Blog Posts

"Experts interviewed by Military Times said that in a long, drawn-out conflict the United States and NATO allies would likely win over Russia if there was a major land grab on the eastern European border. But the fear is that Russian forces could move quickly and grab pieces of territory, similar to what happened in Crimea and now in Ukraine."

"ISIS has a unique and dangerous opportunity to exploit conditions in detention facilities and internally displaced persons’ camps across Northern Syria."

"US investigators believe Iran or groups it supports used explosives to damage four ships off the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, media reports say."

"The Pentagon recently presented a military plan to the president’s top national security aides that calls for up to 120,000 troops deploying to the Middle East and a potential crippling cyber-attack on Iran’s infrastructure should Iran speed up its nuclear program or attack U.S. forces."

"A year and a half after the Islamic State group was declared defeated in Iraq, the militants still evoke fear in the lands of their former so-called caliphate across northern Iraq. The fighters, hiding in caves and mountains, emerge at night to carry out kidnappings, killings and roadside ambushes, aimed at intimidating locals, silencing informants and restoring the extortion rackets that financed ISIS’s rise to power six years ago."

"At a meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said."

"The U.N. warned Monday that Cameroon has become one of the fastest-growing displacement crises in Africa, and that the security and humanitarian situations are deteriorating and risk spiraling out of control."

"Dressed in camouflage and sipping tea, the Syrian commander who emerged as America’s closest ally in the battle that defeated Islamic State looked to an unsettling future."

"Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan visited a border city in Texas on Saturday and said he intends to accelerate planning to secure the border and bolster the administration’s ability to accomplish that without the Pentagon’s continuous help."

"Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman and editor-in-chief of the insurgent group’s daily news bulletin, starts every day by collecting reports of overnight fighting with U.S. and Afghan forces."

NYT Editorial - "The American people are being kept more in the dark about the dismal state of the United States’ longest-running war, now in its 18th year."

"The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt successfully lobbied President Trump to reverse U.S. policy in Libya and support a rogue general leading an offensive on a government in Tripoli backed by the United Nations, according to a senior U.S. administration official and two Saudi officials."

"The Pakistani prime minister has condemned a deadly assault by insurgents in a luxury hotel in southwestern Pakistan, saying the attack was part of an effort to "sabotage" the country's economic development."

"U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces officials admit they vastly underestimated both the size of the IS force and the fighters' civilian family members hunkered down for a last stand in Baghuz. Many may have also joined Iraqi and Syrian IS fighters who chose to shift away from the pressure as the SDF closed in on their shrinking territorial holdings."

"Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido told his supporters Saturday at a rally in Caracas that he had instructed his ambassador to the U.S. to contact the U.S. military to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to step down from his post."

"Houthi rebels in Yemen began to withdraw fighters from the country’s most strategic port city, a move that, if completed, would mark a significant step toward salvaging a peace deal that hasn’t been implemented since it was brokered by the U.N. in December."

"As Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, closes in on victory over an eight-year revolt, a secret, industrial-scale system of arbitrary arrests and torture prisons has been pivotal to his success. While the Syrian military, backed by Russia and Iran, fought armed rebels for territory, the government waged a ruthless war on civilians, throwing hundreds of thousands into filthy dungeons where thousands were tortured and killed."

"When the leaders of the Islamic State declared their caliphate in Iraq and Syria, no nationality from outside those countries heeded the call to come fight for it like the Tunisians did."

"Taliban raids like the one on a small outpost in Wardak province that killed 11 of his soldiers earlier this month are a vexing problem for Brig. Gen. Abdul Raziq Safi."

"The U.S. military plans to deploy a Patriot antimissile system to the Persian Gulf area and will beef up its naval presence in response to growing threats from Iran, the Pentagon said Friday."

"Taliban militants overran a cluster of government outposts in northwestern Afghanistan on Friday, leaving more than a dozen Afghan soldiers dead, including several troops from an elite police unit, officials said."

"As the Trump administration doubles down on the contention that Tehran is cooperating with Al Qaeda, another former Iranian commander has reportedly come forward with allegations about an Iran-Al Qaeda link."

"President Trump’s proposal to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization raises the difficult question of just whom he intends to target. The original Islamist organization, founded in Egypt in 1928, has spun off or inspired thousands of independent social or political groups around the world, and they are far from monolithic."

"Intelligence revealed Iran told some proxies and surrogates they could go after American military targets in the region, say 3 U.S. officials."

"This is the third in a VOA series looking at the threat of IS foreign fighters. Next up, a look at the foreign fighters who stayed in Syria and Iraq."