News and Media

“Coalition-backed forces in northern Syria have captured a 28-year-old United States citizen who is believed to have been fighting for the Islamic State, one of only a handful of Americans to be apprehended on the battlefield, officials said. Ibraheem Musaibli, who is from Dearborn, Mich., was...

“The U.S. has returned about two dozen suspected Islamic State fighters detained in Syria to their home countries as it grapples with the fate of hundreds more, leaving the door open to sending some to the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. defense officials said. The Pentagon has been...

“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 that a new cycle of insurgency is starting again. The small-...

“President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to work together on solving the Syrian crisis—with both focusing on the need to guarantee Israel’s security. In recent weeks, Russian-backed forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime made major advances toward Israel and...

“The Trump administration has told its top diplomats to seek direct talks with the Taliban, a significant shift in American policy in Afghanistan, done in the hope of jump-starting negotiations to end the 17-year war. The Taliban have long said they will first discuss peace only with the Americans...

“A Special Operations soldier was killed on Thursday in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province following a predawn raid, Defense Department officials said. It was the second death of a United States soldier in Afghanistan in a week. An Afghan soldier also was killed in the raid, and several others...

“A squad of assailants, including gunmen and a suicide bomber, stormed a government building Wednesday in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, killing at least 11 people, in the latest of half a dozen deadly attacks in that region since mid-June. No group has asserted responsibility for the attack...

“President Bashar al-Assad is poised to snuff out the Syrian rebellion in the place it first began more than seven years ago, as rebels in Deraa city enter talks with his Russian allies on withdrawing or accepting a return of state authority. Government forces backed by Russia have seized most of...

“Islamic State fighters who fled into the desert to escape U.S.-backed forces in Syria and Iraq are now drawing on stashed weapons and ammunition to stage renewed attacks in both countries, as friction among foreign powers hampers efforts to finish the terror group off. The attacks are a sign of...

“In Germany and France, the authorities thwarted terrorists’ plots to attack with the deadly poison ricin. In eastern Syria, the Islamic State continued its retreat under stepped-up assaults by Kurdish militia and Iraqi pilots. And extremists in Yemen, Somalia and Libya were targeted by American...