Small Wars Journal

Blog Posts

SWJ Blog is a multi-author blog publishing news and commentary on the various goings on across the broad community of practice.  We gladly accept guest posts from serious voices in the community.

by Associated Press | Sat, 09/14/2019 - 1:50pm | 0 comments
"The White House says Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al-Qaida leader who had become an increasingly prominent figure in the jihadi organization, has been killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region."
by The Wall Street Journal | Sat, 09/14/2019 - 1:37pm | 0 comments
"A coordinated drone strike hit at the heart of Saudi oil production on Saturday, sparking an enormous blaze and forcing the kingdom to shut down about half of its crude output, according to people familiar with matter."
by Fox News | Sat, 09/14/2019 - 12:34am | 0 comments
"A Taliban negotiating team arrived in Russia on Friday, less than a week after President Trump announced that peace talks with the Islamic militant group in Afghanistan were essentially 'dead.'"
by Voice of America | Fri, 09/13/2019 - 4:04pm | 0 comments
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told an election rally Friday that more than 2,000 Taliban fighters have been killed over the past week and insisted his elected office is where the insurgent group must come to seek a decisive political settlement to the conflict.
by Military Times | Fri, 09/13/2019 - 12:49am | 0 comments
"As the U.S. contemplates the would-be terms of a troop drawdown in Afghanistan, the State Department is mulling its training and equipping relationship not only with Afghan security forces, but with surrounding countries that will play a role in the region’s stability long-term."
by Associated Press | Fri, 09/13/2019 - 12:14am | 0 comments
"Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders agreed they wanted a deal with the United States, but some were in more of a hurry than others. Taliban negotiators were at odds with their Council of Leaders, or shura, about whether to travel to Camp David even before President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the high-stakes meeting planned for last weekend."
by Al-Monitor | Thu, 09/12/2019 - 3:45pm | 0 comments
"A series of alleged Israeli strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq have sent shockwaves across the region and beyond. The attacks on Iraq in particular are unprecedented, with long-term effects yet to be revealed."
by The Washington Post | Thu, 09/12/2019 - 12:26pm | 0 comments
"This city’s subway system — spotless, efficient, cheap to ride — has been a source of civic pride since it began operating four decades ago, and it is often held up as a benchmark for public transportation everywhere."
by USNI News | Thu, 09/12/2019 - 10:59am | 0 comments
"ISIS might have lost control of its last territorial stronghold in March, but the retired Marine Corps general who led American efforts to defeat the terrorist organization five years ago says the group remains much alive."
by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | Thu, 09/12/2019 - 6:01am | 0 comments
U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to hit the Taliban "harder" than ever, as the United States marked the 18th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that ushered in the war in Afghanistan.
by Voice of America | Thu, 09/12/2019 - 4:03am | 0 comments
The renewed tension with India has pushed Pakistan to move some of its troops from the border region with Afghanistan to the Indian Line of Control (LOC), leaving fewer resources to contain the cross-border infiltration of militants along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, a senior Pakistani army official tells VOA.
by The Wall Street Journal | Thu, 09/12/2019 - 2:30am | 0 comments
"Terror group produces bloody images of police and digitally-faked threatening messages in subways."
by Voice of America | Wed, 09/11/2019 - 12:45am | 0 comments
As negotiations between the U.S. and Taliban collapsed this week, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan called Tuesday for direct intra-Afghan talks to resolve the country’s nearly two-decade old conflict.
by The British Broadcasting Corporation | Wed, 09/11/2019 - 12:43am | 0 comments
"Nigeria has denied allegations it has detained thousands of children for suspected links to Islamist militant group Boko Haram. A report released by US-based group Human Rights Watch says children have been held for years in 'horrific conditions'."
by Military Times | Tue, 09/10/2019 - 8:55pm | 0 comments
"The U.S.-led coalition countering ISIS in Iraq and Syria dumped 80,000 pounds of bombs on Qanus Island in Iraq on Tuesday to prevent the Islamic State from using the island as a refuge."
by Combating Terrorism Center at West Point | Tue, 09/10/2019 - 7:32pm | 0 comments
The latest issue of the Combatting Terrorism Center's 'Sentinel' is now online. Continue on for links to all of the articles.
by Fox News | Tue, 09/10/2019 - 1:19pm | 0 comments
"President Trump announced Tuesday that he has fired National Security Adviser John Bolton, saying he 'disagreed strongly' with his suggestions on a range of issues."
by Reuters | Tue, 09/10/2019 - 7:32am | 0 comments
"The U.S. military is likely to accelerate the pace of its operations in Afghanistan to counter an increase in Taliban attacks, a senior U.S. general said on Monday following Washington’s suspension of peace talks with the insurgents."
by The Wall Street Journal | Tue, 09/10/2019 - 7:02am | 0 comments
"Using the Houthis as its proxy, the Iranian regime has established a strategic outpost in war-torn Yemen."
by Associated Press | Mon, 09/09/2019 - 7:25pm | 0 comments
"U.S. peace talks with the Taliban are now 'dead,' President Donald Trump declared Monday, two days after he abruptly canceled a secret meeting he had arranged with Taliban and Afghan leaders aimed at ending America’s longest war."
by Voice of America | Mon, 09/09/2019 - 5:36pm | 0 comments
U.S. President Donald Trump is denying he overruled Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials about hosting the Taliban at Camp David for peace talks.
by Associated Press | Mon, 09/09/2019 - 9:15am | 0 comments
"A federal judge on Thursday greatly reduced the sentences of three former Blackwater security contractors, in the latest development from a complex case dating back to the 2007 shootings of unarmed civilians in Baghdad."
| Mon, 09/09/2019 - 7:59am | 0 comments
"U.S. flags fluttered on the back of coalition armored vehicles as they whizzed past tiny hamlets in northeastern Syria. Once part of the sprawling territories controlled by the Islamic State group, the areas are now under threat of an attack from Turkey, which considers these villages’ liberators, the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish-led forces, to be terrorists."
by The New York Times | Mon, 09/09/2019 - 7:36am | 0 comments
"President Trump’s decision to break off peace talks with the Taliban, at least for now, left Afghanistan bracing for a bloody prelude to national elections this month, while the administration declined on Sunday to rule out a withdrawal of American troops without a peace accord."
by The Wall Street Journal | Mon, 09/09/2019 - 5:29am | 0 comments
"The move stemmed from opposing views within his administration and bipartisan criticism of an emerging deal to withdraw U.S. troops."