IRAQ

Turkish armed forces launched new airstrikes Sunday against the Kurdish militants in northern Iraq just as a NATO meeting was convening.

"Instead of targeting [ISIS] terrorists’ occupied positions, Turkish forces attack our defenders' positions," Kurdish armed forces said.

Libyan leaders say they could defeat Islamic State militants by the end of the year if the U.N. Security Council would lift its arms embargo.

After a terrorist attack that killed 32 people in Suruc, Turkey, the country called for a summit that is to be attended by ambassadors of all 28 NATO allies.

Fighting has intensified in the central Iraqi city in recent days.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif began a one-day, three-country tour by visiting Kuwait. He is set to go on to Qatar and Iraq.

The masked killer reportedly fears the Islamic State group will drop him “like a stone or worse if they feel he is no longer of any use to them."

The Islamic State group is believed to have forced more than 1,100 child soldiers into its ranks since the beginning of this year.

The country has passed tough new terrorism laws, some of which target its nationals who join proscribed groups such as the Islamic State organization.

Ground forces hit the PKK as well as Islamic State fighters in northern Syria, government sources said, as part of Ankara's campaign to take a prominent role in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamist militant group.

Kurdish activists have held the Turkish government accountable for recent violence in Turkey. And now they're retaliating.

An article titled "Fatwa on Meat Products Coming From Turkey" appears in a Turkish magazine that supports the Islamic State group.

"If you run across them, slaughter them," the cleric commanded Muslims in a column about the Islamic State.

Australia is on high alert for attacks by radicalized Muslims, including home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East.

According to the KRG representative to UK, the Kurds promote women’s rights and religious pluralism.

The U.S. defense secretary arrived in the Iraqi capital early Thursday, marking his first visit to the Middle Eastern nation since taking office.

The two countries have pledged to stem the flow of foreigners joining ISIS in Syria. The deal comes after a bombing in a Turkish border town killed over 30 people.

India, China and Iraq have become the biggest importers of Russian weapons over the past year since Western sanctions were imposed on Moscow.

Germany reported 150 attacks on refugee shelters in the first half of this year, nearly double the figure recorded last year in the same period.

Army Chief Raymond Odierno, in an interview on Fox News, spoke on a range of issues including ISIS, Russia, the Iran nuclear deal and budget cuts in the U.S. Army.

The journalists entered Syria on July 10 through Turkey, according to the Federation of Press Associations of Spain.