( Bloomberg )- Mexico has surpassed Iraq and Afghanistan to become the world’s second-most deadly conflict zone after Syria, according to a study of wars around the globe. The number of fatalities from the expanding war among Mexico’s criminal cartels grew to 23,000 in 2016, compared...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Captain Hussein Haj Ali, the commander of Jaish Idlib (Idlib Army) subordinate to the Free Syrian Army said that the idea of establishing safe zones, or what are called the de-escalation zones, is a previous initiative proposed by the Turkish government and discussed with the...

A US-backed alliance of Syrian Arab and Kurdish fighters on Wednesday captured the key city of Tabqa and the nearby dam from ISIS extremists, a monitor told AFP. "The Syrian Democratic Forces seized control of Tabqa and the adjacent dam," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for...

The Trump administration is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information about the whereabouts of the military leader of Syria's al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front. The State Department says the reward will be paid for information "leading to the identification or location" of Abu...

Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi on Wednesday criticized the surprise resignation of the country's electoral chief just months before it is due to hold its first post-revolution municipal elections. Chafik Sarsar resigned on Tuesday, implying he was no longer able to work "independently...

The wife of the leader of a hunger strike by hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails has written to Pope Francis calling on him to intervene "before it is too late". Fadwa Barghouti, wife of Palestinian leader and prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, has called on the pope to...

Air strikes killed at least 11 people, including four children, in a village north of the Syrian city of Raqqa overnight, a war monitoring group said on Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes, thought to belong to the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, hit...

Turkey urged the United States on Wednesday to reverse a decision to arm Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State (IS) in Syria, saying every weapon supplied to the YPG militia constituted "a threat to Turkey". The angry reply came a week before President Tayyip Erdogan is due in Washington for...

Gunfire sounded in a flashpoint Saudi Arabian town Wednesday as authorities moved on a neighborhood slated for redevelopment, residents said. The Shiite town of Awamiya, on the Gulf coast, has seen repeated security incidents in recent years. Pictures purportedly from the scene...

King Abdullah II of Jordan, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Niger's Mahamadou Issoufou are among leaders invited by Saudi King Salman for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. The Arab-Islamic-American Summit will be among a series of talks expected to be held in Riyadh on...

Oil futures rose on Wednesday after Reuters reported Saudi Arabia would cut supplies to the region as OPEC tries to counter rising U.S. output that is threatening to derail its attempts to end a sustained global crude glut. Oil was also supported by a larger than expected fall in U.S. crude...

Ousted FIFA Ethics investigator Cornel Borbely said Wednesday his committee were looking into "several hundred" cases of possible wrongdoing, some involving senior officials. FIFA's ruling council decided Tuesday not to renew the mandate of Borbely and chief ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert,...

Turkey Wednesday slammed as "unacceptable" a U.S. announcement that Washington would supply arms and military equipment to Kurdish fighters battling ISIS extremists in Syria. "The supply of arms to the YPG is unacceptable," Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli told A Haber television....

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Mu'tasim Brigade, part of the Euphrates Shield, announced Wednesday the mandate of the International Coalition for the receipt of 11 villages in the northern suburb of Aleppo from the Syrian Democratic Forces militia (SDF), which is dominated by the militia of the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- PKK Syria's branch, the PYD militia, has killed two brothers during a raid on an Arab village in the area of Abu Rasin in Hasaka on Tuesday , residents said .  They were killed following PYD raids to find an Arab fighter who deserted the People’s Protection...

From a former president disobeying the supreme leader to open discussion of a 1980s mass execution, Iran's presidential election is pushing the boundaries of what can be discussed in public and done online, a small but noticeable shift in the country's clerically overseen polls. The push...

A top Syrian Kurdish official says the U.S. decision to arm Kurdish fighters with heavier weapons will help legitimize the force, which is denounced as a terrorist organization by Turkey. The Trump administration announced Tuesday it will arm the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces "as...

South Korea's new liberal President Moon Jae-in was sworn in Wednesday and vowed to immediately tackle the difficult tasks of addressing North Korea's advancing nuclear ambitions and soothing tensions with the United States and China. Moon said in his first speech as president he would...

 An Afghan official says a bomb planted on a car killed a tribal leader and another civilian in the southern Kandahar province. Zia Durani, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, said Wednesday that the attack took place the night before in the Spin Boldak district near the border...

U.S. President Donald Trump will receive Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov at the White House Wednesday even as a political firestorm has put Moscow's alleged meddling in the U.S. election back in the spotlight. Lavrov's visit, confirmed by the White House late Tuesday, centers on a...