(Reuters) - Lieutenant General Mahdi Gharawi knew an attack was coming. In late May, Iraqi security forces arrested seven members of militant group Islamic State in Mosul and learned the group planned an offensive on the city in early June. Gharawi, the operational commander of...

(AFP)- Syrian troops have regained control of villages near a military air base in the central province of Hama, pushing back rebel fighters in the area, a monitoring group said Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime troops and pro-regime militiamen had made the...

(AFP)- Raids by Syrian forces hunting suspected Islamic State infiltrators in the northeast town of Hasakeh have sparked an exodus of more than 60,000 civilians in three days, a monitor said Monday. Hasakeh is split between zones controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's forces,...

The first appearance of self-proclaimed "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a video shot in an Iraqi mosque illustrates the extent of his jihadist group's control and confidence, experts say. Baghdadi, whose Islamic State (IS) group holds territory in both Iraq and Syria, called for...