane's historic round-the-world flight attempt will be delayed until next year.
The mission team said on Wednesday that the solar-powered plane's batteries overheated during its record five-day flight from Japan to Hawaii two weeks ago.
"Despite the hard work of the team to repair the batteries which overheated in the record-breaking oceanic flight from Nagoya to Hawaii, Si2 will stay in Hawaii until early Spring 2016," the team said in a statement.

"Irreversible damage to certain parts of the batteries will require repairs which will last several months. In parallel, we will be studying various options for better cooling and heating processes for very long flights.
"We will try to complete the first ever round-the-world solar flight in 2016 and this delay will in no way influence the overall objectives of this pioneering endeavour."
The five-day leg from Japan to Hawaii had been regarded as the most challenging part of the journey.
The mission team said that the batteries overheated on the plane's initial ascent from Japan and that there was no way to decrease the temperature for the rest of the flight.

The plane landed in Hawaii on July 3, breaking the records for the longest solo flight in aviation history and the longest distance flown by an aircraft powered only by the sun.
Solar Impulse 2 left Abu Dhabi on the March 9 and has since flown eight legs of 13 in an attempt to be the first single manned solar-powered plane to fly around the world.
The plane - powered entirely by the 17,248 solar panels on its wings - is piloted alternatively by Swiss explorers Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard.
The plane will be worked on at a University of Hawaii facility during its extended layover.

Iran deal reached, Obama hails step towards 'more hopeful world'

Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal on Tuesday, capping more than a decade of negotiations with an agreement that could transform the Middle East.
U.S. President Barack Obama hailed a step towards a "more hopeful world" and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said it proved that "constructive engagement works". But Israel pledged to do what it could to halt what it called an "historic surrender".
The agreement will now be debated in the U.S. Congress, but Obama said he would veto any measure to block it.
"This deal offers an opportunity to move in a new direction," Obama said. "We should seize it."
Under the deal, sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations will be lifted in return for Iran agreeing long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb.
Iran will mothball for at least a decade the majority of its centrifuges used to enrich uranium and sharply reduce its low-enriched uranium stockpile.
The agreement is a political triumph for both Obama, who has long promised to reach out to historic enemies, and Rouhani, a pragmatist elected two years ago on a vow to reduce the isolation of his nation of 80 million people.
Both face scepticism from powerful hardliners at home in nations that referred to each other as "the Great Satan" and a member of the "Axis of Evil".
"Today is the end to acts of tyranny against our nation and the start of cooperation with the world," Rouhani said in a televised address. "This is a reciprocal deal. If they stick to it, we will. The Iranian nation has always observed its promises and treaties."
Delighted Iranians danced in the streets of Tehran, whole motorists sounded car horns and flashed victory signs in celebration after the announcement a deal they hope will end years of sanctions and isolation.
For Obama, the diplomacy with Iran, begun in secret more than two years ago, ranks alongside his normalization of ties with Cuba as landmarks in a legacy of reconciliation with foes that tormented his predecessors for decades.
"History shows that America must lead not just with our might but with our principles," he said in a televised address. "Today's announcement marks one more chapter in our pursuit of a safer, more helpful and more hopeful world."
REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION
Republicans lined up to denounce the deal. Presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, called it a terrible deal that would make matters worse. Senator Marco Rubio suggested he would re-introduce sanctions if elected to the White House next year.
The Republican-controlled Congress has 60 days to review the accord, but if it votes to reject it Obama can use his veto, which can be overridden only by two-thirds of lawmakers in both houses. That means dozens of Obama's fellow Democrats would have to rebel against one of their president's signature achievements to kill it, an unlikely prospect. Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called the deal "an important step that puts the lid on Iran's nuclear programs".
The Senate was not expected to vote on the deal before September.

While the main negotiations were between the United States and Iran, the four other U.N. Security Council permanent members, Britain, China, France and Russia, are also parties to the deal, as is Germany.
Enmity between Iran and the United States has loomed over the Middle East for decades.
Iran is the predominant Shi'ite Muslim power, hostile both to Israel and to Washington's Sunni Muslim-ruled Arab friends, particularly Saudi Arabia. Allies of Riyadh and Tehran have fought decades of sectarian proxy wars in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
But there are also strong reasons for Washington and Tehran to cooperate against common foes, above all Islamic State, the Sunni Muslim militant group that has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq. Washington has been bombing Islamic State from the air while Tehran aids Iraqi militias fighting it on the ground.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told reporters that the deal was about more than just the nuclear issue:
"The big prize here is that, as Iran comes out of the isolation of the last decades and is much more engaged with Western countries, Iranians hopefully begin to travel in larger numbers again, Western companies are able to invest and trade with Iran, there is an opportunity for an opening now."
"HISTORIC MISTAKE"
Still, Washington's friends in the region were furious, especially Israel, whose prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has cultivated a close relationship with Obama's Republican opponents in Congress.

"Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world," he said. "Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons."
His deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, denounced an "historic surrender" and said Israel would "act with all means to try and stop the agreement being ratified", a clear threat to use its influence to try and block it in Congress.
In phone call with Netanyahu, Obama underscored the United States' commitment to Israel's security, the White House said.
Some diplomats in Vienna said the strong Israeli response could actually help, by making it easier for Rouhani to sell the agreement back in Iran.
The National Council of Resistance, the exile Iranian opposition group that first exposed Iran's secret nuclear program, said the deal "would neither block the mullahs' pathways to deception nor their access to a nuclear bomb".
While Saudi Arabia did not denounce the deal publicly as Israel did, its officials expressed doubt in private.
"We have learned as Iran's neighbors in the last 40 years that goodwill only led us to harvest sour grapes," a Saudi official who asked to remain anonymous told Reuters.
Nor were hardliners silent in Iran: “Celebrating too early can send a bad signal to the enemy,” conservative lawmaker Alireza Zakani said in parliament, according to Fars News agency. Iran's National Security Council would review the accord, "and if they think it is against our national interests, we will not have a deal".
It will probably be months before Iran receives the benefits from the lifting of sanctions because of the need to verify the deal's fulfillment. Once implementation is confirmed, Tehran will immediately gain access to around $100 billion in frozen assets, and can step up oil exports that have been slashed by almost two-thirds.

The deal finally emerged after nearly three weeks of intense negotiation between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif - unthinkable for decades, since Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Hatred of the United States is still a central tenet of Iran's ruling system, on display only last week at an annual protest day, with crowds chanted "Death to Israel!" and "Death to America!".
But Iranians voted overwhelmingly for Rouhani in 2013 on a clear promise to revive their crippled economy by ending Iran's isolation. Hardline Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not block the negotiations.
"NEW CHAPTER OF HOPE"
"Today could have been the end of hope on this issue, but now we are starting a new chapter of hope," Zarif, who studied in the United States and developed a warm rapport with Kerry, told a news conference.
Kerry said: "This is the good deal we have sought."
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said:
"I think this is a sign of hope for the entire world."
Tehran has long denied seeking a nuclear weapon and has insisted on the right to nuclear technology for peaceful means. Obama never ruled out military force if negotiations failed, and said on Tuesday that future presidents would still have that option if Iran quit the agreement.
France said the deal would ensure Iran's "breakout time" - the time it would need to build a bomb if it decided to break off the deal - would be one year for the next decade. This has been a main goal of Western negotiators, who wanted to ensure that if a deal collapsed there would be enough time to act.
Obama said Iran had accepted a "snapback" mechanism, under which sanctions would be reinstated if it violated the deal. A U.N. weapons embargo is to remain in place for five years and a ban on buying missile technology will remain for eight years.
Alongside the main deal, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced an agreement with Iran to resolve its own outstanding issues by the end of this year. The main deal depends on the IAEA being able to inspect Iranian nuclear sites and on Iran answering its questions about possible military aims of previous research.
For Iran, the end of sanctions could bring a rapid economic boom by lifting restrictions that have shrunk its economy by about 20 percent, according to U.S. estimates. The prospect of a deal has already helped push down global oil prices because of the possibility that Iranian supply could return to the market.
Oil prices tumbled more than a dollar on Tuesday after the deal was reached.