The leader of the most powerful rebel group operating around Damascus, Zahran Alloush, has arrived in Istanbul as regional efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad intensify. “[Alloush] will hold meetings with rebels and other personalities, and their goal is to lift the siege...

 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...

By Bushra al-Maqrari (al-Araby al-Jadeed)- Yemeni optimism was short-lived after President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi escaped house arrest in Sanaa and travelled to Aden. Hadi's actions shook up the political scene stagnant since the Houthi...

(Reuters) - The images match the worst of Islamic State's atrocities: black-clad fighters and an English-speaking jihadist taunt the West before slaughtering their victims in orange jumpsuits on a Libyan beach. Their masked leader turns to the Mediterranean and points a...

The grisly killing of Jordanian pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh by burning him alive sent shock waves across the globe and brought heaps of condemnation from political and religious leaders of all stripes against the new heights of macabre of which Islamic State proved capable . Horror...

(Reuters) - Islamic State's defeat in Kobani and other recent setbacks in Syria suggest the group is under strain but far from collapse in the Syrian half of its self-declared caliphate. Islamic State's high-profile defeat by Kurdish militia backed by U.S.-led air strikes...

As Jordan mourns the young pilot who was burned alive by ISIS , questions are mounting over what the government knew about the fate of Lt. Muath al-Kasasbeh — and more important, when. Rumors of al-Kasasbeh's death have been circulating for weeks....

By Hassan Hassan (The Guardian)- Hamid Ghannam’s first day at an Islamic State (Isis) training camp was intense. Very early on the morning of 13 August, he picked up his packed clothes and walked quickly to the main street in his village to meet three of his cousins. As with many...

  As Salman bin Abdulaziz becomes the new king of Saudi Arabia, he is not expected to make any significant policy changes regarding falling oil prices, the economy and relations with other states in the Middle East, experts say.  "We actually predict King Salman to...

An Israeli helicopter attack killed five members of Hezbollah operating out of Syria over the weekend. Among the dead were senior Hezbollah figures and an Iranian general, raising tensions in Lebanon of a potential return to hostilities between the two neighboring countries....

BEIRUT, Lebanon — American support for a pair of diplomatic initiatives in Syria underscores the shifting views of how to end the civil war there and the West’s quiet retreat from its demand that the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad , step down immediately. The Obama...

(Reuters) - Peer pressure from radicalised fighters in Syria and Iraq is more influential in attracting new recruits from Europe than Islamic State (IS) propaganda, according to British experts. The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence...

BAGHDAD (AFP)- A young boy raises a pistol, aims at two kneeling men and fires, in a shocking propaganda video highlighting ISIS 's efforts to indoctrinate another generation with its brutal ideology. The boy, who doesn't look older than 11 or 12,...

The recent admission into hospital of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz has raised questions about the political succession in the oil-rich Gulf state. The 90-year-old ruler has been diagnosed with pneumonitis, making it necessary for hospital doctors to provide him with a tube to...

Al-Nusra Front has been a powerful player in the Syrian civil war for a long time now, and now al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria has become the dominant group in Idlib.  Earlier this month, it seized territory and weapons from rebel forces in the northwestern province. That...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Deep into its fourth year of conflict, Syria looks less and less like a state than a patchwork of warring fiefdoms, making outside powers more reluctant to intervene even as it becomes more destabilizing for the region. The...

The Syrian conflict will enter its fourth year in March 2015, but continuous Iranian support for the government of president Bashar al-Assad will ensure that his forces will carry on fighting for at least another year, according to observers. Those forces, however, no longer resemble a...

Support for Islamic State (Isis) among Arabic-speaking social media users in Belgium, Britain, France and the US is greater than in the militant group’s heartlands of Syria and Iraq, a global analysis of over 2m Arabic-language online posts has found. In what is understood...

UNDATED (AP) — With the U.S.-led assault on the Islamic State group, the world community is acting in Syria, but not in the Syrian civil war. When it comes to the issue that has undermined the region — the survival or fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad — there is still no plan....