Blog Posts

"Preemptively targeting Iran and its proxies in Syria, or 'mowing the grass,' as the Israelis say, remains the centerpiece of the strategy to deny Iran a 'land bridge' to its proxies in Lebanon, via Iraq and Syria. Such a route would pose an abiding threat to Israel. Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/09/israel-anti-iran-strategy-worries-conflict.html#ixzz5zYzYfa7L

A spokesman for Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani says the Afghan government will only consider making a "legitimate" peace with the Taliban after a national election in September, despite political uncertainty following the recent collapse of U.S.-Taliban peace talks.

"Taliban negotiators have held talks with Russian officials in Moscow, in an apparent effort to restart discussions with the U.S. just days after President Trump killed a nearly completed deal to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan and declared negotiations with the insurgent group dead."

Saudi Arabia's interior ministry says that fires from an apparent early morning drone strike at Aramco oil facilities in the eastern town of Abqaiq have been extinguished and that no one was killed in the attacks.

"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."

"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."

"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.'"

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.

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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.

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.

"Terror group produces bloody images of police and digitally-faked threatening messages in subways."

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.

"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'."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"Using the Houthis as its proxy, the Iranian regime has established a strategic outpost in war-torn Yemen."

"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."

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.