Mosul's trademark leaning minaret was missing from its skyline for the first time in centuries Thursday after desperate militants blew it up as Iraqi forces advanced on an ancient mosque compound. Explosions on Wednesday evening levelled the Nuri mosque where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave his...

The United States has told Turkey it will take back weapons supplied to the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria after the defeat of ISIS, Ankara said on Thursday, seeking to address Turkish concerns about arming Kurds on its border. Turkish defense ministry sources said U.S. Defense...

A small blast at a graveyard adjacent to the grounds of a NATO military facility in western Turkey damaged the installation's perimeter walls on Thursday but caused no injuries, Turkish media reports said. The state-run Anadolu Agency said the explosion in the city of Izmir was caused by a...

Iran has begun exporting gas through a pipeline to Baghdad under a deal set to make Iraq the Islamic republic's top customer, the oil ministry said. "Iran's natural gas exports to Baghdad began Wednesday evening," Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia said late Wednesday in comments...

The Islamic State jihadist group on Wednesday blew up Mosul's iconic leaning minaret and the adjacent mosque where their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance in 2014, a top commander said.  "Our forces were advancing toward their targets deep in the Old City and...

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered weekend missile strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria, Revolutionary Guards said, contradicting a previous report that they were authorised by the country's security council. The Guards fired six mid-range surface to surface missiles...

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused Kurdish authorities of delaying thousands of Iraqi civilians fleeing from militant-held areas at checkpoints, in some cases within range of front lines. The New York-based rights group said the delays, some lasting weeks or months, were not only...

Israel would use all its strength from the start in any new war with Hezbollah, the chief of the Israeli air force said on Wednesday, sending a firm warning a decade after their last conflict. At the annual Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv, Major-General Amir Eshel said qualitative...

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 loud...

An Iraqi journalist was killed and three French reporters were wounded after a mine exploded in Mosul, where they were covering an advance by Iraqi forces against ISIS militants, France 2 television and a diplomatic source said on Monday. The television network said Iraqi journalist...

 Israel on Monday began reducing its electricity supplies to the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip already suffering from insufficient flow, electricity authorities on both sides said. Israel "began to reduce by eight megawatts flow to electricity lines" into the Palestinian...

Iraqi forces pushed deeper into Mosul's Old City on Monday after launching a final assault on ISIS, warning civilians to stay inside and telling extremists to "surrender or die". Iraqi forces launched the operation Sunday to retake the district, the last part of Iraq's second city still held...

( The Wall Street Journal )- Israel has been regularly supplying Syrian rebels near its border with cash as well as food, fuel and medical supplies for years, a secret engagement in the enemy country’s civil war aimed at carving out a buffer zone populated by friendly forces. The Israeli...

( The New Arab )- Twenty-one employees of a Turkish catering firm providing food for soldiers were detained by authorities on Sunday, after allegedly poisoning more than 700 troops in the west of the country. The workers, who were employed with the catering contractor who supplied a meal of...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday accused the Palestinian president's party of praising Palestinians who killed an Israeli policewoman, calling for an end to payments to the families of attackers. Two Palestinians on Friday opened fire on a group of Israeli officers just outside the...

Amid buildings destroyed by heavy fighting, University of Mosul students are returning to take exams interrupted three years ago when jihadists took control of their city. The university and an army of volunteers are working to clear up rubble and repair the damage left by fierce battles...

 Iraqi forces started storming the ISIS-held Old City of Mosul on Sunday, a military statement said. The historic district is the last still under control of the militants in the northern Iraqi city, which used to be their capital in Iraq. The U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive to capture...