Blog Posts

"The American commando raid that bagged Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was launched from the sprawling al-Asad airbase in Anbar province Iraq, according to a source on the ground with direct knowledge of the operation."

"The helicopters flew low and fast into the night, ferrying U.S. special forces to a compound where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hiding in Syria. Half a world away, President Donald Trump watched the raid in real time via a video link as troops blasted into the hideout and sent the most-wanted militant running the last steps of his life."

The United States is promising there will be no let-up in its pursuit of the Islamic State terror group despite the death of self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in what is being described as a “daring and dangerous” nighttime raid in northern Syria.

"Representatives of Russia, China, the United States and Pakistan have agreed that negotiation is the only road to peace in Afghanistan, including an early resumption of direct U.S. talks with the Taliban."

"The death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi deprives Islamic State of its ideological head at a time when it is reeling from the loss of its self-proclaimed caliphate and trying to keep its extremist ideas alive."

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Vice President Mike Pence said late-breaking intelligence gave special forces the opening they needed to carry out the attack on Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after President Trump approved the raid earlier this past week.

"The CIA has targeted Islamic State militant group (ISIS) spokesperson Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir in a new operation that comes one day after the organization's leader was killed in a Joint Special Operations Command raid, Newsweek has learned."

"In a stunning success for both President Trump and the nation at large, American forces killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Well, technically we didn't kill Baghdadi. After clearing out the slain terrorist's remaining compound in northwestern Syria, dozens of Americans from the Army Delta Force and Rangers chased him down to the end of a tunnel, where Baghdadi brought three of his children to use as human shields as he blew themselves up."

"The death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi marks the demise of one of the most brutally effective jihadist leaders of modern times — a man who commanded tens of thousands of fighters from around the world, carved out a territorial caliphate in the Middle East and refined a horrific ideology that survives him."

"A nighttime raid. Helicopters. Special forces. A high-value terrorist target. Concerns about identifying him. Could this be Trump’s Bin Laden moment?"

The U.S. chief peace negotiator for Afghanistan met leaders in Kabul Sunday after arriving in the country on an unannounced visit, his first since President Donald Trump halted talks with Taliban insurgents on ending the Afghan war.

"The U.S. military targeted the head of Islamic State in a raid in northwestern Syria that U.S. officials said resulted in the death of an individual—an operation that, if successful, would remove the operational and spiritual leader of the group the U.S. has been attempting to defeat for the past several years."

"ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed to have been killed in a raid conducted by the US military in northwest Syria on Saturday, according to a senior US defense official and a source with knowledge. The final confirmation is pending while DNA and biometric testing is conducted, both sources tell CNN."

"In the capital these days the distant thud of battle punctuates the rumble of the traffic, but the streets are busy. This is a city fueled by oil, coffee and resilience."

"President Trump this month ordered most U.S. troops to leave Syria, paving the way for a Turkish military operation against Kurdish-led militias that had helped the U.S. in the fight against Islamic State."

"The U.S. military sent fresh forces on Saturday to secure oil fields in eastern Syria, two U.S. officials said, as part of a pivot from a decision earlier this month to pull most American troops out of the country."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday his nation's military would "clear terrorists" from its border in northern Syria if the Kurdish YPG militia does not leave by the deadline agreed upon by Turkey and Russia earlier this week.

"Like a bad movie where you've already seen the ending, history now risks repeating itself in a dangerous corner of the Middle East."

"Syrian troops reached a key area near Turkey's border Saturday after sending further reinforcements to the region, in what a war monitor said was its largest deployment there in years."

NATO has reaffirmed its commitment to the long-running Afghanistan mission and said it will ensure its deployment there remains "sustainable."

"Renewed clashes between Kurdish and Turkish forces tested a shaky cease-fire in northern Syria on Friday, as the Russia-backed Syrian government moved troops into the area in part of its efforts to reclaim territory it ceded during the eight-year war."

"Lebanon's Hezbollah movement warned on Friday that a power vacuum could tip the country into civil war, suggesting that adversaries including the United States and Israel were seeking to exploit an unprecedented wave of demonstrations to provoke conflict."

"Last week, hundreds of gunmen from the Sinaloa cartel overpowered military forces in fighting that killed at least a dozen people, blocked the airport and major roads, and terrorized the city of Culiacán for hours until the Mexican government capitulated and freed the son of legendary drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán."

"Psychological operations forces have been under pressure from the Pentagon to step up their influencing missions, the results of which could be seen in Syria, the commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command said last week."

"The U.S. military is planning to send some kind of mechanized force to help keep oil fields in eastern Syria from slipping into the hands of a resurgent ISIS as American troops withdraw from the region."