(The National)-  ISIL’s loss of Raqqa last week  is an appropriate time to look back on an aspect of the war long taken at face value, namely the true number of those who joined the organisation. Forty months of fighting since the group seized one third of Iraq and half of Syria can...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran’s defense capabilities are not negotiable, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday in remarks made previously but which now come amid increased pressure from the U.S. government over Tehran’s ballistic missile program. Ties between Iran and the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly rose in September, hitting their highest level in nearly 10 years, offering hope that the housing market was regaining speed after appearing to stall recent months. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday new...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on Wednesday from four-week highs after a surprising increase in U.S. crude inventories, even as top exporter Saudi Arabia reiterated its determination to end a three-year supply glut. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Two Islamist judges wounded in explosive device attack in southern Daraa province, field activists said on Wednesday. The attack that targeted the Justice Court in Daraa comes as clashes renew between an ISIS affiliated group and southern rebels. On Tuesday, a...

NEW DELHI: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that US sanctions against Iran targeted the country's "malign behaviors" and were aimed at helping the Iranian people take control of their government. Tillerson told a New Delhi press conference after talks with India's Foreign...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The fate of dozens of Syrian activists who arbitrarily arrested by the Islamic State in Raqqa remains unknown even after the city liberation on Friday.  Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, prominent local monitoring tracks Syrian war, has launched a campaign...

Former Palestinian security head  Mohammed Dahlan  is playing a lead role in Syrian negotiations, according to Arab-language media. The former Fatah official has reportedly offered Syrian opposition groups two options for the future of the country, both of which would see President...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares edged higher on Wednesday, while U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar got a lift following a report that Republican senators were leaning toward John Taylor to be the next Federal Reserve chief. European stock futures STXEc1 were down 0.2 percent, pointing...

 Iraqi forces are about to launch an offensive to recapture the last patch of Iraq's territory still in the hands of Daesh (ISIS), a military statement said on Wednesday. "Your security forces are now coming to liberate you," said leaflets dropped by the Iraqi air force on the...

French President Emmanuel Macron has disappointed rights activists when he refused to publicly call out visiting Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi for his country's dismal human rights track record. President Emmanuel Macron has brushed off calls to "lecture" visiting Egyptian...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Trump administration will temporarily delay the processing of most refugees from 11 countries deemed to be high-risk while resuming refugee admissions for other countries, government officials said on Tuesday. According to a memo seen by Reuters, sent...

As U.S.-allied fighters hurtle down the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, a showdown could ensue between the U.S. and Russia, whose allies are racing to take over the same strategic oil-rich territory from the Islamic State group. While the two sides will likely avoid a direct...

(Reuters) - The Kurdistan Regional Government in a statement early on Wednesday offered to freeze the results of an earlier referendum on independence as part of an offer to defuse the crisis with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad. The statement also called for an immediate...

Russia on Tuesday vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution allowing the extension of the mission that investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria. This marks the ninth time that Moscow has vetoed against a draft resolution on Syria presented before the UN Security Council....

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a base belongs to moderate rebels in southern Daraa province, leaving one fighter dead and ten more wounded, local activists said Tuesday. The attack targeted ‘Mu'taz Bellah’ Brigade in Mzairib town in the western...

  (Zaman al-Wasl)- Syiran film maker Jude Saeed did not have to exert a great effort to add a realistic touch to the set locations for the film Rain of Homs as all the buildings and homes abandoned by the city’s people are destroyed and rubble fills the streets and alleys that until...

 Egyptian security forces have arrested 12 suspected members of the Islamist militant Hasm Movement in the province of Fayoum 60 km (40 miles) south of Cairo, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. A ministry statement said police also confiscated a number of weapons and explosive...

 Extremists from Daesh (ISIS) and fighters from Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition were locked in fierce clashes near Mosul Tuesday, with nearly 30 reported dead, the coalition said. Mosul, Iraq's second city, was retaken from Daesh in July after a massive months-long...

Iraqi pro-government paramilitaries launched an offensive against Kurdish troops on Tuesday near the Turkish frontier, pushing towards a strategic border crossing and oil export pipeline hub that Baghdad says must come under its control. The Iraqi government has transformed the balance...