GAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian militant group said on Friday that five of its members had been killed earlier this week when Israel blew up a cross-border tunnel being dug by militants from the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll in the strike to 12. Neither side seemed eager to seek...

(Reuters) - Iraqi forces have entered al-Qaim, one of the last remaining territories in the country still held by Islamic State militants, the Joint Operations Command said on Friday. Units from the Iraqi army, Counter-Terrorism Services, Sunni tribal and Iranian-backed Popular...

Iraqi forces captured Thursday the Akkas gas field from Daesh (ISIS), Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi told reporters in Baghdad. Iraqi forces launched last month an offensive to oust the militant group from the last area still under its control in Iraq, on the border with Syria, where the...

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah Thursday to protest on the 100th anniversary of Britain's Balfour Declaration, which helped lead to Israel's creation and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas used the occasion to denounce the...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq’s Kurdistan region said on Thursday it has offered a joint Kurdish-Iraqi deployment at a strategic crossing into Turkey, with the participation of the U.S.-led coalition that was helping fight Islamic State. The offer was disclosed hours after Iraqi armed...

(Reuters) - Iraqi forces threatened on Wednesday to resume operations to capture northern Kurdish-held territory after accusing authorities there of delaying handing over control of Iraq’s borders with Turkey, Iran and Syria. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday declared a pause in...

An Egyptian lawyer last week called for the rape and sexual assault of women in revealing clothes, adding that it was a "national duty" to do so. Nabih al-Wahsh's comments came during  a panel discussion  over a draft law on tackling prostitution that was broadcast on ...

Hamas began ceding control of the Gaza Strip's border crossings with Israel and Egypt to U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday under an agreement brokered by Cairo to end a decade of internal schism. The move marked the most concrete implementation of the Oct. 11...

Egypt's military said Tuesday its air force had carried out a desert raid, killing "a large number of terrorist elements" responsible for the deaths of 16 policemen earlier this month. The policemen were killed in an Oct. 20 shootout with militants on the road between Cairo and the...

Iraqi authorities took control of the main land crossing with Turkey, in the Kurdish area of Fish-Khabur, a customs official said Tuesday. The crossing was previously managed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) as it is located in the Dohuk province which is within the official...

(Reuters) - U.S. forces have captured a militant who is believed to have played a role in a 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, U.S. officials said on Monday. The officials, speaking on...

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Six Palestinian militants were killed on Monday when Israel blew up what it said was a tunnel being dug across the Gaza Strip border. A source for the Islamic Jihad militant group said Arafat Abu Marshould, head of the faction’s armed wing in central Gaza, was...

Iran will lift border restrictions with Iraq's Kurdistan region "in the coming days following a closure after last month’s Kurdish vote in favour of independence, the Iranian armed forces chief of staff said. Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqeri, in remarks quoted by ISNA news agency on Monday,...

A Kurdish video journalist with a channel backing Iraqi Kurdistan's leader Massud Barzani was stabbed to death at his home overnight in disputed Kirkuk province, a security source said Monday. Four armed men broke into the home of Arkan Sharif, a 54-year-old journalist with Kurdistan...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Demonstrators, some carrying clubs, stormed the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament building in Erbil on Sunday, angry at the decision of Masoud Barzani to step down from the presidency of the region, witnesses said. Gunshots were heard as protesters who claimed they were...

Iraqi and Kurdish military commanders reached a deal late Sunday for Baghdad to deploy federal forces after clashes at the disputed key Faysh Khabur border crossing, a government source told AFP. Baghdad is seeking to secure access to its oil pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan by...

The head of Hamas security forces left hospital on Saturday after being wounded in a  car bomb  explosion in the Gaza Strip, and vowed that an agreement to end the decade-long rift with rivals Fatah would remain on track. Tawfiq Abu Naim was moderately injured in an explosion...

Iran says it has foiled an online plot led by foreigners to spark dissent involving the tomb of Cyrus the Great on the day that many mark the birth of the Persian king by gathering at his grave. The Iranian judiciary's news agency Mizan reported Sunday that the Intelligence Ministry...

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan’s veteran leader Masoud Barzani will not extend his presidential term beyond Nov. 1, a Kurdish government official said on Saturday. His decision came just weeks after a referendum on Kurdish independence backfired and triggered a crisis for...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appointed a new armed forces chief of staff on Saturday, and the interior ministry dismissed several high-ranking officials in an apparent reorganization of the country’s security command. No reason was given for the reshuffle,...