Contents: US Navy to challenge China in the South China Sea today; What was the purpose of Russia’s Caspian Sea cruise missile attack on Syria?; Insurers taking increasingly risky investment bets
The United States is currently unsure if Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) fighters, who have reportedly received nearly 50 tons of ammunition funded by American taxpayers, will participate in the U.S. operation to retake Raqqa, the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to the Pentagon.
A dispute has arisen in Syria over the disposition of a fifty-ton ammunition shipment from the United States, supposedly intended for Syrian Arab rebel groups. The munitions were instead taken by the Kurdish YPG militia, according to both Arab and Kurdish commanders, although the Pentagon officially insists the shipment reached its intended recipients.
The fifth season of Showtime’s spy thriller Homeland premiered last Sunday night. Once President Obama’s favorite TV show, this episode is downright contemptuous of U.S. — read Obama’s — foreign policy as regards the Middle East and Syria in particular. For somone who refuses to utter the words “Radical Islam,” Homeland is highly unlikely to be Must See TV for the Pres.
To respond to Russia’s military campaign in Syria, first, we have to be realistic about the facts on the ground. Iraq and Syria, for all practical purposes, are failed states.
The Pentagon revealed this week that U.S. warplanes in Syria changed their course to avoid a collision with Russian warplanes. The planes took off from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Due to Russia inching closer to Turkey, NATO’s chief said the organization has to be ready to protect the country.
Russia claimed Friday that its air force bombed multiple positions held by the Islamic State in Raqqa, a city known as the de facto capital of the jihadi group in Syria.
While Russia has diverted much of the world’s attention to the war in Syria, the Islamic State’s online propagandists are working to divert attention away from the dangers of living under ISIS with the announcement of two new theme parks opening in Iraq and Syria.
Kurdish forces are attempting to cut off the route often taken by foreigners wishing to link up with the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) terror group and join its Middle East jihad.
A young Yazidi sex slave told The Daily Mail that Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) militants ripped off American hostage Kayla Mueller’s fingernails before she became the wife of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has banned television and demolished satellite dishes to prevent residents of its self-declared “caliphate” from accessing foreign channels deemed “dangerous” due to their anti-ISIS programming, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has learned.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced this week that the country can take at least 10,000 Syrian refugees if his Conservative government is reelected in October.
Kurdish outlet Rudaw is reporting that Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorists are allegedly killing tailors in Mosul, Iraq, if they refuse to sew garments for the jihadis.
The United States-led coalition promised people in Raqqa, Syria, “freedom will come” on numerous leaflets they dropped on the Islamic State’s (ISIS/ISIL) self-declared capital of their caliphate, which includes Iraq and Syria.
As the Syrian Kurdish army, the YPG and YPJ, continues its fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), a battalion of fighters’ mothers man the kitchens and galleys ensuring their armies do not go hungry.
In May, a U.S. special operations mission in Syria killed one of the top money men for ISIS, Abu Sayyaf, and captured his wife Umm Sayyaf. It would have been great to take Abu Sayyaf alive, but it was known at the time that his wife was also a high-value target, and subsequent interrogations have proven her to be a major asset. In fact, Nancy Youssef at the Daily Beast judges Umm Sayyaf to be “the richest human intelligence source to fall into U.S. hands to date.”
Following Independence Day, the United States ramped up its aerial anti-Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) campaign in the Middle East, targeting the terrorist group with a new wave of airstrikes, described by the Associated Press as “one of its most sustained aerial operations carried out in Syria to date.”
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) reportedly attacked the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey, an allegation that Ankara “strongly” denies.
Kurdish forces have successfully defeated Islamic State terrorists in a late Tuesday battle near the jihadi group’s headquarters in Raqqa, Syria. The Kurdish troops’s latest victory comes on the heels of a successful mission last week that saw its YPG-led forces capture a Turkish border town from ISIS, according to reports.
Contents: Syrian Kurd militias deal a heavy blow to ISIS; Turkey’s support splits between Kurds and ISIS; US support for Kurds further alienates Saudi Arabia; Understanding men’s moustaches in Turkey
Syrian refugees in Turkey are beginning to make their way back to their homes in the city of Tal Abyad after Kurdish forces there defeated the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), dealing a major blow to the jihadist group, reports Agence-France Presse (AFP).
In a recent Delta Force-led raid against an Islamic State cell in Syria, American troops were able to extract a treasure trove of information related to the terror group’s leadership and financing structure, officials told the New York Times Monday.
Tara Nettleton, the wife of Australian Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, announced she wants to come back to Australia. However, Prime Minister Tony Abbott issued a harsh warning that the family will face punishment for their crimes.
Reports from Iraq indicate the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) burned an 80-year-old woman to death after she failed to obey Sharia law.
Doctor Tareq Kamleh, who left his native Australia to join the Islamic State in Syria, has written a letter to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency denying that he was “brainwashed” and vowing never to return to Australia.
