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"A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has said he will not stand down as a condition of US air strikes against Sunni militants who have made a lightning advance across the country." ****** Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, told a hearing on Wednesday that Maliki's government "has got to go if you want any reconciliation", and Republican John McCain called for the use of US air power but also urged Obama to "make very clear to Maliki that his time is up". ***** Obama is said to be still weighing military options, and...

Iraq has formally called on the US to launch air strikes against jihadist militants who have seized several key cities over the past week. "We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power," confirmed top US military commander Gen Martin Dempsey in front of US senators. Earlier the Sunni insurgents launched an attack on Iraq's biggest oil refinery at Baiji north of Baghdad. Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki earlier urged Iraqis to unite against the militants. Government forces are battling to push back ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and its Sunni Muslim allies in Diyala and...

Iraq Crisis: US Moves Aircraft Carrier To Persian Gulf As Obama Weighs Military Options By Howard Koplowitz@howardkoplowitz on June 13 2014 12:02 PM The USS George H.W. Bush is being positioned in the Persian Gulf as President Obama considers airstrikes in Iraq. US Navy The U.S. aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush is being moved to the Persian Gulf in case President Barack Obama authorizes airstrikes in Iraq, CNN reported Friday. Iraq is in turmoil after an al Qaeda offshoot, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, made advances this week in the north and north-central portions of the country, including...

Two and a half years after the last U.S. soldier departed, an al Qaeda offshoot is in control of Mosul and headed for Baghdad—and Iraq’s prime minister is requesting U.S. air strikes. It seems like only yesterday that Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was celebrating as the last American soldiers left Iraq. Now, with an al Qaeda offshoot threatening to take Baghdad, Maliki’s government is quietly asking at least some troops—specifically airmen and drone pilots—to return. While Iraq’s government is not requesting a surge in U.S. ground forces like the one President Bush ordered in 2007, Maliki’s government has been...

As the threat from Sunni militants in western Iraq escalated last month, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki secretly asked the Obama administration to consider carrying out airstrikes against extremist staging areas, according to Iraqi and American officials. But Iraq’s appeals for military assistance have so far been rebuffed by the White House, which has been reluctant to open a new chapter in a conflict that President Obama has insisted was closed when the United States withdrew the last of its forces from Iraq in 2011. A spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Bernadette Meehan, declined to comment on Mr. Maliki’s...

France had Rafale jets armed with Scalp missiles ready for strike on Syria By Richard Clements According to to French weekly le Nouvel Observateur (LNO) France came within hours of striking Syrian Chemical weapons sites after thinking that the U.S had planned a huge attack on Sept. 1, 2013. The report states that French President Francois Hollande had convened a meeting early in the morning of August 31; the plan on how France was going to attack the chemical weapons sites was formed during this meeting. According to LNO the French planned to fly Rafale jets supported by French tankers...

President Obama faces an uphill battle in making the case for U.S. military action in Syria. By a 48% to 29% margin, more Americans oppose than support conducting military airstrikes against Syria in response to reports that the Syrian government used chemical weapons. The new national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Aug. 29-Sept. 1 among 1,000 adults, finds that Obama has significant ground to make up in his own party. Just 29% of Democrats favor conducting airstrikes against Syria while 48% are opposed. Opinion among independents is similar (29% favor, 50% oppose). Republicans are more divided, with 35%...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged quick congressional action authorizing the use of military force against Syria and won the support of leaders from both parties in the House of Representatives for limited strikes against President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

On her Friday MSNBC program, host Andrea Mitchell tried to ease the concerns of Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee and other members of Congress calling for a congressional vote on military action in Syria: "Barack Obama, as you know better than I do, was one of the leading Democratic politicians against the Iraq War. So if he says that this is different, that the evidence is there....does that persuade you since he has always come at this from a very cautious anti-war perspective?" [Listen to the audio] Accepting the odd juxtaposition of the President launching missile strikes from an "anti-war perspective,"...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called Friday for a strong U.S. response to last week’s use of chemical weapons outside Damascus, urging multiple missile strikes aimed at destroying Syrian President Bashar Assad’s major military assets and rendering him largely powerless. While Graham, in a statement with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, said the attack could be done “in a limited way, without boots on the ground,” the breadth of the two Republican senators’ suggested action would significantly increase U.S. involvement in a two-year civil war in Syria that has left 100,000 people dead and sent 1 million refugees into neighboring...

The U.S. intelligence community has been leaking information on Israeli air strikes in Syria, and U.S. President Barack Obama is behind the leaks, according to a report in the World Tribune. Diplomats told the Tribune that the Obama administration has enabled the U.S. intelligence community to disclose details of Israeli military operations against the armed forces under Syrian President Bashar Assad. These leaks include reporting Israeli air and naval strikes on advanced Iranian and Russian weapons that arrived in 2013. “This is a decision that could come only from Obama,” a diplomat said. “[T]his reflects his dismay over the Israeli...

Even if we have often reported the presence of the F-22 Raptors at Al Dhafra, satellite imagery showing five radar evading planes parked at the main airbase in the UAE has been made publicly available for the first time recently. The aircraft, parked next to an F-15E Strike Eagle, are five of the six F-22 that had (more or less secretely) deployed in South East Asia from Holloman New Mexico, via Moron, Spain, on Apr. 20, 2012. The image is not only interesting because it shows the main U.S. Air Force plane about 100 miles from Iran, but also because...

The United Nations has called on Israel to halt military air patrols over Lebanon amid heightened tensions after air raids on targets in Syria, a UN spokesman said Tuesday. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, had protested after recording an increase in Israeli flights over Lebanon. UNIFIL "says that in the course of the past week it has observed a higher number of Israeli air violations over Lebanese airspace," Nesirky told a briefing, the AFP news agency reported. He added that the flights are a "violation of Lebanese sovereignty and of Security Council...

Pictures emerge showing destruction caused to buildings by airstrikes Syria pledges to retaliate against Israel 'in its own time and way'Threats follow two raids by Israel on Syria in the past three daysVideo footage showed dramatic explosions over Damascus skylineIsrael says it was targeting Iranian-made missiles on the way to Hezbollah Bulldozers are clearing away rubble from buildings razed to the ground by Israeli airstrikes near Damascus, as Syria pledges retaliation for the 'declaration of war'.Pictures have emerged from Syria showing the damage caused to buildings, including some forming part of a chicken farm, by an attack in Al-Hama -...

Israeli Defense Forces held surprise military drills today near the Lebanon border with over 2,000 soldiers. Israeli Jets reportedly entered Syrian airspace and bombed a chemical weapons compound near Damascus this morning. The UPI reported: The Free Syrian Army says Israeli air force jets flew over President Bashar Assad’s palace and bombed a chemical weapons site near Damascus, Maariv reported. The report said Israeli jets entered Syrian airspace close to 6 a.m Saturday and flew over Assad’s palace in Damascus and other security facilities before striking a chemical weapons compound near the city. The Hebrew language daily said a Syrian...

The victims died when a strike from an aircraft hit a house in the Shigal district of Kunar province during an operation which also killed at least eight militants. The Nato-led coalition confirmed it was investigating the allegation and that it had used aircraft in the area to support a force of Afghan and foreign troops. The incident had the potential to provoke another confrontation with Hamid Karzai's government. Mr Karzai has railed for years against the number of civilian casualties caused by Nato air strikes, though deaths from such air attacks have decreased significantly. The setback came as Gen...

Syrian warplanes attacked targets inside eastern Lebanon on Monday, the first time since the Syria conflict began two years ago that the military has used its air force to strike at suspected rebel hide-outs across the Lebanon border... It came as representatives of Syria’s main political opposition group were meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, to establish the beginnings of a provisional government, to be based in rebel-held areas of northern Syria, that would theoretically compete with President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus. The first step was to select a prime minister, but representatives meeting late into Monday night were reported to...

Well, well, well, so Obama has embarked on his third war in little more than two years. You've got to admit that "flexibility" is his middle name. Or at least one of his middle names: Barack Barry Hussein "Flexibility" Soetoro Obama, Jr. Those are the names we know so far, but The Donald thinks there might be more. Whodda thunk? Here we are barely into the first week of what started out as a "No-Fly Zone" and it is now turning out to be Air Al Qaida. Ten years ago, AQ had a mere four civilian airplanes to crash into...

(Reuters) - French warplanes pounded Islamist rebel camps in the far north of Mali on Sunday, military sources said, a day after French President Francois Hollande was hailed as a savior during a visit to the West African country. Thierry Burkhard, spokesman for the French army in Paris, said the overnight raids targeted logistics bases and training camps used by the al Qaeda-linked rebels near the town of Tessalit, close to the Algerian border. ... France says the rebels are also holding hostage in these mountains seven of its citizens, seized in recent years in the Sahara region. Malian military...

Iraqi daily Azzaman quoted a Western diplomatic source as saying Thursday that the alleged Israeli attack on Syria reported on Wednesday caused heavy casualties among special Iranian Guards stationed at the Syrian facility. The source also said that the attack took place more than 48 hours before it was reported, eventually being leaked by Israel. The source for the story, who was interviewed by the paper in London, said that the report about a strike on a convoy to Lebanon was probably meant to divert attention away from the main objective of the operation, which used F-16 aircraft to fire...