Tag - iraq-syria

 
 

IRAQ SYRIA

WORLD
Sep 17, 2014
NSA chief on tech-savvy Islamic State: 'I'm watching'
While U.S. military leaders appeared before Congress to outline their strategy to fight Islamic State militants on the battlefield, the National Security Agency chief said on Tuesday he was watching the media-savvy group's cybercapabilities.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 7, 2014
Strategy against Islamic State in hand, Obama now must make it work
It took President Barack Obama and his top aides a week to explain that he does in fact have a strategy for confronting the Islamic State militancy. Now he has to prove that he can make it work.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2014
Crossing paths with James Foley in Syria's war
A former independent reporter in Syria recalls the last times he saw freelance journalist James Foley — whom the Islamic State beheaded last month — and a helpful middle-aged tailor fighting for the Free Syrian Army.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 31, 2014
Steppe nomads were precursors to the Islamic State
The debate over how to think about the Islamic State group has mainly centered on important but abstruse questions — is it evil or not? — and on what combination of military and economic pressure might be necessary to prevent the establishment of a caliphate.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 31, 2014
Islamic State militants behead captive Lebanese soldier
Islamic State militants beheaded a Lebanese soldier who was one of 19 captured by hard-line Syrian Islamists when they seized a Lebanese border town for a few days in August, a video posted on social media showed on Saturday.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Aug 15, 2014
Islamic State puts 'invincible' Kurd warriors to sword
The Kurdish peshmerga fighter ran out of ammunition but saved two bullets to end his own life in case Islamic State militants caught up with him as he fled the front line in northwest Iraq.
WORLD
Aug 11, 2014
Saudi Arabia jails four for seeking to fight in Syria
Saudi Arabia's Specialised Criminal Court has sentenced four men to prison for travelling abroad to fight in Syria's civil war, local and state media reported on Sunday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 24, 2014
Young Islamic State robs al-Qaida of militant prestige
In hiding, targeted by drone strikes and unable to land a blow in the West, al-Qaida's aging leaders are losing a power struggle with ultra-radical young militants in Iraq and Syria who see themselves as the true successors to Osama bin Laden.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2014
Iraq's ancient Christian population of Mosul flees ISIL
The ancient Christian community of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul had all but fled by Saturday, ending a presence stretching back nearly two millennia after radical Islamists set them a midday deadline to submit to Islamic rule or leave.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 2, 2014
Southeast Asia fears fallout of Mideast chaos
Four gun-wielding rebel fighters sit relaxing on a wall, their faces concealed by scarves and ski masks. All are Indonesians who came to Syria to join the Islamist insurgency, the cameraman says, speaking Indonesian peppered with Arabic phrases.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 29, 2014
Before Iraq polls, Shiite militias unleashed war on Sunni insurgents
The Sunni militants who seized the riverside town of Buhriz late last month stayed for several hours.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 3, 2013
Ghost of Iraq looms as U.N. evaluates Syria
A few days ago, a little-known Swedish scientist with a career devoted to studying lethal warfare agents paid a quiet visit to London. He was there to examine evidence that British officials believe shows that Syrian forces used chemical weapons against their own people.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Apr 11, 2013
Fight looms for rival Syria rebel factions
As this remote corner of northeastern Syria fast slides out of government control, many Syrians are bracing for what they fear will be another war, between the relatively moderate fighters who first took up arms against the government and the Islamist extremists who emerged more recently with the muscle and firepower to drive the rebel advance.

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