Iraqi special forces battled the Islamic State group on Friday in west Mosul, where a commander said jihadist resistance is showing signs of weakening under repeated assaults. The jihadists are also facing simultaneous offensives in Syria by government forces, Turkish-backed rebels and a US-supported alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, piling more pressure on IS. … Read more
The United States turned up the heat on the Islamic State group Thursday, sending an additional 400 US troops into Syria to support an offensive to retake Raqa, the jihadists’ de facto capital. The administration also announced a high level meeting on March 22 of the 68 countries in the US-led coalition to discuss plans … Read more
Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is reported to have abandoned Mosul, leaving local commanders behind to lead the battle against Iraqi forces advancing in the city. With Iraqi troops making steady progress in their assault to retake Mosul from the jihadists, a US defence official said Baghdadi had fled to avoid being trapped … Read more
The Islamic State group has lost most of the land it once held in Iraq and Syria but hopes to cling to scraps of a self-declared caliphate, a US official said Wednesday. Since summer 2014, when IS was at its peak just ahead of the US-led war on the group, the jihadists have lost 65 … Read more
A mother-of-two sobs as she carries her young son down a street in war-torn Mosul following heavy clashes today between the Iraqi Army and ISIS. Iraqi forces have taken more territory in the west of the city from the jihadists as the number of people fleeing the city reaches 45,000. Since launching an offensive on … Read more
Twelve people, including women and children, are being treated for possible exposure to chemical weapons agents in Mosul, where Islamic State is fighting off an offensive by U. S.-backed Iraqi forces, the United Nations said on Saturday. The U.N.’s World Health Organization has activated with partners and local health authorities “an emergency response plan to … Read more
Between 12,000 and 15,000 Islamic State fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, a top US general said Wednesday, an indication of a significant dwindling of the jihadists’ forces. The US military only provides periodic updates on estimates of IS fighters but in 2015 and 2016, the Pentagon put the number at between 20,000 and 30,000 … Read more
Iraqi forces backed by jets and helicopters battled their way towards southern Mosul on Monday and prepared to take on the Islamic State group’s stronghold in the city’s west bank. The fresh push in the four-month-old operation to retake Mosul has sparked fears for 750,000 trapped civilians who risk being killed if they try to … Read more
U. S.-backed Iraqi forces on Sunday launched a ground offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in Mosul, in the western part of the city, and put an end to their ambitions for territorial rule in Iraq. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the offensive in the northern Iraqi city, … Read more
Iraqi government forces launched a major offensive to recapture the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group on October 17, 2016. – October 17: Iraqi forces launch an offensive to drive IS out of Mosul, where the jihadists declared an Islamic “caliphate” in June 2014. IS overran Mosul and swathes of other territory north … Read more
Valentine’s Day returned Tuesday to the eastern sector of the Iraqi city of Mosul from where the Islamic State group was expelled last month, at least for a group of enthusiastic schoolchildren. “My feelings for you flow like a river, and will flow on for the rest of my life,” young volunteers recited in front … Read more
The Iraqi air force has targeted a meeting of commanders from the Islamic State group that its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may have been attending, a statement said on Monday. It was not clear in the statement sent by the Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against the jihadists in Iraq whether the world’s most … Read more
British Defence Minister Michael Fallon said Saturday in Iraq that he expected to see the Islamic State group expelled from the country’s major towns by the end of 2017. “We expect to see Daesh (IS) expelled from the major towns and cities of Iraq during the course of the year,” he told reporters in Arbil, … Read more
A 40-year-old Tunisian man who was held on suspicion of being an accomplice of suspected jihadist Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri has been freed, German prosecutors said Thursday. Investigations had shown that the unnamed man detained Wednesday “is not the suspected contact of Anis Amri,” said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecution service which handles … Read more
Italian Police officers work next to the body of Anis Amri, the suspect Surveillance footage confirms that Anis Amri, the suspected Berlin truck attacker gunned down by Italian police, transited through the French city of Lyon by train, a source close to the investigation said. “A man corresponding to the killer was spotted on the … Read more
Tunisian security forces have arrested the nephew of the Berlin market attacker Anis Amri and two others suspects, officials say. The Tunisian interior ministry said the three, aged between 18 and 27, were members of a “terrorist cell”, and that they were detained overnight. Tunisian-born Amri, 24, was shot dead by police near the Italian … Read more
The Berlin market attacker, Anis Amri, has been shot dead by police in Milan. The Tunisian criminal fired on police who asked him for ID during a routine patrol in the Sesto San Giovanni area in the early hours of Friday. German authorities say fingerprints they provided have confirmed the dead man is Amri. They … Read more
As U. S.-backed Iraqi forces close in on the Islamic State’s hub of Mosul, the leader of the terror network has become so insecure about his own safety that he refuses to emerge from his underground hideouts and never sleeps without his suicide vest on, Reuters reported. DUTCH INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS SAY ISIS HAS 60-80 OPERATIVES … Read more
The Iraqi prime minister has warned so-called Islamic State (IS) militants fighting in Mosul to lay down their weapons if they want to live, state media reports. Speaking on a visit to the front line to the east of the city, Haider al-Abadi said government-led forces “will not retreat and will not be broken”. He … Read more
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told his followers on Thursday there could be no retreat in a “total war” against the forces arrayed against them, as advancing soldiers battled the militants inside their northern Iraqi stronghold. Expressing confidence that his Islamic State fighters would prevail against Shi’ite Islam, Western “crusaders” and the Sunni “apostate” … Read more