By Laila Bassam and Sylvia Westall RASHAYA Lebanon (Reuters) - On mountains close to the Syrian border, members of Lebanon's minority Druze sect say they are ready to defend their towns and villages with arms if the civil war next raging door gets much nearer....

(Reuters) - Palestinian protesters fought with Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Friday, the latest clashes in a fortnight of violence over access to Jerusalem's holiest site. At the Qalandia checkpoint separating Ramallah from Jerusalem,...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama has approved sending up to 1,500 more troops to Iraq , roughly doubling the number of U.S. forces on the ground to advise and retrain Iraqis in their battle against the militant group Islamic State, U.S. officials said on Friday. Obama's...

(Reuters) - As Jordan joins a military campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria , tensions in Jerusalem pose a potentially bigger risk to a nation only slightly scathed by the turmoil sweeping the Middle East. The U.S. ally has been alarmed and angered by recent...