Zalmay Khalilzad If history is any indication, even the most promising news from Iraq must be celebrated with caution. But the liberation of the heart of Ramadi, if consolidated, can offer lessons for long-term strategic successes in Iraq and for broader campaign against ISIS. While the outcome in …
Read More »Iran’s Leader Orders to Expand Missile Program Over US Sanctions Threat
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed source close to the Obama administration, that Washington was preparing fresh sanctions against firms and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates over alleged links to Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered the …
Read More »ISIS Forum Brainstorms Creative Ideas For Terror Attacks
ISIS loyalists are brainstorming more creative ways to inflict violence against their enemies. A prominent user put out a call on an online forum frequented by supporters of the terror group, asking for outside-the-box ideas for terrorism. More than dozen Islamic State sympathizers added and discussed ideas, Vocativ …
Read More »View From Russia: Top Events of 2015
Airstrikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces against Daesh (Islamic State) in Syria have been named the most important event of 2015 by Russian residents, according to a survey conducted by Obschestvennoe Mnenie agency. Among other significant events, the respondents named the growth of terrorism in the world, the crash of a …
Read More »Russian General Says New Weapons Will ‘Neutralize’ US Shield
Russia’s strategic nuclear forces chief says its new weapons will be capable of “neutralizing” any potential missile defenses. Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, the Strategic Missile Forces’ commander, said Wednesday in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that the nation’s military planners have taken into account the emerging potential …
Read More »How ISIS Actually Lost Ramadi
Iraqi commandos and U.S. airstrikes drove the terror army from much of the city. But that war plan could backfire the next time around. Pentagon officials hailed the U.S.-trained Iraqi army this week for retaking much of the western Iraq city of Ramadi from the self-proclaimed Islamic State. …
Read More »Life After Islamic State
The Yazidi shopkeepers in Snuny, in northern Iraq, have a warmth about them that belies their circumstances. A year ago their town was liberated from ISIS by Kurdish peshmerga forces. The hope was that some of the 250,000 Yazidis who fled ISIS after the extremist group began massacring …
Read More »China is building a 2nd aircraft carrier
China has confirmed it was building a second aircraft carrier, as neighbors worry about Beijing’s new assertiveness to claims in the South China Sea. Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said the carrier had been designed in China and was being built in the port of Dalian. Foreign military analysts …
Read More »The Power Politics behind the Islamic State (Daesh) and the “Trade” Agreements
The protracted conflicts in Syria and many parts of West Asia have been a fertile ground for the rise of extreme militants professing their own barbaric distortion of the Islamic Faith. The involvement of two major powers in what can only be described as a cold war of …
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