(Reuters) - A gathering of millions of Shi'ite Muslims at shrines and mosques across Iraq for the Ashoura religious commemoration passed without any major attacks on Tuesday, under tight security imposed for fear of Islamic State bombers. Crowds of hundreds of thousands of...

(Reuters) - The Iraqi army must do more to show it can fight Islamic State militants who have taken over a third of the country, French President Francois Hollande said on Monday. The Iraqi army, riven by sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, put up little...

(Reuters) - The Syrian Nusra Front has offered to free Lebanese soldiers it has captured in exchange for Islamist prisoners held in Syria and Lebanon, the SITE Intelligence Group reported on Sunday. The al Qaeda-linked front said in a statement monitored by SITE that it had...

A newspaper close to Syria's regime criticised new UN peace envoy Staffan De Mistura for the first time Sunday over his call for ceasefire zones to allow for aid deliveries. "De Mistura has been vested with a clear mission based on a solution to the crisis through negotiations...