Ukraine on Friday reported the first deaths in three days in east Ukraine, denting hopes a ceasefire will hold, and President Petro Poroshenko said Russia would pose a “military threat” even if the truce is solid. Government troops fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east began towing artillery away from the …

The US has condemned the Islamic State’s attacks on predominantly Assyrian Christian villages in the northeast Syria and called for the immediate and unconditional release of the civilians taken captive. “ISIL’s latest targeting of a religious minority is only further testament to its brutal and inhumane treatment of all those …

Kurdish militia pressed a big offensive against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northeast Syria Feb. 25, cutting one of its supply lines from Iraq, as fears mounted for dozens of Christians abducted by the hardline group that recently beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts. The new Kurdish offensive …