(The Daily Star)- Iraqi forces said Sunday that they recaptured a series of villages surrounding jihadist-held Mosul as the operation to retake the city from the Islamic State group neared its third week. Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been advancing on...

Syrian rebels opened a new front in Aleppo as fighting spread on the third day of a major insurgent counter-attack to break the government's siege of the opposition-held part of the city, and each side accused the other using poison gas. The rebels, including both Free Syrian Army factions...

(Zaman al-Wasl) Zaman al-Wasl learnt that regime forces imposed a security cordon around Tartus central prison on Sunday afternoon following some of the political prisoners carrying out an insurrection. The political prisoners managed to gain control of the entire prison after breaking down room...

(The Daily Star)- A car bomb parked in a shopping street of a Shiite district of Baghdad killed at least eight people and wounded more than 30 others on Sunday, police and medical staff said. The bombing, which hit the Hurriya district, came as Iraqi security forces are engaged in an...