(Middle East Eye)- Saudi-led raids on rebel-held security buildings and a prison in the west of Yemen killed at least 60 people on Saturday, officials said on Sunday as the death toll from the attacks rose. A provincial official said that dozens of bodies were transported to hospitals in the...

Egypt's state news agency says the country's oil ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with its Iraqi counterpart to pave the way for Egypt to import oil from Iraq. Oil Minister Tarek el-Mulla was quoted by MENA on Monday as saying that the agreement will "open the doors" for...

 The leader of Iraq's largest Iranian-backed Shiite militia expressed hope on Monday that the battle of Mosul would not be as protracted and devastating as in the one that allied Shiite militias are fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo. "We are afraid that Mosul could be another...

 Iraqi special forces neared the eastern city limits of Mosul on Monday, tightening the noose as the offensive to retake the Islamic State group stronghold entered its third week. Forces from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) faced mortar fire as they pushed from the Christian...

Three Turkish soldiers and 13 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were killed on Monday during clashes in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast, security sources said. Turkish soldiers were on an operation in the Daglica district of Hakkari province, which borders Iraq, when clashes broke...

Iraqi troops including elite counter terrorism forces resumed an offensive on the eastern front of Mosul on Monday, a military statement said, targeting the eastern bank of the Tigris river which divides the northern Iraqi city. The elite counter terrorism unit had paused its advance last...

Twenty-six years after being forced from Lebanon's presidential palace and into exile by the Syrian army, Michel Aoun is set to be elected head of state on Monday, backed by many of his old enemies. Barring a surprise, many of Lebanon's sectarian politicians will back the 81-year-old Christian...

Saudi authorities announced on Sunday they had prevented a terror plot targeting a stadium in Jeddah prior to an international football match against the UAE attended by thousands. The four suspects, two Pakistanis, a Syrian and a Sudanese citizen, were arrested after foiling the plot which...

(The Daily Star)- Iraqi forces said Sunday that they recaptured a series of villages surrounding jihadist-held Mosul as the operation to retake the city from the Islamic State group neared its third week. Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been advancing on...

(The Daily Star)- A car bomb parked in a shopping street of a Shiite district of Baghdad killed at least eight people and wounded more than 30 others on Sunday, police and medical staff said. The bombing, which hit the Hurriya district, came as Iraqi security forces are engaged in an...

(The Guardian)- Islamic State’s doctrine of survival is based on a simple notion: defeat on the battlefield must always leave behind the seeds for a comeback. Whether the operation to retake Mosul will be the beginning of the end for Isis or the beginning of a new cycle hinges largely on...

Iraqi troops and security forces advanced towards Mosul from the south and southeast of the city on Sunday, Iraqi officials said, backed by air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition as they edged closer to the Islamic State stronghold. A military statement said the army's ninth...

 Iran's vice president and environment chief, Massoumeh Ebtekar, has told AFP that the West's failure to fully implement the nuclear deal and lift sanctions are endangering her country's efforts to meet climate targets. In an exclusive interview, Ebtekar said Iran had already seen...

Yemen has endured thousands of air strikes and the deaths of more than 10,000 people in a 19-month war that has also unleashed hunger on the desperately poor country - but its biggest challenge may be yet to come. The conflict has led to Yemen's de facto partition, with rival armies and...

Iraq’s Shiite militias said Saturday that they had joined the operation to recapture the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, a move that could whip up sectarian and regional tensions in an already complex battle. Militia leaders said that they launched an offensive toward the town of Tal Afar,...

(The Guardian)- The teddy bear, garish but cuddly, is propped on top of the explosives it was designed to hide and detonate. An adult would probably have walked by, but to a child the wide eyes and fuzzy orange fur would have been irresistible. “Why would Isis use something nice, like a bear...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was aiming to reinforce its troops deployments in its Iraqi border town of Silopi and that it would have a "different response" for Shiite militia groups if they cause terror in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar. Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite paramilitary...

An Iraqi adviser hinted Saturday that Iraqi forces might enter Syrian territories to fight the Daesh militant group.  Speaking at a forum in Najaf in central Iraq, Faleh al-Fayyad, a national security adviser to the Iraqi government, said Iraqi forces were making progress in the ongoing...

(The Guardian)- At 9.48am on Thursday 21 July this year, Dean Evans sent his stepfather, Steve Howell, a text message. “Alright?” it read. “Just letting you know I’m OK.” It was the first time Howell had heard from the 22-year-old in nearly a month. But then, he was in Syria, on the frontline in...

(The Daily Star)- A coalition of Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi'ite militia plans to cross the border into Syria to fight alongside President Bashar Assad after "clearing" ISIS  from Iraq, a militia spokesman said Saturday. Iraqi Shi'ite militiamen are already fighting on Assad's side in the...