Salem-News.com Middle East articles

Israel Attacks Hamas Targets After Missing Teens Found Dead

The United States has joined world leaders in condemning the murders.

(TEL AVIV, Israel ) - Israeli naval boats have struck alleged training facilities of Hamas militants in northern Gaza after the bodies of three abducted teenagers were found.

The attacks followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow that "Hamas will pay" for the slayings in the West Bank. The bodies of Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frankel, 16, were found in a field north of the city of Hebron.

Regional, World Powers on Alert After ISIL Declares New Islamic State

The move, at the start of the holy month of Ramadan, follows a three-week drive for territory by ISIL militants and allies among Iraqi's Sunni Muslim minority.

(TIKRIT, Iraq) - Iraqi troops battled to dislodge an al Qaeda splinter group from the city of Tikrit on Monday after its leader was declared caliph of a new Islamic state in lands seized this month across a swathe of Iraq and Syria.

Alarming regional and world powers, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed universal authority, declaring its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was now caliph of the Muslim world - a mediaeval title last widely recognized in the Ottoman sultan deposed 90 years ago after World War One.

ISIS, Iraqi Army Battle for Control of Tikrit

Insurgents, led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), were reported to have shot down a helicopter and captured the pilot.

(TIKRIT, Iraq) - Aircraft have struck at rebel positions and clashes have broken out in various parts of the city, witnesses and officials have said.

Troops had reportedly pulled back to the nearby town of Dijla as Saturday's initial offensive met stiff resistance. The city of Tikrit was captured by Sunni rebels on June 11 as they swept across large parts of northern Iraq.

Israeli Aircraft Strike Six Targets in the Gaza Strip

Three people were injured in the attack on the Israeli factory, a paint manufacturing plant in the southern town of Sderot.

(GAZA ) - Israeli aircraft attacked at least six militant targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, hours after rockets fired from the Palestinian territory set a factory in Israel on fire, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

Palestinian medics said two people were wounded in air strikes on eight sites. Israeli officials said only six sites were bombed.

U.S. Does Not Rule Out Working With Iran to End Violence in Iraq

ISIL fighters captured the mainly ethnic Turkmen city of Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq overnight after heavy fighting on Sunday.

(BAGHDAD, Iraq) - The United States is contemplating talks with its arch-enemy Iran to support the Iraqi government in its battle with Sunni Islamist insurgents who routed Baghdad's army and seized the north of the country in the past week.

The stunning onslaught by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant threatens to dismember Iraq and unleash all-out sectarian warfare across a crescent of the Middle East.