Middle Orient

Both Iraqi security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been involved in clashes with the so-called Islamic State in Iraq’s northeast Diyala province. The area lies within the territory disputed between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iraq’s federal government, and it has seen a resurgence in terrorist activity.

Lebanon cannot expect to receive international aid for its battered economy until a new government undertakes serious reforms, diplomats decided at a closed-door meeting in Paris on Wednesday.

Iraq launched the second phase of Will of Victory operation against ISIS in four different governorates, including Salaheddine, Kirkuk, Samarra and Diyala, announced spokesperson Joint Operations Command spokesman Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji.

The quiet of Al Hol camp in the afternoon belies the trouble that lurks beneath the surface. In an annex of this sprawling facility reserved for some 10,000 foreign wives and children of Isis fighters from around the world, a mutiny is brewing.

American commanders have requested guidance on dealing with an attack from those armed groups and others from Iran and the Syrian government, but officials say they have received muddled direction.

History is often full of strange ironies. Decades from now, the rise and fall of ISIS will probably be remembered in the same breath as the rise and fall of Kurdish hopes of statehood. That Kurdish aspirations of independence in Syria and Iraq should have suffered the same fate as …

Lebanon’s Hezbollah party has joined the search for a new Iraqi prime minister following the resignation of Adel Abdul Mahdi last week.

There is fresh intelligence of a potential Iranian threat against US forces and interests in the Middle East, according to several US defense and administration officials.

Three Kurdish Peshmerga forces were killed repelling an Islamic State attack late Wednesday night in a disputed town in the Iraqi province of Diyala.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) knocked French President Emmanuel Macron for “cavalier” comments about ISIS fighters who traveled from Europe to join the terrorist group.