Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have poured into northern Iraq this week, after the Kurdish Regional Government that controls the area opened up a temporary bridge. Previously, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees had registered 155,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq. The agency says the latest “exodus” is “among...

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A surge of violence in Iraq, including as many as 15 car bombings, has left more than 50 people dead. Iraqi police officers said that many of the bombs went off in largely Shiite neighborhoods, heightening concerns that the sectarian conflict in Syria may spill over into a full-blown sectarian...

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Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists are taking credit for two spectacular jailbreaks staged on Sunday in Iraq. The Los Angeles Times described the chaos and the sheer scope of the breakouts: Al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the dual...

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There are growing worries that the Syrian opposition may splinter, after top Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander Kamal Hamami was killed Thursday by Al Qaeda-linked militants in northern Syria. He was meeting with them so that the Sunni factions could coordinate moves against the Shiite-backed regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad....

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Scores of people were killed in the latest wave of attacks across Iraq Tuesday, raising concerns that a full-blown sectarian war may break out in the country. Iraq is weathering its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, with more than 2,000 people killed since the start of April. The bloodshed...

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Egyptian authorities have struggled to protect the country’s gas pipelines from the growing anarchy throughout the country. Disruptions of gas exports to Israel and Jordan began soon after the Egyptian revolution that saw the overthrow of then-President Hosni Mubarak, and have continued since. Though Egypt has moved to compensate at...

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Asked how he could continue negotiating with Yasser Arafat even as terrorism against Israeli civilians continues, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin famously insisted that “we shall negotiate peace, as though there were no terrorism, and we shall fight terrorism as though there is no peace.” The Obama Administration and its...

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The sectarian currents sweeping the Middle East are threatening to tear apart Iraq. A bloody May in which some 1,000 people were killed – a level of violence unseen in Iraq in half a decade – just this Sunday at least 51 people were killed: Violence has spiked sharply in...

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Following repeated Iranian threats to block shipping in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, an international fleet of 35 navy ships are in the Gulf for the world’s largest naval anti-mine exercise. Led by Britain’s Royal Navy, representatives from 41 different navies are spending three weeks practicing the detection and clearance...

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A new poll [PDF] by the Pew Research Group highlights stark differences between Israeli and Palestinian public sentiment on a range of issues, including on the need for a peaceful two-state resolution to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Israelis continue to believe in a peaceful two-state solution to the Middle East conflict,...

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