( The Guardian )- Islamic State closed the doors of Raqqa, its de facto capital in Syria, to civilians and blocked their escape from the city more than a year ago. Then some of their fighters began taking money from civilians in return for allowing them to leave – up to $800 per person. Many...

( The Guardian )- Concerns are mounting over the civilian cost of the US-led coalition’s campaign to reclaim Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa, with reports of airstrikes killing and wounding hundreds of Syrians.  The reports, which cannot be definitively confirmed but are...

Fahamiya Shamasneh, a 75-year-old Palestinian woman, refuses to pack her things despite a looming deadline for evacuating the home she has lived in for more than 50 years. Israel's supreme court has ruled the family have until Wednesday to vacate the house in annexed east Jerusalem. The...

Iraqi troops have found a mass grave in the western city of Ramadi containing the bodies of 40 men believed to have been executed by Daesh (ISIS), officials said Friday. It is the latest of dozens of such grisly finds made by Iraqi forces since they drove the extremists out of the swathes of...