The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s assessment, based on data provided by the US military, is the best case scenario of the security situation for the country. At best, Afghanistan is a “stalemate.”
The Taliban displayed US-supplied HUMVEES and Ranger pickup trucks used by the police and military that were captured or destroyed. The Taliban also seized a large quantity of rocket propelled grenade launchers, machine guns, rifles, mortars, and other weapons.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) says that 12 Ugandan soldiers were killed in an ambush by Shabaab yesterday. The al Qaeda branch claims the casualties were much higher and a local official told the press that 24 bodies were carried away from the scene.
The Islamic State’s Wilayah Khorasan attacked the Iraqi embassy in Kabul earlier today. Nearly 16 years after the US invaded Afghanistan, civilian and official facilities in the country’s capital are regularly assaulted. Both the Taliban and Wilayah Khorasan have launched complex operations in Kabul on multiple occasions this year.
One Shabaab fighter from the “Mogadishu Attack Network” was killed. The strike is the second of its kind reported by AFRICOM over the past month.
Today’s launch comes less than a week after a similar ballistic missile launch directed at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
The ceasefire comes just one day after Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah touted his forces imminent victory in the Jurud Arsal region of Lebanon.
The US military identified seven senior Islamic State propagandists and facilitators killed in coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria this year. One of them, Rayaan Meshaal, founded Amaq News Agency, one of the group’s most important propaganda arms.
The video offers more visual confirmation of Hezbollah’s capabilities for armed commercial drones.
Approximately 57 of the 82 soldiers at an Afghan National Army base in the southern province of Kandahar were either killed, wounded or captured during the attack.
The Shiite jihadist group offers safety to the Sunni militants in Arsal if they “throw down their weapons and surrender.”
Kata’ib Imam Ali and Kata’ib al Sabriun join other IRGC-controlled Iraqi Shia militias training inside Syria.
The Taliban is demonstrating that it can sustain operations in all theaters of Afghanistan. The three districts are located in three different regions of Afghanistan.
Saturday’s launch shows that ballistic missiles launched from Houthi-held territory in Yemen continue to be a threat to Saudi Arabia and the wider area.
The Afghan government said all of those killed were civilians, while the Taliban claimed its attack killed “intelligence officers.”
The insurgent leader said that his forces will take part in any future conflict with Israel alongside Hezbollah. The statement comes on the heels of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah pledging Shiite forces from around the Middle East and South Asia would be involved.
As the offensive enters its third day, Hezbollah has claimed several advances on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border.
“Since at least 2009,” the State Department says in a recently released report, “Iran has allowed AQ [al Qaeda] facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through the country, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are running a propaganda campaign to appropriate victory in Mosul and the broader war against the Islamic State as their own, while omitting US military support, which has been critical in the campaign.
While Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri claims that the Lebanese military is not coordinating with Syria or Hezbollah near Arsal, various reports from on the ground say otherwise.
The State Department says there “are reportedly about 7,000 Hezbollah fighters in Syria.” They have been deployed to the country to bolster Bashar al Assad’s regime.
On July 19, Dr. David Andrew Weinberg testified before Congress concerning the incitement found in Saudi Arabia’s government-published textbooks for school children. He argued that such incitement is not just a moral issue or a human rights issue, but also a national security issue.
The State Department’s newly released Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 says that “many members” of the Islamic State’s Libyan branch fanned out across the country after the battle for Sirte last year. Sirte had served as the group’s stronghold inside Libya.
The State Department’s newly released Country Reports on Terrorism says that Pakistan “did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban,” including the Haqqani Network, in 2016. The Taliban’s leadership has long had a presence in Pakistan.
The Pakistan military recoiled after Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense called on Pakistan to launched operations against “terrorist centers” throughout the country, including in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Quetta.
On the 23rd anniversary of the Jewish Community Center bombing in Buenos Aires, which remains the deadliest attack on Argentinian soil, Iran continues to protect the suspects from arrest by Interpol.
After ignoring numerous false Taliban claims that it killing dozens of US soldiers, Resolute Support – NATO’s mission in Afghanistan – today denied the Taliban’s latest boast.
Nawa district, which is adjacent to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, was under Taliban control for nine months before Afghan forces could muster the strength to mount an operation and retake it.
The US announced that Abu Sayed, the emir of the Islamic State’s Wilayah Khorasan, died as result of an airstrike in Afghanistan’s Kunar province on July 11. He is the third emir of Wilayah Khorasan killed in the past year.
At a July 10 ceremony commemorating a Revolutionary Guard commander recently slain in Iraq, Major General Qassem Soleimani hailed victory in Mosul against the Islamic State. Addressing the crowd with the flags of the Islamic Republic, Lebanese Hezbollah, Palestine and Iraq draped behind him, the Qods Force chief praised Iraqi actors, as well as Iran’s material and combat support to Iraq during the war.