Scores of former Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel and living in the Gaza Strip said on Sunday their stipends from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority have been suspended in an apparent bid to appease Israel and the United States. A spokesman for Palestinian prisoners said that 277...

( The Guardian )- Iraqi forces have retaken an area near the Syrian border from Islamic State as part of operations to expel the jihadis from strongholds in the country’s north. Al-Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) forces announced the “total liberation” of the Baaj district “with...

Turkish security forces killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in eastern Turkey on Sunday, state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing the local governor. Security forces were searching for another militant who was believed to be on the run after the operation,...

 Hamas is denying a report that host Qatar has asked several leaders of the group to leave, but says some senior officials may be shifted to new locations based on "work requirements." Sunday's statement comes after the Lebanon-based TV station Al-Mayadeen reported that Qatar gave Hamas...

The bodies of dozens of civilians killed in the past two days while fleeing an ISIS-held neighborhood in Mosul lay on Saturday in a street close to the frontline with Iraqi armed forces, a Reuters TV crew reported. The dead included men, women and children. Bags in which they had carried...

Jordanian border guards on Saturday foiled an attack on the frontier with Syria and killed gunmen riding motorcycles who tried to overrun their position, the army said. It the armed men on motorcycles who belonged to "terrorist groups and coming from Syria" tried to attack a frontline...

( Al-Monitor )- Prior to the May 16 meeting between US President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington, Turkey had sought for a year to pressure Washington to make a final decision on whether it would cooperate with Turkey in northern Syria or whether it would opt...

Iraqi forces have recaptured around half of two neighborhoods in west Mosul that are among the targets of a broad offensive against militants launched last week, officers said on Friday. Iraqi security forces are more than seven months into a massive operation to retake Mosul from ISIS,...

Turkish authorities detained the spokesman of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) for insulting police Friday, a party lawmaker said, the latest detention of a high-profile politician from the Kurdish-rooted opposition. Osman Baydemir, 46, served as mayor of Diyarbakir, Turkey's...

A teenage Palestinian girl who was shot by Israeli troops after she stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank died of her wounds in hospital Friday, Israel's military and a medical center spokeswoman said. The girl, who Palestinian authorities said was aged 16 and from the West Bank...

A car that exploded in a mainly Shiite Muslim city in eastern Saudi Arabia killing its two occupants was carrying munitions, the interior ministry said Friday. The Thursday evening blast was the latest incident in Qatif, which has seen criminal violence as well as protests among the...

At least two people were killed when a car exploded in Saudi Arabia's eastern city of Qatif on Thursday, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television reported. It said initial reports indicated the victims were "fugitives", a term that suggested people being sought by the kingdom's security services....

About a dozen civilians were wounded on Thursday by ISIS mortar shells as they tried to escape from the Zanjili district held by the militants in Mosul, Iraqi police said. Zanjili is part of the enclave that remains in the hands of ISIS in the northern Iraqi city, alongside the Old City...

Turkey's military killed six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq on Thursday, the army said in a statement. Turkish warplanes hit the Avasin-Basyan region in northern Iraq, killing PKK militants believed to be in preparation of an attack, the...

An oil tanker has come under fire off Yemen while passing through the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait into the Red Sea, a Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government said Thursday. The shipping lane connecting the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean beyond is a key...

Turkey's National Security Council said on Wednesday that the U.S. government's decision to arm the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in Syria was "not befitting" of a friend. In a statement released after a 4-1/2-hour meeting chaired by President Tayyip Erdogan, the council said Turkey's...

Forces backed by the United Arab Emirates have taken over the airport in the southern city of Aden, according to Yemeni security officials, further fueling tension between internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the UAE. The officials said that one soldier from among...

 ISIS militants have closed the streets around Mosul's Grand al-Nuri Mosque, residents said, apparently in preparation for a final showdown in the battle over their last major stronghold in Iraq. Dozens of fighters were seen by residents taking up positions in the past 48 hours around...

( The Guardian )- A 12-year-old Victorian girl was killed in a car bomb explosion in Baghdad on Tuesday as she lined up at a popular ice-cream parlour to break fast for Ramadan. The girl, a year seven student from Thomastown in Melbourne, was in the Iraqi capital with her family to visit her...

Two policemen were wounded when a bomb exploded in Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia, where many of the country's Shi'ite Muslim minority live, state news agency SPA reported Tuesday. Monday's attack was the second in two weeks targeting security forces deployed to guard workers busy razing...