Islamic State group
Iraq declares end of caliphate after capture of Mosul mosque
By Maher Chmaytelli — June 29, 2017
MOSUL/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) Iraqi authorities expect the long battle for Mosul to end in coming days as remaining Islamic State fighters are bottled up in just a handful of neighborhoods of the Old City.
Shock and anger in Mosul after ISIS destroys historic mosque
By Reuters — June 22, 2017
MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) For many in Mosul, the city can never be the same after Islamic State militants blew up the leaning minaret that had graced the city for nearly 850 years.
ISIS blows up historic Mosul mosque where it declared ‘caliphate’
By Reuters — June 21, 2017
MOSUL/IRBIL, Iraq (Reuters) It was from this medieval mosque three years ago that the militants' leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a self-styled "caliphate" spanning parts of Syria and Iraq.
London attacker’s mother blames internet for son’s radicalization
By Reuters — June 6, 2017
ROME (Reuters) The mother of the Italian-Moroccan jihadi who helped carry out a deadly attack in London last week said on Tuesday she had tried to keep her son from falling under the sway of Islamic State ideology, but the internet and his London friends changed him.
Manchester’s Muslims fear backlash after concert attack
By Shenaz Kermalli — May 25, 2017
(RNS) The attack, claimed by the so-called Islamic State, has many in Manchester’s sizable Muslim population worried about their safety.
Since ban, persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses is ‘worse than ever’
By Lauren Markoe — May 18, 2017
(RNS) Russia has labeled the pacifist Jehovah's Witnesses 'extremist,' the same designation as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
Iraqi Christians return to ransacked town with fear and hope
By Reuters — April 14, 2017
QARAQOSH, Iraq (Reuters) With the Islamic State group expelled, Iraqi Christians are trickling back to the ransacked town of Qaraqosh, beset by anxiety for their security and yet hopeful they can live in friendship with Muslims of all persuasions.
Egyptian Copts prepare for Easter amid rising fears for their safety
By Mina Nader — April 13, 2017
CAIRO (RNS) The wave of violence has opened up new arguments about Egyptian politics, Coptic religious doctrine and cracks in community unity.
Pope visit to Egypt to go ahead despite blasts but security big concern
By Jerome Socolovsky — April 10, 2017
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Diplomats and Vatican sources cautioned that the trip could be put in jeopardy or parts of it changed if the security situation worsened.
Rage at abandonment by the state as Egypt’s Christians dig graves after bombing
By Reuters — April 10, 2017
TANTA, Egypt (Reuters) - ISIS claims responsibility, warning of more attacks and boasting of the number of people killed by three church bombings it says it has carried out since December: 80.
Explosion at Egypt Nile Delta church kills at least 25, injures 60
By Ahmed Tolba — April 9, 2017
(Reuters) There was no immediate claim of responsibility and the cause of the blast, just one week before Coptic Easter and the same month that Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Egypt, was not known.
ISIS’s intriguing silence about Donald Trump’s approach to Muslims
By Tom Heneghan — March 17, 2017
PARIS (RNS) With his anti-Muslim rhetoric and planned travel bans, you’d think President Trump would be a favorite target for Islamic State’s propaganda. Well, think again.
Last letters : From Mosul schoolboys to Islamic State ‘martyrs’
By Stephen Kalin — March 3, 2017
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) "My dear family, please forgive me," reads the handwritten letter discarded in the dusty halls of an Islamic State training compound. They were schoolboy Alaa Abd al-Akeedi's parting words before he set off to end his life in a suicide bomb attack.
Egypt’s Sisi orders Cabinet to help resettle Sinai Christians fleeing Islamic State
By Reuters — February 25, 2017
(Reuters) Hundreds of Christian families and students have fled to Ismailia, north Sinai's neighboring province, after seven Christians were killed in Arish between Jan. 30 and Thursday.
Suicide attack on Pakistani shrine kills 72, claimed by Islamic State
By Reuters — February 16, 2017
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) The attack comes as the Pakistani Taliban and rival Islamist militant groups carry out their threats of a new offensive.
