Eurasia

EVEN THE Eid al-Fitr holiday did not bring a respite for the almost 3m Syrians bottled up in Idlib. Warplanes buzzed overhead, as they have for more than a month, dropping ordnance on this scrubby province in north-western Syria, the last significant pocket of rebel-held territory. The offensive has already …

Although they are on the same side in the conflict in Syria, Russia and Iran each maintain their own priorities beyond propping up the Assad regime. Russia and Iran have expended massive resources to carve out their own long-term spheres of influence in Syria and throughout the broader region.

Hezbollah’s leader warned the United States against striking Iran, saying if it does “the entire region will burn.” US President Donald Trump “knows that when the region is on fire, a barrel of oil will be $200 or $300,” Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, said …

Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria in response to rare rocket fire from the neighbouring country. A war monitor reported that 10 people were killed, including Syrian soldiers and foreign fighters.

Three ISIS-linked extremists were arrested in Morocco on Monday after planning to “execute terrorist attacks,” according to the counterterrorism office in the North African country.

The Israeli military says it has finished sealing the last of a series of Hezbollah attack tunnels under the country’s northern border with Lebanon, roughly six months after they were found.

Iraqi military intelligence forces arrested on Monday three Islamic State terrorists at al-Salamiya refugee camp in Mosul city.

Russia blocked the U.N. Security Council on Monday from issuing a statement sounding alarm about the increasing fighting in and around Syria’s Idlib province and the possibility of a humanitarian disaster, a council diplomat said.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman slammed Iran over recent attacks targeting the kingdom, describing the incidents on Saturday in a speech before Muslim leaders gathered in Mecca as “terrorist acts” that threaten global energy supplies.

Rising tensions in the Gulf threaten to undercut the political dominance of Iraq’s Shiite militias as they tone down their anti-American rhetoric to avoid being targeted by the US but also seek to maintain close ties with Tehran.