Category: ISIS

REUTERS Image caption Mourners attended a funeral near St Sebastian Church in Negombo Sri Lanka has held its first mass funeral amid a day of mourning for the victims of Sunday's bomb blasts.

Sri Lanka:Police shootout in Sri Lanka leaves 15 people dead


COLOMBO (Reuters) – The bodies of 15 people, including six children, were discovered at the site of a fierce overnight gun battle on the east coast of Sri Lanka, a military spokesman said on Saturday, six days after suicide bombers killed more than 250 people on the island.



The shootout between troops and suspected Islamist militants erupted on Friday evening in Sainthamaruthu in Ampara district, to the south of the town of Batticaloa, site of one of the Easter Sunday blasts at three churches and four luxury hotels.


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Syrian Kurds demonstrate in Qamishli against Turkish shelling of Kurdish militia posts in northern Syria, on October 31, 2018. Source: DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images

ISIS: The rise and fall of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

CRIMSON TAZVINZWA, AIWA! NO!|(Reuters) – Islamic State fighters have been defeated at the final shred of territory they held in eastern Syria, marking the end of jihadist rule that once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Saturday.

The territorial ISIS caliphate in Syria has now been 100 percent eliminated, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced on Friday. President Donald Trump has, on numerous occasions before now, announced ISIS' defeat, but this time it would appeared the claim had the full backing of the White House and Pentagon. Sanders, speaking to the traveling press pool of reporters on Air Force One as the president headed to Florida, Sanders directed reporters to the Department of Defense for further questions but shared a photo of what appeared to be the same map President Trump declassified and showed reporters on Wednesday. She said acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan was on the plane and had briefed the president on the news. When asked for comment, a Pentagon spokesman told ABC News "We do not have an operational statement at this time." After Trump got off the plane in Florida, according to a pool report, he walked over to to waiting reporters and cameras with the same map he had used Wednesday,except without the small dot of red indicating ISIS-held territory that had been there before. "This is what we have right now, as of last night," Trump said. "I think it's about time," he said according to the pool report. ABC News' Luis Martinez contributeed to this report.

White House: ISIS territory in Syria has been 100 percent eliminated

The territorial ISIS caliphate in Syria has now been 100 percent eliminated, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced on Friday.

President Donald Trump has, on numerous occasions before now, announced ISIS’ defeat, but this time it would appeared the claim had the full backing of the White House and Pentagon.