As a US-led mixed Kurdish and Arab force advances on ISIS-held Mosul, an apparent ISIS "sleeper cell" of some 30 fully armed militants launched attacks in Kurdish-held Kirkuk.
Free Syrian Army forces backed by Turkish warplanes took the town of Dabiq from ISIS—failing to spark the apocalyptic battle that the "caliphate" had prophesied.
UN humanitarian agencies in Iraq are bracing for a displacement catastrophe of massive proportions as the US-led offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS is launched.
The Pentagon will send 600 additional troops to Iraq to help in the offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS—but it is unclear if they will be backing Shi'ite, Sunni or Kurdish forces.
International outrage over the mounting wave of executions in Iran reached another milestone when 12 drug convicts were hanged at Karaj Central Prison outside Tehran.
Amnesty International is demanding that Iraq's Kurdish authorities immediately release a Yazidi woman who has been held for nearly two years after surviving ISIS captivity.
The announced new cooperation between imperial rivals the US, Russia and Turkey can only mean a betrayal of the Rojava Kurds and and other democratic forces in Syria.
The Turkish intervention in northern Syria has set off open war between Free Syrian Army factions and the Rojava Kurds—which only serves the interests of ISIS and Assad.
Bill Weinberg rants against the conspiranoid notion that the US intentionally created ISIS, dismissed as a "fairy tale" by progressive supporters of the Syrian Revolution.
Turkey launched a major military intervention in Syria to assist rebel forces fighting ISIS—but threatening the Kurdish forces also fighting ISIS, portrayed as equally "terrorist."
The US for the first time scrambled jets in response to Assad regime aggression when its Kurdish anti-ISIS partners came under bombardment—foreboding direct conflict with Russia.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein criticized Iran for the mass execution of 20 people this week, calling the action "deplorable."
