Ukraine says Russia has kept tens of thousands of troops near its border following military exercises, in what Kyiv described as part of Moscow’s attempts to exert pressure on its neighbor.
The number of Russian troops not far from the Ukrainian border and in areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine now totals 90,000, the Defense Ministry said on November 3.
The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan is transforming the regional landscape and unnerving neighbouring countries. Central Asian countries face migration flows, humanitarian challenges and political uncertainty. The post-American Afghanistan also provides Moscow and Beijing, as well several other regional powers like Tehran and Islamabad, with opportunities to enhance regional engagement as the world moves towards multipolarity.
China and Russia, and regional powers, are eager to increase their influence in Central Asia, though with divergent goals. No single power is capable of taking on the security role the United States played.
While the November 14 presidential election looks like a shoo-in for the incumbent Radev, the general election on the same day looks harder to call
Bulgaria is closing an unprecedented year: by the end of 2021, its citizens will have voted in no less than four elections: inconclusive general elections in April and in July, yet another general election on November 14 and, on the same day, presidential elections scheduled by default for 2021.
The release of the convicted war criminal Sreten Lukic and his return to Serbia highlights how the Belgrade authorities are still doing nothing to prosecute other high-ranking officials for wartime crimes in Kosovo and the subsequent cover-up.
Isaw him only once – in court. But I tracked the results of his work in bones and graves.
Sreten Lukic, Serbia’s head of police for Kosovo during the 1998-99 war, was granted early release from prison last month. He has returned to live in Serbia after serving two-thirds of a 20-year sentence for murder, persecution, deportation, and forcible transfer as crimes against humanity.
“These joint operations demonstrate our mutual commitment as partners to deny Daesh any presence & influence in NE Syria.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carried out 12 operations against the Islamic State group in northeast Syria, the organization’s Coordination and Military Operations center said late on Tuesday.
“With @Coalition, October saw 12 operations to root out terrorist cells – 51 were detained,” the center tweeted.
An Islamic State attack has triggered a crescendo of acts of violence against and displacement of Sunnis in Iraq’s Diyala province, which borders Iran and has long suffered the presence of cells operating in its dense orchards and parts of the Hamrin Mountains.
An Islamic State (IS) attack against members of a prominent Shiite-majority tribe in Iraq’s eastern region of Diyala in late October was followed by retaliatory violence against local Sunnis, sparking fears of a return to the years of massive sectarian bloodshed.
Factions pulling out of the recently formed Syrian Liberation Front raise questions about the future of Turkish-backed rebel groups.
Sources close to Sultan Soleman Shah Brigade, one of the largest factions of the Syrian Liberation Front, said that the brigade has effectively withdrawn from the front to join the Thaeeroun Movement of Azm Operations Room.
In an interview aired in the US in June 2021, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan will deny US use of its territory for “over-the-horizon” surveillance of possible terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Now, there are negotiations for the US to use Pakistan’s airspace for military operations in Afghanistan, but is this really an ally on which the United States can count?
The terrorist group PKK’s leadership in Qandil restricted the authority of the notorious ringleader of its Syrian wing YPG, Ferhat Abdi Şahin, over a leadership dispute, Habertürk daily reported. Şahin, also known as Mazloum Kobani and Şahin Cilo, is currently on Turkey’s most-wanted list for orchestrating terrorist attacks in Turkey.
The report said that PKK leaders took the decision a year ago, as they were concerned about Şahin’s “fame” and purported international relations network. It added that the decision came as a shock for the YPG and Şahin and held a meeting with United States officers to discuss the issue.
Clashes erupted between forces of the Syrian government and mercenaries of “Tahrer al-Sham” in the western countryside of Aleppo as western countryside of Hama witnessed mutual targeting by heavy weapons amid hovering by reconnaissance aircraft.
Clashes took place in Basraton, west of Aleppo, after the midnight, causing human losses, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Right, the SOHR.