The most popular object in Gogjali Wednesday was the electric hair clipper a member of the Iraqi special forces who retook the village from jihadists gave the residents. On the steps leading to the mosque, one man revelled in his first shave in two years and sheared off thick tufts from the...

 ISIS is forcibly gathering people in and around Mosul for possible use as human shields against advancing Iraqi forces, residents said Wednesday, confirming U.N. fears. ISIS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground,...

(The Daily Star)- A spokesman for a leading Shiite militia says its fighters have gained control of a highway linking the ISIS-held city of Mosul to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the militants' self-proclaimed caliphate. The spokesman for the Hezbollah Brigades, Jaafar...

 (New York Times)- Russia said on Wednesday that it would extend a moratorium on airstrikes in the Syrian city of Aleppo until Friday to give embattled antigovernment rebels a chance to leave the city and to “avoid senseless victims” of continued fighting. Under terms of the...