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While the fighting continues and work remains to be done in Afghanistan, progress there shows the president’s South Asia Strategy is working, the commander of U.S. Central Command told Pentagon reporters today.

“America’s ‘violence management’ strategy relies on light ground forces, airpower and loose partnerships with local armed actors. Its aim is to degrade and disrupt militant organizations within a chaotic, fractured political landscape, not to commit large numbers of forces and resources to building robust new governments.”

"Syrian rebels said Tuesday that they are taking part in a new round of surrender talks in the country’s southwest after an escalating military campaign displaced more than a quarter of a million people in just two weeks."

Covering events from Dec. 1 to May 31, the report was submitted in accordance with requirements in Section 1225 of the Fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act as amended by Sections 1231 and 1531 of the fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2017 NDAAs.

"How can the US military harness the power of tactical economics as a tool to consolidate gains? Updated doctrine, improved leader education, and stronger relationships with civilian researchers would provide a starting point, but there is no one right answer for employing tactical economics effectively across varied operating environment."

"Both international and US law take as a basic premise the notion that it is possible, important, and reasonably straightforward to distinguish between war and peace, emergencies and normality, foreign and domestic, public and private, and so on."

"American special operations teams are playing a more direct role in military actions against suspected terrorists in Africa than the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged, planning and participating in combat raids by African troops in multiple countries including Somalia, Kenya, Tunisia and Niger, under a set of classified programs."

"Hundreds of Taliban fighters are receiving advanced training from special forces at military academies in Iran as part of a significant escalation of support for the insurgents, Taliban and Afghan officials have told The Times."

"The definitive work on emerging technology and insurgency has yet be written, but two recent books offer suggestions for how the era of big data and AI will affect the United States’ modern conflicts."

"Members of the Army’s new 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade had traveled by mine-resistant vehicle to meet with Afghan forces on the southwestern outskirts of the country’s capital. In the face of repeated attacks, Afghan officials last year installed a hulking, door-frame-shaped scanner to search for bombs in passing trucks. But U.S. soldiers arrived to find the scanner broken and a line of frustrated truckers waiting with dozens of vehicles."

“U.S. forces in Afghanistan conducted more than 20 airstrikes against the Taliban on Saturday after an unprecedented unilateral cease-fire ended. The strikes took place in Ghazni, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces.”

"Afghan President Ashraf Ghani allowed national security forces Saturday to resume counterinsurgency operations, marking the end of an 18-day cease-fire with the Taliban. The government had unilaterally halted anti-Taliban operations in the country for a week, beginning two days before the June 15 annual Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr."

"Many questions remain. Is it, in fact, a given, that US forces will find themselves fighting in dense urban terrain? Are current tactics, techniques, and procedures already sufficient to fight and win on city streets? Does technological innovation hold the key to solving military problems in urban areas? If so, what technologies will dominate?"

"A Syrian government assault on one of the country’s last two rebel-held territories has driven 160,000 people from their homes across southwestern Syria, violating a United States-backed cease-fire and threatening to entangle Israel and Jordan in the conflict."

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are working closely with the Iraqi army to prevent Islamic State militants from returning to a key Syrian town on the border with Iraq, an SDF commander told VOA.

"U.S. global leadership and action has been a driving force behind many of the counterterrorism successes since 9/11. That kind of robust engagement is needed more than ever to consolidate these gains and prevent the re-emergence and spread of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups."

"Bloggers borrowed a page from the playbook of Russia’s so-called hybrid warfare, which American officials say increasingly combines the ability to manipulate events using a mix of subterfuge, cyberattacks and information warfare with conventional military might."

“A common assumption, repeated frequently by diplomats, journalists, analysts, and even the U.S. Congressional Research Service, is that the war began on March 26, 2015, when Saudi Arabia launched its air campaign, Operation Decisive Storm, which became the first stage of a larger military intervention. But that is simply not true.”

"The most brilliant tactical formation devised by any team in the last half-century isn’t football’s Packer sweep, basketball’s triangle offense or anything else relating to sports. It’s the rifle squads of the United States Marine Corps."

Continue on for links to all the articles in the latest online issue of the ‘Australian Army Journal’.

"The United Nations' special envoy for Syria warned Wednesday that an escalation of fighting in the southwestern part of the country risks turning into another Aleppo or eastern Ghouta – two towns that were devastated by government bombings and siege."

"Syrian forces backed by Russian airstrikes intensified an assault on the city of Daraa on Wednesday, expanding their campaign to retake opposition strongholds in Syria’s southwest as the U.S. backed away from enforcing a cease-fire."

"The Afghan air force has grown in capacity and proficiency as it continues to successfully target the Taliban across Afghanistan, the deputy air commander of NATO’s Resolute Support mission said today."

“The U.S. military is considering adding a new warfighting domain to U.S. military doctrine: the underground realm, said the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Tunnels and subterranean infrastructure demand high-level attention, training, and technology, the military’s intelligence chief says.”

“Aside from this southern pocket, the only other significant patches of Syria left outside of government hands are the rebel stronghold of Idlib, Turkish-backed rebel areas surrounding Afrin and the Kurdish region - held by sometimes Assad-allied Kurdish forces backed by the US.”