Eurasia

Three senior Islamic State leaders were killed in Tal Afar town, west of Mosul, the Shia-led paramilitary troops said on Friday. A statement by Saraya al-Jihad militia, affiliated to al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said troops “identified the bodies of IS members, who were killed on Thursday while infiltrating behind …

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated on Saturday the largest military base of the Middle East in the coastal city of Alexandria. The president raised the Armed Forces flag on the new base in el Hammam city, west of Alexandria. The military base was named after late president Mohamed Naguib, …

The United States warned on Thursday that a new regional plan to shore up South Sudan’s failing peace agreement was the last chance for Juba’s leaders to end the war, now in its fourth year. US Deputy Ambassador Michele Sison told the UN Security Council that Washington will reconsider its …

Egyptian forces have killed 30 extremists during several days of security operations in the Sinai Peninsula involving the army, air force and police, the military said on Saturday. The Egyptian authorities are battling an insurgency by the Islamic State (ISIS) group in North Sinai that has killed hundreds of members …

Ram Nath Kovind, the son of a modest farmer, secured two-thirds of the votes from nearly 5,000 legislators. India’s legislators have elected Ram Nath Kovind, a member of Hinduism’s most oppressed caste, as the country’s 14th president—a triumph for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which nominated him. A total of 4,895 …

The US State Department on Wednesday released the Country Reports on Terrorism 2016, where it highlighted the UAE’s increased counterterrorism efforts. “The nation increased its counter-terrorism prosecutions in the last year, with the Federal Supreme Court’s State Security Court hearing more than three dozen separate terrorism-related cases,” it said.

Iraqi forces on Thursday regained control over Imam Gharbi, a village south of Mosul, from Daesh militants who had seized it as their defence of their stronghold in the city crumbled, Iraqi police said. The action formed part of the next phase of the US-backed government’s campaign to drive Daesh …

The Czech Republic’s foreign minister has suggested that the European Union consider a military engagement in Libya to reduce the flow of migrants arriving by boat from there to Europe. Lubomir Zaoralek says that “we must speak very openly what the real instruments are to stabilize Libya.” He told the …

Five UN peacekeepers’ bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo are to close at the end of July, the UN mission there announced on Wednesday, describing it as a change in operational style. But the closures come against the background of cuts to the overall peacekeeping budget pushed through under …

EU High Representative Federica Mogherini met with the Lebanese foreign minister Affairs Gebran Bassil Tuesday and discussed the Syrian crisis and its consequences on Lebanon. “We discussed in particular the Syrian crisis, the impact in Lebanon; We continue to be on the same side here agreeing that only a political …