Eurasia

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 …

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.

Iraq’s Kurdish Peshmerga leaders say ISIL still a threat and US should not withdraw from Syria. A pair of armoured vehicles parked in a corner of the Peshmerga headquarters in northern Iraq form a stark reminder of the threat the region is facing by ISIL.

The Daesh “caliphate” that was once the size of Britain has been reduced to a tiny patch of land near a village in eastern Syria, the anti-Daesh coalition said on Thursday.

US-backed forces in Syria said Wednesday they were detaining foreign Daesh group fighters on a “daily basis,” days after confirming the capture of German militants Martin Lemke.

Any transfers of suspected foreign militants and their relatives out of Syria should be transparent, Human Rights Watch told AFP, as camps in the northeast fill with families of different nationalities.

On Feb. 5, al Qaeda’s propaganda arm, As Sahab, released a 45-minute video featuring the group’s global emir, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The bulk of the video, titled “The Way to Salvation,” is dedicated to explaining why the jihadists have not succeeded in countries that experienced the 2011 Arab uprisings. That is, …