BEIRUT – Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former Syrian rebel leader who ousted Bashar Assad last December, will become the first Syrian president to visit Washington since the country’s independence in 1946. Al-Sharaa, who had previously fought alongside al-Qaida militants in Iraq but later severed ties, arrived in the U.S. on Saturday ahead of Monday’s meeting with […]
Islamic State
Nouri al-Maliki poised to shape Iraq’s next leader
BAGHDAD – Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continues to wield immense influence in Iraq’s political landscape, even as critics hold him responsible for deepening sectarian divisions and failing to prevent the Islamic State’s rise a decade ago. Now in his mid-70s, Maliki leads the powerful State of Law coalition, a Shi’ite Muslim bloc widely […]
Islamic State claims it killed 10 soldiers in northeastern Nigeria
Islamic State (IS) killed 10 Nigerian soldiers in an attack on the northeastern town of Magumeri, the group claimed through its news agency AMAQ on Saturday. The jihadist organization said the attack on the soldiers took place in the town in northeastern Borno state on Friday. It published pictures of burned barracks and dead bodies […]
Leave my country alone, Sri Lanka president tells Islamic State
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said a foreign mastermind may have planned the Easter Sunday bombings, claimed by Islamic State, telling the militant group to “leave my country alone”. Sirisena also warned it may be possible Islamic State had launched a “new strategy” by targeting smaller countries, Sky New said on Wednesday. A government source […]
Islamic State behind attack on Saudi security north of Riyadh: Arabiya TV
DUBAI – The assailants who attacked a state security building northwest of Riyadh on Sunday are Saudi militants who belong to Islamic State, Saudi-owned Arabiya TV said in a tweet, citing its own correspondent. Saudi state media said authorities thwarted the attack by four militants targeting the Mabaheth (domestic intelligence) station in Zulfi, a small […]
Hazara sit-in against Quetta blast continues on third day
The Hazara community protestors blocked traffic in a sit-in demonstration for a third day in Quetta on Sunday after a suicide bomb killed at least 20 people in an outdoor market, many of them ethnic Hazaras. Dozens were wounded in the blast on Friday on the outskirts of Quetta. Islamic State had claimed responsibility of […]
Forced conversions in an Islamic state
Understanding the aforementioned verse is the dire need of the hour because there are many people who have not only tarnished the real image of Islamic injunctions but have also defaced the soft picture of Pakistan in front of the global community. It is very unfortunate that two girls – Reveena and Reena — thirteen […]
3,000 surrender from IS Syria bastion as end nears
Airstrikes and shelling have pummelled the Islamic State group’s holdout of Baghouz for two nights in a row Around 3,000 Islamic State members have surrendered from the group’s last holdout in Syria, Kurdish-led forces said Tuesday, as air raids and shelling resumed after a brief lull. A ragged tent encampment in the eastern Syrian village […]
Syria forces try to free last civilians from IS holdout
US-backed Syrian forces tried to negotiate the release of civilians still trapped Thursday in the Islamic State group’s last redoubt, which the international coalition against the jihadists said faced “inevitable defeat”. The implosion of the jihadists’ proto-state has left Western nations facing a dilemma over how to handle citizens who left to join IS. Hundreds […]
Iraqi refugee held in France on suspicion of IS ‘war crimes’
An Iraqi refugee in France thought to be a former senior member of the Islamic State group has been arrested in Paris and indicted on suspicion of “war crimes” over his alleged involvement in a massacre in his country. The 33-year-old man, referred to as Ahmed H, is accused of having participated in the June […]