The new Kurdish-Arab alliance in northern Syria continues to advance into ISIS-held territory—in spite of efforts by virtually all the regional powers to sabotage it.
Libya's oil output dropped to a record low after the government in the east sent troops to shut down an export terminal controlled by the rival regime in the west.
The UN notes a sharp drop in opium cultivation in Afghanistan after years of big increases—but due to drought and desertification, not government eradication efforts.
Iran is invited to the US-backed Vienna "peace" talks on the Syria war—seeming to confirm suspicions that cooperation against ISIS was the real motive behind the nuclear deal.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a statement to Congress that the US will begin ground operations against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria.
Turkish military forces attacked Kurdish positions on the Syrian border, raising fears that Turkey is moving to establish its "buffer zone."
ISIS claimed responsibility for blasts that targeted Shi'ites as they gathered in Dhaka for a procession marking the holy day of Ashura.
Missiles and mortar rounds were fired into a crowd of anti-Islamist demonstrators in central Benghazi, killing six and injuring many more.
After taking the oil refinery city of Baiji from ISIS, Iraqi Shi'ite militias reported the discovery of some 20 mass graves—said to contain the bodies of over 350 ISIS fighters.
A new coalition of 13 armed organizations announced the formation of the Democratic Forces of Syria, which is now planning a major offensive against ISIS.
Several PKK sympathizers have been arrested in connection with the Ankara suicide blasts—but the Turkish left charges that the ruling AKP collaborated with ISIS in the attack.
The US and Russia each groom their own rival proxy forces to fight ISIS and the Nusra Front—which in turn pledge to turn Syria into "another Afghanistan."
