NEWSWORTHY
U.S.-backed forces in Syria hand over 150 Islamic State prisoners to Iraq
U.S.-backed Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State group in Syria handed over more than 150 Iraqi members of the group to Iraq, the first batch of several to come, an Iraqi security official said Thursday. The official said the IS militants were handed over to ...
Refusing to surrender, besieged Islamic State militants in Syria village demand corridor to Idlib
More than 300 Islamic State militants surrounded in a tiny area in eastern Syria are refusing to surrender to U.S.-backed forces and are trying to negotiate an exit, Syrian activists and a person close to the negotiations said Monday. The extremists are bottled up in ...
Acting Pentagon chief makes surprise Iraq visit to reassure Baghdad after latest Trump remarks
Acting U.S. defense chief Patrick Shanahan told Iraqi leaders that Washington understood its forces were in Iraq at Baghdad's invitation, aiming to steady relations after President Donald Trump said U.S. troops were needed to keep an eye on Iran. Shanahan met Prime Minister Adel Abdul ...
Fleeing Islamic State bastion, French women say more foreigners are still trapped inside
Two French women who fled the Islamic State group's last pocket in Syria told AFP on Monday more foreigners were trapped inside, barred from leaving by Iraqi jihadis. The Muslim converts said they paid smugglers to take them out of the battered IS-held holdout of ...
New acting Pentagon chief makes global debut with status uncertain and no military experience
At an extraordinary moment in Pentagon history, a former business executive with little political stature and without military experience is making his international debut as the acting U.S. secretary of defense. After conferring Monday with Afghan leaders and American military commanders and diplomats in Kabul, ...
Russia 'repatriates' 27 offspring of Islamic State fighters from Iraq
A Russian official said Sunday that Moscow had repatriated a fresh batch of children whose mothers are being held in Iraq for belonging to the Islamic State group. "Twenty-seven Russian children have been repatriated from Baghdad," a Russian foreign ministry official said. Thirty other children were ...
French guns on Iraq border aim to pin down Islamic State holdouts inside Syria
French howitzers deployed in the Euphrates Valley desert just inside Iraq stand ready to pour fury on Islamic State group die-hards in their last holdout across the border in Syria. Warplanes flash through the sky, followed seconds later by explosions on the Syrian side that ...
Suspected foreign jihadis caught in Syria may face harsh justice in Iraq as home countries shun them
Their home countries don't want them and holding trials in Syria isn't an option. Now suspected foreign jihadis could end up facing tough justice over the border in Iraq. Both countries have suffered for years at the hands of the Islamic State group and Iraqi ...
Slain Iraqi novelist criticized foreign meddling and Iran-backed militias
Iraqi novelist Alaa Mashzoub was a secular civil society activist who used his bike to get around Karbala's infamous traffic and road closures. He was also an outspoken critic of foreign interference in Iraq and political meddling by powerful Iran-backed militias. On Saturday, Mashzoub was ...
Iraqi president hits back at Trump over U.S. forces presence just to keep tabs on Iran
Iraq's president hit back at Donald Trump Monday for saying U.S. troops should stay in Iraq to keep an eye on Iran, saying the U.S. leader did not ask for Iraq's permission to do so. "We find these comments strange," said Barham Salih, speaking at ...
Iraqi refugee trio arrested in Germany over Islamic extremist bomb plot
German authorities arrested three Iraqi refugees on Wednesday on allegations they were planning an Islamic extremist bombing attack, and searched properties in three states in connection with their investigation. Federal prosecutors said Shahin F. and Hersh F., both 23, and Rauf S., 36, were taken ...
Denied asylum, Iraqi charged with rape and murder in Germany's 'Susanna case'
German prosecutors Wednesday announced child rape and murder charges against a rejected Iraqi asylum-seeker in a case that fueled a heated debate about immigrant crime. The accused in the "Susanna case," 21-year-old Ali Bashar, had fled Germany after the crime for northern Iraq but was ...
