A 2017 decision to encircle the Islamic State’s capital at Raqqa inhibited the possibility of civilian escape corridors, a Pentagon-sponsored report found.
A Pentagon-commissioned report concluded that the US military could have done more to prevent harm to civilians during the pivotal battle for the Islamic State’s (IS) capital city at Raqqa, Syria, in 2017.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have advanced on Ukraine by land, air, and sea. Understandably, much of the analysis of Moscow’s capabilities has focused on its conventional forces. However, as fierce Ukrainian resistance frustrates Russia’s invading military, it is critical for the West to fully understand a fourth domain where the Kremlin might try to gain superiority through its toolkit of aggression: space. This is particularly vital since space capabilities also enable Moscow’s nuclear infrastructure, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has put on high alert.
Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum on Thursday called for Nigeria to help create a regional military task force to combat insecurity in the Sahel region.
Nigeria’s neighbors Niger and Burkina Faso are struggling to contain militant insurgencies aligned with the Islamic State and al-Qaida that have spread across their territories.
Why Is the US Bankrolling Them?
Now Western security officials believe that Iran and Russia have struck a cooperation deal to work together to evade Western sanctions once a new nuclear deal has been agreed by the Biden administration.
Targeting Russia Was the Easy Part
The international sanctions campaign that countries and companies have mounted against Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine is a remarkable achievement of multinational diplomacy and corporate responsibility. Much of the world has voluntarily terminated business with Russia, severing trade ties and financial relationships with the country and shocking the Kremlin by freezing many of its foreign assets. The speed, scope, and scale of these punitive economic measures and the nature of their target—one of the world’s largest and most important economies—are all without precedent.
How Putin and Zelensky Have Defined the Ukrainian Conflict
If anyone doubts the importance of individual leaders in the shape of world events, surely the war in Ukraine has dispelled them. It is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war and no one else’s, just as World War II in Europe was Adolf Hitler’s. Both men wanted war; both embraced it as a test of virility against a decadent enemy.
Defense spending increased for the seventh consecutive year within the NATO alliance, with the United States picking up much of the tab, according to figures in NATO’s annual report released Thursday.
In 2021, the U.S. accounted for 69% of defense expenditures within the NATO alliance while only accounting for 51% of allied gross domestic product. By contrast, Germany — the second largest economy within NATO — represented 5% of allied defense spending while accounting for 10% of NATO GDP.
The bottom line
This week, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced a major shift in its military strategy in Ukraine—moving from the goals of taking Kyiv and winning control of the entire country to the much more limited objective of controlling the Donbas region.
People with short memories might say that this wave of terrorism is just ISIS/Arab-Israeli related, but Hamas is also plenty involved.
Part of the challenge facing security forces in the face of the terrorist attacks over the past eight days has been their source: the perpetrators came from radically different sectors, and do not fit into a conventional box that holds a clear answer on what to do next.
Mali’s current political and security crisis is a continuation of events that happened a decade ago.
Separatist Tuareg rebels, fighting under the banner of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), began attacking towns and army bases in northern Mali in January 2012.
They went on to defeat Malian government forces and conquer Gao, a strategically important city on the banks of the Niger river in northeastern Mali, on March 31, 2012.