Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to start the withdrawal of forces from Syria starting Tuesday. Russia will however keep a military presence at the port of Tartus and at the Khmeimim airbase to observe ceasefire agreements.

“I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow,” Putin said on Monday during a meeting with Shoigu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

[Read more…]

At least 47 Iraqi soldiers have been killed in a series of attacks by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as (ISIS) fighters near the strategic city of Ramadi, military sources said.

The first attack took place overnight on the headquarters of the 3rd rapid deployment force and other military barracks in the villages of Qutainiyah and Zuwaiyah, near Zankurah town, the sources said on Monday morning.

[Read more…]

Militants linked to al-Qaeda said they led an attack on Sunday that left at least 22 people dead in Ivory Coast, the third assault on a West African city since November.

Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and al-Mourabitoune said three of its fighters died in the attack in Grand Bassam, according to Mauritanian newspaper al-Akhbar, which receives statements from the Islamist militants.

[Read more…]

A suicide car bomb went off near bus stops in the heart of Turkey’s capital on Sunday, killing at least 34 people and injuring around 125 others, officials said.

The blast occurred on the city’s main boulevard, close to Ankara’s main square and a park.

[Read more…]

Gunmen mounted deadly attacks at three hotels in the beach resort city of Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, shortly after noon on Sunday, according to the government.

French President Francois Hollande, whose nation maintains a close relationship with Ivory Coast, said 12 civilians were killed, including at least one French citizen.

[Read more…]

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced that the number of people attacked with mustard gas in Taza Khurmatu, south of Kirkuk province in northern Iraq, have exceeded ​​400 people, after radicals of the Islamic State (ISIS) hit the area with missiles carrying chemical substances on the town.

“The number of people attacked with poisonous gas in Taza Khurmatu reached 409 civilians after ISIS bombarded the area with missiles contain mustard gas and chemicals over the past two days,” Masrour Aswad, member of the Board of Commissioners, said in a press statement.

[Read more…]

The Turkish military claimed on Saturday that it had killed 67 members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in the Qandil mountains in the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday.

Targets included, according to Reuters, areas in Avasin, Basyan, Haftanin, Metina and Qandil. Turkey has often sent its air force to bomb PKK sanctuaries in those barren areas as part of its wider campaign to crackdown on the PKK in its own Kurdish-majority southeast.

[Read more…]