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French military forces fighting Islamic extremists in West Africa killed more than 50 jihadists and detained four in an operation last week in Mali, French officials said. Defense Minister Florence Parly tweeted Monday night that the French force in the region also confiscated weapons and equipment from the fighters in the operation last Friday, which she said “shows once again that terrorist groups cannot act with impunity.” Drones monitoring the region in northern Mali spotted a convoy of suspected fighters on motorcycles, prompting France to launch the operation, first with airstrikes and then with a ground operation by French commandos,...

France said on Friday its military forces had killed al Qaeda's North Africa chief Abdelmalek Droukdel, a key Islamist fighter that its forces had been hunting for more than seven years, during an operation in Mali. "On June 3, French army forces, with the support of their local partners, killed the emir of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelmalek Droukdel, and several of his closest collaborators, during an operation in northern Mali," French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly wrote on Twitter. The announcement of the death of Droukdel comes almost six months after former colonial power France and regional...

Despite the buildup of U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf, Iran may “attack again,” the chief of the U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie told Foreign Policy in an interview. “I think the strike on Saudi Aramco in September is pretty indicative of a nation that is behaving irresponsibly,” Gen. McKenzie said. “My judgment is that it is very possible they will attack again.”

Despite the constant accusations against Westerners of being “intolerant,” “racist,” and “Islamophobic,” everywhere Islam is found, Islamic supremacists are lording it over innocent people, oppressing them, murdering them, and seeking further conquest and further Islamization. This occurs even in majority-Muslim countries where Sharia is not fully implemented. For example, there is a drive to further Islamize Indonesia, and Sharia parties are constantly pressuring Pakistan to implement more of Islamic law. Then there are the people of Balochistan. These are Iranians spread across the southeastern edge of the Iranian plateau in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. They are resisting Pakistani jihadists whose...

Unsurprisingly, Iranian officials have already attempted to blame shady foreign infiltration for the mass protests that began on Friday. Of course, the allegations are never backed up by evidence and the regime makes no effort to explain how such protests have spread to 130 cities and why it has been necessary to slaughter 200 innocent young Iranians on the streets in just three days. According to reports, the victims are mostly young adults and teenagers, many of them shot in the head and chest. Even in the midst of all of its propaganda, the regime has at times been forced...

the support of the US and President Trump is invaluable to the ordinary Iranians: ... On Persian social media outlets and apps such as Telegram, which is extremely popular among Iranians, people are cheering the US support. People are asking the US to support them in other ways as well, in addition to helping them bypass the internet-blocks and shut-downs that the Iranian regime recently implemented. If the Iranians succeed in changing this Islamist regime, it will bring down the highest state sponsor of terrorism, the leading regime in human rights violations, the top state sponsor of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitic...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday signaled his support for protesters in Iran, who have put renewed pressure on their government as it struggles to overcome the sanctions strangling the country after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. “As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you,” Pompeo said, retweeting a Persian-language tweet he sent out in July 2018 that referenced a speech he made that directly addressed the Iranian people.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — France’s defense minister criticized the U.S. on Saturday over what she described as “unanswered” attacks in recent months threatening the Persian Gulf, warning that the decades-long American deterrence in the oil-rich region appeared to be losing its power. Florence Parly separately said France “deplored” both U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that led to the re-imposition of crushing sanctions, as well as Tehran recently breaking the deal’s enrichment, stockpile and centrifuge limits. While saying France would continue to talk to Iran, her speech before...

The French navy has located one of its submarines that disappeared more than 50 years ago with 52 crew on board. La Minerve was discovered on the seabed in the Mediterranean off the port of Toulon. “It’s a success, a relief and a technical feat,” Florence Parly, the defence minister, tweeted. “I am thinking of the families who have waited for so long for this moment.” La Minerve was on a military exercise when it disappeared in January 1968. Repeated searches have failed to find the vessel until now. Under pressure from relatives of crew members, a fresh search was...