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I was told via Direct Message that Turkish forces in al Bad in Syria were hit with 2 air strikes today. So far no one is admitting to doing it. But today is 1 year since Turkish aircraft shot down a Russian Aircraft in disputed territory near the border of Turkey and Syria. Coincidence? Guess we will see. I was told there were many casualties.

The US military has launched strikes on radar sites in Yemen, the Pentagon announced, according to Reuters. The move comes in response to failed attacks on the US navy destroyer USS Mason. According to the Pentagon’s initial assessments, three “radar sites” in the Houthi rebel-controlled area of Yemen were destroyed in the attack. The US military vowed to respond to “any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic,” according to a statement cited by Reuters.

The United States said Thursday it was "appalled" by Syrian government air strikes Thursday that killed more than 30 people - including children - in a key rebel bastion east of the capital of Damascus. The raids took place in Deir Al-Assafir, a town in the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, one of the areas in Syria where a fragile ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia has been in place since February 27. "The United States is appalled by aerial strikes March 31, reportedly by the Assad regime, on a school and hospital in the Damascus suburb of Deir...

The head of the most powerful Syrian insurgent group in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus was killed on Friday in a Russian air strike on the secret headquarters of his group, rebel sources said. The Syrian army confirmed the death of Zahran Alloush, whose Jaysh al Islam grouping has thousands of fighters and is the biggest rebel faction in the area. Several rebel group leaders have been killed since Russia launched its air campaign on Sept. 30 in support of President Bashar al-Assad, whose troops had suffered a series of setbacks in a civil war now nearing the end of...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States targeted British Islamic State leader "Jihadi John" in an air attack in northern Syria which Britain said would "strike at the heart of Islamic State" if the militant's death is confirmed. British Prime Minister David Cameron said the death of Mohammed Emwazi, who was known as Jihadi John after appearing in videos showing the killings of U.S. and British hostages, could not yet be confirmed and the Pentagon said it was still assessing the effectiveness of the strike. But a U.S. official said Thursday's attack in the town of Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto...

The Russian Defense Ministry denies US allegations that Russian warplanes in Syria are bombing regions, which are out of President Assad’s control, rather than terrorist infrastructure, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday. He explained that US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told Congress hearings held earlier that the Russian air group in Syria delivered most of its strikes at regions which were no longer under the control of President Assad’s regime rather than at terrorists. "If we analyze what various US officials say, there is an impression that the location of terrorist-held facilities is the most...

The leader of an al Qaeda-linked group allegedly bent on attacking the West has been killed in an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria, U.S. officials said Sunday. Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi citizen whose real name is Abdul Mohsen Adballah Ibrahim al Charekh, was the highest-ranking member of the Khorasan Group -- a collection of veteran al Qaeda jihadis which had moved into Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement. He was killed in an airstrike in northwest Syria on Thursday, the statement said. Nasr, who was once al Qaeda's chief financial officer and had been designated a Specially...

Iraqi officials claim that their air forces struck the convoy of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as well as a meeting of other ISIS leaders in western Iraq yesterday. The US is skeptical that Baghdadi got hit, and ISIS sources flat-out deny it, but the Iraqis insist that they at least hit the self-styled caliph in the air strike. Reuters reports that the Iraqis claim they got eight ISIS leaders at the meeting, at least: Eight senior figures from Islamic State were killed in an air strike while meeting in a town in western Iraq, but the group’s reclusive leader Abu...

KABUL — The acting governor of Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province said Sunday that Taliban fighters had been routinely firing “small and heavy” weapons from the grounds of a local hospital before it was apparently hit by a U.S. airstrike over the weekend. In an interview, Hamdullah Danishi said the Doctors Without Borders compound was “a Taliban base” that was being used to plot and carry out attacks across the provincial capital, Kunduz city. “The hospital campus was 100 percent used by the Taliban,” Danishi said. “The hospital has a vast garden, and the Taliban were there. We tolerated their firing...

KABUL – U.S. forces may have mistakenly bombed a hospital in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 19 people, including three children, in an incident that will likely raise new questions about the scope of American involvement in the country’s 14-year war. In a statement, Doctors Without Borders said an airstrike “partially destroyed” its trauma hospital in Kunduz, where the Afghan military has been trying to drive Taliban fighters from the city. The airstrike killed at least 12 Doctors Without Borders staff members, the group said. Three children were also reportedly killed. At least 37 other people were seriously...

Russia has conducted its first airstrike in Syria, near the city of Homs, a senior U.S. official told CNN Wednesday.

PARIS — In France’s first airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, warplanes destroyed a training camp, President François Hollande announced on Sunday. At a news conference in New York, where he had arrived for the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Hollande said that the warplanes had attacked the training camp in eastern Syria after it had been identified by French air surveillance with help from the coalition of Western and Middle Eastern states conducting the air campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. “Our forces reached their objectives: The camp was completely destroyed,” Mr....

The threat of a limited surgical naval or air force bombing of critical nuclear installations--with no ground troops The contention that there are only two options in dealing with the rogue Ayatollahs’ regime—negotiation or military option, which supposedly amounts to war—defies reality. Such a contention is either mistaken or misleading. The threat of a limited surgical naval or air force bombing of critical nuclear installations—with no ground troops - would not amount to a war, would deter the Ayatollahs, possibly moderating their nature, and—if activated - would permanently cripple their pursuit of nuclear capabilities, and could be repeated if necessary...

Reports are circulating that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi might've been seriously injured during an airstrike operation, leading the terror group to choose a former Iraqi physics teacher as his replacement. Hisham al Hashimi, an Iraqi government adviser, told Newsweek earlier this week that al-Baghdadi was wounded back in March, and is unable to carry out his day-to-day duties. He said that Abu Alaa Afri has been selected to stand in as his replacement, and could take over permanently if al-Baghdadi dies. "After Baghdadi's wounding, he [Afri] has begun to head up Daesh [arabic term for ISIS] with the help...

Saudi-led coalition jets have bombed Houthi rebels in Yemen's third city of Taiz, hours after announcing the end of a military campaign against them. The strikes followed the fall of the base outside Taiz of an army unit loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Fighting was also reported in the second city of Aden, Lahj's provincial capital Huta, and the town of Daleh. On Tuesday, Riyadh declared its month-long campaign, which sought to restore the president, had achieved its goals. But it warned that it would continue to take action against the Houthis as needed. The UN says at least...

A Saudi-led coalition will end "Operation Decisive Storm" -- its nearly monthlong airstrike campaign in Yemen -- by the end of Tuesday, and a new undertaking called "Operation Restoring Hope" will begin, Saudi state-run TV reported without immediately elaborating. The aim is to bring back Yemen's "security and stability through establishing a political process," said a statement from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

The military chief of Syria's al-Nusra Front militant group has been killed in an air strike, the jihadist group has said on social media. Three other leaders were killed along with Abu Homam al-Shami, it says. Syria's state-run news agency said the army had targeted Nusra leaders as they met in northern Idlib province, the Associated Press reported. Al-Nusra is one of the most powerful groups fighting the army and has long been seen as an affiliate of al-Qaeda. It was involved in a major attack on the Air Force Intelligence headquarters in the embattled city of Aleppo on Wednesday.

An ISIS chemical weapons expert was killed in an airstrike on Saturday near Mosul, Iraq, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Friday. Abu Malik worked in a chemical weapons production facility under Saddam Hussein before joining al Qaeda in Iraq in 2005, Central Command said. He then joined ISIS, allowing the terrorist group to make use of his experience in chemical weapons capabilities, according to Central Command. "His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL's (ISIS') ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people," the statement said. The...

An ISIS chemical weapons expert who used to work for Saddam Hussein was killed last weekend during a coalition airstrike. Abu Malik died Jan. 24 near Mosul, according to a statement released by U.S. Central Command Friday. In the past, Malik had worked at one of Hussein’s chemical weapons facilities. He joined al-Qaeda in 2005, then later became a member of ISIS. According to the statement, his background provided ISIS “with expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability.” His death should “temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL’s ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against...

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories are expected to heighten after Israeli aircraft bombed a site in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip on Friday (December 19). The target is believed to have been a Hamas base. According to a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the attack was in response to a rocket fired from Gaza, which hit an open area in the south of Israel. There are no reports of casualties following either strike. Israel’s attacks are the first since a seven-week war on Gaza ended three months ago. The incident is expected...