Islamic state

The Syrian army is pushing ahead as it begins liberating major parts of rebel-held territory near the Lebanese border [Xinhua]
Syria’s national army declared a ceasefire in the Qalamoun district near the border with Lebanon on Sunday following a number of rapid advances into Islamic State-held territory.
The Syrian army and its Hezbollah affiliate militias have for weeks been engaged in an offensive in this mountainous area of the border.
In the meantime, the Lebanese army has also been defeating IS forces on its side of the border near the town of Ras Baalbak.

Though the unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia has brought the issue of Confederate monuments to the forefront of debate in the United States, the movement to take down the statues has been simmering for a while.

By M K Bhadrakumar | Indian Punchline | August 20, 2017 Russia has hinted in the past that the United States is covertly sponsoring the Islamic State in Afghanistan. On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson raised the bar by alleging that “foreign fighters” who were transferred by “unknown helicopters” have perpetrated a massacre of […]

The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack in the Spanish city of Barcelona Thursday.
Earlier in the day, a van hit pedestrians in the city’s central Las Ramblas area. Catalonian authorities claim 13 people were killed and over 80 were hospitalized in the attack.
WARNING: Below is a graphic video of the scene captured on a cell phone by a witness immediately following the horrible attack…
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Illustration by Carlos Latuff for MintPress News
Israel, which has played a precarious role in the Syrian war since 2011, is furious to learn that the future of the conflict is not to its liking.
The six-year-old Syria war is moving to a new stage, perhaps its final. The Syrian government is consolidating its control over most of the populated centers, while the Islamic State Group is losing ground fast – and everywhere.

Men pray at a cemetery for Shia volunteer fighters killed fighting with ISIS militants in the Wadi al-Salam, or “Valley of Peace” cemetery in Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP/Anmar Khalil)

(COMMONDREAMS) — A new investigation shows that President Donald Trump’s bombing campaign against ISIS (the Islamic State) over several months has already led to nearly as many civilian deaths as those overseen by the Obama White House over several years.

Residents carry the body of several civilians killed in a US air strike in Mosul, Iraq on March 24, 2017. (AP/Felipe Dana)
The US-led coalition attacking the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria killed as many as 744 civilians in June, an independent monitor said Wednesday.
Airwars – a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that uses social media, eyewitness reports and other sources to compile its data – said the concurrent assaults on Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq were often “devastating.”

Exclusive: The youthful new French President Macron is getting rave press reviews, with little attention to his clampdown on public liberty under the guise of fighting terrorism, reports Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall French President Emmanuel Macron — the “great…Read more →

Residents carry the body of several civilians killed in a US air strike in Mosul, Iraq on March 24, 2017. (AP/Felipe Dana)