“Islamic State” accepts Boko Haram allegiance
BAGHDAD — The leader of the "Islamic State" has accepted a pledge of allegiance from Nigerian Islamists Boko Haram, his spokesman said, calling on supporters to fight in Africa. Boko Haram, which has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds during a six-year campaign to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria, pledged its...“Islamic State” kills teen accused as Israeli spy
DAMASCUS — A video posted online by "Islamic State" militants on Tuesday showed a boy fatally shooting Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab accused by the group of having signed up as a jihadi to spy for Israel's intelligence service. The video, published by the group's Furqan media outlet, showed Musallam, 19, sitting in a room wearing...Bahrain charges student with ‘insulting Islam’ over Koran song
MANAMA — A Bahraini high school student and two teachers have been charged with "insulting Islam" after the boy sang verses from the Koran accompanied by musical instruments, the official BNA news agency reported Wednesday. Islam allows intonation of Koranic verses, and recordings of chanting are frequently heard in marketplaces or on...One dead at anti-Houthi protest
SANAA — Members of the Houthi militia that controls much of Yemen opened fire on hundreds of people protesting at their presence in the southerly city of al-Bayda on Thursday, killing one and wounding eight others, local officials and medical sources said. The Houthis, who are led by a northern clan of the same name, have in recent...Israeli FM calls for beheading Arab citizens disloyal to Israel
Avigdor LiebermanThe Israeli foreign minister and head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party Avigdor Lieberman suggested during a campaign event that Arab citizens of Israel, who are disloyal to the state, deserve to be decapitated."Whoever is with us should get everything," Lieberman said in a speech at the Interdisciplinary Center...The Arab intellectual is resting, not dead
Whenever a new poem by Mahmoud Darwish was published in al-Quds newspaper, I rushed over to Abu Aymen’s newsstand that was located in the refugee camp’s main square. It was a crowded and dusty place where grimy taxis waited for passengers, surrounded by fish and vegetable venders. Darwish’s poetry was too cryptic for us...Blast kills Nusra commander; U.S. backed rebels collapse in northern Syria
DAMASCUS — Al-Qaeda's official Syrian wing, the Nusra Front, announced on Thursday the death of its top military commander, who insurgent sources said fell victim to a blast targeting a high-level militant meeting. General Military Commander Abu Humam al-Shami, a veteran of Islamist militant fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,...Algeria passes law banning violence against women
Women wearing traditional veils called "hayek" walk in downtown Algiers March 21, 2013.ALGIERS — Algeria's parliament passed a law on Thursday criminalizing violence against women, in a move criticized by Islamist lawmakers. The law makes inflicting injury on one's spouse punishable with up to 20 years in prison and allows a judge to...Egypt names new interior minister to combat religious extremism
The newly-appointed Interior Minister Magdy Mohamed Abdel Hamid Abdel Ghaffar (L) stands at attention as he is sworn in by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) in Cairo.CAIRO — Egypt replaced its interior minister on Thursday with a retired general who has experience combating religious extremism as part of the country's...Libyan factions hold peace talks in Morocco
SKHIRATE, Morocco — Libya's warring factions held United Nations-backed talks on Thursday in an effort to end a conflict between two rival governments that threatens to drive the country into full-blown civil war. Air strikes between rival forces intensified before Thursday's negotiations on Libya, where Western governments...Kidnapped Iranian diplomat in Yemen freed
SANAA — An Iranian diplomat held hostage in Yemen since 2013 returned home to Tehran on Thursday amid conflicting accounts of how he was freed from his unidentified abductors. IRNA, Iran's state news agency, quoted deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying that an Iranian intelligence operation in Yemen rescued Noor...Executions set ‘unprecedented’ pace in Saudi Arabia
RIYADH — Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens for murder Thursday, adding to what Amnesty International has called an unprecedented pace of executions in the kingdom. Manie bin Ali bin Muhsin al-Gahtani was convicted of gunning down another man, the Interior Ministry said in a statement reported by the official Saudi Press...Palestinian leaders say they’ll cut security coordination with Israel
RAMALLAH — Palestinian leaders in the West Bank said on Thursday they would halt the security coordination with Israel which is widely credited with keeping order in the territory and preventing attacks in Israel. The Palestinian Central Council, whose votes are usually binding on the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, said it made...Saudi FM: Iran is taking over Iraq
Secretary of State John Kerry walks alongside Saud bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, before a meeting with Saudi king Salman in riyadh, March 5.RIYADH — Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Thursday of Iran’s "destabilizing" policies in the region...Iraqi army, Iranian-backed militia prepare for Tikrit battle
An Iraqi soldier looks on as smoke rises from oil wells in the Ajil field east of the city of Tikrit in the Salahuddin province, March 4.BAGHDAD — "Islamic State" militants have set fire to oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit to obstruct an assault by Iranian-backed Shi'a militiamen and Iraqi soldiers trying to drive them from......
UAE sentences six Iranians to life for kidnapping businessman
Abbas Yazdi and his wife Atena Yazdi.DUBAI — A court in the United Arab Emirates sentenced six Iranians, three of them in absentia, to life in prison for kidnapping a British businessman who went missing in Dubai in 2013, newspapers reported on Thursday. Abbas Yazdi, a businessman of Iranian descent who owns a general trading company...Bahrain sentences three men to death for killing police officers
MANAMA — Three men were sentenced to death by a Bahraini court on Thursday and seven others were given a life term for killing three policeman, the kingdom's Public Prosecution said on its Twitter account. The ruling is the latest in a series of strict penalties handed down to those accused of seeking to destabilize the...Two Egyptian policemen held after lawyer’s death in custody
Karim Hamdy.CAIRO — Two Egyptian policemen accused of killing a lawyer in custody were detained on Thursday on the orders of an Egyptian prosecutor, judicial sources said, a rare action against members of the security forces. The officers, a lieutenant colonel and a major, will be held for four days pending investigations in to the...“Islamic State” British executioner identified
IS executioner Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John.The masked "Jihadi John" killer who fronted "Islamic State" beheading videos has been identified as Mohammed Emwazi, a British computer programming graduate from a well-to-do London family. The black-clad militant brandishing a knife and speaking with an English accent was shown in......
Engineer named Baghdad’s first female mayor
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi named a woman mayor of Baghdad for the first time in Iraqi history, as corruption and violence continue to rage throughout the country. Zekra Alwach, a civil engineer and director general of the Ministry of Higher Education, begins work on Feb. 28, according to a municipal source cited by...Air strikes hit “Islamic State” in Syria after hundreds of Christians abducted
DAMASCUS — A U.S.-led alliance launched air strikes against "Islamic State" on Thursday in an area of northeast Syria where the militants are now estimated to have abducted at least 220 Assyrian Christians this week, a group monitoring the war reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strikes targeted "Islamic......
U.S. arms flow to Iraq ahead of planned Mosul offensive
BAGHDAD — Some 10,000 U.S. M-16 rifles and other military supplies worth about $17.9 million arrived in Iraq this week as U.S. troops pushed ahead with training and supplying Iraqi security forces battling "Islamic State" fighters, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The update on U.S. efforts to arm Iraqi troops followed an unusual...With sledgehammers, “Islamic State” smashes Iraq’s history
BAGHDAD — Extremist Islamist militants in northern Iraq have destroyed a priceless collection of statues and sculptures from the ancient Assyrian era, inflicting what an archaeologist described as incalculable damage to a piece of shared human history. A video published by "Islamic State" on Thursday showed men attacking the......