Armed Militias and Extremist Groups

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Grenade attack on IRGC kills 2 in Iran’s Kurdistan province: What to know

The deadly assault comes amid recurring tensions and clashes in Iran’s Kurdish-majority western region.

Members of the Syrian Kurdish Asayish security forces stand guard at the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of suspected Islamic State (IS) group fighters in the northeastern Hasakeh governorate, on April 18, 2025, as the Syrian Democratic Forces mount a security campaign against IS "sleeper cells" in the camp.

Damascus declares truce with Syria’s Kurdish forces after Aleppo skirmishes

US military helicopters delivered Syrian Kurdish commander Mazlum Kobane to Damascus in push to halt a burst of fighting overnight in Aleppo that risked unravelling the fragile rapprochement between Syria's two largest post-Assad forces.

OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Israel adapts, Turkey rises, Iran ruined: How 2 years of Gaza war reshaped Middle East

Turkey’s involvement worries Israel in Syria but also raises hopes for pressuring Hamas to agree to President Donald Trump's ceasefire proposal.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Former senior commander of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman.

In a first, ICC convicts Sudanese militia leader of Darfur war crimes

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman was found guilty of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur between 2003 and 2004.

Latest News

CENTCOM chief meets Syrian Kurdish leader in push for postwar unity

DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images

US approves $230M for Lebanon’s push to disarm Hezbollah

Lebanese army soldiers and security forces deploy near a vehicle that was hit by a reported drone-strike at the entrance of the village of Barja, about 30 kilometres south of Beirut, on Sept. 9, 2025.

Sudan army steps up airstrikes as Darfur siege tightens: What to know

People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control walk in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13, 2025.

Analysis

Netanyahu hamstrung by far right, Trump as Hamas drags feet on Gaza plan

JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images

Day 83 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Thursday, Dec. 28

Honor guards carry the coffin of Sayyed Razi Mousavi.

Funeral held for Iran's IRGC commander killed by Israel as Tehran vows revenge

Iran said Sayyed Razi Mousavi was killed in an Israeli strike in Syria. The death of the commander, who was mourned in Syria and Iraq, could ignite war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Smoke billows over the northern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment from southern Israel on December 27, 2023 amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Day 82 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Wednesday, Dec. 27

Day 81 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Tuesday, Dec. 26

Day 80 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Monday, Dec. 25

A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on Dec. 10, 2023, shows smoke rising above the northern part of the Palestinian enclave amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.

Day 79 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Sunday, Dec. 24

A picture taken during an organised tour by Yemen's Huthi rebels on November 22, 2023 shows the Galaxy Leader cargo ship (R), seized by Huthi fighters two days earlier, approaching the port in the Red Sea off Yemen's province of Hodeida. The Bahamas-flagged, British-owned Galaxy Leader, operated by a Japanese firm but having links to an Israeli businessman, was headed from Turkey to India when it was seized and re-routed to Hodeida November 19, according to maritime security company Ambrey. The Huthis said

Day 78 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Saturday, Dec. 23

A Palestinian man walks past a graffiti on a wall showing the Star of David under an inverted "red triangle", a symbol used by the Palestinian Hamas movement's military wing al-Qassam Brigades to identify Israeli targets in their videos, in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on December 16,2023. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP) (Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Hamas popularity triples in West Bank since Oct. 7, US support at 0%

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research’s most recent public opinion poll shows most Palestinians support Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel despite the death in Gaza and do not believe the group committed atrocities.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on Dec. 10, 2023, shows smoke rising above the northern part of the Palestinian enclave amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.

Day 77 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Friday, Dec. 22

Smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment in southern Gaza amid ongoing battles with the Palestinian Hamas militant group, Dec. 21, 2023.

Day 76 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Thursday, Dec. 21

Activists take part in a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the controversial death of Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman on January 18, 2017 in Buenos Aires. Nisman died in mysterious circumstances in January 18, 2015, after accusing Argentina's then president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, of obstructing his investigation of a 1994 bombing at a Buenos Aires Jewish center. / AFP / EITAN ABRAMOVICH (Photo credit should read EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP via Getty Images)

US charges Colombian-Lebanese Hezbollah member in Argentina bombing

The US alleged Samuel Salman El Reda helped Hezbollah perpetrate the deadly 1994 attack against a Jewish community center in the Argentinian capital, following sanctions related to the attack earlier this year.

Members of the UN Security Council hold sideline meetings as they take a break at the United Nations headquarters on Dec. 19, 2023, in New York City.

Day 75 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Wednesday, Dec. 20