State Department Spokesperson John Kirby stated that “there’s a combat role here for US forces” who are launching airstrikes, ground forces will “absolutely” “be exposed potentially to combat operations,” and Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler “died in an act of combat”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told the Syrian Kurdish PYD forces, who have worked with the United States in the past, “Pull yourself together” and keep east of the Euphrates River–or face military attack by Turkish forces.
Iran and Saudi Arabia, two states on polar opposite sides of the ongoing civil war in Syria, are set to meet face-to-face in Vienna on Friday, as part of international talks which hope to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and his Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will attend and participate in the next round of diplomatic talks in Vienna.
The Russian government is claiming 19-year-old Vadim Kostenko, a contract serviceman, committed suicide in Syria on Saturday over problems with a woman. His family is adamantly rejecting this version of events.
Contents: Iran’s Rafsanjani admits to nuclear development since 1980s; Khamenei’s nuclear fatwa and the Iraq war; Rafsanjani and Khamenei publicly disagree on the nuclear deal
Speaking in an interview with Iran’s Al Alam TV on Monday, Iranian Brigadier Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said the “Zionist regime’s” collapse may happen in less than 25 years.
While the Obama administration deals with the fallout from bombing a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan, the Saudis have a similar situation on their hands in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi insurgents.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Iran increased its nefarious activities in the Middle East in the months after it reached a nuclear deal with U.S.-led world powers, suggested a top State Department official.
Almost 200,000 people have attempted to illegally cross from Turkey into Syria over the past year, and many of those individuals are seeking to join terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, Turkish intelligence announced in a report Wednesday.
According to a final report from U.S. Central Command, issued as the third and final training class winds down, $385 million was spent on President Obama’s Syrian rebel training program to train 180 graduates, with only 95 of them currently active in Syria.
The Free Syrian Army has been backed by Western powers until now and has been actively targeted by Russian airstrikes, but it has reportedly made overtures to Moscow to discuss military cooperation, or at least an end to Russian bombing of their positions.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided inaccurate location data for nearly two dozen health facilities in the western Afghan province of Herat, placing the hospitals at risk of suffering the same deadly fate as the Doctors Without Borders medical center, a watchdog agency appointed by Congress found.
Reuters, citing two Obama Administration officials, reports that U.S. special operations in Iraq and Syria may occur in the near future.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran who continues to maintain a loyal following both inside and outside of the country, admitted in an interview with Iranian media that the regime in Tehran commenced a nuclear weapons program at the height of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
Turkish newspapers Bugün and Millet have painted their front pages black in protest of a Wednesday morning police raid on their offices, as well as the offices of Bugün TV and Kanaltürk. Police shut down the Kozi-Ipek media network and attacked journalists and protesters with tear gas and water cannons in what many claim is an abuse of government power.
Supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) have released a new propaganda manual, titled Oh Media Correspondent, You Are the Mujahid, in an effort to amp up their already well-known social media and Internet presence.
The office of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad issued a statement Tuesday claiming to welcome “any political solution” to the Syrian civil war, days after insisting that an election is out of the question until Assad achieves “victory over terrorism.”
While being questioned by Lindsey Graham about the means through which the Obama administration intended to secure the ousting of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter conceded that such efforts were “principally political.”
United States State Department spokesman John Kirby called Iran’s “destabilizing activity” in Syria “unhelpful” but noted that the Islamic Republic would need to be more involved in the diplomatic process of achieving an end to the violence in the region sooner rather than later.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Able-bodied young Muslim men of military age, who are fleeing their home country in search of refuge in the West, should stay behind and fight radical Islam, suggested Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) during a House panel hearing on the ongoing refugee crisis fueled by the civil war in Syria.
The video below was released by the Kurdistan Regional Security Council. Its opening moments offer helmet-cam footage from the rescue of some 70 hostages from the ISIS prison near Hawija, Iraq.
The Islamic State has struck on a novel combination of depravities, murdering three prisoners by lashing them to ancient stone pillars at a historic site in Palmyra, Syria, and then destroying both pillar and prisoner with explosives.
Though Palestinian leadership has continued to make unproven allegations related to Muslims being mistreated at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount compound, where the Al Aqsa mosque stands, Palestinian leaders have continued to reject measures–such as the installation of cameras at holy sites–that could provide proof for their claims.
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen who helped establish a pro-Tehran lobbying group in America, has been arrested in Iran and imprisoned indefinitely.
