Transport Minister Milad Maatoug says capital’s only functioning airport to resume operations after bombing shutdown. The Libyan capital’s only functioning airport will resume operations after being closed for two months following bombardment by forces loyal to eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar. Transport Minister Milad Maatoug of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) on Tuesday announced […]

Yulia Yuzik was arrested in Tehran for alleged visa violations, but Russia says she was accused of working for Israel. Russia says Iran has released a Russian journalist who was arrested last week over a visa violation. The Russian embassy in Tehran tweeted that Yulia Yuzik was freed and she left Iran on Thursday morning […]

Anti-government Azadi March set out on Sunday afternoon from Karachi towards Islamabad. Thousands of people, including seminary students, are participating in the march. Tens of thousands of protesters in Pakistan are marching to the capital Islamabad, calling on Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign over the weak economy and corruption claims. While religious groups and […]

As the last of the Middle Eastern summer fades away, is the region slipping into a new Arab spring? In Iraq, demonstrators are being shot dead in the streets. In Lebanon protestors have paralysed the country and seem set to bring down the government of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. In recent weeks the Egyptian security […]

Turkish jets strike Syrian border towns controlled by Kurdish-led forces after US forces pulled back from the area. Turkey has launched a military operation in northeastern Syria after US forces pulled back from the area, with a series of air strikes hitting Kurdish-controlled border towns. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the […]

The move is the latest in a series of measures increasing women’s rights, even as women activists face crackdown. Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday it will allow women in the kingdom to serve in the armed forces as it embarks on a broad programme of economic and social reforms. The move is the latest in […]

A US-backed alliance of Syrian fighters has announced that the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has lost the last pocket of territory in Syria it controlled, bringing a formal end to the “caliphate” it proclaimed in 2014. IS once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq. […]

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say their spy stole Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s underwear which was then DNA tested and used to prove his identity before he was killed. Senior SDF commander Polat Can claims their source also played a vital role in tracking down the Islamic State (IS) leader’s location before an operation by […]

Under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ultra-violent jihadist group Islamic State (IS) evolved from a gang of insurgents to the most formidable and feared militant group in the world, expanding across continents from Africa to Australasia. Now that its chief has been killed, IS will find a way to adapt. Rapid succession What […]

In a country awash with weapons, there are concerns protesters will arm themselves, similar to what happened in Syria. Iraq has been plunged into a new cycle of instability that potentially could be the most dangerous this conflict-scarred nation has faced, barely two years after declaring victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the […]