Islamic State

Raqqa

Feature

Nightlife rocks Raqqa as Syria’s Islamist leaders navigate power

A reopened nightclub in Raqqa spotlights the uneasy balance Syria’s new Islamist-led government is striking between ideology and public life.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

In Paris, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Women are seen walking at the Roj Camp in northeast Syria, on April 8, 2025.

Exclusive

Syria's Kurds say Trump aid cuts are feeding radicalism in ISIS camps

In an interview at Syria’s Roj camp, the head of intelligence for the Women’s Protection Units warns that US funding cuts are fueling a resurgence of ISIS ideology among detained women and children, deepening an already volatile security crisis.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

In Paris, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 28: U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in a joint statement in the East Room of the White House on January 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. The news conference was held to announce the Trump administration's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

Netanyahu set to meet Trump amid differences over Iran, tariffs and Turkey: What to know

In a surprise move, the US president invited the Israeli prime minister to Washington at short notice to discuss his recent tariff decision, the Iranian file and other issues.

Gen. Michael Langley, commander of US Africa Command, testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Top US general calls out Houthi-Shabaab ties across Yemen-Somalia strait

The Pentagon has opened the aperture on al-Shabaab in recent months, allowing AFRICOM to ramp up strikes on the al-Qaeda offshoot in the Horn of Africa.

Jared Szuba

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Latest News

Analysis

Are Lebanon, Syria ripe for peace with Israel or on cusp of more escalation?

An Israeli soldier checks a Merkava battle tank deployed at a position in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights along the border with southern Syria on March 25, 2025. Israel's military said it carried out a second strike in Syria on March 25, in response to incoming fire from across the demarcation line, hours after Syrian authorities reported that at least five people had been killed as a result of Israeli shelling. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP) (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)

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

Analysis

Turkey, alarmed by sectarian clashes, steps up Syria role, criticizes Iran

Fidan Syria

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Exclusive

Turkey to host regional summit in April on counter-ISIS operations

A general view shows a burnt out vehicle next to a banner bearing the Islamic State group's flag in the village of Dibsiafnan on the western outskirts of the Islamist's Syrian bastion of Raqa, after Syrian pro-government forces entered the area on June 11, 2017.

Ezgi Akin

In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO

Armenia joins US-led global coalition against Islamic State

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrives for a plenary session at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit, at the Grand Palais, in Paris, on Feb. 11, 2025.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

In Paris, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Danish troops patrol in southern Iraq in this January 2005 file photo. Denmark will withdraw all of its ground troops from Iraq by August and replace them with a small helicopter unit, Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday. SWEDEN OUT NORWAY OUT DENMARK OUT NO THIRD PARTY SALES REUTERS/Henning Bagger/Scanpix (IRAQ) - GM1DUQWFEIAA

Iraqi base attacks continue as Danes gear up for NATO training lead

Attacks continue to target bases in Iraq hosting international coalition and Iraqi forces. The Danish parliament has, meanwhile, voted to take leadership of the NATO training mission beginning in December and send a frigate to the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which much Iraqi oil passes, beginning in late summer.

FILE PHOTO: An Egyptian military vehicle is seen on the highway in northern Sinai, Egypt, May 25, 2015. To match Special Report EGYPT-POLITICS/SINAI REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih/File Photo - RC17BB4CC790

Tribes become more involved in anti-terrorism operations in Sinai Peninsula

Reports have emerged about an agreement between tribal leaders and Egyptian security forces to hand over members of Islamic State in exchange for pardons.

An Iraqi soldier wears a protective face mask and gloves, following the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as he stands guard during the hand over of Qayyarah Airfield West from US-led coalition forces to Iraqi Security Forces, in the south of Mosul, Iraq March 26, 2020. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani - RC2SRF9WTZ1K

Rocket hits Baghdad as US-Iraq dialogue set to launch

In order to reorganize the relationship between the two countries in various aspects, Iraq and the United States are negotiating over a new strategic agreement.

Iraqi Sunnis seek answers for those displaced in time of fighting Islamic State

Sunni politicians are putting pressure on the Kadhimi government to determine the fate of Sunnis displaced during the fight against the Islamic State.

Syria’s Kurdish-led alliance sweeps Deir ez-Zor for Islamic State sleeper cells

A Syrian Democratic Forces operation dubbed "Deterring Terrorism" nets 17 Islamic State suspects in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province.

Military secure worshippers outside Al Rawdah mosque during the first Friday prayer after attack in Bir Al-Abed, Egypt, December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany - RC1E339A9500

Is Islamic State making a comeback in Sinai?

A researcher says repeated attacks by Islamic militants in Sinai show that Egyptian forces must be ever vigilant.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attends the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Small Group Ministerial at the State Department in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2019. REUTERS/Yara Nardi - RC24BD9GBEFV

Intel: US urges anti-Islamic State coalition to step up financial contributions

The United States and Italy convened a virtual ministerial meeting with members of the defeat-Islamic State (IS) coalition to discuss progress on the campaign.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi meets with senior Iraqi officers during his visit in Kirkuk, Iraq June 2, 2020. Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. - RC251H9N531M

Iraqi forces team up for anti-IS operation in Kirkuk

A large joint operation to root out Islamic State sleeper cells began in Kirkuk in a show of strength and unity after a rash of attacks in the area in recent weeks.

A member loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) waves an ISIL flag in Raqqa June 29, 2014. The offshoot of al Qaeda which has captured swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria has declared itself an Islamic "Caliphate" and called on factions worldwide to pledge their allegiance, a statement posted on jihadist websites said on Sunday. The group, previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, has renamed itself "Islamic State" and proclaimed its leader

US woman convicted of providing material support to Islamic State

Alison Marie Sheppard, 35, of Florida purchased 10 mobile phones and arranged to ship them to undercover officers posing as IS supporters.

An Islamic State flag flies over the custom office of Syria's Jarablus border gate as it is pictured from the Turkish town of Karkamis, in Gaziantep province, Turkey August 1, 2015. Karkamis is a Turkish town of 10,500 people that sits directly opposite the border post. Shut for more than a year, the military sealed the crossing with a breeze block wall a few months ago. Behind it, just inside Syria, the black flag of Islamic State flaps in the breeze. Karkamis lies on the northeastern edge of a rectangle o

Turkey deports 12 Islamic State-linked fighters to Finland

The move comes after European governments have largely declined to take back detained citizens with links to the terror group.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio in Rome, Italy, October 2, 2019. REUTERS/Alberto Lingria - RC1FD9F23680

Intel: US, Italy to co-host virtual meeting of anti-IS coalition

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Italian counterpart, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, will co-host a virtual meeting for members of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State on June 4, the State Department announced today.

TOPSHOT - Relatives of farmer Hamad al-Ibrahim clean his damaged land in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz on March 13, 2020, a year after the fall of the Islamic State's (IS) caliphate. - A year after the last black flag of the Islamic State group was lowered in the Syrian village of Baghouz, traces of the jihadist group are still all around this small and remote village near the Iraqi border, where Kurdish fighters and the US-led coalition declared the IS proto-state defeated in March 2019 after a bli

Coalition airstrike kills Islamic State leader in eastern Syria, Iraq says

Mu'taz Numan 'Abd Nayif Najm al-Jaburi was killed in a coalition-led airstrike, Iraq's intelligence services said.