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"Iraqi military officials, security experts and the U.S. government said that Iraq has failed to develop the extensive intelligence network that would offer the best chance of rooting out the militants."

"Despite the Islamic State group’s territorial losses, it is not surrendering and will morph into an insurgency marked by assassinations, improvised bomb attacks and ambushes, warned America’s top general in the Middle East to Congress on Thursday."

"The commander of U.S. forces in Africa has cast doubt on whether the Pentagon will complete plans to cut forces in Africa by 10 percent as the Department of Defense announced late last year."

"Nearly 11 days after peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban began with high hopes, it has become clear that any resolution to the 18-year war could be frustratingly slow. One of the most prominent issues thwarting progress is a disagreement over a fundamental question: What is terrorism, and who is a terrorist?"

"U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces officials, eager to declare victory after laying siege to the northeastern Syrian village of Baghuz more than a week ago, expressed hope this latest exodus of both IS followers and those kidnapped or enslaved by the terror group would be the last."

"As Islamic State cadres mount a final stand in what remains of their proto-state, the group is already switching gears, returning to its insurgent roots by seeding sleeper cells across parts of Syria and Iraq it once controlled."

"The final report on the fatal Niger ambush, which will include who is being punished, awards, and a redacted investigation into the deaths of the four fallen U.S. soldiers, is tied up in the offices of the secretary of defense. That has at least one lawmaker frustrated."

"U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, has said that the current political situation in Afghanistan and the status of negotiations with the Taliban currently under way 'don't merit' a troop withdrawal, despite President Donald Trump's goal of a drawdown."

Sean Naylor at Yahoo News: "As the Islamic State’s physical caliphate shrinks to nothing after an almost five-year campaign led by U.S. special operations forces, military insiders say one small unit has killed more of the extremists than any other: the company of Gray Eagle drones in the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment."

"AFRICOM Commander Calls for Diplomatic Push in Africa as US Pulls Troops from Continent" and "African Terrorist Groups ‘Aren’t Necessarily a Threat to the Homeland,’ AFRICOM Leader Says"

"ISIS’s post-Caliphate insurgency in Iraq is accelerating faster than efforts to prevent it by the U.S. Anti-ISIS Coalition. ISIS is re-establishing capable insurgent networks in multiple historic strongholds and linking them together, setting the conditions for future offensive operations against the Government of Iraq."

"While the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has made progress towards weakening al-Shabaab, the force must expand their efforts to proactively strengthen Somalia’s security architecture before their planned withdrawal in 2021."

"The U.S. Air Force’s new T-X jets could be more than just trainers, with aggressor or light-attack missions now on the table for the Boeing-made plane, the head of Air Combat Command said Thursday."

"I was 4 when the Taliban took over my town in 1998. I think how far we have come and dread going back."

"The Army is preparing to make what it deems as necessary, and major, organizational changes to its force structure within the next five years, according to the Futures and Concepts Center director."

"The U.S. has been providing lethal aid in the form of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine since May, and Russian armor is reportedly deterred by the investment. On top of the lethal aid, the U.S. has trainers currently in the country, including National Guardsmen running the Yavoriv Combat Training Center and American special operations forces running selection courses for their Ukrainian counterparts."

"At staging areas on the outskirts of the northeast Syrian village of Baghuz, the exodus before the end looked more like an exodus without end."

"Two influential members of the United States Senate have introduced legislation that would end the nearly two-decade long war in Afghanistan. The move comes at a time when U.S. officials are engaged in direct talks with Taliban insurgents to negotiate a draw-down plan and counterterrorism guarantees."

"With a harsh crackdown, Bashar al-Assad’s regime helped turn a protest movement into a civil war."

"In eastern Syria, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say Islamic State is trying to slow the attack on the terror group's last scrap of territory in the town of Baghuz by using snipers, suicide bombers and civilians as human shields."

"U.S.-backed forces in Syria are holding more than 2,000 suspected Islamic State fighters, U.S. defense officials said, at least double previous estimates and an obstacle to Trump administration plans to withdraw American forces from Syria."

"The National Security Agency has halted a counterterrorism program that relied on U.S. telecom carriers to turn over records of domestic calls and text messages so analysts could scrutinize them for clues, according to individuals familiar with the matter and a senior GOP congressional aide."

"Hundreds of Islamic State fighters and family members fled the northeastern Syrian village of Baghuz, taking advantage of a pause in ferocious fighting with the U.S.-backed forces that have surrounded the last patch of the terror group's self-declared caliphate."

"The final battle to end ISIS's caliphate is now underway as US-backed forces push into the group's last stronghold in Syria. But the predicted victory may be short-lived for Western countries, which will be forced to confront the problem of what to do with their citizens who went to Syria or Iraq to join the militant group."

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