1,842 items found
In Iraq, the second city, Mosul, has fallen, although there are still Islamic State forces in that country. So where are they and how strong are they?
If Mosul and the battle for Raqqa are dominating the headlines, the Syrian army has its eye on another battlefield. The key to that is the desert east of Homs that stretches all the way to the Iraqi border. The Syrian army has been focusing its efforts with tank units who are making some astonishing…
Iraqi forces say they’re on the brink of siezing full control of the Iraqi city of Mosul from militant Islamic State fighters – claiming they’ll capture the extremists’ last stronghold within hours
Civilians have borne the brunt of the fighting in Mosul, Iraq, with medical charities saying the population, including thousands of children, has been traumatised by the ‘brutal and horrific conflict’. A seemingly unlikely band of foreign men – led by an American Christian missionary – is fighting against IS, and helping rescue some of those…
Iraqi government forces have closed in on the al-Nuri mosque in Mosul’s old town, where the militant Islamic State group proclaimed its self-styled caliphate three years ago. It is the site of the historic hunchback minaret which was destroyed last week. Retaking the area represents a symbolic victory in the eight month battle for Iraq’s…
The Iraqi army says the battle to liberate Mosul from Islamic State militants will be over in just a “few days”. Despite a desperate counter-attack of suicide bombings, IS fighters are now thought to number just a few hundred and are holed up in a small area of the old city. Over the border in…
The Wikileaks files suggest there have been western efforts to “bring pressure” on Saudi Arabia to end its support for ISIS.
At least 31 people have been killed in a series of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, including one outside a popular ice cream shop in the city centre. Militants from the Islamic State group said they carried out the attacks, which left dozens of other people injured, just days into the holy month…
The US military has revealed that it killed three senior Islamic State officials in attacks this month. Contrary to what Jeremy Corbyn has said, a senior US Colonel has told Channel 4 News that in Iraq and Syria the war on terror is working. But as the noose tightens around IS strongholds, the number of…
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon says Jeremy Corbyn is wrong to link British foreign policy to terrorism, and responds to previous comments from Boris Johnson, who once said that while the Iraq War “didn’t create the problem of murderous Islamic fundamentalists, the war has unquestionably sharpened the resentments felt by such people”.
Gary Gibbon
This was the moment the election was meant to be moving into a higher gear. Many voters, the rubric tells us, don’t pay much attention until the last third of the campaign and the parties’ efforts are geared to that.
Another attempt to broker peace in Syria began in Geneva this week. The Syrian regime and opposition forces agreed four main de-escalation zones in the north. Despite this ‘”truce”, though, there hasn’t been an end to the fighting and killing. There were reportedly more than 200 civilian casualties during last week’s ceasefire alone – half…
Joining us from Central London is Karen von Hippel, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the US State Department and director of the foreign policy think tank, the Royal United Services Institute. And from Abu Dhabi, the US diplomat Ali Khedery who was a special assistant to five American ambassadors in Iraq, and…
It is well known that western armies have long employed private military contractors, from Afghanistan to Iraq, but now the other side has cottoned on. Rebels in Syria have also been using a consultancy firm to carry out first aid and combat training, as well as some of the actual fighting. For over a year…
A new study of the post-conflict experiences of military veterans has warned that increasing numbers of those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq could reach “crisis point” in the coming years over alcohol misuse.