Middle Orient

A militant wearing a suicide vest struck an intelligence bureau in northern Iraq on Tuesday, wounding at least three members of the security personnel, Iraqi officials said, blaming the attack on the Islamic State group.

A number of attacks in Iraq’s bordering province, especially Diyala along the Iranian border, have raised concern. Islamic State fighters have filmed themselves with weapons that appear to be of Iranian origin, while security gaps remain due to tension between the KRG and Baghdad.

Militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group have increased their attacks in recent weeks against military forces and civilians in the desert region of Syria.

Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the rebel leader who controls Libya’s oil-rich east, recently declared he has a popular mandate to rule all of the North African nation, a move that may give Russia the upper hand if he can succeed in taking Tripoli amid nearly a decade’s worth of sectarian strife.

At least 40 people have been killed in a bomb attack in the north-western Syrian city of Afrin, Turkey says.

Recent warnings from Israel against Hezbollah’s military activity in southern Syria have elicited a response from the Iranian-backed group. The warning came in the form of an incident that occurred along the Lebanon-Israel border.

US-Iran tensions and protests in Iraq, as well as other issues that lead to instability have enabled ISIS cells to continue to function.

Two members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) were killed on Sunday and three others were injured after Turkish drones targeted a car they were driving in Al-Nayrab town in the eastern countryside of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The top Iranian and Russian diplomats have dismissed a plot by their US counterpart to press for the extension of a UN arms embargo against the Islamic Republic by resorting to a process outlined in a 2015 nuclear agreement that Washington has already abandoned.

Militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group have increased their attacks in recent weeks against military forces and civilians in the desert region of Syria.