Military & Security

The deployment of Russia’s most advanced S-400 Triumf air defense system in Syria is “a message,” Zero Hedge anonymous analyst Tyler Durden stresses, posing the question, to whom exactly is this message addressed? In the aftermath of the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber by the Turkish F-16 fighter, Moscow has …

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) assisted by Russian forces and Hezbollah fighters is on a roll in northern Latakia, pushing extremists out of strategic areas close to the Syrian border with Turkey, where the Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down earlier this week.  “The Syrian forces’ operations in the …

The Obama administration is apparently urging Ankara to secure its border with Syria to prevent ISIL and other terrorist groups from smuggling people, weapons and supplies in and out of the war-torn country, but Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer Tony Cartalucci is convinced that the US and Turkey …

Nikolas Gvosdev As we continue to gather more information on the shoot-down of a Russian aircraft by Turkish planes, the incident forces not only Russia and Turkey but all NATO countries (including the United States) as well as other regional players to reconsider their positions and assumptions. Over …

Robert Merry The United States suffers from a severe case of strategic confusion, manifest in the country seeing enemies where none exist and showing an inability to concentrate action where they do exist. Given the immensity of American power relative to the rest of the world, this malady …

It’s the right time for Obama to rethink the administration’s policy toward both Assad and his jihadist foes. In the wake of the ISIS terrorist attack on Paris, President Barack Obama declared that his administration has the right strategy on ISIS and will “see it through”. But the …

By Jeffrey Goldberg U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter had reassuring words for Israel when I interviewed him last week in his office at the Pentagon, but he also had blunt criticism of other American allies in the Middle East: the Arab Gulf states, who, he argued, sometimes appear unwilling …

The Russian Helicopters Company has signed contracts with the Iranian Helicopter Support and Renewal Company (PANHA) on upgrading its maintenance and overhaul facility for Mi-17 helicopters, the Russian company’s deputy head said Wednesday. Two contracts have been reached to “in compliance with the memorandum signed in October 2015 with the PANHA …

If an explosive device brought the Kogalymavia/Metrojet Airbus A321 down (this theory is unconfirmed), the thinking behind the alleged terrorist act could have been unrelated to Russia’s counterterrorism efforts in Syria, intelligence expert Paul R. Pillar noted. The reason is simple: the Sinai Province, a group that claimed …