Daesh

By Denis Pinchuk SOCHI, Russia, Aug 23 – Iran’s growing role in Syria poses a threat to Israel, the Middle East and the world, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. “Mr. President, with joint efforts we are defeating Daesh, and this is a very important thing. But the bad

By John Davison RAQQA, Syria, Aug 21 – As Shawakh al-Omar huddled with 16 relatives in a single room in house in Daesh Syrian stronghold Raqqa, a mortar round slammed into the home next door, killing four people and shaking the building. The 57-year-old decided they should make a run for it. “We didn’t even have

AMMAN, Aug 20 – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday that while his country had foiled Western designs to topple him, his army had not won Syria’s war and the fight was continuing to crush a six-year old insurgency. In an televised address, Assad said that even though there were signs of victory after

By Maher Chmaytelli ERBIL, Iraq, Aug 20 – Iraqi security forces launched on Sunday an offensive to take back the city of Tal Afar, their next objective in the U.S.-backed campaign to defeat Islamic State militants, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said. “You either surrender, or die,” Abadi said in a televised speech announcing the offensive,

BEIRUT, Aug 6 – Syrian government and allied forces have taken the last major town in Homs province from Daesh, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday, as the army advances toward militant strongholds in the east of the country. The town of al-Sukhna lies some 50 km (30 miles) northeast of the

By Angus MacSwan MOSUL, Iraq, July 30 – Thousands of children have been separated from their parents in the nine-month battle for Mosul and the preceding years of Daesh rule in northern Iraq – some found wandering alone and afraid among the rubble, others joining the refugee exodus from the pulverized city. In some cases their

By Angus MacSwan MOSUL, Iraq, July 22 – On a pontoon bridge connecting East and West Mosul, residents of a city shattered by the battle to expel Daesh cross back and forth trying to rebuild their lives from the rubble. The temporary structure, known as the Victory Bridge, is the only crossing over the Tigris

By Isabel Coles BARTELLA, Iraq, July 17 – Their husbands, sons and brothers are dead, but the women and children Daesh militants left behind will live to pay the price for their actions. As Daesh’s days of ruling over vast swathes of Iraq come to an end, questions are emerging about what to do with

Sulaimania, IRAQ, July 17 – A top Kurdish counter-terrorism official said on Monday he was 99 percent sure that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was alive and located south of the Syrian city of Raqqa, after reports that he had been killed. “Baghdadi is definitely alive. He is not dead. We have information that

ERBIL, July 13 – Human Rights Watch has accused Iraqi security forces of forcibly relocating at least 170 families of alleged Islamic State members to a closed “rehabilitation camp” as a form of collective punishment. “Iraqi authorities shouldn’t punish entire families because of their relatives’ actions,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human