Blog Posts

WaPo op-ed by Major General (Ret.) Robert Scales

"Hundreds of thousands of people are protesting in Hong Kong against a controversial extradition bill, despite the bill having been suspended."

"Hong Kong’s leader indefinitely suspended a bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, backing down in an effort to end widespread public unrest fueled by fears that Beijing’s growing reach is eroding people’s rights."

"On May 31, a suicide bomber targeted a U.S. convoy in eastern Kabul, killing four Afghan passersby and slightly wounding four U.S. servicemen and at least three civilians."

"The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin and a demonstration of how the Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cybertools more aggressively, current and former government officials said."

"The top U.S. diplomat for Africa pushed Friday for Sudan to carry out an “independent and credible” investigation into a June 3 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left scores dead."

"A day after two commercial tankers are hit in the Gulf of Oman, reports emerge the Houthis are firing -- and hitting -- US aircraft."

"Using primary and secondary sources, what is the history of the Battle for Baghdad? - What are the strategic lessons learned from the conflict?"

RFE/RL spoke with Scott Lucas, an Iran expert at Birmingham University in Britain and editor of the EA World View website, about the attack and its possible repercussions.

Situation and news updates via 'The Washington Post'.

"The Republican president and Democrats in the House are currently at odds over military support in Yemen, where “a small number” of U.S. military personnel are deployed, according to the June 11 letter."

"Two years ago, Pentagon officials said that American forces in the remote reaches of Afghanistan could defeat the Islamic State’s offshoot here by the end of 2017. This month, American Special Forces in eastern Afghanistan were still fighting, with no end in sight."

"U.S. Central Command has released a video and photographs that officials say prove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy attacked two merchant tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday."

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of attacking a pair of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday as part of a “unacceptable campaign of escalating tension” by its leaders, but said the United States won’t respond with military force for now."

"Iraq’s second city, once a recruitment center for Sunni officers in Saddam Hussein’s army, became an al Qaeda hotbed after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled the dictator, and later the base from where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in 2014."

"Continued success by the American-backed military campaign in Somalia could set the stage for economic development in the country, which has been wracked by years of lawlessness and violence, U.S. officials said."

"Two massive tankers off the southern coast of Iran near the strategic Strait of Hormuz were reportedly attacked on Thursday, an assault that left one ablaze and adrift as sailors were evacuated from both vessels."

"Israeli aircraft attacked a Hamas target in Gaza on Thursday after a Palestinian rocket strike, the Israeli military said, in the first serious cross-border flare-up since a surge in fighting last month."

"... Katie Jones doesn’t exist, The Associated Press has determined. Instead, the persona was part of a vast army of phantom profiles lurking on the professional networking site LinkedIn."

"The Marine Corps Advisor Company or MCAC is a new unit that has been established to provide trained and capable military advisors to work with foreign militaries and security forces of partner nations. The MCAC units will focus exclusively on training, equipping, and deploying military advisor teams that will operate around the world."

"Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked an airport in southern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, wounding 26 people in the latest escalation of a four-year-old conflict that threatens to further strain relations between the United States and Iran."

Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar dismissed the Pentagon's latest warning over Ankara's imminent procurement of Russian missiles on Thursday as "language unbecoming of an ally." U.S. acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan's letter to his Turkish counterpart laid out a detailed timetable of Turkey's exclusion from the purchase and production of America's latest F-35 fighter jet if Ankara buys Russia's S-400 missiles system.

"A standoff over China’s encroachment on this city’s legal autonomy deepened, with hundreds of police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, as the financial center’s Beijing-backed government showed no signs of yielding during a second day of widespread demonstrations."

"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned of another military conflict in the Middle East if the global community is not more patient in the quest to ease escalating tensions between the United States and Iran."

"Despite an aggressive counterinsurgency campaign waged by the Egyptian military, militants linked to IS are still capable of coordinating sophisticated attacks."