Displaced women and children in Afrin, Syria, after fleeing southern Idlib last week ... Photograph: Khalil Ashawi/ReutersThe war in Syria, which will enter its 10th year next month, shames the world

Terror group continues to seek opportunities to strike in west, says security council report Islamic State has begun to reassert itself in its heartlands in the Middle East and continues to seek opportunities to strike in the west, the United Nations has said ... A report to the UN security council based on recent intelligence from member states describes how the group is mounting increasingly bold insurgent attacks in Iraq and Syria, calling and planning for the breakout of its fighters from detention facilities and exploiting the weaknesses of local security forces

The rise of ISIS brought the U ... arguably served as Iran’s proxy air force in Iran’s fight against ISIS, further helping to cement Iran’s regional hegemony

forces to leave the country—which a commander in the counter-ISIS mission in Iraq said in a letter he would honor, sparking confusion and forcing Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to deny any plans to leave Iraq ... coalition has paused its counter-ISIS operations in the country to focus on guarding against Iranian attacks

An Iraqi woman holds a placard during the funeral of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and eight others in Baghdad on n 4 January ... Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty ImagesIt used to be the case that US assassination plots targeting foreign leaders were closely guarded secrets

”Zarif went on to compare Trump to ISIS, which also targeted cultural sites during its offensive in Syria and Iraq, a comparison that was echoed by Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi, who tweeted Sunday, “Like ISIS, Like Hitler, Like Genghis! They all hate cultures ... Sunday, lawmakers quickly voted for a resolution to do just that, in a move that could completely alter the US-Iraqi relationship and fundamentally change the fight against ISIS

For some Iraqis, Van Heuvelen said, Soleimani is an indispensable part of Iraq’s political scene: a trusted mediator, a powerful dealmaker, and a reliable force against the ISIS incursion in the region ... US soldiers are currently stationed across the nation to combat a potential resurgence of ISIS

VIA REUTERSFriday morning before dawn, U ... S

”Phillip Smyth, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who studies Iran’s military forces and their proxies, called the attack on Soleimani the most important decapitation strike America has ever launched, because it’s against a state-backed entity “totally different than ISIS or al-Qaeda ... ” They are far more powerful, Smyth added, than al-Qaeda or ISIS ever were

What came next was a renewed militant group with even greater international ambitions, as ISIS captured territory across Iraq and Syria and declared it a caliphate ... government once again trying to wind down a war following the so-called caliphate’s collapse, the question is whether ISIS can repeat its history of survival, and what it might morph into next