U.S., allies conduct 12 air strikes against ISIS

Haaretz

4:45 P.M. U.S., allies conduct 12 air strikes against Islamic State - Task Force

The United States and its allies carried out 12 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the Combined Joint Task Force said.

Six strikes near the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border destroyed Islamic State buildings, fighting positions and vehicles, a task force statement said.

In Iraq, targets including buildings, vehicles and an Islamic State refinery were hit in six strikes near Al Asad, Mosul, Falluja, Al Qaim and Baiji, it said. (Reuters)

4:15 P.M. Egypt reduces sentence for eight men over gay marriage video

An Egyptian appeals court reduced the jail terms on Saturday for eight men sentenced last month on charges relating to their appearance in an online video purporting to show the country's first gay marriage ceremony.

The court cut the sentences - on charges of spreading indecent images and inciting debauchery - from three years each to one year, judicial sources said. The verdict drew tears and shouts from family members in the courtroom, according to a Reuters witness.

The defendants have denied the charges. At the sentencing hearing in November, one held up a copy of the Koran. Gay marriage is not legal in Egypt, a conservative Muslim society where the footage, which went viral on social media sites in August, caused a stir online. It appeared to show a group of men celebrating a gay wedding on a Nile riverboat. (Reuters)

3:54 P.M. Syria willing to discuss Russia peace plan talks, opposition rejects

Syria said on Saturday it is willing to participate in "preliminary consultations" in Moscow aimed at restarting peace talks next year to end its civil war.

But members of the Western-backed Syrian opposition dismissed the Russian plan on Saturday, saying there was "no initiative."

Syrian state television quoted a source at the foreign ministry saying "Syria is ready to participate in preliminary consultations in Moscow in order to meet the aspirations of Syrians to find a way out of crisis." (Reuters)

3:04 P.M. Two killed in clashes between rival Kurdish factions

Turkish authorities say a group of Kurdish youths have clashed with supporters of a Kurdish Islamist party in southeast Turkey. Two people were killed.

The governor's office for Sirnak province says three people were also injured in the fighting which erupted in the town of Cizre, near Turkish-Syrian border, early Saturday.

Relations between the two groups have been tense since October, when Kurds — angered at what they said was Turkish impediment to efforts to defend the Syrian town of Kobani — clashed with police and the Islamist group members across Turkey. More than 30 people were killed in the rioting. The Dogan news agency says the father of a leader of the Islamist party and a 19-year old Kurdish youth died in Saturday's clash. (AP)

1:46 P.M. Iran's army tests suicide drone in drills

Iran's army has deployed a suicide drone for the first time in massive ongoing military drills near the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the army's chief commander of ground forces, is quoted by Iranian state media Saturday as calling the unmanned aircraft "a mobile bomb." The drone, named Yasir according to one Iranian newspaper, has been designed to plunge into aerial and ground targets, as well as ships.

The six-day military exercise is being carried out over 527,000 square kilometers (850,000 square miles) in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, Sea of Oman and the eastern part of the Persian Gulf, through which one-fifth of the world's oil supply passes. (AP)

10:55 A.M. Egyptian writer to face trial for defaming Islam

Egyptian prosecutors have referred a writer to a criminal trial on charges of showing contempt for Islam in a tweet allegedly criticizing ritual slaughtering, state-run newspaper al-Ahram reported online Saturday.

The referral comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a lawyer against Fatima Naoot, accusing her of defaming Islam in a tweet in October commenting on Muslims' annual slaughtering of animals to mark Eid al-Adha, according to al-Ahram.

"A happy massacre," read the tweet.

No specific date has been set for the trial. (DPA)

9:34 A.M. Gunmen kill policeman, injure another in Cairo

Egypt's state news agency says two unknown gunmen on a motorcycle have shot and killed a policeman and injured another.

The two police corporals were guarding a bank in Sphinx Square in Giza, across the Nile from downtown Cairo, when they were shot early Saturday morning, according to the Middle East News Agency. The two assailants managed to escape.

No one has claimed responsibility, but the Sinai-based Ansar Beit al-Maqdis militant group has claimed responsibility for a string of similar attacks against police and army forces. (AP)