Car bombings in the Shi'ite majority town of Khalis 80 kilometers north of Baghdad have killed at least seven civilians, Iraqi officials have said, AP are reporting.
The first car was parked inside a bus station and killed three and wounded 10 more, a police officer said. The second car bomb exploded in an outdoor market killing four civilians and wounding eight.
A 31-year-old man has been arrested in London on suspicion of terror charges linked to extremist Islamist terrorism, Scotland Yard has said.
The man was detained in south London just after 5 p.m. local time on December 22.
Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said that Moscow is continuing to re-arm Kyrgyzstan's military in order that the Central Asian state can counter threats the IS group and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
"We from our side are doing all we can in order to carry out our plan to re-equip Kyrgyzstan's armed forces so that they can counter those threats that are coming from [Afghanistan]," RIA Novosti quoted Shoigu as saying during a meeting in Moscow today with Janybek Kaparov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic
"The threats are real. We see them. I think you do too," Shoigu told Kaparov.
Afghanistan has deployed special forces to two districts in the southern province of Helmand as part of a counter-offensive after extensive Taliban gains in the area, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan is reporting.
The fresh special forces were "actively now fighting the Taliban," acting Defense Minister Masum Stanakzai said. "We have air support, artillery, and the situation will soon change."
The IS group is making authentic-looking Syrian and Iraqi passports that could be used to disguise as refugees IS operatives seeking to carry out attacks in Europe or the United States -- and Western security officials are struggling to respond to this crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports.
While IS has likely obtained printing equipment and blank passport books from Raqqa and Deir al-Zor in Syria, as well as from Mosul in Iraq, a lack of communication with the Syrian government means Western officials do not have key information they need to identify fake passports.
Russian Lawmakers Slam Amnesty International Report On Syria Strikes
Russian lawmakers have been reacting this morning to the new report by Amnesty International that says Russia's air campaign in Syria has caused civilian casualties
Nikolai Levichev, deputy speaker of the Russia's State Duma, slammed the report as supporting terrorists.
"By accusing Russia of war crimes in Syria, Amnesty International is giving amnesty to IS terrorists. In essence, it is defending the rights of those who blow up women and children and behead those of other faiths," Levichev said.
Communist Party lawmaker Vasily Likhachev said the report had an "anti-Russian character."
"I assume that their goal is to compromise the Russian air campaign and Russia's participation in the peaceful resolution [of the Syrian conflict]," Likhachev said.
Lavrov To Discuss Syria With Qatari Foreign Minister On December 25
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to meet with his Qatari counterpart Khaled al-Attiyah on December 25 for talks on resolving the Syrian crisis, TASS reports.
"We continue to see as an absolute priority the creation of a wide international coalition for the fight against IS and other terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq," the Foreign Ministry said.
Activists in Syria have accused Bashar al-Assad's forces of a chemical attack during fighting in the town of Moadamiyet al-Sham southwest of Damascus.
The activists say that five men were killed when government troops fired barrel bombs containing a "toxic gas" on December 22.
Activists have posted video footage on social media that they say show victims gasping for breath in a field hospital following the attack. At least one of the victims is wearing military-style fatigues, according to AFP.
AFP reports that the activists posted a statement on Facebook saying that "the Assad regime again used chemical weapons against civilians in Moadamiyet earlier today, with regime warplanes dropping barrel bombs containing a so-far unidentified toxic gas on the south of the town. Five people have died so far as a result with others suffering severe breathing problems."
A local activist named as Firas al-Doumi told the London-based Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news website that government forces used helicopters to drop the barrel bombs on the town on the evening of December 22.
It has not been possible to verify the claims.
Hundreds of people died in Moadamiyet al-Sham in chemical strikes in August 2013.
A Syrian security source who talked to AFP denied that armed forces had used chemical weapons on the town, calling the accusations "baseless".
"This is a cheap ruse and a broken record that they are using in an attempt to justify their defeats," he told AFP.
From our news desk:
Ramadi 'To Be Liberated' From IS
Asenior Iraqi military officer predicts government forces will dislodge Islamic State militants from the western Iraqi city of Ramadi within days.
"In the coming days [there will be] good news [about] the complete liberation of Ramadi," Iraqia TV cited Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant Othman al-Ghanemi as saying on December 23.
Iraq's armed forces began advancing on December 22 on the last district held by the militants in the center of Ramadi, a Sunni city on the Euphrates river some 100 kilometers west of Baghdad that they captured in May.
If Ramadi is captured, it will be the second major city after Tikrit to be retaken from Islamic State in Iraq.
Progress has been slow because the government wants to rely entirely on its own troops and not use Shi'ite militias in order to avoid rights abuses such as occurred after the recapture of the city of Tikrit from the militants in April.
From our news desk:
One Killed, One Injured In Blast At Istanbul Airport
One person has been killed and another injured in an explosion at the second largest airport in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
Authorities are investigating whether the blast at the Sabiha Gokcen airport early on December 23 was caused by a bomb or not.
The blast occurred when no passengers were in the area. The casualties were among cleaning staff.
Police tightened security at entrances to the airport after the incident, searching vehicles as a helicopter flew overhead.
Bomb attacks by Kurdish, leftist and Islamist militants are common in Turkey.
A three-decades-old conflict between the state and the militant Kurdistan Workers Party has flared up in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since the collapse of a ceasefire in July.
Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP