One of Kosovo's leading Muslim clerics was among 15 people arrested by police on Wednesday for recruiting people to join the jihad in Iraq and Syria, local media reported. 

Elite Iraqi troops backed by U.S. jets battled jihadists near Baghdad Wednesday as Washington devised a strategy for expanded operations against the Islamic State group.

President Barack Obama prepared to meet with U.S. commanders to decide how to turn the tide on the powerful and brutal extremist organization while keeping a promise not to drag America into another military quagmire.

The office of Iran's supreme leader published a series of graphics on Wednesday highlighting how little he believes the country has gained from dialogue with Washington as nuclear talks resume.

A Yemini-born U.S. man was indicted Tuesday for allegedly providing material support to the Islamic State by recruiting members for the jihadist group.

The United States plans to strike the Islamic State group in its Syrian strongholds and could send military advisers into combat alongside Iraqi troops, American commanders said Tuesday.

Military leaders warned of a further escalation in their battle against the jihadists just as two branches of the rival Al-Qaeda group called for a united front against the war coalition Washington is building.

The Syrian government and mainstream opposition must seek a compromise to end three and half years of bloody civil war and block the rise of murderous jihadists, U.N. investigators said Tuesday.

"The rise of (Islamic State fighters) has emphasized the need for the government and mainstream opposition to find common ground and to commit to making compromises," said Paulo Pinheiro, who heads the United Nation's Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Syria.

The U.S. government urged a judge Monday to keep interrogation methods used on an Iraqi detainee while he was at secret CIA prison classified.

From Washington and Paris to Tehran and Damascus, it seems everyone agrees on the growing need to fight "terrorism". What exactly the word means is another matter entirely.

Neither Iran's Hassan Rouhani nor Russia's Vladimir Putin feature on President Barack Obama's "dance card" of meetings with foreign leaders at the U.N. next week, the White House said Monday.

Speculation about possible talks between Obama and Rouhani in particular has been mounting because the counterparts spoke by phone last year on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly.

The United States stepped into Scotland's knife-edge independence debate on Monday, indicating that it hoped that its "special relationship" ally Britain would remain "united."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest stressed that Washington respected the right of Scots to decide their future in Thursday's referendum but hoped for a "strong, robust and united" partner.