Islamic State

Afghanistan says US strike kills local Islamic State leader

U.S. officials confirmed they carried out the strike, but declined to say whether they killed the leader.

The strike in Nangarhar province killed Islamic State affiliate leader Hafeez Sayeed and others on Friday, said Abdul Hassib Sediqi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. 

Sediqi said Afghan intelligence officials provided information to U.S. forces, who carried out the strike.

Activists: 28 killed in Syrian army strikes on IS-held town

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 civilians were among the dead in Saturday's attack on the town of al-Bab, including three children and three women.

Scores of others were wounded in the attack which saw army helicopters drop explosives-filled barrels on the town in the northern province of Aleppo.

The Local Coordination Committees group said 29 people were killed.

Touting progress, Obama says Islamic State is losing ground

However, Obama conceded more difficulties ahead in fighting what he described as a nimble and opportunistic enemy.

"We're starting to see some progress," the president said during a rare visit to the Pentagon, ticking off a list of towns in Iraq and Syria he said had been wrested from IS control in recent weeks.

Flanked by top military commanders, Obama also warned of the Islamic State's efforts to recruit and inspire vulnerable people in the United States, and called on the American-Muslim community to "step up in terms of pushing back as hard as they can." 

Obama at Pentagon for meetings on Islamic State

Obama's meetings with top Pentagon officials and other national security advisers follow a wave of weekend airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition in eastern Syria. The coalition says it was one of the most sustained aerial operations carried out in Syria to date.

Ahead of Obama's meetings, the White House sharply criticized Senate Republicans for failing to confirm Adam Szubin, Obama's nominee to be the Treasury undersecretary responsible for choking off funding to groups like IS. 

Egypt's president visits troops in embattled north Sinai

The visit came after Islamic State-linked militants struck a deadly blow against the military this week in a coordinated assault.

Wearing his old uniform, which he said he had hung up for good when he ran for president, the general-turned politician met members of the army and police, an official from his office said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information otherwise.

IS says it destroyed archaeological pieces from Palmyra

An IS statement, released late Thursday, said the six busts were found when the smuggler was stopped at a checkpoint. The issue was referred to an Islamic court in the IS-held northern Syrian town of Manbij, which ordered that they be destroyed and the man be whipped.

Photographs released by the group show IS militants destroying the busts with large hammers. Another photo shows the smuggler being whipped.

US drone strike kills Islamic State leader

A senior U.S. official said that Tariq bin Tahar al-'Awni al-Harzi, a Tunisian, was killed by a U.S. drone strike and that there were no reports of any civilian casualties in the operation. It was not clear if anyone else was with al-Harzi or if other militants were killed or injured in the strike.

The official was not authorized to discuss the operation publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Scores killed as militants attack Egyptian troops in Sinai

     

 Security officials said dozens of troops were killed, along with nearly 100 attackers.

The restive territory's deadliest fighting in decades followed the assassination of Egypt's chief prosecutor and a vow by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to step up the legal battle against Islamic militants.

Later Wednesday, a special forces team raided a Cairo apartment and killed nine fugitive members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including a former member of parliament, security officials said.

UN: Islamic State destruction of heritage sites a war crime

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, meeting in Bonn, noted the Islamic State's destruction of the ancient city of Hatra in Iraq and expressed "deep concern" about the Syrian archaeological gem of Palmyra, which the group captured in May. 

Both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

"Intentional attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes and historic monuments may amount to war crimes," the committee said in a resolution it adopted.

Activists: IS fighters kill 200 civilians in Syrian town

Kurdish activist Mustafa Bali, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Kurdish official Idris Naasan put at 40-50 the number of elite IS fighters killed in the two days of fighting since the militants sneaked into the town of Kobani before dawn on Thursday.

Clashes, however, continued to the south and west of the predominantly Kurdish town on the Turkish border on Saturday, they said, although the fighting in the south quietened down by nightfall.