BEIRUT (Reuters) - The success of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has emboldened like-minded militants in Lebanon who believe they can emulate it, the interior minister said, confirming the militant Sunni group had now appeared in Beirut for the first time. In an interview...

(Al Jazeera)- Hundreds of bombs shake Gaza, leaving 75 dead and hundreds injured, as Palestinian fighters fire rockets into Israel. At least 75 people, including many children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in two days of Israeli air raids, as Israel's army...

Tel Aviv (Al Jazeera)-  The Israeli army carried out 160 airstrikes in Gaza overnight, escalating a bombardment that has killed at least 27 Palestinians and wounded more than 100. Local media reported on Wednesday morning that one of the airstrikes targeted the house of a...

(Reuters) - One night last week, Islamic State militants in an SUV with tinted windows pulled up at the home of a former Iraqi army officer, one of the men they see as an obstacle to their goal of establishing a caliphate from Iraq to the Mediterranean. As the retired...

(Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would need to significantly increase its uranium enrichment capacity, highlighting a gap in positions between Tehran and world powers as they hold talks aimed at clinching a nuclear accord. Iran and six major powers...

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel launched an offensive against Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, bombing some 50 targets, including homes, in a campaign meant to end Palestinian rocket fire into the Jewish state. The Israeli military urged Israelis within a 40-km...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli judge on Sunday released from jail and placed under house arrest a 15-year-old American of Palestinian descent whose apparent beating by Israeli police in East Jerusalem has drawn U.S. concern. Tariq Khdeir from Tampa, Florida, is a cousin of...

(Reuters) - Israeli air strikes killed seven Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Monday, the Islamist group said, in the deadliest attacks in a surge of violence exacerbated by the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli youths and a Palestinian teen. The Israeli military...

A suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a cafe in a predominantly-Shiite neighbourhood in west Baghdad on Sunday evening, killing at least four people, security and medical officials said. The evening attack struck inside the cafe in the Washash neighbourhood, a police...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Sunday a referendum on the independence of Iraq's Kurdish region would lead to a "catastrophic" break up of the country, which is facing an onslaught by Sunni Islamist militants. The comments from Sisi, leader of...

(Reuters) - An Egyptian court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie to life in prison on Saturday, the court's judge said, for inciting violence that erupted after the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last year. Badie, convicted along with about 36...

(Reuters) - A group of 46 nurses caught up in fighting in Iraq arrived home in India on Saturday after briefly being held captive by suspected militants, an outcome celebrated by the newly elected government in New Delhi as an early diplomatic success. The nurses, mainly...

BETHLEHEM ( Ma'an News Agency ) -  A preliminary autopsy report shows that 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir was burnt alive by his kidnappers, a senior Palestinian official said late Friday. Attorney General Muhammad Abd al-Ghani Uweili told Ma'an Abu...

A Kurdish diplomat has played down the significance of Israeli advocacy of independence for her people, saying it was not coordinated with the autonomous Kurdish government in Iraq and may be intended to served Israel's interests. While acknowledging that Israel had sway in...

Israel beefed up its forces along its frontier with the Gaza Strip and launched air strikes against militant Hamas targets there on Thursday in response to Palestinian cross-border rocket attacks. Israel also faced a second day of violent Palestinian protests in Jerusalem...

Iraqi Kurdish preparations for an independence referendum met with frustration in Washington, which stressed unity was essential to tackle a jihadist-led onslaught that risks "Syria-like chaos". In a rare piece of positive news during the crisis, however, a group of 46 Indian...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi government airstrikes on Friday targeted Islamic militants trying to capture the country's largest oil refinery, reportedly killing as many as 30 insurgents, authorities said. Fighters from the Islamic State extremist group, who have overrun much of northern...

Washington, July 4 (IANS) US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday they are focusing American military efforts in Iraq on securing the American embassy and personnel in Baghdad, while advising Iraqi security forces based on assessing the situation in the Middle East country....

A source within the coalition supporting ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi claims that they have documented 54 cases of women being raped in detention centres, two of who became pregnant and have not aborted until this day, Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday. This comes...

Iraq risks descending into "Syria-like chaos" if its political class fails to unite and agree on a government, the United Nations envoy to Baghdad told AFP on Thursday. Nickolay Mladenov urged Iraq's leaders to press on with a political process that involves selecting a...