ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police have arrested the Islamic State militant group’s top figure in Turkey, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Tuesday. Soylu said on Twitter “important plans” had been seized along with the militant. No further details wer... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Long-awaited peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban were expected to start in Qatar within a week once the final batch of Taliban prisoners were released, the U.S. special envoy and Afghan government sources said on ... More »
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Afghan security forces laid siege to a prison seized by Islamic State fighters in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Monday, with at least 29 people killed after the militants’ overnight assault led to a mass jailbreak. More th... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – More than 300 prisoners were at large on Monday after an attack by Islamic State on an Afghan prison, the governor’s spokesman said on Monday, as clashes continued between prisoners and security forces. The assault began on Sunday night on th... More »
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The head of Somalia’s military escaped unhurt and one civilian was killed on Monday when a suicide attacker drove a bomb-laden car into a convoy in the capital Mogadishu, according to a military spokesman and an ambulance service. The al ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to ban Huawei from Britain’s 5G network in a landmark decision that will anger Beijing but win plaudits from President Donald Trump as the United States grapples with China’s rising economic and technologi... More »
HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s parliament passed national security legislation for Hong Kong on Tuesday, setting the stage for the most radical changes to the former British colony’s way of life since it returned to Chinese rule 23 years ago. Details of... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that Britain needed to protect its critical national infrastructure from “hostile state vendors” when deciding what role China’s Huawei should play in the country’s 5G network. Britain is taking a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was never briefed about the reported Russian efforts to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan, blasting a New York Times report on the bounties. “Nobody brief... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House sought to play down reports it knew Russia had paid the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. troops, promising to brief Democrats on Tuesday after being accused of only sharing information with President Donald Trump’s fellow Re... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Both Democrats and President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress demanded more information from the White House on Monday after reports that Russian military intelligence offered militants bounties for killing U.S. troops in Af... More »
BAMAKO (Reuters) – Gunmen ambushed an army convoy near a town in central Mali on Sunday and killed a number of soldiers, residents from another nearby town said. Several other soldiers and around half of the dozen or so vehicles in the convoy were still missin... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – The United Nations said Afghan civilian casualties jumped to 380 in April, expressing alarm about a “striking deterioration” in respect for international humanitarian law as the United States withdraws troops and attempts to usher in a peace ... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked a hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday where the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders runs a maternity clinic, officials said. There was no immediate information about any casualties in ... More »
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s central military hospital, which for decades was inundated with victims of landmines and other casualties of the country’s internal conflict, is being outfitted to battle a new enemy: coronavirus. The hospital’s staff parking lot ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – A French soldier has died while on operations in Burkina Faso, the French Armed Forces Ministry said in a statement on Monday. The ministry said the causes of the death of Sergeant Morgan Henry were unknown for now and an investigation was un... More »
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – About 20 soldiers were killed and nearly 1,000 people made homeless in a militant attack on a town in northeastern Nigeria, two residents and a military source said on Wednesday. The militants entered Monguno in Borno state posin... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday the House would vote on a resolution intended to limit President Donald Trump’s military actions regarding Iran, stating that concerns about the administration’s strate... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban said their fighters killed a U.S. service member in Afghanistan on Monday and posted photographs of a blood-soaked backpack and the identity card of a American soldier to prove it. The U.S. military said in a statement an American... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Four Katyusha rockets struck a military base next to Baghdad International Airport on Monday wounding “six fighters”, a statement from the military said. Security forces found a rocket launcher and several rockets in a search of the area, t... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Turkey’s presidential administration has said that the purchase date for more S-400 missile systems from Russia is just a technicality and that it thinks a deal will happen before too long, the RIA news agency reported on Monday. Moscow hope... More »
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – International organizations warned on Friday of a potential resurgence of Ebola in Congo after deadly militia attacks on health centers forced aid groups to suspend operations and withdraw staff from the epidemic’... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey said on Monday it had deported two Islamic State militants — a German and an American — beginning a programme to repatriate fighters that has caused friction with its NATO allies since it launched an offensive in northern Syria. Allie... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany does not yet know the identity of seven people Turkey plans to deport on the grounds that they have fought for the Islamic State militant group, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday. Earlier, Turkey said it would deport seven ... More »
NAIROBI/JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters) – As jihadists wreaked ever more havoc in the last two years, mining firms in Burkina Faso rolled out extra security measures, from barracks for government troops protecting them to safe rooms for workers behind barbed wir... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in central Baghdad on Monday, defying the prime minister’s plea to end protests which he says are costing Iraq’s economy billions of dollars and disrupting daily life. The protests have broke... More »
YANGON (Reuters) – Ethnic rebels in Myanmar have detained and interrogated a lawmaker and several Indian nationals, one of whom died, the rebels said on Monday, in the latest escalation of violence in the restive western state of Rakhine. Tens of thousands of ... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Sunday it had agreed to withdraw more than 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, an announcement welcomed by Damascus which said Turkey should now end its “aggression” in northeast S... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fugitive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died “whimpering and crying” in a raid by U.S. special forces in northwest Syria, President Donald Trump announced on Sunday, fulfilling what he called his top national security goal. Ba... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For President Donald Trump, the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a signature achievement that may help quell growing criticism from his own ranks, but it is unlikely to offer much relief from Democratic-led scrutiny ... More »
(Reuters) – The killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a U.S. raid is a further blow to a jihadist group that once held a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria, experts said, but the organization and its ideology remain dangerous. Where once t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of violent jihadist group Islamic State, died during an overnight raid led by U.S. military forces in Syria. Here is a description of the raid according to... More »
BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) – The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Sunday said they had withdrawn from the border town of Ras al Ain under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, but a spokesman for Turkish-backed Syrian rebels said the withdrawal was not yet... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior members of Congress held talks in Jordan on Saturday with King Abdullah II and other top Jordanian officials. Pelosi said in a statement the visit was at “a critical time for the security ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday demanded Turkey stop its military incursion in Syria and imposed new sanctions on the NATO ally as Trump scrambled to limit the damage from his much-criticized decision to clear U.S. troops from Turk... More »
WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) – President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey on Monday and demanded the NATO ally stop a military incursion in northeast Syria that is rapidly reshaping the battlefield of the world’s deadliest ongoing war. Trump, who... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Monday Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters had emptied a jail holding Islamic State prisoners in a part of Syria where Ankara is mounting an offensive, and that the prisoners there had been abducted. Turk... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who has been critical of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull American troops out of northeast Syria, said on Monday he strongly supports Trump’s decision to sanction Turkey over its invasion ... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The United States said it was pulling troops from northeast Syria, in a major shift which clears the way for a Turkish military offensive against Kurdish-led forces and hands Turkey responsibility for thousands of Islamic State captives. A... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that U.S. troops had started to withdraw from parts of northeast Syria after his phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, adding that talks between Turkish and U.S. officials on the matter ... More »
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey on Monday replaced mayors from a pro-Kurdish party with state officials in three cities and detained more than 400 people for suspected militant links, the Interior Ministry said, a move likely to fuel tensions in the main... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police have detained 418 people in 29 provinces in an investigation targeting suspects with links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. The ministry announcement, made on Twitter... More »
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump met with his national security team on Friday to discuss Afghan peace talks and the meeting went “very well, and negotiations are proceeding,” the White House said in a statement. Source: https://www.reuters... More »
ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Turkey began taking delivery of an advanced Russian missile defense system on Friday, a move expected to trigger U.S. sanctions against a NATO ally and drive a wedge into the heart of the Western military alliance. The first par... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Russia started delivering advanced missile defense equipment to NATO member Turkey on Friday, the Defense Ministry in Ankara said, setting the stage for likely U.S. sanctions on Ankara. The dispute over the S-400 air defense missiles, whic... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey took its first deliveries of the Russian S-400 air defense system on Friday, a development likely to trigger U.S. sanctions on Ankara and escalate tensions between Turkey and its Western partners in the NATO military alliance. Why d... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation confirmed on Friday it had started delivering S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey and that the deliveries would continue as per an agreed schedule, the RIA news agency reported.... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan security forces on Monday were battling Taliban gunmen who stormed a building in the capital, Kabul, after a bomb-laden truck exploded near the defense ministry at rush hour, injuring at least 100 people, including 35 children, officia... More »
RIYADH/AMMAN/CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab politicians and commentators greeted U.S. President Donald Trump’s $50 billion Middle East economic vision with a mixture of derision and exasperation, although some in the Gulf called for it to be given a chance. In Israel,... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s battered tourism industry is trying to woo visitors back to beaches deserted after deadly Easter bombings, slashing hotel rates and pushing promotions in key markets like Russia. Tourism, which accounts for 5% of Sri Lanka’s gro... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Bahrain, a U.S. ally that hosts the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has warned citizens and residents that following anti-government social media accounts could result in legal action, hardening a government campaign against critical online voices. The i... More »
DUSHANBE (Reuters) – Three prison guards and 29 inmates have been killed in a high-security prison in Tajikistan after convicted Islamic State militants started a riot, the Central Asian nation’s Justice Ministry said on Monday. The ministry said the riot brok... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka on Monday temporarily blocked some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in the worst unrest since Easter bombings by Islamist militants. Th... More »
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A deadly surge in violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel petered out overnight and Palestinian officials reported that Egypt had mediated a truce early on Monday. The latest round of fighting erupted three days ago, peaking o... More »
BATTICALOA/COLOMBO (Reuters) – State schools in Sri Lanka resumed classes on Monday amid tight security after the Easter Sunday bombings, but many anxious parents kept their children at home over fears of more attacks by Islamic militants. Two weeks after suic... More »
ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) – The pencil minaret of the Ottoman Adliyeh mosque in Syria’s Aleppo lists to one side and is scored by an ugly gash running down its flank, the result of bombing in the war. The sorry state of Aleppo’s Old City, a labyrinthine World He... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Authorities lifted a curfew in Sri Lanka on Monday, a day after a string of bombings at churches and luxury hotels across the Indian Ocean island killed 290 people and wounded about 500, but there were warnings more attacks could come. Ther... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said in a revised travel advisory ‘terrorist groups’ were continuing to plot possible attacks in Sri Lanka after 290 people were killed and about 500 wounded in blasts in churches and luxury hotels on Sunday. “Terrorists m... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – The death toll from attacks on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka rose significantly to 290, and about 500 people were also wounded, police said on Monday. The death toll overnight had stood at 207. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunaseker... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sharply criticised U.S. military intervention in the Middle East on Monday as he began a first official visit to Iraq, aimed at shoring up Tehran’s influence and expanding trade ties. The visit also sends a ... More »
MOSUL, Iraq(Reuters) – A raven perched on the shoulder of a woman with flaming hair is Iraqi artist Marwan Fathi’s symbol for the terrible events he and his home city Mosul have had to endure. Three years under the oppressive and violent rule of Islamic State ... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – Philippines security forces investigating a deadly twin bombing at a church on a predominantly Muslim southern island are zeroing in on what they say is an affiliate of the militant Abu Sayyaf Group. Twenty people were killed and more than 1... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army said it entered Manbij on Friday for the first time in years, after the Kurdish YPG militia urged Damascus to protect the town from the threat of Turkish attacks. It was unclear whether the government forces had spread out in... More »
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Authorities in Sudan have arrested at least nine opposition leaders and activists, a group of civil society groups said on Friday, ahead of fresh anti-government protests expected after weekly Muslim prayers. The head of the media office a... More »
KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – As moves toward peace pick up in Afghanistan, the Taliban are trying to show they have changed since the brutal days of the 1990s when they banned music and girls’ education and carried out public executions in Kabul’s foot... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army entered Manbij on Friday for the first time in years, it said in a statement, after the Kurdish YPG militia urged the government of President Bashar al-Assad to protect the town from Turkish attacks. The army said it would gu... More »
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (Reuters) – President Donald Trump made a surprise Christmas visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday, his first trip to a conflict zone nearly two years into his presidency and days after announcing a pullout of American troops from ne... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi political and militia leaders condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and lawmakers said a meeting between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Ab... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi that the U.S. is still committed to fighting Islamic State in Iraq and other areas despite its planned troop withdrawal from Syria, Abdul Mahdi’s office said on... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Lebanese army killed a suspected drug dealer and seven others during a raid in northeast Lebanon on Monday, the army said. During the raid, which took place near the town of Brital, not far from the border with Syria, soldiers were fired... More »
WASHINGTON/ANKARA (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told Iran it risked dire consequences “the like of which few throughout history have suffered before” if the Islamic Republic made more threats against the United States. His words, spelled out in capit... More »
ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Kurdish security forces killed gunmen who had stormed a government building in the Kurdish city of Erbil on Monday and took hostages in an attack suspected of being carried out by Islamic State, security officials said, Armed with pisto... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide bomber in Afghanistan killed at least 12 people, including several children, on Tuesday, in an attack in the eastern city of Jalalabad claimed by Islamic State militants. The attacker detonated his explosives near a petrol pump, kil... More »
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – South Syrian rebels said on Friday they had agreed to cease fire and start handing over heavy weapons in a deal mediated by Russia that will restore state sovereignty over areas they hold in Deraa province after a fierce government off... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian government forces seized control of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan on Friday, a military news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah said, after Russia concluded a surrender agreement with rebels in the area. Source: http... More »
AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian rebels in Deraa province who are not willing to reconcile with the government will leave to insurgent-held areas of the north under a Russian-brokered agreement that will also restore Syrian state sovereignty over a border crossing wit... More »
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – An explosion hit the center of the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Sunday, killing at least 20 people, including several members of the small Sikh minority, provincial government officials said. The blast, hours after Pre... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army has seized a chunk of territory from rebels in the southwest, Syrian state media and a war monitor said on Tuesday, the first major government advance in an offensive near the Jordanian border. Meanwhile two Israeli missiles ... More »
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A high-level delegation from Eritrea was due to arrive in its neighbor and long-time foe Ethiopia on Tuesday to discuss recent peace overtures, raising hopes of a breakthrough in one of Africa’s most intractable military stand-offs. Eth... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish forces are waiting for the right time to carry out an operation in northern Iraq’s Qandil region where high-ranking members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are located, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Monday.... More »
BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced on state TV on Monday that he would run for re-election in a poll scheduled for the end of July. Keita, 73, had been widely expected to run for a second term, but had not confirmed his intent... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army resumed its offensive against Islamic State militants in south Damascus on Monday after a short ceasefire to allow women, children and old people leave, state television said. The Syrian army and its allies have been battling... More »
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen killed five mine-clearance workers in Afghanistan on Monday who were preparing for construction of an international gas pipeline, while one worker was kidnapped, officials said. The $8 billion TAPI pipeline... More »
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban fighters threatened the provincial capital of Farah in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, with fighting underway on the outskirts of the city where government forces were defending two police districts, officials and residen... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah and its political allies won more than half the seats in Lebanon’s first parliamentary election in nine years, according to unofficial preliminary results cited by politicians and Lebanese media. The r... More »
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Kurdish electrician Sukru Gunduz was out on a job when a friend came running to tell him his house was being knocked down, with five members of his family inside. Angry and alarmed, he rushed home. By the time he got there, a mec... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – An explosion at a mosque used as a voter centre in the eastern Afghan province of Khost on Sunday killed at least 17 people and wounded 34, local officials said, in the latest attack on preparations for long-delayed parliamentary elections. B... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is expected to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement on May 12. Tehran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, with China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain, and the United States in 2015. Iran... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Iran’s foreign minister said on Thursday U.S. demands to change its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers were unacceptable as a deadline set by President Donald Trump for Europeans to “fix” the deal loomed. Trump has warned that unless E... More »
AMMAN (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested on Monday he was open to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, saying a “two-party solution” was likely in his first extensive comments on peace efforts since taking the job las... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Twin blasts in the Afghan capital Kabul killed at least 25 people on Monday, including eight journalists who had arrived to report on the first explosion and who were apparently targeted by a suicide bomber, officials said. Several hours late... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army began an intense bombardment of a rebel enclave near Homs on Monday, a war monitor said, as President Bashar al-Assad pushed to recapture all the remaining areas his forces have besieged. The attack comes as Syrian state tele... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish police arrested three people on Monday on suspicion of preparing to commit terrorist crimes and took in several more for questioning after raids in northern Sweden and the Stockholm area, the security police said. It added there w... More »
RIYADH (Reuters) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday on a hastily-arranged visit to the Middle East as the United States aims to muster support for new sanctions against Iran. The visit to Riyadh, Jerusalem and Amman just two d... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army bombarded a jihadist enclave in south Damascus on Monday, state television and a war monitor said, as President Bashar al-Assad seeks to regain all ground near the capital. The military focus on the area, where Islamic State ... More »
RIYADH (Reuters) – Syria’s chief opposition negotiator said the United States cannot afford to leave Syria as it has yet to achieve any of its goals in the region, even though President Donald Trump said recently Washington would withdraw its troops. “I person... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The Maldives rejected a demand by a U.N. human rights watchdog on Monday that former president Mohamed Nasheed be allowed to stand for office, including in a presidential election later this year. The U.N. Human Rights Committee, a panel of ... More »
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – A visit by chemical weapons inspectors to the site of a suspected gas attack in Syria was delayed on Monday, British and Russian officials said, as Western powers and Russia traded accusations in the aftermath of retaliatory U.S.-led missi... More »
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Western countries accused Moscow on Monday of preventing inspectors from reaching the site of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria and said Russians or Syrians may have tampered with evidence on the ground. The United States, Britain an... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The prospect of Western military action in Syria that could lead to confrontation with Russia hung over the Middle East on Friday but there was no clear sign that a U.S.-led attack was imminent. International chemical weapons experts were tr... More »
