U.S.-backed Iraqi forces said they began a push on Wednesday toward the mosque of Mosul, where ISIS declared a self-styled caliphate three years ago. The military said the forces had encircled the militant group's stronghold in the Old City of Mosul, where the mosque is located, on Tuesday....

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the start of work on a new settlement in the occupied West Bank Tuesday, as US envoys prepared to discuss a new peace push. The Amichai settlement will be the first new government-sanctioned Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories...

( The Guardian )- Australia has suspended air combat missions over Syria after Russia threatened that it would treat any plane from the US-led coalition flying west of the Euphrates river as a potential target. Russia said it was responding to US planes shooting down a Syrian air force jet...

A “terrorist” bomb attack in a Shiite village in Bahrain has killed a policeman and wounded two others, the Interior Ministry in the Gulf kingdom said Monday. The attack late Sunday occurred in Diraz, west of Manama, the ministry said on its Twitter account. Witnesses said they heard a...