Rebels evacuate Syria's last besieged enclave as civilian deaths surge
Hundreds of rebels left the last major besieged opposition enclave in Syria on Monday, with thousands more expected to follow, responding to months of pressure by a Russian-backed government offensive, the army, rebels and residents said. A first convoy of buses with hundreds of rebels ...
Israel wary as advancing Syrian army and Iranian proxies demand rebels near border surrender
Syrian rebels pinned down in a strategic area where the Israeli and Lebanese borders meet with Syria were handed an ultimatum by the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed militia allies to either surrender or face certain military defeat, rebels said on Tuesday. The Syrian army ...
Iraq hangs 42 Sunni militants convicted as terrorists, draws quick rebuke from Amnesty
Iraq on Sunday executed 42 Sunni Muslim militants convicted on terrorism charges ranging from killing members of security forces to detonating car bombs. The biggest mass execution this year in Iraq came after Sunni suicide attacks killed at least 60 people near the southern city ...
Thousands of Syria jihadis, refugees to leave Lebanon border zone in swap with Hezbollah prisoners
Convoys of buses arrived on Monday to transfer thousands of Syrian militants and refugees from Lebanon's border region into rebel territory in Syria in exchange for Hezbollah prisoners. Under a local cease-fire between the Sunni Muslim militants and the Shiite Hezbollah, about 9,000 fighters and ...
Sunni militants take credit for killing 10 Iranian guards near Pakistani border: agency
Ten Iranian border guards were killed by Sunni militants in a cross-border attack on the frontier with Pakistan on Wednesday, Tasnim news agency reported. The militant group called Jaish al Adl, or the Army of Justice, has claimed responsibility, the report said. "Ten border guards of ...
Syria evacuations resume, bringing Damascus-area town under Assad's control
The last rebel fighters have left the Syrian town of Zabadani near Damascus as part of a reciprocal evacuation deal for four besieged towns that had been interrupted after a bomb attack hit one convoy, state media and a war monitor said on Wednesday. Thousands ...
Choose a side: Trump and the Sunni-Shiite war
Latent Mideast conflicts are likely to burst into flame as the big civil wars in Iraq and Syria stagger to an end, and the U.S. will have to jump one way or another.
Iraqi special forces mopping up in territory seized in eastern Mosul killed eight Islamic State militants Wednesday as residents fled to safety from nearby areas and men shaved the beards they were forced to grow while the extremists were in control. In the easternmost district ...
Elite Iraq forces helping to move Mosul offensive faster than planned
The offensive to seize back Mosul from Islamic State is going faster than planned, Iraq's prime minister said on Thursday, as Iraqi and Kurdish forces launched a new military operation to clear villages on the city's outskirts. Howitzer and mortar fire started at dawn, hitting ...
Iraqi forces launch military push to drive Islamic State group from Mosul
Iraqi government and Kurdish forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition air and ground support, launched coordinated military operations early Monday as the long-awaited fight to wrest the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State fighters got underway. Convoys of Iraqi, Kurdish and U.S. forces could be ...
As Mosul fight nears, Islamic State foes face crisis over potential 2.4 million displaced civilians
Dozens of defense and foreign ministers will meet in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday to take stock of the fight against Islamic State, their focus increasingly on a major prize: the militant group's bastion in Mosul, Iraq. The battle for Mosul is expected to be ...
Iraqi Shiites have hard time telling if Sunni men fleeing Fallujah are friend or foe
At a checkpoint outside militant-held Fallujah, hundreds of civilians who fled the fighting between Iraqi forces and the Islamic State group huddled late at night in packed minibuses on the side of a highway as security forces separated out those suspected of supporting the ...
