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The Kurds are pushing deeper into an ISIS stronghold on the Syria/Turkey border
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it began an advance towards an Islamic State-held town at the Turkish border on Saturday, thrusting deeper into the jihadists' stronghold of Raqqa...
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The US needs to convince its allies that it has an actual strategy for Iraq...
There may be some merit in sending in 450 more advisors and support personnel to Iraq – raising the U.S. total to some 3,550 – and focusing on creating Sunni forces in Anbar.There may be some merit in...
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Meet the Saudi sheikh who joined and then quit ISIS
Saudi Arabia's maximum security Al-Hair prison gets more attention for its luxury suites devoted to conjugal visits than for its well-documented human rights abuses. But make no mistake, the facility...
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The US just bombed Libya in a 'counterterrorism strike'
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's recognized government said on Sunday veteran Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtarhad been killed in a U.S. air strike inside Libya as part of counter-terrorism...
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A 20-year-old Syrian rebel describes how ISIS created its capital
After four years living in the capital of Isil's caliphate, Hassan's life story reads like the plot of a James Bond film. But the scars on his body and the photos he carries of murdered friends show...
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Iran's Siamese twins are desperately eager for the Iran nuclear windfall
In the next few days, the world will be surprised by what we and the Syrian military leadership are currently preparing, Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Qods...
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The Kurds are on the verge of an 'historic' victory in northern Syria
BEIRUT – Kurdish forces backed by the Free Syrian Army and coalition airstrikes have begun to press into ISIS’s stronghold of Tel Abyad near the Turkish border in a bid to link two de-facto autonomous...
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Children are crawling through barbed wire on Turkey's border to flee ISIS
Thousands of Syrian refugees have broken through the barbed wired fences to enter Turkey in a desperate attempt to flee ISIS, the Associated Press reported.Close to 10.000 Syrians have entered Turkey...
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These are the worst nations for religious persecution
All religious faiths are victims of persecution somewhere.Over the last year “a horrified world has watched the results of what some have aptly called violence masquerading as religious devotion” in...
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These maps show how Iran's ballistic missiles could be a wild card in the...
Iran and a US-led group of countries may be close to finalizing a deal on Tehran's nuclear program. But even after a deal is signed, Iran will still have access to potentially threatening high-end...
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US-backed Kurds just scored a huge victory over ISIS
Kurdish fighters took full control on Tuesday of the border town of Tal Abyad, dealing a major blow to the Islamic State group's ability to wage war in Syria.Haqi Kobane told The Associated Press that...
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Ongoing conflicts have brought the global cost of violence to $14 trillion
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The cost of violence around the world reached a record $14.3 trillion in 2014, equivalent to the combined economies of Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain and...
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Assad is under more military strain than at any point in the four-year Syrian...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies are weighing the possibility that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, under growing military pressure, may soon narrow his focus on defense of more...
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Iraqis and Syrians describe what life is like under ISIS rule
ESKI MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — When the Islamic State fighters burst into the Iraqi village of Eski Mosul, Sheikh Abdullah Ibrahim knew his wife was in trouble.Buthaina Ibrahim was an outspoken human rights...
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Syrian doctors: Here's proof that Assad is using chemical weapons on his own...
A network of Syrian doctors told the US Congress that Bashar al-Assad’s regime is systematically weaponising chlorine to spread fear among civilian populations, in defiance of a recent UN security...
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ISIS just lost 'its most important back door'
The Islamic State lost a crucial "back door" into Turkey earlier this week when Kurdish forces ran the militants out of Tal Abyad, cutting off the terror army's supply route for weapons, cash, and...
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ISIS is using oil as a weapon against Syrians
ISIS has begun to use oil in an attempt to spread its influence and counter rival Syrian opposition groups, Erika Solomon reports for the Financial Times. ISIS, which controls all of the oil-producing...
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The US military is having a really hard time training Syrian rebels
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. effort to build a moderate Syrian opposition force that can stand up to Islamic State rebels is moving more slowly than expected due to complications vetting volunteers...
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It’s time to rethink Iraq and Syria
It's time to rethink Iraq and Syria. It begins by admitting that the old borders are gone, that a unified Syria or Iraq will never be reconstituted, that the Sykes-Picot map is defunct.We may not want...
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Assad is trying to use an entire minority group in Syria as cannon fodder
Apologists for the Assad regime and its dupes in the West claim the regime is the protector of minorities.Nowhere is it more evident that this is a fallacy than in southern Syria, where the regime and...
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