Greater Middle East
Saudis crack down on Yemeni smuggling pipeline
Border Guard patrols along Saudi Arabia's rugged mountain frontier with Yemen report mounting interceptions of hashish, weapons and other contraband.
Tag: sectarian war
Iraq
ISIS massacres 700 Turkmen: report
ISIS fighters massacred 700 Turkmen civilians—including women, children and the elderly—in a northern Iraqi village last month, a UNICEF official reports.
Iraq
Iraq: Yazidis resist ISIS; Turkmen threatened
A Yazidi militia is fighting alongside Peshmerga to re-take Sinjar from ISIS, while the UN's Iraq envoy warned of an imminent massacre of Turkmen at ISIS-besieged Amerli.
Iraq
Iraq: Shi’ite militia blamed in mosque massacre
Up to 70 were massacred during prayers at a Sunni mosque in Iraq's Diyala governorate—apparently by a Shi'ite militia seeking retribution for a bomb attack on their forces.
Iraq
ISIS massacres in Syria; Assad to aid Kurds?
ISIS fighters are accused of executing some 700 tribesmen who rose against them in eastern Syria, as Bashar Assad said he is ready to back Kurdish forces against the jihadis.
Iraq
New massacres in Iraq; Hezbollah joins the fray
ISIS fighters carried out a massacre of Yazidis at an occupied village, while Hezbollah militiamen are accused in a massacre of Sunni Arab residents in central Iraq.
Iraq
Peshmerga drive back ISIS; Baghdad divided
Kurdish Peshmerga forces with US air cover started to drive back ISIS from Erbil—but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to step down is driving Sunnis into the arms of the jihadists.
Iraq
US air-strikes target ISIS advance on Erbil
US jets and drones carried out air-strikes outside Erbil in an effort to drive back the ISIS advance on the Kurdish regional capital, while Iraqi warplanes struck near Mosul.
Greater Middle East
ISIS take village in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley
The capture of an ISIS commander by the Lebanese army prompted Syrian jihadist forces to seize a village in the Bekaa Valley, sparking gun battles that have left some 20 dead.
Africa
Nigeria: Amnesty implicates military in war crimes
Amnesty International released gruesome video footage providing evidence of war crimes, including extrajudicial executions, being carried out in Nigeria's conflicted north.
Greater Middle East
Kuwait: court upholds 10-year term for tweeting
Kuwait's Supreme Court upheld a 10-year sentence for a man accused of posting Tweets that insulted the Prophet Mohammed and the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Iraq
Resistance to ISIS mounts in Syria, Iraq
Forces both aligned with and against the regimes in Iraq and Syria are mobilizing in both countries to beat back ISIS—Shi'ites, Sufis, Ba'athists and the secular civil resistance.