Iraq Crisis: As American jets and drones continued to strike targets in Iraq yesterday, President Obama said the bombing could continue for months. Shortly before he took off for a family vacation in Martha’s Vineyard the president told reporters, “I don’t …

Iraq Crisis:In the wake of US airstrikes yesterday, the Muslim fundamentalist ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered a threat addressed to “America, the defender of the cross.” He said, “Soon enough, you will be in direct confrontation — forced to …

Iraq Crisis: TheUS has dropped 500-pound bombs on Sunni militant positions outside Erbil to stop ISIS forces from threatening American diplomats and military advisers and to protect a population of Christians that could be the target of genocide.   Navy jets …

Gaza: Thousands of Gaza residents returned to destroyed homes and neighborhoods today, searching for possessions and burying the dead, during a 12-hour humanitarian pause in fighting. Some large areas had been reduced to rubble.   Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed. …

Middle East: At least six members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza. Israel said the strikes were in retaliation for rocket attacks. The region is simmering after the killing of three Israeli …

Iraq: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has rejected international calls to form a unity government that includes the Sunni minority to defuse the country’s civil war. Maliki is a Shiite who has squeezed Sunnis out of power in both the military …

The Caliphate: Sunni militants from Iraq have taken a Syrian border post in a sudden move to the west in their fight to carve out a separate state in the Middle East. They also captured a fourth town in Anbar …

Iraq: The State Department ordered the evacuation of a large number of American personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad in the face of an Islamic militant force trying to fight its way to the city. How many people would …

Iraq: Government forces appear to have at least temporarily blunted the march of Sunni Islamic militants headed toward Baghdad. Counter attacks by troops for the Shiite led government have actually reclaimed a little territory, the army claims. An Iraqi military …

Iraq: President Obama is considering direct military action against Islamic militants threatening the control of the Iraqi government. Fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have moved as close as 30 miles from Baghdad. President Obama said, …