Middle Orient News

Some 130,000 Kurdish refugees fleeing Islamic militants have crossed the border from Syria into Turkey in the past four days, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said today as fighting raged close to Turkey’s southern border. The minister, Numan Kurtulmus, warned that Turkey was facing “a refugee wave that can be expressed …

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday indicated that French airstrikes against ISIL extremists in support of Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces would take place in “a short time-frame” but would be limited to Iraqi territory. “Reconnaissance flights have already taken place as of Monday. Others took place today from our …

Jihadists from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) using heavy weapons have seized a string of villages around Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, as they close in on Syria’s third largest Kurdish town, a monitor said Sept. 18. “ISIL fighters have seized at least 21 villages …

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met here Tuesday with his British counterpart, Philip Hammond, to discuss a variety of issues topped by the need to combat Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) radicals, a necessity agreed by 24 countries at the Iraq conference held in Paris on Monday, …

US warplanes carried out their first air strike on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)near Baghdad, as world diplomats pledged Monday to support Iraq in its fight against the militants. The United States early last month began air strikes against ISIL positions in northern Iraq, but Monday’s …

Turkey could establish a buffer zone to defend its borders with Iraq and Syria from Islamic State (IS) militants, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. After a trip to Qatar Erdogan told journalists the Turkish army is now developing the plan which will have to be inspected by the government, according to the Daily Sabah.

French aircraft will begin reconnaissance flights over Iraq on Monday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said before a conference bringing together some 30 countries to discuss how to fight against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants.

Turkey’s stance towards all terror groups, including those in its territory as well as foreign-based ones, has always been clear and such sensitivity will always continue, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared. Erdogan’s comments came at a press conference at Istanbul Ataturk Airport on Sunday as he left for …

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that will be served by military expert General John Allen.

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that neither the United States nor the rest of the world will stand by and watch the Islamic State militant group spread its evil. “This is a fight that the Iraqi people must win, but it’s also a fight that the rest …