In what many observers see as an effort to exert substantial control over the Mediterranean in view of restoring the former glory of the Ottoman Caliphate, Turkey has begun sending Syrian mercenaries to Libya to bolster the UN-backed government there against General Khalifa Haftar and his rebels.
U.S. troops last weekend reportedly found themselves in a standoff with Russian forces trying to gain access to key oil fields in northeastern Syria.
French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting several African leaders this week to discuss Islamic extremism that is spreading across the continent, seeming to give heed to a recent warning from a French philosopher that a Rwanda-style genocide is developing there.
Israeli Military Intelligence believes the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani represents a significant opportunity to counter Tehran’s growing aggressiveness in the region, The Times of Israel learned Tuesday.
Israeli aircraft attacked a truck convoy near the Syria-Iraq border in an effort to thwart the delivery of weapon systems to pro-Iranian militias, Arab media reported overnight Thursday. Israel has not commented on the incident.
Facing a Friday deadline that could halt the delivery of humanitarian aid to more than 1 million Syrians every month, the divided U.N. Security Council is set to vote on rival resolutions that would continue deliveries through border crossings to mainly rebel-held areas.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting Syria where he has held talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syrian state media and Russia’s Interfax said on Tuesday.
MPs in Turkey passed a bill approving the deployment of troops to Libya last Thursday in support of the embattled UN-backed government there, shoring up a relationship that experts say is a consolidation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s idea of a ‘greater Turkey’ resembling the Ottoman Empire.
A former “Prince of ISIS” that extremists swear allegiance to and are willing to die for was converted to Christianity after meeting with a Muslim evangelist and receiving a letter dripping with Jesus’ blood in a dream.
Syrian regime forces and Iranian militias fired three missiles at the Conoco gas fields in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria and six rockets were fired into the Green Zone in Baghdad that houses the US embassy Sunday as tensions flared across the region.
The Iranian militia group Kataeb Hezbollah vowed to seek the expulsion of U.S. troops from Iraqi territory Thursday through legal channels after protests manufactured by Iran wreaked havoc on the U.S. embassy earlier in the week.
Islamic State militants have increased their terror activity in recent weeks in Syria, carrying out deadly attacks against Syrian regime troops and U.S.-backed forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday praised as ‘important’ the series of US airstrikes a day earlier against an Iranian proxy group that had carried out an attack on American forces in Iraq.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that US airstrikes on Iraq and Syria were unacceptable and counterproductive, and urged all sides to avoid fueling tensions in the region.
Civilians on Friday packed a road leading out of a flashpoint town in northwest Syria, where two weeks of heightened regime and Russian bombardment has displaced 235,000 people.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq vowed to respond to US strikes Sunday that killed between 12 and 24 fighters sponsored by Iran, as the US promised to continue battling Iranian influence in the region.
12 Iran-backed fighters were killed in Iraq and Syria Sunday, as the US retaliated for a Friday strike by Iran proxies that left 4 American servicemen wounded and killed a military contractor.
ISIS-affiliated terrorists in Nigeria killed 11 people, many assumed to be Christians, on Christmas day, following the slaying of 7 Christians in Borno State by the organization on Christmas eve.
A top Iranian official said that Israel ‘will regret’ its attacks in Syria, which have reportedly targeted Iranian resources and weapons shipments.
Israel conducted an airstrike into Syria on Sunday night as air defenses in the country opened fire on missiles that had entered, state media reported.