The Islamic State group has lost swathes of territory in its self-declared "caliphate" in recent months, including its former Iraqi hub Mosul and most of its Syrian bastion Raqa.

Iraqi Kurds may have long dreamed of founding their own state, but the independence referendum set for September 25 has also exposed divisions between their autonomous region's main cities.

A photo montage published by al-Qaida to mark the 16th anniversary of 9/11 shows the face of Osama bin Laden in the flames of the Twin Towers.

An Iraqi Kurdish plan to hold a September 25 independence referendum, which has hit a legal roadblock with just a week to go, is more of a tool to pressure Baghdad than a step towards actual secession, observers say.

Iraq's Kurdish region, which will hold a referendum on statehood on September 25, has been autonomous since 1991 and has played a major role in the war against jihadists.

As the Islamic State group seems to crumble across Syria, a top Russian commander points to a pulverised tank once used by the jihadists as proof of his country's essential role in their demise.

Nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled renewed violence in Myanmar, crossing the border in Bangladesh in waves following a military crackdown the UN says amounts to ethnic cleansing.

German-Turkish ties have plunged to an all-time low since last year's failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the subsequent crackdown on alleged plotters and state enemies.

Qatar's ruling emir is on his first trip abroad since a diplomatic crisis erupted in June between his nation and four Arab countries.

Here's a look at the ongoing crisis, the worst to grip the region since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Violence coursing through western Myanmar has sparked an exodus of hundreds of thousands of stateless Muslim Rohingya, generating international alarm at the blistering animosity fuelling a cycle of bloodshed in the region.