Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said IS had for weeks kept Mosul's estimated population of 1.5 million from escaping, with the start of the offensive offering them no respite.
After a month-long buildup, the last urban stronghold of Islamic State in Iraq has for several days been almost completely surrounded by a 30,000-strong force.
'There are thousand ways to pressure Pakistan to make it behave.' 'Going to the ICJ was the worst possible option,' says Colonel Anil A Athale.
Arunabha Ghosh on why India will increasingly become an energy great power, but not an energy hegemon.
At least 43 people died in the blasts, and 45 were also wounded in the double bombing outside of Tartus city, which is home to a Russian naval base.
The boys are seen shooting dead five men identified as captured Kurdish fighters who are kneeling.
United States President Barack Obama has signed into law the $618 billion defence budget for 2017, which enhances security cooperation with India and conditions nearly half of the funding to Pakistan on a certification that it is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani Network.
'The war against ISIS is what earned the Kurds global recognition of being some of the best fighters that overshadowed regular armies,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
A dozen Turkish tanks have rolled across the Syrian border to clear a town of Islamic State militants.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack in Gaziantep.
Toll rises to 44 in bomb attack in Syrian Kurdish city.
Noam Chomsky maintained that India is "not the only country where educational institutions are being subjected to such attacks, though the sequence of events at JNU signal towards a culture of authoritarian menace".
Tourists were among the victims of the explosion, reports indicate, while wounded persons were transferred to nearby hospitals, mainly Haseki Training and Research Hospital.
Victory in Ramadi deprives Islamic State militants of their biggest prize of 2015.
A civil engineer by training, Majeed tried to blow himself up thrice but failed each time
Rediff.com looks at the lives of children in Syria.
Television footage showed scenes of panic and people lying on the ground covered in blood, amid protest banners.
Officials added that three suicide bombers carried out the attacks at three different spots at the airport.
'It is important to destroy, to undermine, to debunk the narrative of ISIS,' Olivier Roy -- one of the world's leading experts on radical Islam -- tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel in an exclusive interview.
Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last week, in 10 images.
Thousands of security personnel and high-tech surveillance systems dotted every nook and corner of this Turkish resort town as leaders of the world's 20 top economies congregated here for the two-day G20 Summit.
The Iraqi forces defeated by IS fighters in their takeover of Ramadi were not outnumbered and in fact showed "no will to fight.
The blast, which could be heard several kilometers away, sent burning debris showering down over an area a few hundred meters from the Justice and Interior Ministries, a top courthouse, and the former office of the prime minister.
Though an official confirmation is yet to come, a Guardian report had last week claimed that Baghdadi had received serious 'life-threatening' injuries during a US-led airstrike in March.
A round-up of our favourite photographs from the week gone by
Here's a collection of some of the best photos from around the world shot in the last 24 hours
The US has being trying to stop such private donors in the Gulf oil states sending funds to the ISIS
In this series, Rediff.com presents a selection of the year's most enduring moments year from around the world.
The United States military has conducted air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant near Irbil and Iraq's largest dam in an effort to help Kurdish forces retake it from violent extremists.
Women make up 40 per cent of the entire Kurdish militia
Free from the Islamic State, Syria's Kobani now lies in ruins.
Women in war-torn countries battle on the front lines
A leading Turkish soccer club have banned their players from growing beards after their chairman said they looked like students of Islamic vocational schools and set a bad example.
As the United States leads a sustained campaign against the dreaded terror outfit Islamic State, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said success against global terror is within reach if countries adopt a common strategy.
We bring you a collection of some of the best photographs taken this week by ace Reuters photographers.
Syrian Kurds have been struggling for weeks against better-armed IS fighters, with US-led air strikes helping the former avoid defeat.
Her name is Mayssa Abdo and she has set social media abuzz for her role defending the Syrian border town of Kobane against invading Islamic fighters.
Here's a collection of some of the best photos from around the world shot in the last 24 hours
Awesome photos of the month: February Here are some of the best photographs clicked across the globe in the month of February.
A disturbing video showing beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff by dreaded terror group ISIS is authentic, US officials said on Wednesday.
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