Two brawls erupted Wednesday at the Notre Dame University in Louaize between students belonging to the Lebanese Forces and others from the Free Patriotic Movement. LBCI television said the two-phase clash broke out over the issue of “raising electoral banners, two days ahead of the scheduled student elections at NDU.” The polls will be […]

Former Islamic State militants captured by Kurdish forces in Northern Syria told CNN correspondent Ivan Watson that IS (ISIL or ISIS) leaders drugged and brainwashed them to fight for “Islam and justice.”

The first prisoner, identified as Suleiman, told Watson he received $3,600 to detonate a car bomb outside a Kurdish military base.

“They said they were fighting for Islam and justice. They were lying to us,” Suleiman said. “They took advantage of our minds and our poverty.”

The next prisoner was a 19-year-old named Kareem, who fought for IS in Syria for more than a year.

The 28-year-old former US soldier who joined a Kurdish militia to fight against militants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) is urging more military veterans to join the fight. Through his own profile and with the launch of a new Facebook page called "The Lions of Rojava," Jordan Matson is helping to recruit others across Europe, Australia, and the US, according to The Daily Mail. "We will pick you up on your arrival to the location they gave you to come," Matson wrote in a Facebook posting on Oct. 23. "It is a secured journey all through Kurdish held territory. Hope to see you soon brothers. Rock steady."

A native of Wisconsin, Matson served in the US Army for two years — though never in combat — and is one of at least three Americans who have joined Kurdish forces, according to Reuters. He was wounded by a mortar soon after he arrived in Syria.

  TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Lebanese commandos, backed by helicopter gunships, seized the headquarters of an Islamist militant leader Monday, on the fourth day of clashes that have rocked Lebanon’s second city, leaving 42 people dead and some 150 wounded. A military source confirmed that the Abdullah bin Masoud Mosque, the stronghold of Shadi Mawlawi and his […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Tuesday that Christians should help Muslims to confront the assault against Islam by terrorists. “The developments in the Middle East are not related to ethics or humanity in any way,” al-Rahi said during his visit to the state of Victoria in Australia. He pointed out that the “terrorist […]

  BEIRUT: There was no deal to allow gunmen to flee and end the four days of battles between militants and the Lebanese Army in the northern city of Tripoli, Defense Minister Samir Moqbel said Tuesday, dismissing media reports of a compromise brokered by political leaders. "We have heard talk of compromises in Tripoli, but […]

The Islamic State (or ISIS) is “the best-funded terrorist organization we’ve confronted,” but “we have no silver bullet, no secret weapon to empty ISIS’ coffers overnight.” These were the words of David Cohen, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in a speech yesterday, in which he outlined the U.S. government’s assessment of ISIS finance and a strategy to counter it.

According to Cohen, ISIS’ principal source of finance is still derived from its control and sale of oil, which he assessed was still bringing in $1 million a day. Additional funds come from kidnap for ransom, extortion networks, criminal activities, and donations from external individuals, the latter being of least significance in terms of scale.