Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Deadly air strikes by a US-led coalition on pro-regime forces in eastern Syria were purely an act of self-defense, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Thursday, in an apparent effort to tamp down controversy over the incident. “It was self-defense,” Mattis told reporters. “We are not getting engaged in the Syrian civil war.” More than 100 forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were killed in the attack by the US-backed […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Washington’s goal “is not war” as it seeks to ease high military tension with Pyongyang, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Friday, standing at the heavily-fortified border between the two Koreas. Tension has flared on the Korean peninsula as US President Donald Trump and the North’s ruler Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults that sparked global alarm. But Mattis, who visited the tense Demilitarized Zone […]
by Sylvie Lanteaume Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The United States is considering a stepped-up military presence in Africa to pursue Islamic State group jihadists looking for new havens after the fall of their “caliphate,” American officials say. After IS lost its de facto capital Raqa in Syria this month, and its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul earlier, the group “has aspirations to establish a larger presence” in Africa, the US military’s top officer General Joseph […]
by Andrew Beatty Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – White House chief of staff John Kelly — a former general whose son died in Afghanistan — made an emotive defense of Donald Trump Thursday, amid a scandal over the president’s phone call with a military widow. Kelly, who spent nearly four decades in the Marine Corps, said he had advised Trump not to call the families of four servicemen killed in Niger personally, but was disgusted […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday that Washington is working to reduce tensions between Iraqi federal and Kurdish forces, urging them to remain focused on the war against jihadists. “We are trying to tone everything down and to figure out how we go forward without losing sight of the enemy, and at the same time recognizing that we have got to find a way to move forward,” he told […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Wednesday that there was still room for diplomacy in dealing with North Korea’s provocative ballistic missile launches, after President Donald Trump said negotiations were “not the answer.” “We’re never out of diplomatic solutions,” Mattis said as he went into a meeting with South Korea Defense Minister Song Young-Moo. “We continue to work together and the minister and I share responsibility to provide for […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday warned that war with North Korea would be “catastrophic” and said diplomatic efforts were yielding results. Speaking at an event in California, Mattis said his mission and responsibility was to have military options ready “should they be needed” but stressed the US effort is currently focused on diplomacy. “The American effort is diplomatically led, it has diplomatic traction, it is gaining diplomatic […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The resignation of President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, will have “no impact” on America’s message to worried NATO partners, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said on Tuesday ahead of a key alliance meeting. Flynn was forced from his key post late Monday amid allegations he had discussed US sanctions strategy with Russia’s ambassador Sergey Kislyak before taking office. US defence secretaries routinely visit NATO, but Mattis’s trip is significant […]
BEIJING, China (Reuters) — China on Monday (February 6) welcomed U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ suggestion that diplomacy should be the priority in the South China Sea, and that major U.S. military action was not being considered to contend with China’s assertive behaviour there. Mattis, speaking in Tokyo on Saturday (February 4), blamed China for “shredding the trust of nations in the region”, but also played down any need for U.S. military manoeuvres in the […]
