A News Aggregator That Covers The World's Major Wars And Conflicts. Military, Political, And Intelligence News Are Also Covered. Occasionally We Will Have Our Own Opinions Or Observations To Make.
Ukraine's government has agreed a new truce with pro-Russian insurgents, which is set to take effect on Orthodox Easter weekend. The ceasefire comes amidst reports that fighting has reached levels not seen for months.
An agreement has been reached to halt violence in eastern Ukraine - at least until May 9, announced the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Friday.
The truce is set to begin at midnight on Saturday and covers Orthodox Christian Easter and International Workers' Day on May 1, as well as the ex-Soviet Union's May 9 commemorative celebrations of the end of World War II.
A member of the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic stands by the wreckage of a car destroyed in an explosion in the rebel-controlled village of Yelenovka outside Donetsk, Ukraine, April 27, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS/ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO
The United Nations on April 28 raised its estimate of the total killed during the conflict in eastern Ukraine to 9,333 from 9,160 in March.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Taye-Brook Zerihoun told the UN Security Council that the total number of casualties now stands at 30,729, including 9,333 people killed and 21,396 injured.
He said the latest incident occurred on April 27, when shelling killed at least four civilians and injured at least eight people in Olenivka near the city of Donetsk.
You likely don’t know much about the U.S. Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court. Though it keeps a low profile, this is the court the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency go to when they want permission to put someone under surveillance. And they don’t get turned down, according to Reuters, citing a Justice Department memo. In 2015 the court received and approved 1,457 requests from the FBI and NSA. There were a bit fewer requests in 2014, but all of those were approved as well.
The surveillance requests are for email or telephone intercepts. If granted, which is apparently always, they generally are carried out with the assistance of Internet telecommunications service providers.
* S. Korea-U.S. drills 'worst' provocation: official news agency
* Kim Jong Un regime to hold Worker’s Party Congress on May 6
North Korea vowed to make rapid advancements on nuclear attack capabilities if South Korea and the U.S. continue with joint military drills, with the warning coming days before predictions that the nation may conduct its fifth nuclear test for the Worker’s Party Congress on May 6.
“Our capability to make nuclear attacks will make fast advancement every time enemies conduct war exercises,” the regime’s official news agency reported, citing an unidentified spokesman at its foreign ministry. North Korea called a joint military drill between South Korea and the U.S. “the worst military provocation.”
Politicians allied to President Hassan Rouhani came out strongest in a second round of parliamentary elections in Iran, early results showed on Saturday, but his moderate faction appeared unlikely to clinch an overall majority.
If confirmed, the results suggest Iran's next parliament will be more supportive of Rouhani's drive for economic reforms, but conservatives will remain a powerful force and could limit the prospects for social change.
Iranians voted on Friday for 68 seats where no candidate had won decisively in the first round. Rouhani's allies made significant gains in that vote, held in February, ending conservative dominance of the 290-seat assembly.
President Obama’s plan for fighting the Islamic State is predicated on having a credible and effective Iraqi ally on the ground in Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
And in recent days, the administration had been optimistic, despite the growing political unrest in Baghdad, about that critical partnership.
But that optimism — along with the administration’s strategy for battling the Islamic State in Iraq — was thrown into severe doubt after protesters stormed Iraq’s parliament on Saturday and a state of emergency was declared in Baghdad. The big question for White House officials is what happens if Abadi — a critical linchpin in the fight against the Islamic State — does not survive the turmoil that has swept over the Iraqi capital.
The chaos in the Iraqi capital comes hours after a visit by Vice President Biden that was intended to help calm the political unrest and keep the battle against the Islamic State on track.
As Biden’s plane was approaching Baghdad on Thursday, a senior administration official described the vice president’s visit — which was shrouded in secrecy prior to his arrival — as a “symbol of how much faith we have in Prime Minister Abadi.”
BAGHDAD — Hundreds of protesters stormed Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday and entered the Parliament building, waving Iraqi flags, snapping photographs, breaking furniture and demanding an end to corruption.
As the chaos unfolded in the afternoon, Baghdad Operations Command announced a state of emergency, deploying additional forces around the capital city. Checkpoints at city entrances were closed, even as the protests remained largely nonviolent.
The scenes of protest, circulated in photographs and videos on social media sites, were potent demonstrations of the anger that had grown during months of protests by Iraqis who have demanded that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi carry out measures to end sectarian quotas in politics and fight corruption.
This video promoting China's air arm has a little bit of everything.
A video promoting the People's Liberation Army Air Force—informally known as the Chinese Air Force—has surfaced on YouTube. The video attempts to show the PLAAF as a service fully prepared to defend the country's air space, as well as contribute to fights on the ground and at sea, at a moment's notice.
The video starts with children playing in a field of flowers, wearing various national dresses of China's various regions. Suddenly, shattering the peace of this scene, Chinese air force pilots quickly scramble to their planes.
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brian West watches an Air Force F-35 Lightning II joist strike fighter aircraft approach for the first time July 14, 2011, at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. (U.S. Air Force photo by Samuel King Jr.)
The Air Force F-35 is using “open air” ranges and computer simulation to practice combat missions against the best Chinese and Russian-made air-defense technologies – as a way to prepare to enemy threats anticipated in the mid-2020s and beyond.
The testing is aimed at addressing the most current air defense system threats such as Russian-made systems and also focused on potential next-generation or yet-to-exist threats, Harrigian said.
Air Force officials have explained that, looking back to 2001 when the JSF threat started, the threats were mostly European centric – Russian made SA-10s or SA-20s. Now the future threats are looking at both Russian and Chinese-made and Asian made threats, they said.
“They have got these digital SAMS (surface-to-air-missile-systems) out there that can change frequencies and they are very agile in how they operate. being able to replicate that is not easy,” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, Director of the F-35 Integration Office, told Scout Warrior in an interview.
The U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II AKA “Warthog” has become one of the most-recognized and beloved warplanes since it started flying in the 1970s. We’ve been hearing about its impending retirement—and the reason many in the armed services community are against that—for ages, but proposed legislation could keep it in the sky for at least a little longer.
This week House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry submitted his latest version of the defense policy bill that would dictate how military money would be spent. Subtitle D, Section 142 of H.R. 1735 basically says the Air Force would not be able to use any fiscal year 2017 funds “to retire, prepare to retire, or place in storage or on backup aircraft inventory status any A–10 aircraft.”
The bill also requires the USAF to keep at least 171 A-10s as “primary mission aircraft inventory;” in other words, ready to rock and roll.
To spies, David Vincenzetti is a salesman. To tyrants, he is a savior. How the Italian mogul built a hacking empire.
As the sun rose over the banks of the Seine and the medieval, half-timbered houses of Rouen, France, on July 13, 2012, Hisham Almiraat opened his inbox to find “Denunciation” in the subject line of an email. “Please do not mention my name or anything,” wrote the sender, Imane. “I do not want any trouble.”
The editor and co-founder of Mamfakinch, a pro-democracy website created in Morocco during the Arab Spring, Almiraat was one of his country’s most outspoken dissidents and someone accustomed to cryptic emails: Moroccan activists faced jail time for their views and risked their jobs, or even their lives, for speaking out against their government. From Normandy’s capital city, where Almiraat was in medical school, the bespectacled 36-year-old spent his time — in between classes and hospital shifts — mentoring, coaching, and editing more than 40 citizen journalists. The group covered the roiling unrest back in Almiraat’s homeland, where he would soon return after completing his studies. (Almiraat contributed to Foreign Policy in 2011.)
Unless you are nostalgic for the last two world wars, let's hope it’s nothing more than posturing.
Hawaii belongs to Japan, the Japanese press suddenly proclaims. Tokyo publishes ancient maps and documents that purport to show that the Hawaiian islands were historically part of the Japanese homeland until they were illegally annexed by the Americans. To hammer the point home, a Japanese warship sails into Hawaiian waters.
Does this sound totally insane? It's no more crazy than Chinese claims that the Ryukyu Islands—which include the island of Okinawa—belong to China rather than Japan.
This is what I wrote early this year on this topic, and it still holds true today ....
These Chinese claims on the Ryukyu islands (Okinawa included) have been around for a long time. I even heard about it in the mid-1980s when I was working in China .... and even though I said that such claims were beyond ridiculous, my Chinese hosts were very blunt to me that these islands (like Taiwan) belong to them. 30 years later .... it looks like they are "upping" the pressure.
In an interview with The Independent, the former jihadist revealed he once worked for Royal Mail as a postman
The US-led bombing campaign against Isis will drive more jihadists to launch terror attacks in the West, a former militant who grew up in the UK has said.
Harry Sarfo joined the so-called Islamic State in Syria and appeared in one of its notorious propaganda execution videos before becoming disillusioned with the scale of brutality he saw and fleeing the group.
In an exchange with The Independent from the German prison where he awaiting trial on terror charges, Sarfo claimed that the use of air strikes by the US-led coalition is inspiring more followers to commit atrocities in places including mainland Europe.
Australia's then Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a trilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama (not pictured) at the G20 leaders summit in Brisbane November 16, 2014. REUTERS/Ian Waldie/pool
In 2014, a blossoming friendship between Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe looked to have all but sewn up a $40 billion submarine deal. Then French naval contractor DCNS hatched a bold and seemingly hopeless plan to gatecrash the party.
Almost 18 months later, France this week secured a remarkable come-from-behind victory on one of the world's most lucrative defense deals. The result: Tokyo's dream of fast-tracking a revival of its arms export industry is left in disarray.
Interviews with more than a dozen Japanese, French, Australian and German government and industry officials show how a series of missteps by a disparate Japanese group of ministry officials, corporate executives and diplomats badly undermined their bid.
WNU Editor: The Japanese thought they already had the deal, but the French and Germans realized that they did not, and the deal maker was on the issue of Australian jobs. This is a surprise .... the Japanese are the ones who have the reputation of making tough deals, but it looks like this reputation is no longer deserved.
At a symposium marking the 100th anniversary of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program held at Norwich University on Thursday, April 21, 2016, General Mark A. Milley, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, delivered a speech in which he warned an audience composed mainly of ROTC cadets that as officers they would be dealing with “little green men” and “hybrid armies.”
Members of the UFO community took the message from the army chief and began spreading rumors in the conspiracy theory blogosphere that the U.S. army chief has admitted that the U.S. government is aware of a looming threat of alien and alien-human hybrid space invasion and is preparing the military to confront the threat.
General Mark A. Milley, the 39th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, talked about “little green men” and “hybrid armies” during the Norwich University’s Reserve Officer Training Corps Centennial Symposium while highlighting to the cadets the qualities they would need to face challenges in the near-future as global conflicts increase in complexity.
Note: The general’s statement referring to “hybrid armies” and “little green men” occurs in the 34:10-50 time interval in the video below
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense says buildup is response to Moscow’s military activity near the Baltics
Western allies are preparing to put four battalions—a force of about 4,000 troops—in Poland and the Baltic countries as part of an effort by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to reinforce its border with Russia as Moscow steps up military activity, officials said Friday.
The U.S. is likely to provide two battalions, while Germany and Britain would likely provide a battalion each, according to Western officials.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, visiting Brussels, confirmed the overall size of the force and said the buildup was a response to more Russian activity around the Baltics—Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia—where tensions have been rising.
ŠIAULIAI AIR BASE, Lithuania (AFNS) -- A pair of F-22 Raptors and one KC-135 Stratotanker arrived at Šiauliai Air Base on April 27, following a short stay in Romania.
The F-22s, with about 20 supporting Airmen, are from the 95th Fighter Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. The KC-135 is from the 100th Air Refuel Wing at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England.
The aircraft and Airmen were welcomed by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė and other distinguished visitors from the Lithuanian government and military.
The best way to appreciate the size difference between objects is just to lay 'em all out in a row and behold. That's what this two-minute video does with the weaponry of the U.S. military.
The clip starts at the small end with a .45-caliber bullet, which measures just 3.2 centimeters long, or about an inch and a quarter. Then things get bigger, through grenades and guns, through drones and tanks, through fighters and bombers until it reaches the macro end of the military, the 1,100-ft. Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers.
A radio transmission operator, 1st Armored Division takes the brunt of debris caused by the firing of an M777 howitzer as he calls in another strike for his gun, at Fort Bliss, Texas, Nov. 3, 2015.
EXCLUSIVE: In a stunning reversal, the U.S. Army decided late Thursday to retain a decorated Green Beret it had planned to kick out after he physically confronted a local Afghan commander accused of raping a boy over the course of many days.
Sgt 1st Class Charles Martland, confirmed the Army's decision to retain him when reached by Fox News, who has been covering the story in depth for the past eight months and first broke the story of the Army's decision in August to kick out Martland over the incident, which occurred in northern Afghanistan in 2011.
"I am real thankful for being able to continue to serve," said Martland when reached on the telephone by Fox News. "I appreciate everything Congressman Duncan Hunter and his Chief of Staff, Joe Kasper did for me."
Sunday, April 17th was the designated moment. The world's leading oil producers were expected to bring fresh discipline to the chaotic petroleum market and spark a return to high prices. Meeting in Doha, the glittering capital of petroleum-rich Qatar, the oil ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with such key non-OPEC producers as Russia and Mexico, were scheduled to ratify a draft agreement obliging them to freeze their oil output at current levels. In anticipation of such a deal, oil prices had begun to creep inexorably upward, from $30 per barrel in mid-January to $43 on the eve of the gathering. But far from restoring the old oil order, the meeting ended in discord, driving prices down again and revealing deep cracks in the ranks of global energy producers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (pictured) has been dogged by foreign media reports of great family wealth. Daily Mail
Andrew J. Nathan, New York Review of Books:Who Is Xi?
More than halfway through his five-year term as president of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party—expected to be the first of at least two—Xi Jinping’s widening crackdown on civil society and promotion of a cult of personality have disappointed many observers, both Chinese and foreign, who saw him as destined by family heritage and life experience to be a liberal reformer. Many thought Xi must have come to understand the dangers of Party dictatorship from the experiences of his family under Mao’s rule. His father, Xi Zhongxun (1913–2002), was almost executed in an inner-Party conflict in 1935, was purged in another struggle in 1962, was “dragged out” and tortured during the Cultural Revolution, and was eased into retirement after another Party confrontation in 1987. During the Cultural Revolution, one of Xi Jinping’s half-sisters was tormented to the point that she committed suicide. Jinping himself, as the offspring of a “capitalist roader,” was “sent down to the countryside” to labor alongside the peasants. The hardships were so daunting that he reportedly tried to escape, but was caught and sent back.
WNU Editor: My Chinese contacts told me 2 years ago that Xi Jinping was an apologist for Mao .... I did not believe them then .... but if this Andrew J. Nathan's post is correct .... it looks like he is. But is he like Mao .... no .... not even close. Xi Jingping is pursuing his own agenda and his own view on where he believes China should be, and spreading the ideals of Mao is not one of them.
This NYRB post is a good analysis on the President of China .... and is a must read for any China watcher. As to what is my take .... President Xi has two and a half years left in his term .... and then he is gone. In his place I will not be surprised that there will be someone who will pull back on many of the political/military/economic policy decisions that President Xi has implemented .... and more importantly temper and scale back the anti-corruption drive that President Xi has been pushing. The only thing that concerns me is .... what happens if President Xi decides to not respect the term limit that he is under. What happens if he decides to stay in power beyond his mandate. This is what my Chinese friends are worried about .... and that is why they are telling me to watch out for flashpoints like the South China Sea and/or troublesome economic trends. If there is a crisis .... President Xi may stay in power longer than what many had originally expected and/or hoped for.
Riot police stand guard during a march to commemorate Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in central Moscow on March 1, 2015. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)
MOSCOW — It has been years since Russia's protest movement showed much moxie, sending tens of thousands onto the streets of Moscow for raucous demonstrations against electoral fraud and Vladimir Putin's third term as president. But with the economy now mired in its longest recession in 20 years and parliamentary elections set for this September, Russia's police are drilling for a new rise in discontent.
Earlier this month, Putin announced the formation of a new, national guard, whose commander (a former head bodyguard for Putin) would answer directly to the Kremlin (as opposed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs) and which may be given the right to fire into crowds with live ammunition, Russian lawmakers have suggested. Officially, the National Guard will fight terrorism, weapons trafficking, and organized crime, along with public unrest. Informally, the agency, called Rosgvardia, has been panned as Putin's "praetorian guard."
WNU Editor: Are people in Russia unhappy and worried about the future .... the answer is yes. Are they unhappy and mad enough to riot .... no. Will they be unhappy enough to protest and riot next year .... maybe .... but that is why the Kremlin is now running scared. My analysis is that the Kremlin is in the dark on what is going to happen, and they certainly do not have any confidence in reading the public's mood and sentiment .... and that in itself speaks volumes on how insecure they feel right now.
After patrolling Asia-Pacific waters for 160 years, the U.S. feels a historic interest in the region's security. Beijing couldn't see things more differently
The U.S.S. John C. Stennis, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, plowed through the azure waters of the South China Sea in late April, as implacable as one of the world’s largest warships ought to be. Escorting the supercarrier, which was carrying more than 3,000 military personnel on a route some 125 nautical miles east of Malaysia, were a trio of guided-missile destroyers and an Aegis cruiser. Overhead, F-18 strike fighters, Seahawk helicopters and Hawkeye early-warning radar aircraft swooped through the sky. “We’re committed to security at sea,” said Rear Admiral Marcus Hitchcock, who commands the Stennis Strike Group. “We are very invested in the economic development and building of commerce in the region.”
Syria called local truces near Damascus and in a northern province on Friday but no halt to combat on the main battlefield in Aleppo, after a surge in fighting the United Nations said showed "monstrous disregard" for civilian lives.
A new "regime of calm" would begin from 1:00 a.m. on Saturday and last one day in the capital's eastern Ghouta suburb and three days in the northern countryside of the coastal province of Latakia, the army said in a statement.
But by excluding the city of Aleppo, scene of the worst recent violence, the narrow truces were unlikely to resurrect a ceasefire and peace talks that have collapsed this week.
Washington (CNN)A Russian SU-27 conducted a "barrel roll" Friday over the top of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 which was flying a reconnaissance mission in international airspace above the Baltic Sea, two U.S. defense officials told CNN.
The SU-27 approached alongside within 100 feet of the U.S. aircraft and then flew inverted over the top of the plane to the other side. The U.S. considers this a very unsafe aerial maneuver and is expected to voice its concerns to the Russians, one of the officials said.
This is the second barrel roll maneuver over a U.S. aircraft by the Russians this month. On April 14, a Russian jet "performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers" as it flew within 50 feet of a U.S. aircraft's wing tip, Danny Hernandez, a spokesman for U.S. European Command, said in a response to a question from CNN.
WNU Editor: This follows an earlier incident this week ....Russian Jet Intercepts U.S. Spy Plane In Asia. What's my take .... the Kremlin has green-lighted its military to approach any Western aircraft near it's borders (even if it is international space), and to make life miserable for them. If this continues .... it is only a question of time before a serious incident occurs.
ISTANBUL — The battered Syrian city of Aleppo faced another wave of airstrikes and shelling Friday, activists said, killing worshipers at a mosque and damaging a clinic after an earlier air blitz left dozens dead, including patients and staff at a main hospital.
The attacks — apparently carried out on both sides — further eroded efforts to rebuild a cease-fire and halt what a United Nations envoy described as a “monstrous disregard for civilian lives” by all factions in the conflict.
More than 200 people have been killed in the past week in Aleppo from pro-government airstrikes and rebel barrages on regime-held neighborhoods, said a Britain-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Recent skirmishes hint at a problem in the war-torn country that far exceeds the extremist threat.
It was just another skirmish in an historically violent part of Iraq that, aside from the few dozen fighters who died, would not normally raise concerns far beyond the township's borders.
But the recent confrontation in the northern Iraqi city of Tuz Khurmatu signals a significantly larger problem facing a central government in Baghdad already on shaky footing as it tries to hold together a political and military coalition it desperately needs to defeat the Islamic State group threat.
Hostilities broke out over the weekend between two groups considered critical components of the ground war. Troops from the predominantly Shiite Muslim militias – known as the popular mobilization units or PMUs – reportedly attacked the home of an officer with the Kurdish fighting force known as the peshmerga, according to media reports. The militiamen claimed they were retaliating against an unprovoked peshmerga attack.
ISIS fighters smashed a force of Italian and British Special Ops troops on Wednesday, April 27 in the first battle of its kind in Libya, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report. This battle will result in the delay of the planned Western invasion of Libya, as the encounter proved that European forces are not ready for this kind of guerilla warfare. The sources also said the planners of the invasion were surprised by the high combat skills of the ISIS fighters.
Our sources report the following details:
The convoy of Italian marines, British special forces and Libyan troops was traveling from the northwestern city of Misrata toward the ISIS stronghold of Sirte, located 273 kilometers to the southeast, when it was ambushed and hit hard by ISIS forces.
Libya's U.N.-backed unity government called on Thursday on military factions to hold off from any campaign against the Islamic State-controlled city of Sirte until a unified military command structure is created.
The statement came amid signs that factions from both eastern and western Libya could be gearing up for an advance on Sirte, although such operations have repeatedly been announced in recent months without taking place.
Islamic State has held Sirte since 2015, taking advantage of a conflict between loose alliances of armed brigades allied to Libya's rival governments to seize a 250-km (155-mile) strip of coastline around the central Mediterranean city, which lies between the eastern and western power bases.
Beijing asserts Scarborough Shoal is Chinese territory.
China’s plans to build up a disputed island near the Philippines could lead to a regional conflict, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Congress on Thursday.
Carter was asked about the strategic significance of China’s plan to add military facilities to a disputed island known as Scarborough Shoal located about 120 miles—within missile range—of Subic Bay, Philippines, where U.S. warships will be based.
The defense secretary said Scarborough is “a piece of disputed territory that, like other disputes in that region, has the potential to lead to military conflict.”
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) transits the Strait of Hormuz, in this November 12, 2011 file photo. REUTERS/U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 3RD CLASS KENNETH ABBATE/HANDOUT (MILITARY)
Refusal comes after US defence chief Ash Carter visited the USS Stennis in South China Sea.
Beijing denied a US aircraft carrier permission to make a port call in Hong Kong, a US consulate official says, a rejection that comes amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry told the US on Thursday night the visit by the USS John C. Stennis would not be allowed, said the official, who requested anonymity.
US defence chief Ash Carter visited the Stennis earlier this month.
Top U.S. military leaders faced skepticism Thursday on Capitol Hill as they made the case that President Obama’s strategy in Iraq and Syria is beginning to show results against the Islamic State.
Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described growing momentum against the group, which has lost ground to U.S.-backed fighters in Syria and Iraq in recent months. Carter and Dunford also outlined new military measures designed to make local forces more effective.
In the past two weeks, Obama has approved plans to allow American advisers to accompany local troops closer to the front lines in Iraq, and the use of attack helicopters and long-range artillery in a highly anticipated offensive to recapture the northern city of Mosul. In Syria, the president substantially increased the size of a Special Operations advisory force, which officials say in recent months has made headway in identifying and bringing together local forces that may eventually be able to press into the militant stronghold of Raqqa.
The U.S. strategy centers on equipping and advising partner forces in both countries while using American air and artillery support to help those forces advance into well-defended militant areas.
