Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

(Newser) - It may have been the deadliest attack against US forces in Syria yet: A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest amid international forces on a routine patrol in the northern town of Manbij Wednesday. It's not yet clear how many US service members were killed; per Bloomberg , the Trump...

(Newser) - ISIS released propaganda images today that purport to show militants laying explosives in and then blowing up the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra. The images, posted on social media by supporters of the group, showed militants carrying barrels of explosives, and laying...

(Newser) - A self-proclaimed "caliph" of the Middle East is urging Muslims worldwide to join the fight in Iraq and one day conquer the world, "if Allah wills." Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the newly named Islamic State (formerly ISIS) that has grabbed swaths of northern Iraq, issued his...

(Newser) - The facility outside Baghdad where Saddam Hussein cooked up his chemical weapons is now in the hands of extremists trying to take over the country, reports the Wall Street Journal . The good news is that the al-Muthanna facility has been mothballed for so long that US officials don't think...