The battle for Mosul, Iraq, raged on Friday and streams of civilians continued an exodus from the city. After punching into the city on Tuesday, Iraqi forces paused briefly. They moved deeper into the eastern districts of the city but encountered fierce resistance from Islamic State...

(Daily Star)- An Istanbul court Saturday remanded in custody ahead of trial nine staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, in an intensifying crackdown a day after the leaders of the country's main pro-Kurdish party were also jailed. There had been growing international alarm over the...

Turkey's military hit 71 ISIS targets in Syria over the last 24 hours, the army said Saturday, intensifying strikes against the militant group, which has claimed responsibility for the latest bomb attack in southeast Turkey. Five ISIS fighters were killed in the strikes, as were five...

Two roadside bombs struck a convoy carrying Iraqi families fleeing an Islamic State-controlled town in the north of the country late on Friday, killing 18 people, a police officer said. The bombs targeted a truck carrying people from Hawija, about 120 km (75 miles) south of Islamic State's...

(Daily Sabah)- A Turkish soldier was killed and two others injured in an attack carried out by Daesh in northern Syria, the military said in a statement Friday. The Turkish General Staff said the soldier had succumbed to his injures in Turkey's Gaziantep province. The soldiers were...

One U.S. military service member was killed and two were critically injured on Friday in a shooting as they approached the gate to a training facility in Jordan, two U.S. officials said, declining to provide further details on the incident. One of the officials said there was no indication...

A dozen lawmakers from Turkey's opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which has Kurdish roots, were detained on Friday because they refused to give testimony in criminal proceedings, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said. Democratically elected officials normally can only be forced from...

Eight Daesh terrorists have been killed by coalition forces in seven airstrikes in northern Syria as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkish Armed Forces said Friday. In addition, two defense emplacements and two mortars of Daesh have been destroyed in the airstrikes on Jabal Khirbat...

All along the main street, buildings are crumpled beyond recognition, roofs punched in and pancaked. Historic mud-brick houses in its walled old city are pounded to dust. Saada, the birthplace of Yemen's Shiite rebels, has been one of the most densely bombed cities in Yemen during the past 19...

A vehicle bomb attack on a police station in the largest city in southeast Turkey resulted in injuries on Friday, the provincial governor’s office said. The Diyarbakir Governorate did not give a casualty figure but a security source earlier told Anadolu Agency that six people had been...

(The Daily Star)- Iraqi special forces stepped up attacks against ISIS fighters in their Mosul stronghold Friday, seeking to expand the army's foothold in the east of the city after the leader of the extremist group told his fighters there could be no retreat. An officer in the elite Counter...

(The Daily Star)- The commander of the Iraqi special forces who are spearheading the offensive to recapture the ISIS stronghold of Mosul said Thursday that they had gained a foothold in the city quicker than expected. Lieutenant-General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi also raised the possibility that...

When Islamic State insurgents fired mortar bombs at Iranian Kurdish women fighters holding a desert position in northern Iraq, the women first hit back by singing through loudspeakers. Then the women opened fire with machineguns. "We wanted to make them angry. To tell Daesh that we are...

The Israeli authorities have approved construction of 181 new settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem, according to a Palestinian expert on Israeli settlement-building activity. Khalil Tufakji told Anadolu Agency that Israel’s Jerusalem planning committee on Wednesday night approved...

(Rudaw)-  A malaise of distrust in Mosul enabled ISIS to easily take over more than two years ago, but now the US has an opportunity to help build trust there and contribute to stabilizing Iraq once the city is liberated, said a former US intelligence officer with experience in Mosul....

Two members of the Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militia and three civilians were killed Thursday in three separate bombings that shook capital Baghdad, according to a local police source. Baghdad police officer Yasser al-Mustafa told Anadolu Agency that one bombing had targeted a vehicle carrying...

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri said Thursday that he will be seeking to form a “national accord” government quickly, saying one of its main tasks would be to agree on a “just” electoral law and hold parliamentary elections on time. “I look forward to starting the consultations...

 Extremist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on his fighters to resist as Iraqi forces were poised Thursday to enter the city of Mosul where he declared a "caliphate" two years ago. The appeal was made in an audio recording released on the Internet and purported to be by the elusive...

Construction of a concrete wall along the Turkish-Syrian border will be completed in the first half of 2017, Turkey's Defense Minister Fikri Isik said Wednesday. Speaking during a visit of the border units in the southern province of Hatay, Isik said that almost 270 kilometers (167 miles) of...

The most popular object in Gogjali Wednesday was the electric hair clipper a member of the Iraqi special forces who retook the village from jihadists gave the residents. On the steps leading to the mosque, one man revelled in his first shave in two years and sheared off thick tufts from the...