Alice Fordham

The Obama administration's strategy for combating the Islamic State relies on ground forces provided by Iraq and Syria because the White House says it will not send U.S. combat troops...

Iraq's parliament elected a new prime minister and cabinet officials on Monday but it's unclear whether the changes will help counter the Islamist militants who have taken over much of the country.

American airstrikes pounded Islamic State position in Iraq's Western Anbar province to allow a coalition of tribal fighters and Iraqi forces to make gains.

The air in the Baghdad morgue is thick with the smell of death. There are perhaps two dozen corpses in black plastic bags lying around in the sweltering heat. One of them is burned and has its face exposed, white teeth stark against charred skin.

"The crisis began in June," ...

Iraq's parliament was overrun Wednesday by men whose sons disappeared and were likely killed when the Islamic State captured Tikrit in June. They brandished sticks as they burst throu...

The Syrian civil war has flared up in the south of the country, near the Israeli border. A group of Islamist fighters have now captured a border crossing between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights.

Peter Theo Curtis was released by Jabhat al-Nusra, known as the Nusra Front. Last week, American journalist James Foley was beheaded in Syria by the group which now calls itself the Islamic State.

Israeli and Palestinian teams are locked in talks in Cairo, but there are no signs a peace deal will be reached. Both sides say they're prepared to start fighting if they don't get what they want.

Down at the Gaza city harbor, a little after dawn, merchants wait with horses and carts and scales to weigh the morning's catch of fish.

But when they come in, the fish are small and few. One man scoops his catch up by the handful, tiny fish slipping through his ...

Many were damaged in the fighting with Israel and others are still serving as shelters for Gazans who lost their homes. Even before the fighting, kids went to school in shifts owing to overcrowding.

The era of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appears to be coming to an end after eight turbulent years. Haider al-Abadi, the man set to replace him, is not a previously well-known...

More than 40 mosques in the Gaza Strip were destroyed or damaged in the recent fighting.

Haider al-Abadi is an affable Shiite politician who has been close to the center of power in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He may soon be the most important political figure in the troubled country.

Iraqi President Fuad Masum, whose position has traditionally been ceremonial, on Monday nominated ...

After a three-day cease-fire, which saw some halting peace talks in Egypt, fighting has resumed between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.

War's toll on Gaza has been brutal, claiming civilians' lives and leveling buildings. But Hamas and many Gazans say the conflict was necessary, because they had run out of options in ...

Israeli forces suffered many more causalities than they did in the last big operation there. But they were dwarfed by casualties in Gaza. The U.N. says most of those who died were civilians.

There is fierce fighting at several dams in Iraq. The extremists of the Islamic State have already deliberately flooded some areas, displacing people, destroying crops and polluting the water supply.

For centuries, Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds had coexisted in Mosul, but some fear ruptures there may be harbingers of the partition of Iraq. If that happens, Ahmed Ali may never see his farm again.

Bloodshed is escalating in Baghdad as the militant group known as the Islamic State seeks to expand its territory in Iraq. NPR's Eric Westervelt talks to reporter Alice Fordham in Erb...