The US State Department finds that the number of "terrorist attacks" around the world rose by a third in 2014, largely due to the expansion of ISIS and Boko Haram.
An apparent arson attack by Jewish extremists damaged the revered Byzantine-era Church of the Multiplication at Tabgha on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
A Bahraini court sentenced prominent Shi'ite leader Sheikh Ali Salman to four years in prison for insulting the Interior Ministry and inciting hatred against Sunnis.
Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front acknowledged that its followers were responsible for a massacre at a Druze village, which was quickly condemned by other rebel factions.
A new force of 450 US military advisors in Iraq will be training Sunni and Shi'ite militias to fight ISIS—amid mounting reports of bloody sectarian reprisals.
ISIS advanced on Aleppo and launched an offensive on the Syrian Kurdish city of Hassakeh as the US and coalition partners met in Paris. No Kurdish leaders were invited to the summit.
Several were killed and a mosque reportedly destroyed as Egyptian security forces battled militants of the ISIS-aligned Ansar Bait al-Maqdis in the Sinai Peninsula.
The UN Human Rights Commissioner called on governments to investigate claims of grave rights abuses by their peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic.
Conspiranoid websites air disturbing footage of a huge mushroom cloud exploding near Yemen's capital—apparently an under-reported air-strike on a weapons depot.
Haider Shasho, commander of the Yazidi ethnic milita, was arrested by Kurdish forces for refusing to submit to their command and advocating a Yazidi autonomous zone.
Islamist rebels led by al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front have seized new territory in northwestern Syria, and issued a pledge to take Damascus and topple the regime.
Kurdish forces of the People's Protection Units (YPG) have formed an alliance with the Assyrian Military Council to fight ISIS for control of northeast Syria's Hassakeh governorate.
