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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi forces on Friday launched an assault on the northern town of Hawija, one of the last bastions still held by the Islamic State group in the country, its commander said. “A huge military operation has begun to liberate Hawija and its surrounding areas,” Lieutenant General Abdel Amir Yarallah said in a statement. Iraqi forces began an operation to retake the jihadist enclave around Hawija on September 21, swiftly taking the […]
by Sara Hussein Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Syria’s army battled the Islamic State group on the edges of Deir Ezzor Monday, seeking to break the siege of a government enclave and oust the jihadists from a key stronghold. The jihadist group has already lost more than half of its nearby bastion of Raqa to attacking US-backed forces, and the loss of Deir Ezzor city and the surrounding oil-rich province would leave it […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Elusive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is probably still alive and likely hiding in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, a senior United States general said Thursday. “We’re looking for him every day. I don’t think he’s dead,” Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, commander of the counter-IS coalition in Iraq and Syria, told reporters in a conference call. Townsend admitted he didn’t “have a clue” where Baghdad is precisely, but believes […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump hailed Iraq’s “victory” over the Islamic State group in Mosul Monday, claiming the northern city’s liberation showed the war against the jihadis was being won. “The victory in Mosul” signals Islamic State’s “days in Iraq and Syria are numbered,” Trump said in a statement praising Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. “Today Iraqi security forces supported by the United States and the global coalition, liberated the city of Mosul […]
Reuters — Russian strategic bombers fired advanced cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria on Wednesday (July 5) from a distance of 1,000 kilometers (621.37 miles), in a show of force Moscow said demolished three ammunition depots and a command post. Moscow carried out the attack just two days before President Vladimir Putin and United States counterpart Donald Trump are due to hold their first face-to-face meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, and […]
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 […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The Russian army on Friday said it had struck a meeting of Islamic State leaders in Syria on May 28 and was trying to verify whether the group’s leader had been killed, news agencies said on Friday. In a statement, the army said the attack took place near the IS stronghold of Raqa “which was also attended by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” the media reported, adding that the military was […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for taking a woman hostage in a Melbourne apartment during an incident in which three police officers were injured by gunfire. Australian police on Monday shot dead the man who had taken the woman hostage and said they were investigating whether the incident was terror-related. Hours later, the Amaq news agency — which is affiliated with the Islamic State group — said: “The executor […]
by James Pheby Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Sunday for an attack by knife-wielding men who mowed down and stabbed revelers in London, killing seven people before being shot dead in a barrage of police gunfire. Saturday night’s rampage at a popular nightlife hub around London Bridge by three men wearing fake suicide vests was the third deadly terror attack in Britain in less than three […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Fourteen civilians were killed late Monday when Islamic State group jihadists shelled a government-controlled neighborhood of Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor city, a monitor said. Three children were among the dead in the regime-held Al-Joura district, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “The shelling hit just before families were gathering to break the Ramadan fast,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. Besieged by IS since early 2015, the regime-controlled third […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States President Donald Trump discussed specific terror threats with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Moscow’s envoy to the US in the Oval Office last week, but not “sources or methods,” senior officials said Monday. The statements from National Security Advisor HR McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came after The Washington Post reported that Trump had revealed classified information to the Russians about a threat posed by […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States-led strikes aimed against the Islamic State group have “unintentionally” killed 352 civilians since the offensive began in 2014, according to the US military. The tally from the Combined Joint Task Force did not include findings from an investigation the coalition said it had launched into one allegedly particularly deadly strike on March 17 in west Mosul. US General Stephen Townsend had said coalition forces “probably had a role […]
