The US-led coalition attacking the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria killed as many as 744 civilians in June, an independent monitor said Wednesday. Airwars — a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that uses social media, eyewitness reports and other sources to compile its data — said the concurrent assaults on Raqa in … Read more
ISIS has finally admitted its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, according to reports in Iraq. The terror group is said to have confirmed that the 45-year-old was killed in an air strike in the Iraqi province of Nineveh. Reports claim ISIS fanatics are scrambling to find a successor to the terror chief, who announced the formation of … Read more
A trial opened in Tunisia on Tuesday over the 2015 attack on the Bardo museum that killed 21 foreign tourists and a police officer, court officials said. Two gunmen opened fire at the National Bardo Museum in an operation claimed by the Islamic State group. Some 21 detained suspects, including two women, attended Tuesday morning’s … Read more
Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was reported dead on Tuesday, a day after Iraq declared it had driven the jihadists from their one-time biggest stronghold of Mosul. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a longtime monitor of the country’s conflict, said it had information from top IS leaders confirming Baghdadi’s death. The report … Read more
Boko Haram have publicly executed eight villagers in northeast Nigeria who opposed the enforcement of its hardline form of Islam, according to a graphic video seen by AFP. The eight were blindfolded and lying face down on the ground when they were shot at close range by four masked gunmen. Crowds were seen cheering, the … Read more
Once the beating heart of Iraq’s second-largest metropolis, the Old City of Mosul is now a broken wreck, its winding streets piled high with rubble and hardly a building spared from destruction. After months of gruelling battles to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, the Old City has become a bleak landscape of gutted … Read more
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Tuesday it had information from top Islamic State group leaders confirming the death of the jihadist organisation’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. “Top tier commanders from IS who are present in Deir Ezzor province have confirmed the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, emir of the Islamic State … Read more
UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called Tuesday for accountability and dialogue to heal the trauma of Mosul after Iraqi troops retook the country’s second city from the Islamic State group. Zeid demanded that offenders be brought to justice and all violations thoroughly probed, and urged Iraq to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). … Read more
Amnesty International on Tuesday called for a commission to investigate crimes against civilians in Mosul by all sides in the battle to liberate the Iraqi city from jihadists. “The horrors that the people of Mosul have witnessed and the disregard for human life by all parties to this conflict must not go unpunished,” said Lynn … Read more
President Donald Trump on Monday hailed the “victory” of Iraqi forces over the Islamic State group in the northern city of Mosul. The retaking of the devastated city after nearly nine months of fighting signals the jihadist group’s “days in Iraq and Syria are numbered,” Trump said in a statement, praising Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. … Read more
India on Monday announced it will send a top minister to Iraq in an effort locate dozens of its missing citizens after Mosul was all but recaptured from the Islamic State group. Thirty-nine Indian labourers have been missing, believed taken hostage by IS, since the militant outfit overran Iraq’s second largest city in 2014. There … Read more
Iraqi security forces are clearing the final pockets of resistance by Islamic State militants in the city of Mosul. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went to Mosul on Sunday to congratulate his troops on “liberating” the city, but he stopped short of declaring victory. The militants were said to hold an area about 180m (590ft) long … Read more
Iraqi forces fought to eliminate the last pockets of Islamic State group resistance in Mosul on Monday after the premier visited the devastated city to congratulate troops on securing victory. With the jihadists surrounded in a sliver of territory in Mosul’s Old City, attention was turning to the huge task of rebuilding the city and … Read more
Iraqi forces engaged in “heavy” fighting with the Islamic State group on Monday as they battled to clear the last jihadist-held pockets in Mosul’s Old City, a senior commander said. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Mosul on Sunday to hail his forces for securing victory in the city but said he was holding off … Read more
Britain’s Defence Minister Michael Fallon praised Iraq on Sunday for defeating the Islamic State group in Mosul but warned that more has to be done to combat the jihadists. Earlier on Sunday Iraq announced victory against IS in the northern city, the country’s second largest, from where the group declared a self-styled caliphate three years … Read more
Discreet in his youth and invisible as the world’s most wanted man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi rose through the ranks quietly and patiently to become global jihad’s undisputed supremo. The reclusive jihadist chief made his only known public appearance as “caliph” at Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, where on Sunday Iraq … Read more
Mosul was the largest city in the “caliphate” proclaimed by the Islamic State group and its loss is a huge blow to the jihadists’ statehood experiment — but not a fatal one. The northern Iraqi city was where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only known public appearance in July 2014, announcing himself to … Read more
Mosul, wrested from the Islamic State jihadist group on Sunday, is Iraq’s second city and one of its cultural jewels. The jihadists seized it in a lightning offensive in June 2014 that humiliated Iraq’s security forces, who launched their massive operation to retake it in October last year. Here are some facts about Mosul: The … Read more
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory Sunday in the “liberated” city of Mosul, the Islamic State group’s last urban stronghold in Iraq, as the IS Syria bastion Raqa is surrounded. – April 9, 2013: Al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi says Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group battling the Syrian regime, belongs to his … Read more
With the battle to retake Iraq’s Mosul from the Islamic State group drawing to an end, dozens of women and their children emerge exhausted and grief-stricken from the ruins. Around 15 women and children huddle on a shaded pavement out of the scorching sun at the edge of the Old City, as automatic weapons fire … Read more