Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Kurdish and Yazidi fighters battled to take the strategic northern Iraqi town of Sinjar back from
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Dec. 21 after breaking a months-long siege of the mountain above it.

Seizing the town would restore the majority of territory Iraq's Kurds lost in the jihadist group's surprise August offensive.

NATO works to include Balkan youth in security politics

Serbia, Turkey boost military ties in light of ISIL threats

Military co-operation between the two countries is important due to the threats from ISIL, experts say.

As Serbia and Turkey are facing extremism and terrorism threats from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the need for better defence sector co-operation has become more evident.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani hailed victories over the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during a visit on Dec. 21 to Mount Sinjar, which had been besieged by the militants for months.

U.S. counter-terrorism officials backed negotiations with two prominent jihadi clerics in a failed attempt to save the life of an American hostage who was later beheaded by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, the Guardian newspaper reported on Dec. 19.
   

Iraqi Kurds claimed Dec. 18 to have broken a siege on a mountain where Yazidi civilians and fighters have long been trapped as the US said air strikes killed several Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leaders in recent weeks.
      

Kurdish forces backed up by US-led warplanes have recaptured a large area in Iraq near the Syrian border in an offensive against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists, a top US commander said Dec. 18.
      

State Secretary for Global Affairs with Romania's Foreign Ministry (MAE), Carmen Burlacu and Iraq's State Secretary Nizar Issa Abdul Hadi Khairallah held bilateral political consultations in Bucharest, MAE reported in a release on Wednesday.

All of them are complaining, but it is mostly Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and Israel that have had the strongest reactions against Turkey, on the grounds that Turkey “interferes too much with our domestic affairs.”

The Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are to blame for paving the way for Islamophobia in the world, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

Drawing attention to the recent Taliban attack in Peshawar that killed 130 children, ISIL violence in Iraq and Syria, Erdoğan said there could be "no such Islam."