Middle Orient News

The United States on Feb. 10 denied that it was coordinating air strikes either directly or indirectly with the Syrian regime against Islamic militants and renewed calls for President Bashar al-Assad to go. In an interview with the BBC, Assad said Damascus was being informed about the US-led coalition air …

UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura arrived in Syria from Beirut on Monday for talks with officials in Damascus to follow up on efforts at ending the four-year conflict, official media reports said. De Mistura has been trying to facilitate local ceasefires in different areas of Syria since …

The European Union has pledged one billion euros in funding for the crises in Syria and Iraq and the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the bloc’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has said. “This package will strengthen our actions to help restore peace and …

Kurdish militants have wrestled control of 65 villages in Kobane’s countryside from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) control since Jan. 26 in northern Syria, according to a Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) source. “Kurdish fighters are advancing rapidly because they know their area geographically very well and …

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an end to a years-old nightly curfew in Baghdad in a bid to ease restrictions on daily life despite persistent violence, officials said Feb. 5. Lifting the curfew is a major change to a longstanding policy aimed at curbing violence in the capital …

Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed to the State Department senior diplomats from nearly 60 nations, including more than 35 Washington-based ambassadors from partner countries in the international coalition against ISIL. Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL John Allen and other senior US officials briefed the …

Egypt President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Lebanese Mufti Abdul Latif Derian, and Grand Mufti of Egypt Shawqy Allam met on Tuesday to discuss extremist ideologies and the religious relations between Egypt and Lebanon. During their talks, Al-Sisi pointed out the importance of correcting religious discourse and re-defining the concepts and the …

Syrian Kurdish militias, who drove out Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants from the center of Kobane after 134 days of battle, are launching operations into the villages surrounding the Syrian border town in a bid to clear the last frontiers of the battle from the Islamists. …

Sustained US-led airstrikes along with the Kurdish ground forces have forced the Islamic State out of key Syrian border town Kobane, the Pentagon has said. “Kurdish ground forces, supported by our air component, were successful in retaking the town of Kobane, which again shows the emptiness of Daesh’s claims of …

Turkey’s border with Syria has again witnessed tension in the wake of Kurdish forces’ success in driving jihadists from Kobane, with Ankara contrastingly attracting international applause and domestic opprobrium over the affair. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, meanwhile, slammed the Kurdish parties fighting there for ruining the town, once home …