Smoke billows from an explosion in Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s guest palace after it is bombed during a US-led coalition air raid on March 31, 2003. AFP
Smoke billows from an explosion in Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s guest palace after it is bombed during a US-led coalition air raid on March 31, 2003. AFP

2003 - The US war on Iraq

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Updated 19 April 2025
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2003 - The US war on Iraq

2003 - The US war on Iraq

JEDDAH: What shall we call the 2003 US war in Iraq? The Americans had no problem at all in describing it as a liberation. From the Arab perspective, however, it was something completely different.

If you flip through editions of Arab News published in the lead-up to the start of the bombing of Baghdad on the night of March 20, 2003, what strikes you is that many Arabs were opposed to the US war in Iraq because they, correctly, foresaw that the result would be to hand the country to Iran on a platter.

US President George W. Bush was always prejudiced against Saddam Hussein. Bush’s cabinet colleagues and advisers, especially Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle and other neocons in the administration, made no attempt to hide their own pathological dislike of the Iraqi leader.

There were several theories for why Bush despised Saddam so. Some reports suggested the hatred stemmed from Saddam plotting to kill his father, former President George H. W. Bush, during a visit to Kuwait in 1993. Whatever the reasons, Bush Jr.’s advisers took full advantage of the president’s strong dislike and fed it with a variety of stories.

The horrific attacks on US soil by Al-Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001, gave Bush and his advisers a reason to take out Saddam. He was portrayed as a supporter of Al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, and was therefore tarred with the same brush of Muslim terrorism.

Nobody in the Middle East was taken in by this story, however, because it was well known there that Saddam hated Al-Qaeda more than anything else. As a Baathist, he viewed Islamist terrorists as a great threat to his rule, much more so even than the danger posed by his archenemy, Iran.

How we wrote it




The “High Noon for Cowboy Era” headline, with Bush in a cowboy hat, remains one of the newspaper’s most iconic front pages.

But the post-9/11 atmosphere was such that it was easy to create any narrative as justification for the elimination of any perceived enemy. That is exactly what happened with Saddam. A flimsy case was put together that alleged he was in possession of weapons of mass destruction, based on flawed intelligence.

Colin Powell, Bush’s secretary of state, gave an elaborate speech to the UN, complete with maps and pictures of where the WMDs allegedly were hidden. The wider world was nonetheless unconvinced, and the UN, which had sent its own experts to Iraq on a fruitless search for such weapons, refused to approve Washington’s war.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal raised serious concerns on “Frontline,” an investigative documentary series on the US TV network PBS.

“What’s going to happen to them (Iraqi soldiers and officials), especially since the army was disbanded and the government fired? And who’s going to rule Iraq if you have that?” he asked.

“Saddam Hussein had perhaps 2 million people controlling Iraq. The US and its allies have close to 150,000. How do you make that work?”

Nonetheless, Washington developed and choreographed its plan to attack Iraq. Arab News published many reports at the time about how Saudi authorities advised the US, its closest Western ally, to call for sanctions instead.

Key Dates

  • 1

    US Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council and offers a rationale for war on Iraq: the country’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.

    Timeline Image Feb. 5, 2003

  • 2

    American aircraft launch a blistering attack on Baghdad. Dubbed “shock and awe,” it knocks out Iraqi anti-missile batteries, aircraft and power installations. The presidential palace is attacked.

    Timeline Image March 20, 2003

  • 3

    US President George W. Bush flies to aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in a Lockheed S-3 Viking aircraft and gives a speech in which he announces the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

    Timeline Image May 1, 2003

  • 4

    Saddam Hussein captured after 9 months in hiding.

    Timeline Image Dec. 13, 2003

  • 5

    Saddam executed after sham trial by the interim Iraqi government. Despite prolonged searches by the US, no WMDs are found in Iraq.

    Timeline Image Dec. 30, 2006

  • 6

    After nearly 9 years of a guerrilla war, the last US soldiers leave Iraq. The estimated cost of the conflict exceeds $800 billion, with 4,500 American and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives lost.

 

Even after Saddam had invaded Kuwait in the early 1990s, and his army was pulverized by the US and Saudi-led liberation forces, Riyadh had gone to great lengths to convince Washington it would be a bad move to remove Saddam from power. Saudi officials knew his demise would lead to chaos in the region and provide Iran with a golden opportunity to run amok.

Sure enough, as things panned out a little over a decade later, the removal of Saddam did indeed lead to horrific atrocities, both in Iraq and the wider region. Al-Qaeda, which had been given a severe drubbing in Afghanistan, bounced back and found an ideal and very fertile breeding ground in post-Saddam Iraq.

Much later, Daesh appeared on the scene. Sensing an opening, Iran stepped in and unleashed a sectarian war. Thousands died. Tehran and its many murderous militias used improvised explosive devices to devastating effect.

As a senior member of staff at Arab News, I was part of the team that would select stories and photos for the front page. Some from that time remain etched in our memories. The front page on March 19, 2003, for example, pictured Bush in a cowboy hat under the headline: “High noon for cowboy era.”

That same front page also reported on King Fahd’s address to the Saudi people on March 18 in which he said: “The Kingdom will under no circumstances take part in the war against Iraq, and its armed forces will not enter an inch of Iraqi territory.”

Baghdad was bombed for the first time the next night, after a 48-hour ultimatum issued by Bush to Saddam expired. There was extensive reporting by Arab News from Kuwait, Jordan, Washington and, of course, Baghdad. Our correspondents on the ground filed their reports to the newsroom in Jeddah. The March 21, 2003, edition carried the headline: “Baghdad set ablaze; palaces, Saddam’s family home targeted in aerial bombardment.”

On the nights that followed, the US unleashed at least 3,000 satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles upon Iraq. There was not an Iraqi weapon of mass destruction in sight. In the “Letters to the Editor” page of Arab News, readers referred to these elusive WMDs as “weapons of mass deception.”

There was intense and severe criticism in Saudi Arabia of the war, especially because the UN had refused to approve it. In an article in the March 21, 2003, edition, Adnan Jaber, a Jordanian journalist in Saudi Arabia, said the conflict “would increase terrorism rather than reduce it, since political instability would provide a breeding ground for radicalism.”




Iraqis watch the televised execution by hanging of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, the “Butcher of Baghdad” captured by US forces in Operation Red Dawn. AFP

His words were profoundly prescient. The very political instability he predicted led many members of Saddam’s army, which the Americans had foolishly disbanded, to join Daesh and Al-Qaeda so that they could strike a blow against the invaders who had ravaged their homeland for no purpose.

There were, as in all wars, moments of dark comic relief. We would gather around TV screens in the newsroom, for example, to listen to Saddam’s information minister, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, making ridiculous claims as he addressed the media every day.

According to him, Saddam’s army was on the verge of victory; the reality was exactly the opposite. The much-touted American campaign of “shock and awe” had resulted in the melting away of the Iraqi military, who offered no resistance. It was later revealed that Iraqi soldiers simply gave up their uniforms and chose guerrilla warfare by joining Daesh or Al-Qaeda.

The region continues to suffer the consequences of that war: an increase in terrorism; political instability, and the creation of breeding ground for radicalism. In virtually all ways, the consequences were much worse than the war itself.

Arab News was well placed to report on the war and its after-effects, and is proud to continue the same tradition of dedicated and responsible journalism to this day.

  • Siraj Wahab is managing editor of Arab News. During the invasion of Iraq, he was a senior member of staff, having joined the newspaper in January 1998.


Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank during raid on Salem village

Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank during raid on Salem village
Updated 2 min 55 sec ago
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Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank during raid on Salem village

Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank during raid on Salem village
  • Wissam Ghassan Hasan Ishtiya, 37, was shot by Israeli forces
  • Qusay Nasser Mahmoud Nassar, 23, also from Salem, was killed by Israeli fire

LONDON: Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and injured others during a raid in Salem on Sunday.

Wissam Ghassan Hasan Ishtiya, 37, was shot by Israeli forces in Salem, a village east of Nablus, after they stormed the area and surrounded two houses, firing live ammunition. Ishtiya was injured and detained while wounded before being pronounced dead, the Wafa agency confirmed.

Qusay Nasser Mahmoud Nassar, 23, also from Salem, was killed by Israeli fire. A 62-year-old Palestinian male was wounded by live ammunition and transported to the hospital by Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics on Sunday, Wafa added.

Adli Ishtiya, the head of the Salem council, told Wafa that Israeli forces stormed the town and surrounded two houses on its eastern side amid gunfire and the arrival of military reinforcements. Clashes broke out between residents and Israeli troops, during which the latter fired live ammunition at residents and their homes.

The Red Crescent Society reported that its paramedics received the body of Qusay Nassar from inside one of the two surrounding homes in Salem and transferred it to Rafidia Governmental Hospital.

Since late 2023, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, and 7,000 have been injured. Israeli forces conduct daily raids on various Palestinian villages in the Palestinian territories, where they have maintained a military occupation since June 1967.


Why Syria’s cultural heritage continues to face a looming threat

Why Syria’s cultural heritage continues to face a looming threat
Updated 13 min 30 sec ago
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Why Syria’s cultural heritage continues to face a looming threat

Why Syria’s cultural heritage continues to face a looming threat
  • Archaeological sites across war-devasted country increasingly vulnerable to looting and vandalism
  • Economic desperation and lawlessness take hold from the ruins of Palmyra to remote coastal regions

LONDON: Across Syria, looters are disturbing ancient graves and buried treasures, tearing through layers of history to steal artifacts hidden for thousands of years. Day and night, the earth trembles not from bombs or shellfire but from the strikes of pickaxes and jackhammers. 

Since the collapse of Bashar Assad regime’s control last December, Syria’s cultural heritage has come under increasing threat. Looting has surged across the country, from the famed ruins of Palmyra to remote coastal regions, as economic desperation and lawlessness take hold.

In January, images circulating on social media showed looting and vandalism at the museum on Arwad Island, off the coast of Tartus. At least 38 artifacts were reportedly stolen — pieces that told the story of a civilization now at risk of being erased.

Local news media in Syria and Lebanon, citing unnamed sources, reported that unknown individuals raided the museum following the regime’s loss of security control on December 8.

Visitors tour the antiquities museum in the Syrian capital Damascus on October 28, 2018. Syria reopened a wing of the capital's famed antiquities museum on that date after six years of closure to protect its exhibits from the civil war. (Louai Beshara / AFP)

According to Amr Al-Azm, an archaeologist and co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) project, three key factors are fueling the surge in looting: demand, economic collapse and breakdown of law and order in many areas.

“First, there’s the persistent and growing demand,” Al-Azm told Arab News. “This is fundamentally a supply-and-demand issue: conflict zones like Syria make up the supply side, while the demand largely comes from North America and Western Europe.”

Artifacts flow into black markets because buyers exist — whether motivated by profit or a misguided belief that they are preserving history, Al-Azm said.

“Regardless of intent,” he said, “both groups fuel demand, which perpetuates the problem.”

FAST FACTS

• Electronic treasure-hunting devices are openly sold in major Syrian cities, with looted artifacts advertised on social media.

• All six of Syria’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites were declared endangered in 2013 due to widespread looting and destruction.

(Sources: International Council of Museums, UNESCO)

The second driver is what Al-Azm calls “treasure-hunting fever,” a phenomenon that extends far beyond Syria but has intensified amid the country’s post-regime economic collapse.

“When people lose their livelihoods, they seek alternative ways to survive,” he said. “If they know — or even believe — that something valuable is buried nearby, they’ll dig for it in hopes of supplementing their income.”

This desperation may also be accompanied by a misguided sense of entitlement. Many Syrians, Al-Azm explained, believe these artifacts rightfully belong to them, especially given how corrupt officials from the ousted regime hoarded or sold cultural property for personal gain.

Amr Al-Azm, an archaeologist and co-director of the ATHAR project. (Supplied)

“When a government is widely seen as corrupt, and its officials and employees are perceived to be stealing constantly, that belief becomes ingrained,” he said. “People begin to think: Why should I let the government take this? They’re just going to steal or sell it anyway.”

He added that for many Syrians, that legacy of corruption reinforces a personal claim: “This artifact is coming from my land, my backyard, my village — why shouldn’t I have a claim to it?”

The third factor is institutional collapse. As government structures and enforcement mechanisms fell apart, they left a vacuum.

“In many areas, the absence of enforcement has created a vacuum,” Al-Azm said. “Following the regime’s collapse, people often reverted to the opposite mindset: if something was banned before, it’s now assumed to be permitted.

“That shift in perception has contributed to the surge in looting activity.”

Central zone of the mosaic from Apamea. (Re)foundation of Pella/Apamea-on-the-Orontes by Seleucus I Nikator and the donation of Apama for the development and fortification of the town. The representation of the town of Apamea shows its main buildings. Anonymous photographer, image modified and sharpened by D. Zielińska. (Source: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/wanted-a-remarkable-piece-of-history/)

While the current crisis has intensified looting, looting in Syria predates the civil war that began in 2011, revealing a deeper, long-standing crisis threatening the nation’s cultural heritage.

“Looting is an age-old global phenomenon,” Al-Azm said. “Since humans began burying their dead with valuables, others have sought to dig them up and recover those treasures.”

Since 2011, the civil war has shattered Syrian society — dividing communities along social, economic, sectarian and geographic lines. Cultural heritage, Al-Azm said, was an early casualty.

“This war has deeply damaged Syrian society,” he said. “And cultural heritage has been a casualty from the very beginning.”

Today, efforts to recover stolen artifacts face daunting challenges. Investigators must navigate deeply entrenched smuggling networks that, for more than a decade, have trafficked Syria’s cultural legacy into black markets around the world.

With over 10,000 archaeological sites vulnerable to illegal digs, the fight to protect Syria’s heritage is now a fight to preserve its identity.

In 2020, the UN agency for education, science and culture, UNESCO, warned of “industrial-scale” looting in Syria, citing satellite images showing thousands of illegal excavations. Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s director-general, also highlighted links between antiquities trafficking and funding for extremist groups, urging swift global action to halt the trade.

Among the most widespread forms of theft is “subsistence looting,” in which locals dig for artifacts to survive.

“In Syria, many people live on, next to, or very close to archaeological sites, so they’re well aware that valuable artifacts may be buried nearby,” Al-Azm said. “Often, these sites have been previously excavated or are active dig locations with foreign — usually Western — archaeological missions, sometimes in partnership with Syrian teams.

“Locals are often hired as laborers on these missions, which gives them both familiarity with the landscape and exposure to the types of objects that may be found underground.”

In May, a video surfaced online showing content creators using metal detectors to search for artifacts in an old home in Deraa, southern Syria. The homeowner had reportedly contacted them after making a discovery beneath the house.

The video, shared on YouTube by the channel NewDose, included a promotion for a metal detector company and ended with the unearthing of ancient copper and gold coins. It also claimed the homeowner had previously uncovered a church beneath the property.

Al-Azm believes that social media has worsened the looting crisis. “With platforms like Facebook, people can easily post finds, ask questions, and buy or sell looted antiquities — all in the open. It’s made the situation increasingly unmanageable,” he said.

He noted that traffickers and looters often operate within Facebook groups. “Right now, we monitor more than 550 groups just in the MENA region — and many of them are huge. Some have 100,000 members, others 500,000, and one group has even surpassed a million members,” he said.

Syria, often referred to as the cradle of civilization, was home to some of the world’s earliest cities and innovations. From Ebla and Mari to Ugarit, these ancient societies helped shape governance, language, trade and urban life. Their legacy is now at risk of being lost forever.

Alongside small-scale looting, Syria also faces more organized theft. These crimes are carried out by longstanding trafficking networks and criminal groups that view cultural property as a highly lucrative commodity.

Al-Azm pointed out that many of these long-standing trafficking networks “have operated in the region for decades, if not centuries.”

“These groups engage in a range of criminal activities, including the looting and trafficking of antiquities, because it’s highly profitable,” he said. “The sale of cultural property generates significant revenue, making it an attractive enterprise for such networks.”

As looters continue to chip away at Syria’s cultural identity, the global community faces a crucial test: whether to act decisively or stand by as one of the world’s oldest cultural legacies disappears — artifact by artifact, site by site.

To confront this growing crisis, Al-Azm says Syria will need comprehensive international support — both from its archaeologists and heritage experts, many now scattered across the diaspora, and from global institutions ready to take necessary action.

Central to that support, Al-Azm noted, is the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus, the national institution tasked with protecting Syria’s cultural heritage. “That includes supporting the institution responsible for overseeing this work,” he said.

During the conflict, much of the burden of preservation fell to NGOs, local communities, and individual stakeholders. Al-Azm emphasized that these grassroots actors played a crucial role in protecting Syria’s heritage when official capacity was limited.

“These groups played a vital role, and we should continue to encourage, support, and facilitate their efforts moving forward,” he said.

Legal experts echo the need for a multilayered response. Amir Farhadi, a US-based international disputes and human rights lawyer, points to international law as a critical line of defense against antiquities trafficking.

“The main pillar of the international legal framework is the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which was adopted through UNESCO in 1970,” Farhadi told Arab News.

Syria is among the many countries that have ratified the convention, which aims both to deter the theft of cultural property and to facilitate its return when stolen.

Farhadi noted that while the Convention and similar treaties are not retroactive, they remain effective tools for addressing recent crimes.

“The more recent the theft of cultural property, the more robust the legal framework for its restitution,” he said. “This is good news for Syria, since most antiquities trafficking that took place during the war years would fall within the scope of the 1970 convention.”

He contrasted Syria’s position with that of countries seeking the return of colonial-era artifacts. “For example,” he said, “there is no binding legal mechanism applicable to the dispute between Greece and the UK over the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles.

“Instead, the two countries could pursue optional mediation through a specialized UNESCO committee, although the UK has in the past refused.”

In Syria’s case, Farhadi said, additional legal protections specific to Syria were introduced during the height of the looting campaign carried out by the terrorist group Daesh.

In 2015, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2199, calling on all member states to prevent the cross-border trade of Syrian cultural property removed since March 15, 2011. The resolution explicitly urges the return of looted items to the Syrian people.

The urgency behind that resolution was clear. Daesh began in 2014 systematically looting and destroying key cultural sites across Syria, including in Raqqa, Manbij and Palmyra.

Between 2014 and 2017, the group’s occupation of territory marked the most intense period of destruction, targeting museums, tombs and archaeological landmarks.

IN NUMBERS

900+ Syrian monuments and archaeological sites looted, damaged, or destroyed from 2011 to 2015.

95 Facebook groups trading Syrian antiquities in 2019.

(Sources: Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology, ATHAR Project)

Still, Farhadi cautioned that strong legal frameworks alone are not enough. “While the UNESCO Convention and Security Council Resolution clearly prohibit the international trafficking of Syrian cultural property and require its restitution, enforcement depends on concrete action by individual states,” he said.

“Locating and authenticating stolen heritage is not straightforward,” Farhadi said. “It requires cooperation among stakeholders — law enforcement in both the source and destination countries, museums and auction houses willing to conduct due diligence, and authorities in the country of origin.”

In Syria’s case, the challenge is immense, he added. “There are reports of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of looted objects that entered the black market over the past decade.”

“But how do you differentiate a Bronze Age figurine looted by Daesh from one that entered the market legally decades ago? That’s where provenance becomes critical — and where trafficking networks try to exploit gaps.”

Verifying authenticity often depends on access to site inventories and museum records — information that only Syrian authorities and cultural institutions can provide.

“Mechanisms like the Red Lists published by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) are helpful,” Farhadi said. “But the danger is for less high-profile objects, or those for which records were lost during the war.”

In his view, success hinges on diplomacy. “Cooperation must happen at the highest levels — bilaterally between Syria and countries where trafficked objects end up, and multilaterally through organizations like UNESCO,” he said.

“This would require the new government to prioritize this issue, which of course is much easier said than done in this time of transition,” he added.

Farhadi believes the responsibility also lies with international organizations. “UNESCO has the responsibility — if not the obligation — to support Syria in setting up concrete mechanisms to facilitate the restitution of property,” he said.

“Back in 2015,” he added, “the Security Council expressly called on UNESCO to do this.”

While past collaboration was often hindered by international reluctance to engage with the Assad regime, Farhadi said that obstacle is no longer relevant.

“With the political landscape shifting, the goodwill to support Syria in this transition could finally jump-start new multilateral efforts to recover and restore its looted heritage,” he said.

 Al-Azm, the archaeologist, emphasized the broader significance of heritage in rebuilding Syrian society. “Cultural heritage has a critical role in enhancing the Syrian identity,” he said.

He envisions a new, inclusive Syrian identity that moves beyond the ideologies of the past. “It’s going to be a new Syrian identity, unlike the previous one that was heavily infused with ideologies like Baathism, Pan-Arabism and Nazism, and even at one point Islamism, if we were to go there.”

“We need a national identity rooted in shared history and common aspirations, free from ethnic, sectarian or tribal divisions,” Al-Azm said. “Preserving what remains of Syria’s decimated ancient sites — like Dura-Europos, Apamea and the Dead Cities — is essential.”

“These remnants of the past,” he added, “can help forge a unified future for Syrians. Protecting our heritage is ultimately about protecting our future.”
 

 


Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students

Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students
Updated 23 min 49 sec ago
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Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students

Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students
  • Ultra-Orthodox leaders in the government are concerned that integrating Jewish seminary students into military units could jeopardize their religious identity

Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday, just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.


Sabalenka downs former doubles partner to power into Wimbledon quarters

Sabalenka downs former doubles partner to power into Wimbledon quarters
Updated 42 min 29 sec ago
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Sabalenka downs former doubles partner to power into Wimbledon quarters

Sabalenka downs former doubles partner to power into Wimbledon quarters
  • Sabalenka has never reached a final at the All England Club
  • Now she is the only one of the top six seeds in the women’s draw still standing

LONDON: World number one Aryna Sabalenka marched into the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Sunday as her former doubles partner Elize Mertens fell short of upsetting the US Open champion.
Sabalenka has never reached a final at the All England Club but is the player to beat as the only one of the top six seeds in the women’s draw still standing.
The 27-year-old missed last year’s Wimbledon due to injury and was banned in 2022 as part of a blanket suspension on Russian and Belarusian athletes due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Sabalenka looks determined to make up for lost time and, just like in her third-round victory over Emma Raducanu, had to overcome a tough test from Mertens to progress 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
The pair won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open together as a doubles partnership, but Sabalenka has now won their last 10 meetings against each other in singles.
“It’s tough to play against someone you know quite close, it’s tricky facing her,” said Sabalenka.
“I know how smart she is, I know she is going to fight until the very end.
“She really challenged me today and I’m super happy with the win.”
A fast start from Sabalenka saw her stretch out to a 4-1 first set lead, only for Mertens to battle back and level at 4-4.
The three-time Grand Slam winner responded in style, winning eight of the next 11 points, to take the set.
Mertens got the early break in the second, but the world number 23 could not hold on.
Sabalenka broke back to tie up the second set at 3-3 and after six straight holds of serve, the match was decided in a tie-break.
Mertens again had the early advantage, but Sabalenka’s blistering ground strokes forced the Belgian onto the back foot before a volleyed winner sealed victory in just over 90 minutes on court.
Sabalenka faces Germany’s Laura Siegemund in the last eight on Tuesday.
“It’s such a beautiful tournament. I always dreamed of winning it,” she added of potentially claiming a first Wimbledon title.
“I’m just trying to give my best and really hope for the best.”
 


Pro-Kurdish MPs to meet Erdogan after Ocalan talks

Pro-Kurdish MPs to meet Erdogan after Ocalan talks
Updated 38 min 48 sec ago
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Pro-Kurdish MPs to meet Erdogan after Ocalan talks

Pro-Kurdish MPs to meet Erdogan after Ocalan talks
  • DEM, Turkiye’s third biggest party, has played a key role in facilitating an emerging peace deal between the government and PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan

ISTANBUL: Lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM party were to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday for talks described by jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan as having a “historic nature.”
DEM, Turkiye’s third biggest party, has played a key role in facilitating an emerging peace deal between the government and Ocalan, whose militant group the PKK in May ended its decades-long armed struggle and disband.
On Sunday, the delegation traveled to Imrali island where Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement since 1999. They said they had had “a very productive two-and-a-half hour meeting” with the 76-year-old former militant.
“He said he attached great importance our delegation’s meeting with the president which was of a historic nature,” the delegation said in a statement.
“Similarly, he said the commission to be established in the Turkish (parliament) will also play a major role in directing the peace and the solution.”
With the process “entering a new phase” it was very important everyone played their role, he told them.
“His hope, confidence and belief in the contribution of this process to the democratization of Turkiye as a whole is extremely strong,” they said.
The three-strong delegation that went to Imrali included lawmakers Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar and lawyer Ozgur Faik Erol, DEM said.
The delegation would meet with DEM’s leadership on Monday morning then Buldan and Sancar would head to the presidential palace for talks with Erdogan at 1200 GMT, it said.
The meeting came as the PKK was to hold a ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan to start destroying a first tranche of weapons — which will likely take place on or around 10-12 July.
Erdogan said the move would give momentum to peace efforts with the Kurds.
The disarmament process is expected to unfold over the coming months.