Middle Orient

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ISIS activity is resurgent in Kirkuk, where militants exploit a security vacuum between Peshmerga and Iraqi army lines. Villagers report direct encounters and live in fear, while officials warn the gap must be filled by a joint force to prevent further instability. The specter of ISIS has returned to haunt …

The Syrian leader is heading a neo-Jihadism that is more insidious and dangerous than all other forms of political Islamism and Salafi-Jihadism the world has known so far. Syria’s interim self-appointed president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who served for two decades as a militant in the al-Qaeda terrorist organization under the alias …

Palestinian families across Gaza City confront an agonising decision as Israeli forces intensify military operations, declaring the area a “dangerous combat zone.” With nowhere safe to go and lacking resources to flee, residents describe feeling trapped between violence and survival in overcrowded displacement camps. Ahmed Mohammed Fayad packs belongings from …

Egypt is bolstering its military presence in the Sinai Peninsula as Israel pushes ahead with a new military operation to conquer Gaza City, which Cairo fears will displace even more Palestinians in the devastated and immiserated coastal enclave. Egypt has reportedly deployed up to 40,000 troops in the northern Sinai …

Despite efforts to integrate diverse rebel factions into a unified military structure, a report notes significant challenges, including defections, tribal conflicts, and difficulties in maintaining regular salary payments. A recent report has revealed that 22 senior military officials in the New Syrian Army, including key figures such as the Minister …

In a recent gathering with Arab media in Damascus, President Ahmed Sharaa presented a vivid account of Syria’s current landscape, interweaving the country’s domestic complexities with aspirations for renewal. His vision is of a state reclaiming its institutions, a nation devoid of expansionist ambitions, and a society poised for revival …

Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa pledged to dismantle his country’s massive illegal drug trade when he took power in December, but the dangerous amphetamine captagon is still flowing. On September 1, Jordanian security forces announced that they “foiled two large-scale drug-smuggling attempts along the country’s eastern border [with Syria].” In …

On June 29, 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in al-Sham (ISIS), was recorded on video speaking at the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq. (“Al-Sham” is the traditional Arabic name for the Levant.) He declared himself to be the caliph or divinely inspired absolute ruler of …

The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) publish the Iran Update, which provides insights into Iranian and Iranian-sponsored activities that undermine regional stability and threaten US forces and interests. CTP-ISW publishes the Iran Update daily. Click here to …