Middle East

World News

Turkey's Call For Buffer Along Border Could Drag U.S. Into Syria

7:32am October 22, 2014

by David Welna

As a condition for further assistance in fighting the Islamic State, Turkey has requested the creation of a buffer zone just south of its border with Syria. Some U.S. officials are also calling for this, along with a no-fly zone.

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3 American Teens Reportedly Suspected Of Trying To Join ISIS

7:23am October 22, 2014

by Lauren Hodges

Three Denver teens were stopped at a German airport and sent home to the U.S. Their disappearance was originally treated as a standard runaway case.

Adi Asulin stands in the kitchen of her family's remodeled apartment north of Tel Aviv. She saved thousands of dollars by flying to China to buy furnishings and flooring directly from manufacturers.

World News

Israeli Homes, Decorated With A Shopping Spree In China

7:01am October 22, 2014

by Emily Harris

Some Israelis are flying to China to buy most everything they need to furnish a home. They say it's cheaper than buying in Israel, though there are also cautionary tales of shopping trips gone wrong.

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Peshmerga look out from a front-line outpost — a few sandbags, soldiers, and grenades perched on the brow of a hill — to the eastern Iraqi town of Jalula. The Kurdish fighters are grappling with how to combat changing ISIS tactics.

World News

Ambushes, Mines And Booby Traps: ISIS Militants Change Tack

7:01am October 22, 2014

by Alice Fordham

In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters have won back territory from the so-called Islamic State only to lose it again. ISIS is using a range of explosives, inflicting heavy Kurdish casualties.

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Protesters rail outside the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center on opening night of the opera "The Death of Klinghoffer" on Monday in New York.

Opera About 1985 Achille Lauro Hijacking Draws Protests At Met

11:29am October 21, 2014

by Scott Neuman

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was among those who denounced The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams, calling it anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.

Aza Betwata (left) and his brother Mirwan (center) left Holland to join the Kurdish peshmerga fighting against ISIS militants in northern Iraq. Though the brothers come from a family of fighters, Aza had just two days of training — his brother must show

World News

Kurds Leave Life In Europe To Fight ISIS In Their Iraqi Homeland

9:33am October 21, 2014

by Alice Fordham

Until August, 24-year-old Aza Betwata was in Holland, enjoying beef and cabbage and studying to be a social worker. Now, he's among the hundreds of exiled Kurds who have returned and taken up arms.

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A family passes through Maktab Khaled in northern Iraq, the last Kurdish checkpoint before they make their way to Kirkuk. ISIS-controlled territory lies less than a mile away.

World News

The Artificial Boundary That Divides Iraq

6:03pm October 20, 2014

by Leila Fadel

A checkpoint near Kirkuk marks the line between Kurdish-controlled territory and the world of Islamic State extremists. Some 5,000 civilians stream across daily, lives and families divided.

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Turkey Opens Border For Iraqis Seeking To Fight ISIS

6:03pm October 20, 2014

by Peter Kenyon

Turkey says it will allow passage for Iraqi Kurdish fighters seeking to join Syrian Kurds battling the Islamic State. This comes after the United States dropped supplies to combatants in the border town of Kobani.

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Turkish Kurds watch the Syrian town of Kobani from a hill near the Mursitpinar border crossing on Monday.

World News

Turkey Says It's Helping Iraqi Kurds Join Fight For Kobani

8:30am October 20, 2014

by Scott Neuman

The remarks by the country's foreign minister could signal a shift in Ankara's largely neutral stance on the conflict at its doorstep.

Kurdish fighters move into position in Kobani, Syria on the border with Turkey Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014.

U.S. Airdrops Weapons, Ammo, Medical Supplies To Kurds In Kobani

2:38am October 20, 2014

by Lauren Hodges

In an effort assist Kurdish forces in the Syrian border town, the U.S. military said Sunday the dropped supplies were meant to help resistance to Islamic State efforts to control Kobani.