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"Six days into negotiations that many expect will deliver a preliminary deal to end nearly two decades of United States military presence in Afghanistan, the last stretch is proving to be a difficult balancing act."

Continue on for links to all the new articles in the latest issue of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point's "Sentinel".

Australian Strategic Policy Institute - "The insurgents’ seizure of Marawi was accompanied by a systematic IS propaganda campaign (online and offline) aimed at projecting an image of triumph and strength. The AFP engaged in active counter-messaging to undermine militants’ narratives, encompassing the online space as well as more traditional methods of messaging, such as leaflet drops, banners, and radio and loudspeaker broadcasts."

"A huge bomb outside a police station in the Afghan capital Kabul has killed at least 14 people and injured nearly 150."

"Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, the new commander of U.S. Africa Command, visited Somalia on Wednesday and pledged to continue pressuring violent extremists such as al-Shabab."

"The row between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir has deepened with Pakistan's announcement that it was expelling India's top diplomat and suspending trade."

U.S. plans to keep just a residual force in Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of the Islamic State may be on the verge of backfiring, with some military officials warning the strategy is giving the terror group new life.

Afghan troops besieged by the Taliban for more than a week in a remote district of central Afghanistan are desperate for reinforcements and help.

"Since about half of 2,000 special operations and other train-advise-assist forces returned to the U.S. in the spring, ISIS has been staging a comeback, according to an inspector general report from DoD, the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development released Tuesday."

"Turkey’s combative president is threatening to launch a military operation in northeastern Syria that is designed to push back U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish forces — an invasion that carries major risks for a highly combustible region in war-devastated Syria."

"The United States and the Taliban have resolved differences in peace talks over the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and guarantees from the insurgents that they will cut ties with other extremist groups, a Taliban official said Tuesday."

Turkey’s National Security Council said in a statement last week that a cross-border military crackdown on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq was “continuing successfully.” The statement stressed that operations Claw-1 and Claw-2, which began in late May and mid-July, respectively, would continue until Hakurk is “fully cleansed” of the PKK.

India's BJP-led government is hailing its decision to strip the state of Jammu and Kashmir of autonomy after seven decades, characterising it as the correction of a "historical blunder". The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi explains why this has happened and why it's important.

"Diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire in Yemen between Saudi Arabia and Iran-aligned forces have faltered, say people briefed on the talks, setting back United Nations attempts to prevent the four-year-old war from fueling broader regional conflict with Tehran."

SWJ El Centro Fellow Dr. Max G. Manwaring has a new book out:"Confronting the Evolving Global Security Landscape: Lessons from the Past and Present".

The U.S. peace envoy seeking to negotiate an end to the nearly 18-year war in Afghanistan said Washington was ready to sign a "good agreement" with the Taliban. Continue on for more.

On Thursday, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released its forty-fourth Quarterly Report to Congress. Continue on for the key take-aways.

Plutocratic insurgency represents an emerging form of insurgency not seen since the late 19th century Gilded Age. It is being conducted by high net worth globalized elites allowing them to remove themselves from public spaces and obligations—including taxation—and to maximize their ability to generate profits transnationally.

"The Pentagon’s Special Operations Command — known as SOCOM — is looking into how brain trauma from the 17-year war on terror in the Middle East has impacted elite US troops."

Via SOF News - Every six months the Department of Defense provides to Congress a semiannual report entitled Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan. The report covers the events from the previous six months – in this case, from December to May 2019. The report states that the principal goal of the United States South Asia Strategy is to “. . . conclude the war in Afghanistan on terms favorable to Afghanistan and the United States.”

The United States and Iran pushed full steam ahead, each country launching a new round of verbal volleys, as military tensions between Tehran and the West rose to new heights Monday.

Senior officer: "We are looking towards future challenges in the next war-tunnels and urban combat-which could be in Gaza, Lebanon or Syria."

"President Donald Trump is meeting with Pakistan's prime minister, Imran Khan, about ending America's longest war, the conflict in Afghanistan."

"Islamic State militants who escaped the defeat of their self-declared caliphate in Syria earlier this year have been slipping across the border into Iraq, bolstering a low-level insurgency the group is now waging across the central and northern part of the country, according to security officials."

U.S. President Donald Trump will press Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for assistance in advancing the peace process in Afghanistan when the two leaders meet at the White House on Monday in their bid to reset strained relations between the two countries.