The al Qaeda-linked Islamist state of   Iraq   and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday, according to...

    The "Friends of Syria", an alliance of mainly Western and Gulf Arab countries who oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, urged opposition groups on Sunday to attend this month's peace talks, saying there was no alternative for a political solution. "There is no other...

A car bomb exploded outside a bus terminal in central Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding 16, police and medics said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack at the Allawi al-Hillah bus terminal but Sunni Islamist insurgents have been gaining...

Several factions of the Syrian opposition, meeting together for the first time, called on Friday for a new coalition but did not reach agreement on who should attend peace talks later this month, or whether they would attend at all. With less than a fortnight to go until the first...