A U.S.-backed assault on Raqqa, ISIS's de facto capital in Syria, is unlikely to pierce the city itself before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, denying him the chance to claim the end of the group's "caliphate" as part of his legacy. Although a U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian...

Hundreds of families have been driven out of the Iraqi city of Kirkuk in apparent retaliation for a recent attack by ISIS, Amnesty International said Monday. Authorities in the Kurdish-controlled city demolished the homes of hundreds of Arab residents and ordered them to leave Kirkuk in the...

(New York Times)- A joint Kurdish-Arab militia has begun a new phase in the operation to dislodge the Islamic State from its stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, moving to isolate the city and largely cut off the resupply of arms, supplies and fighters, a United States military spokesman in Baghdad...

(The Daily Star)- The Palestinian Constitutional Court, a body set up months ago by President Mahmoud Abbas, ruled on Sunday that he can revoke the parliamentary immunity of lawmakers, a move that effectively allows him to sideline rivals. A verdict issued on Sunday which was swiftly...