Four Shia militiamen and 13 militants were killed in Daesh attacks in Iraq’s predominantly Turkmen city of Tal Afar late Sunday, according to a local police officer. Daesh militants attacked positions of the Hashd al-Shaabi militia in western Tal Afar in an attempt to break an army siege...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan Monday condemned Israel's decision to ramp up settlements in the West Bank as an "absolute provocation." Israel announced plans last month for 3,000 more settlement homes in the occupied West Bank. It has also retroactively legalized about 4,000 settlement...

A Saudi-led coalition has declared Yemen's Hudaida city a military zone, urging civilians in the Houthi-held Red Sea port to stay in their homes, days after the United Nations warned that airstrikes could trap civilians and hamper aid efforts. The military coalition of mainly Gulf Arab...

(The Independent)- The Secretary-General of the United Nations has said the fight against extremists in Syria needs a political solution.  Antonio Guterres also said any solution in the battle against terrorists in the region will need the support of the Syrian people.  The...

The Lebanese Hezbollah movement strongly supports the Syria ceasefire agreed upon in Kazakhstan and any truce that could lead to a political solution, its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday. Russia and Turkey brokered a shaky ceasefire in December between rebel groups and the...

Tension between Iraq's Shiite leaders mounted Sunday as the toll from protests in central Baghdad on Saturday increased to six killed, five demonstrators loyal to the fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and one policeman. At least 174 other protesters were injured in clashes that pitted police and...

Turkish troops and Free Syrian Army fighters have "besieged" the Daesh-held town of Al-Bab in northern Syria and are now "on the verge of capturing it," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday. "Our forces along with the Free Syrian Army [fighters] have reached the [town] center. And...

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday the final goal of a Turkish incursion into Syria was not just to retake the city of al-Bab from Islamic State, but to cleanse a border region including Raqqa of the jihadists. Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are pressing a major offensive on al-Bab, 30 km...

Yemeni security officials say inter-militia fighting has flared up at the airport in the southern coastal city of Aden, with a government-allied helicopter gunship firing on fighters in the area, killing three. They say Sunday that troops from the presidential guard who are backed by the...

An Iraqi policeman was killed during anti-government protests in the Iraqi on Saturday, according to police and hospital officials who said seven other policemen were injured along with dozens of protesters. Demonstrators loyal to influential Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad...

Saudi Arabia and Turkey are two influential regional heavyweights and are seeking to bolster bilateral relations in various fields, according to the kingdom’s new ambassador in Ankara.  In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency on Sunday, Walid Abdul Karim el-Khereiji said the...

Taiwanese business people have donated winter clothes and shoes to be delivered to around 10,000 Syrian and Turkish families in need in Turkey's southern Kilis province near the border with Syria.  As part of a humanitarian aid campaign launched by STUF United Fund, World Taiwanese...

Turkey will hold a referendum on April 16 on proposed changes to the constitution that would replace its parliamentary system with the executive presidency sought by Tayyip Erdogan, the head of the High Election Board announced Saturday. The proposal would enable the president to issue...

At least five people were killed and 19 wounded on Friday, in two suicide bombings that hit an Iraqi army position and a restaurant in eastern Mosul, a medical source said. A man believed to belong to ISIS blew himself up inside the Sayidati al-Jamila ("My Fair Lady") restaurant at...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday rubber-stamped controversial constitutional changes that will boost his own powers, paving the way for a referendum on the legislation in April. The government says the proposals to create an executive presidency will simplify the government...

The Saudi-led coalition has intensified air strikes on the Yemen port of Hodeidah, potentially trapping civilians and endangering a humanitarian operation to import vital supplies, the United Nations human rights office said Friday. Yemeni government forces backed by Gulf Arab troops have...

 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi asked U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call to remove his country from a contentious travel ban list, a statement said Friday. Iraq is one of seven Muslim-majority countries whose citizens are barred from entering the United States for 90 days...

Her name is Marina Jaber but to many she is "the girl on the bike", a young Baghdad artist inspiring Iraqi women to exercise their rights one pedal at a time. In Iraq's conservative society, the young woman cuts an unusual figure when she rides her red bicycle in the streets of the capital,...

At a training course in northern Iraq, people displaced by the wars in Mosul and neighboring Syria are learning how to code. Some are already being sought by global companies even though they live in sprawling, dusty camps near Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, not far from Islamic...

New CIA chief Mike Pompeo arrived in Ankara Thursday for talks with Turkish officials, on his first foreign visit since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump. His visit came two days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to Trump for the first time in his White House term,...