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Latest updates tagged Middle East on SOFREP.
On October 23, 2017, former White House Advisor on U.S. Middle East Policy under President George W. Bush, Elliott Abrams, spoke at Georgetown University about American foreign policy in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The speech centered around Abrams’ new book, “Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Policy after the Arab […]
President Trump’s assertive new strategy toward Iran is already colliding with the reality of Tehran’s vastly expanded influence in the Middle East as a result of the Islamic State war. The launch of the strategy signaled an important shift in U.S. Middle East policy away from an almost exclusive focus on fighting the Islamic State to an […]
American Secretary of Defense James Mattis spoke before the U.S. Army Exposition on Building Readiness in Washington, D.C. on Monday, taking the opportunity to address a number of concerns faced by America’s soldier and civilian populations alike. The storied former Marine general turned Defense Secretary began by emphasizing something that has been a common trend […]
Like rats fleeing a sinking ship, hundreds of foreign fighters for the Islamic State, seeing the writing on the wall, are massing in Syria’s Idlib province with plans to cross into nearby Turkey and find other ways to get back into the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Several dozen former fighters have already made it […]
The U.S.-backed Lebanese army launched a long-awaited offensive on Saturday against Islamic State militants holed up in a remote stretch of northeastern Lebanon, just as a separate offensive by the Hezbollah militia and the Syrian army got underway right across the border in Syria. The offensive is the biggest military operation launched by the Lebanese […]
After the Trump administration announced a new set of sanctions to be imposed on Iran over its ballistic missile program and “malign activities” in the Middle East, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard issued a veiled threat directed at U.S. installations in the region. If the United States wants to pursue sanctions against Iran’s defenses […]
By K. J. WETHERHOLT A recent and much-celebrated documentary, Letters from Baghdad, produced by Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl, depicts an essential figure from World War I and its aftermath: an explorer, archaeologist, mountain climber, and an intelligence officer for the British who became a modern nation-builder in the Middle East. She was a woman whose influence would […]
American-backed ground forces are poised to recapture Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, the Islamic State’s de facto capitals. But while U.S. commanders are confident they soon will vanquish the militant group from its self-declared caliphate after three years of fighting, Washington has not defined a strategy in the next step for stabilizing the region. The […]
After the United States shot down a Syrian military SU-22 over Syria on Sunday, the United States, Russia, and Iran have begun establishing “red lines” for one another, or borders within the nation each respective state’s military assets cannot cross without being engaged as a hostile. While the establishment of red lines is not a […]
CALAIS, France — He was walking alone, to a place that no longer exists. These days, Baz — a 25-year-old Afghan who has been in Calais for 20 months, he said — could use a place to sleep. Not so long ago, he had one: a tent in the “Jungle” encampment, where nearly 10,000 migrants and […]
The 75th Ranger Regiment describes itself as America’s premier raid force, with the missions of direct action, special reconnaissance, and forced entry operations such as airfield seizures. However, the Ranger mission in Syria has taken a very different turn, one in which the Regiment is deployed as a political force to build rapport with allies […]
The ISIS Hunting Club: Kurds Hunting Daesh Taking Daesh (ISIS,) down in the Middle East means less attacks on Western soil. If they control less territory, then they have less income. Which means less funds for terrorist attacks abroad. After battles like Kobane, a lot of their capable fighters have died and there are more and more […]
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