Middle East

CENTCOM established an intelligence “fusion center,” a specially equipped JIC facility staffed around-the-clock, to serve as a “focal point” for Daesh-related intelligence. Interviewees recalled only informal communications noting the center’s establishment, and some were also uncertain about the center’s organizational structure, responsibilities, and how it was determined which JIC analysts would participate.

The Russian occupying authorities suspended, for unknown reasons, the handling of citizens and vehicles crossing the administrative border with Crimea.

Rear Adm Ugurlu was named by prosecutors in the western Turkish city of Izmir, according to Anadolu, as part of a military espionage case involving the leaking of information.

As U.S. munitions hit extremists’ military vehicles and mobile ammunition depots, the militants have adapted by reducing their visibility and hiding remaining tanks, armored personnel carriers and rocket launchers.

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.

The U.S. Marines’ top officer in the Middle East wants to lend a hand in the war on the Islamic State. “Some of the missions [the Pentagon is] executing now could be executed by well-trained and disciplined general purpose forces like U.S. Marines,” Lt. Gen. William Beydler recently told Military.com. But Beydler’s comments belie an existing […]

You should know that any attack against our people would trigger a determined response, without any qualms… The Salafists clearly want to establish the Daesh (IS) policy among us, and we’re prepared for that.

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 […]

In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said talks on Turkey’s bid to the join EU would end if Ankara restores the death penalty.

There are thought to be a total of 180 B61 bombs in Europe, in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as Turkey. The tactical weapons are legacies of the cold war and largely seen as militarily obsolete. However, in the absence of a NATO consensus on removing them, they remain in place as tokens of US commitment to Europe’s defense.

With Thursday’s tragic mass killing by a resclusive, truck-driving Tunisian maniac in Nice having been violently drowned out by the frentic late Friday news of a failed (and perhaps staged) coup in Turkey, the news cycle has once again shifted its attention away from a far greater threat to the global economy than whether Erdogan […]