(Middle East Monitor)- As the Iraqi Kurdish administration continues to  defy international opinion  by pressing ahead with its plans to hold an advisory independence referendum next Monday, Iraq’s two most powerful neighbouring countries have stepped up rhetorical opposition to the...

Police deployed overnight Monday in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk to prevent a deadly dispute from developing into ethnic clashes ahead of a referendum on Kurdish independence, local residents said. The Kurdish authorities want to hold the vote on Sept. 25, despite opposition...

Rebel shelling of a residential neighborhood of Yemen's third-largest city Taez killed four boys aged between seven and 15, a local official said on Tuesday. The city is largely in the hands of the Saudi-backed government but has been a key battlefield in the conflict that has gripped...

Rebel groups launched a large attack on regime-held areas in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a media outlet run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah reported. The attack north of Hama city marks the biggest offensive in that area since March, and...