Iraqi Forces Drive Islamic State Fighters Out of Central Hawija

Military forces from Iraq are driving out fighters from the Islamic State in their last bastion in Iraqi territory. On Tuesday, the military announced that they’ve driven ISIS troops out of the center of the town of Hawija. In heavy fighting, the Iraqis claim to have killed 196 ISIS fighters and recaptured 98 small villages […]

Syrian soldier is guilty of war crime, a first in the 6-year conflict

For the first time, six years into a war that began with Syria’s secret police accused of torturing teenagers and has escalated in brutality ever since, a member of the Syrian military has been convicted of a war crime. The perpetrator: a low-level soldier who is now in Sweden as a refugee. The crime: violating […]

U.S. Backed SDF Scours ISIS Base in Raqqa For Intelligence

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are moving thru the Islamic State’s former bastion at Raqqa as now 90 percent of the city has been taken. Their fighters on Monday were slowly recovering communication equipment and weapons used by the ISIS forces in their former command centers. After battling thru the western edge of the city, the […]

Afghan teenagers recruited in Iran to fight in Syria, group says

Afghan immigrant children as young as 14 are being recruited in Iran to fight — and die — in Syria, a prominent human rights organization said Sunday. The group, Human Rights Watch, said it had verified the deaths of eight Afghan children in Iran, who were recruited and ultimately died fighting for the Fatemiyoun division in Syria, […]

Captured ISIS fighters’ refrain: ‘I was only a cook’

Thousands of civilians fleeing the Iraqi military’s push to evict the Islamic State from its last major urban stronghold in Iraq now include hundreds of suspected fighters for the extremist group, dirty and disheveled, who arrive at checkpoints claiming innocence and begging for mercy. While civilians from the stronghold, the city of Hawija, have sought […]

Captured ISIS Fighter in Iraq Claims to Only Be a Cook

Iraqi officials are having to deal with a massive influx of civilian refugees as their military is putting the final touches on crushing the army of the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria. To compound matters, they’re dealing with a huge influx of military age men, who, dirty and pitiful looking are arriving at […]

Lebanon Sentences Radical Islamic Cleric to Death for Inciting Violence

A Lebanese court has sentenced to death a radical Sunni Muslim cleric for inciting attacks on the military. Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, who had supporters protesting outside the courtroom had refused to recognize the hearing, was convicted for his part in inciting clashes that occurred in 2013, made worse by the war in neighboring Syria. Assir […]

Breaking: Marine Corps Osprey crashes in Syria, two Marines injured

A US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey crashed in Syria on Friday with roughly two dozen Marines on board.  Only two Marines suffered minor injuries in the crash, but the aircraft has been characterized as “a total loss.” According to officials, it was a “miracle” that more of the Osprey’s passengers weren’t injured in the crash, […]

Government report shows average American paid $7,500 towards War on Terror

Previously unreported data from the Department of Defense released this summer shows that the average American taxpayer has spent $7,500 on the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, since the beginning of the Global War on Terror in 2001. That means this fiscal year, your average taxpaying American citizen will spend about $289 on wars […]

The Kurds are holding an independence referendum and everyone’s mad about it

Rare is the issue that brings Iran, Iraq, Turkey and the U.S. all to the same side, but the question of independence for the Kurdish people seems to have done it. Today the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq is holding an advisory referendum on whether it should be fully independent. It’s a vote […]