Beirut / AFP Despite major setbacks including the loss of access to the Syria-Turkey border and the assassination of several top leaders, the IS group remains a potent force, analysts warn. The increasing pressure on IS, including Turkey’s decision to launch an operation against it in northern Syria, has seen the organisation lose ground at an unprecedented pace. But the extremist …

  Beirut / AFP The IS group has announced the death in Syria of an Australian extremist convicted over a 2005 plot to bomb the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in a new English-language magazine. Ezzit Raad, who travelled to the Middle East after serving time in jail, died fighting for IS in Manbij near the battleground city of Aleppo in northern …

  Istanbul / AFP Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for almost 150 teachers who allegedly used an encrypted messaging app employed by followers of the US-based Muslim preacher authorities blame for the botched coup bid, state media said. Police in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri launched an operation with 400 officers in a bid to detain 147 …