Mattis eyes moving away from arming Syrian Kurdish fighters

Islamic State suicide bombers attacked crowds of people gathered Thursday outside Kabul airport hoping to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, killing dozens including 13 US troops, as President Joe Biden vowed to hunt down those responsible.

The bombings at Kabul airport show central Asia's Islamic State affiliate, IS-K, is a major security threat in Afghanistan and globally. The group has a record of lethal attacks and finds the Taliban too moderate.

Alexanda Kotey, a member of the notorious Islamic State kidnapping cell dubbed the "Beatles," pleaded guilty Thursday in a US court to charges of conspiring to murder four American hostages. "Contrary to the propaganda perpetrated by ISIS, we have given Alexanda Kotey the opportunity to face justice," acting US Attorney Raj Parekh tells reporters outside the court, alongside some of the victims' parents.

Limited electricity supply is hampering Syria's industrial revivial, as manufacturing grinds to a halt at 6pm in the former economic hub of Aleppo.

The Syrian province of Idlib, one of the last remaining rebel strongholds in the country's north, is experiencing a new wave of Covid-19 infections, driven by the more contagious Delta variant. This comes as the regime intensifies bombings in the region, putting local hospitals under even greater pressure. We take a closer look.

The upsurge in violence in Syria combined with its plummeting economy are making life increasingly bleak for civilians, United Nations investigators say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemns the presence of foreign troops in Syria at talks in Moscow with the war-torn country's President Bashar al-Assad. Russia has been a key ally of the Assad regime throughout the Syrian conflict, which erupted in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests. Russia's military intervention in 2015 helped turn the tide of the war in Assad's favour.

A new Syrian-Jordanian deal on energy for Lebanon is being seen by some as another step towards the international rehabilitation of the brutal Assad regime.

In its first report on the Syrian war death toll since 2014, the UN said at least 350,209 people have died in the decade-long conflict. But admitted the real toll is likely to be much higher.

Rifaat al-Assad, dubbed the butcher of Hama, was exiled by the Syrian president's late father. He was facing four years behind bars in France for laundering embezzled funds.

At least 10 civilians were killed and another 35 injured on Wednesday by an Assad regime attack in Idlib, northwestern Syria, according to medical sources. Artillery of regime forces and Iranian-backed foreign terrorist groups targeted a marketplace in the center of the town of Ariha in rural southern Idlib, an area under opposition control.

A Syrian war monitor said the Israeli attack allegedly had targeted sites housing arms depots linked to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and pro-Iran militias.