Middle East

World News

Suicide Bombing Kills At Least 37 In Hezbollah Stronghold Of Southern Beirut

7:42pm November 12, 2015

NPR's Audie Cornish talks to New York Times Bureau Chief Anne Barnard about the suicide bombing in the southern suburbs of Beirut, an area controlled by Lebanon's militant political party, Hezbollah.

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Kurdish Fighters Roll Toward Sinjar In Battle To Retake Strategic Iraqi Town

7:29pm November 12, 2015

NPR's Kelly McEvers talks with BuzzFeed photographer Ayman Oghanna about Kurdish fighters' efforts to retake Sinjar, Iraq, from ISIS.

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People gather near the site of a twin suicide attack Thursday in Burj al-Barajneh, southern Beirut, Lebanon. The self-proclaimed Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.

World News

More Than 40 Reportedly Killed As Bombs Hit Hezbollah Area In Beirut

7:06pm November 12, 2015

by Bill Chappell

The self-declared Islamic State has purportedly claimed responsibility for two blasts on a busy street. Lebanon's Health Ministry says the attack killed at least 40 people and injured 239 more.

Kurdish Forces In Iraq Begin Offensive To Retake Sinjar From ISIS

4:25pm November 12, 2015

by Tom Bowman

Iraqi Kurdish fighters, with support from US troops and warplanes, have begun an offensive in northern Iraq aimed at recapturing a key area west of the city of Mosul, severing the link with northern Syria. ISIS says it will fight to the last man. The latest on the ongoing operation and its significance in the wider war against the Islamic State.

World News

Egyptian Souvenir Shop Struggles To Stay Open During Air Crash Probe

2:11pm November 12, 2015

by Leila Fadel

Egypt says its already weak tourism industry will take big hits if the crash of a Russian jet there scares off Russian visitors. And one Egyptian talks about trying to make it in the tourism business.

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Egypt's Investigation Into Russian Airliner Crash Shrouded In Secrecy

4:32pm November 11, 2015

by Leila Fadel

Officials attempts to prevent press from talking to people at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport, and Egypt's reluctance to say a bomb could have caused the crash, raise concerns about its investigation.

U.S. Investigation Into Russian Airliner Crash Raises Possible ISIS Link

4:32pm November 11, 2015

by Dina Temple-Raston

U.S. officials haven't determined why Metrojet Flight 9268 went down near Sharm el-Sheikh, but their working theory is an airport employee may have helped a terrorist group get a bomb on the plane.

Protesters Flood Kabul Streets After Beheading Of 7 Afghan Hazaras

4:32pm November 11, 2015

NPR's Kelly McEvers talks to Mujib Mashal, a reporter with The New York Times, about the beheadings of civilians from the Hazara ethnic minority, possibly by ISIS-linked militants.

Protesters march through the Afghan capital of Kabul on Wednesday, carrying the coffins of seven ethnic Hazaras who were allegedly killed by the Taliban. The demonstrators called for justice and for a government that can ensure security in the country.

World News

Thousands Of Afghans March In Kabul, Demanding Justice For 7 Shiites Killed

4:12pm November 11, 2015

by Laura Wagner

Demonstrators took to the streets in the Afghan capital on Wednesday to protest the killings of seven members of an ethnic minority group by Islamist militants.

Activists In Raqqa, Syria, Use Social Media To Document ISIS Violence

7:12pm November 10, 2015

NPR's Kelly McEvers talks to the director and co-founder of "Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently," a group of activists who use social media to document atrocities committed by ISIS.

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