Kurdish forces are reported to have taken 90 percent of Tabqa city in Syria’s Raqqa province from ISIL amid clashes that have left an estimated 19 people dead. The claim was made by the official spokesperson for Ghadab al-Furat, a Kurdish group fighting under the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which launched a campaign in October 2016 to retake Raqqa, the… Read more »
A group of 36 Yazidi survivors has been rescued in Iraq after three years of “slavery” under ISIL’s rule in northern Iraq, the United Nations said on Sunday. The group of men, women, and children from the persecuted religious sect was freed by Iraqi forces fighting to retake Mosul from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to local media. The… Read more »
Donald Trump faces yet another test this week. His administration must provide Congress with a detailed strategy for defeating ISIS and dealing with the Syrian civil war in order for his latest government spending plan to be approved. Ironically, this comes on the heels of the massive cruise missile attack the United States launched against Assad’s forces last month, an… Read more »
US President Donald Trump may use his visit to Israel next month to announce the moving of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) said on Thursday. DeSantis, who is chairman of the House committee with oversight of US embassies around the world, said the timing of Trump’s visit – two days before Jerusalem Day,… Read more »
Accounts from witnesses and survivors cast doubt on American suggestions that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was to blame for the deaths of more than 100 people taking refuge in a house hit by a U.S. airstrike earlier this year in Mosul, the deadliest single incident of the months-long campaign to retake the Iraqi city. U.S. officials said soon… Read more »
Dozens of children and adults huddle around the steps of a field clinic where they have been waiting since the early hours. They are waiting to see one of 32 American doctors and nurses who are visiting as part of a medical mission led by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) at this camp near the Syria border. About 1.5… Read more »
The government spending bill expected to pass Congress this week would require President Trump to submit a plan to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and outline his strategy for the civil war in Syria. Lawmakers have been asking for Trump’s Syria strategy since he decided to launch 59 cruise missiles at Syrian air field last month. That… Read more »