ISIS

TOKYO (AP) -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said early Sunday that Japan was still working to free two hostages held by the extremist Islamic State group while calling a new online video about their fate "outrageous and unforgiveable." The purported message claimed one of the Japanese hostages had been killed and demanded a prisoner exchange for the other...

TOKYO (AP) -- One is a freelance journalist respected for his reporting on refugees and children in war zones. The other is a man who seems obsessed with guns and went to Syria to train with fighters.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Twitter site of the military's U.S. Central Command was taken over Monday by hackers claiming to be working on behalf of the Islamic State militants. American and coalition fighters are launching airstrikes against IS in Iraq and Syria.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- The father of a Jordanian pilot captured by Islamic State militants in Syria has pleaded for his son's release.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Pope Francis condemned the Islamic State assault on Christians and other religions minorities in Iraq and Syria, as he arrived Friday in Turkey to encourage Muslim leaders to take a stronger stand against extremists who twist religion to justify terrorism.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Kurdish peshmerga forces launched a new offensive Wednesday targeting Islamic State group extremists in Iraq, even as a suicide bomber killed at least five people in the Kurds' regional capital.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's top military leader told Congress Thursday that the United States would consider dispatching a modest number of American forces to fight with Iraqi troops as they engage in more complex missions in the campaign against Islamic State militants.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi officials said Sunday that the head of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was wounded in an airstrike in western Anbar province. Pentagon officials said they had no immediate information on such an attack or on the militant leader being injured.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is authorizing the U.S. military to deploy up to 1,500 more troops to Iraq as part of the mission to combat the Islamic State group.

CAYKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Kurds rallied in Turkish cities Saturday in solidarity with the embattled Syrian city of Kobani, which has been under a brutal siege by the Islamic State group.