March, 2019

• 27 March

  UK's secret war: British commandos wounded in Yemen

  A number of elite British commandos have sustained injuries in direct gunfights with Yemeni forces as part of what appears to be a secretive UK military campaign in Yemen, a new report says, adding a major twist to London’s involvement in Saudi Arabia’s deadly war against its impoverished southern neighbor.

  Read More »
• 27 March

  Wary of Iran's missiles, US strikes port deal with Oman

  The United States has struck a strategic port deal with Oman in an attempt to get better access to the Persian Gulf region and avoid sending ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime choke point that Iran could easily block using its advanced missile arsenal.

  Read More »
• 26 March

  NATO Confirms Plans For $260 Million U.S. Storage Site In Poland

  NATO has confirmed that it plans to establish a storage facility in Poland for U.S. military equipment, including armored vehicles, ammunition, and weapons to arm a full brigade.

  Read More »
• 26 March

  Mullahs and the English Opium-Eater

  When reality is too hard to bear, imagination may rescue you from despair. This is the message of “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater” by Thomas De Quincey, the precursor of psychedelic literature. That message, it seems, has reached Iran, triggering an avalanche of empire-building dreams.

  Read More »
• 25 March

  Israeli Army Warns of New Hezbollah Threat

  A Hezbollah commander who allegedly headed a 2007 raid on an American base in Iraq, which ended with the slaying of kidnapped American soldiers, is now building a secret force that could attack Israel from Syria, according to an Israeli military intelligence report.

  Read More »
• 25 March

  Turkish intervention could trigger Syria's 'second great war'

  After a bloody and protracted five-year war, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led coalition are on the verge of declaring victory against the Islamic State after the fall of its last crumbs of territory in Baghuz. With Islamic State cells continuing to operate to deadly effect in …

  Read More »
• 25 March

  Iran Denies Joint Military Operation With Turkey, Again

  For a third time in three days Iran has denied repeated Turkish statements that the two countries are cooperating in a military operation against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

  Read More »
• 25 March

  Anatomy of a 'caliphate': The rise and fall of ISIL

  Samer recalls the gruesome shock of seeing his friend’s headless corpse strung up above Raqqa’s main square.

  Read More »
• 25 March

  The Evolution of ISIS: From Rogue State to Stateless Ideology

  When the Islamic State raised its black flag over the Syrian city of Raqqa in early 2014, it began its transformation from fringe regional player to fearsome global threat. By the end of that year, it had seized large stretches of territory in Iraq and Syria, creating a rogue state …

  Read More »
• 25 March

  Trump Says ISIS Is Defeated. Reality Says Otherwise.

  Just two weeks after President Donald Trump triumphantly declared the “100 percent” defeat of ISIS’s caliphate, his national security advisor, John Bolton, admitted on television that “the ISIS threat will remain” and that this explained why a small “observer force” would now stay in Syria.

  Read More »