US forces operating in Syria have killed a senior member of the Islamic State group blamed for an attack on a nightclub that left 39 dead, officials said Friday. “We will reach you anywhere,” Brett McGurk, the US diplomat who coordinates the coalition fighting the jihadist group in Iraq and Syria, said in a tweet … Read more
A few hundred metres from an iconic mosque in west Mosul, Iraqi sniper Salah al-Zuheiri has his eye glued to his scope as he searches for Islamic State group jihadists. Iraqi forces are battling to retake Mosul from IS, after the group overran the city in 2014 and its leader proclaimed a “caliphate” from the … Read more
Six months since Iraqi forces launched a vast operation to oust the Islamic State group from second city Mosul, they have recaptured its east and are battling for the west. Here are key dates in offensive: – October 17: Iraqi forces launch the assault. The jihadists had declared an Islamic “caliphate” there in June 2014 … Read more
The Islamic State group now controls less than seven percent of Iraq, down from the 40 percent it held nearly three years ago, a military spokesman said Tuesday. “Daesh controlled 40 percent of Iraqi land” in 2014, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told reporters, using an Arabic acronym for IS. “As of March 31 (this year), … Read more
The infamy of the crimes against humanity carried out by Islamic State is legendary, but the still untold story is how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan deliberately turned a blind eye to the Islamic State’s use of his nation as a staging ground for attacks, and how he and his family pro ted from il- … Read more
A suicide truck bomber targeted a police checkpoint in southern Baghdad on Wednesday night, killing 17 people and wounding at least 60 others. The bomber detonated the vehicle – an oil tanker laden with explosives, security and hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations. Three policemen were among the dead while the … Read more
Iraqi forces renewed their assault Monday against jihadists in Mosul’s Old City, after days in which the battle was overshadowed by reports of heavy civilian casualties from air strikes. Iraqi forces began the massive operation to retake west Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) group last month and have recaptured a series of neighbourhoods, but … Read more
Coalition says it struck area in west Mosul where officials say scores of civilians were killed by aerial bombardment. The US-led coalition bombing ISIL positions in Iraq has admitted that it carried out air raids last week at a location in west Mosul where officials and residents say scores of civilians were killed. The acknowledgement … Read more
US-led coalition aircraft have for the first time carried out an airlift of allied fighters battling the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria. The Pentagon said members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance were dropped behind IS lines close to the Tabqa dam, west of the city of Raqqa. Fierce fighting was continuing … Read more
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed members of a 68-country coalition against the Islamic State to Washington and vowed to hunt down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. ‘Nearly all of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s deputies are now dead, including the mastermind behind the attacks in Brussels, Paris and elsewhere,’ told delegates huddled at the State Department. ‘It … Read more
The US-led coalition against the Islamic State group vowed to crush the jihadists Wednesday at a meeting overshadowed by an attack in London and civilian deaths in Syria. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed his counterparts from the mainly Western and Arab 68-nation alliance to Washington with a promise to hunt down IS leader Abu … Read more
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed members of a 68-country coalition against the Islamic State to Washington and vowed to hunt down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. ‘Nearly all of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s deputies are now dead, including the mastermind behind the attacks in Brussels, Paris and elsewhere,’ told delegates huddled at the State Department. ‘It … Read more
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared Wednesday that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death is imminent, as US-backed forces close in on the jihadists in Syria and Iraq. “Nearly all of Abu Bakr Baghdadi’s deputies are now dead, including the mastermind behind the attacks in Brussels, Paris and elsewhere,” Tillerson told a coalition … Read more
Iraqi forces gained ground from the Islamic State group in Mosul and have deployed snipers in the Old City to target the jihadists, officers said on Tuesday. Iraqi forces launched a major operation to recapture west Mosul — the most-populated urban area still held by IS — on February 19, and have retaken a series … Read more
A car bomb exploded in the Iraqi capital on Monday, killing at least 23 people and wounding 45 others in a mainly Shia district in southwestern Baghdad. The attack – as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC – targeted a busy commercial district of the Hay al-Amel suburb, according … Read more
Iraqi forces battled Islamic State group fighters on Monday to push into Mosul’s Old City where thousands of civilians remain trapped under jihadist rule. The city’s historic centre is home to the Al-Nuri mosque, where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in July 2014 proclaimed an IS “caliphate” in jihadist-controlled territory in Iraq and neighbouring Syria. … Read more
Iraqi forces backed by helicopter strikes engaged in heavy fighting with jihadists on the outskirts of the Old City on Sunday as they pressed an offensive to recapture west Mosul. The elite Rapid Response Force and Iraqi federal police attacked the Islamic State group militants with rifles, machineguns, mortar rounds and rockets a month after … Read more
Elite Iraqi forces said they were battling house by house in the Old City of Mosul on Saturday, inching towards the mosque where the Islamic State group proclaimed its “caliphate” in 2014. Iraq began an operation on February 19 to retake west Mosul, which is the last major Islamic State group urban bastion in the … Read more
Elite Iraqi forces battled house by house in the Old City of Mosul on Saturday, inching towards the mosque where the Islamic State group proclaimed its “caliphate” in 2014, a spokesman said. Commanders said that progress in the densely populated warren of alleyways was slow but that government forces had made new gains from IS … Read more
Iraqi forces said Friday they had seized ground inside Mosul’s Old City, a district expected to see some of the fiercest clashes in the battle for the jihadist stronghold. An operation began on February 19 to retake Mosul’s west, the last major Islamic State group urban bastion in the country, which includes the Old City. … Read more