Blog Posts

Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters clashed in the central province of Ghazni where a U.S. military plane crashed, officials and the militant group say, as the government tried to reach the wreckage site.

"Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that U.S. strategic goals could include drawing down troops in Africa despite French pleas that American support is 'critical' to countering the growing strength of terror groups in the region with links to the Islamic State and al-Qaida."

Via Human Rights Watch - "In his testimony last week in the pre-trial hearing of five men charged with plotting the September 11 attacks on the United States, Dr. James Mitchell vividly described his role in torturing detainees in the program he helped design for the Central Intelligence Agency."

A United States military plane used to help troops communicate and share intelligence on the battlefield has crashed in a Taliban-controlled region of Afghanistan, U.S. military officials confirmed Monday.

Via the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague - "2019 marks (sic – marked) the fifth year of the Sinjar massacre that was performed by the terrorist organisation known as the 'Islamic State' (Daesh). As each year passes, the issue may feel further removed for people not directly affected. Yet—for those awaiting family members to return—it marks yet another year in which the perpetrators of this crime against humanity are not brought to justice."

"NATO’s members are aiming to boost the number of training and military advisory personnel at the alliance’s mission in Iraq, in response to President Trump’s call for them to do more in the Middle East, officials said."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military chief Benny Gantz, his challenger in early March elections, are set to have separate meetings Monday at the White House, where U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to share details of his long-awaited plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"A rocket attack on the heavily fortified Baghdad Green Zone on Sunday hit the U.S. Embassy, drawing condemnation from Iraq’s acting prime minister, who said such acts threaten to drag the country into a new conflict."

"Libya’s internationally recognized government said Sunday that repeated attacks by rival commander Khalifa Haftar have rendered a fragile truce all but meaningless, as the United Nations warned that foreign powers were setting the stage for even more fighting in the OPEC nation."

Ukraine's military said two of its soldiers were killed and two wounded in the country's eastern Donbas region. In a statement on January 26, the military said one soldier was killed and another wounded by gunfire, while in a separate incident another soldier was killed and another wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED).

"A new poll shows Americans are more likely than not to support President Donald Trump’s decision to order a drone strike that killed an Iranian general, even amid widespread skepticism about his foreign policy overall."

"U.S. troops at military outposts ín eastern Syria asked variations of the same question to their top commander Saturday: What is our future here? What are the goals we need to think about?"

"Iraqi security forces on Saturday regained control over some areas in central Baghdad and southern cities after an influential cleric withdrew his support for widespread protests, clearing the way for the government to end a nearly four-month-old uprising."

"Incoming, Incoming!" The loudspeaker screeches out a warning of a rocket attack at Union III, the US-led coalition base in Iraq's capital, Baghdad.

"American policymakers should not perceive the January 24 march as representative of all Iraqis or as a political mandate that warrants abandoning U.S. security commitments to Iraq. The relative success of the anti-U.S. march is unlikely to significantly alter the character or core objectives of Iraq’s pre-existing protest movement, which include a unified and sovereign Iraq free from sectarian divides, corrupt elites, and foreign interference from all actors, including Iran and the United States."

As the United States is poised to sign a peace agreement with the Islamist Taliban movement in Afghanistan, there are signs that a lasting settlement between the insurgents and Afghan society might prove more of a challenge than an accord between Washington and the Taliban.

"Although some journalists were quick to embrace the Washington Post’s characterization of its reporting as 'new Pentagon papers,' like New Year’s Eve fireworks, after a bright flare, everything was as it had been by the following day. It seems clear, more than a month after they were first published, that the Washington Post’s Afghanistan Papers were a resounding dud."

"Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has begun a review of U.S. Southern Command, which could lead to cuts to the regional combatant command — or perhaps increased resources at a time that China and Russia are ramping up activity in the region."

The United States and Israeli used the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp to assail Iran, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it "the most anti-Semitic regime on the planet."

U.S. President Donald Trump says he plans to release his long delayed Middle East peace plan before hosting Israeli leaders at the White House next Tuesday.

The January 2020 issue of the Combatting Terrorism Center's “Sentinel” is now online. Continue on for links to all the latest articles.

"Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team deployed to Manda Bay Airfield, Kenya on Jan. 5, according to Army officials."

"The United Nations’ main court said Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar remain extremely vulnerable and ordered the country to take urgent steps to protect the minority group while a broader case on whether it committed genocide is heard."

"Even as destroyed U.S. military aircraft smoldered from an al-Shabab attack that killed three Americans this month in Kenya, the al-Qaida-linked group issued a taunting message to African troops: The U.S. will abandon you just as it did the Kurds."

A growing number of fighters and followers captured during the final battles to defeat the Islamic State terror group’s self-declared caliphate are being released in Syria, with some facing justice and others being given a chance to restart their lives.