Jihadist leaders are fleeing Mosul, a top US general in the coalition battling the Islamic State group said yesterday as Iraqi

Residents of Mosul said Islamic State was using civilians as human shields as Iraqi and Kurdish forces captured outlying villages in their advance on the jihadists' stronghold.

Dozens of civilians including 12 from the same family were yesterday killed in heavy bombardment of east Aleppo

Iraqi pro-government forces have made gains at the start of a large-scale operation to retake Mosul, the last major

Kuwait's emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, on Sunday dissolved parliament, the official KUNA news agency

Iraqi aircraft dropped "tens of thousands" of leaflets, some bearing safety instructions for Mosul residents, ahead of an operation to retake the city from jihadists, the military said.

Around 55 people were killed in Iraq in attacks yesterday that targeted a Shia Muslim gathering, a police check-point and the family of a Sunni paramilitary leader opposed to Islamic State, according to security and medical sources.

Turkey-backed Syrian rebels began an attack on Islamic State's symbolically potent stronghold of Dabiq in northwestern Syria

Islamic State has crushed a rebellion plot in Mosul, led by one of the group's commanders who aimed to switch sides and help deliver the

The Iraqi foreign ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador yesterday to protest the continued presence of Turkish

Israel and Turkey yesterday agreed to open discussions on building a gas pipeline to pump Israeli gas to Europe, as the

An air strike on a Yemeni funeral ceremony which killed at least 140 people "is an apparent war crime," Human Rights

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday snubbed Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's criticism of the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq ahead of a planned operation to retake Mosul city, urging him to "know your place."

Regime ally Russia carried out its heaviest strikes in days on Syria's Aleppo yesterday, as at least five children were killed in rebel fire on a school in the war-torn country's south.

Afghan security forces have killed a senior member of the Pakistani Taliban accused of masterminding a deadly attack

A Syrian man suspected of plotting an Islamic State bomb attack was arrested yesterday by German police with the

Two missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen fell short of a US warship patrolling the Red Sea off the coast

Libyan pro-government forces are advancing into the last area controlled by Islamic State in the coastal city of Sirte,

A bombing targeting Shias in Baghdad killed at least five people and wounded 21 others yesterday, Iraqi officials said,

An Afghan army helicopter crashed in northern Afghanistan yesterday, killing all people on board, the defence