Western-backed fighters in southwestern  Syria , the one part of the country where they are strong, have spoken out this week against al Qaeda, a sign of friction that could lead to new fighting among opponents of President Bashar al-Assad. Four years into a civil war,...

Beirut (AFP) - Across the Middle East, fierce rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran is heightening sectarian tensions, even in conflicts that analysts say are primarily political. But analysts say their rivalry is driven largely by politics, with sectarian sentiment more a...

Here is a new Iraqi paradox: whatever progress the Shi’ite Muslim-dominated Baghdad government makes against jihadi insurgents occupying large swathes of north-western Iraq, it is simultaneously undermining what is left of the Iraqi state, whose frailty and malfunctions created the...

  Absi Smeisem By Absi Smeisem The city of Idlib has fallen completely under the control of opposition fighters as the armed Syrian opposition factions yesterday tightened their grip on neighbourhoods in Idlib and managed to enter the city centre....