Armed Militias and Extremist Groups

BARBOD KHORSHIDI/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

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

Rafah border crossing 1

Day 49 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Friday, Nov. 24

Hostage demonstrators White House Israel

Day 48 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Thursday, Nov. 23

Israeli soldiers wait in their vehicle in an area in Southern Israel near the Gaza Strip on November 22, 2023 amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Why Israel's hostage deal with Hamas is not a permanent cease-fire

The negotiations that led to the deal for the expected release of 50 Israeli hostages, however excruciating, do not mean that Israel has given up on toppling Hamas in Gaza.

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

Forlorn Israeli soldier, hostages

Day 47 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Wednesday, Nov. 22

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in north Gaza on November 22, 2023

Day 46 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Tuesday, Nov. 21

A woman minds a child as they play near the fountain.

Day 45 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Monday, Nov. 20

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - NOVEMBER 18: Thousands of people and the families of kidnapped Israelis hold up their mobile phones with the torch light to sing the national anthem during a rally demanding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secures the release of the hostages, outside The Museum of Modern Art known as the 'The Hostages and Missing Square' on November 18, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Families and supporters of the hostages taken by Hamas in its Oct 7 attack commenced a multi-day march from Tel A

Day 44 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Sunday, Nov. 19

TOPSHOT - A Palestinian girl and her brother sit amidst the debris of a house following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 18, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)

Day 43 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Saturday, Nov. 18

John Moore/Getty Images

Day 42 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Friday, Nov. 17

Israeli self-propelled artillery howitzers are stationed at an Israeli army base in Zawra, the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, April 6, 2023.

Suspected Israeli strikes in Syria target Hezbollah, Iran-backed groups

The strikes come amid the ongoing Hamas-Israel war in the Gaza Strip.

A religious protester holds a portrait of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden during a protest rally against the United States on July 30, 1999, in Islamabad.

Why is bin Laden’s ‘letter to America’ trending during Gaza war?

The controversial 2002 letter explains the al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind’s reasons for attacking the United States.

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images

Day 41 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Thursday, Nov. 16