WASHINGTON (AP) — An Islamic State operative suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday. Ali Awni al-Harzi “operated closely with multiple ISIL-associated extremists throughout North Africa and the Middle East,” Defense Department spokesman Col. … Continue reading
TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — Abdel Mowgood Hassan climbs over toppled bricks and a torn-away front door to enter his uncle’s house in Tikrit, the first of his relatives to make a cautious return home since Islamic State militants were driven out. “It’s safe,” Hassan calmly says. “I checked for booby traps.” He is one in … Continue reading
NABI SHUAIB SHRINE, Israel (AP) — An unprecedented attack by a mob of Israeli Druze villagers who snatched a wounded Syrian rebel from an Israeli ambulance in the Golan Heights and beat him to death reflects the spiraling anger among the Jewish state’s Druze minority, which has been pushing for the government to do more … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes and buoyed by battlefield successes, Kurdish fighters kept up an offensive through northern Syria on Tuesday, driving Islamic State militants out of a town near the extremists’ de facto capital of Raqqa. The capture of Ein Issa came just hours after the Kurdish forces had overrun a nearby … Continue reading
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — For most of his 20s, all Badr al-Enezi could think about was becoming a jihadi fighter. After getting in touch with former Guantanamo Bay prisoners who had returned to militancy, he began plotting how to take up arms. Instead, he was caught by Saudi authorities and spent six months in … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State militants have destroyed two historic mausoleums in Palmyra, Syria’s top antiquities official said Wednesday, raising fears that the extremists could next target the town’s famed Roman ruins. Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the government’s Antiquities and Museums Department, told The Associated Press that the extremists destroyed the grave of Mohammad … Continue reading
HABANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Parading across a desert base, hundreds of Sunni tribesmen who graduated a crash training course stood ready to take on the Islamic State group on behalf of a government that many believed left them to die at the hands of the extremists. Among them were tribesmen who watched as Iraqi forces … Continue reading
ESKI MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Inside the Islamic State’s realm, the paper testifying that you have “repented” from your heretical past must be carried at all times. Many people laminate it just to be safe. It can mean the difference between life and death. Bilal Abdullah learned that not long after the extremists took over … Continue reading
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Nearly a year after a devastating war, Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers appear to have formed an unspoken alliance in a common battle against the shared threat of jihadis aligned with the Islamic State group. While Israel and Hamas remain arch-enemies, both have an interest in preserving an uneasy … Continue reading
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The family of an Afghan woman killed by a frenzied mob in an attack that shocked the world with its brutality is living in isolation and fear as they wait for justice they believe will never come. Since Farkhunda Malikzada was killed on March 19, life has come to a standstill … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran’s support for international terrorist groups remained undiminished last year and even expanded in some respects, the Obama administration said Friday, less than two weeks before the deadline for completing a nuclear deal that could provide Tehran with billions of dollars in relief from economic sanctions. The assessment offered a worrying sign … Continue reading
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban suicide bomber struck the entrance to the Afghan parliament on Monday and gunmen tried to storm the heavily guarded compound, setting off a gunbattle with police that left two people dead as lawmakers were meeting inside to vote on the appointment of a new defense minister. Afghan security forces … Continue reading
KESSARRAT, Iraq (AP) — Ali Ahsan paced back and forth carrying a rifle more than half his height in the searing heat as his militia convoy made a pit stop in the Anbar desert to rest and pray. Unlike the rugged men in fatigues around him, his prepubescent face has barely sprung a whisker. Now … Continue reading
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni political groups, including the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, departed from the airport in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday, to travel to Geneva for U.N.-led peace talks, officials said. Abdulmalik Agra, a member of the rebels’ political council, told The Associated Press that its group included a Houthi leader, Mehdi … Continue reading
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — President Hassan Rouhani said a final nuclear deal is “within reach” as Iran and six world powers face a June 30 deadline for an agreement. Rouhani told a press conference Saturday that negotiations between Iran and the six-nation group – the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – are making … Continue reading
BOSTON (AP) — Funeral arrangements for an American killed in Syria while fighting the Islamic State group have been set for later this week. Keith Broomfield, who had no military training, is believed to be the first U.S. citizen to die fighting alongside Kurdish forces against ISIS. Broomfield, 36, of Westminster, will be buried Wednesday … Continue reading
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Tariq Aziz was laid to rest Saturday after a ceremony in his honor at a church in the Jordanian capital, Amman, eight days after the debonair Iraqi diplomat died in prison of a heart attack. Hundreds of Iraqis and Jordanians attended the church services of Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam … Continue reading
AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Thousands of Syrians cut through a border fence and crossed over into Turkey on Sunday, fleeing intense fighting in northern Syria between Kurdish fighters and jihadis. The flow of refugees came as Syrian Kurdish fighters closed in on the outskirts of a strategic Islamic State-held town on the Turkish border, Kurdish … Continue reading
BAGHDAD (AP) — Government forces and Shiite militiamen repelled two Islamic State group attacks in Anbar province on Saturday, officials said. In one attack, they used anti-tank missiles to stop four would-be suicide car bombers, officials said, as violence continues to roil the war-torn country. Police and military officials said IS fighters attacked the government-held … Continue reading
BORDER GUARD FORCES COMMAND, Jordan (AP) — Jordan’s military on Monday unveiled a new phase of a border surveillance system that U.S. officials say provides an effective defense against infiltration attempts, including by Islamic State militants. The kingdom plays a high-profile role in the U.S.-led military coalition against the extremists, who control large parts of neighboring … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Government airstrikes on a northwestern Syrian village Monday killed at least 49 people and left survivors screaming in anguish as they pulled bodies from the rubble, according to activists and videos of the chaotic aftermath. The Local Coordination Committees said two air raids on the village of Janoudiyeh in Idlib province killed … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah gunmen repelled an attack Tuesday by Islamic State extremists in an area along the Lebanon-Syria border as a major battle between the two groups looms in the rugged mountainous region, Hezbollah’s TV station reported. According to Al-Manar TV, the IS group targeted several Hezbollah positions outside the northeastern Lebanese border village … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. may have to backtrack on promises to suspend only nuclear-related economic sanctions on Iran in an emerging nuclear deal. Officials and others involved say the problem derives from what has been a strong point of the sanctions effort that many credit with pushing Iran into negotiations. Under the sanctions, developed … Continue reading
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — U.N.-brokered negotiations aimed at stemming Libya’s collapse into a failed state threatened to fall apart after the country’s internationally recognized parliament on Tuesday dropped out of the talks in protest over a plan that would mean sharing power with its rivals. The wrangling over the U.N. draft plan came as militants … Continue reading
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Kiavash Sharifi can hardly describe the feeling of tip-toeing across an abyss on a thin ribbon of webbing that bends ever so slightly downward. The 22-year-old is one of a growing number of Iranians embracing the extreme sport of slacklining — a high-wire walk on a flat line of webbing strung … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 