Levant

Known for kidnapping, public stonings, lashings and executions, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who had recently renamed itself as the Islamic State (IS), is now expanding into tourism, taking jihadists on honeymoon and civilians to visit other parts of its "caliphate".
      

The United Nations Security Council has denounced militant persecution of Christians and other minorities in Iraq, warning such actions can be considered crimes against humanity.

The Islamic State, which last month declared a “caliphate” straddling large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria, has threatened a Christian presence in the region.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once again lashed out over the shelling of Gaza on July 18, claiming Israel was committing “genocide” on the Palestinian people.

The number of child marriages has doubled among Syrian refugee girls in Jordan because of poverty and fear of sexual violence, international agencies said on Wednesday.
      
Save the Children, in a report, "Too Young to Wed," said children marrying in Syria before the country's conflict erupted in 2011 accounted for 13 percent of all marriages.
      

The U.N. Security Council on July 14 authorized humanitarian access without Syrian government consent at four border crossings into rebel-held areas from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, although Syria has warned it deems such deliveries an attack. 

A crowd in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş marched against the presence of Syrian migrants in the city on July 13, before attacking a number of Syrians and brawling with the police.

The approval rating for the government’s foreign policy has dropped further to 41 percent, according to a recent survey conducted by research organization MetroPOLL, as Turkey struggles to cope with the ongoing crises in neighboring Iraq and Syria.

On July 9, CNN spread the news that the U.S. is planning to attack the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with drones. The American press has also created the impression in the last few days that Washington might conduct an airstrike soon.

Of the $30 billion Iraqi imports, a third is from Turkey. Gaziantep alone provides around a fifth of Iraq’s imports. So Iraq by itself is important for Turkey. Now two things are happening at once. First of all, it is getting increasingly harder to send trucks down to Iraq. Secondly, Iraqi import demand is declining rather rapidly as Iraq transforms into a war zone.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has strongly condemned Israeli airstrikes against Palestinians, criticizing the international community’s silence over the attacks that have so far claimed the lives of 80 people.