Middle Orient

Iraq is to resume paying war reparations to Kuwait at the start of 2018, in UN-endorsed compensation for Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of the emirate, the president’s office announced Friday. It said the two countries had agreed during a visit to Kuwait City by President Fuad Masum on Monday for …

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said on Tuesday the Daesh extremist group had been defeated from a military perspective but he would only declare final victory after Daesh militants were routed in the desert. Iraqi forces on Friday captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under …

The United States has said there was no need to appoint a special envoy to resolve the crisis between Iraq and Kurdistan Region, saying that such a dispute could be resolved “internally”. “We certainly heard about that idea to appoint a special envoy. We believe at this point that this …

Iraq’s prime minister has announced the defeat of ISIL “from a military perspective” but says he will only declare final victory once security forces have eliminated the extremists from the desert. Rawa, the last remaining town under ISIL’s control, was captured by Iraqi forces on Friday, signalling the collapse of …

Iraqi forces on Friday captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under Daesh control, signalling the collapse of the group’s self-proclaimed territory. Rawa’s capture marks the end of Daesh’s era of territorial rule over a so-called caliphate that it proclaimed in 2014 across vast swathes of Iraq …

yria’s army and loyalist militiamen Sunday ousted the Daesh group from its last urban stronghold in the country as regime strikes claimed more lives in a rebel-held enclave near Damascus. The army said it had taken full control of Albu Kamal in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, which has …

Security forces have repulsed an attack by Islamic State militants in western Anbar. Army troops repelled an IS attack in al-Jazeera region, located between Annah and Rawa towns. Thirteen villages were freed, while forty-five IS members and two suicide bombers were killed in three days, according to a statement issued …

The Daesh militant group has lost 95 per cent of the cross-border territory it declared three years ago in Iraq and Syria, the US-led coalition fighting it has said. “Since our coalition was formed in 2014, Daesh has lost 95 per cent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq …

US President Donald Trump on Thursday urged the UN Security Council to vote to renew a join investigative panel looking into possible chemical weapon attack by the Syrian regime, despite Russia’s veto threat. “Need all on the UN Security Council to vote to renew the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) for …

The pro-government paramilitary troops have repulsed an Islamic State attack against a security checkpoint in Diyala, a security source said on Thursday. “Troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi [Popular Mobilization Forces] managed to repel an attack launched by IS to target a checkpoint in al-Bou Eissa village, north of Udhaim, in Diyala,” …