Pentagon plan to seize Raqqa calls for significant increase in U.S. participation

A Pentagon plan for the coming assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State capital in Syria, calls for significant U.S. military participation, including increased Special Operations forces, attack helicopters and artillery, and arms supplies to the main Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighting force on the ground, according to U.S. officials. The military’s favored option among several […]

Expert says Islamic State has badly damaged major Palmyra monument

Islamic State militants have severely damaged a major Roman monument in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, an antiquities official said after visiting the site on Saturday. Under heavy Russian air cover, the Syrian army and allied militias drove the jihadist group out of the UNESCO world heritage site on Thursday, two months after it […]

ISIS militants accused of using ‘blistering chemical agent’ in attacks in Mosul

IRBIL, Iraq — Twelve people from the embattled city of Mosul, including a 2-month-old baby, have been treated for suspected exposure to a blistering chemical agent, medics said Saturday, as Islamic State militants strike back at government-held neighborhoods while trying to hold off advancing government forces. The patients, who were being treated in a hospital […]

New ISIS video targets China, shows Chinese Muslims fighting in Iraq

Despite suffering defeats in both Iraq and Syria recently, ISIS continues to expand their list of target nations, now setting their sights on China in a thirty-minute video released on Monday. The video, believed to be filmed in a region of Iraq that remains under ISIS control, shows fighters from China’s Uighur minority.  China has […]

And the Oscar goes to… Alt-Qaeda!

When I watched the documentary “White Helmets” I was somewhat less impressed than the Oscars apparently were.  This week, the White Helmets documentary took home an Oscar for best documentary in the short subject category.  The documentary is about a group of Syrians who wear white protective helmets and rescue civilians from bombed out buildings. […]

Russia and the Syrian regime bombed U.S.-backed fighters in Syria, U.S. general says

Russian and Syrian regime forces bombed U.S.-backed fighters Tuesday in villages near the Syrian city of al-Bab, a U.S. general said Wednesday, characterizing the incident as a likely mistake. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who leads the fight against the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, told reporters Wednesday that he believes the pilots […]

Syrian government forces enter Palmyra, drive back Islamic State: monitors

Russian-backed Syrian government forces and their allies fought their way into Palmyra on Wednesday, driving back Islamic State militants who have held the historic city since December, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported. A Hezbollah-run media outlet earlier reported that the Syrian army and its allies had recaptured the Palmyra citadel, on […]

Afghan-based Islamic State a wild card as Trump ponders U.S. commitment

An Islamic State offshoot based near the Afghan-Pakistan border is expanding to new areas, recruiting fighters and widening the reach of attacks in the region, members of the movement and Afghan officials said. Some members of the so-called “Khorasan Province” of Islamic State claimed responsibility for the recent attack on a Sufi shrine in Pakistan […]

Child soldiers are being recruited for the fight in Yemen, by all sides

Boys as young as 15 are being recruited to fight in the Yemen Civil War, with promises of financial compensation to their families when they are martyred, according to a report from Amnesty International. The statement was prompted after the families of three boys approached Amnesty International to report that their sons had been actively […]

China responds to terror attacks with thousands of armed police in restive province

The Chinese government has mobilized over 10,000 paramilitary police officers in a bid to reassert control in Xinjiang Province following a recent spate of violence this month. The government has accused terrorist elements of the Uighur people, an ethnic minority of Muslims in China’s furthest northwestern region, for executing a number of terrorist attacks in […]

USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) launches 20 airstrikes against ISIS in one day

The aircraft carrier USS Bush (CVN 77) has gotten back into the fight against ISIS in a big way launching 20 plus airstrike missions in a single day last Thursday. Working out of the Mediterranean Sea the Carrier Strike Group, led by USS George H.W. Bush started attacks back on February 13th in support of […]