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 »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli military said a there has been a “security incident” on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon on Monday and ordered residents in the area to remain indoors. Israel’s N12 TV News reported an exchange of fire between Israeli for... More »
KOBLENZ, Germany (Reuters) – Forty-nine faceless figures stand on the lawn outside a German courthouse, facing the windows of a courtroom behind which two suspected members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s security services are standing trial for torture ... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Many directors would have been devastated when their plans to show their first feature at the Cannes Film Festival were wrecked by the spread of COVID-19. But Lebanon’s Jimmy Keyrouz said he took heart from the themes of his movie “Broken Ke... More »
AMMAN (Reuters) – The toughest U.S. sanctions yet on Syria take effect this week, increasing the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad as he grapples with a deepening economic crisis after a decade of war. Washington says sanctions will help hold Assad and his... More »
KASTANIES/LESBOS, Greece (Reuters) – A child died after being pulled from the seat when a boat capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos, officials said on Monday, the first reported fatality after the Turkish government opened its border last week to let migran... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Russian artist unveiled four giant paintings of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in central Istanbul on Saturday, saying he wanted to show the good ties between Ankara and Moscow despite differences over Syria and other issues. However ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – As the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division departed for the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran, their divisional commander gave a simple order. All personnel entering the region were told to leave smartphones a... 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 »
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 »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The founder of an organization that trained the Syrian “White Helmets” emergency response group has died in Istanbul, his neighbor and a diplomat said on Monday. James Le Mesurier, founder of the Mayday Rescue group, was found dead early o... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Aramco, as Saudi Arabian Oil Co is usually known, is set to add another superlative to the list: the world’s most valuable listed company. The sprawling state-owned oil giant announced on Sunday its intention to float on the Riyadh stock mark... 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 »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Turkish soldier died in hospital after an attack by the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria’s Ras Al Ain region, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said on Monday, bringing the death toll from the attack to two. The ministry had said on Sunday that a ro... 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 »
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion on Sunday that Exxon Mobil or another U.S. oil company operate Syrian oil fields drew rebukes from legal and energy experts. “What I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our gre... 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 »
DOHUK, Iraq (Reuters) – United States troops have crossed into Iraq from Syria through the Sahela border crossing in the northern province of Dohuk, Reuters witnesses said on Monday. Reuters video images showed armored vehicles carrying troops into Iraq, part ... 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 »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia hopes its coordination with the United States and Turkey in Syria will help security and stability in the region, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday, according to the RIA news agency. Speaking during a visit to China, Shoig... 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 »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry urged Turkey on Tuesday to stop military action in Syria and “come back to the right track”. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comments at a daily briefing in Beijing. Turkey launched a militar... 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 »
(Reuters) – The United Kingdom is reviewing all weapons exports licenses to Turkey as it faces mounting pressure over its military offensive in northern Syria, the Financial Times reported on Monday. British ministers have suspended issuing new licenses for ar... 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 »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that Europe had decided to uphold the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and would keep trying to find solutions that averted escalation. “Step by step we will keep trying to find solutions with Iran that preve... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will do its part to avoid a proxy war in Libya, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, warning that the situation in the north African country risked destabilizing the whole of Africa. “In Libya, a situation is developing that c... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – An Iranian tanker sailed through the Mediterranean toward Greece on Monday after it was released from detention off Gibraltar, and Tehran said that any at U.S. move to seize the vessel again would have “heavy consequences”. The Grace 1, renam... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran has warned the United States against any new attempt to seize an Iranian oil tanker in open seas after it left Gibraltar, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on state television on Monday. The Iranian tanker caught in a standoff ... 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 »
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 »
AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) – The Syrian war has inflicted all kinds of hardships on Najwa Abdelaziz but she still manages to make light of one of them. “The uprising ruined my teeth,” she jokes while getting dental care for the first time in years in the back of a ... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – On a studio set in Baghdad, a director watches the star of his TV series hold a knife against the neck of a fellow actor, in a dramatic revival of fortunes for Iraq’s entertainment industry. Filmed in Iraq where the entertainment industry h... 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 »
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – A Damascus museum on Tuesday unveiled a replica, built by Italian archaeologists, of part of a temple altar destroyed by Islamic State militants in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel at Palmyra was one of ... 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 »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad thanked Iran’s Foreign Ministry during his visit to Tehran on Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Rouhani’s comments come a day afte... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Islamic State is far from defeated, and instead is morphing into an asymmetrical warfare force after the militant group lost almost all of the territory it once controlled in Syria, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday. Merkel’s re... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday lifted sanctions on aluminum giant Rusal and other Russian firms linked to oligarch Oleg Deripaska, defying a Democratic-led push in the U.S. Congress to maintain the restrictions. E... More »
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – In the National Museum of Damascus, archaeologist Muntajab Youssef works on an ancient stone bust from Palmyra, one of hundreds of artifacts his team is painstakingly restoring after they were damaged by Islamic State. Centuries-old statue... More »
LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – The U.S. case against the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in Canada last month, centers on the company’s suspected ties to two obscure companies. One is a telecom equipment seller that opera... 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 »
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 »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran said that the U.S. military presence in Syria had been “a mistake, illogical and a source of tension”, in Tehran’s first reaction to President Donald Trump’s planned pull-out. Trump has begun what will be a total withdrawal of U.S. troop... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Nearly 300,000 Syrians have returned to their country after Turkey’s two cross-border operations in northern Syria, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was quoted as saying on Saturday. Turkey has carried out two operations, dubbed “Euphrates... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will quit in February after falling out with Donald Trump over the president’s foreign policies, including the surprise decision this week to pull troops out of Syria and plan a drawdown in Afghanistan. Mattis, a r... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – By plainly stating his policy differences in his resignation letter, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has sparked an incipient challenge to President Donald Trump’s foreign and security agenda that sets his departure apart from scores o... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Iran has the ability to build ballistic missiles with a broader range, a senior commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Monday, according to the semi-official Fars News agency. Iran’s missiles currently cover a range of 2000 kilo... More »
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – The last shadow puppeteer in Damascus lost most of his equipment to war and endured life as a refugee in Lebanon, but he now believes the old Syrian art form might survive after the United Nations said it needed to be saved. Traditional sh... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel launched its newest air defense system on Monday on the Syrian frontier, where Damascus’s Russian-backed forces have been routing rebels, as Moscow sent envoys for what it called “urgent” talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ... 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 »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he ‘gave up nothing’ at last week’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin but continued to remain elusive about details of their controversial private conversation in Helsinki. “I gave u... 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 »
LONDON (Reuters) – Atomico, which runs Europe’s largest independent venture fund, has hired former managers from Google and Uber to help drive international expansion for its portfolio of more than 50 start-ups and growth stage firms, it said on Thursday. Jamb... More »
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Britain, which has condemned Russia over the nerve agent poisoning of an ex-spy, is pushing to give more teeth to the global chemical weapons watchdog so that it can identify those responsible for attacks with banned toxic substances. The... 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 »
AMMAN (Reuters) – Hani Mulki resigned from his post as Jordan’s prime minister in a meeting with King Abdullah on Monday, an official source said, a move aimed at defusing anger over economic policies that have sparked the largest protests in years. Source: ht... 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 »
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 »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Hezbollah’s gains in the Lebanese election on Sunday show that the state is indistinguishable from the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group and that Israel should not distinguish between them in any future war, an Israeli security cabinet ministe... 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 »
LONDON (Reuters) – British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is traveling to the United States on Sunday for a two-day visit, during which he will meet Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser John Bolton, Britain said. The discussions in Washingt... 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 »
ATHENS (Reuters) – A Greek gunboat was nudged by a Turkish cargo vessel early on Friday while on patrol for unauthorized migrant crossings in the Aegean Sea, the Greek navy said. The gunboat “Armatolos” was on patrol off the island of Lesbos as part of a NATO ... 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 »
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 »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A day after being sworn in as the new U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo landed in Brussels for talks with key allies in Europe on heightened Russian aggression and ways to strengthen the NATO military alliance. Pompeo, a former Army off... 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 »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House on Monday to kick off a three-day state visit expected to be dominated by U.S.-European differences on the Iran nuclear deal and trade. It will be T... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The first big showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies is set for Wednesday when the justices hear a challenge to the lawfulness of his travel ban targeting people from several Muslim-majority... 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 »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday he hoped that there would be no repeat of the experience of Libya and Iraq in the Syria conflict. “God forbid anything adventurous will be done in Syria following the Libyan and Iraqi exp... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday for discussions on a range of issues, said a German government spokesman. Merkel spoke with Macron on Thursday about a suspected poison gas... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government on Friday said it would do all it could to maintain political pressure on Russia over the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday. Seibert said there was “serious ... More »
WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday promised quick, forceful action in response to a deadly suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, appearing to suggest a potential military response. Trump told a meeting with milita... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a two-day visit to Turkey from Tuesday where he will meet his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the Kremlin said on Monday. Putin and Erdogan will also officia... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Two buses carrying the first group of Jeish al-Islam fighters and their families on Monday left the city of Douma, the last rebel bastion in eastern Ghouta, en route for northern Syria, Syrian state TV said. The two buses were due to head to... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior Republican senator on Sunday warned U.S. President Donald Trump against pulling U.S. troops from Syria, saying it would lead to a resurgence of Islamic State and increased Iranian sway over the Syrian government in Damascus. “It... More »
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump has told advisers he wants an early exit of U.S. troops from Syria, two senior administration officials said on Friday, a stance that may put him at odds with U.S. military officials who see the fight ag... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday froze more than $200 million in funds for recovery efforts in Syria as his administration reassesses Washington’s role in the long-drawn conflict there, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing officials. Trump... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – One is the grandson of an Armenian troubadour who fled to Syria in 1915. The other is a descendant of a Syrian army chief who died fighting the French in 1920. One hails from Aleppo, the other from Damascus. Both Syrian artists call New York... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – As traditional centers of modern Arab art in Damascus and Baghdad have imploded amid disastrous wars, the sheeny city-state of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has stepped into the vacuum as a major hub for art sales. But at the annual Art D... More »
FILE PHOTO: A boy is seen in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh/File Photo AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s rebel-held city of Douma faces a “catastrophic” situation after becoming the main have... More »
People hold a warning leaflet dropped by plane entitled “Keep yourself and your family aware” in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria March 11, 2018. REUTERS/ Bassam Khabieh BEIRUT (Reuters) – As the Syrian army pushes deeper into eas... More »
