Turkey summoned the Russian charge d'affaires on Wednesday and sent him another message Thursday to convey "deep unease" over two incidents in Kurdish militia-controlled Syria, Ankara said. Ankara said one of its soldiers had been shot and killed in southern Turkey on Wednesday by...

Saudi Arabia executed two convicted drug traffickers on Thursday, bringing the number of prisoners killed in the kingdom to 20 so far this year. The state-run SPA news agency named the two men as Saudi Arabian national Nasser Harshan and Pakistani national Namtallah Khasta Qul. Both were...

An estimated 400,000 Iraqis are trapped in the ISIS-controlled Old City of west Mosul amid food shortages and growing panic under shelling, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said Thursday. Many civilians fear fleeing because of ISIS snipers, but some 157,000 have reached a transit...

Aid convoys linked to paramilitary groups have begun making regular deliveries to Mosul districts recaptured from ISIS, bringing much-needed relief but also fears that their Shiite backers are encroaching into the mostly Sunni city. The columns of trucks and cars carrying food, water and...

ISIS militants shelled areas recaptured by Iraqi forces in western Mosul, hitting civilians fleeing the fighting early Wednesday as troops edged their way through the narrow, dangerous streets of the Old City. Heavy mortar fire killed at least five civilians and wounded more than 20 in Mosul...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Europeans across the world would not be able to walk safely on the streets if they kept up their current attitude. Turkey has been embroiled in a row with Germany and the Netherlands over the barring of campaign appearances by Turkish...

 Israel is drawing up contingency plans to evacuate up to a quarter-million civilians from border communities to protect them from attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah or other groups. The mass evacuations would be the biggest in Israel’s history, part of a bigger plan where the army works with...

 Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen’s rebel Houthi movement, stepping up support for its ally in a civil war whose outcome could sway the balance of power in the Middle East, regional and Western sources say. Iran’s enemy Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab...

Several hundred Bulgarian nationalists have blocked the three main checkpoints at the Bulgarian-Turkish border for a few hours Tuesday to prevent what they called "electoral tourism" by Bulgarian citizens living permanently in Turkey. The organizers from the nationalist United Patriots...

Tens of thousands of people celebrated the New Year festival of Newroz in Turkey's overwhelmingly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir Tuesday, even as police killed a man who claimed to be carrying a bomb. The annual event, which received official permission, took place under heavy security ahead of...

 Iraqi forces gained ground from ISIS in Mosul and have deployed snipers in the Old City to target the extremists, officers said Tuesday. Iraqi forces launched a major operation to recapture west Mosul -- the most-populated urban area still held by ISIS -- on February 19, and have...

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a car bombing in Baghdad that killed 27 people the previous day, shattering a relative lull in the Iraqi capital. The extremist group says in an online statement posted on an ISIS-affiliated website hours after the attack that a militant parked the...

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu argued Monday Israel was unnecessarily hounding him 12 years after he was freed from prison, as he appeared in court over breaches of his release terms. The 62-year-old former nuclear technician was jailed in 1986 for disclosing the inner workings of...

Turkey's president, who has angered European allies with charges of fascism and anti-Turkish skulduggery, took grievances to the sporting arena on Monday, accusing the International Olympic Committee of playing tricks to stop Istanbul hosting the event. Since the early years of his political...

Iraqi forces battled Islamic State group fighters on Monday to push into Mosul's Old City where thousands of civilians remain trapped under jihadist rule. The city's historic centre is home to the Al-Nuri mosque, where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in July 2014 proclaimed an IS "caliphate"...

 Turkish authorities have detained three people linked to last year's deadly attack on a Berlin Christmas market, local media reported Monday, saying the suspects were headed to Europe. Tunisian attacker Anis Amri hijacked a truck on Dec. 19, killed its Polish driver and plowed the...

ISIS militants are forcing young men in western Mosul to fight for them in defense of the remaining pockets of their former stronghold against an Iraqi government assault, fleeing residents and Iraqi officers said on Monday. The forced recruitment is a sign that the hardline militants are...

Tens of thousands have flowed out of war-wracked Mosul in recent weeks, but Samir Hamid and 33 family members have decided to go against the tide to return home. "We stayed with relatives for a week and now we're going back home," says the father-of-five, who has travelled with his extended...

A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen called on Sunday for the United Nations to place a strategic port under its supervision after a helicopter attack on a boatload of Somali refugees left 42 dead. The refugees had departed from the western port city of Hodeidah en route to Sudan when the...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised Sunday the possibility of snap elections following a dispute with his finance minister over a new national broadcasting service. Local papers, radio and television channels carried Netanyahu's threat to dissolve the government -- the most...