The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has significantly expanded its footprint in Yemen over the last year, posing a challenge to its rival al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), reports Reuters. ISIS’s ranks have been bolstered with new members amid the messy war in Yemen between Iran-allied Shiite Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab nations.
Ever since the weird non-war against ISIS began, we have heard loud boasts from the Obama Administration about how many fabulously expensive airstrikes coalition forces were conducting. And yet, the Islamic State remains on the march in Iraq and Syria, and is confident enough to launch a new campaign for control of devastated post-Obama, post-Clinton Libya.
The government of Chad has intensified its efforts against the jihadist terrorist group Boko Haram following a bomb attack on the nation’s capital, N’Djamena. After banning the Islamic burqa veil, Chad announced a new series of air strikes against the terror group along the borders with Nigeria and Niger, and has begun efforts to detain “beggars” and foreigners to increase safety in the capital.
The Bashar al-Assad regime launched airstrikes to help its purported enemy the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) advance in and around Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, the U.S. Embassy in Syria wrote on its official Twitter account.
The majority of U.S. pilots deployed on air missions targeting the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria return to base with their weapons still in tow due to a lack of ground intelligence, reported The Washington Times.
According to the Yemeni government-in-exile, United States diplomats are in discussions with Yemen’s Houthis, a Shiite rebel group which seized control of the Gulf country earlier this year.
“Saudi-led airstrikes killed at least 80 people near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia and in the capital Sanaa Wednesday, residents said, the deadliest day of bombing in over two months of war in Yemen,” writes Reuters.
In an effort to protect the strategic Beiji oil refinery from Islamic State forces, the U.S. has carried out 26 airstrikes since Tuesday, according to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has come under fire after a tweet appeared on his official account in which he promised to gift a Bentley vehicle to every Saudi pilot conducting airstrikes against Shiite Houthi targets in Yemen. The tweet was swiftly deleted, and Saudi media claimed it was the product of a “hack.”
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday decided to impose an arms embargo on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and their allies, including former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is in the process transforming their self-proclaimed Iraqi capital Mosul into a moated city by digging trenches and constructing other forms of fortifications around it.
An explosive report in a Kuwaiti newspaper claims that President Obama thwarted an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s nuclear weapons program in 2014 by threatening to order American military forces to shoot down the Israeli jets.
