ISIS

Tal Afar liberated, city basically destroyed

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over Islamic State militants in Tal Afar and the entire province of Nineveh on Thursday. Tal Afar became the next target of the US-backed war against IS following the recapture of Mosul, where it had declared its “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Mosul is […]

Tal Afar SWAT loses another hero in the battle against ISIS

On August 29th Abbas Antar lost his life in a small village north of Tal Afar called Afgani in what has been described as a friendly fire incident with the Iraqi police.  This follows on the heels of another Tal Afar ISWAT member who was killed by a ISIS sniper in Mosul recently.  With Tal […]

U.S. confirms higher number of troops in Afghanistan

The United States and the Pentagon have disclosed there are significantly more troops in Afghanistan than previously reported. Just a week after President Trump released a new strategy to end the war after 16 years, this report shows that the numbers of US troops to be much higher than previously thought. According to Pentagon officials, there are […]

US Air Force Publicly Confirms Use of Air Base in United Arab Emirates

The US Air Force is publicly confirming it is operating an air war against ISIS out of a base in the United Arab Emirates. For more than 10 years the Air Force has been quite about operations at the Al Dhafra Air Base but now is acknowledging the presence of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing. Military.com first spoke […]

Dozens dead in clashes between Syria government and IS, says monitor

Fierce fighting between Syrian government forces and the Islamic State group has killed 64 combatants in Raqqa province over a 24-hour period, a monitoring group said Wednesday. The clashes come with the army pressing an advance through Raqqa, in northern Syria, towards neighbouring Deir Ezzor, the only remaining province of the war-ravaged country still in […]

U.S. Confirms Higher Number of Troops in Afghanistan

The United States and the Pentagon have disclosed there are significantly more troops in Afghanistan than previously reported. Just a week after President Trump released a new strategy to end the war after 16 years, this report shows that the numbers of US troops to be much higher than previously thought. According to Pentagon officials, there are […]

U.S. Airstrikes Block Road and Strand ISIS Fighters in Syria

The United States condemned an “agreement between Lebanese Hezbollah and ISIS” allowing hundreds of ISIS fighters and their families to be bused through Syrian territory controlled by President Assad to an area on the Iraq border.  Later, US-led coalition aircraft bombed a road and vehicles in Syria on Wednesday in an effort to prevent those […]

Watch: Female snipers with the YPG conduct combat operations against ISIS

As the debate rages on within the United States about female service members joining the fight in direct combat roles, in nations like Syria, women are embroiled not only in a fight against perception, but against an ideology that would see them enslaved. The People’s Protection Units, commonly referred to as YPG, are primarily Kurdish […]

Iraqi Army Calls Fighting for Tal Afar Worse than Mosul, ‘Gates of Hell’

Iraq’s military forces are engaged in a fierce fight in the small town of al-’Ayadiya just outside of Tal Afar. Islamic State fighters have dug in to hold the small town where reports of the fighting being ‘multiple times worse’ that the battle for Mosul. One Iraqi officer, Colonel Kareem al-Lami, described the fighting at […]

Hezbollah: Iran’s Middle East agent, emissary and hammer

For three decades, Hezbollah maintained a singular focus as a Lebanese military group fighting Israel. It built a network of bunkers and tunnels near Lebanon’s southern border, trained thousands of committed fighters to battle Israel’s army and built up an arsenal of rockets capable of striking far across the Jewish state. But as the Middle […]

Lebanon army declares pause in offensive against IS on Syria border

The Lebanese Army has announced a pause in fighting with Islamic State militants to help facilitate hostage negotiations for security personnel IS took prisoner in 2014. The armed forces launched their campaign against IS militants entrenched in the mountainous Jurud Ras Baalbek and Jurud al-Qaa areas on Lebanon’s eastern border in mid-August. “The army command […]

‘Dogs of War’ Getting Increasingly Harder to Come By

The U.S. military has sent countless dogs to serve alongside soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere since Sept. 11. They have become a valuable member of the troops working in some of the toughest battlefields in the world. With increases in technology, including constructing mannequin dogs, the Pentagon is ensuring many more of them will […]