🇮🇶 ✈ — Iraqi F-16 aircraft are launching airstrikes against ISIS cells in the Makhoual Mountains, located between the Zawiyah and Al-Musayq districts in northern Iraq.

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🇺🇸 ❌ 🇮🇷 🇴🇲 ⚠️ — Wall Street Journal cites informed sources: Iran refused to end nuclear fuel enrichment or transfer it abroad during talks with U.S. officials in Oman, rejecting a key American demand.

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🇱🇧 🇱🇧 ⚡️ — Reuters: The Lebanese Hezbollah accepts the resignation of its senior official Wafic Safa

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🇺🇸 🇮🇷 🇴🇲 ⚡️ — The Wall Street Journal, citing sources: Both the American and Iranian sides showed little change from their initial positions in the Muscat talks.

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🇱🇾 ⚡️ — U.S. Justice Department:

A key suspect in the 2012 Benghazi attack has been arrested.

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🇪🇺 🇺🇸 🇷🇺 ⚡️ — NEW: European Commission (EC) to ban Russian oil transportation services in coordination with members of the Group of Seven (G7), EC President Ursula von der Leyen said.

🔴 The EC will introduce a full maritime services ban for Russian crude oil to slash energy revenues and make finding buyers harder.

🔴 Brussels listed 43 more vessels as part of the shadow fleet, reaching 640 total, and will restrict Russia’s ability to acquire tankers and block maintenance and other services for LNG tankers and icebreakers.

🔴 The 20th sanctions package also proposes banning financial transactions for twenty more Russian regional banks, curbs on Russian payment systems and cryptocurrencies, and other foreign trade restrictions to be considered by the EU Council.

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🇪🇺 🇷🇺 ⚡️ — NEW: European Commission presented the 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions, key element the complete ban of Russian oil transportation servicing, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

🔴 "I now call on the Member States to swiftly endorse these new sanctions," von der Leyen said.

🔴 The Commission said earlier it plans to put the new sanctions package into effect by February 24.

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🇱🇧 ⚡️ — The Lebanese President:

"We are progressively taking inventory of the weapons."

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🇺🇸 🇮🇷 🇪🇺 ⚡️ — Negotiations between Iran and the United States have begun today. Both Europe and the U.S. State Department have issued new sanctions on Iran.

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🇱🇾 🇺🇸 ⚡️ — NEW: Zubayr Al-Bakoush, a suspect in the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans, has been arrested and landed at Joint Base Andrews.

🔴 He was taken into custody and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at 3 a.m. Friday.

🔴 Attorney General Pam Bondi: “We have never stopped seeking justice for that crime against our nation.” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said an eight-count indictment charges Al-Bakoush with crimes including the murders of Ambassador Chris Stevens and State Department employee Sean Smith.

🔴 The Sept. 11–12, 2012 attack involved at least 20 militants with AK-47s and grenade launchers who breached the consulate; a separate attack on the annex, including a mortar barrage, killed security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty; Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured in 2014, convicted and is serving a sentence.

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🇮🇷 ⚡️ — 40 fast attack boats of the IRGC Navy were observed today in the Strait of Hormuz.

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🇮🇱 🇵🇸 ⚡️ — NEW: IDF says it struck a Hamas arms depot in Gaza City after issuing an evacuation warning for a residential building

🔴 IDF says strike on the three‑story residential building in Gaza City targeted a Hamas weapons storage site and came in response to a Thursday attack on troops; military says no uninvolved civilians were present and no injuries reported

🔴 Military also struck a Hamas weapon production site in Khan Younis overnight; IDF framed both strikes as retaliation for the attack on troops and as action against “Hamas terror organization” infrastructure

🔴 The evacuation warning was the first official prior warning since September 2025; IDF earlier reported gunmen attacked troops in the north and that its forces killed a Palestinian terror operative who approached troops near the Yellow Line (188th Armored Brigade)

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🇵🇸 🇪🇬 🚁 — Follow-up | 21 Palestinians returned to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, including a patient and their companion, after receiving treatment in Egypt.

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🇵🇸 ⚠️ — Preventive authority in Jenin arrests teacher Wasim Mahameed from the village of Taybeh.

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🇺🇦 🇷🇺 🇺🇸 — NEW: Ukraine’s defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov says Kyiv will disconnect unverified Starlink terminals in Ukraine, send a “white list” of verified terminals to Elon Musk, and tighten drone-defence measures.

🔴 Denys Shmyal warned of more power blackouts after Russia struck energy infrastructure 217 times this year; 200 emergency crews are restoring power to 1,100 buildings in Kyiv.

🔴 Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov reported Russia is extending drone reach and using Geran drones as carriers for FPV drones up to 50km from the front; Ukraine is countering with a new short-range “small air defence” using drone crews.

🔴 Oleksandr Syrskii said hundreds of UAV crews moved under Air Force control for interception; Yurii Ihnat reported only 38 of a 71-missile strike were shot down as many were ballistic.

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