BEIRUT: US coalition forces said they captured a senior Islamic State group bomb maker in an airborne operation before dawn Thursday in northern Syria. A war monitor and AFP correspondents said military helicopters touched down for only a few minutes in a village in an area controlled by Turkish-backed rebel groups. The US-led coalition dedicated […]
IS
IS-linked militants kill four farmers in Indonesia
Palu: Islamic State-linked extremists have killed four farmers in a remote village on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, police confirmed Wednesday, with one of the victims reportedly beheaded. Five sword-wielding attackers ambushed a group of farmers who were harvesting their coffee plantation in Kalimago village in Poso regency on Tuesday morning, Central Sulawesi police […]
Agony of Yazidi women torn between IS kids, or return home
Freed after years in jihadist captivity, Jihan faced an agonising ultimatum: abandon her three small children fathered by an Islamic State fighter or risk being shunned by her community. “Of course I couldn’t bring them home. They’re Daesh (IS) children,” said Jihan Qassem matter-of-factly, sitting in a sparse concrete structure she now calls home. “How […]
IS is a big hurdle for Afghan peace
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on the centrally located Communications Ministry building in Kabul last month. A local arm of the Islamic State has repeatedly targeted both official and civilian facilities as well as religious gatherings in the Afghan capital. The Afghan affiliate of IS, commonly known as the Islamic State […]
Who is to benefit from Sri Lanka bombings?
On 21 April 19, eight bombing attacks struck at least three churches in Sri Lanka, along with three five-star hotels favoured by foreigners, killing 321 including more than 32 foreigners and at least 500 injured. Suicide bombers detonated their explosives during Easter services at St. Anthony’s Shrine (a historic church in Colombo), St. Sebastian’s Church […]
Evacuations from Syria IS holdout before onslaught
Kurdish-led forces in Syria on Friday extracted more people from the ruins of the Islamic State group’s “caliphate” and geared up for a final assault against jihadists hunkered down for a desperate last stand. Diehard IS fighters and their families remained holed up in a last pocket, despite US President Donald Trump’s claims that 100 […]
Hundreds flee US-backed Syria battle for last IS holdout
SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said on Tuesday that 600 civilians had fled the combat zone overnight and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said another 350 made it out that day The ferocious battle for the Islamic State group’s last bastion in eastern Syria entered its fifth day on Wednesday, as exhausted families left the […]
Tajikistan refutes IS claim of “terror attack” that killed 4 tourists
Authoritarian Tajikistan has called for the first time an incident that left four foreign cyclists dead in the Central Asian country a “terror attack” while appearing to refute the Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility. In a statement published late on Friday the ex-Soviet country’s state prosecutor said the attack initially reported as a hit-and-run […]
Turkey detains 12 in anti-IS raids after US embassy closure
ANKARA: Turkey on Monday launched a crackdown on the Islamic State extremist group and boosted security in Ankara after the US embassy said it would be closed for a day. The Ankara prosecutor said 12 suspects had been detained after it issued 20 arrest warrants as part of an operation against IS, state news agency […]
Timeline of IS-claimed attacks in Kabul
Around 40 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a suicide blast targeting Shiites in Kabul Thursday in the latest attack claimed by the Islamic State group in the war-torn Afghan capital. IS, or Daesh as it is locally known, has carried out several spectacular attacks in the east of the country since it […]