Security forces in Turkey detained 13 foreigners and a Turkish citizen attempting to cross into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, the armed forces said on Wednesday.
The army said that the group was detained on January 9 as they sought to cross the border into Syria from a village in the southeastern province of Gaziantep.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said Wednesday he will discuss his peace efforts with the Security Council, following a visit to Syria where he met President Bashar Assad.
State news agency SANA said the talks between the envoy and Syria's embattled leader were "positive and constructive".

A Belgian court sentenced the leader of an Islamist group that sent jihadist fighters to Syria to a 12-year jail term on Wednesday and imprisoned several other members in one of the largest cases of its kind in Europe.
Fouad Belkacem, 32, the chief of the Sharia4Belgium group, was convicted by a court in the northern port city of Antwerp of radicalizing, recruiting and dispatching young men to fight holy war.

Iran's president said Wednesday that the world needs its help to stabilize a troubled Middle East, in remarks pointing to the wider ramifications of a deal over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
In a live televised speech marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Hassan Rouhani implicitly linked ongoing nuclear talks with world powers to resolving bloody conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri stressed on Wednesday that the Saudi embassy in Beirut increased its measures to avert any possible security threats.
“We have taken all the necessary precautions and the Lebanese state, according to norms, is responsible for the security of the embassy,” Asiri said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

Australia has thwarted an "imminent" terror attack, arresting two men and seizing an Islamic State flag, a machete and a video detailing the alleged plot during a raid in Sydney, police said Wednesday.
New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn said the planned attack was "consistent with the messaging coming out of IS", while New South Wales state Premier Mike Baird described it as "beyond disturbing".

Foreign fighters are flocking to Syria at an "unprecedented" rate, with more than 20,000 volunteers from around the world joining the Islamic State or other extremist groups, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday.
The foreign fighters have traveled to Syria from more than 90 countries, including at least 3,400 from Western states and more than 150 Americans, according to the latest estimate from the National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC).

Afghanistan is in danger of turning into a sanctuary once again for Islamist extremists as the West withdraws troops and shifts its attention elsewhere, a former senior CIA official warned Tuesday.
The country could even become a refuge for Islamic State jihadists now waging war in Syria and Iraq, said Robert Grenier, the former Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Islamabad and author of a new book.

The United States on Tuesday denied that it was coordinating air strikes with the Syrian regime against Islamic militants and renewed its insistence that President Bashar Assad must step down.
In an interview with the BBC, Assad said Damascus was being informed about the U.S.-led coalition air strikes against the Islamic State group through messages conveyed via a third party.

Kayla Mueller, who died as a hostage of IS jihadists, took strength during captivity in her faith in God and the love of her family, she wrote in a letter relatives released on Tuesday.
"I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free," said a handwritten letter by Mueller which was smuggled out by fellow captives following their release by Islamic State jihadists.
