Middle Orient

The Kurdish regional government in Iraq plans to send some 150 peshmerga fighters to Kobani through Turkey over the next few days to support Syrian Kurds there defending against ISIL militants. Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff for Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani, said the fighters would take light weapons …

Washington is seeking more information on reports that militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) used chlorine gas against Iraqi police officers last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Oct. 24. The top U.S. diplomat told reporters he could not confirm the reports, but …

France’s Rafale fighter jets have struck a training center of the Islamic State (IS) militant group overnight in Iraqi city of Kirkuk, French army’s chief staff Peter de Villiers said on Friday. As part of the coalition military offensive to halt the militants’ advance, French aircraft dropped 70 bombs, of …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday (Oct 23) that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to the flashpoint Syrian border town of Kobane under assault by the Islamic State (IS) group. The regional administration in northern Iraq and Syrian Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party …

The Turkish government and the Kurdish political movement have sounded a note of optimism for the future of the stalled peace process, with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu suggesting that the process could reach a settlement within the next few months if all actors involved fulfill their roles. “Now there is a road …

 Iraqi security forces and allied tribal fighters rebuffed an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in a town near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, but were forced to withdraw from another embattled town after two days of fierce clashes in the country’s western province of Anbar, security sources said on Thursday. …

The outgoing President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has said that the “Islamic State” represents today the biggest threat to “civilisation and our model of society”. Europe needs to be part of the international efforts to defeat and uproot it.” Barroso wrote this in a book about his …

US military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria on Monday and Tuesday using fighter and bomber aircraft to conduct four airstrikes, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced. Separately, US and partner nation forces conducted three airstrikes using fighter and attack aircraft against ISIL terrorists in Iraq, the announcement said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that Peshmerga forces of Iraqi Kurdish Government have not entered Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobane, through Turkey. “The talks about the issue are still ongoing,” he said in a televised interview, giving no further details. It has been reported that …

Kurdish fighters in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobane weathered a fresh onslaught by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as they awaited promised reinforcements from Iraq. The Kurdish militia faced fierce attacks on Tuesday, fresh from heavy battles on Monday evening in which …