What do scoundrels do, when caught red handed in their shenanigans? According to an old proverb they wrap themselves in a flag and seek refuge in patriotism.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed a strong response to a deadly attack on security personnel in Indian Kashmir as New Delhi said that there was “incontrovertible evidence” that Pakistan had a “direct hand” in the assault and called for its complete isolation.

This February marks the 40th anniversary of Iran’s 1979 revolution and the birth of the Islamic Republic, but for those in power in Tehran, celebrating the victories of the past is easier than dealing with the problems of the present. Challenges abound on all sides. On the home front, the so-called moderates and hardliners will battle it out, but neither side wants a full-on political crisis as an anxious Iranian public watches U.S. sanctions further ravage the economy. On the foreign policy front, Tehran will engage in a game of cat and mouse with the United States, but the overall Iranian strategy will be the same as in 2018: to avoid giving President Donald Trump a pretext to pursue regime change more forcibly while hoping he will not be re-elected in 2020. Meanwhile, those expecting the Iranian regime to introduce any game-changing policies will likely be sorely disappointed.

Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Executive Director David Ibsen released the following statement today after a website from the white supremacist group Feuerkrieg Division (FKD) was taken offline by website management and blogging platform WordPress. The removal comes on the heels of a CEP report and letter addressed to WordPress that found FKD had been using a WordPress-hosted website for recruitment and propaganda purposes. FKD acknowledged CEP’s role in provoking WordPress action on its Gab account.
“WordPress took appropriate action in this instance by removing Feuerkrieg Division’s website. It is unfortunate though that WordPress still relies on the research and action of third party organizations, such as CEP, to flag extremist content for them, instead of proactively identifying such content itself.

Russia has reminded Turkey that it must obtain the consent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government for its plan to create a safe zone in the northeastern part of the conflict-plagued Arab country.

A suicide bomber killed at least 27 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and wounded 13 on a bus in a restive region of southeast Iran on Wednesday, Iranian media reported. It was among the deadliest attacks in Iran in years.

NEAR BAGHOUZ, SYRIA: The ferocious battle for Daesh’s last bastion in eastern Syria entered its fifth day on Wednesday, as exhausted families left the ever-shrinking scrap of land where holdout militants have been boxed in by Kurdish-led forces.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is on a tour of Central Europe, warned on February 12 that Russian President Vladimir Putin poses a threat to democracies worldwide.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Russia continues to “develop and deploy” 9M729 cruise-missile systems in breach of a key Cold War-era nuclear arms control agreement.

A major U.S.-organized Middle East conference is under way in Poland, a NATO member that has tightened cooperation with Washington as a counterweight to Russia’s influence in Central and Eastern Europe.

Iran appears to be the main focus of the February 13-14 conference in Warsaw, and Tehran has labeled the gathering as a hostile act and warned of unspecified consequences for Poland.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance is studying a “wide range of options” to deal with alleged Russian violations of a major arms-control agreement, while U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused Moscow of wanting to “dominate” Europe.

On Wednesday (13 February 2019), the Defence Ministers from Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to establish a Regional Special Operations Component Command (R-SOCC) in the margins of the meetings of NATO Defence Ministers in Brussels. Partner nation Austria will sign the LOI immediately following the NATO Defence Ministerial Meeting. This makes this initiative another example of close cooperation between NATO Allies and partners.

Indictment Unsealed as U.S. Treasury Department Announces Economic Sanctions.

Monica Elfriede Witt, 39, a former U.S. service member and counterintelligence agent, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to deliver and delivering national

The U.S. military said Tuesday it struck a mosque that had allegedly been used as an Islamic State control center, as American-allied Syrian forces battled the extremists in their last stronghold in eastern Syria amid reports of more civilian casualties.

Russia has demanded the US pull troops out of Syria in a dire warning against Washington, as Moscow increases to roll-out withdrawal plans for the region.

ISIS chiefs have stashed away millions to fund a new wave of attacks against Britain and the West – as the terror group faces being stamped out once and for all.

The Taliban says it hopes ongoing negotiations with the United States would bring a long-demanded formal recognition for the insurgent group’s “political office” in Qatar, insisting it would help accelerate consultations over the endgame in the Afghan war.

An Indonesian militant who appeared on an Islamic State propaganda video showing the execution of a hostage and was said to be close to the militant group’s leader was killed in Syria last month, an Indonesian police spokesman and his brother said.

Russia is planning to temporarily disconnect from the global Internet in the coming weeks as it tests its defenses against cyberattacks.

Though attacks were down last year, a new United Nations report to the Security Council on Monday shows that ISIL is still a global threat, despite evolving into a “covert” terrorism network, with countries continuing to face challenges from the growing scourge of violent extremism.

A group of 27 Russian children whose mothers are being held in Iraq for belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group have arrived home in Russia.

The children landed at Ramenskoye Airport, near Moscow, on Sunday.

The United Nations Security Council has taken aim at Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and its role in Syria, issuing a warning late on Friday for all Lebanese parties to dissociate themselves from any external conflicts.

U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck Islamic State’s last stronghold in eastern Syria and hundreds of civilians fled the besieged enclave on Monday as U.S.-backed fighters pressed their campaign to seize it.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who arrived in Lebanon on Sunday met Hassan Nasrallah the leader of the militant group Hezbollah.

In recent days, Hezbollah has been pushing the idea of Lebanon officially accepting Iranian military assistance, which Zarif earlier said Iran would be looking forward to.

Islamic State group militants cornered in their last foothold in eastern Syria fought back with suicide car bombs, snipers and booby traps Monday, slowing Kurdish fighters advancing under the cover of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, Kurdish news agencies and a Syrian war monitor said.

Their home countries don’t want them and holding trials in Syria isn’t an option: now suspected foreign terrorists could end up facing tough justice over the border in Iraq.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began an assault against the final Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria on Saturday, aiming to wipe out the last vestige of the jihadist group’s “caliphate” in the SDF’s area of operations.

Foreign fighters reportedly executed after launching attack against Abu Bakr al-Baghdadiby Martin Chulov in Baghouz, eastern Syria.

U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces said Saturday they have launched a final push to defeat the Islamic State group in the last tiny pocket the extremists hold in eastern Syria.

The top US commander in the war against ISIS aligned himself Sunday with the US intelligence community assessment that there are “tens of thousands” of ISIS fighters spread across Syria and Iraq.

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say they have recaptured 41 positions held by Islamic State militants as they seek to clear the last enclave the militant group controls in eastern Syria.

Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesman, tweeted Sunday that SDF forces had destroyed fortifications in the Village of Baghuz, but that heavy fighting continued.

Russia has deployed its controversial 9M729 cruise missile at more locations than previously thought, a German newspaper reports.

Citing an unidentified Western intelligence source, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAZ) said on February 10 that missile battalions were stationed in Mozdok in North Ossetia and in Shuya, close to Moscow.

Metaphorically named Nag (meaning cobra), it can be launched from both land and air-based platforms. The strike range of the weapon is 4 km and 7 km respectively.

Paris and Berlin, which have pushed the idea of creating a joint European army, unveiled their ambitious goal to design the new Future Combat Air System (FCAS), including a fighter and associated weapons in July 2017. It has taken them almost two years to proceed to taking concrete steps.

Iraqi armed factions said Thursday they have launched dozens of missiles targeting Daesh militants holed up in a Syrian village across the border.

The state-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces said they fired 50 missiles at targets in Baghouz village, in the last speck of territory held by the extremists.