Thirteen countries from an international coalition to defeat Daesh met Thursday to declare they have taken back more than 99 percent of the territory once held by the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and his Canadian counterpart, Harjit Sajjan, who co-hosted the meeting in Ottawa, issued a joint statement […]

Only three months ago Turkey and its NATO ally the United States had too many issues about which to disagree: They had major divergences over Syria; they had different views on Turkey’s plans to deploy the Russian-made S-400 air defense system on NATO soil; they had mutual sanctions on top government officials due to Turkey’s […]

A Kurdish-led force backed by a US-led anti-Daesh coalition said on Sunday that it was resuming its offensive against the Daesh group in eastern Syria. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish alliance, had announced it was suspending its operation on Oct.31 after Turkey shelled Kurdish militia posts in northern Syria.

Iraqi troops destroyed 10 hotbeds of Islamic State during a wide-scale military operation in Diyala province, a security source said on Tuesday. Speaking to Baghdad Today website, the source said that a military operation was launched on Monday to hunt down the remnants of the Islamic State extremist militants in Hamrin Basin, 55 kilometers northeast […]

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior (MoI) said on Tuesday that they had arrested a high-ranking leader of the Islamic State (IS) known as “Abu Ammar” southeast of Kirkuk Province amid the terrorist organization’s continued sporadic attacks in the country. “Through field follow-up, the Intelligence Divisions of the Federal Police… were able to capture one of the […]

Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit urged on Sunday Libyan parties to reach a consensus on political, constitutional and electoral steps aspired by the Libyan people. Aboul-Gheit called on the Libyan political parties to overcome the current political impasse and division in the war-torn Arab country, AL spokesman Mahmoud Afifi said in a statement.

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command has indicated readiness to face dangers of Islamic State on the borders with Syria. In a statement, Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasool, the spokesperson for the command, said, “The Iraqi-Syrian borders are protected by the joint troops of army and al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) as well as the border guards.

 Turkey, pursuing its own Islamist agenda and trying to rival Saudi influence in the Sunni world, is just too happy to have discredited the Wahhabi royals.  Turkey’s message to the Western world was: See the difference between our peaceful Islamism and rogue-state Islamism? Stop discrediting us for our democratic deficit — also, presumably, […]

 As Mahmoud Abbas was busy praising the Saudis for their “fairness, values and principles,” the London-based Action Group for Palestinians of Syria issued a statement in which it accused the Saudi authorities of preventing Palestinian refugees from entering the kingdom.  Many Arabs and Muslims can hardly afford to alienate a country as rich […]

Iraq’s parliament elected a veteran politician as the country’s new president on Tuesday, a step toward forming a new government nearly five months after national elections.

Iraqi security forces have disbanded a terrorist group in the southern part of the country’s oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk as government troops, backed by allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, are trying to purge the war-ravaged Arab country of the remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that its troops captured three Islamic State militants, including the group’s cook, in Mosul city. “Military intelligence forces carried out a specific operation in Hamam al-Alil district in Mosul, managing to arrest three militants belonging to Islamic State group,” Sputnik quoted the Iraqi Security Media Center as saying.

Senior Iraqi military commanders hosted their Russian, Iranian, and Syrian counterparts in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss security cooperation and information-sharing in the Middle East, where Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group continues to carry out attacks.

US-backed forces have repelled a raid by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group targeting barracks housing American and French troops in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Aug. 18. The Syrian Democratic Forces and the US-led coalition supporting them were on high alert after the raid late Aug. […]

The U.S.-backed Syrian forces on Saturday took full control of a desert territory at the Iraqi border in northeastern Syria, local activists said Saturday. The border line with Iraq and Deir Ezzor desert are under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, such a gain comes after weeks of major military campaign backed by the […]

NATO’s highly-anticipated military-adviser mission in Iraq is slated to go operational by this fall, the head of U.S. Central Command said Thursday. Gen. Joseph Votel provided little detail as to how many NATO troops would be involved in the new training mission, which countries would be contributing troops to the mission, or how long the […]

On June 25, 2018, German-speaking jihadis in Syria released a five-minute video titled “A Call to Jihad” on a German-language Telegram channel. The video features two masked fighters in Syria, one of whom solicits funds for jihad in German and calls upon Muslims in the West to join them in the jihad in Syria.(by memri […]

On June 14, 2018, the Jordanian king swore in a new government after the previous government resigned due to extensive protests over its economic policy. A notable appointment was that of Jumana Ghunaimat, formerly the editor-in-chief of Jordan’s Al-Ghad daily, as state minister of media affairs and as government spokesperson.(by memri.org)

Iraqi warplanes targeted on Saturday a gathering of Islamic State militants in Diyala province, leaving three of them dead. Spokesman for the Iraqi Security Media Council Brig. Gen. Yehia Rasool said that “the Iraqi Air Force killed three IS terrorists and destroyed one of

Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari said that Syria is determined to fight international terrorism on all its territories with its commitment to the political solution through Syrian-Syrian talks without any foreign intervention or preconditions.

Egypt President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has affirmed that Egypt supports efforts to form a strong national Iraqi government that represents all Iraqis. During his meeting with Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi, Sisi welcomed political talks carried out by Iraqi blocs and stressed that Egypt backs any outcome.

Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem on Wednesday sent a letter to Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari on increasing the efforts for reopening the border crossing between Syria and Iraq that connects the Syrian city of al-Boukamal and the Iraqi city of al-Qa’im.

President Bashar al-Assad affirmed that the Syrian south is in front of two options; reconciliation or liberation by force, indicating that at this point, there are no concrete results for a simple reason which is Israeli and American interference, for they put pressure on the terrorists in that area in order to prevent reaching any […]

The European Union condemned Tuesday the decision of the Syrian regime to establish diplomatic relations with the “Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.” The move “violates international law and the principle of territorial integrity as defined by the United Nations Charter and relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” said Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for EU […]

Up to 13 Islamic State (IS) militants were arrested Monday in their former stronghold of Mosul, a police chief was quoted as saying. “Nineveh police arrested the 13 militants upon accurate intelligence data in al-Entisar, Judaydat al-Mufti and al-Nour districts in Mosul’s eastern side,” Baghdad Today website quoted Nineveh Police Chief Brig. Gen. Hamad Nems […]

Turkey and Israel have expelled their envoys amid growing tensions between the two sides over the killing of dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip at the hands of the Tel Aviv regime’s forces.

The Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has denied intentions to intervene within Syrian affairs, saying airstrikes against Islamic State will continue. In his weekly speech, Abadi said, “we don’t want to intervene within Syrian affairs. The Syrian people should have self-determination.”

US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert affirmed on Thursday that “it is now twelve days” since a Damascus suburb was attacked with chemical weapons, while inspectors from the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have yet to be allowed to enter the site although they have been waiting in Syria since Saturday. Nauert […]

Member of the Jordanian Chamber of Industry Muwaffaq Bani Hani, won the position of Vice President of the Joint Arab Labor Organization for its 45th session.

The 29th Arab Summit was expected to kick off in the Saudi city of Dammam on Sunday with the Palestinian issue and developments in Syria, Yemen and Libya on top of its agenda.

The United States has blamed the Syrian government for a deadly chemical weapons attack this month and slammed Russia for failing to stop its ally, President Bashar al-Assad, as Western allies considered military strikes on Syria. While the prospect of US-led military action that could lead to a confrontation with Russia hung over the Middle […]

US President Donald Trump warned Russia Wednesday to brace for American engagement in Syria after a suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people. “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” Trump said on Twitter. “You shouldn’t be […]

Houthi leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, president of “the Revolutionary Committee of Yemen,” warned the British, the Europeans, and the Americans: “Stop your support of Saudi Arabia so that it will stop bombing us. If you continue, we will continue to shell Aramco and other vital facilities.” (by memri org)

His Majesty King Abdullah II, on Tuesday received an invitation from the Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Azizi Al Saud to participate in the Arab Summit scheduled to be held in Dhahran city on April 15.

The spokesperson for the Arab tribes in Nineveh has disclosed news about a visit by a delegation from U.S. to each of Baghdad and Erbil to agree on the redeployment of the Kurdish troops in disputed regions. “U.S. delegation will visit Baghdad and Erbil next week to discuss redeploying of Peshmerga troops, along with federal […]