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by Layal Abou Rahal with Ahmad Mousa in Mosul Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — United States-backed forces have penetrated the heavily fortified heart of jihadist bastion Raqa for the first time, in a key milestone in the war against the Islamic State group in Syria. Air strikes by the US-led coalition battling IS punched two holes in the mediaeval wall surrounding the Old City of Raqa, allowing fighters of the Syrian Democratic […]
Agence France Presse A senior officer aboard a United States Navy supercarrier deployed in the eastern Mediterranean said Monday his forces were wary of “tensions” with allies of Syria’s regime but were ready to defend US-backed forces. The USS George H.W. Bush has been a leading part of the US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria, primarily against the Islamic State group but on occasion targeting Syrian government forces and their allies fighting US-backed groups. […]
by Emmanuel Duparcq Agence France Presse MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi soldiers snap victorious “selfies” and pose with a captured Islamic State group flag at the Mosul mosque where jihadist chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi once spoke. “Where is Baghdadi?” they say, taunting the absent jihadist leader at the site of his triumphal 2014 appearance, the only time he is known to have appeared in public as the head of IS’s now-crumbling cross-border “caliphate.” They hold […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Journalist Veronique Robert, wounded in the same landmine blast that killed two colleagues in the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, has died, employers France Televisions announced Saturday. Robert had been operated on in Iraq and then flown back for treatment in France overnight Thursday to Friday, but died of her wounds, the public broadcaster said in a statement. French colleague Stephan Villeneuve, 48, and Iraqi Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar […]
by Jean Marc Mojon and Ali Choukeir Agence France Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Jihadists on Wednesday blew up Mosul’s iconic leaning minaret and the adjacent mosque where their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014 declared himself “caliph” in his only public appearance, Iraqi officials said. The Islamic State group swiftly issued a statement via its Amaq propaganda agency blaming a United States strike, but the US-led coalition condemned the destruction as a crime against […]
by Jean Marc Mojon Agence France-Presse MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) – Iraqi forces pushed deeper into Mosul’s Old City on Monday after launching a final assault on the Islamic State group, warning civilians to stay inside and telling jihadists to “surrender or die”. Iraqi forces launched the operation Sunday to retake the district, the last part of Iraq’s second city still held by IS after a months-long offensive. Commanders say the jihadists are putting up fierce […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations said Friday that Islamic State group jihadists may be holding more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians as human shields in the Old City of Mosul. Iraqi forces are fighting to retake Mosul from IS, after the jihadist group overran the city in 2014, imposing its brutal rule on its inhabitants. The United Nations refugee agency’s representative in Iraq Bruno Geddo said IS had been capturing civilians in battles outside of […]
SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC (Reuters) – The Syrian government forces on Monday vowed to continue their offensive in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor after advancing to the Syrian-Iraqi border in the eastern Syrian desert. After reaching the Syrian-Iraqi border region east of the Syrian city of Homs, the government forces’ next plan was to capture the Al-Tanf border crossing, one of the three official border crossings between Syria and Iraq, from the hands of United […]
by Salam Faraj and W.G. Dunlop with Simon Valmary in Mosul Agence France Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 27 people in Baghdad, officials said on Tuesday, as Iraqi forces fight to retake the last jihadist-held areas in Mosul. In the deadlier of the two attacks, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a popular ice cream shop around midnight (2100 GMT Monday), killing […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a popular Baghdad ice cream shop, killing at least eight people, security officials said on Tuesday. The overnight attack in the Karrada district in central Baghdad also wounded at least 30 people, officials said. The Islamic State group-linked Amaq propaganda agency said the suicide bomber targeted a “gathering of Shiites.” IS considers members of Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority to be heretics and frequently carries […]
by Delil Souleiman with Rouba El Husseini in Beirut Agence France-Presse AL-MALIKIYAH, Syria – Turkish warplanes killed more than two dozen Kurdish fighters Tuesday in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against the Islamic State group. Turkey said it had carried out the strikes against “terrorist havens,” vowing to continue acting against groups it links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In northeast Syria, strikes targeting […]
