BEIRUT (Reuters) - Ridiculed at first, the new power which has seized a third of Iraq and triggered the first American air strikes since the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011 – has carved itself a powerful and possibly lasting presence in the Middle East. The...

(Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents who seized a Lebanese border town this month planned to turn Lebanon into another Iraq by unleashing sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi'ites that would have endangered the nation's very existence, the army commander said. General Jean...

(Reuters) - Talks to end a month-long war between Israel and Islamist militants in Gaza have made no progress so far, an Israeli official said on Tuesday, as a 72-hour ceasefire in the shattered Palestinian enclave held for a second day. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators...

(Reuters) - Iraq's president named a new prime minister to end Nuri al-Maliki's eight-year rule on Monday, but the veteran leader refused to go after deploying militias and special forces on the streets, creating a dangerous political showdown in Baghdad. Washington, which...

(Reuters) - Iraq's president named a new prime minister to end Nuri al-Maliki's eight year rule on Monday, but the veteran leader refused to go after deploying militias and special forces on the streets, creating a dangerous political showdown in Baghdad. Washington, which...

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia discussed developments in Syria, Iraq, Gaza and Libya with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, during Sisi's first visit to his regime's powerful ally since winning May elections. Sisi flew to the Red Sea city of Jeddah late on Sunday and held...

SYDNEY: Senior U.S. officials said the Obama administration had begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in Iraq. The U.S. previously had insisted on only selling arms to the Iraqi government. The...

(Reuters- Exclusive) - Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq's Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north, Iraq's human rights minister told Reuters on Sunday. Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the Sunni militants had also buried alive some...

(Reuters) - Tayyip Erdogan was set to be Turkey's next president after local media credited the veteran prime minister with more than half the vote in a near-complete count and allies said Erdogan had won. After an election on Sunday that his opponents say may create an...

(Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians agreed on Sunday to an Egyptian proposal for a new 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza starting at 1700 ET, officials from the warring sides said. " Israel has accepted Egypt's proposal," a senior Israeli government official said, adding...

(Reuters) - Turks voted in their country's first presidential election on Sunday with Tayyip Erdogan poised to win and fulfill his dream of what he calls a "new Turkey " and what his opponents say will be an increasingly authoritarian nation. A victory for Erdogan would seal...

Ankara, Aug 10 (IANS) Turkey Saturday denied any involvement in the US air strikes on Islamic State of Iraq and Syria(ISIS) sites in northern Iraq. "The US is using all its resources to bomb ISIS sites that it sees as a threat to its interests," Xinhua quoted Turkey's National...

RIYADH (Reuters) - An airplane carrying 40 passengers crashed in a residential area after taking off from Tehran's Mehrabad airport on Sunday morning, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported, citing a spokesman for the Iranian Red Crescent Society and its own reporter....

BEIRUT (AP) — Thousands of members of a religious minority group under attack by Islamic extremists have fled across the border from Iraq to seek refuge with the Kurds of northeastern Syria, said two Kurdish officials and an activist on Saturday. Ekrem Hasso and Juan Mohammad...

Washington, Aug 9 (IANS) President Barack Obama said Saturday that the US air strikes have "successfully destroyed arms and equipment" that terrorists with Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) could have used against the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil in Iraq. "We...

(Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents who seized Iraq's biggest dam in an offensive that has caused international consternation have brought in engineers for repairs, witnesses said on Saturday, as nervous Kurds stocked up on arms to defend their enclave nearby. The jihadi...

A Lebanese army soldier died Saturday of wounds sustained in clashes with jihadists near the Syrian border, raising the number of troops killed in the fighting to 18, the army said. The fighting broke out on August 2 when jihadists from Syria attacked army and police posts in...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, back in Lebanon after over three years in self-imposed exile, on Friday called on lawmakers to elect a president to help ensure the stability of the country. "Electing the president is everyone's responsibility....

Vatican City, Aug 8 (IANS/EFE) Pope Francis will send Cardinal Fernando Filoni to northern Iraq to express his proximity and solidarity with the people, especially Christians, who are enduring attacks from Sunni jihadis, the Vatican press office said Friday. The former nuncio to...

(Al Jazeera)- The US military has conducted air strikes against Islamic State fighters near the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, the US Defence Department has said. A Pentagon statement said two F/A-18 warplanes dropped 225 kilograms of laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery...