The physical damage was easy to see. The attackers' bombs shattered an airport terminal and a subway station. But when one of the European Union's top leaders expressed his sympathies to the men, women and children hurt and killed in Brussels on Tuesday morning, he hinted that the three attackers...
Fatima Rezai's journey to Greece took 40 days and 40 nights. From Afghanistan's Ghazni province she and her family trekked to Iran, then Turkey, took a boat to Samos, Greece, and then another to Piraeus. Now, the only journey Fatima takes is the one from her refugee camp in Hellinikon, site of...
"Trump was sent to us by God," said Michael Yigal Mimon, a former intelligence officer in the Israeli army who proudly counts himself among a growing number of Donald Trump supporters in Israel. Like the United States, Mimon said, Israel longs for a return to a “purist” conservative politics –...
The Obama administration declared Thursday that rapes, killings and repression of minorities in Iraq and Syria by Islamic State militants constitute genocide. Secretary of State John F. Kerry said the region's Christians, Yazidis and Shiite Muslims were victims of genocide -- the deliberate and...
A powerful Syrian Kurdish group Thursday declared the creation of an autonomous federation in northern Syria, further complicating United Nations-sponsored peace negotiations aimed at forging a political solution for the war-torn nation. Dubbed “Rojava — northern Syria,” the autonomous, Kurdish-led...
Watching Tina Fey's correspondent work with her Afghan fixer in the new film "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" reminded me of the inventive, diligent, comical and strange characters who accompanied me over the years through war zones, across deserts, into revolutions and up the moonlit Himalayas. Translators...
President Obama has authorized a limited new plan to train and arm rebel fighters to confront Islamic State militants in Syria, relaunching a Pentagon program that was suspended last fall after a series of embarrassing setbacks. The renewed effort, which was recommended by Defense Secretary Ashton...
Moscow began withdrawing its warplanes from Syria on Tuesday, a day after President Vladimir Putin ordered most forces home after an almost six-month-long aerial onslaught that helped shift the conflict decisively in favor of the Syrian government. Although there were mixed views about Putin’s...
A war has been raging in Turkey's southeast for the last several months — though it has gone largely unnoticed in the West. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced as Turkish forces clash with an increasingly fierce Kurdish insurgency. In Diyarbakir's ancient Sur neighborhood, heavily armed...
As Syrians mark the fifth anniversary of the uprising against President Bashar Assad, here are some of the key events in the conflict: — March 2011: Protests erupt in the city of Dara over security forces' detention of a group of boys accused of painting antigovernment graffiti on the walls of...
A new round of Syrian peace talks, unfolding as the nation's conflict marks its fifth year, opens Monday in Geneva with both sides as deadlocked as ever on a core issue: the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad. In Paris, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Sunday called the renewed talks...
Egypt’s Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zind was removed from his position on Sunday after he said that even the Prophet Muhammad would be jailed if he broke the law. In response to a question about imprisoning journalists, Al-Zind told an Egyptian private satellite TV channel on Friday that he "will...
An explosion at a downtown park that serves as a bustling travel hub killed at least 34 people and wounded dozens more in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Sunday, the latest in a string of lethal blasts to strike the city over the past six months. The explosion occurred at about 6:45 p.m. local...
Islamic State has launched two chemical attacks near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing a 3-year-old girl, wounding some 600 people and causing hundreds more to flee, Iraqi officials said Saturday.Security and hospital officials say the latest attack took place early Saturday in the small...
Two Palestinian children, a brother and sister, were killed in Gaza on Saturday when shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike hit their home, medical officials said. The strike was targeting four training camps for Hamas militants and came in response to the firing of four missiles from Gaza into open...
Iran test-launched a series of ballistic missiles Wednesday in an exercise that dramatized Tehran’s determination to bolster its arsenal in the aftermath of last year’s nuclear accord. The Obama administration labeled the missile launches provocative, but said the firings did not violate the terms...
The U.S. military is questioning an Islamic State militant who allegedly has helped lead the extremist group’s nascent effort to acquire and use illicit chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria, U.S. officials said Wednesday.Officials said the operative is believed to have worked for Iraqi leader Saddam...
A plan by European Union and Turkish officials to stop migrants arriving on Europe's shores by immediately sending them back to Turkey has been branded deeply immoral and possibly illegal by several human rights and refugee groups. The proposal was announced by EU leaders Tuesday after lengthy...
An American tourist was stabbed to death in one of three attacks reportedly carried out by Palestinians across Israel on Tuesday — the same day a survey was released showing almost half of Jewish Israelis support expelling Arab citizens of Israel. The man was identified as a Vanderbilt University...
A conservative Iranian lawmaker was caught on video saying that women, like donkeys, have no place in parliament, sparking calls for him to be thrown out of office. The video, which surfaced on YouTube last week, shows Nader Qazipour giving a fiery victory speech after winning reelection as a member...
Clashes in Tunisia near the border with Libya left at least 53 people dead Monday in what may be a sign of the spreading influence of the extremist group Islamic State. No group immediately claimed responsibility for an attack that led to the fighting between militants and Tunisian forces near...
The developer's cheerful blueprint, touting a leafy suburban haven, greets returning camp residents as they trudge through the gullies of dense mud that grabs boots and devours dreams. "Live the city life — in the country!" it promises, but the residential retreat planned for this clearing never...
Egypt's interior minister on Sunday denied media reports that police arrested an Italian student one week before he was found dead on the outskirts of Cairo, mutilated and bearing signs of torture. Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University doctoral student, disappeared on Jan. 25, the fifth...
An Iranian court has issued a death sentence against an Iranian oil tycoon, a judiciary spokesman told reporters Sunday, in a case widely portrayed as a symbol of corruption during the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Babak Zanjani, 41, one of Iran’s wealthiest businessmen,...
A law enforcement raid on a prominent media company and takeover of the nation’s largest-circulation newspaper have raised new fears of a press under assault by the administration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Police late Friday forced their way into the offices of Zaman newspaper...
On the outskirts of this village, where the rich green of the Nile Valley abruptly meets the desert, parishioners of the St. George Coptic Catholic church recently built a wall. It was a simple structure of stone blocks and mortar surrounding a plot of land owned by the church. Father Ayoub Yousef...
A Turkish court on Friday sentenced two Syrian smugglers to prison terms of four years and two months each in connection with the deaths of five people including 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who galvanized world attention on the refugee crisis when a photo was published of him lying lifeless on a beach....
Two Israeli soldiers took a wrong turn into a Palestinian refugee camp while using the popular smartphone navigation app Waze, sparking a gun battle that left a Palestinian man dead. The pair, from the military’s canine unit, mistakenly entered the Qalandia refugee camp at about midnight Monday...
A new commander took charge of the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan on Wednesday as a deadly suicide bombing illustrated the challenges he confronts in a conflict now in its 15th year. Gen. John W. “Mick” Nicholson took over from Gen. John F. Campbell during a ceremony at NATO coalition...
A powerful setback for hard-liners in Iran’s parliamentary elections may present President Hassan Rouhani with a golden chance to speed up his country’s reopening to the world and remake an economy long weakened by Western sanctions. The disparate political ideologies that came together under a...
With a one-way ticket home to Iraq in his hands and seven months' worth of frustration over intransigent German bureaucracy in his heart, Gazwan Abdulhasen Abdulla gave up on his dreams of a better life in Europe. Homesick and eager to be back with his wife and four small children in Basra, Abdulla...
U.S. commanders mounted a cyberoffensive against Islamic State in Syria for the first time in recent weeks by deploying military hackers against the extremist group’s computer and cellphone networks, according to the Pentagon.The digital assault, launched from Ft. Meade in Maryland, marked the...
Syrian opposition groups reported renewed Russian airstrikes in Syria on Sunday, the second day of a provisional truce, but Moscow said the cease-fire appeared to be holding despite violations by rebel factions. A Saudi-based opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee, reported...
Reformists and moderates swept all 30 parliamentary seats in the Iranian capital, according to unofficial election results announced Sunday, marking a resounding vote of confidence for President Hassan Rouhani. While state television reported that conservative candidates were leading in other parts...
A tentative cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia appeared to be holding Saturday in Syria, despite reports of breaches from both sides in the conflict. The so-called “cessation of hostilities” — which began at midnight Friday Damascus time — is widely regarded as the most ambitious...
Moderates were poised for a strong showing as votes were counted Saturday in Iranian parliamentary elections that served as a referendum on the nuclear deal Iran struck with six world powers last year. Supporters of the deal and of President Hassan Rouhani were expected to pick up more seats in...
Iran continues to meet its obligations under an international agreement aimed at curbing its nuclear development, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency said Friday in its first report since significant sanctions were removed Jan. 16. The International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna,...
An internationally brokered cease-fire went into effect early Saturday in Syria amid widespread doubts that the truce would halt the fighting or bring the fractured nation closer to peace after almost five years of war.Fierce fighting was reported in several areas of the country as various factions...
The July 2015 agreement to dissolve Iran's nuclear program has fundamentally reshaped the country's relationship with the West, but just how much things at home have changed will be tested Friday in parliamentary elections. It's the first major political test for moderate President Hassan Rouhani,...
Attempting to show his devotion to his country, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi said he would be willing to put himself up for sale and donate the proceeds if he thought it would help the economy. “I swear to God if I could be sold ... then I would be sold,” he said in a sprawling televised...
The success of a U.S.-Russian cease-fire agreement in Syria hinges on the fate of one extremist faction — and it’s not Islamic State. On Monday, the U.S. and Russia, chairs of the 17-nation International Syria Support Group seeking to end the war in Syria, set a deadline of midnight Friday for...