Middle Orient

Syrian rebels backed by Turkey said on Monday that Moscow and its Syrian government ally were trying to wrest control of two major highways in their last enclave in the northwest of the country in a bid to shore up Syria’s sanction-hit economy.

Bahrain’s highest court slapped 19 people with jail terms after they were convicted of maintaining links with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, as reported on Anadolu Agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made an unscheduled visit to Iraq, amid growing tensions with Iran after intelligence reports indicated that Iran moved short-range ballistic missiles by boat in waters off its shores.

The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, has unveiled its latest domestic missile by firing it at targets in the Israeli occupied territories. The resistance group released a video on Sunday which showcased the new missile, dubbed Badr 3, before cutting to footage of it …

The United States is speeding up the arrival of a naval aircraft carrier strike group to the Arabian Sea after concerns Iran may be planning an attack against American or allied targets.

Fighting in northwestern Syria has displaced nearly 140,000 people since February, the UN said on Wednesday, as the regime and its ally Russia have stepped up their bombardment.

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) today released a new resource detailing the Muslim Brotherhood’s established ties to more than 40 radical extremists, including terrorist groups, foreign fighters and extremism propagandists. The Brotherhood officially maintains a platform of non-violence, but has supported violent terrorism across the Middle East. The Brotherhood’s long-standing …

The UN has said it is “gravely concerned” over reports of a worsening humanitarian situation facing civilians across northwest Syria, with rising casualties, and “waves of displacement” due to intensifying conflict.

“When I shot the woman,” Yahya Haj Hamed told investigators, “I saw there were three or four children in the car, but I didn’t fire in their direction. We got back into our car and drove off.” Yahya, a member of a Hamas terror cell, had already “fired in the …

Bottom Line Up Front: The Trump administration ended a key waiver on Iran oil sanctions as part of an effort to apply maximum pressure on Iran’s economy and its regime. The end of the waiver program will reduce Iran’s oil exports further but is unlikely to bring them to a …