More than 2,000 families have fled the Iraqi city of Ramadi with little more than the clothes on their backs, officials said Thursday, as the Islamic State group closed in on the capital of western Anbar province, clashing with Iraqi troops and turning it into a ghost town.

The extremist group, which has controlled the nearby city of Fallujah for more than a year, captured three villages on Ramadi’s eastern outskirts on Wednesday. The advance is widely seen as a counteroffensive after the Islamic State group lost the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, earlier this month.

[Read more…]

Military officials and residents say al-Qaeda has taken control of a major airport in southern Yemen after briefly clashing with troops.

The officials say al-Qaeda fighters clashed Thursday with members of the infantry brigade in charge of protecting the Riyan airport in the city of Mukalla, a major port city and the provincial capital of Yemen’s largest province, Hadramawt.

[Read more…]

The commander of a federal police force tasked with protecting Iraq’s largest oil refinery was killed on Tuesday in fierce battles with the Islamic State (IS) militants who managed to seize part of the refinery, provincial security sources said.

The IS militants carried out an attack on the refinery near the town of Baiji in Salahudin province at dawn and made some progress inside the huge oil facility after heavy clashes with the security forces, killing Maj. Gen. Dhaif Khalaf and nine of his bodyguards, a source told Xinhua news agency.

[Read more…]

Some 500 Houthi militias have been killed in the Najran and Jazan sectors since the Operation Decisive Storm began 17 days ago, a Ministry of Defense source said on Saturday.

[Read more…]

152 ISIS gang members have been killed in the ongoing clashes between the YPG/YPJ forces and the ISIS in the villages to the south and west of Til Temir, while a tank of the gangs was destroyed in addition to many other vehicles, including a bomb-laden one.

According to the information obtained by Hawar News Agency from the YPG sources, ISIS gangs launched on 8 April night an extensive attack on the villages to the south and west of Til Temir. The clashes that broke out following the strong response of the YPG/YPJ forces, continued till last night.

[Read more…]