Nabih Bulos | The Seattle Times

September 20, 2021 at 3:24 am

In Afghanistan’s war-torn countryside, America’s exit means one thing: Peace

KULANGAR, Afghanistan — At a tiny, two-pump gas station off the two-lane highway running through Afghanistan's Logar province, Mohammad Farooq, the attendant, was unequivocal in...

Nation & World

Taliban fighters take control and secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport, along with all the equipment and weapons left behind, after the full U.S. military withdrawal from the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, August 31, 2021. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/TNS) 25747739W 25747739W

September 3, 2021 at 3:45 pm

Tanks, attack helicopters, drones, bullets: What U.S.-supplied arms mean for the Taliban

The Taliban's blindingly fast sweep through most of Afghanistan netted it billions of dollars' worth of U.S. military equipment and weaponry given to the Afghan...

Nation & World

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — AUGUST 30, 2021: Relatives and neighbors of the Ahmadi family gathered around the incinerated husk of a vehicle targeted and hit earlier Sunday afternoon by an American drone strike, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES)

August 30, 2021 at 6:26 am

Family says 7 children were killed in Kabul drone strike; U.S. is investigating

A total of 10 people were killed in an explosion Sunday in a Kabul neighborhood. The family believes it was a missile launched from an...

Nation & World

August 27, 2021 at 10:40 am

‘We’re losing the best’: Afghanistan faces a massive brain drain as its people flee

The wealth of skills and expertise that has already fled with Afghans who have gotten out is staggering, said Zulaikha Aziz, co-director of the Afghanistan...

Nation & World

August 15, 2021 at 3:05 pm

The Taliban won. Here’s what that could mean

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Now that the Taliban has regained power after nearly two decades in the Afghan hinterlands, the average Afghan will face...

Nation & World

April 18, 2021 at 5:03 am

The Dead Sea is dying. Drinking water is scarce. Jordan faces a climate crisis

GHOR HADITHA, Jordan — The first time people here saw a sinkhole, they thought a small asteroid had slammed into the Dead Sea's salt-encrusted shore....

Nation & World

January 11, 2021 at 8:07 am

US to designate Houthis as a terrorist group, exacerbating Yemen’s woes

BEIRUT – Washington plans to designate Yemen's Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization Monday, the State Department said, despite pleas by diplomats and aid...

Nation & World

September 8, 2020 at 10:59 am

Glass is everywhere in Beirut, except where it’s supposed to be

BEIRUT — Broken glass seems everywhere in this city. It’s there in shiny, debris-filled mounds at the entrances to buildings. In single slivers lurking like...

News

January 12, 2020 at 11:48 am

Iran’s leaders face a second day of protests amid rage over downing of Ukrainian plane

BAGHDAD — Anti-government protests continued for a second day across Iran amid fury over the military’s admission it had downed a Ukrainian International Airlines jetliner...

Nation & World

Iraqi mourners gather at the Shaheed (martyr) Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr Bridge, named after Mohammed Baqr Al-Sadr, assassinated during the regime of ousted president Saddam Hussein in the 1980’s, as they welcome the body of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the slain chief of Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi paramilitary force with close ties to Iran, in the southern city of Basra after it came from Iran on January 7, 2020 ahead on his burial. – Muhandis, killed early on January 3 in a US strike on Baghdad, was seen as Tehran’s man in Iraq and a sworn enemy of the United States. The US strike on Baghdad’s international airport early Friday also killed his personal friend Qasem Soleimani, a top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. (Hussein Faleh/AFP via Getty Images/TNS) 1535608 1535608

January 8, 2020 at 10:30 am

For Iraqis, an unwanted conflict threatens their country once more

Behind the grim jokes is the very serious fear of an all-out war breaking out between Washington and Tehran, with Iraq as its chessboard, and...

Nation & World