A convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families left the Lebanon-Syria border region on Monday under Syrian military escort, surrendering their enclave and traveling to eastern Syria after a week-long battle. A line of ambulances and buses were shown on Syrian state television...

The battle to oust Islamic State from its stronghold in the Syrian city of Raqqa should end within two months, a top-ranking Kurdish commander told Reuters, but said she expects the fighting to intensify. Nowruz Ahmed sits on the military council of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces...

( The Independent )- Zahira (not her real name) was 45 when she was arrested at her workplace in a suburb of Damascus in 2013. As soon as she arrived at Al Mezzeh Military Airport, she was strip searched, tied to a bed and gang raped by five soldiers.  For the next 14 days, she was...

Hamas and Iran have patched up relations, the Palestinian militant group’s new leader in Gaza said on Monday, and Tehran is again its biggest backer after years of tension over the civil war in Syria. “Relations with Iran are excellent and Iran is the largest supporter of the Izz el-Deen...

Moscow Monday slammed new U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, saying they were aimed at damaging the Latin American nation's economy and aggravating tensions. "The announced sectoral sanctions against Venezuela's financial and oil sector are quite obviously aimed at aggravating the out-of-balance...

A South African legal rights group Monday took the government to court in a campaign pressing for new legislation to recognize Muslim marriages as legally valid. The Women's Legal Centre (WLC) said it was lobbying against "unfair discrimination" as South African law does not grant religious...

Tens of thousands of Syrian nationals who fled their country's civil war to Turkey are returning home temporarily to Syria to celebrate a major Muslim holiday, Turkish officials said Monday. Almost three million Syrians have taken refuge in Turkey since the conflict broke out in 2011, the...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Monday took strategic al-Mansour district in Raqqa city, such a gain nears the collapse of the radical group's capital, local activists said. The Kurdish-led alliance said 17 ISIS fighters were killed in the clashes...

Germany said on Monday it had reached a deal with Egypt to stem the flow of migrants from the Arab country, part of a broader push by Berlin to head off waves of migrants that have stoked domestic political tensions. The arrival in Germany of a million refugees over the last two years,...

By Tim Ramadan ( The Guardian )- Around three months have passed since the Syrian Democratic Forces launched a military operation to wrest back control of Raqqa from Islamic State. These forces are backed directly by the US-led international coalition, and they have so far succeeded in...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran is building sites to produce precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon, with the aim of using them against Israel. At the start of a meeting in Jerusalem with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Netanyahu accused Iran of...

The Syrian army and Hezbollah on Monday prepared to escort Islamic State fighters to eastern Syria from their enclave on the border with Lebanon under an agreement following a week-long offensive against the jihadist group. It will end any Sunni militant presence on the border, an important...

Countries need to quadruple spending to $150 billion a year to deliver universal safe water and sanitation, helping to reduce childhood disease and deaths while boosting economic growth, said the World Bank. Investments should be better coordinated and targeted to ensure services reach the...

cTwo million Muslims from across the globe are converging on Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage, a religious duty and for some pilgrims the journey of a lifetime. This year sees the return of pilgrims from Shiite Iran, regional rival to Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and comes...

Iraqi officials say a car bomb has ripped through a busy market area in eastern Baghdad, killing at least six people. A police officer says the explosives-laden car went off on Monday morning at the wholesale Jamila market in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City. He says the explosion also...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Salamiya National Hospital east of Hama province has received bodies of 50 soldiers on Sunday were killed with 100 more in ISIS deadly suicide attacks near Raqqa city, local sources said.   Pro-regime media outlets said about 300 soldiers had been killed and...

( The Washington Post )- As Syrian refugees begin to trickle back to a homeland still at war, aid agencies fear that a proposed change to U.N. guidelines could accelerate the pace of returns. At least 5.1 million people have left Syria during the six-year conflict, with most seeking safety...

 Iran's official IRNA news agency says one of the country's most influential dissident politicians who once served as foreign minister, Ebrahim Yazdi, has died. He was 85. Monday's report says Yazdi died in Izmir, Turkey, due to complications from cancer. He was a close ally of...

Donald Trump's company was pursuing a Moscow real estate deal while he was running for U.S. president in late 2015 and early 2016, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The Post report cited people familiar with the proposal and records viewed by Trump Organization lawyers. The...

(Zaman Al Wasl TV)- 'Barrel', most used word in rebel-held areas that phrases death, destruction and bloodshed where thousands of barrel bombs have been dropped on civilians since Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, topping the death toll in the war-torn country to a total of half million....