BEIRUT / AFP Syrian government forces captured a rebel-held area on the edge of Aleppo on Saturday, tightening their siege on opposition-held neighborhoods in the northern city as an ongoing wave of airstrikes destroyed more buildings. The new government push came as the U.N. said that nearly 2 million people in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and onetime commercial center, …

  BAGHDAD / AP A triple suicide bombing against a security check point north of Baghdad on Saturday killed at least 11 members of the security forces, a police officer said. The spokesman for the Salahuddin province police force, Col. Mohammed al-Jabouri, said three militants rammed their explosives-laden vehicles early Saturday morning into the main check point near the town …

  Pretoria / AFP An offensive to encircle Iraq’s second city of Mosul should begin “in the next few weeks”, Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Friday, after a visit to the country. Mosul has been held by Islamic State jihadists since June 2014 and British jets are part of a US-led coalition flying missions against them in Iraq and …