Expelled from their main stronghold in northern Iraq, Daesh (ISIS) militants are now trapped in a military vise that will squeeze them on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said. Mattis arrived in the Iraqi capital on an unannounced visit Tuesday just...

Iraq must ensure that women and girls subjected to sexual violence at the hands of Daesh (ISIS) militants have access to justice and reparations, U.N. investigators said on Tuesday. Thousands of people, predominantly from Iraq’s ethnic and religious minorities, have been subjected to sexual...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Jihadist fighters blamed Ahmad Wahid al-Abd, the Islamic State jurist and the head of a group of Islamic State fighters who recently surrendered himself to the Hezbollah militia, for losing rebel strongholds at the Syrian-Lebanese border.  In an exclusive...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The security chaos, intensified impoverishment and the loss of the prestige of the state have contributed to the occurrence crimes and incidents in Latakia city.  Mohamed Saheli, media activist, documented information about several of the crimes by communicating...

Millions of Americans looked skyward in awe through protective glasses, telescopes and cameras on Monday as the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in a century marched from the U.S. Pacific Northwest to the Atlantic seaboard. After weeks of anticipation, onlookers from Oregon to South...

A rocket landed in the heavily fortified diplomatic area of the Afghan capital Kabul late Monday, police said. The attack came hours before US President Donald Trump is due to announce his long-awaited strategy for Afghanistan. A siren used by the US embassy to warn of incoming rockets...

Jordan's King Abdullah II and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Monday for new "serious and effective" peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the royal palace said. Meeting in Amman, they urged "the resumption of serious and effective negotiations between the...

Russia on Monday hailed what it said was "a dramatic shift" in the Syria conflict, saying that the Syrian army, with Moscow's help, was well on its way to pushing militants out of the central part of the country. In a statement from the Russian Defence Ministry, Colonel-General Sergei...

A Syrian refugee family in Germany has named their newly born baby girl Angela Merkel Muhammed out of gratitude to the chancellor for her open-door asylum policy in 2015, hospital officials said. "The first name of the girl is Angela, the second is Merkel. With this decision, the...

Imam at heart of Barcelona terror cell confirmed dead: police

Two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country's chemical weapons program were intercepted in the past six months, according to a confidential United Nations report on North Korea sanctions violations. The report by a panel of independent U.N. experts,...

President Donald Trump was poised to unveil his strategy for Afghanistan on Monday, putting his mark on America's longest war in his first formal address to the nation since becoming commander-in-chief. Having repeatedly pledged to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan after 16 frustrating...

(The Independent)- It was like hell. In the hospital it was very quiet despite all the people. Everyone was crying, crying from the gas, crying from looking at the bodies. It was so full, people were laid out on the floor. I almost stepped on the body of my friend. I didn’t even realise it...

The U.S. Navy ordered a broad investigation Monday into the performance and readiness of the Pacific-based 7th Fleet as vessels from several nations searched Southeast Asian waters for 10 U.S. sailors missing after an early morning collision between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker....

Lebanon's Hezbollah used drones to strike Islamic State in Syria close to the border with Lebanon, a military media unit it runs said on Monday, their first public declaration that they had used such a weapon. Hezbollah deployed the drones to hit Islamic State positions, bunkers and...

Although Islamic State is losing fighters and territory in Iraq and Syria, it remained the world’s deadliest militant organization last year, according to a report from the University of Maryland. Islamic State operatives carried out more than 1,400 attacks last year and killed more than...

Germany's anti-immigrant AfD party pushed Monday to make the massive influx of migrants into the country an election issue as it battles with flagging support, despite waning concern among Germans over the matter. More than 1 million migrants entered Germany in 2015-2016. Alternative for...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday appointed deputy foreign minister Anatoly Antonov as the country's new ambassador to the United States, replacing Sergei Kislyak. "By presidential decree, Anatoly Ivanovich Antonov is appointed Russian Ambassador to the United States," the Kremlin...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 40 people have been killed in deadly U.S. airstrikes on Raqqa city, local activists said on Monday as more than 40,000 people still trapped by aerial and ground bombing. Raqqa-based activist Ahmed Shalabi said the U.S.-led airstrikes, in support of Kurdish-led...

As Shawakh al-Omar huddled with 16 relatives in a single room in house in Islamic State's Syrian stronghold Raqqa, a mortar round slammed into the home next door, killing four people and shaking the building. The 57-year-old decided they should make a run for it. "We didn't even have...