Middle Orient

Lebanon’s protests have drawn protesters from all religious sects. But Hezbollah, the Islamist militia and political party, and its ally, the Amal Movement, have tried to smother demonstrations by Shiites.

Iraq’s military said on Thursday it was resuming operations with the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State which had mostly halted after bases hosting U.S. troops came under rocket attacks and a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian commander.

A Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against the country’s last rebel enclave has caused one of the biggest waves of displacement in the nine-year-old war.

Islamic State extremists are mounting increasingly bold attacks in Syria and Iraq following their loss of territory in both countries and are planning for the breakout of their fighters in detention facilities, U.N. experts said in a new report.

In October, Turkey launched an abortive invasion of northern Syria, attacking positions held by US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara has claimed are linked to Turkish Kurdish militants waging a decades-long insurgency in south-eastern Turkey.

Reporting from London, TRAC Analyst Sophia Badawy maps an interesting movement of at least 12 different groups of Syrian militants from northern Syria to the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

Former Saudi minister of justice, Mohammed Bin Abdul-Karim Issa, has announced that his country will stop funding mosques in foreign countries, Arabi21.com reported on Friday.

Palestinians held demonstrations across the region Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s Middle East initiative, while militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, drawing retaliatory strikes.

The Kurdish-led administration that runs much of northeastern Syria is planning to organise a local tribunal to try IS fighters held captive in the region, a representative of its foreign relations committee said on Thursday.

Terror group continues to seek opportunities to strike in west, says security council report Islamic State has begun to reassert itself in its heartlands in the Middle East and continues to seek opportunities to strike in the west, the United Nations has said.