ANKARA -- Turkey on Friday issued an arrest warrant for 19 suspected former police chiefs over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016, the capital Ankara chief prosecutor's office said.

The operation has been carried out in 12 provinces as part of an investigation against the "Gulen movement," which the Turkish government accuses of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and then attempting a coup on July 15, 2016.(Turkey-Arrest Warrant-Coup Suspects)

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TEHRAN -- The first phase of extra-heavy crude refinery was inaugurated by the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in the southern island of Qeshm on Friday, Iranian Student News Agency ISNA reported.

The complex, which is Iran's first extra-heavy crude refinery, will promote the export of by-products of crude refinement, such as bitumen, said the report.(Iran-Crude Refinery-Inauguration)

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ANKARA -- Turkey on Friday said the first meeting between Turkish and Armenian envoys in Moscow was positive and that they will continue negotiations for full normalization of ties without preconditions.

"During their first meeting, conducted in a positive and constructive atmosphere, the special representatives exchanged their preliminary views regarding the normalization process through dialogue between Turkey and Armenia," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. (Turkey-Armenia-Ties-Normalization)

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BAGHDAD -- Two bomb attacks on Friday targeted headquarters of two major Sunni parties in the Iraqi capital Baghdad without causing casualties, a source with the Interior Ministry said.

The attacks took place in the morning when unidentified gunmen threw hand grenades at the headquarters of Taqaddum Alliance, headed by the re-elected Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, in the Adhamiyah neighborhood in northern Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. (Iraq-Baghdad-Bomb Attacks)