Iraq

Believing he was answering a holy call, Harry Sarfo left his home in the working-class city of Bremen last year and drove for four straight days to reach the territory controlled by the Islamic State in Syria. He barely had time to settle in before members of the Islamic State’s secret service, wearing masks over […]

British fighter jets have struck an ISIS training complex in one of toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in Mosul, the UK’s Ministry of Defense said Wednesday. Two Royal Air Force Typhoons carried out the strikes Monday on one of the terror group’s strongholds in Mosul as part of a targeted coalition attack, the […]

To hear officials in Washington tell it, after two years of often sluggish offensives, Iraqi forces are finally starting turn the tide in the fight against Islamic State. In particular, the Pentagon has focused on the exploits of the elite Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service during efforts to retake important cites such as Ramadi and Fallujah. “We are […]

Middlemen such as Serbia’s CPR Impex and Slovakia’s Eldon have played a critical role in supplying weapons and ammunition to the Middle East.

For the first time in years, the Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr and his militia are unleashing fiery anti-American rhetoric and threatening to attack U.S. troops. But top U.S. military officials have downplayed his remarks, saying that for now there’s no cause for concern. Sadr rose to prominence when his Mahdi Army battled U.S. troops after the 2003 […]

The Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) are proving their worth and showing the incredible work done by Special Forces. The ISOF was in real danger of losing its effectiveness, because we left them hanging, as a nation. The result of our abandonment was a hopeless, not hopeful Iraq. The warfighters felt that hopelessness. The mission was […]

How we engage in battle is prescribed by our laws and the classification of the combatant is paramount. Jabhat Al – Nusra is aware of our framework and limitations and will undoubtedly exploit it.

IDF forces relayed their experience in combating regional terrorism threats to the US forces.

The commander of Marine units across the Middle East sees opportunities for the Corps to take on more missions in the region that would typically be tasks for special operations forces. In a recent interview with Military.com, Lt. Gen. William Beydler, commander of Marine Corps Central Command, said there were multiple traditional special operations mission […]

Iraq’s counterterrorism forces, known as the Golden Division, were once so loathed that they were nicknamed the “Dirty Division.” They were accused of running secret prisons and carrying out extrajudicial killings. Some lawmakers called for them to be disbanded. But the country’s war against the Islamic State has restored the reputation of the elite forces, […]

For nearly a decade, anyone driving through one of Baghdad’s many checkpoints was subjected to a search by a soldier pointing a security wand at their vehicle and watching the device intently to see if its antenna moved. If it pointed at the car, it had supposedly detected a possible bomb. The wands were completely […]

Would you treat a wounded Hezbollah soldier in the sands of Iraq? Would you release 1,000-pound bombs in support of Iranian surrogates on the ground?