Daraa Province – Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Reliable sources have informed SOHR that unknown gunmen assassinated a volunteer in “the 215th Raids Branch” of the regime’s “military security service” in Nawa city in the western countryside of Daraa.

Reliable SOHR sources have confirmed that an ex-ISIS member, who later joined the “Self-Defence Forces”, killed three members of the “Self-Defence Forces” yesterday in the SDF-controlled city of Al-Karamah town in the eastern countryside of Al-Raqqah province. The “military intelligence service” has arrested the murderer with four other members, where …

The government side lost 41 dead, the jihadists 49, a Britain-based war monitor said. Clashes in the Syrian Desert between pro-government forces and holdouts of the Islamic State group have killed at least 90 combatants this month, a war monitor said on Wednesday.

The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence, Sergei Naryshkin, said: “We have to be concerned about the South Caucasus becoming a new launch pad for international terrorist organisations.”

Washington’s active role is tied by analysts to the influx of foreign mercenaries in Libya and wariness about Russia’s growing role. Egypt’s involvement in efforts led by the US State Department, represented by its embassy in Tripoli and the acting UN envoy to Libya, US diplomat Stephanie Williams, has surprised …

The Mediterranean Sea is still the principal corridor for migrants trying to enter the European Union, and Italy is in effect its front door. Hundreds of thousands of people have attempted this risky maritime route, often paying a deadly toll, including well before the migrant and refugee crisis of 2015.

The Middle East is “a place that is both remarkably impervious to change…and at the same time always sort of on the verge of an explosion, where you always think that something quite catastrophic could happen,” says Robert Malley, president and CEO of International Crisis Group and a former special …

With yet another failed attempt to form a government and no replacement in sight, Lebanon’s future is looking a lot like its bleak past. The prime minister-designate, Mustapha Adib, resigned in late September after nearly a month of fruitless talks to create a Cabinet of technocrats.

Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary elections on October 4. According to the official results, parties close to President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, his family members, and other powerful officials were the only ones that made it into the parliament. On October 5, opposition demonstrators took to the streets and were violently dispersed by riot …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Japan on Tuesday to rally support from Washington’s closest allies in Asia, calling for deeper collaboration with Japan, India and Australia as a bulwark against China’s growing regional influence.