A Syrian rebel offensive targeting Alawite villages in the coastal governorate of Latakia has seen some 200 people killed and left nearly 3,000 families displaced this month.
In the latest irruption of the stand-off at Greece’s Esphigmenou Monastery, ultra-Orthodox rebel monks reportedly hurled petrol bombs at police who came to evict them.
Sectarian violence has killed at least 200 in Iraq since the start of Ramadan, and Hezbollah has launched an Iraqi wing to fight al-Qaeda’s networks in the country.
A rocket strike near an important Shi’ite shrine in Damascus sparked protests throughout the Shia world, while Kurdish militias fight jihadist forces in northern Syria.
A string of nine near-simultaneous bomb blasts in and around the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya, India, revered as the birthplace of Buddhism, left two monks injured.
Troops fired on protesters in the Sinai, and militants retaliated with armed attacks on police. A new Salafist network, Ansar al-Sharia in Egypt, pledges to resist the new regime.
A United Arab Emirates court gave sentences of up to 15 years in prison to 69 academics, lawyers and other professionals who are among 94 on trial for planning an Islamist coup.
A Bahraini high criminal court acquitted two police officers on trial for the torture of six Shi’iite doctors during the uprising against the Sunni regime in 2011.
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq released a report pressing Iraqi leaders to develop measures addressing the growing trend of human rights abuses in the country.
The Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza announced that it is suspending ties with Hamas, accusing Gaza authorities of being responsible for the death of one of the group’s members.
The Free Syrian Army boasts of receiving new weapons shipments that could “change” the course of the war—amid revelations that the US has been arming them secretly for a year.
Israel’s embassy in Mexico City denied widespread reports in the Mexican media that Israeli military advisors are training police in the southern state of Chiapas.
