Scores of civilians are fleeing Syria's Raqqa traumatized, with families torn apart and conditions worsening as the battle to oust Islamic State intensifies, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday. The number of people escaping has risen rapidly in recent weeks, Sajjad Malik, the U.N....

( Foreign Policy )- A confidential U.S.-Russian cease-fire agreement for southwestern Syria that went into effect Sunday calls for barring Iranian-backed foreign fighters from a strategic stretch of Syrian territory near the borders of Israel and Jordan, according to three diplomatic sources....

A Philippine government air strike aimed at Islamist rebels mistakenly killed two soldiers on Wednesday, the military said, the second such deadly accident in a bloody campaign to oust the militants from a southern city. The accident happened when a plane bombing rebel positions in the city...

In a demonstration of the Chinese navy's expanding global reach, the country's latest-generation warships conducted live-firing drills in the Mediterranean Sea this week while en route to joint exercises with the Russian navy, the defense ministry said Wednesday. The destroyer Hefei, frigate...