Blog Posts

"Islamic State fighters are refusing to surrender to U.S.-backed Syrian forces and are asking for a safe exit from their last stronghold in eastern Syria, local military officials told VOA Monday. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed Kurdish alliance, said that IS fighters have been surrounded in a small area in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour."

"Future extremists will focus not on exporting violence to the West, but on building influence in their own communities."

"Militants in Kashmir struck again on Monday, killing an Indian Army major and at least three other soldiers just days after orchestrating a devastating bombing that left dozens of Indian security forces dead."

"Five security personnel were killed in an encounter with militants in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday, deepening concerns that the territory is entering a new cycle of violence days after a suicide bomber carried out the deadliest attack in decades."

"Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate once spanned territory larger than South Carolina. The extremist group controlled the lives of more than 8 million Iraqi and Syrian residents and established its own currency, a taxation system and a sprawling bureaucracy that went so far as to dictate what its subjects were allowed to wear and to think. Its fighters vowed they would conquer Rome, Paris and Washington."

"The peace accords signed by the FARC and the Colombian government provided for this novel approach to dealing with former fighters. Besides the customary individual process that has accompanied other disarmament, demobilization and reintegration efforts, the government agreed to support what is called collective, economic and social reincorporation."

"A senior French officer involved in the fight against ISIS in Syria faces punishment after launching a scathing attack on the US-led coalition's methods to defeat the group in its remaining stronghold of Hajin, the army said on Saturday."

"When Dar drove an SUV packed with explosives into a convoy of Indian security personnel on Thursday, he carried out the single deadliest attack in decades in a region torn by strife. The bombing may mark a turning point in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where an insurgency against Indian rule has waxed and waned since 1989. The militancy is far smaller than it was at its peak, but it is increasingly drawing local recruits."

"Islamic State militants hiding among civilians have slowed an advance by U.S.-backed coalition forces in Syria, said the top American ground commander, a setback in the fight to reclaim the last vestiges of Islamic State’s territory."

"The migrant caravan that left Honduras and headed north toward the US last October is the largest flight from drug trafficking in history. Though the phenomenon of Central American caravans isn’t new, never before have thousands of people decided to flee from criminal organizations in such numbers. It is, in a sense, the biggest anti-mafia march the world has ever seen."

"Swarms of small attack drones that confuse and overwhelm anti-aircraft defenses could soon become an important part of the modern military arsenal, Britain’s defense secretary said, something that would mark a major evolution in robot-enabled warfare. Speaking at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, British defense secretary Gavin Williamson said Britain will fund the development of 'swarm squadrons of network enabled drones capable of confusing and overwhelming enemy air defenses.'”

"This paper revisits the debate that raged in American defense circles in the 1990s over whether a revolution in military affairs was imminent in the early parts of the 21st century. It also seeks to establish a benchmark, and reaffirm as well as refine a methodology, for forecasting future changes in military-related technologies by examining what has transpired in the first two decades of the 21st century."

"More than four years ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation appealed to the public to help identify the narrator in one of the Islamic State’s best-known videos, showing captured Syrian soldiers digging their own graves and then being shot in the head."

"President Donald Trump threatened Sunday to release hundreds of Islamic State fighters being held in Syria if allies in Europe don’t agree to take custody of the militants."

"The general overseeing U.S. forces in the Middle East flew into Iraq on Sunday for talks with U.S. and Iraqi officials expected to focus on ensuring that Islamic State cannot stage a resurgence after U.S. troops withdraw from neighboring Syria."

"Vice President Mike Pence gave a report card on the Trump administration’s security policy two years after telling European leaders that 'America first, did not mean America alone'. The vice president delivered his remarks at the annual Munich Security Conference, yesterday."

"Amid plans to withdraw 1,000 or more American troops from Afghanistan, several key U.S. lawmakers, after meeting with President Ashaf Ghani on Saturday, warned against a wider drawdown like the one President Donald Trump has planned for Syria."

"Human rights observers and officials with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say IS followers have been pushed out of the eastern Syrian village of Baghuz and taken refuge in what they describe as a collection of tents. Various officials have described the size of the camps as covering less than one square kilometer. But efforts by the SDF to deal a final defeat to the terror group's self-declared caliphate have been slowed due to the presence of the civilians, and efforts to negotiate a surrender have also gone nowhere."

"The attack has India rattled — and pointing fingers at Pakistan. This is troubling, because India and Pakistan have fought multiple wars over Kashmir besides engaging in intermittent skirmishes along the border. Will the Pampore incident spark a new and dangerous phase in the enduring rivalry between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan? Here’s what you need to know."

"More than 200 tons of U.S. humanitarian aid intended for Venezuela is scheduled to begin arriving just across the border in Colombia Saturday, delivered by U.S. military cargo planes."

"A suicide bomber drove a vehicle filled with explosives into an Indian paramilitary convoy in Pulwama, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, on February 14. The death toll is at least 40, making it the largest attack in Kashmir in three decades. A Pakistan-based terrorist group, Jaish-e-Muhammad, claimed responsibility through a video released shortly after."

Does the U.S. withdrawal from North Syria spell conflict between the Syria’s Kurds and Turkey, or can more bloodshed be avoided? CSIS’s Turkey Project director Bulent Aliriza explains what’s happening in North Syria.

"The top U.S. commander in the Middle East said he is moving forward with plans to pull American forces out of Syria, but said the military has the flexibility to leave some troops there if President Trump decides to reverse himself and maintain an American presence in Syria as a counter to Iran."

"The head of MI6 has warned that the Islamic State group is reorganising for more attacks despite its military defeat in Syria."

"President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency along the U.S-Mexico border, part of an overall effort that uses roughly $6 billion in military funds and personnel to build a wall to curtail illegal immigration."