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The U.S. and other Western nations view the U.N.-backed government in the capital as the best hope for unifying Libyans and defeating the extremist group. Libyan forces loyal to the U.N.-backed government are currently battling a powerful Islamic State affiliate in the central city of Sirte with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes. Martin Kobler, the U.N. envoy to Libya, expressed concern over the general’s seizure of the terminals. He later called for a cease-fire and recognition of the U.N.-brokered government.

“If you have [the Islamic State’s] No. 3 in the crosshairs and he’s using human shields, would we be able to strike him or not?” the officer asked. “This is an important debate. But are we fighting a war or are we not? They are clearly waging a war against us. Are we waging a war, or are we conducting a police action?
“How do you ‘advise and assist’ someone when you are not allowed to go into combat with them?” the officer added.

“It’s like after the Afghanistan war in the 1980s,” said Neumann, citing the period after Soviet troops withdrew in 1989 and legions of foreign fighters formed a diaspora of radicalized veterans that subsequently fueled the rise of al-Qaeda. “They’ll be asking themselves, ‘What’s next?’ “

The Kurds should not be treated only as the brave allies to be thrown to the battle against ISIS, but also as the political allies, whose national demands should be part of any fundamental solution to the problems of Iraq and Syria.

Will all this, or even part of it, happen in the near future? Not really, and if that is the case, even the death of ‘’the Kurdish Angelina Jolie’’ will not lead to any salvation to the real Kurds. They will continue to fight, and continue to be betrayed.

Amidst the chaos of the Syrian Civil War, elements affiliated with the Free Syrian Army strike a Russian Gazelle helicopter with a TOW missile in Hama, Syria.

Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), announced on Monday that a mass grave containing more than 80 bodies of the so-called Islamic State (IS), or Daesh terrorists from different nationalities has been found in the city of Fallujah in Anbar Province, Iraq.

Joining the Iraqi Army in their fight to liberate the historical city of Mosul, the Nineveh Protection Units have proven to be a formidable force against Daesh terrorists.
For the Assyrians, this fight to liberate Mosul is a personal one: Daesh not only occupies their ancestral lands, but the aforementioned terrorist group has attempted to destroy much of their history.

Investigators have discovered mortar round shrapnel and the remnants of an IED in the preliminary findings of the post-blast analysis from the scene of the explosion. Bunching munitions together, such as mortar round, and tying them together, most typically on an electrical circuit/initiation system, and in conjunction with land mines, artillery shells, and/or homemade explosives (HME), such as pentaerythritol tetranitrate, more commonly referred to as PETN.

“This is exactly what Daesh wants,” said Hamid Majeed, an Iraqi political analyst. “They want to show people that their lives would be even more miserable after they [Daesh] no longer control their territories.”

Col. Gulmurod Khalimov, a former Tajik special operations officer, police commander, and military sniper, received American counterterrorism training before joining ranks of jihadi group in May • State Department says Khalimov is a “key” ISIS leader.

Militia loyal to Libya’s unity government have suffered heavy casualties as they push into the last two areas of Sirte held by the so-called Islamic State group (IS). Hospital sources told reporters that 34 government soldiers had been killed and 150 wounded in fierce fighting. The coastal city was seized by the militant group in […]

Security concerns increased this week after it emerged a rescue boat operating in the southern Mediterranean had been shot at and boarded by armed men.