Tag: ISIS

MOSUL, Iraq — U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured the second of Mosul’s five bridges on Monday, giving a boost to their onslaught on the Islamic State militant group’s remaining strongholds in the western part of the city. All of Mosul’s five bridges have been destroyed, but the capture of the remaining parts on the west bank […]

After months of planning and deliberations, the 75th Ranger Regiment has been deployed to Syria to participate in the war against ISIS as the coalition closes in on the so-called caliphate’s capital city of Raqqa.  Yesterday, the first images emerged of Stryker armored vehicles on their way to Manbij.  This comes weeks after Rangers deployed […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

ATHBAH, Iraq — The horror stories about the Islamic State’s mass killings at a cavernous hole in the desert near Mosul became legendary over the years. Soon after the group took control of the Iraqi city more than 2½ years ago, the 100-foot-wide sinkhole five miles southwest of the airport became a site for summary executions. Some […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]