With Islamic State all but ejected from one if its former capitals and surrounded in the other, members of a 72-nation coalition meet in Washington this week to try to ensure the battlefield victories do not, once again, evaporate amid new sectarian strife. Iraq's prime minister declared...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday it was increasingly important that neighboring Iraq remain a unified country and said a planned Kurdish referendum on independence should not go ahead. Authorities in Kurdish northern Iraq have announced an independence referendum on Sept. 25,...

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was poised to declare victory over Daesh (ISIS) in Mosul on Monday as only a few dozen militants put up resistance in the city where their leader declared a "caliphate" three years ago. Gunfire and explosions could be heard as the U.S.-led coalition...

A 10-week cholera epidemic has now infected more than 300,000 people in Yemen, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday, a health disaster on top of war, economic collapse and near-famine in the impoverished country. "Disturbing. We're at 300k+ suspected cases with...

 Prominent Palestinian activist Issa Amro went on trial in an Israeli military court Sunday on accusations of inciting violence, charges rights groups call a bid to silence him. The trial began at the Ofer military court in the occupied West Bank, but was adjourned until Oct. 22 after...

Egyptian and Palestinian leaders have met amid signs of a rapprochement between Cairo and the Islamic militant Hamas group that could shake up Gaza's political landscape and sideline the Palestinian president. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt's Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi met Sunday....

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday denied reports of a "breakthrough" in talks with Hamas over returning Israeli citizens and bodies of soldiers held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. According to Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Israel and Hamas were on the brink of an...

Islamic State militants threw themselves into the Tigris on Sunday, trying to flee the battlefield in Mosul as Iraqi forces reached the riverbank, bringing them to the verge of victory. After eight months of combat that has left parts of the city in ruins, killed thousands of civilians and...

Iraqi commanders said Saturday their forces are "tens of meters" away from defeating Daesh (ISIS) in Mosul, a day after a major counterattack by the militants. The Joint Operations Command "our units are still continuing to advance ... Not much is left before our forces reach the...

Two Egyptian policemen were killed in a roadside bomb blast late Saturday in the restive Sinai Peninsula, according to the country's interior ministry. In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said the device struck a police convoy in the North Sinai city of Arish. Nine riot...

Iraq will announce imminently a final victory in the nearly nine-month offensive to retake Mosul from jihadists, a US general said Saturday, as celebrations broke out among police forces in the city. The defeat would be the biggest yet for the Islamic State group three years since it seized...

President Tayyip Erdogan Saturday said Turkey would not watch passively as weapons were sent to Kurdish fighters on its southern border, saying his country would respond to any threats to national security. The United States has been arming Kurdish YPG fighters taking part in the battle to...

A separate truce for southern Syria, brokered by the U.S. and Russia, is meant to help allay growing concerns by neighboring Jordan and Israel about Iranian military ambitions in the area, including fears that Tehran plans to set up a disruptive long-term presence there. Such apprehensions...

Iraqi security forces expect to take full control of Mosul in the next hours as Daesh's defensive lines collapse, state TV reported on Saturday. Air strikes and artillery salvos pounded the extremists' last bastion in the city as black smoke billowed over it, a Reuters TV crew said. "We...

At least 600 civilians have been killed in strikes in Iraq and Syria by the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State since the campaign began in 2014, according to a report released by the coalition on Friday. The estimate in the monthly report, which said coalition strikes had...

Two Iraqi journalists working for Hona Salaheddin television in a village south of Mosul were killed by Daesh (ISIS), the channel said Friday, as reports emerged of a fresh Daesh counterattack in Mosul. Daesh infiltrated Imam Gharbi, the village south of the city, earlier in the week,...

Islamic State fighters holding out in Mosul on a strip of land along the Tigris River are increasingly using suicide bombers in a desperate attempt to slow the steady advance of Iraqi forces, military commanders said on Thursday. Iraqi forces pushing towards the al-Maydan and al-Shareen...

Iraq's Kurdish leader said on Thursday that there was no turning back on a bid to achieve an independent Kurdish state, but he would pursue it through dialogue with Baghdad and regional powers to avoid conflict. Masoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), told...

An Iraqi intelligence officer who supervises a screening center in Mosul says that over the past week between 1,500 and 2,000 people fleeing Daesh (ISIS) held territory pass through his position each day. Col. Khalid Jaburi says those suspected of having ties with Daesh are held in an...

Up to 20,000 civilians are trapped in the last Daesh (ISIS) held areas in Mosul's Old City, which Iraqi forces are battling to retake, a senior UN official said Thursday. More than eight months since the start of the operation to retake Mosul from Daesh, the militants have gone from fully...