Today, June 20, Muhamad Ahmad Erbili passed away at 89. Erbili was in the hospital for the past weeks. 

KurdSat Broadcasting Corporation expressed condolences to Erbili's family. Many people on Social Media expressed their grievances about Erbili's passing.

Muhamad Ahmad Erbili, or Muhamad Ahmad Sheikh Fathi, was a singer and Maqam singer who passed away on Monday, June 20, 2022, at Erbil's Zhin Hospital due to a deteriorating health condition.

Erbili began singing in 1944 when he was a primary school student. He published numerous albums and songs. Erbili sung in Kurdish, Turkish and Arabic, becoming famous for his song "Yalla Shofer," later repeated by Ibrahim Tatlises, the most popular Turkish singer and one of the most popular in the world.

 

"The operational efforts with the Turkish security forces have paid off," Bennett added in a press briefing." In recent days, and in a joint Israeli-Turkish effort, we have thwarted a number of terrorist attempts and many terrorists were arrested on Turkish soil," Jerusalem Post reported.

He also said that Israel and Turkey are working very closely together to stop Iran's attempt to harm the Israelis, and thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his efforts.

The PM made it clear that work is underway with the aim of returning tourism relations between Turkey and Israeli to normal. "We have to end anti-terror operations," he said.

Bennett warned that Israel "will continue to reveal the true face of Iran," saying that there will be a reaction to anyone who tries to harm the Israelis.

He added that "the days when Iran financed terrorism and provided the terrorists with equipment and training and were left safe are over," reiterating his words that "the one who sends the terrorists pays the price. We will go anywhere we need it."

About 2,000 Israelis are still in Turkey today, down from 5,000 earlier in the week, prior to the discovery of those cells.

These developments came after Iran had repeatedly warned during the past few days that it would inevitably respond to the "assassinations carried out by Israel on Iranian soil" recently, especially after the killing of a Colonel in the Revolutionary Guards, Hassan Sayyad Khodayari.

Noting that the Israeli authorities, as usual, did not confirm or deny responsibility for the assassination of Khodayari or other guardsmen who fell during the past few days in strange and suspicious ways.

Direct confrontations between Iran and Israel in the Middle East have become a norm. In early June, Iran claimed to have killed Ilak Ron, believed to be at the top of Israel's assassination unit, known as Kidon.

Family Mall in Sulaimani installed solar system which can provide electricity for 6 hours daily for the shopping destination through solar power.

The system is installed on Family Mall’s building on an area of 1,200 meters and can provide 2.2 MW of electricity, more than the amount of electricity Family Mall needs.

To celebrate the installation of its new system, Family Mall hosted an opening ceremony attended by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Qubad Talabani.

During the ceremony, KRG Deputy PM said, “We must encourage companies to use natural energy, we make the environment a priority.”

“Our patriotism today must be to protect the environment, to protect our land, to protect our water and air. This must become a political issue for all of us,” he said.

Ali Hama Salih, a member of the Kurdistan Region Parliament said on Facebook, that the depth of tube wells in Erbil has increased from 120 meters to 700 meters in 26 years, a seven fold. In the next two years, the depth will lower to 1000 meters and that will leave half of Erbil without water.

He revealed that the main reason was drilling a large number of wells during this period. Apartments and residential projects largely rely on groundwater. A large number of gardens and villas in Erbil suburbs have drilled wells independently.

Solving the problem, the lawmaker wrote, requires the government to accelerate laying of water pipes to all neighborhoods and residential projects that rely on groundwater, and to install water networks within the neighborhoods.

The Kurdistan region is facing low precipitation rates, and many regions have declared draught. Erbil lies in a relatively dry plateau and continuous drilling of wells in the city has drained Erbil’s underground water.  

Dr. Azad Mazuri, deputy director of Duhok Children's Hospital, told Kurdsat News that diarrhea and vomiting are spreading yearly due to the change of seasons, especially in the summer season, but no cases of cholera are reported.

Sulaimani directory of health announced that no cases of Cholera are recorded, people who think that there are Cholera cases, they are not, they are patients with stomach flu. 

 

The UNICEF said on Wednesday, it was “shocked” at the killing of a 12-year-old boy in an attack in Sinjar area in Ninewa Governorate, expressing concerns that at least 519 children have been killed or maimed by explosive ordnance.

UNICEF issued a statement, condemning the killing of a 12-year-old child in Sinjar and calls on all parties to protect children from violence.

“UNICEF condemns all acts of violence against children and joins the family in mourning the killing of their child. Being a victim of, witnessing, or fearing violence should never be part of any child’s experience,” it said in a statement.

UNICEF said, children’s rights should be protected in an environment that is free from violence at all times.

“The continued usage of explosive weapons in populated areas continues to put children's lives at stake not only today but puts future generations at risk and needs to stop. In the last 5 years, at least 519 children have been killed or maimed by explosive ordnance.”

Two police officers who were injured during the arrest of a suspect in Sulaimani, will be sent abroad for treatment with the support of Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Qubad Talabani.

Aram Qadir, one of the injured policemen, told Kurdsat News that their medical documents have been sent to a private hospital in Greece and they will leave for Greece tomorrow at 6 am, where they will receive treatment.

He said they will be sent to Greece for treatment with the support of Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani.

In December last year, a police officer named Mohammed Latif was killed and two others named Aram Qadir and Akam Hidayat were injured during the arrest of a suspect in Tanjaro neighborhood of Sulaimani.

Greek coastal guard rescued 57 Kurdish migrants in Greek waters. Greece-based Kurdish journalist Ranj Pishdari told Kurdsat News that the Greek coastal guard rescued 65 migrants after being trapped from midnight on Sunday to 8 AM on Monday.

The United Nations is yet to register the names of the migrants, and Greek authorities confiscated all their belongings and mobile phones. They are suspected of being forcibly deported to Turkey.
Ranj Pishdari noted that 57 of the migrants are Kurds, and most of them are young.

Since the war on IS, many people have fled the Kurdistan region to Europe. Most estimates put the number at around seven hundred thousand migrants that have left the region, with hundreds of casualties.

General director of Kirkuk Health directory Danabil Hamdi told KurdSat News on Wednesday that “the first case of cholera was admitted into Komar hospital in Kirkuk, and he is under intensive care. Cholera is not a new [in Iraq], yet it is not spread in the city, Hamdi added.

The director asked people to avoid drinking contaminated water.

This afternoon, Erbil governor Omed Khoshnaw confirmed a drone crash in Erbil's Ankawa district. A picture of the crashed drone resurfaced on social media; many were afraid as drones have repeatedly targeted the city in the past.

Kurdistan region counter-terrorism group said, "Today at 1:17 AM [local time] a domestic surveillance drone hit an internet tower due to technical errors and crashed in Erbil's Ankawa district."

Last Friday, a drone hit two civilian vehicles on the Erbil-Pirmam Road. Iran claimed to have killed a commander believed to be at the top of Mossad's assassination unit, known as Kidon.

 

On Tuesday, women’s rights organizations gathered in front of Sulaimani court in protest of yesterday’s assault on some women by the court’s police officers. The women, sisters, and mother of a grocer murdered in 2020 were assaulted because they disagreed with the court’s ruling on the murders and sentenced to seven years in prison. The women are seen kicked and dragged by hair in a video that went viral on Kurdish social media.

Dlsoz Zangana, a women rights activist, told KurdSat News, “the incident was an assault on the dignity of all students not only a woman.”

Qubad Talabani, deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan region, immediately took on the matter and said that the perpetrators must face justice. Later, he called the attacked women and said the police misconduct will not go unpunished.

 Kurdistan region deputy prime minister Qubad Talabani said, "today, several police officers in the Sulaimani's judicial court who behaved unprofessionally and inhumanly with several citizens will face legal punishment.

"After learning of the incident and seeing the video recording, the security forces immediately arrested all the violators and will face legal punishment," Talabani said on his Facebook page.

"I apologize to the citizens treated this way, and assure them that the violators will be punished and ask them to file a complaint against the police misconduct," he said.

"The duty of the police and security forces is to raise awareness among their employees on professionalism and respect for the dignity of citizens," Talabani said.

"1,800 Peshmergas were killed, 103,690 wounded, and 47 went missing in the fighting to liberate the areas under the control of ISIS," the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) representative in the Iraqi National Coordination Committee, Dindar Zebari, said. 

In the KRG's war against IS, lasting from2014 to 2018, the region's politics, economy and society went through a dramatic change. 

The peshmerga forces shouldered most of the burden in the global war against IS, and still, many of the wounded suffer from their injury.

According to the Kurdistan Regional Government, 3,552 people are released. One thousand two hundred seven women, 339 men, 1,500 girls and 956 boys. The government works continuously to bring back the captives home.  

In an agreement between the Kurdistan Region and Germany, Berlin has received over 1,000 Yazidi women in its health centers.