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Syrian Kurds Feel Abandoned as Kobani Battle Rages
SURUC, Turkey—Kneeling over his brother’s fresh grave, Ali Mehmud gathered clumps of dirt in his hands, raised them to his lips to kiss them, then softly placed them back on the small mound. His...
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Syrian Kurds Recover Ground Against Islamic State
MURSITPINAR, Turkey—Bolstered by intensified U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting militants from the Islamic State group, Kurdish militiamen fought pitched street battles Wednesday with the...
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Pentagon Names Syria-Iraq Operation: ‘Inherent Resolve’
WASHINGTON—It may be less punchy than previous nicknames for U.S. conflicts in the Middle East—remember Operation Desert Storm and its thunderous attacks on Saddam Hussein’s occupation army—but the...
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Kurds Hold Position Against ISIL Advance in Syria
MURSITPINAR, Turkey—Intensified U.S.-led airstrikes and a determined Kurdish military force on the ground appear to have had some success in halting advances by Islamic State fighters on a strategic...
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Hard-Pressed Between Turkey and ISIL, Kurds Essential to Regional Peace
BAGHDAD—The Kurds of Syria and Iraq have become a major focal point in the war against the Islamic State group, with Kurdish populations in both countries coming under significant threat by the...
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Obama’s Legacy in the Middle East: Passing the Baton in 2017
In a period of about six weeks spanning August and September 2014, President Obama dramatically revamped his Middle East policy to put degrading and destroying the Islamic State (ISIS) at its center....
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US-Led Airstrike Kills 8 in ISIS-Held Syrian Town
MURSITPINAR, Turkey—A U.S.-led coalition airstrike on a gas distribution facility in a stronghold of the Islamic State group set off a series of secondary explosions and killed at least eight people in...
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Islamic State Militants Seize US Airdropped Weapons Cache Meant for Kurds
BEIRUT—Islamic State group fighters seized at least one cache of weapons airdropped by U.S.-led coalition forces that were meant to supply Kurdish militiamen battling the extremist group in a border...
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Syrian Leader Exploits Coalition War Against ISIS
BEIRUT—Syrian President Bashar Assad is taking advantage of the U.S.-led coalition’s war against the Islamic State group to pursue a withering air and ground campaign against more mainstream rebels...
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Iraqi Kurdish Lawmakers Authorized Its Peshmerga Fighters to Help Syrian Kurds
IRBIL, Iraq—Lawmakers in Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdish region Wednesday authorized peshmerga forces to go to neighboring Syria and help fellow Kurds combat Islamic State militants in the key...
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Middle East Alignments: Open Questions
The Syrian crisis and, before it, the Arab uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain have exposed fault lines not only within the region, but between regional countries and the United...
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Kobani Front: Iraqi Peshmerga Fighters Prepare to Battle ISIS in Syria
MURSITPINAR, Turkey—Iraqi peshmerga fighters prepared Saturday to battle Islamic State group militants in the Syrian border town of Kobani, just hours after they arrived in a town that’s become a focal...
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Group That Killed French Herve Gourdel Is a Threat, Says Hollande
UNITED NATIONS—French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday the terrorists who beheaded a French citizen in Algeria represent a global threat that must be stopped. In his address to the United...
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Turkish Leader Erdogan Slams UN Security Council’s Inaction
UNITED NATIONS—The president of Turkey on Wednesday accused the international community of doing too little to stem the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and slammed the U.N. Security Council’s...
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US-Led Airstrikes Hit Syrian Oil Sites Controlled by ISIS
BEIRUT—U.S.-led airstrikes targeted Syrian oil installations held by the extremist Islamic State group overnight and early Thursday, killing at least 19 people as more families of militants left...
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Iran’s President Rouhani: Extremists Want to Destroy Civilization
UNITED NATIONS—Iran’s president told the U.N. General Assembly Thursday that moderate leaders in the Middle East must spearhead the fight against extremists, warning that their goal of destroying...
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How Islamic State Group Controls, Profits From Syria and Iraq Oil Fields
BEIRUT—For the first time since the Unites States and five Arab countries started bombing positions of the Islamic State group in Syria, oil installations under control of the militants were targeted...
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Turkey Joins Fight Against Extremists: ‘Of course, we will do our part’
WASHINGTON—Moving from reluctance to refusal and finally to acceptance, Turkey is joining its NATO allies and fellow Sunni Muslim nations in a coalition to destroy the Islamic State militant group. But...
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Syrian Islamic Rebels Hide, Fearing Airstrikes
BEIRUT—When the United States opened its aerial campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria this week, its first salvo also hit an al-Qaeda cell it says was planning terror attacks — a move that...
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Coalition Airstrikes Againt Islamic State Targets in Iraq and Syria Continue
BEIRUT—American warplanes and drones hit Islamic State group tanks, Humvees, checkpoints and bunkers in airstrikes Friday targeting the extremists in Syria and Iraq, as the U.S.-led coalition...
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