(Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkish bulldozers resume Sunday dredging agricultural fields of Syrian farmers at the village of Aqrabat near Bab al-Hawa crossing point, although farmers are meeting the Wali of Hatay State Monday, to provide him with the real estate map to show the ownership of lands those...

(The Daily Star)- A senior Palestinian official says four Palestinians were detained for attending a Jewish holiday celebration in a West Bank settlement. The official said Sunday "any Palestinian cooperation with settlers is viewed as violating the law, as he cooperates with the enemy." He...

Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State on Sunday as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq. An American official said Masoud Barzani, President of the Iraqi Kurdish region, had told U.S. Defense...

The pope says the cruelty of the fighting in the Iraqi city of Mosul "makes us cry, leaves us without words." Pope Francis told some 50,000 faithful gathered Sunday for the Angelus blessing that he was "pained by the murder in cold blood of numerous sons of this beloved land, among them many...

 Turkey has arrested more than 35,000 people over alleged links to the group run by the U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the failed July coup, local media reported Sunday. Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the suspects had been placed under arrest since...

(The Daily Star)- Kurdish forces have launched a new push on Mosul as part of a massive Iraqi operation aimed at retaking the country's second largest city from ISIS. The Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, said they launched a dawn offensive Sunday on two fronts to the northeast of Mosul,...

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition attacked targets in Sanaa at dawn Sunday, hours after a three-day truce in Yemen's war expired, residents in the capital said. The ceasefire, agreed in order to allow an increased flow of much-needed humanitarian aid, ended without renewal after a day of...

Iraqi army troops on Saturday stormed into a Christian region that has been under Islamic State control since 2014 as part of U.S.-backed operations to clear the entrances to Mosul, the militants' last major city stronghold in Iraq. The advance took place as U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi on Saturday for his stance against a resolution adopted by UNESCO on Jerusalem. The UN cultural agency on Tuesday adopted an Arab-sponsored resolution condemning Israel's actions at a flashpoint holy site...

Turkish-backed forces will press on to the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab in Syria, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, emphasizing Ankara's drive to sweep militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters from territory near its border. The Syrian military, however, said the presence...

They burst into the house in the early hours of the morning and pointed a gun at Abu Mohammed's head: "We are the Islamic State -- give us your car!" To protect his children and grandchildren, the 69-year-old Iraqi agreed to hand over the keys. A retired police officer with thin grey...

The reformist website in Iran, Amad News, has stated that the Iranian authorities held an emergency meeting to consider a strategy to end the scandal of Saeed Toosi and maintain Iran's reputation and that of its leaders, after claims he raped several of his students, sources have said. Toosi,...

(The Daily Star)- Turkey hit Syrian Kurdish militia targets in northern Syria for the second time in less than 72 hours, the military said Saturday, quoted in state media. Rockets struck 70 People's Protection Units (YPG) targets Friday, the armed forces said in a statement, but did not say...

An ongoing attack by ISIS in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk has killed at least 46 people, mostly members of the security forces, security and medical sources said Saturday. "We have 46 dead and 133 wounded, most of them members of the security services, as result of the clashes with ISIS," an...

The Shia Houthi militant group and factions supporting ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh has violated a UN-backed truce 897 times, Saudi Media reported Saturday. According to a written statement from Saudi Arabia’s official news agency SPA, Houthis and supporters breached the truce 205...

The Iraqi army launched an operation on Saturday to take Qaraqosh, a Christian town near Mosul, the last major city stronghold of Islamic State in Iraq, the military said. Qaraqosh, about 20 kms (13 miles) southeast of Mosul, was emptied of its population in 2014, when Islamic State swept...

(The Daily Star)- A massive ISIS assault on targets in and around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk came to an end Saturday after a day and night of heavy clashes, as Iraqi forces launched a new advance southeast of the ISIS-held city of Mosul. Brig. Gen. Khattab Omer of the Kirkuk police...

The Daesh terrorist group is using civilian hostages as "human shields" on the frontlines of the ongoing battle for Mosul, according to children who have recently fled the beleaguered city. Children from the village of Adla south of Mosul, who claim to have recently escaped the terrorist...

(The Daily Star)- A suspected extremist gunman captured during a shock attack on Kirkuk Friday said the raid was planned to divert attention from a major offensive on ISIS' Mosul stronghold. An AFP reporter attended the interrogation shortly after his arrest by Kurdish forces of a suspected...

Syria's army and Russia's air force halted their bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Friday, a monitoring group said, on the second of four consecutive daytime unilateral ceasefires in the city that have been rejected by insurgents. Heavy clashes took place in Aleppo during the...