A major battle to liberate ISIS' stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria is looming, with U.S. officials looking to build on momentum from victories on the battlefields of Mosul in Iraq. The Pentagon has drawn up a secret plan to do that, likely leaning on local allies with stepped-up American...

Military helicopters and drones launched a series of attacks on suspected al-Qaeda targets in southern Yemen early Friday, witnesses said. The unidentified aircraft, believed to be American, also deployed troops on the ground in the al-Saeed area in Shabwa province and engaged suspected...

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, his office said in a statement on Thursday. The private email account was first reported by the Indianapolis Star, which said Pence used it at times to discuss sensitive matters and...

With his administration on the defensive over investigations into alleged Russian meddling in last year's election, U.S. President Donald Trump is no longer tweeting praise for his Kremlin counterpart. Less than five weeks after he took office, the chances of a spring thaw in relations...

The lead Syrian opposition negotiator at peace talks in Geneva said he hoped U.S. President Donald Trump would correct the "catastrophic" errors of his predecessor Barack Obama to become a reliable partner against "devilish" Iran. The U.N.-led negotiations edged forwards on Wednesday, for the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 58 army troops, including 17 officers, from the coastal city of Tartus were killed in February, pro-regime news feeds said. The death toll included 4 general brigadiers, colonel, 2 lieutenant colonels and 11 lieutenants. Residents of Tartus, the regime's powerful...

(Daily Mail)- Al-Qaeda has confirmed their second-in-command Abu Khayr al-Masri was killed by a US drone strike.  The attack in Idlib, north west Syria last week, is believed to have been carried out using a new type of munition using a far lower explosive yield to reduce civilian...

Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Ja'afari accused the Saudi-backed opposition on Thursday of holding peace talks hostage because of their reported refusal to unify under one opposition delegation and include terrorism on agenda. "We heard that... the Riyadh platform refused the...

Russia is hosting the head of Libya's U.N.-backed government, part of efforts to expand its clout in the fractured country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Thursday with Faez Sarraj, the prime minister of the unity government in Tripoli. Lavrov said that Russia, a "good and old...

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said Thursday he had cancelled a scheduled trip to Germany after authorities there blocked a rally to promote a "yes" vote for constitutional changes that would expand the president's powers. Bozdag was scheduled late Thursday to address the Turkish...

An Israeli soldier convicted of shooting dead a wounded Palestinian assailant will not go to prison until after his appeal, a military court ruled Thursday. Elor Azaria was sentenced to 18 months in jail by a military court on February 21 and was due to begin his sentence on Sunday, but an...

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that the Syrian city of Palmyra has been fully recaptured from ISIS militants, the RIA news agency reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The Syrian army retook the ancient town, which has fallen to...

Russia Thursday said stumbling U.N.-led Syrian peace talks in Geneva have sparked doubts that the opposition is capable of agreeing a deal with the regime in Damascus. "The results of the first days of the intra-Syrian dialogues, as before, raise questions over the ability of the Syrian...

(BBC)- A Syrian national has been arrested in Germany accused of war crimes involving the murder of dozens of civil servants. The man named as Abdalfatah HA is suspected of being part of a unit with an al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as al-Nusra Front, which killed 36 Syrian government...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 8 fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces killed by ISIS in the eastern countryside of Raqqa city, the group's news agency said Thursday. The US-backed SDF continues to push to gain ground in eastern al-Raqqah. As part of its efforts in the Wrath of the...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army took two village  from the powerful Kurdish YPG militia in the eastern countryside of Aleppo as hundreds of families flee ISIS-held areas, local reporter said. The FSA fighters captured villages of Tel Tourin and Qara near...

Syrian warplanes carried out airstrikes in Homs and in the western Qalamoun region on Thursday, a military media unit run by the regime's ally Hezbollah reported. The eight airstrikes in the rebel-held al-Waer in Homs killed seven people and caused injuries, it said. Although Homs, an...

Turkey Thursday threatened to strike Syrian Kurdish militia forces if they don't withdraw from Manbij, a former bastion of ISIS extremists that has been taken over by predominantly-Kurdish forces. "We will strike the YPG if they do not retreat," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told...

 A suspected U.S. drone strike killed two men Thursday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, a local government official and a village elder said. The missile struck two men riding a motorcycle in Pakistan's northern Kurram Agency, part of the country's lawless tribal...

Cement maker LafargeHolcim admitted Thursday it had resorted to "unacceptable practices" to continue operations at one of its now-closed factories in Syria. The admission comes after sources close to the case told AFP in January that the French government had filed a legal complaint against...