To the rest of the world it might have appeared as if the Islamic State group had finally been conquered, but Juma’a Qasim Al-Rubaie knew better.

A man who left London to join the Islamic State group in Syria has died while being held in prison in the country, the BBC has been told.

Daniel Burke was accused of terrorism offences after volunteering to help the Kurdish YPG fight against Isil in Syria.

The fallout from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s warning that Washington will do all it can to prevent Iran selling oil to Hezbollah in Lebanon continued this week.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is intensifying efforts to open a new border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, local sources and Arab media reported this week.

TWENTY-nine terrorists are due to be released from prison within the next three years, with 11 of them back on the streets before April and three released by September.

Sanctions on Syria aim to protect Syrian civilians from the regime but may end up hurting them instead. Washington should further clarify humanitarian exemptions, specify benchmarks related to civilian protection and offer temporary easing of sanctions as long as these are met.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia a mosque on Friday hours after a top court ruled the ancient building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal.

When the caustic Evelyn Waugh visited the majestic sixth century creation of Emperor Justinian, one subsequently enlarged, enriched and encrusted by various rulers, he felt underwhelmed. “‘Agia’ will always win the day for one,” he wrote of Istanbul’s holiest of holies, Hagia Sophia, in 1930. “A more recondite snobbism is …

Russian forces on Saturday took control of a major oil field in the Deir Ez-Zor governorate, in eastern Syria, after removing regime forces from it.