Blog Posts

"Four years, nine months, billions of dollars and tens of thousands of allied fighters’ lives. As the U.S.-backed Syrian forces declared a triumphant end last weekend to the battle against the Islamic State, Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, took a mental inventory."

"It has been difficult to find a credible number for the Islamic State group’s total troop strength ever since it emerged, and speculation has ranged widely."

Saad Masood - 'Daily Times' (Pakistan) - "This policy of reconciliation is tasked with curbing the insurgent tendency that aims to usurp power away from the government. Terrorism is one of the main strategies that executes this insurgent policy. Therefore, it stands to reason that – after deliberating the counter insurgency policy – a counter terrorism policy is also envisaged and adopted. That is also because, in the sequence of events, generally insurgency will come first and lead to terrorism, which comes second. That is why, even in the order of responses, nominally counter insurgency comes first and counter terrorism second."

"U.S. officials walked out of a meeting here that was attended by the top defense aide of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in the latest sign of fraying ties between Washington and Kabul over negotiations with the Taliban to end the 18-year Afghan war."

"Top lawmakers are blasting the Trump administration's proposal to slash funding for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development."

"Kashmir could be 'hurtling towards a heightened phase of terrorism,' according to an assessment recently published by the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a Delhi-based website that tracks militant groups in the region. Even as the Indian government has clamored for action against Pakistan, 'what is being completely overlooked are strategies to restore internal stability and sober governance' to Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state."

"After months of fighting, the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has finally lost Baghuz, a village in eastern Syria that came to represent the final chapter in its self-styled caliphate."

"In Islamic State’s former eastern Syrian stronghold, the Islamic Republic of Iran is parlaying its military and economic might into a lasting foothold."

"Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan told House lawmakers Tuesday that a new review into the deadly October 2017 ambush in Niger that left four American soldiers dead is underway."

"Many of the extremist group's fighters will now become insurgents but that is not something America can solve."

"Focus will change from years of armed conflict to confrontation with dispersed, furtive insurgency."

"New actors are contesting the basic norms of statehood, borders, and non-intervention at the local, state, regional, and global levels. But is Europe prepared?"

"The Donald Trump administration’s top envoy for Syria confirmed today that the United States would continue to keep a residual troop presence in the war-torn country for the foreseeable future to ensure the lasting defeat of the Islamic State even as the Pentagon begins to draw down troops."

"Israel Katz's statement comes hours after Hamas announced Egypt had brokered a ceasefire with Israel, Al Jazeera reported."

"This type of shift could have serious policy implications."

"Israel and Hamas exchanged blows on Monday after a rocket launched from Gaza struck a house in central Israel, wounding seven people."

"Syrians who remained loyal to President Bashar al-Assad throughout the past eight years of war are increasingly expressing discontent with his government as living standards in the country continue to deteriorate even as the conflict winds down."

"The strength of the United States is reflected by its values, diversity and what we can offer the world as a collective whole."

"The reported cease-fire between Israel and Hamas did not go into effect Monday night as a new barrage of rockets hit the south."

"Israeli military jets began striking targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, just as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting at the White House with President Trump."

"A long-range rocket fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into a house in central Israel and wounded seven people early Monday, forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a high-profile visit to Washington and prompting the military to deploy troops along Israel's southern border."

"It was the third long-range rocket fired towards central Israel from the Gaza Strip in two weeks, catching Israel by total surprise and this time striking its target – a civilian home."

"The United States and its allies are nowhere close to bringing down the terrorist organization’s economic empire."

"On Saturday, after five years of fighting, the militants lost their last sliver of land, a bombed out camp in Syria. What was once a self-proclaimed 'Caliphate,' occupying vast territories in Iraq and Syria and bent on the destruction, is now once again an elusive insurgency."

Via Kurdistan 24 - "The US-led coalition on Saturday congratulated the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on eliminating the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate and stated that it would continue to work with the SDF to prevent a resurgence of the extremist group that terrorized large portions of Syria and Iraq for years."