It was a series of intercepted phone calls on a tense night in June that made Iraq’s new prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi fully realise how few friends he had. During one call, a senior Iraqi leader with strong ties to Iran instructed the security chief for Baghdad’s fortified Green...

At least 25 Afghan security force personnel were killed in an ambush blamed on the Taliban, officials said Wednesday, as spiraling violence imperils ongoing peace talks. The ambush came despite assurances by the Taliban to Washington last week that they would reduce the bloodshed....

Damascus has sharply increased petrol prices in government-held areas of Syria, saying that US sanctions on the war-torn country had left it with no alternative. The cost per liter of the 100-liter ration of subsidized petrol motorists are allowed each month has risen from 250 to 450 Syrian...

Nearly 300,000 more people have died in the United States in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic than would be expected based on historical trends, with at least two-thirds due to COVID-19, a government report released Tuesday showed, adding that COVID deaths likely were undercounted. The...