Islamic State Insurgents

The Islamic State is creeping back into parts of central Iraq just seven months after the government declared victory in the war against the group, embarking on a wave of kidnappings, assassinations and bombings that have raised fears a new cycle of insurgency is starting again.

The Taliban released 235 hostages from a remote village in northern Afghanistan where it allegedly massacred around 50 civilians along with Islamic State insurgents but others were still feared held, officials said Tuesday.

Syrian government forces backed by Russian air strikes battled ISIS insurgents around Palmyra on Monday, trying to extend their gains after taking back control of a city whose ancient temples were dynamited by the ultra-radical militants.

French military advisers have been helping coordinate Libyan forces fighting Islamic State insurgents in the eastern city of Benghazi, a senior Libyan military commander said on Thursday.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are set to begin talks on Monday aimed at restarting the Afghan peace process and eventually ending 14 years of bloodshed fighting the Taliban insurgents.

An Iraqi man bragged about his experience fighting in Syria and the skills he developed as a teenage insurgent as he urged a fellow Iraqi refugee in the U.S. to join him in what both hoped would be martyrdom, according to documents filed in federal court.

Local village militia members loyal to a powerful Afghan lawmaker beheaded four Islamic State fighters and placed their severed heads on the side of a main road in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said on Sunday.

A UN-brokered deal to evacuate more than 2,000 Islamic State fighters and other militants from rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Saturday has been delayed after the killing of an insurgent leader, an organisation that monitors the Syrian war said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a senior Iranian official today that his adversaries had increased weapon supplies and financial support to insurgents since the start of a major offensive aided by his allies to regain lost territory.

About 25,000 people are wounded each month in escalating warfare in Syria and it getting harder to deliver medical supplies for civilians trapped in areas held by Islamic State insurgents, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

Islamic State militants kidnapped and killed seven people, including three women, in the southern province of Zabul, a police official said today, amid heavy fighting in the region between the group and Taliban insurgents

The hardening prospect that a Russian airliner was brought down over the Sinai Peninsula by a terrorist bomb is raising concerns that the threat from the Islamic State has dramatically expanded, and it points to the potentially deadly role of insurgents around the world who have allied themselves with the militant group.

Chemical weapons experts have determined that mustard gas was used in a Syrian town where Islamic State insurgents were battling another group, according to a report by an international watchdog seen by Reuters.

Insurgents captured a town on a major highway in western Syria on Thursday, in a blow to the Russian-backed campaign against them, rebels and a monitoring group said.

A splinter faction of the Afghan Taliban has selected its own leader to challenge the new chief of the terror group, two insurgent commanders said today, raising fresh doubts about chances of breathing life into stalled peace talks.

The Islamic State is creeping back into parts of central Iraq just seven months after the government declared victory in the war against the group, embarking on a wave of kidnappings, assassinations and bombings that have raised fears a new cycle of insurgency is starting again.

The Taliban released 235 hostages from a remote village in northern Afghanistan where it allegedly massacred around 50 civilians along with Islamic State insurgents but others were still feared held, officials said Tuesday.

Syrian government forces backed by Russian air strikes battled ISIS insurgents around Palmyra on Monday, trying to extend their gains after taking back control of a city whose ancient temples were dynamited by the ultra-radical militants.

French military advisers have been helping coordinate Libyan forces fighting Islamic State insurgents in the eastern city of Benghazi, a senior Libyan military commander said on Thursday.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are set to begin talks on Monday aimed at restarting the Afghan peace process and eventually ending 14 years of bloodshed fighting the Taliban insurgents.

An Iraqi man bragged about his experience fighting in Syria and the skills he developed as a teenage insurgent as he urged a fellow Iraqi refugee in the U.S. to join him in what both hoped would be martyrdom, according to documents filed in federal court.

Local village militia members loyal to a powerful Afghan lawmaker beheaded four Islamic State fighters and placed their severed heads on the side of a main road in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said on Sunday.

A UN-brokered deal to evacuate more than 2,000 Islamic State fighters and other militants from rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Saturday has been delayed after the killing of an insurgent leader, an organisation that monitors the Syrian war said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a senior Iranian official today that his adversaries had increased weapon supplies and financial support to insurgents since the start of a major offensive aided by his allies to regain lost territory.

About 25,000 people are wounded each month in escalating warfare in Syria and it getting harder to deliver medical supplies for civilians trapped in areas held by Islamic State insurgents, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

Islamic State militants kidnapped and killed seven people, including three women, in the southern province of Zabul, a police official said today, amid heavy fighting in the region between the group and Taliban insurgents

The hardening prospect that a Russian airliner was brought down over the Sinai Peninsula by a terrorist bomb is raising concerns that the threat from the Islamic State has dramatically expanded, and it points to the potentially deadly role of insurgents around the world who have allied themselves with the militant group.

Chemical weapons experts have determined that mustard gas was used in a Syrian town where Islamic State insurgents were battling another group, according to a report by an international watchdog seen by Reuters.

Insurgents captured a town on a major highway in western Syria on Thursday, in a blow to the Russian-backed campaign against them, rebels and a monitoring group said.

A splinter faction of the Afghan Taliban has selected its own leader to challenge the new chief of the terror group, two insurgent commanders said today, raising fresh doubts about chances of breathing life into stalled peace talks.