There was a firefight During the winter of 2019, teams of U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Marines were positioned alongside their allied militia unit, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), by an oil field near Deir Ezzor, Syria. What looked like a Russian-led militia force, including a number of armored …
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Geopolitics and propaganda: Lessons from the Black Sea
“I wish Georgia had the geographic location of Moldova” a Georgian political leader told me and a group of experts in Washington recently. Georgia and Moldova have much in common, from their geography and history to their shared status as EU Eastern Partnership countries on a track to internal reform …
Read More »Battered Survivor: Hezbollah at Home and Abroad
The past decade and a half have been a real whirlwind for Hezbollah. The Lebanese Shi’a group fought Israel to a standstill in a destructive 33-day war in 2006. It lost its iconic military chief and special operative Imad Mughniyeh in 2008 as a result of a joint assassination by …
Read More »A wake-up call: The Idlib crisis and its effects look set only to worsen
The death of at least 33 Turkish soldiers and wounding of 60 more in Syria’s Idlib on Thursday night was a game-changing development. According to informed sources, the troops were operating in a two-story frontline command headquarters when it was attacked from the air, at night, with precision munitions, including …
Read More »La fin du djihadisme au Sahel passera aussi par la lutte contre la pauvreté et les inégalités (ONU)
La réponse militaire seule ne suffit pas à résoudre les conflits au Sahel qui ont pour terreau les inégalités, a déclaré jeudi la Haut-commissaire de l’ONU aux droits de l’Homme, Michelle Bachelet, devant le Conseil des droits de l’Homme à Genève.
Read More »Niger: attaque terroriste contre un poste de police proche de la frontière avec le Burkina Faso
Un agent de la police nigérienne est porté disparu vendredi après une attaque terroriste contre le poste de police de la ville de Tamou (ouest), proche de la frontière avec le Burkina Faso, selon des sources sécuritaires.
Read More »UN-Mediated Political Talks on Libya End in Disarray
U.N.-mediated political talks aimed at resolving the crisis in Libya have ended in disarray, with nothing accomplished except an agreement to meet again next month.
Read More »Kremlin Responds to Erdogan's Request That Russia 'Step Aside' in Syria
On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to “get out of Turkey’s way” and to leave Ankara “face to face” with Damascus in the renegade Syrian province of Idlib.
Read More »Syrian Jets 'Downed' As Turkey Says 'No Desire Or Intention To Clash With Russia'
Turkey’s defense minister said on March 1 that his country was “successfully” continuing its military operation in northwestern Syria against the Russian-backed regime in Damascus and that Ankara doesn’t have “the desire or intention to clash with Russia.”
Read More »Boeing reveals its U.S. Army Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft design
Boeing [NYSE: BA] is offering the U.S. Army an agile, fully integrated, purpose-built system for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) prototype competition.
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