With astonishing speed, American influence—withered by years of Barack Obama’s indecisiveness—is fading, as Iraq realigns around Russia and Iran. Take it from the Iraqis, who are celebrating the arrival of “Putin the Shiite” in Syria, hoping he’ll swing into Iraq to pick up the fight against ISIS.
At least four Russian missiles reportedly crashed into Iran instead of Syria. The Russian government launched 26 rockets from the Caspian Sea on Wednesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made incendiary remarks on Thursday, warning that he does not fear chilling diplomatic relations with Russia if Russian planes continue to violate Turkish airspace in their campaign to support Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Russian warplanes have committed war crimes by striking three medical facilities in Syria in just two days, according to a New-York based humanitarian nonprofit group.
Russian propaganda outlet Pravda implied in a report this week that U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) wants to fund arms for the Islamic State, to be used to shoot down Russian fighter jets.
Russia may consider a formal request from Baghdad to expand its airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) beyond Syria to Iraq, said the head of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) refuses to explicitly say whether or not American military troops are planning to assist and protect U.S.-armed and trained Syrian rebels who come under attack by Russia.
The Obama administration is complaining that Russian president Vladimir Putin promised he would help to “deconflict” Syria and is now violating those promises.
U.S. Senator and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio is looking like the smartest guy in the room when it comes to talking about foreign policy, especially after predicting that Russia would eventually engage in the Syrian civil war.
The Russians are still insisting their air campaign is targeting the Islamic State, but U.S. officials say the bombs have been dropping on CIA-backed rebel groups.
Turkey has sent ground forces into Iraq to chase down Kurdish militants for the first time since a ceasefire deal was reached more than two years ago.
The Nigerian military announced Thursday that it had reviewed 5,000 cases of dishonorably discharged soldiers and chosen to reinstate more than 3,000 of them and that they are fit for the battle against ISIS-affiliated group Boko Haram.
As mentioned last week, President Obama’s desultory attempt to influence the bloody chaos in Syria with a mere handful of U.S.-trained and equipped Syrian rebels brought contempt and stunned disbelief from across the Arab world.
Tensions between Turkey and the Kurds continue to escalate as Kurdish militia groups who have been fighting ISIS in Syria complained of coming under fire from Turkish forces. Notably, these are Kurdish militia units not direct affiliated with the PKK—the Kurdish separatists classified as terrorists by Turkey and subjected to airstrikes by American-made Turkish F-16 jets after several recent instances of violence.
A United Arab Emirates military brigade has joined ground troops combating Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, in a move that senior Yemeni and American military officials believe could intensify a regional fight between Iran and Saudi-led Sunni Gulf countries, reports the New York Times (NYT).
The increased level of Turkish cooperation with American efforts against the Islamic State (ISIS) has produced the uncomfortable side effect of the Turks declaring open season on our most vital ally, the Kurds. At least the Turks are making good on their promise to allow more extensive American use of their airbases, as the Pentagon says armed US drones are now operating from the Incirlik Air Base.
Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, is calling for the Marxist terror group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to leave Iraq completely, as civilians have died in Turkish airstrikes targeting the group. Barzani also condemned Turkish forces for killing civilians in his territory.
The nearly one-year-old U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria has already cost American taxpayers more than $3 billion, according to the Pentagon.
The Turkish government has faced strong criticism, including criticism from its own Kurdish citizens, for not doing enough to fight ISIS and help Kurds in Syria. A massive suicide bombing attributed to ISIS earlier this week greatly exacerbated these tensions.
A NATO-led coalition airstrike, aimed at Taliban members in the restive Logar province east of the capital Kabul, killed at least seven Afghan troops and injured five others, according to various media reports.
Following Independence Day, the United States ramped up its aerial anti-Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) campaign in the Middle East, targeting the terrorist group with a new wave of airstrikes, described by the Associated Press as “one of its most sustained aerial operations carried out in Syria to date.”
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has significantly expanded its footprint in Yemen over the last year, posing a challenge to its rival al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), reports Reuters. ISIS’s ranks have been bolstered with new members amid the messy war in Yemen between Iran-allied Shiite Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab nations.
Ever since the weird non-war against ISIS began, we have heard loud boasts from the Obama Administration about how many fabulously expensive airstrikes coalition forces were conducting. And yet, the Islamic State remains on the march in Iraq and Syria, and is confident enough to launch a new campaign for control of devastated post-Obama, post-Clinton Libya.
The government of Chad has intensified its efforts against the jihadist terrorist group Boko Haram following a bomb attack on the nation’s capital, N’Djamena. After banning the Islamic burqa veil, Chad announced a new series of air strikes against the terror group along the borders with Nigeria and Niger, and has begun efforts to detain “beggars” and foreigners to increase safety in the capital.
The Bashar al-Assad regime launched airstrikes to help its purported enemy the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) advance in and around Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, the U.S. Embassy in Syria wrote on its official Twitter account.
The majority of U.S. pilots deployed on air missions targeting the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria return to base with their weapons still in tow due to a lack of ground intelligence, reported The Washington Times.
According to the Yemeni government-in-exile, United States diplomats are in discussions with Yemen’s Houthis, a Shiite rebel group which seized control of the Gulf country earlier this year.
“Saudi-led airstrikes killed at least 80 people near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia and in the capital Sanaa Wednesday, residents said, the deadliest day of bombing in over two months of war in Yemen,” writes Reuters.
In an effort to protect the strategic Beiji oil refinery from Islamic State forces, the U.S. has carried out 26 airstrikes since Tuesday, according to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has come under fire after a tweet appeared on his official account in which he promised to gift a Bentley vehicle to every Saudi pilot conducting airstrikes against Shiite Houthi targets in Yemen. The tweet was swiftly deleted, and Saudi media claimed it was the product of a “hack.”
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday decided to impose an arms embargo on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and their allies, including former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is in the process transforming their self-proclaimed Iraqi capital Mosul into a moated city by digging trenches and constructing other forms of fortifications around it.
An explosive report in a Kuwaiti newspaper claims that President Obama thwarted an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s nuclear weapons program in 2014 by threatening to order American military forces to shoot down the Israeli jets.
