Middle Orient News

Britain will not collaborate with Assad to combat Islamic State

Britain will not work with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to combat Islamic State (IS) fighters in the country and his permission would not be needed for any military intervention, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Friday. Hammond also said Britain had no plans to arm moderate fighters in Syria’s civil war, …

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UN says 700,000 Iraqis are displaced in Kurdish north

About 700,000 Iraqis have gathered in the Kurdish north after being driven from their homes by jihadist fighters, the United Nations said Aug. 22 as it stepped up a massive aid operation to the region. “The Kurdistan region of Iraq is now hosting close to 700,000 displaced Iraqis, most having …

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Morocco dismantles recruitment cell for Iraq

Moroccan police say they have dismantled a nine-person cell recruiting volunteers to fight with the radical Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. The interior ministry statement on Thursday said the investigation into the network, based in the cities of Tetouan, Fez and Fnideq, was carried out in co-operation with …

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Germany, Italy to provide arms to Kurdish fighters

Germany is prepared to arm Kurdish fighters battling Sunni insurgents in northern Iraq, officials said Wednesday, Aug 20, according to the Associated Press. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier cited the “barbaric” actions of the Islamic State group that has taken control of large parts of Iraq in recent weeks, and the …

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Syrian forces strike Islamic State terrorists

As the U.S. military strikes the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces have significantly stepped up their own campaign against militant strongholds in Syria, carrying out dozens of airstrikes against the group’s headquarters in the past two days. While the government in Damascus has long turned …

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Obama hails destruction of Syrian chemical weapons

 US President Barack Obama has lauded the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, which was carried out on board a US Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea, and urged Damascus to fulfil its commitment to destroy its remaining production facilities. “Today we mark an important achievement in our ongoing effort to counter the …

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Syrian troops take over Damascus suburb

Syrian government troops captured a fiercely contested suburb of the capital Thursday after five months of heavy fighting, flushing rebels from their last hideouts and quickly moving to crush pockets of resistance in the surrounding countryside, activists and state media said. The fall of Mleiha, located some 10 km southeast …

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