(AlJazeera) As the military operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the so-called Islamic State (ISIL, also known as ISIS) rages on, mainstream media have thus far focused on the significance of Iraqi forces liberating the town. Absent from international headlines, however, is what Mosul’s liberation means to those who call it home and to fellow Iraqis across… Read more »
(The Telegraph) At least 26 people, many of them children, have been killed in air strikes on a rebel-held village in north-western Syria, activists say. A school complex was reportedly among several locations targeted in the village of Haas, in Idlib province. It was not immediately clear if the raids were carried out by Syrian government or Russian warplanes. State… Read more »
(The Guardian)Surprise move has angered many in the country’s Christian community who rely on the business.
(Daily Telegraph) Archaeologists have removed the protective cover from one of the Middle East’s largest carpet mosaics – but only for a day. Visitors got a glimpse on Thursday of the sweeping geometric and floral patterns in vibrant red, blue and ochre stones. The 827-square-metre (8,900 square feet) mosaic covers the floor of the main bath house of Hisham’s Palace near the biblical town of Jericho…. Read more »
(BBC) A Saudi prince has been executed for shooting a man dead during a mass brawl three years ago outside Riyadh.
(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 »