With Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters, flags and emblems everywhere, there is no mistaking who controls the north Syria city of Raqa. Fighters from ISIL, the jihadist group that is now spearheading an offensive in Iraq, already regard the city that is strategically...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq asked the U.S. to launch airstrikes to beat back militants holding vast territories across its north, a decision Washington mulled over as insurgents pressed an assault on the country's largest oil refinery. U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday briefed...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Sunni militants captured a strategic northern Iraqi city along the highway to Syria on Monday, sending thousands of residents from an ethnic minority fleeing for safety and moving closer to their goal of linking areas under their control on both sides of the border....

An airstrike in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo killed 45 people, including 2 women and 5 children,  on Monday as helicopter gunships pounded a rebel-held neighborhood,  activists said in recent death toll. The Britain-based Syrian...