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The Iraqi Army has declared on Saturday the start of an operation to liberate Fallujah’s city center, considered to be ISIS stronghold in the western province of Anbar, Al Arabiya News Channel reported. Iraq’s counter-terrorism forces deployed on the edge of Fallujah Saturday for the first time since an operation was launched to retake the militants-held city, top commanders said. The counter-terrorism service (CTS), Iraq’s best-trained and most battle-tested fighting unit, moved into position on the boundaries of Fallujah. “CTS forces, Anbar emergency police and tribal fighters... reached Tareq and Mazraa camps” south and east of Fallujah, Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the...

Video map The Syrian Arab Army’s engineering units have started repairing and reconstructing of Palmyra military airport in order to resume its routine activities and operations. The airport will likely become an important air base for the Syrian army’s military choppers and fighter jets, especially, in case of advances on Deir Ezzor and Raqqa. Meanwhile, Russian and Syrian warplanes continued air raids against ISIS positions at Al-Sukhnah and along the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor road. The oil reach town Al-Sukhnah is a logistical point of the ISIS oil smuggling business. The SAA and its allies continue attempts to liberate the town of...

In northern Iraq the threat posed by ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) has led to over 2,000 Kurdish women volunteering for combat duty. Another 5,000 had volunteered for support work in the combat zone. This is nothing new for the Kurds, or many other peoples around the globe. Throughout history women have often served in irregular combat organizations. In modern times, with the arrival of lightweight firearms, more women became capable of handling direct combat. This is because before modern firearms were developed in the 19th century lots of combat was dependent on muscle, which men have...

They answered the call by the thousands, some walking miles in sweltering heat to volunteer to fight an al Qaeda splinter group barreling towards the Iraqi capital. With reports that fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the terror group also known as ISIS, was some 40 miles from the gates of Baghdad, the country's top religious and political leaders appealed for able-bodied men of fighting age to volunteer to defend the country. "Mosul, Tal Afar, Falluja, wherever, by God's will we will be ready to defend any location," said 23-year-old Ahmed, who showed up Thursday at a...

KIRUK — It was only a few months ago that a terrorist incident in this northern Iraq city destroyed most of the stock of a local pharmacy, leaving a family-owned business in tatters and depriving the community of much needed medication. In a spark of hope for moving beyond the insurgency, however, the pharmacy and the services it provides to the community will soon be fully restored. In mid-July, the family took out a loan – the equivalent of $3,000 in Iraqi dinars – to replenish the stock and rebuild their business. Small as it may sound, the amount means...

Residents of the Ghazaliya neighborhood of Baghdad wait in line for medical treatment conducted by Iraqi doctors of the 6th Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, Iraqi National Guard, with Coalition doctors providing support. Department of Defense photo by Navy Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class Brett Cote, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.BAGHDAD -- Nearly 200 residents participated in Operation Ghazaliya Aid, receiving medical treatment for a variety of ailments.Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, along with Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Multi-National...

USS IWO JIMA , At Sea (NNS) -- USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) and USS Nashville (LPD 13), both assigned to the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), successfully and safely transited the Suez Canal, Aug. 20. As part of Commander, Task Force 59, both ships, and Marines assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) (MEU(SOC)) provided crucial departure assistance to American citizens in Lebanon looking to leave the troubled region. USS Cole (DDG 67) and USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) remained on station off Lebanon, ready to provide additional assistance as needed. “Every Sailor and Marine...

Baqubah General Hospital underwent major surgery by Claude D. McKinney Gulf Region North U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The 331-bed Baqubah General Hospital can accommodate 400-500 patients daily is one of two hospitals in Baqubah. In the total Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Program, there are 30 Hospital projects planned nationwide, with 16 currently ongoing, and 13 completed. (GRD photo) Baqubah, Iraq—After a year under construction, the Baqubah General Hospital is finished … with a new incinerator and reverse osmosis water treatment system; plumbing and sewer system upgrade; architectural renovation; emergency backup generator and repair of existing elevators. The completed...

"Entifadh Qanbar is Iraq's Deputy Military Attache at the Embassy in Washington. He gave this speech to the American Enterprise Institute on Oct 5." ~ Laurie Mylroie Defending Iraq - By Entifadh K. Qanbar The biggest danger to Iraqi citizens and the Iraqi government is terrorism. Thus, the main task of the Iraqi army is not to fight wars with foreign countries, but to fight terrorism. To defeat terrorism in Iraq, we need to establish a military force based on a doctrine that recognizes the nature of the enemy and what is required to defeat him. We need to be...

President Bush draws antiwar protesters just about wherever he goes, but few generate the kind of attention that Cindy Sheehan has since she drove down the winding road toward his ranch here this weekend and sought to tell him face to face that he must pull all Americans troops out of Iraq now. Ms. Sheehan's son, Casey, was killed last year in Iraq, after which she became an antiwar activist. She says she and her family met with the president two months later at Fort Lewis in Washington State. But when she was blocked by the police a few miles...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon, under pressure from open-government advocates, released hundreds of images Thursday of flag-draped coffins of American soldiers. The Pentagon had previously refused to release such images, which were taken by military photographers. Nor has it allowed the news media to photograph ceremonies of soldiers' coffins arriving in the United States, saying it is enforcing a policy installed in 1991 to respect the privacy of families of dead soldiers. The pictures were released in response to a request for all military photos of caskets containing the remains of American soldiers taken since the U.S. launched its attack on...

HANAU, Germany — From this day on, lower enlisted soldiers new to Company A, 127th Aviation Support Battalion, will come to know all about Sgt. James Lathan. Lathan deserves nothing less. An aircraft hydraulics engineer, the 27-year-old Nebraskan was eight days away from leaving Iraq when a mortar round sent him home early, though not the way he, his buddies and his family had imagined. The mortar round that exploded just behind him on the night of the Fourth of July sent pieces of shrapnel whizzing through the air. As luck or fate — or whatever one wants to call...

<p>They think the voters have already decided to fire President Bush, so Democrats didn't need to make the case themselves. Their task was merely to present Mr. Kerry as a safe alternative. Then come November, as in 1980 and 1992, the undecided will break largely for the challenger and Mr. Kerry will realize his lifelong ambition.</p>

<p>The investigation will look at what the United States believed it knew before the war against Saddam Hussein's regime and what has been determined since the invasion. Former chief weapons inspector David Kay has concluded that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction, a chief rationale for the U.S.-led war.</p>