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The United States is considering establishing additional military bases in Iraq to combat the Islamic State, the top American general said on Thursday, a move that would require at least hundreds more American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake cities lost to the militant Sunni extremist group. President Obama’s decision this week to send 450 trainers to establish a new military base to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, could signal the beginning of similar efforts in other parts of the country, said Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint...

The White House is reportedly planning a shift in strategy in Iraq that would see hundreds of American military trainers deployed to help retake Ramadi and the delay of long-held plans to drive the Islamic State from Mosul. Six months after US forces began training Iraqi troops to take on the jihadist fighters, a string of defeats on the battlefield has prompted the Obama administration into a recalibration of its plans. The American military hopes to build up enough well-trained and well-equipped Iraqi forces to retake the city of Ramadi, which fell to Isil in mid-May. The plan would see...

In a major shift of strategy in Iraq, the Obama administration is planning to establish a new military base in Anbar Province and send 400 American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi and repel the Islamic State. Although a final decision by the White House has yet to be announced, the plan follows months of behind-the-scenes debate about how prominently plans to retake another Iraqi city, Mosul, which fell to the Islamic State last year. Pending approval by the White House, plans are being made to use Al Taqqadum, an Iraqi base near the town...

Islamic State militants staged attacks near Baghdad and the Libyan city of Surt on Tuesday, underscoring the group’s persistent strength on both fronts despite a monthslong American-led air campaign against it in Syria and Iraq. In both countries, the United States and other Western powers are struggling to find effective partners to help engage the Islamic State, or even contain it. In Libya, the capture of the power plant means the Islamic State can threaten to cut off electricity to parts of the central and western regions of the country. In Iraq, the attack on the council building in Amariya...

The US does not yet have a "complete strategy" for helping Iraq regain territory from Islamic State (IS), President Barack Obama has said. He said the Pentagon was reviewing ways to help Iraq train and equip its forces. US officials cited a lack of training as a major factor in the fall of Ramadi. But Mr Obama said that the 3,000 US service personnel in Iraq sometimes found themselves with "more training capacity than we've got recruits".

President Obama denied that the United States and its allies were losing the fight against Islamic State forces in the Middle East, but he acknowledged in an interview posted online on Thursday that more should be done to help Iraqis recapture lost territory. He offered no regrets about his handling of the war and said in the end it would be up to the Iraqis to increase their efforts. The president and his team argued for months that they had reversed the momentum of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, but critics and independent experts said it...

BAGHDAD — Islamic State militants searched door-to-door for policemen and pro-government fighters and threw bodies in the Euphrates River in a bloody purge Monday after capturing the strategic city of Ramadi, their biggest victory since overrunning much of northern and western Iraq last year. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said more than 6,500 families had fled in recent days, with the hospital in the nearby city of Khaldiya reporting many casualties. Ramadi's streets were deserted a day after the city's fall, with only a few people venturing out of their homes to search for food. They said IS militants were...

President Obama’s strategy in fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) is facing fresh scrutiny after the militant group toppled government forces in the major Iraqi city of Ramadi. The city’s fall represented the biggest military gain for ISIS this year. The White House on Monday acknowledged the seizure represents a “setback” but signaled it is unlikely to alter its approach to fighting ISIS. But there are signs the public has become increasingly worried about ISIS’s gains in Iraq and Syria. Even members of Obama’s own party say the loss of Ramadi should be cause for alarm. “The loss of Ramadi is...

The Obama administration is likely to fall far short of the lofty goals it set for itself at Thursday’s summit with Gulf leaders, several experts on the region said. While the White House has framed the seven-nation meeting as an opportunity to deepen and strengthen Gulf nations’ security relationship with the United States in light of a possible nuclear deal with Iran, the six foreign leaders attending have set out bargaining chips that the administration has already shot down, and it’s not exactly clear what else, besides those tangible items, either side wants. “Something that actually offers a couple of...

Terror-related arrests in England, Wales and Scotland reached record levels last year, when 338 people were held, Scotland Yard has said. More than half of those arrests were related to Syria, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley added. Police said more than 700 potential terror suspects are now thought to have travelled to Syria. About half of those people - said to be of "significant concern" - are believed to have returned to the UK.

Erbil, Kurdistan Region – The radical group of Islamic State has allocated several camps in the areas under its control in Mosul and Ramadi in northern Iraq and in the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, to train minors dubbed as “Ashbal al-Khilafa” (Cubs of the Caliphate) to carry out “jihadist” operations”, pro-IS media outlets reported. The so-called Caliphate’s Cubs are also trained to slaughter, assassinate, and physically and psychologically torture others. The youngsters are reportedly subject to training sessions of one month and a half, and are then dispersed among the suicide squads and bomb-making workshops.

Saudi Arabia said today that it foiled a suicide bombing plot against the U.S. Embassy in the kingdom’s capital of Riyadh. In an announcement carried by the Saudi Press Agency today, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said authorities uncovered the plot by a militant cell involving at least two Syrian citizens and a Saudi citizen to attack the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh in mid-March. The Saudi national, who had a criminal record according to the Interior Ministry, was arrested April 18 when authorities searched his car and found pipes, batteries, mobile chargers and a few electric wires, officials...

The House Select Committee on Benghazi is asking former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham to testify in two upcoming public hearings, one to be held during the week of May 18 on her use of a private email system while serving as the nation’s top diplomat, and another to be held by June 18 specifically on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Libya. “With her cooperation and that of the State Department and administration, Secretary Clinton could be done with the Benghazi Committee before the Fourth of July,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican and...

China's President Xi Jinping has signed agreements with Pakistan promising investment of $46bn (£30.7bn). The focus of spending is on building a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the long-time allies. They will run some 3,000km (1,800 miles) from Gwadar in Pakistan to China's western Xinjiang region. The projects will give China direct access to the Indian Ocean and beyond. This marks a major advance in China's plans to boost its influence in Central and South Asia, correspondents say, and far exceeds US spending in Pakistan.

Falih Essawi shouted on the phone as he described his situation. From his point of view, ISIS militants might be just hours away from taking the key Iraqi city of Ramadi. Fierce fighting has engulfed Ramadi, which lies only about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad and is the capital of Anbar province, Iraq's Sunni heartland. Essawi, the deputy head of the Anbar Provincial Council, told CNN from inside the city Wednesday that it's unclear how much longer government troops can hold their front lines against the ISIS offensive. Security was "collapsing rapidly in the city," and he begged...

Hundreds of Americans remain trapped in Yemen and escape routes are dwindling, the U.S. Ambassador to Djibouti said. Various boats have sailed and motored their way into the port and Ambassador Tom Kelly was on deck to meet the most recent arrivals: 200 people including 11 American citizens, all crammed onto an overcrowded fishing boat. In the past two weeks, 150 Americans have fled to Djibouti. Kelly’s staff speaks with every American who arrives in the port.

President Obama says he wants Congress to play a role in approving a nuclear deal with Iran, but his every action suggests the opposite. After months of resistance, the White House said Tuesday the President would finally sign a bill requiring a Senate vote on any deal—and why not since it still gives him nearly a free hand. Modern Presidents have typically sought a Congressional majority vote, and usually a two-thirds majority, to ratify a major nuclear agreement. Mr. Obama has maneuvered to make Congress irrelevant.

Some 140 Americans fleeing unrest in Yemen have arrived in Djibouti, officials said, but hundreds of others are believed to still remain behind in Yemen. The families in Djibouti are exhausted, getting food and water and will receive "full consular services," authorities said. Americans could be seen smiling, grasping hands with U.S. Embassy staff members in Djibouti after fleeing from Yemen. Last week, more than 50 U.S. citizens filed lawsuits last week against the State Department and Department of Defense for failing to evacuate them.

TOKYO — U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that an Al-Qaida branch is making “great gains” on the ground amid the chaos in Yemen, and that the U.S. will have to rethink how it prevents the group from launching attacks in the West. Defence Secretary Ash Carter, in Tokyo to work on deepening the U.S.-Japan alliance, said the collapse of the central government in Yemen makes it harder to conduct counterterrorism operations against the group called Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to take steps to protect ourselves. We have to do it...

DUBAI — Iran sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, state media reported, establishing a military presence off the coast of Yemen where Saudi Arabia is leading a bombing campaign to oust the Tehran-allied Houthi movement. The Alborz destroyer and Bushehr support vessel sailed from Bandar Abbas on a mission to protect Iranian shipping from piracy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said in comments cited by Press TV. Saudi Arabia and several Arab allies have imposed an air and naval blockade on Yemen as part of a two-week campaign to oust the Houthis, who have taken most of...