Iraq

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani voiced guarded hopes for negotiations that his government has opened with the Taliban to end two decades of war.

A Yazidi girl was held as a slave and allowed to die of thirst in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2015.

None of the attacks has been claimed but Washington has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions in Iraq.

The main US contract rocketed by more than 4.5 percent as fears over supplies in the tinderbox Middle East sent prices soaring.

The premium smartphone market has also grown fiercely competitive with buyers waiting longer before upgrading to new models.

There were no immediate casualties but the Pentagon said it had been ready, after days of steadily mounting tension and exchanges of threats of war.

The strike on the outskirts of Baghdad's airport killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

The Hashed's deputy chief was also killed in the attack, the force added, which comes after a pro-Iran mob this week laid siege to the US embassy.

Baghdad said it would summon the US ambassador while Washington responded by accusing Iraqi authorities of having failed to "protect" US interests.

Four US service members and Iraqi security forces were wounded in Friday's attack at the K1 Iraqi military base in Kirkuk, an oil-rich region north of Baghdad.

Anti-government demonstrators burned tyres in major cities across the south, forcing the closure of schools and government buildings.

Entering an election year, Trump is unlikely to slow down as he seeks what has largely eluded him -- a headline-grabbing victory.

The US effectively dismantled and rebuilt the Iraqi state, ushering in a new class of political elites with whom it crafted close personal links.

Mass rallies calling for an overhaul of the ruling system have rocked the capital Baghdad.

British citizen Aiden James has been given a jail sentence for training with the Kurdish YKK before fighting against the ISIS in Syria.

The US-led raid resulting in the death of the ISIS leader was aided by an SAS team.

A 29-year-old woman had posted on Twitter that she wanted to know the name of the man who gifted her a bike when she was five years old.

Sally Jones, a former punk rocker, from Kent, who married fellow jihadist Junaid Hussain, was thought to have died in a drone strike in Syria, along with her son JoJo, 12.

A former Miss England, Katrina Hodge, who was dubbed 'Combat Barbie' when she joined the Army has revealed how she quit after years of sexist abuse.

Around 138,000 houses and flats have been damaged or completely destroyed by the bitter conflict, say experts.

Nato is considering a renewed commitment to a long-term training mission in Iraq as the US puts pressure on its European allies to help hold the country against Isis militants.

A jihadist bride arrested at Heathrow with her son is understood to be the first to return to Britain with a child born under Islamic State in Syria.

A top leader in the US military refused to mince his words when he issued a violent threat to terrorist group Isis.

The UK has lost track of hundreds of British jihadist fighters who travelled to the Middle East to join radical Islamic groups, the security minister admitted.

Iraqi courts are sending alleged Islamic State fighters to death in rapid-fire trials lasting less than 20 minutes, according to reports.

Isis fighters fleeing Iraq and Syria are thought to have headed towards Turkey, the route many British travelled to join the group.

Mosul's gravediggers, its morgue workers and the volunteers who retrieve bodies from the city's rubble are keeping count.

IBTimes UK looks back at how the fight to rid Iraq and Syria of the jihadists played out across the year, in 100 powerful photos.

A senior Iraqi military commander says his country's war against the Islamic State (Isis) group is over.

Russia's participation is less than certain after Kremlin expresses concern about length of the proposed extension.