A dozen bombings in central Iraq and two shootings in the north killed 22 people Thursday, officials and doctors said, as the country suffers its worst violence in years. Iraq has been hit by a year-long surge in bloodshed that has reached levels not seen since 2008, driven by...

 After three years of grinding conflict, the destruction of whole city districts and an exodus of refugees all triggered by an uprising against his rule, Bashar al-Assad is quietly preparing to be re-elected. The Syrian president has not yet announced whether he will stand for a...

Negotiators have lost contact with a group of nuns kidnapped from a Syrian town last year after their captors moved them, a source told AFP on Thursday. The 13 nuns and three maids were kidnapped from the famed Christian hamlet of Maalula last year and transported to the nearby town of...

Fierce clashes raged around the town of Morek on the strategic road between Hama and Idlib, which the army needs in order to supply a base in the province. The army has been trying to capture Morek and secure the road, but the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human...