Xinhua Middle East news summary at 2200 GMT, Jan. 22

Middle East USA World

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Friday that 10 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive from China by the end of this week.

Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Erdogan said the second party of the vaccines, developed by the Chinese producer company Sinovac, has been approved in China. (Turkey-Vaccine-China)

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TEHRAN — Iranian health authorities announced on Friday 6,305 new COVID-19 confirmed cases, raising the country’s overall count to 1,360,825 infections, state TV reported.

Of the newly infected in the past 24 hours, 589 required hospitalization, Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said at her daily briefing. (Iran-COVID19)

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ANKARA — Turkish security forces on Friday arrested 45 people across Turkey after prosecutors issued arrest warrants for judges and prosecutors over their alleged links to a network believed to be behind a coup attempt in 2016, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

The Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office said that most of the suspects were linked to the leaking of the 2011 judicial exam questions to the group members of the “Gulen Movement” which the Turkish government accuses of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and then attempting a coup on July 15, 2016. (Turkey-Judge-Prosecutor)

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BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces on Friday launched an operation to hunt down militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group in several areas across the country, a CTS statement said.

Acting on intelligence reports, the troops at dawn arrested “some wanted suspected terrorists” in capital Baghdad, western province of Anbar, and northern province of Kirkuk, the statement said. (Iraq-IS)