On the third day of the renewed Iraqi offensive to retake Mosul from ISIL militants, scores of civilians have left their homes for safety.

A Syrian government source has confirmed a new deal has been reached to resume the evacuation of rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo.

Syrian government forces have reportedly recaptured all of Aleppo’s historic ‘Old City’, pushing the last remaining rebels there out.

Men, women and children are fleeing the frontline in Aleppo as fierce fighting in the war-shattered Syrian city intensifies.

More than 80 people, most of them Shi’ite pilgrims from Iran, have been killed in the Iraqi city of Hilla.

The Iraqi military says around a hundred decapitated bodies have been found in a mass grave in the recently-retaken town of Hamam al-Alil. Most, they say, were reduced to skeletons.

The leader of ISIL Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has expressed confidence in victory in his first message after Iraqi forces started an offensive to retake Mosul from the jihadists.

Russia and Syria have suspended air strikes on Aleppo, two days ahead of a planned eight-hour humanitarian pause to allow aid through to the city.

A Russian helicopter carrying five military personnel has been downed in Northern Syria after coming under hostile fire from the ground, killing everyone on board.

Pope Francis has said that the recent string of attacks, including the killing of a Roman Catholic priest in Normandy was proof the ‘world is at war’.