Citing its battle damage assessment “up until now,” the Pentagon has denied any civilian casualties as a result of airstrikes in Syria, saying that reports remain unconfirmed and videos posted on social media showing civilians underneath rubble are fake. Earlier this week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that eight civilians, including three children, were killed in US-led a [...]

The rise of violent extremism around the world is the fault of "certain states" and"intelligence agencies" that have helped to create it and are failing to withstand it, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in an address to the UN General Assembly. Speaking at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Rouhani said that extremism is not a regional but a global issue, and called o [...]

There is no draft law on creating a special status for the restive regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said, adding that Ukraine is only to be decentralized. “There will be no law on the special status of the Donbass region,” Poroshenko said on Thursday, speaking at a press conference in Kiev. [...]

Anti-war activists have called an emergency protest outside Downing Street on Thursday evening, as Prime Minister David Cameron says the UK is ready to "play its part" in airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Cameron called Islamic State formerly known as ISIS or ISIL) an “evil against which the whole world must unite”. [...]

The United States and its partners launched a new round of strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria on Wednesday, only hours after President Barack Obama called on the world to help end the extremist group's reign of terror in the Middle East. “I can confirm that US military and Arab partner forces are undertaking additional strikes today against ISIL terrorists in Syria,” Pentagon [...]

In the wake of the rise of the Islamic State the UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding all member states to make it a serious criminal offense for their citizens to travel abroad to fight with extremists or support them. The resolution targets fighters traveling to conflicts anywhere in the world. [...]

It was the West that armed and financed ISIS and it is “outrageous” to blame Muslims for supporting extremists and close their bank accounts when they’ve done nothing wrong, Massoud Shadjareh from the Islamic Human Rights Commission, told RT. Earlier in September, some US banks closed dozens of accounts without any explanation. Letters were sent to business owners, nonprofits, and student [...]

New intelligence has emerged warning Washington that its upcoming confrontation with the Islamic State may leave it blind to a more sinister and direct threat from a much lesser known terrorist group that has arisen from the ashes of the Syrian war. Very little information is being released at the moment by anyone within American intelligence circles, but the group calling itself Khorasan is sa [...]

The political imperative to “do something” against the brutal Islamic State has brought President Obama and congressional majorities together on a plan for a limited U.S. military response, but this strategy could actually make matters worse, says the Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland. Although President Obama insists that no American military “boots on the ground” will be used to de [...]

The US claims Syrian President Bashar Assad has broken the chemical weapons treaty he agreed to earlier this year, by launching chlorine gas attacks in Syrian villages. It comes as the Senate officially approved a plan to arm and train Syrian rebels. US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday accused Assad of breaching the terms of the global pact on chemical weapons, by unleashing chlorine g [...]

President Petro Poroshenko has requested NATO give “special” security status to Ukraine. Addressing the US Congress, he called on Washington to provide Kiev with “more military equipment, lethal and non-lethal” to “keep peace” in the east of his country. While President Barack Obama previously pledged only non-lethal assistance to Kiev, such as bullet-proof vests and helmets, Porosh [...]

$30 million will be given to those who help identify the perpetrators of the downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine that killed all 298 on board, said an independent German fraud investigation company. Two months have passed since the Malaysia Airlines plane on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot-down in eastern Ukraine on July 17 with 298 crew and passenge [...]

NATO is launching exercises in the international waters of the Balkans, with warships and troops of several member countries also "visiting" Bulgaria until September 22. It comes as a new submarine enters service in the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Starting Friday, naval exercises will take place in the southeast of Constanta, off the territorial waters of Romania. Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 � [...]

Islamic State responded in a video to US President Barack Obama's vow to "ultimately destroy" it, promising to kill any American ground forces deployed. The extremist group has gained recruits since Obama's declaration, according to observers in Syria. The 52-second clip, released late Tuesday as a preview for a longer video, uses quick edits and high-resolution images to depict besieged Americ [...]

The beheading of British aid worker David Haines comes at a “convenient” moment for PM David Cameron, who is seeking to persuade the public that the UK should again get involved in conflict in the Middle East, journalist Afshin Rattansi told RT. Another outrageous demonstration of the ISIS brutality took place on 13th September, when the IS issued a video of the beheading of UK aid worker D [...]

The Ukrainian parliament has approved laws on special status for the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, as well as amnesty for those participating in the hostilities. The special status law has received 277 ‘yes’ votes from a total of 450 MPs, while the amnesty law was approved by 287 parliamentary members. The session of the Verkhovna Rada is underway during which MPs are to ratify an agreement [...]

Official Washington honors international law when it’s politically useful, such as in condemning a global adversary, but then dismisses it as useless if it gets in the way of some desired U.S. action. This “international law a la carte” undermines the concept’s fundamental value, says Lawrence Davidson. International law is vital to the welfare of every man, woman and child on this plan [...]

According to top-secret documents from the NSA and the British agency GCHQ, the intelligence agencies are seeking to map the entire Internet, including end-user devices. In pursuing that goal, they have broken into networks belonging to Deutsche Telekom. When it comes to choosing code names for their secret operations, American and British agents demonstrate a flare for creativity. [...]

The United States launched at least one airstrike against Islamic State militants near Baghdad on Monday, marking the expansion of the US military campaign against the extremist group. The airstrike was reportedly requested by Iraqi forces under attack. According to US officials cited by the Associated Press, the airstrike was authorized after Iraqi security forces requested air power support a [...]

There is no such thing as a "€˜good"€™ terrorist, and we call on other nations not to show their political ambitions while fighting with terrorism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a Paris conference on Iraq. The participants have agreed to offer Iraq “appropriate military aid,” according to the final conference statement. [...]

A total of 1,300 troops from 15 nations, either active NATO members or would-be members, have come together for a military exercise in western Ukraine – even as the fragile truce in the east of the country barely holds. The exercise, code-named “Rapid Trident” has been an annual event since 2006, and has been organized by the Germany-based US European Command (EUCOM). It was initially pla [...]

"This can't be America's fight alone," US President Barack Obama stressed in his ISIS speech. Indeed, about 40 countries have joined the battle with the radical group that's left scores dead in Iraq. But who does what on that battlefield? The main role is still with the US, which has already carried out over 150 airstrikes against the Islamic State (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and t [...]