Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Iraqi jihadist who rose from obscurity to declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims as the leader of Islamic State, has died in a raid by U.S. special forces in northwest Syria. U.S. President Donald Trump said in a televised address from ...
Bomb kills eight in Syrian city of Raqqa, a liberated Islamic State stronghold
A bomb attack in the Syrian city of Raqqa killed eight people on Tuesday, including four members of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a security source in northern Syria said. The blast also killed four civilians and wounded three members of the Kurdish-led internal security ...
Two Belgian women, renouncing Islamic State, fear they will never go home with their six kids
Two Belgian women who joined Islamic State in Syria said on Sunday they were losing hope they will ever go home after a Belgian court overturned a ruling to repatriate them with their six children. Tatiana Wielandt and Bouchra Abouallal, each 26, said that as ...
U.S. aid chief pays surprise visit to Syria's war-ravaged Raqqa on stabilization push
The U.S. government's aid chief, Mark Green, made an unannounced visit to Raqqa in Syria on Monday, the most senior U.S. civilian official from the Trump administration to visit the war-struck northern city months after it was retaken from Islamic State. Green was accompanied by ...
Iraqi forces launched an operation on Thursday to clear the desert bordering Syria of Islamic State fighters in a final push to rid Iraq of the militant group, the military said. Troops from the Iraqi army and mainly Shiite paramilitaries known as Popular Mobilization Forces ...
Air raids by U.S. coalition warplanes have intensified in recent days as Kurdish and Arab militias seek to drive surrounded Islamic State militants from their last strongholds in Syria's Raqqa — but the toll on civilians has been severe. Hundreds of civilians fled the city ...
U.S.-backed forces battling Islamic state take Raqqa's Grand Mosque
U.S.-backed Syrian militias have taken the historic old city of Raqqa and its ancient mosque as they press their offensive to defeat Islamic State, the U.S.-led coalition said on Monday. The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, said last week it ...
Syrian forces poised to punch through, end siege in Deir al-Zor, liberate 93,000 civilians
With a sudden lunge through jihadi lines, the Syrian army and its allies on Monday came to within 3 km of relieving the Euphrates city of Deir al-Zor, where Islamic State has besieged 93,000 civilians and an army garrison for years. The advance on the ...
Government forces breached the city limits of Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq on Tuesday on the third day of a U.S.-backed offensive to seize it back from Islamic State militants. Tal Afar, a longtime Islamic State stronghold, is the latest objective in the war following ...
Syrian forces about to surround Islamic State pocket in Homs desert
The Syrian army and its allies advanced in the central Syrian desert on Monday and could soon encircle an Islamic State pocket, part of a multipronged thrust into eastern areas held by the jihadi group. A Syrian military source said the Syrian army and its ...
29 civilians reported killed in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on Raqqa
Airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State killed at least 29 civilians, including 14 children, in 24 hours in the jihadis' Syrian capital of Raqqa, a war monitor said late on Tuesday. The dead included a family of 14 who had fled to Raqqa ...
Turkey sends reinforcements into northern Syria to fight Kurds, rebel allies
Turkey has sent new military reinforcements including troops, vehicles and equipment into northern Syria, a war monitoring group and rebel and Kurdish sources said on Wednesday. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the forces had crossed the border in the last 24 hours ...
