Middle Orient

nited States-backed fighters retook the final enclave of the Islamic State “caliphate” on Saturday in Baghuz, eastern Syria. With thick beards and wearing kaftans, Isis militants continued to emerge from underground tunnels over the weekend, surrendering to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Unlike Donald Trump, who has already announced …

Breaking with decades of international consensus, US President Donald Trump has formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, a border area the Tel Aviv regime seized from Syria in 1967.

Iran is pursuing a strategy in Iraq similar to that which it employed in Lebanon, where it built Lebanese Hezbollah into a major military and political force. Hezbollah has become a ‘kingmaker,’ determining who occupies key leadership positions in the Lebanese government. Similarly, with Iran’s extensive assistance, several Iraqi militias …

The Islamic Republic is gathering “target packages”, according to several former US intelligence officials. The objective of such acts is to conduct assassinations or carry out terrorist attacks against those who are listed in such a checklist.

Since the announcement of its withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal in May last year, the United States has sought to tighten the grip on Tehran’s sources of income to prevent it from spending on its hostile activities and financing terrorism in the region.

A seven-minute media address by United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday was dominated by his country’s preoccupation with Hezbollah and, in effect, its patron Iran.

The United States has struck a strategic port deal with Oman in an attempt to get better access to the Persian Gulf region and avoid sending ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime choke point that Iran could easily block using its advanced missile arsenal.

A Hezbollah commander who allegedly headed a 2007 raid on an American base in Iraq, which ended with the slaying of kidnapped American soldiers, is now building a secret force that could attack Israel from Syria, according to an Israeli military intelligence report.

For a third time in three days Iran has denied repeated Turkish statements that the two countries are cooperating in a military operation against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Samer recalls the gruesome shock of seeing his friend’s headless corpse strung up above Raqqa’s main square.