Militants unleashed a wave of attacks on Thursday targeting Shia areas in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing at least 38 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The deadliest attack took place when two parked car-bombs exploded simultaneously in a commercial area in the northern Dolaie neighbourhood, killing 14 civilians …

Kurdish forces have managed to repel Islamic State militants from part of the besieged Syrian town of Kobane, various Kurdish sources said on Thursday. A Kurdish official in Kobane said that US-led airstrikes had successfully pushed back Islamic State insurgents from parts of the town and had allowed Kurdish fighters to …

Some three weeks before U.S. congressional elections viewed largely as a referendum on Obama’s leadership, the president will aim to show the U.S. public and allies abroad that he is committed to a plan to degrade and destroy the group that has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria. …