ISIS is forcibly gathering people in and around Mosul for possible use as human shields against advancing Iraqi forces, residents said Wednesday, confirming U.N. fears. ISIS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian activists documented an experiments of a machine work to eject dense smoke in air as a method of defence against further Russian and Syrian regime air strikes.  The machine is considered a substitute to burning tyres, which residents, especially children kept...

An EU mission to train the Libyan coast guard hopes to diffuse tensions between the crisis-hit country and migrant rescue boats off its shores, and stop attacks by rogue vessels, its chief said Wednesday. Italian Rear Admiral Enrico Credendino, who heads up Operation Sophia, admitted NGOs...

Belgium's immigration minister is refusing to grant humanitarian visas to a family in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo despite being fined 4,000 euros ($4,438) a day for defying an appeal tribunal. A lawyer for the family, Olivier Stein, told The Associated Press Wednesday that the...

(The Daily Star)- A spokesman for a leading Shiite militia says its fighters have gained control of a highway linking the ISIS-held city of Mosul to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the militants' self-proclaimed caliphate. The spokesman for the Hezbollah Brigades, Jaafar...

 (New York Times)- Russia said on Wednesday that it would extend a moratorium on airstrikes in the Syrian city of Aleppo until Friday to give embattled antigovernment rebels a chance to leave the city and to “avoid senseless victims” of continued fighting. Under terms of the cease-fire...

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces moved closer on Wednesday to a town south of Mosul where aid groups and regional officials say Islamic State has executed dozens of prisoners. A military statement said security forces advanced to the edge of Hammam al-Alil, a thermal water resort, after an elite...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- situation on ground in Syria in increasingly complicating, amid the increase in the number of Iraqi Shiite militias supported by Iran in Syria, not to mention Commanders’ statement of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) about heading toward Aleppo after Mosul battle. ...

Three Syrian regime soldiers fled the country and reached Turkey's southern frontier province of Hatay late on Tuesday, a security source said on Wednesday. Speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, the source said the troops, who described themselves as "Assad's...

Swiss police raided a mosque in a northern city Wednesday, detaining four people including an Ethiopian imam who allegedly called for the killing of Muslims who refused to participate in prayers, the state prosecutor's office said. Police searched the An Nur mosque in Winterthur and the...

(Middle East Eye)- There have been two signs that Riyadh’s grip over its neighbourhood is loosening. The first was a long range missile which the Houthis fired at Jeddah airport, west of Mecca. The second was the election of Michel Aoun as Lebanese president, which was guaranteed by the...

French authorities Wednesday started moving out the remaining 1,500 unaccompanied children living next to the razed "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais to shelters around the country. A first bus carrying 43 minors left the area around 8:30 am (0730 GMT) for the southwest, rapidly followed by a...

(Financial Times)- One winter’s day in 2014 in a small Belgian town, an apparition from Syria’s war walked unannounced into Hans Bonte’s office. Only recently released from prison, the returned fighter wove his way through the corridors of Vilvoorde’s town hall in search of the mayor. Still...

(Daily Mail)- President Vladimir Putin has ordered a 10-hour truce on Friday in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo, the Russian defence ministry said. "A decision was made to introduce a 'humanitarian pause' in Aleppo on November 4 from 9:00 am (0600 GMT) to 19:00," the chief of Russia's...

   (Zaman Al Wasl)- A pro-regime militant group halted a U.N. aid convoy delivering food rations to the northern countryside of Hama province, residents said on Wednesday. The 17-truck convey was obliged to to return back when the so-called Shabiha group, mostly Alawites, threatened...

(The Guardian)- War and bloodshed doesn’t have the power to shock you when it’s been seen thousands of times before, on television, in films, in newspapers. That’s why the Russian reaction to the violent bombing campaign in the Syrian city of Aleppo has been so muted. There has been no...

(The Daily Star)- Hundreds of schools were ordered to close indefinitely in Kashmir Wednesday after shelling by Indian and Pakistani troops in the disputed region killed 14 civilians in two days. Authorities on the Indian-administered side of Kashmir, which is split between the two nations,...

Where you sleep. Whether your children go to school. When you can shop. The rhythm of bombardment dictates life in the besieged Syrian town of Douma, much of it spent underground. The rebel-held town, the largest in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus with more than 100,000 residents, is...

Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday it would extend a moratorium on airstrikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo until 1900 on Nov. 4 by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesman said Tuesday that a temporary pause in Russian and Syrian government airstrikes on Aleppo was...

She sent just one text to her mother: “I am trapped in a house with Islamic State fighters. Do not call me.” Off and on for eight hours, Monaly Atalla and six college roommates hid under their beds in their darkened house as an elite cadre of Islamic State fighters came and went during a...