The black Humvee slaloming between car bomb carcasses and mortar craters stops to let fleeing civilians cross and then resumes its tooth-loosening ride down the churned up west Mosul street. Other vehicles follow — they are from Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service and are heading to the front line in Rifai, one of the last areas … Read more
Key members of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria meet in Copenhagen on Tuesday to assess the campaign’s next steps as the jihadists’ “caliphate” collapses. Though officials warn that military action will continue for some time, they are generally upbeat about the progress and quickening momentum of the fight. … Read more
The head of ISIL in Afghanistan was killed in an operation led by Afghan Special Forces in the eastern province of Nangarhar last month, US military officials confirmed on Sunday. Abdul Hasib – appointed last year after his predecessor Hafiz Saeed Khan died in a US drone strike – is believed to have ordered a … Read more
Eleven journalists died covering conflict or were assassinated in Iraq during the past year, a Baghdad-based watchdog said in a report released Wednesday to mark World Press Freedom Day. “From May 3, 2016 to May 3 (this year), 11 journalists were killed and 44 wounded across Iraq, including the Kurdistan region,” said the Journalistic Freedoms … Read more
At least 37 people, including dozens of civilians, have been killed in an attack by ISIL fighters targeting a crossing along Syria’s north-eastern border with Iraq, according to a monitoring group. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five suicide bombers detonated explosives before dawn on Tuesday in Rajm al-Salibi, a village in Hasaka … Read more
At least 32 people were killed on Tuesday in an Islamic State group attack near a refugee camp on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq, a monitor said. “At least five suicide attackers blew themselves up outside and inside a camp for Iraqi refugees and displaced Syrians in Hasakeh province,” Syrian Observatory for … Read more
As the United States marks 100 days since President Donald Trump assumed office, analysts say his sporadic policies in the Middle East have only made the region a more volatile place. During his election campaign, Trump systematically sold himself as an isolationist, vowing to invest US resources domestically rather than in the Middle East. But … Read more
Fighters have killed at least 10 off-duty Iraqi soldiers and injured another 20 in an ambush in a part of the country’s western Anbar province. Major Emad al-Dulaimi said on Monday that the attack occurred the night before near the town of Rutba. He said the assailants were armed with assault rifles and rockets. It … Read more
Satellite dishes have been sprouting on the rooftops of east Mosul since it was retaken from the Islamic State group, who punished anyone caught with a dish with the lash. “Now we know what is happening in the world,” Mohammad Turki says as he installs one in the Al-Qahira district. Since Iraqi forces ousted IS … Read more
Several Iraqi troops required medical treatment following a chemical weapons attack by the Islamic State group over the weekend, a US official said Wednesday. Saturdays’ attack saw IS launch some sort of low-level chemical agent at the Iraqis in western Mosul as they worked alongside US and Australian military advisors, Major General Joseph Martin said. … 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. Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes and other support are now battling IS inside second city Mosul, after retaking much of the other territory the jihadists … 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
US intelligence agencies don’t know the true number of foreign jihadists still fighting in Iraq and Syria, or the extent of the threat they pose to their home countries, a senior US military officer said Wednesday. Some 40,000 foreign jihadists have joined the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria from at least 120 countries … Read more
With his blue eyes, brown hair and beaming smile, young Michael Delefortrie looked every inch the angelic altar boy. But fast forward twenty years, and Michael had changed his name to Younnes, traded his Christian faith for Islam, and the sleepy Belgian suburb he’d grown up in for the front lines of ISIS’ war in … Read more
The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said Thursday that it had killed a propaganda chief and associates in an air strike in the western Iraqi town of Al-Qaim. Ibrahim Al-Ansari was an “important ISIS leader,” said Colonel Joseph Scrocca, a spokesman for the Baghdad-based coalition, using an alternate acronym for Islamic State. The … Read more
The ISIS fighters battling Iraqi forces in Mosul have come up with yet another dastardly way to exploit the civilian population they’ve now terrorized for years, a spokesman for the U. S.-led coalition said on Thursday. ‘What you see now is not the use civilians as human shields,’ said Colonel Joe Scrocca, a spokesman for … Read more
Islamic State group fighters battling Iraqi forces in Mosul are holding civilians hostage in buildings and then deliberately attracting strikes by coalition aircraft, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said on Thursday. His comments come after the senior US leader in Iraq, General Stephen Townsend, acknowledged this week that a coalition strike in the northern … 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
At least two civilians and one policeman killed during the operation at a residential building in Sylhet city. At least two civilians and one policeman have been killed by explosions during an anti-terror operation in northeast Bangladesh. The country’s Daily Star newspaper reported on Saturday that two civilians were killed and another 26 injured when … 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