Middle East

A possible deployment of the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System to South Korea is still being discussed, but the service is also looking at possibly sending THAAD batteries to the European and Central Command areas of operations, the commanding general of Army Space and Missile Defense Command said. “There’s a requirement coming out […]

The House approved a resolution Monday that declares the Islamic State is committing genocide against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East — putting even more pressure on the Obama administration to do the same ahead of a deadline later this week. The resolution passed the House with a unanimous vote of 383-0. The […]

There may be a tentative cease-fire at present, but let’s not get carried away. The war in Syria is going nowhere fast. It staggers along, with daily violations and a rising body count — another vicious “problem from hell.” Estimates vary, but some observers now put the death toll in Syria at nearly 500,000 and […]

Turkey’s defense committee has approved billions of dollars in additional defense spending, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Wednesday. Much of the spending would go toward domestic military production at a time the country has seen growing regional threats, Defense News reported. “Today we approved $5.9 billion worth of new defense projects. Around $4.5 billion worth of these projects will consist […]

Thousands of Islamic State fighters and 160 of its leaders were killed in U.S. and allied military operations in Syria and Iraq over the past 18 months, the commander of the U.S. Central Command told Congress on Tuesday. But the Islamist terror group has expanded to several regional states as U.S. forces enter a new […]

The 10 American sailors were on an unfamiliar assignment and running behind schedule. Setting off from Kuwait en route to Bahrain, the U.S. sailors had never navigated across the Persian Gulf in small patrol boats, and they were unaccustomed to traveling such a long distance in vessels designed for shorter missions in coastal waters or […]

More than 50 companies worldwide are legally supplying the Islamic State with bomb-making material, either willingly or because they and the countries in which they operate are failing to monitor the sales, according to a Conflict Armament Research report released today. CAR is a non-governmental organization funded by the European Union that identifies and tracks conventional weapons […]

A new deal between the US and Russia to enforce a ceasefire in Syria has been reached, with the cessation of hostilities set to come into force on 27 February. The ceasefire, subject to the agreement between the warring parties, would exclude Islamic State, al-Nusra Front and other groups deemed to be terrorist organizations. Skepticism […]

LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. estimates of the number of Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria have been reduced while cuts in their pay are evidence they are on the defensive, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group said on Monday. But the task of defeating Islamic State is complicated by Russian air […]

Watch footage of an Iraqi anti-terrorism SWAT unit training new recruits.

The United States is coming under increasingly bitter criticism for its perceived lack of leadership over Syria as the country’s brutal civil conflict heads toward new levels of intensity. Washington appears unable or unwilling to prevent its ally Turkey from bombing Kurdish fighters inside Syria, its critics say. And it has done little to rein […]

John Kerry met with Hollywood this week to counter the ISIS narrative.