Middle Orient

Turkish intelligence helped Iraq capture a senior Islamic State leader who had been hiding out in northwestern Syria, three security sources said on Tuesday, in an operation that points to closer cooperation against remnants of the jihadist group. Iraq announced on Monday that its security forces had captured Sami Jasim, …

Gulf states are in a pickle. They fear that the emerging parameters of a reconfigured US commitment to security in the Middle East threaten to upend a more-than-a-century-old pillar of regional security and leave them with no good alternatives. The shaky pillar is the Gulf monarchies’ reliance on a powerful …

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey was determined to eliminate threats originating in northern Syria, adding an attack by Kurdish YPG militants that killed two Turkish police was “the final straw.” “We have no patience left regarding some regions in Syria which have the quality of being the …

Marib is a flashpoint city and key stronghold in the Yemen conflict More than 150 Houthi rebels were killed in air raids south of Marib, a major hotspot of Yemen’s civil war, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the militants said on Monday. Hundreds of Iran-backed rebels died in a resurgence of …

Several pro-Iranian parties promise to launch an appeal after early results show losses for parties with PMF links. Pro-Iranian parties and armed groups have denounced early results from Iraq’s elections as “manipulation” and a “scam”. Sunday’s parliamentary election – the fifth in the war-scarred country since the US-led invasion and …

At least four people were killed when a car bomb exploded in the Syrian city of Afrin on Monday, a medical source said, the latest such attack in the northwestern region that is controlled by Turkey and Syrian rebels it supports. The blast wounded another six people, the source said. …

When Saudi Arabia banned the import of Lebanese produce in April because these shipments were being abused to smuggle narcotics into the Kingdom, Hezbollah found itself with a problem. Following the collapse of the Lebanese and Syrian economies, Assad family mafiosi and Hezbollah set about remodeling their nations as narco …

Eighteen years since the US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the Baathist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, a whole generation has come of age knowing only the system of parliamentary democracy built in its place. But as election day unfolds today, many young Iraqis still feel alienated from the political process and …

There has been a lot of saber-rattling in recent days on the Iranian side of their border with Azerbaijan. One analysis suggests three reasons: a joint drill by Azerbaijani, Pakistani, and Turkish troops, which occurred 500 kilometers from the Iranian border; Azerbaijani restrictions on Iranian truck drivers’ access to roads, …

From a ridge known locally as Baghouz Mountain, the most contested corner of the Middle East resembles an oasis: it’s a splash of green on a desert horizon stretching from the banks of the Euphrates to a sprawling area of new homes housing new – and unruly – neighbours. Little …