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WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US military said Wednesday that it had killed eleven Al-Qaeda operatives, including a veteran leader and suicide bombing pioneer, in a bombing raid in Syria. The Pentagon said Abu Hani al-Masri, the Qaeda veteran, was one of those killed in the precision airstrikes near Idlib carried out on February 3-4. Al-Masri was an early official in al-Qaeda, overseeing the group’s training camps in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s […]
VIRGINIA, United States (Reuters) — Jordan’s King Abdullah opened talks at the Pentagon on Monday (January 30), the first Arab leader to engage in person the new administration of President Donald Trump. Abdullah held a private breakfast with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and then met U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Pentagon. Abdullah has just finished a visit to Russia where President Vladimir Putin thanked Jordan for supporting the Syrian peace process. Jordan […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US military would not necessarily shoot down a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile, should the country’s leader try to test one, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said in a New Year’s speech that the country was “in the final stages of test-launching the intercontinental ballistic missile.” Carter, whose two-year run as Pentagon chief will come to an end when President Barack Obama leaves […]
(REUTERS) A group of Chinese warships led by the country’s sole aircraft carrier has passed through waters south of Taiwan and is heading southwest, Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Monday of what China has termed a routine exercise. The ministry said the aircraft carrier the Liaoning, accompanied by five other vessels, had passed 90 nautical miles south of Taiwan’s southernmost point on Monday morning via the Bashi Channel, between Taiwan and the Philippines. “Staying […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A US strike against a senior Al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan in October also killed two other senior operatives, the Pentagon said Monday. The Defense Department had already announced the death of Farouq al-Qahtani, Al-Qaeda’s emir for northeastern Afghanistan, who was killed in the October 23 drone strike in Kunar province. On Monday, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook confirmed the strike also killed Bilal al-Utabi, Qahtani’s deputy, as well as Abd […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A US drone strike has killed a senior Al-Qaeda leader in Syria who previously operated in Afghanistan, the Defense Department announced Tuesday. The November 18 strike near Sarmada in northwestern Syria targeted Abu Afghan al-Masri, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said. “He had ties to terrorist groups operating throughout Southwest Asia, including groups responsible for attacking US and coalition forces in Afghanistan and those plotting to attack the West,” Cook […]
ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) — US defence chief Ashton Carter said Sunday that an operation to isolate the Islamic State group in Syria’s Raqa should begin in conjunction with the assault on the jihadists’ Iraqi bastion Mosul. “We want to see an isolation operation begin around Raqa as soon as possible,” Carter said during a visit to Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan to review an ongoing offensive to retake Mosul from IS. “We are working with […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The offensive to recapture Mosul from Islamic State jihadists has so far progressed faster than planners anticipated, but military experts fear the fighting could get tougher as US-backed Iraqi forces enter the city. Here is an overview of some factors determining the size and length of the battle. Will IS defend Mosul at any cost? Jihadists in Mosul are expected to put up a fierce fight. The city is the […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Iraqi security forces were “ahead of schedule” after the first day of an offensive for the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, a Pentagon official said Monday. A US-led coalition has for months been helping train Iraqi forces for the fight for Mosul — the last IS stronghold in Iraq — and the military offensive finally got underway early Monday. “Early indications are that Iraqi forces have met their objectives so […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A jihadist group that was formerly Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria on Monday confirmed that an air strike killed a senior leader after the Pentagon said it had targeted him. Ahmed Salama Mabrouk, an Egyptian also known by his nom de guerre Abu Faraj “was martyred after a coalition air strike in the west of Idlib province,” the Fateh al-Sham Front said in a statement on the Telegram app. Born in […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US spy plane over the Black Sea on Wednesday, the Pentagon said, although Moscow quickly insisted the encounter was within “international rules.” A Russian Su-27 Flanker jet made an unsafe, close-range intercept of a US P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine and intelligence plane conducting “routine operations” in international airspace, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. A US defense official, speaking earlier on condition […]
by Thomas Watkins WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Fifteen Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the largest such release in years, the Pentagon announced Monday. The latest transfers bring the remaining population of the detention center down to 61. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, about 780 inmates have been housed in the US military-run facility. According to a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, 12 of the men […]
