The Russian government is operating close to undersea cables, setting off alarms of American officials who believe the Kremlin could cut the lines if tensions continue to escalate.
The United States is currently unsure if Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) fighters, who have reportedly received nearly 50 tons of ammunition funded by American taxpayers, will participate in the U.S. operation to retake Raqqa, the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to the Pentagon.
The “courageous” American soldier who was fatally wounded in a rescue mission in Iraq sacrificed his life to save 70 hostages whose “graves had already been dug” and were about to be “brutally” executed by the “barbaric” Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS), U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters at the Pentagon.
A dispute has arisen in Syria over the disposition of a fifty-ton ammunition shipment from the United States, supposedly intended for Syrian Arab rebel groups. The munitions were instead taken by the Kurdish YPG militia, according to both Arab and Kurdish commanders, although the Pentagon officially insists the shipment reached its intended recipients.
More details have emerged about the raid against an ISIS prison camp near Hawija, Iraq, where a joint American-Kurdish-Iraqi strike force rescued seventy prisoners who were about to be executed and dumped in mass graves.
The United States and Russia have agreed on new rules to avoid any confusion or conflict in Syria as both countries lead different coalitions. The Iraqi government also agreed not to ask Russia for help in its airspace.
The Pentagon approved the $11.25 billion sale of new state-of-the-art advanced warships to Saudi Arabia’s Royal Navy. Congress now has 30 days to decide if they want to block the deal.
The Pentagon confirmed that a U.S. F-16 aircraft was struck by small arms fire from enemy forces while flying over Afghanistan last Tuesday.
Sanafi al-Nasr, al-Qaeda’s chief financial officer and highest-ranking leader of the Khorasan Group, a terrorist organization intent on attacking America and its allies in the West, was killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike in Syria, the Pentagon has announced.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign is furious with 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump over Trump’s comments that the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened on Bush’s brother former President George W. Bush’s watch. But a review of the basic facts of the situation—and Jeb Bush’s own writings— reveals that even the Bushes admit that “leaky” immigration enforcement was a major driving factor in leading to the terrorist attacks.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An estimated 75 percent of the all U.S. military deaths and about 90 percent of the injuries linked to the ongoing war in Afghanistan have occurred under President Obama’s watch, according to a Breitbart News tally.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Russian “aggression” in Europe and now the Middle East is a “new reality” for the United States that is “here to stay,” said U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Department of Defense has revamped its effort to assist so-called moderate Syrian rebels on the ground, shifting its focus away from training to providing them with weapons and other equipment to fight the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked that, instead of funding Syrian rebels, the U.S. should have just given the money to Russia. The U.S. halted its training program after many rebels defected and U.S. weapons landed in the hands of al-Qaeda.
In a belligerent speech commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Communist Workers’ Party, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un told a captive audience his military is “capable of fighting any kind of war” against the United States, implying that North Korea has nuclear capabilities.
The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s failed $500 million program to train and equip so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), reports The New York Times (NYT).
Two U.S. officials claim Russian fighter jets are stalking American predator drones over Syria.
The United States remains committed to its strategy of arming and aiding rebel groups on the ground in Syria with the hopes that they can help stop the Islamic State’s (IS) rise in the region.
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.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested all Western reporters ask the Russian Defense Ministry–instead of the Pentagon–for information about their airstrikes in Syria.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters today that the Pentagon was still willing to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Syria, even after Russia reportedly ordered the U.S. out of the Middle Eastern country.
“The Defense Department’s second-in-command told the Senate on Tuesday the agreement came as a surprise to military intelligence and Pentagon teams are scrambling to make sure classified intelligence from the U.S. does not make its way into the hands of Russian, Syrian or Iranian authorities,” says a report at Defense One.
An offensive launched by Afghan security forces failed to recapture the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
The Obama administration has thrown in the towel on a plan to spend $500 million on training “moderate” Syrian rebels to fight ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the regime of Bashar Assad.
A Pentagon official revealed that Evelyn Farkas, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia, will depart at the end of October. The news comes during the UN General Assembly, where President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had what was described as a “candid” meeting regarding their relationship.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has officially ordered senior Department of Defense (DOD) officials to begin communicating with Russia on matters related to the Syrian conflict in an effort to avoid miscalculations and misjudgments, according to the Pentagon.
After days of insisting that all American gear was under the “positive control” of U.S.-trained New Syrian Force rebels, the Pentagon finally admitted over the weekend that al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front seized vehicle and ammunition from the token “moderate” force.
Nearly 30,000 foreign fighters from more than 100 countries have traveled to Iraq and Syria since 2011, mostly to join ISIS, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous intelligence and law enforcement officials.
After several dispatches from Syria reported that the few remaining American-backed rebel fighters have been compromised by the al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, U.S. Central Command released a statement late Friday confirming that the U.S.-armed New Syrian Forces had delivered equipment and vehicles to the jihadi outfit.
Another massive embarrassment for the Obama administration, as U.S. officials finally admitted on Friday—after days of strenuous denials—that the latest group of “moderate” New Syrian Force rebels surrendered at least some of their weapons and vehicles to al-Qaeda in exchange for “safe passage” into Syria.
Reports from several sources earlier this week claimed that the second wave of seventy “moderate” Syrian rebels trained and equipped by the United States had either surrendered or defected to the local al-Qaeda franchise, the Nusra Front. The Pentagon has cast doubt on these accounts.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) and 33 other Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, expressing outrage over allegations that senior intelligence officers at U.S. Central Command altered their assessments of the U.S. military efforts against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria to make it appear that President Obama is winning the war.
The Pentagon has revealed that on September 15, two Chinese “Flounder” JH-7 fighter-bombers intercepted an American RC-135 surveillance plane over the Yellow Sea, in international airspace.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) does not believe the Pentagon’s claim that U.S. troops in Afghanistan are not being told to ignore the sexual abuse of children by Afghan security forces, according to the lawmaker’s office.
The American command in Afghanistan has told U.S. service members to ignore child rape by Afghan soldiers and police officers, reports The New York Times (NYT).
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, suggested that China may be withholding information that prevents the Pentagon from locating the remains of missing U.S. personnel.
President Barack Obama is nominating longtime Pentagon official Eric Fanning to be the Army’s new secretary. If confirmed, Fanning would be the nation’s first openly gay leader of a military service.
The regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has begun using new weapons provided by Russia, Reuters learned from an unnamed Syrian military source.
The U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) chief and the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs expressed concern about China’s declining influence over volatile and nuclear-armed North Korea.
Army General Lloyd Austin, in charge of the anti-ISIS war effort from the U.S. Central Command, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that only “four or five” members of the U.S.-trained moderate rebel force are still fighting the Islamic State in Syria.
