US trains Iraqis for house-to-house battle against IS
TAJI BASE, Iraq: A team of camouflage-clad Iraqi soldiers lines up near the door of a one-storey house north of Baghdad with rifles ready, preparing to enter and search it. For now, there are no militants inside, and American and Iraqi instructors are on hand to tell them how to position... read more »
Car bomb kills 37 at Yemen police academy
SANAA: A car bomb tore through dozens of Yemenis lined up at a police academy in Sanaa Wednesday, leaving 37 dead in the latest attack to highlight the country’s growing instability. Police said another 66 people were wounded in what it described as a “terrorist bombing” targeting... read more »
Syria conflict: 76,000 die in deadliest year – activists
The year 2014 was the deadliest year yet in Syria’s four-year conflict, with over 76,000 killed, activists say. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 17,790 of the dead were civilians, including 3,501 children. Meanwhile more than 15,000 died in conflicts in Iraq in 2014,... read more »
Father of pilot captured by ISIS pleads for release
AMMAN (Jordan): The father of a Jordanian pilot captured by Islamic State militants in Syria has pleaded for his son’s release. Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh, speaking to reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman on Thursday, also urged the militants to show “hospitality” toward his... read more »
