The six-day battle put a spotlight on the humanitarian and security issues left unresolved after the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate was destroyed. After six days of deadly battles, the Kurdish-led militia that had been battling Islamic State fighters for control of a prison in northeastern Syria retook the facility on …

A Move on Ukraine Has Always Been Part of the Plan The current crisis between Russia and Ukraine is a reckoning that has been 30 years in the making. It is about much more than Ukraine and its possible NATO membership. It is about the future of the European order …

Egypt sees Ethiopia’s latest call for cooperation over its controversial Nile dam as mere ink on paper, as Cairo continues to insist on resuming the negotiations to reach a legally binding agreement. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s call for cooperation over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has raised questions …

A massive attack on detention facilities in northeastern Syria under US-backed, Kurdish-led forces has ended after almost a week of fighting, though the fate of some hostages remains unclear. The “F-16s, tanks and guns” that had resounded for almost a week near the Sinaa prison in Hasakah fell silent after …

The Islamic State launched a massive attack on a Kurdish-run prison in Hasakah in northeastern Syria with the aim of releasing about 5,000 inmates. The Islamic State (IS) launched an attack against Al-Sinaa prison in northeast Syria on the night of Jan 20-21. The prison, located in Hasakah’s Ghweran neighborhood, …

The faces of Mujahedin-e-Khalq leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi briefly disrupted state TV programming. State TV in Iran acknowledged a brief hack of its channels on Thursday that appeared to be the work of an exiled dissident group in the run-up to the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 revolution. For roughly …

Large-scale exercises in the Mediterranean are meant both to increase capabilities in Syria and to send a message to NATO. The Kremlin continues to put pressure on the West, demanding impossible security guarantees in Europe, building up troops near Ukraine and conducting military exercises one after another. Syria is also …

Turkey’s drones are a big morale booster for Ukraine as a potential Russian invasion looms. As Western leaders scramble to stave off a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, a pair of air force colonels in this medieval town in southwest Ukraine are showering praise on Turkey’s globally coveted combat drones, …

Soldiers from the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions along with troops from other units are among the roughly 8,500 service members who have been placed on heightened alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe should NATO allies request help deterring Russia from invading Ukraine, the Pentagon said Thursday. In addition …

Russia on Wednesday rejected the prospect of U.S. sanctions against President Vladimir Putin, one of several proposed responses if Russian forces were to invade neighboring Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that such sanctions would not be politically painful, but would be “destructive.” U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday …