Elite Iraqi forces were engaged in "intense" fighting with jihadists in eastern Mosul on Saturday, an officer said, as civilians gathered on the city's outskirts to flee. Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the country's second city from the Islamic State group on October 17,...

 The Russian Defence Ministry said Saturday it would need the U.N. mission in Syria to formally confirm its ability to deliver aid to eastern Aleppo before Moscow agreed to any new humanitarian pauses in fighting in the shattered Syrian city. Moscow says previous temporary ceasefires on...

(Al Jazeera)- Thirty years ago, Ako Ghareb joined the Kurdish rebellion against Saddam Hussein's regime, in a bid for Kurdish independence. At the age of 23, he fled to the Jafaiti Valley and surrounding mountains in northern Iraq, where he remained entrenched with the Peshmerga for seven years....

(The Telegraph)- At least four people were killed and 14 others injured in an explosion inside the largest US military base in Afghanistan, Nato said, with the Taliban claiming responsibility. The explosion struck at dawn inside the heavily fortified Bagram Airfield north of Kabul, as the...