The northern Syrian city of Aleppo was caught in a brutal four-year deadlock. It was a key battleground in the war between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels who want to overthrow him. In November, Syrian government forces launched a renewed assault, and rapidly retook almost all of the opposition-held east. By mid-December they had pushed the rebels into just a few neighbourhood

Many Yazidis have given up on the idea of returning home, and are seeking asylum in Europe and North America As so-called Islamic State (IS) militants are driven out of Mosul, Paul Moss reports on the continuing plight of the Yazidis, the Iraqi religious group who the United Nations says has suffered more destruction than any other at IS hands. First one of the Yazidi women started crying, then on

Only a fraction of the Peshmerga fighters are ready for battle Plans for the recapture of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, from the so-called Islamic State are fiendishly complicated. Ethnic rivalries, as well as sectarian and religious sensitivities, will have to be respected if the offensive is not to go horribly wrong. The Iraqi army which scattered and fled as IS fighters drove and rode into

Among the group are French, Dutch and Polish nationals, as well as foreign fighters from North Africa and across the Middle East and Central Asia. The men, women and children are being held in a village in rural northern Syria. Mr Ghabi said the numbers were growing as IS collapsed, thanks to a Turkish-supported rebel offensive against the group in northern Syria called "Operation Euphrates Shield

Seven-year-old Bana Alabed tweeted a photo a week ago, sitting at a desk with a book, her doll in the background. "Good afternoon from Aleppo," the caption read. "I'm reading to forget the war." Aleppo, Syria's second city, has been split in two during the country's long conflict. Daily life has become a struggle for those still living there, caught in the fight between rebel and government forces

Lyse Doucet spoke to Israel's President Shimon Peres in the run-up to his 90th birthday Shimon Peres, who served twice as Israel's prime minister and once as president, has died at the age of 93. Mr Peres suffered a stroke two weeks ago. His condition had improved before a sudden deterioration on Tuesday. His son Chemi led tributes to "one of the founding fathers of the state of Israel" who "worke

Children were able to play on the streets in Aleppo's rebel-held Qadi Askar district With a cessation of hostilities taking effect across Syria, people across the war-torn country have been sharing photos and videos of themselves enjoying a rare moment of relative calm. Posts from the divided northern city of Aleppo have for months been almost exclusively about bombings, destruction and the suffer

Orla Guerin visits the town of Qayyarah, where so-called Islamic State were driven out in two days Whatever else the battle for Mosul may involve, it will not be the element of surprise. The operation to drive so-called Islamic State (IS) from Iraq's second-largest city has been long promised and much delayed. The latest indications are it could begin next month, more than two years after IS took

John Kerry: "If this arrangement holds then we will see a significant reduction in violence across Syria" Russia and the US have agreed to co-ordinate air strikes against Islamist militants in Syria, part of a detailed agreement to reduce the violence there. The plan will begin with a "cessation of hostilities" from sunset on Monday. Syrian forces will end combat missions in specified opposition-h

The father of Alan Kurdi has urged world leaders to keep the door open to refugees, as Fergal Keane reports The father of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old boy who drowned a year ago as his family fled Syria, has urged Europe to keep its doors open to migrants. Abdullah Kurdi told the BBC he still hoped that world leaders could stop the war in Syria. Haunting images of Alan's body lying on a Turkish

Watch: The footage shows Omran in the back of an ambulance. The surgeon who treated him tells the BBC about his condition. A photograph of a dazed and bloodied Syrian boy rescued from a destroyed building in Aleppo after an air strike has caused outrage around the world. Images of the boy sitting in an ambulance were released by activists and have since been shared widely on social media. He was i

Arthur Ransome in later life tried to put some distance between his fictional Walker family - pictured here in the new film - and the children he based them on It is a well-known tale of high adventure for four children in the 1930s who set off in their sail boat one summer to reach an uninhabited island in the middle of Coniston Water, in the English Lake District. And Arthur Ransome's famous boo

But Mr Haji Mustafa says the PYD is a totalitarian party, doesn't like opposition to its rule and has acted violently against some in their community. The PYD later came to form the Syrian Democratic Forces, along with some Arab tribes, and it's the SDF which has become one of the main powers inside Syria fighting so-called Islamic State (IS) - with support from Western coalition forces. But there

The United Nations says more than 85,000 people are stranded in Ruqban, near the point where Jordan, Syria and Iraq meet, and Hadalat camp, 50 miles (80km) to the west. Journalists are unable to access what is known as the berm area (because of nearby sand banks, or berms) and for a month, aid workers have been unable to reach it. Jordan declared its north and eastern borders a closed military zon

Aleppo has been divided between the rebel-held east and government-west for four years Syria's civil war came late to Aleppo. It was July 2012. But after four years of bitter bloodshed between its government-held west and rebel east, the beating heart of Syria's commercial and industrial capital has entered cardiac arrest. The Castello Road, last rebel artery north towards the Turkish border, has

Almost 24 hours after the massacre of civilians in Baghdad by so-called Islamic State, young men were digging frantically through the basement of one of the shopping centres that was destroyed. They were looking for human remains. But all they found were some shoes and a pile of black ash. It was hot in the basement. The fire was still smouldering. Warm, scummy water dripped from the ceiling. Outs

Jeremy Bowen reports: "People are furious that jihadists seem to be able to bomb Baghdad at will" The Iraqi government has declared three days of national mourning after a huge bomb in Baghdad killed 165 people and injured 225 others. A lorry packed with explosives was detonated in the Karrada district while families were shopping for the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Rescuers said whole fam

The surface level of the Dead Sea is falling by more than a metre a year The Dead Sea, the salty lake located at the lowest point on Earth, is gradually shrinking under the heat of the Middle Eastern sun. For those who live on its shores it's a slow-motion crisis - but finding extra water to sustain the sea will be a huge challenge. If there's one thing everyone knows about the Dead Sea it is that

Search efforts have involved the use of deep sea diving robots The cockpit voice recorder from the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month has been found in the Mediterranean, Egyptian investigators say. The "black box" was damaged and had to be pulled out in several stages but its memory unit was intact, they said. A search vessel with an underwater robot has been scouring the crash site and has s

The outline of the monument can be seen from the sky (l), the other image shows some of the detail A huge monument has been discovered buried under the sands at the Petra World Heritage site in southern Jordan. Archaeologists used satellite images, drone photography and ground surveys to locate the find, according to the study, external published in the American Schools of Oriental Research. The l