An Iraqi army elite unit and Kurdish fighters on Thursday launched a fresh offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from villages around Mosul, their last major city stronghold in Iraq, with the air and ground support of the U.S.-led coalition. Howitzer and mortar fire started at 6:00...

(theguardian)- A fleet of Russian warships is heading towards the Mediterranean on a route past the British Isles in what is believed to be the country’s largest naval deployment since the cold war. An MoD spokesman said: “When these ships near our waters we will man-mark them every step...

Russian warships off the coast of Norway are carrying fighter bombers that are likely to reinforce a final assault on the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo in two weeks, a senior NATO diplomat said on Wednesday, citing Western intelligence. The fleet passed by the Norwegian city of Bergen on...

The fight for Mosul, launched this week by Iraqi security forces supported by U.S. air power and advisers, could take months and is likely to feature periods of fierce combat, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Wednesday. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central...