A 13-year-old Iraqi girl’s home burned after she criticized the governor of a central Iraq province in a televised interview, her father and police said on Saturday. Rawan Salem Hussein challenged Governor Sadiq Madlool al-Sultani to an on-air debate on his contributions to “the cultural...

Five Egyptian soldiers were killed Saturday when their armored vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the northern Sinai Peninsula, a security source has told Anadolu Agency. According to the source, the incident occurred south of the North Sinai city of Sheikh Zuweid. Since Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's...

Iraq's influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is calling for the inclusion of more technocrats in government and is threatening to withdraw from the political process if his proposal is not accepted. Al-Sadr spoke Saturday following Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's call for a Cabinet...

Operations by Turkish security forces against Kurdish militants in the town of Cizre have been successfully completed but a curfew will remain in place, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Thursday in comments broadcast live by TRT television. Authorities imposed a...

An Iraqi-led operation to retake the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul is unlikely to take place this year, a top U.S. intelligence official told Congress on Tuesday. The comments by Marine Corps Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart were more pessimistic than some recent...

Turkey summoned the U.S. ambassador to express its displeasure on Tuesday after a State Department spokesman said Washington did not regard Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as a terrorist organisation, a Turkish foreign ministry official said. Tensions between the...

The wife of a deceased Islamic State leader was charged on Monday with conspiracy in the death of an American aid worker who was killed a year ago while being held hostage in Syria by the militant group, the U.S. Justice Department said. Nisreen Assad Ibrahim Bahar, 25, an Iraqi citizen and...

At least nine civilians and 16 separatist fighters were killed as security forces try to root out Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, the army and the region's biggest parliamentary party said separately on Monday. Security forces have imposed 24-hour...

Human Rights Watch has condemned Hamas' execution of one of its own fighters after the Palestinian militant group's military wing said the killing was carried out at the weekend. The Al-Qassam Brigades -- the armed wing of Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip -- said it had executed one of its...

 The Iraqi Prime Minister is dismissing plans to build a wall around the Iraqi capital, according to a statement released by his office Saturday night. The plan for the wall was originally drafted by the Interior Ministry as an effort to prevent ISIS group attacks inside Baghdad....

Israeli police say a soldier has been stabbed in southern Israel. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri says the soldier was standing near the central bus station in the southern city of Ashkelon Sunday when he was stabbed in his torso. He was lightly wounded. The stabber was shot and apprehended....

Three members of Britain's special forces were injured in fighting with Islamic State gunmen in Iraq, the Mirror newspaper reported on Saturday without giving any details about its sources. The Ministry of Defence said it did not comment on special forces operation. The Mirror said the...

The Pentagon on Friday released 198 photographs linked to allegations of abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them showing close-ups of cuts and bruises to arms and legs of prisoners held in U.S. facilities. The Pentagon said the photos came from criminal...

Turkey all but ruled out direct talks with Kurdish militants to end one of the worst periods of bloodshed in a three-decade insurgency on Friday, saying the government would instead bring what it called civil society groups to the table. In a speech in the southeastern city of...

Sunni Muslim Arab fighters backed by Kurdish forces and U.S.-led air strikes retook a village in northern Iraq on Wednesday in an example of effective military cooperation on the ground between them against Islamic State insurgents. The offensive in the Makhmour district south...

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani has declared that the "time has come" for the country's Kurds to hold a referendum on statehood, his office said on Wednesday. "The time has come and the conditions are now suitable for the people to make a decision through a referendum on their future,"...

Jordan's state news agency Petra says a helicopter of the Public Security Department crashed during a night training mission, leaving one pilot dead and another seriously injured. Petra says the helicopter crashed late Tuesday near the city of Salt in western Jordan. There was no immediate word...

Israel would consider a French invitation to peace talks with the Palestinians, but believes France has made a mistake by saying it will recognize a Palestinian state if the talks fail, an Israeli government official said on Saturday. "If and when we get an invitation to a conference, we will...

Renewing a call for constitutional changes that would turn Turkey's political system into a presidential one, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he does not want the changes for himself but for Turkey's political stability. His comments Thursday during an address to civil society groups...

Seven members of Hamas' military wing were killed when a tunnel built for fighting against Israel collapsed this week in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist movement said Thursday. A statement from the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, said four militants managed to escape after the...