Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have used kites, balloons and flaming condoms to try to start wildfires across the border in Israel — and now a bird, according to Israeli authorities.

The 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team says it took command at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, on Sunday. The unit relieved the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division.

Russia's Defense Ministry says it's ready to boost cooperation with the U.S. military in Syria, following talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

An Islamic State bomber killed 20 people, including a Taliban commander, in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, while in southern Kandahar province on Monday, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in Arghistan district, killing nine policemen.

Dozens of Syrians displaced by a government offensive marched toward the Israel-occupied Golan Heights in a rare peaceful protest on Tuesday, shortly after a suspected Russian airstrike hit a school serving as a shelter in southwestern Syria, killing at least 10 people, according to activists.

The government says the bill will merely enshrine into law the country's existing character. But critics say it excludes the country's Arab minority, which makes up about 20 percent of Israel's population.

Heavy fighting over the last two weeks along Yemen's western coast between pro-government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and Shiite rebels has killed at least 30 civilians, including women and children.

Israel placed new restrictions on its only cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to continued Hamas hostilities, even after it agreed to a cease-fire ending 24 hours of intense fighting.

The United States is open to holding direct talks with the Taliban to encourage negotiations between the militant group and the Afghan government to end 17 years of war, U.S. officials said.

Iran said Monday that if President Donald Trump wants to negotiate after pulling the United States out of the international deal meant to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, he'll have to initiate the call.

Countries and businesses that continue to import Iranian oil could avoid penalties by making "significant reductions" as Washington re-imposes sanctions on Tehran later this year, according to top U.S. officials.

The Taliban stormed a police checkpoint in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province and killed seven policemen, a provincial official said Monday.

The U.N. envoy for Libya said Monday he fears the recent agreement to resume oil production in the conflict-torn country will not hold unless two issues are speedily tackled — distribution of wealth and "endemic plundering of resources."

New details from Iranian nuclear documents stolen by Israeli spies early this year show that Tehran obtained explicit weapons-design information and was on the cusp of mastering key bombmaking technologies when the research was ordered halted 15 years ago.

As Abdul-Basir visited the Ministry of Interior, an ambulance packed with explosives killed him and about 100 other people. The former refugee's death is among the toll of civilians killed in the first half of 2018, which is more than any other six-month period since recording began 10 years ago.

Standing on the edge of this once busy border crossing, you can glimpse the black, white and red of the Syrian flag across the no man’s land linking Jordan to Syria. Off to one side, a group of soldiers lounges around an entrenched tank, as army trucks kick up dust on a dirt track hugging the border.

The video, which has gone viral since it was released Friday, shows the aftermath of a small battle that occurred between Afghan special forces and bodyguards for a police chief in Faryab who was arrested after he threatened to kill government officials.

Syrian government forces unleashed hundreds of missiles on a rebel-held area near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, activists said, the latest phase in an offensive to clear southern Syria of insurgents.

With prayers and other events, Turkey on Sunday commemorated the second anniversary of thwarting a coup against the Turkish president and the government that left nearly 290 people dead and hundreds wounded.

An Afghan official said Sunday a suicide bomber on foot struck outside the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry, killing 7 and wounding 15.

It's too early to tell if training or other changes must be made in light of an insider attack in Afghanistan that killed one American soldier and wounded two others, because there's some uncertainty about whether the assailant was a disgruntled Afghan soldier or an insurgent infiltrator, the Army's top officer says.

The Israeli military carried out its largest daytime airstrike campaign in Gaza since the 2014 war Saturday as Hamas militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel throughout the day, threatening to trigger an all-out war after weeks of growing tensions along the volatile border.

Approximately half of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million has been uprooted — the overwhelming majority of them Sunni Muslims, who were among the first to rise against the government in 2011. Nearly 6 million fled abroad, while 6.6 million are displaced within Syria.

Widespread unrest is engulfing southern Iraq as Iraqis frustrated by shortages of electricity, water and jobs vent their anger, setting fire to political offices, attacking government infrastructure and deepening uncertainty about the country's shaky political future.

A spokesman for Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party said Saturday that the ex-prime minister and his daughter were being held in Adiala Jail, located outside the capital of Islamabad.

At least 11 soldiers were killed when their checkpoint came under an attack by Insurgents in western Afghanistan, a provincial official said Saturday.

A string of violent attacks at political rallies, killing nearly 160 people this week, has the nation on edge about security for the upcoming national elections, with some political leaders blaming the Pakistani government for not doing enough to protect the electoral process.

Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Andrew Celiz, 32, from Summerville, S.C., was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. He died of a wound suffered while fighting in support of a medevac landing zone in eastern Paktia province.

Air Force Staff Sgt. James T. Grotjan, 26, of Waterford, Connecticut died at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany on Thursday from injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident on Sunday at Al Dhafra Air Base.

Iran has no intention of leaving Syria regardless of U.S. and Israeli pressure, a senior envoy to Iran's leader said Friday, reaffirming a tough stance on the issue expected to top the agenda of the upcoming U.S.-Russian summit.

An Afghan official says 10 civilians have been killed in an army operation in eastern Nangarhar province. The official said Friday the dead were sleeping shopkeepers caught in a crossfire.

An airstrike in an area controlled by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria has killed at least 30 civilians and wounded many others, Syrian state media and a war monitor said Friday.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack on Saudi prison security guards in al-Qassim earlier in the week.

Pakistan is seeing an unprecedented number of extremists and militant sectarian groups — even an international terror figure with a $10 million U.S.-offered bounty on his head — on the campaign trail ahead of parliamentary elections later this month.

The deadliest attacks in Pakistan's troubled election campaign killed at least 132 people, including a candidate, on Friday just before the arrest of disgraced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif upon his return to the country.

Israel fired a Patriot missile at an unmanned aircraft that approached the country's border from Syria for the second time this week, the military said Friday.

The Kremlin is reaffirming its denial of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election ahead of a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The name of the servicemember was being withheld, pending notification of next of kin, which is Pentagon policy. The death marks the fourth U.S. fatality in Afghanistan this year and the second in recent days.

President Donald Trump on Thursday forecast an unspecified "escalation" between the United States and Iran following his withdrawal from a landmark deal that provided sanctions relief for Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

A military spokesman, Col. Tamer al-Rifai, said on Facebook that high temperatures in a petrochemical warehouse of the Heliopolis chemical company caused the explosion.

For the first time in more than seven years, the Syrian government raised its flag Thursday over Daraa, the first city to revolt against President Bashar Assad in 2011 and plunge the country into its calamitous civil war.

The Taliban struck Thursday in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz, leaving 15 soldiers dead there, and in western Farah province, where they killed four policemen, officials said.

The abuses, carried out in secret detention facilities, are being perpetrated by the United Arab Emirates and Yemeni militias aligned with it, according to a newly released report from Amnesty International, reinforcing the findings of other human rights groups.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country is offering to lead NATO's new military training mission in Iraq for the first year and stands ready to provide 250 troops plus helicopters for the effort.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday that 440 more British servicemembers would deploy to the country, bringing the U.K.’s total contribution to about 1,100 troops.

Analysts said the surge in attacks in Jalalabad by the Islamic State suggested it has decided to hit back hard against both the growing national momentum for peace with the Taliban and demonstrate its continued power.

With the Taliban shrugging off the Afghan government’s latest offers of a cease-fire and negotiations, peace seems as elusive as it has been for decades in this war-battered country, both for troops on the front lines and for civilians facing frequent attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday for talks focusing on Iranian presence in Syria — an issue that is expected to top the agenda of the upcoming U.S.-Russian summit.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused Iran of using its embassies to plot terrorist attacks in Europe and warned Tehran that its actions have "a real high cost" after it threatened to disrupt Mideast oil supplies.

Israel fired a Patriot missile at an unmanned drone that entered its airspace from Syria on Wednesday, the military said, warning it would not tolerate such infiltrations, which have occurred several times over the past year.

Two suicide bombers stormed an education department building in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province Wednesday, killing at least 10 people, a provincial official said.

The Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday claimed responsibility for an overnight suicide bombing at a campaign rally that killed a secular politician and 20 others, two weeks before the country's nationwide elections.

Several media activists and citizen journalists based in southwestern Syria appealed on Wednesday for help so that they can leave the region as it is on the verge of falling into the hands of government forces.

Less than 70 percent of positions for DOD civilians are filled in Afghanistan. The employment of civilians is seen as crucial because it frees up servicemembers from support roles and enables them to focus on the military mission.

Syrian government forces bombed villages and towns in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday after a surprise attack by insurgents that reportedly killed two dozen soldiers, activists said.

Police in Pakistan say a suicide bomber killed a secular party leader and 11 supporters in an attack on an election rally Tuesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The United States designated a Shiite militant group in Bahrain as a foreign terrorist organization Tuesday to ramp up pressure on Iran.

An Israeli organization said Tuesday that it hopes to become the first non-governmental entity to land a spacecraft on the moon when it attempts to launch a module later this year.

The United Nations on Tuesday criticized Israel's closure of its only cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip, warning that the measure could have negative consequences.

A Navy sailor was killed in a non-combat incident while conducting small-boat operations in the Red Sea, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the immediate closure of the main cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip on Monday in response to Palestinians launching incendiary kites and balloons into Israel.

The 64-year-old president, who has governed since 2003, won a mandate in the June 24 elections to govern with sweeping new powers on the platform that a powerful presidential office would ensure stability in turbulent times.

gallery

U.S. and Afghan special operations troops in one of their largest joint operations captured a stronghold that Islamic State fighters claimed as their local capital, military officials said Saturday.

Army Cpl. Joseph Maciel has been identified by the Pentagon as the soldier killed Saturday in an apparent insider attack in southern Afghanistan.

Turkey's government on Sunday issued a decree dismissing more than 18,000 state employees, a day before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was set to begin a new five-year term bolstered by vastly enhanced powers.

Most Syrians displaced by recent fighting stranded at the border with Jordan in the country's south have returned to their homes, a U.N. official and a group that closely monitors the Syrian war said Sunday.

Kuwait's highest court on Sunday ordered an opposition leader and two lawmakers imprisoned for 3 ½ years over the 2011 storming of parliament amid that year's Arab Spring protests, in a case involving nearly 70 politicians, activists and others.

While the Marine Corps legend of Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Price might live forever, the stories of Dan Price – the person – will fade with time. That’s why Price’s mother wrote a book about her remarkable son’s short life.

One U.S. servicemember was killed and two others were wounded in an apparent insider attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, according to a news release from Resolute Support.

gallery

Armed guards stood watch outside a tent at Bagram Air Field on Friday as a group of soldiers danced the Electric Slide in an atmosphere something like a summer block party.

Iran executed eight men convicted over the 2017 Islamic State attack on parliament and the shrine of the Islamic Republic's founding ayatollah, the bloodiest terror attack to strike Tehran in decades, authorities said Saturday.

Syrian soldiers celebrated the recapture of the main border crossing with Jordan on Saturday, raising portraits of President Bashar Assad and tearing down rebel flags.

With President Donald Trump's promised Middle East peace plan stalled, administration officials are focusing on improving conditions in the impoverished Gaza Strip – a move that could put political pressure on Palestinian leaders to come to the negotiating table.

during a gathering of Orthodox patriarchs and Catholic leaders on Saturday, Pope Francis denounced the "murderous indifference" that has allowed violence to consume the Middle East and drive tens of thousands of Christians from their homes.

Heavy fighting between the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels along the country's west coast has killed more than 165 people from both sides, Yemeni officials said on Saturday, amid efforts by the U.N. special envoy to restart peace talks between the warring parties.

Abdul Hai Khateby, provincial governor's spokesman, said Saturday that Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim was targeted in Charsada district and was on duty at the time.

In the first year of President Donald Trump's term, the United States conducted far more airstrikes against al-Qaida militants in Yemen than it had in previous years.

Syrian government forces recaptured a vital border crossing with Jordan on Friday and raised the national flag for the first time in years, restoring sovereignty over a key region and potentially reopening a gateway for Syrian exports to Arab countries.

Rebels said Friday that they have reached an agreement with Russian mediators to end violence in southern Syria and surrender the crossing point with Jordan after Syrian government forces, following an intense aerial campaign, captured new areas along the border.

Yemeni tribal leaders say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed seven alleged al-Qaida militants as they were driving along a road in the country's south.

Gaza's Health Ministry says a Palestinian was killed and 24 injured by Israeli fire at a border protest.

A Marine general violated ethics rules on a recent deployment to Iraq when he asked or allowed his aide to loan him money and run his personal errands, the Pentagon’s inspector general said Thursday.

At the main checkpoint outside this central Iraqi city, where regular army soldiers and police are joined by militiamen commanded by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a onetime battlefield foe of American forces, it is the flags of Sadr's militia that fly most prominently.

The offensive for Hodeida, launched last month, is widely seen as a critical juncture in Yemen's three-year-old civil war pitting northern rebels against the Yemeni government, which is backed by a regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

gallery

American flags could be seen in all corners of NATO’s Resolute Support headquarter in Kabul on Wednesday as U.S. servicemembers celebrated Independence Day.

video, gallery

The program began with 14 aging mine-detecting dogs from Thailand and two captured Soviet dogs, with training from Thai instructors and two U.S. Army officers attached to the United Nations, according to a history of the program.

gallery

There are still reminders of the Syrian civil war, but life in the capital appears to be returning to the chaotic normality that has long characterized the city of 2.6 million people.

Unruly ethnic factions remain a persistent challenge to central authority and stability in Afghanistan, periodically clashing with government forces and following leaders like Abdurrashid Dostum, who broke with the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani government that had handpicked him to serve as a bridge to his ethnic group.

A suicide bomb attack on a U.S. convoy near a school Monday night in eastern Afghanistan did not harm U.S. forces but did result in civilian casualties, officials said.

Syrian rebels said Tuesday that they are taking part in a new round of surrender talks in the country's southwest after an escalating military campaign displaced more than a quarter of a million people in just two weeks.

Local members of the Raqqa Civil Council are "struggling to cope with the logistical challenges of collecting and organizing information" on the bodies uncovered and providing it to families searching for missing or dead relatives, Human Rights Watch said.

A June 2 mission in southwestern Kabul province is illustrative of the lasting problems of Afghan corruption and ineffectiveness, both in personnel and technology, that have hampered the war effort for years. Progress, where it exists, often comes in fits and starts.

More than 160,000 people have fled their homes in a Syrian government assault in the country’s southwest, the United Nations said, as negotiations for rebel capitulation in the region and to avoid clashes that could embroil Jordan and Israel broke down Saturday.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan conducted more than 20 airstrikes against the Taliban on Saturday after an unprecedented unilateral cease-fire ended.

Army Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller was confirmed by the Senate as the new commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in a voice vote late Thursday. The Senate also confirmed Harry Harris as U.S. ambassador to South Korea.

Nautical Horizon concluded with a display of the Army’s ability to quickly move and deploy its forces and equipment when pulling up to a pier isn’t an option.

Syrian or Russian warplanes bombed at least three medical facilities in southern Syria overnight, a war monitor and local doctors said Wednesday, as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad appeared to ramp up a battle plan that has forced rebel-held areas across the country into submission.

Ahmed Abu Khattala, 46, convicted in the deadly 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed a U.S. ambassador was sentenced to 22 years in prison Wednesday.

The 42-year-old man was investigated more than a decade ago for extremist ties, including alleged participation in military training in Afghanistan and service in a band of Osama bin Laden's guards. Owing to a lack of concrete evidence, federal prosecutors dropped the investigation in 2007.

Syrian government forces advanced through southern Syria on Tuesday as tens of thousands of civilians fled air strikes backed by Russia. Diplomats and experts warn that the pocket could become a geopolitical tinderbox capable of destabilizing neighboring Jordan and triggering a wider conflict between Israel and Iran.