Crisis In Iraq

Written by : Mohamed Abdel FattahThe Islamic State (IS) group says it was behind a suicide bombing on a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia that killed at least 21 people. A suicide bomber blew himself up during Friday prayers at a mosque in the village of al-Qadeeh in eastern Saudi Arabia, killing at least 21 and wounding 81 others, reported Al Arabiya News Channel. In a statement published online, IS said it was behind the bombing the first time the group has officially claimed an attack in Saudi Arabia.It named the bomber as Abu Amer al-Najdi and included a picture of him. The statement said "the soldiers of the caliphate" were behind the attack by a suicide bomber "who detonated an explosives belt" in the mosque. A video posted online showed a hall filled with smoke and dust, with bloodied people moaning with pain as they lay on the floor littered with concrete and glass. More than 90 people were wounded, the Saudi health minister told state television. Those injured b...

Written by : Mohamed Abdel FattahIslamic State fighters in Syria have taken full control of Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, according to activists and a monitoring group said on Thursday. Deadly clashes had raged overnight between the Syrian government and Islamic State, with troops firing rockets from outside Palmyra in an attempt to block  Islamic State 's offensive. Islamic State launched an attack on Palmyra last week, causing material damage to residential areas while clashes left many dead and injured. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday that according to its estimates, 462 people have been killed since IS began its offensive on Palmyra and nearby areas on May 13. It said the dead included 241 troops and pro-government gunmen, as well as 150 IS fighters. The rest were civilians, presumably killed by ISIS or in the crossfire. It was the first time that the Islamic State  militants seized an entire city from Syrian government forces; it won control of i...

Written by : Mohamed Abdel FattahThe so-called Islamic State, also known as Isis, seized Ramadi after government forces left their positions. Ramadi is the capital of Iraq's western Anbar province, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims. Militants said they had taken full control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday. It was the biggest victory for Islamic State in Iraq since security forces and Shi'ite paramilitary groups began pushing the militants back last year, aided by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition. IS in Iraq, the successor of al Qaeda in Iraq, is made up of Iraqi Sunnis and foreign Islamist fighters. ISIS has routinely defeated other rebel groups in neighboring Syria and claimed large swaths of that country’s territory. The militants almost took the Iraqi Kurdish capital city of Erbil in February, despite the fierce resistance of the vaunted fighters of the Kurdish Peshmerga. The loss of Ramadi, the capital of the western Anbar province, is a blow for both...