Aleppo / AFP Rebels in Aleppo called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians on Wednesday after losing more than three quarters of their territory including the Old City to a Syrian army offensive. In the face of a blistering assault by forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad, the rebels were reported to have retreated on Wednesday from …

  Aden / AFP Around 40 people were missing off the Yemeni island of Socotra on Wednesday after a cargo vessel carrying islanders home from the mainland sank in the Indian Ocean, authorities said. Nineteen people were rescued from the water after a major search operation was launched in the early hours, Yemeni Fisheries Minister Fahd Kavieen said. The first two …

  Bartalla/ AFP Iraqi forces battled extremists deep inside Mosul on Wednesday, edging closer to the River Tigris that divides the city and looking for a breakthrough in the seven-week-old offensive. The fighting to retake the IS group’s last major stronghold in Iraq has prompted a steady trickle of people to leave their homes, many taking refuge in camps where …