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Syrian troops battling IS advance toward US-backed force
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian troops battling the Islamic State group crossed to the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in Deir el-Zour on Monday, threatening a potential standoff with the U.S.-backed forces operating there.
The crossing came nearly two weeks after the Russia-backed Syrian troops breached a three-year siege on their troops in the city. It tightens the government's grip on the eastern city by closing in on the militants from all sides, except for a narrow waterway flowing south.
The pro-government forces meanwhile announced that they had secured the airport in Deir el-Zour, allowing two military transport aircraft to land. Al-Manar TV, the media arm of Lebanon's Hezbollah, quoted an unnamed general who said the airport is "90 percent secured."
Hezbollah is fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's forces.
Iraq's top court suspends Kurdish region's independence vote
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's top court on Monday temporarily suspended the northern Kurdish region's referendum on independence that's due next week, a decision that put further pressure on the Iraqi Kurds to call off the controversial vote.
The Supreme Court in Baghdad released a statement saying it "ssued a national order to suspend the referendum procedures … until the resolution of the cases regarding the constitutionality of said decision."
The move is just the latest in a number of rulings from Iraq's central government attempting to stop the vote. On Sept 12 Iraq's parliament voted to reject the controversial referendum and on Sept 14 the lawmakers voted to dismiss the ethnically mixed Kirkuk province's Kurdish governor who supports the referendum.