A former bodyguard of Iran's hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been killed in Syria while defending a religious site near Aleppo, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Friday. "Abdollah Bagheri Niaraki, who for a while was the bodyguard of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was...

The top diplomats of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States started key talks on Friday in Vienna to try to find a way to end the Syrian conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov -- whose government backs Damascus -- was meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry along with...

A senior al Shabaab commander and about 20 of his followers have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the first move of its kind to emerge in the Somali militant group. There was no immediate reaction from al Shabaab's overall leadership, which aligned itself in 2012 to al...

At least 15 civilians mostly children were killed in Syrian regime air strikes on rebel-held town in the northern countryside of Homs city, according to activists. Local activists said 15 people have lost their lives and dozens wounded in Friday's attack on Talbiseh. The stricken town has been...

 The Army of Conquest launched new battle against Syrian regime troops in central province of Hama late on Thursday, killing 12 soldiers, activists told Zaman Al Wasl. The alliance of Islamist groups, including Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, has mobilized troops reached 24,ooo in the...

A self-defense fighter says twin bomb blasts have killed at least 18 at a northeast Nigerian mosque crowded with people observing pre-dawn prayers. The fighter was among rescuers who evacuated bodies while troops cordoned off the zone. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals....

ISIS rakes in up to $50 million a month from selling crude from oilfields under its control in Iraq and Syria, part of a well-run industry that U.S. diplomacy and airstrikes have so far failed to shut down, according to Iraqi intelligence and U.S. officials. Oil sales - the extremists' largest...

Militants loyal to Bashar al-Assad in northern rural Homs have kidnapped 20 women to press on rebels freeing corpses of regime soldiers who were killed in the ongoing clashes, activists said Thursday. Rebels said 15 regime army soldiers have been killed yesterday and 7 tanks and vehicles were...

Forty-two mostly elderly people died when a bus and a truck collided head-on and caught fire near Bordeaux early on Friday, officials said, in France's worst road crash in decades. Another five people were injured in the collision on a country road near Puisseguin in the Gironde region about...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened talks in Vienna Friday with his Russian, Saudi and Turkish counterparts aimed at reviving a moribund effort to end Syria's civil war. Kerry began a day-long series of meetings in the Austrian capital in consultations with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Russia to use its influence over the Syrian regime to stop attacks against civilians and work towards a political solution, but also underlined that al-Assad cannot have a political future in the country. "Al-Assad has to stop hitting its own people...

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that she has taken responsibility for the U.S. consulate attack in the Libyan city of Benghazi in 2012, which killed four American diplomats, including the ambassador. In remarks made in a testimony before a U.S. Congressional Committee on...

Syrian troops and their allies, backed by Russian airstrikes have taken ground on Thursday in southern rural Aleppo, activists and rebel commanders said after one-week of heavy bombardments. Zaman Al Wasl reporter said Russia's devastating air strikes that began in the country on Sept. 30,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad had told him he was ready to talk to armed opposition groups if they are genuinely committed to dialogue and to combating Islamic State. Speaking a day after Assad made a surprise visit to Moscow for...

One member of a U.S. special operations force was killed during an overnight mission to rescue hostages held by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, the first American to die in ground combat with the militant group, U.S. officials said on Thursday. Sixty-nine hostages...

Almost 80 percent of Russia's declared targets in Syria have been in areas not held by Islamic State, a Reuters analysis of Russian Defence Ministry data shows, undermining Moscow's assertions that its aim is to defeat the group. The majority of strikes, according to the...

The Syrian regime and Russian warplanes have carried out more than 40 raids in the northern countryside of Homs city on Thursday, local activists said. The regime troops backed by fighters from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah have launched a series of ground offensives western and northwestern...

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Thursday that to eliminate militant group Islamic State, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must be removed from power. Jubeir also said that Assad was the magnet "that attracted foreign fighters from all over the world to fight on...

Two Palestinians stabbed an Israeli Thursday and were then shot by police, as diplomatic efforts continued to try to bring an end to a month-long spate of violence. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the attackers, whose identities were not immediately known, were seriously wounded....

Lebanese politician Wiam Wahhab said in a tweet he wrote Wednesday that Qatar will be targeted in what appears to be a reaction to Qatar’s foreign minister stating that the Gulf country could possibly intervene militarily in Syria.  “If Qatar implements its military threats in Syria, Doha...