Greater Idlib and its immediate surroundings in northwest Syria—consisting of rural northern Latakia, northwestern Hama, and western Aleppo—stand out as the last segment of the country held by independent groups. These groups are primarily jihadist, Islamist, and Salafi in orientation. Other areas have returned to Syrian government control, are held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic […]

Syrian anti-air defense units fired in attempt to intercept incoming projectiles launched against the Damascus area early this morning. The Israeli Defense Forces is thought to have launched the attack.

On Wednesday, the spokesperson for the military wing of Hamas stated that Israelis in their captivity were injured during airstrikes conducted by Israel’s Air Force. The message about the injury of its captives may be closer to psychological warfare than truth.

As the Assad regime and its allies advance into Idlib from two directions, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the largest jihadist force in the area, has increasingly utilized suicide bombings in defense of the province.

Virtually every sector of Iran’s civilian economy is now subject to U.S. secondary sanctions, rendering additional sanctions progressively less significant.

In 2012, Hezbollah committed itself to armed conflict in defense of its Syrian ally, Bashar al Assad, against rebels and Islamic State fighters attempting to overthrow the Assad government. With the backing of Iran and Russia, they successfully supported the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in largely putting down the armed insurgency.

The warning takes on greater meaning following a call on January 28 by ISIS’s new leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, to direct greater attention to attacking Israel and Jews, including using chemical weapons.

A bomb detonated on a truck containing diesel-filled barrels and killed eight civilians and wounded seven more, including children, in northwestern Syria’s Idlib region on Monday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.

Syria and Turkey inched closer to all-out war Monday as their troops exchanged deadly fire for the second time in a matter of days in Idlib, a contested and ravaged northern province that is the last remaining major rebel redoubt in Syria’ s nearly nine-year war.

The Donald Trump administration is again set to slash funding for the fight against the Islamic State (IS) in a new budget request unveiled today, as Iraq’s leaders have publicly demanded an end to the US-led combat mission.

Shortly after Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq, the Tehran-backed Lebanese organization Hezbollah urgently met with Iraqi militia leaders, seeking to unite them in the face of a huge void left by their powerful mentor’s death, two sources with knowledge of the meetings told Reuters.

Most of the rockets fired in the past two weeks were fired by PIJ. Khalil Bathani, a leader in PIJ, is considered the main possible target, according to Ynet. He has been targeted in the past.

Lebanon’s protests have drawn protesters from all religious sects. But Hezbollah, the Islamist militia and political party, and its ally, the Amal Movement, have tried to smother demonstrations by Shiites.

Iraq’s military said on Thursday it was resuming operations with the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State which had mostly halted after bases hosting U.S. troops came under rocket attacks and a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian commander.

A Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against the country’s last rebel enclave has caused one of the biggest waves of displacement in the nine-year-old war.

Islamic State extremists are mounting increasingly bold attacks in Syria and Iraq following their loss of territory in both countries and are planning for the breakout of their fighters in detention facilities, U.N. experts said in a new report.

In October, Turkey launched an abortive invasion of northern Syria, attacking positions held by US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara has claimed are linked to Turkish Kurdish militants waging a decades-long insurgency in south-eastern Turkey.

Reporting from London, TRAC Analyst Sophia Badawy maps an interesting movement of at least 12 different groups of Syrian militants from northern Syria to the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

Former Saudi minister of justice, Mohammed Bin Abdul-Karim Issa, has announced that his country will stop funding mosques in foreign countries, Arabi21.com reported on Friday.

Palestinians held demonstrations across the region Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s Middle East initiative, while militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, drawing retaliatory strikes.

The Kurdish-led administration that runs much of northeastern Syria is planning to organise a local tribunal to try IS fighters held captive in the region, a representative of its foreign relations committee said on Thursday.

Terror group continues to seek opportunities to strike in west, says security council report Islamic State has begun to reassert itself in its heartlands in the Middle East and continues to seek opportunities to strike in the west, the United Nations has said.

The Islamic State group vowed in an audio message released Monday that the extremists will start a new phase of attacks that will focus on Israel and blasted the U.S. administration’s plan to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Islamic State group’s self-styled “caliphate” across parts of Iraq and Syria seemed largely defeated last year, with the loss of its territory, the killing of its founder in a U.S. raid and an unprecedented crackdown on its social media propaganda machine.

Hoping to bring about a “new dawn in the Middle East,” U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his peace plan for the region on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing at his side.

The General Command of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces announced that the army units operating in Idlib countryside have liberated during the past few days the city of Ma’aret al-Nu’aman and a number of villages and towns in the southern countryside of Idlib from terrorism.

The Ansarallah forces (var. Houthi) announced on Wednesday that their rocket battalion unleashed a new attack on the Saudi Aramco oil facilities in the southern region of Saudi Arabia.

Formed by Hezbollah and its allies, new government faces one of the biggest financial crises in the country’s history.

Islamic State fighters did not capitalize on a recent break in U.S. operations to significantly reconstitute their ranks in Iraq, according to a top general.

Militants in Syria set off car bombs and used heavy gunfire to storm army positions in Idlib on Thursday, state news agency SANA reported.

Up to 40 Syrian soldiers have been killed in an assault by hundreds of militants in north-western Syria, according to Russia’s defence ministry.

The United States has seen no uptick in Islamic State activity in Iraq and northeastern Syria, U.S. special representative for Syria James Jeffrey said on Thursday, weeks after a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad.

On January 18, 2020, ballistic missiles struck a mosque at the al-Estiqbal military camp in Marib, killing at least 116 people in what was reportedly one of the deadliest attacks in Yemen’s civil war. Although there was no immediate claim by the Houthi rebels, Yemen’s government condemned the Iran-backed extremist group for the attack.

The trial opened in Paris on Monday of Mourad Farès, who is accused of running a group of jihadists as well as recruiting people to fight in Syria and financing terrorism.

Britain’s move comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East after the United States killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani.