Middle Orient

Damascus has rejected as “blatant aggression” a recent deal between the US and Turkey on the creation of a so-called safe zone in the northern part of Syria, where Washington-sponsored Kurdish militants have been active to Ankara’s dismay.

Officials say at least 19 killed in assault on the camp in Abyan province, a day after dozens die in attacks in Aden. An al-Qaeda attack on a military camp in war-torn Yemen has killed at least 19 soldiers, security officials said, a day after dozens of people were killed …

Al-Qaeda and its affiliates remain as much of a threat to the U.S. as “it has ever been” after the terrorist group rebuilt itself while the U.S. and other nations focused on destroying Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a State Department official said.

The Lebanese government has been disabled for a while due to a concocted crisis, the intentions behind which go much further exploiting the deaths of two young men in the village of Qabr Shmoun, in Mount Lebanon’s Aley District.

Islamic State (IS) militants killed four security officials late Wednesday near the northern city of Kirkuk, local officials said. The attack, which was carried out on a checkpoint manned by local Kurdish security forces, also left at least eight people wounded, local sources said.

A year ago, Russia promised to keep Iran away from border. We agreed on Iran, not on its proxies, Moscow tells a concerned Israel Compared to Gaza, the Iranian front – which to Israeli eyes stretches from the Persian Gulf through Iraq and into Syria and Lebanon – is bustling …

Turkey’s National Security Council met Tuesday to decide whether to launch a military offensive into Syria against the YPG Kurdish militia. With Washington backing the YPG and warning against any unilateral action, the two NATO allies could be on a collision course.

The Afghanistan-based Uzbek jihadist group Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) is also operating inside Syria, according to a new report released by the United Nations Security Council.

While Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have been quick to use the Gulf’s escalating tensions to rattle sabres, analysts downplayed the likelihood that the exchange of threats would develop into full-scale conflict in the immediate future.

Britain took new steps on Monday to distance itself from the Trump administration’s escalating confrontation with Iran, even while pushing for the release of an oil tanker seized by Tehran three days earlier.