Tunisian security forces have killed a leader of the Islamic State group who was plotting attacks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, authorities said on Monday. The interior ministry did not identify the suspect, but said he was a leading member of IS and “dangerous” and was killed in an operation Sunday night by … Read more
Iraqi forces pressed forward on Monday with a broad offensive targeting Islamic State group-held areas in west Mosul and called for civilians to leave areas where fighting is taking place. More than seven months into the massive operation to recapture Mosul from IS, Iraqi forces have retaken the city’s east and large parts of its … Read more
Iraqi forces have launched a broad assault on parts of Mosul, closing in on the remaining pockets of territory held by ISIL, amid growing concerns over the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk of being caught in the crossfire. Saturday’s offensive to retake three ISIL-held neighbourhoods north of Mosul’s Old City is … Read more
Iraqi forces have launched a broad assault on parts of battleground second city Mosul still held by the Islamic State group, the military announced on Saturday. The offensive is the latest push in the more than seven-month battle to retake Mosul, a linchpin in IS’s now crumbling bid to establish a cross-border jihadist “state”. Multiple … Read more
As many as 200,000 Iraqis may try in the coming days to flee areas of Mosul under the control of the Islamic State group after the government asked civilians to seek safety across the frontline, the UN aid chief said Friday. Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul in October, advancing on the city … Read more
Pentagon officials on Thursday said at least 105 civilians died in a strike targeting Islamic State fighters in the Iraqi city of Mosul in March, but blamed the high toll on an unexpected secondary blast. A US aircraft delivered a single precision-guided bomb into a building in west Mosul on March 17, with the aim … Read more
A US strike targeting Islamic State fighters in a Mosul building in Iraq in March killed at least 105 civilians when the blast caused IS weapons to explode, a US general said Thursday. ‘The secondary explosion triggered a rapid failure of the structure which killed the two ISIS snipers, 101 civilians sheltered in the bottom … Read more
A US strike targeting Islamic State fighters in a Mosul building in Iraq in March killed at least 105 civilians when the blast caused IS weapons to explode, a US general said Thursday. “The secondary explosion triggered a rapid failure of the structure which killed the two ISIS snipers, 101 civilians sheltered in the bottom … Read more
The exodus of civilians from the battleground city of Mosul has reached an unprecedented level, leaving aid agencies struggling to cope, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq said on Thursday. “The numbers of people fleeing their homes in western Mosul are overwhelming,” Lise Grande said in a statement. “We are talking about very large numbers … Read more
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
Fear and hunger are driving an ever-growing number of Iraqi civilians into a camp in Hammam al-Alil, where they share harrowing tales of deadly violence and jihadist tyranny in Mosul. Some arrive at the displacement camp, the largest in the Mosul area, on foot, but most of them are crammed into buses and trucks, relieved … Read more
In the battle against jihadists in northern Iraq, the village of Sayramun was recaptured in February but remains as isolated as ever and crucially still has no drinking water. “There’s no water in the area,” Said Ahmed Fathi, a resident of the village nestled in a picturesque meander of the Tigris River but marooned in … Read more
Jihadists preparing for a desperate last stand in Mosul are booby-trapping homes with civilians inside and welding doors shut on starving families to prevent the population from fleeing, residents say. Iraqi forces are closing in fast on the Old City and its narrow streets, where the Islamic State group is expected to focus its significantly … Read more
Iraqi forces thrust into west Mosul from the north on Thursday, opening a new front in the more than six-month-old offensive to dislodge the Islamic State group from the country’s second city. The assault is aimed at sealing the siege of the Old City, where die-hard jihadists holding huge numbers of civilians hostage are preparing … Read more
Men, women and children stand in separate lines in the scorching sun baking west Mosul’s Baghdad Square for a turn in one of the two white mobile clinics. For these Iraqis, displaced by fierce fighting as government forces close in on the Old City where Islamic State group jihadists are still entrenched, free medical care … Read more
A US service member has died from wounds sustained in the blast Saturday of an explosive device outside the Iraqi city of Mosul, military officials reported. A statement from the US Central Command, which oversees military activities in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, did not identify the victim. It said further details … Read more
Jihadist militants from the Islamic State group posing as liberating security forces killed at least 15 civilians who welcomed them in central Mosul, officials said on Tuesday. Wearing police uniforms, they entered parts of the Old City on Monday to trick residents into showing their support for the federal forces, the Joint Operations Command (JOC) … Read more
The horrific wounds and gruesome accounts of the victims filling a frontline clinic in west Mosul in Iraq offer a window on the hell inside the last jihadist strongholds. Dozens of wounded are rushed in every day to receive emergency assistance from the staff at the small facility of Al-Shabkhun in the heart of west … Read more
The first public hearing into the June 2015 attack in the Tunisian resort of Sousse that killed 38 foreign tourists has been set for next week, the court said Friday. “The trial on the attack at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel will begin on April 28,” court spokesman Sofiene Sliti told AFP. A total of 33 … 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