Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh said in an interview broadcast Friday he had rejected "millions of dollars" Saudi Arabia offered him if he stood up to the Shiite rebels.
"They told us 'we'll pay you millions of dollars if you ally with us'" against the Huthis, Saleh told the Beirut-based al-Mayadeen television channel, adding that he rejected the offer.
Full StoryYemen's Shiite Huthi rebels have killed the capital's governor in clashes that erupted during an attempt to detain him, his relatives said Friday.
Sanaa governor Abdulghani Jamil and his nephew Nasr Jamil died of wounds suffered in clashes late Thursday between his aides and the Iran-backed militiamen, they said.
Full StoryA Syrian Christian fighter has beheaded an Islamic State group (IS) militant to avenge people "executed" by the jihadists in northeastern Syria, a monitor said on Friday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the incident took place on Thursday in Hasakeh province, where IS holds large areas of the countryside.
Full StoryThe Islamic State jihadist group has seized control of the airport in the city of Sirte after forces of a Tripoli-based Libyan government withdrew, a spokesman said Friday.
Mohamed al-Shami, whose government is not recognized by the international community, said its forces pulled out late Thursday from the airport which had "fallen into the hands of the IS organization."
Full StoryAround 85,000 people have fled Ramadi since the Islamic State group captured the Iraqi provincial capital two weeks ago, the U.N. said Friday, warning that Iraqi authorities were blocking many of the displaced from reaching safety.
The IS jihadists seized the Iraqi city, the capital of Iraq's largest province Anbar, on May 17, marking their most significant victory since mid-2014.
Full StoryA suicide bomber disguised in women's clothing blew himself up at the entrance to a Saudi Shiite mosque during Friday prayers killing three people, the interior ministry said.
The Islamic State jihadist group claimed the attack, the second in a week.
Full StoryThe Syrian government has abandoned Idlib to concentrate on regions deemed vital for its survival, a security source and monitor said Friday, allowing al-Qaida to seize the province's last regime-held city.
Rebels now control the vast majority of Idlib province after al-Nusra Front -- al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate -- and its allies overran Ariha and surrounding villages on Thursday.
Full StoryImages and video footage allegedly showing trucks belonging to Turkey's state intelligence service carrying weapons to rebels in Syria were published Friday in a Turkish daily.
The Turkish government has vehemently denied claims that it is arming rebels fighting in Syria and accused dozens of prosecutors, soldiers and security officers involved in searching the trucks of attempting to bring it down by suggesting it is doing so.
Full StoryThey're easy to drive and hard to stop, can be made on a farm and destroy a city block: the Islamic State group's monstrous truck bombs are reshaping the battlefield.
The jihadists used about 30 explosives-rigged vehicles in the Iraqi city of Ramadi this month, blasting their way through positions government and allied fighters had managed to hold for more than a year.
Full StoryFrench far-right leader Marine Le Pen held talks in Egypt with Al-Azhar that broached the top Sunni Muslim body's "serious concerns" over her party's stance on Islam, it said.
National Front president Le Pen met late Thursday with Ahmed al-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar, at its Cairo headquarters during which he questioned her organisation's "hostile opinions towards Islam and Muslims", an Al-Azhar statement said.
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