Monthly Archives: October 2016

(Reuters) Syrian rebels said they captured the village of Dabiq from Islamic State on Sunday, forcing the jihadist group from a stronghold where it had promised to fight a final, apocalyptic battle with the West. Its defeat at Dabiq, long a mainstay of Islamic State’s propaganda, underscores the group’s declining fortunes this year as it suffered battlefield defeats in Syria… Read more »

(Reuters) An elite unit of the Iraqi army paused its week-long advance on Mosul as it approached the city’s eastern edge on Tuesday, waiting for other U.S.-backed forces to close in on Islamic State’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq. On the ninth day of the offensive on Mosul, government forces and allied Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are still fighting their… Read more »

(Haaretz) ISIS fighters have reportedly massacred scores of people around its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul in the past week, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said on Tuesday, citing preliminary information from sources in the area. On Sunday, ISIS reportedly killed 50 former police officers being held in a building outside Mosul, and last Thursday Iraqi security forces discovered the… Read more »

 (NPR) A U.S. official says the Navy has destroyed three radar locations in Yemen after missiles were fired at a U.S. destroyer off the Yemeni coast. The official says: “Earlier this evening (9 p.m. EDT / 4 a.m. local time in Yemen), the destroyer USS Nitze launched Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting three coastal radar sites in in Yemen along the… Read more »

It doesn’t seem like there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the Middle East, as the conflict gets worse and worse. I came across an article on Al Jazeera that discussed the bombing of funeral processions in Yemen that killed 130 people and injured 300 more. People can’t do anything in these countries, even mourn for… Read more »

(Reuters) Syrian government forces recaptured territory from insurgents in several western areas on Saturday as the U.N. Security Council prepares to vote on rival French and Russian draft resolutions urging an immediate ceasefire. President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian air power and Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi fighters on the ground, hold the upper hand around the key battleground of… Read more »

(BBC World News) Calls for a boycott of next year’s Women’s World Chess Championship in Tehran, in protest at Iran’s strict hijab laws, have prompted a big debate inside Iran in both the official and social media. At stake are two of the most current and contentious issues in Iran – equal participation for women in sport and increasing resistance… Read more »

(Al Jazeera) Dozens of people have been killed or wounded in at least two explosions at a funeral reception in Sanaa, according to Houthi-controlled media sources. Saba news agency, which is aligned with the Iran-allied Houthi group, accused an Arab coalition fighter jet of striking the grand hall of ceremonies on al-Khamseen Street in the Yemeni capital on Saturday afternoon. However,… Read more »

(France 24) Morocco’s moderate ruling Islamist party has defeated a liberal rival seen as close to the royal palace in Friday’s parliamentary elections, increasing its share of seats in parliament, final results show. The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) took 125 seats while the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) — which had campaigned against the “Islamisation” of Moroccan society… Read more »