Islamic State militants have abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria, a monitor that tracks violence in Syria said on Tuesday.
The United States and its allies staged 25 air strikes on Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, focusing on the Syrian cities of Kobani and Hasakah, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Monday.
Around 4,000 refugees have trickled back to the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani but many are wary of returning to the site of a four-month battle between Kurdish and Islamic State forces, officials said on Monday.
New U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is gathering top U.S. military commanders and diplomats for talks in Kuwait on Monday about the battle against Islamic State, as America's military effort approaches major hurdles in both Iraq and Syria.
Turkish tanks backed by drones and reconnaissance planes entered Syria overnight to evacuate several dozen Turkish soldiers guarding a tomb considered sovereign territory by Ankara and surrounded by Islamic State insurgents.
British police launched an appeal on Friday to trace three London schoolgirls who are believed to be making their way to Syria, having flown to Turkey earlier this week.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on American Muslim communities to do more to counter what he called "violent extremism," speaking at a three-day White House summit on the issue.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Wednesday that his country would resist global sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear program, saying that Iran might respond to international pressure by cutting back gas exports.
The United States and Turkey have reached a tentative agreement to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition fighters and expect to sign the pact soon, U.S. and Turkish officials said on Tuesday with Ankara predicting a signing in days.
Egyptian jets bombed Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, a day after the group there released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, drawing Cairo directly into the conflict across its border.
Two U.S. presidents named Bush have legacies dominated by wars in Iraq. That leaves a potential third, Jeb Bush, facing a uniquely sharp dilemma over how to tackle the current crisis in that region, having to explain how he would step up the fight against Islamic State militants without getting bogged down in another war.
Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.
Islamic State released a video on Sunday purporting to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya, violence likely to deepen Cairo's concerns over security threats from militants thriving in the neighboring country's chaos.
Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes have regained control of at least 163 villages around the Syrian town of Kobani after driving back Islamic State militants in the past three weeks, a group monitoring the conflict said on Saturday.
A Bosnian Muslim cleric accused of recruiting fighters for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq went on trial on Wednesday under a new law that is designed to stop people joining militants in the Middle East.
A Japanese photo journalist whose passport was confiscated by the government ahead of a planned trip to Syria said his case sets a dangerous precedent for other journalists traveling abroad to report on foreign wars.
By rapidly appointing two heirs, Saudi Arabia's King Salman has pressed pause on "succession Sudoku", as one leading local journalist calls speculation over whose star is rising and whose waning in the large and secretive Al Saud ruling family.
Republicans exploring a 2016 White House run are pounding away at President Barack Obama's strategy for stopping Islamic State militants but, wary of Americans' war fatigue, are so far providing few specifics on what they would do differently.
A Belgian court will deliver its verdict on Wednesday in a trial of 46 people charged with belonging to a terrorist organization that recruited young men to fight with Islamist militants in Syria.
U.S. aid worker Kayla Mueller, held hostage by Islamic State militants for 18 months, is dead, her family said on Tuesday, but the circumstances were unclear and President Barack Obama vowed to hunt down the culprits.
Islamic State's execution of a captured Jordanian pilot by burning him alive has backfired on the militant group by galvanizing the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting it in Syria and Iraq, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.
