Iraq on Wednesday asked the United States to direct air strikes at Sunni extremists who are now in control of important cities and large portions of the country, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. Speaking in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Zebari urged the Kingdom, which in the past has openly criticized the “sectarian” policies targeting Arab Sunnis of the …

Israel on Wednesday killed 65 people in West Bank, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at the people responsible for the kidnapping of 3 Israeli teenagers. The hunt for the Israeli youths enters its sixth day on Wednesday, as Israel continues its crushing drive against Hamas, who it blames for the kidnappings. As Israeli troops continued to press their …

Iraq’s Prime Minister on Wednesday vowed to “face terrorism” on Wednesday, and insisted that his security forces suffered a “setback” and not a defeat, as militants continue to press on in their major offensive in which they most recently attacked the largest oil refinery in the country. They also seized 3 villages in northern Iraq, an Iraqi official said. In …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that his government will do everything in its power to protect revered Shi’ite Muslim shrines in Iraq from Sunni militant fighters combating the Baghdad government. “Dear Karbala, Dear Najaf, Dear Kadhimiyah and Dear Samarra, we warn the great powers and their lackeys and the terrorists, the great Iranian people will do everything to …

Fresh violence near the Kenyan coast has led to the deaths of at least 15 people, officials said on Tuesday, a day after Somali Shebab rebels killed almost 50 people in the same region. The al-Qaeda linked Harakat al-Shebab al-Mujahideen said that its fighters executed the attack on a Kenyan village, and its commando unit had been able to return …

Eminent radio personality and proud Arab American Casey Kasem passed away early on Sunday at the age of 82, his daughter Kerri Kasem confirmed on popular website Facebook. Kasem had been hospitalized for the past two weeks in Washington. Kasem had Lewy body disease, the most prevalent kind of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. His agent Don Pitts confirmed the news …

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that extremists belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) would have reached Beirut if it were not for his party’s decision to send fighters to Syria. During a meeting of al-Mahdi Scouts Association on Sunday, he said, “Had we not interfered in Syria at the appropriate moment, ISIL would …

Syria on Sunday freed former horse rider Adnan Qassar, said to be a rival horse rider of one of President Bashar Assad’s late brothers, after spending 21 years in jail. Qassar’s release is part of an amnesty Assad decreed last week – around 1,500 people have so far been freed from Syrian prisons due to the amnesty, the Syrian Observatory …

Clashes between Shi’ite Huthi groups and government forces in Northern Yemen have led to the deaths of several dozen people in the past 24 hours after a ceasefire between both parties had collapsed, military and tribal sources said. According to sources, the fighting began on Sunday, and continued intermittently on Monday near the Jabal al-Dhine region, a mountainous area around …

On Monday, Kuwait’s Prime Minister and a senior Royal filed two different lawsuits at the Attorney General’s office, demanding an inquiry into allegations of a coup plotted against the government and a massive corruption scandal. Kuwait was shaken about two months ago when news of videotapes allegedly showing several former government officials plotting a coup surfaced, and only last week, …