Daily clashes between Kurdish militants and security forces in southeast Turkey have cast doubt on whether a credible election can be held in two months' time, with the fear of violence likely to haunt campaign rallies and voting day itself. Kurds seemed to hold the keys to Turkey's...

A coalition led by the United States bombarded the Islamic State militant group on Monday with 14 air strikes in Iraq and five in Syria, according to a statement released on Tuesday. The air strikes in Iraq were concentrated near Baji, where three hit tactical units and also destroyed six...

Syria has denied reports of increased military activity by Russian troops on its soil, after Washington said it was following up on claims of ramped up support from Moscow. Speaking late Monday to Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station, Information Minister Omran Zohbi dismissed the reports as...

France carried out its first surveillance flights over Syria on Tuesday to prepare possible attacks on ISIS jihadis, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. "These surveillance flights will determine what action can be taken when the time comes," Fabius told reporters. The flights began the day...

 Kurdish authorities in northern Syria are arbitrarily detaining critics and alleged ISIS sympathizers and denying prisoners fair trials, rights group Amnesty International said Monday. In a new report, Amnesty said it had documented several cases of authorities detaining people with...

Britain will not hesitate to carry out more deadly drone strikes against militants in Syria planning attacks on the United Kingdom, defense minister Michael Fallon said on Tuesday, as he defended the killing of a British Islamic State fighter. Prime Minister Cameron told parliament on...

6 rebel factions operating in southern province of Daraa launched new battle aims to capture villages from regime army and its allied Shiite militias on the gates of the capital, a key rebel group said in statement  Tuesday . Alwyat al-Forqan group says rebels plan to take...

Iran is willing to sit down with its rivals to discuss the crisis in Syria, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, but suggested Tehran would not debate the future of President Bashar al-Assad until peace is achieved. The world's attention has once again turned to Syria in recent...

Ten Turkish police officers were killed in a bomb attack on a minibus in the eastern Turkish province of Igdir on Tuesday, a government official told Reuters. The attack came amid a surge in violence between the state and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. Turkish warplanes struck PKK...

Syrian government officials have denied that Islamic State fighters captured an oil field which a monitoring group reported had been seized from government forces. Talal al-Barazi, governor of Homs province, was quoted by al-Watan newspaper on Tuesday as saying Islamic State fighters had...

Egyptian authorities Monday arrested the country’s agriculture minister over corruption allegations, security sources said, just after his resignation was announced. The prime minister’s office released a statement earlier in the day saying Salah El Din Mahmoud Helal’s resignation had been...

The U.N. special envoy for Syria warned Monday many thousands more refugees would flee to Europe if the international community cannot find a peace accord and abandons them to ISIS. "Why are people leaving? Because they have lost hope after five years of endless conflict and they see only one...

(Writing by Faris Al Rifai; Translation by Yusra Ahmed) More than 28 months passed since Abdullah al-Khalil, the lawyer and human rights advocate, had been arrested by the Syrian regime security in May 2013. Reports confirmed that al-Khalil was tortured and detained...

Ten suspected Islamist radicals went on trial in the Netherlands on Monday, accused of recruiting Dutch Muslims to fight with Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria. The trial, the largest against alleged jihadists in the Netherlands in a decade, is seen as a test of whether...

As Europe grapples with a flood of refugees from the Syrian war and the pope urges Catholics to help them, the U.S. government may lack the political appetite to offer American soil as a safe haven to more than the current trickle of Syrians. Refugee and immigrant groups had...

ISIS killed 6 Kurdish Democratic Party fighters in northeastern province of Hasakah on Monday, activists said as Kurds and U.S.-led coalition have been intensifying aerial and ground bombardment to expel the hardline group from the north of war-torn country. Mahmoud al-Ahmed, activist, told...

Qatar has sent 1,000 ground troops to Yemen, Doha-based Al Jazeera television said, escalating Gulf Arab intervention in Yemen's war ahead of a planned offensive against Iranian-backed Houthis holding the capital Sanaa. Qatari pilots had already joined months of Saudi-led air strikes on...

  The United States has asked Greece to deny Russia the use of its airspace for supply flights to Syria, a Greek official said on Monday, after Washington told Moscow it was deeply concerned by reports of a Russian military build up in Syria. The Greek foreign ministry said the...

Struggling to cope with a record influx of asylum seekers, Germany told its European partners on Monday they must take in more refugees too, saying the burden could not fall on just a few countries. Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking after a weekend in which some 20,000 migrants made...

Islamic State fighters have seized the last major oilfield under Syrian regime control during battles over a vast central desert zone, Reuters said on Monday. The Jazal field was now shut down and clashes were ongoing east of Homs, with casualties reported on both sides, the...