Shortly after the conclusion of the Russian-Belarusian strategic Zapad-2021 exercise, open-source analysts, corroborated by U.S. intelligence findings, began reporting a new build-up of Russian forces on the Ukrainian border. Though most tracking concentrates on the movement of Russian Ground Forces equipment, the Russian Navy has also been moving, albeit at a smaller scale.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa paid a visit to Balochistan province on Tuesday, days after two deadly terrorist strikes at different military bases killed nine soldiers. The terrorist raids on 2 February have been claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
The Islamic State, or ISIS, made global headlines recently on account of two significant developments in Syria: a prison uprising in Hasakeh in late January and the raid by U.S. special operations forces a week later, on Feb. 3, that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.
Although the response in Western capitals to Russia’s aggressive military posturing on its border with Ukraine has been couched in clear diplomacy-first terms, military contingency planning has stepped up a notch in recent weeks. The intent of these moves, at least judging from the rhetoric of U.S. and NATO leaders as well as respected commentators, is to strengthen deterrence.
Belgian police arrested 13 suspected members of an Islamist terror group in an operation in Antwerp on Tuesday.
The suspects were detained for spreading jihadist propaganda on social media, though police said it was unclear whether they had made concrete plans to launch an attack. Around 100 police officers were deployed at 13 different addresses during the raid.
Lt Gen Erik Kurilla, the nominee to head Centcom, floated the prospect of co-operation as ISIS step up attacks in Afghanistan
President Joe Biden’s nominee to oversee US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia is floating the possibility of co-operating with the Taliban in certain instances to take out ISIS targets in Afghanistan.
Lt Gen Erik Kurilla — who is the Biden administration’s pick to head US Central Command, or Centcom — raised the idea during his nomination hearing before the Senate on Tuesday.
The dire effects of massive jailbreaks a decade prior and the thousands of Islamic State convicts and suspects in Iraqi detention have induced greater attention to facilities in the country following an attack across the border.
In a January 28 interview with the Russian media about the Ukraine crisis, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said, “if it depends on the Russian Federation, there will not be a war.” He also suggested that there were “kernels of rationality” in the formal responses to Russia’s demands that the United States and NATO had delivered a few days earlier. To some Western commentators, Lavrov’s comments were a hopeful sign that the Kremlin had achieved its intermediate aims and might be shifting course. According to this analysis, Russian President Vladimir Putin had the West exactly where he wanted it: by moving more than a hundred thousand troops to the Ukrainian border and issuing an ultimatum, he had forced the United States and NATO to enter into a dialogue with Moscow. All along, then, the Russian government had been acting with calculated brinkmanship, pursuing an approach that has left the United States and its NATO allies with few choices other than to negotiate on an equal footing.
U.S. troops could be used to help evacuate American citizens from Ukraine should Russia invade the country, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday.
Kirby’s comments came as roughly 850 troops with the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., arrived in Poland in response to more than 100,000 Russian troops amassed on Ukraine’s northern and eastern borders. Another 850 troops with 82nd Airborne are expected to join them in the coming days.
Strykers and combat support vehicles lined up at the Army airfield Wednesday as about 1,000 American troops prepared to head to Romania for an open-ended deployment meant to reassure allies worried about Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine.
The Vilseck-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment soldiers will remain in Romania to shore up NATO’s eastern flank as long as the mission requires, said Col. Joe Ewers, the regiment’s commander.