In recent weeks, President Obama quietly broadened the US mission in Afghanistan in 2015, authorizing US forces to conduct missions against the Taliban and other groups that threaten Afghanistan, the US, or Coalition forces and to support Afghan troops in combat missions. US troop levels in Afghanistan, to be reduced to about 4,900 by the […]
Thousands of Iraq Chemical Weapons Destroyed in Open Air, Watchdog Says
In a Shift, Obama Extends US Role in Afghan Combat
CENTCOM said US and partner nations have carried out seven airstrikes in Syria and 23 in Iraq against the Islamic State since Nov. 19. Vice-President Biden met with Turkey’s prime minister in Ankara about the campaign against the Islamic State.
5 Guantánamo Inmates Are Sent to Eastern Europe
Canadian military mum on CF-18 inflicted casualties
French arms shipments set to arrive in Lebanon
US authorities released three Guantanamo Bay detainees to Georgia, including Abdel Ghaib Ahmad Hakim, a Yemeni; the other two are Salah Mohammed Salih Al-Dhabi and Abdul Khaled Al-Baydani. The US also released two detainees to Slovakia, Hashim Bin Ali Bin Amor Sliti and Husayn Salim Muhammad Al-Mutari Yafai. Seventy-four inmates remain at Guantanamo awaiting resettlement. […]
CIA considers overhaul that could be largest in agency’s history
CENTCOM said that between Nov. 17 and Nov. 19, US and partner nations carried out 24 airstrikes in Iraq against the Islamic State and six airstrikes against the group in Syria; the US also conducted one airstrike near Haram in northwest Syria against al Qaeda’s “Khorasan Group.” US military records show that the US Air […]
Somali-American who helped Mogadishu govt killed
President Obama condemned the terrorist attack on worshipers at a Jerusalem synagogue that left three US citizens, a Briton, and an Israeli policeman dead and several others seriously wounded. A spokesman for the National Security Council said Obama has directed relevant departments and agencies to review the government’s policies for addressing the kidnapping of US […]
CENTCOM reported that since Nov. 14, US forces have conducted 11 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, and US and partner forces have carried out 20 airstrikes in Iraq against the group. A US intelligence official indicated that US targeting in Syria and Iraq is hampered by insufficient intelligence on the ground. The American […]
Global Number of Youths Is Highest Ever, UN Reports
US State Department’s unclassified email system hacked
Lebanese support ISIS airstrikes: survey
Secretary of Defense Hagel announced plans to revitalize the US military’s technological capabilities. Qatar’s foreign minister warned that the US air campaign against the Islamic State in Syria is helping the Assad regime and straining Sunni-Shia relations in the Middle East; he suggested that Arab forces take over territory recaptured from the Islamic State. President […]
Latest Islamic State horror masks a week of defeats
Iraq and US Find Some Potential Sunni Allies Have Already Been Lost
In his first visit to Iraq since the US air campaign against the Islamic State began in August, Joint Chiefs chair Gen. Martin Dempsey said that the battle against the group in Iraq is “starting to turn,” but cautioned that the effort to eradicate the group will take several years. The Obama administration is thinking […]
Pentagon says billions needed for neglected US nuclear force
CENTCOM said the US and its coalition partners have conducted 20 strikes in Syria since Nov. 12, including one strike west of Aleppo against al Qaeda’s “Khorasan” network; 19 of the strikes targeted the Islamic State in three provinces. US and coalition forces have also targeted the Islamic State in Iraq since Nov. 12, carrying […]
Samantha Power, US Ambassador, Issues Warning on Anti-Semitism in Europe
Hagel: Taking out Assad ‘won’t put ISIL back in the box’
Joint Chiefs chair Gen. Dempsey said the US is considering sending a small number of US combat troops to fight alongside Iraqi forces against the Islamic State. Dempsey also said some 15,000 Syrian rebels will be needed to pressure Islamic State forces in northern and eastern Syria. Defense Secretary Hagel claimed that the coalition air […]
Iraq’s Kurds appeal for new US arms to combat Islamic State
Drone sightings up dramatically in US
Marine pullout offers preview of what US leaves behind for Afghan troops
Since Nov. 10, the US and its coalition partners have carried out 16 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria and seven airstrikes against the group in Iraq. The US also targeted al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula with a drone strike in Yemen, and a US drone strike yesterday in Pakistan killed several “foreign […]
UAE emerges as quiet, potent US ally