Free Republic

CAMP TAJI, Iraq — Forces fighting the Islamic State group should be able to retake the IS-held cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria within the next six months, according to the top U.S. commander in Iraq. On a tour north of Baghdad Wednesday, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said "within the next six months I think we'll see both (the Mosul and Raqqa campaigns) conclude." Townsend also said he expected the fight for Mosul's western half to begin in days. Iraqi forces have retaken about half of Mosul — the country's second largest city — since...

The alliance working hard to retake the Islamic State's declared capital of Raqqa, Syria, said it's now in the third phase of the extensive ground offensive -- and they're picking up new fighters as they go. The Syrian Democratic Forces -- an anti-ISIS/al-Qaeda, anti-Assad alliance of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Circassians, Turkmen and more -- began what was expected to be the most difficult and bloody fight against ISIS three months ago with a force some 30,000 strong. Last month, the Pentagon credited the SDF with capturing nearly 1,900 square miles of ISIS territory, and growing. The SDF said over the...

Kurdish officials on Monday accused the Turkish army of shelling the villages of Maranaaz, Vilat al-Qadi, Sheikh Issa east of Afrin district and entering Syrian territory. Turkish media confirmed the shelling. “Turkish army and affiliated terrorists are heavily shelling east Efrin [Afrin] from Azaz city since Monday evening — the attacks continued until the moment,” the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said in a statement. The Turkish army has been bombarding Kurdish positions in Afrin district from the rebel-held areas of Marea and Azaz in Aleppo Governorate, in northwestern Syria. It’s unclear if the shelling was a result of clashes...

Syrian rebels and Turkish forces have taken control of hills around the "IS"-controlled town of al-Bab in Syria. Presidents Trump and Erdogan meanwhile spoke by phone, a possible sign of improving US-Turkey relations. Two Turkish soldiers were killed and 15 slightly wounded in the clashes on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning with so-called "Islamic State" (IS) militants in northern Syria, Turkey's military said on Wednesday. It later said that 58 IS fighters had been killed in the al-Bab operations so far. Syrian rebels and Turkish special forces "have made progress" in northern Syria in the fight against IS, Turkish Foreign...

Iran is preparing to celebrate the 38th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution next weekend by launching a satellite into space from the Safir vehicle, according to images obtained by US spy satellites from Iran’s launch sites.Safir was the first vehicle used to launch Iran’s first satellite into orbit in February 2009. In response to US President Donald Trump’s warning to stop missile tests, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday: “The Iranian people will respond to his words on Feb, 10 and show how they stand up to such threats.” The satellite launch is expected to take place the next...

Between Jan. 23 and 27, 2017, there were reports that Syrian president Bashar Al Assad had suffered a stroke and had to be hospitalized. The usually pro-Assad British newspaper The Independent claimed that the Syrian president was suffering serious psychological strain. Allegations of a president’s poor health take on extra significance in a Russian proxy state. During the Cold War, the Soviets frequently cited allied leaders’ purported medical and psychological problems when launching military interventions — takeovers, essentially — in the countries of the supposedly-ailing heads of state. Did the same thing just happen in Syria? On Jan. 28, there were reports that Iran’s...

A Swedish police investigator triggered a media tsunami with a Facebook post linking violent crimes with immigrants. Peter Springare received an outpouring of support from fellow officers and common Swedes, as well as some accusations of racism. Springare is a senior investigator at the serious crimes division at the Örebro Police Department with 47 years under his belt. In the Saturday post he said what he was going to say would not be politically correct and that saying such things could harm an officer’s position or pay grade, but he was about to retire and didn’t care.

A Syrian refugee is suing Facebook for defamation after he says the company didn’t do enough to stop fake news articles that labeled him as a terrorist. 18-year-old Anas Modamani was thrilled when he was able to snap a photo with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The photo went viral after it captured a human moment for the normally reserved German leader. After the Brussels bombing and the Berlin Christmas market attack, Modamani’s face appeared again. Fake news sites used his face, falsely accusing him of carrying out multiple attacks.

Between Jan. 23 and 27, 2017, there were reports that Syrian president Bashar Al Assad had suffered a stroke and had to be hospitalized. The usually pro-Assad British newspaper The Independent claimed that the Syrian president was suffering serious psychological strain. Allegations of a president’s poor health take on extra significance in a Russian proxy state. During the Cold War, the Soviets frequently cited allied leaders’ purported medical and psychological problems when launching military interventions — takeovers, essentially — in the countries of the supposedly-ailing heads of state.

AMMAN — Royal Air Force jets on Friday destroyed various targets of the Daesh terrorist group in southern Syria, a Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army statement said Saturday, cited by the Jordan News Agency, Petra. One of the targets was a military site that previously belonged to the Syrian army and was seized by Daesh, the statement said, adding that the attack was dedicated to the memory of those who died in the line of duty in the war against terrorism. The Royal Air Force’s unmanned jet fighter planes destroyed ammunition warehouses, a structure designated to customising and booby-trapping vehicles and...

Islamic State fighters have broken through government defensive lines in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, surrounding a military airport and cutting off food supplies for roughly a quarter of a million civilians in what could become a major humanitarian disaster. Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria is divided between the militants and the government of Bashar al-Assad. The areas controlled by the government have long been under siege but were sustained by supplies flown in to the nearby military airport and by airdrops from the World Food Programme. But on Monday, Isis fighters, which sources from the city said were...

Planning for the final assault on Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State’s caliphate, had been grinding on for more than seven months. There had been dozens of meetings of President Barack Obama’s top national security team, scores of draft battle plans and hundreds of hours of anguished, late-night debates. There were no good options, but Obama’s top foreign policy advisers were convinced that they had finally settled on an approach that could work — arming Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, current and former U.S. officials said. There was just one problem: The Obama team had deliberated for so long...

With the Islamic State (or ISIS) facing setbacks in Iraq and Syria, most observers believe that the group is crumbling. Indeed, just last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared eastern Mosul “fully liberated” from the group. Evidently, the U.S.-led coalition tasked with countering ISIS, well into the third year of its ongoing military campaign, has made progress. As a result of efforts in Iraq and Syria in 2016 alone, several high-ranking leaders have been killed or captured, the group’s finances have taken a serious hit, and it is hemorrhaging territory. Over the next few years, ISIS is sure to...

The dominant assessment in NATO is clear: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan staged the coup against himself.By KJETIL STORMARK / kjetil@aldrimer.noSenior NATO sources tell aldrimer.no that they believe Erdoğan staged the coup himself. However, they stress that there is no written NATO documentation for that claim, because it is simply too sensitive. That’s because all member nation’s have the right to access to all intelligence information gathered by the alliance.1,600 namesBut the dominant NATO assessment is quite clear.«The senior officers, three- and four-star generals, and those who worked with Turkey for 30-40 years and who mentored Turkish officers for...

0:00This executive order, signed by President Trump, 0:03starts a new policy on refugees and immigration in America. 0:06TRUMP: "And this is the protection of the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the 0:14United States..." 0:15But that's not really what's in this Executive Order. 0:18So let’s go through it. 0:19First, the executive order banned all immigrants and visa-holders from seven majority-muslim 0:24countries from entering the US for at least 90 days. 0:28There is no security benefit. 0:31Americans are more likely to be killed by their own clothes than by an immigrant terrorist. 0:36Nobody in the US has been killed in a...

Last night, President Trump went off on Australia, criticizing a "dumb" Obama-era "deal" that would, in Trump's words, force the United States to take "thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia." Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017 Except that's not really what the deal says. Not at all. Trump is referring to a deal signed in November. According to the agreement, which took months of negotiation, America would accept about 1,200 refugees (not, as Trump called...

A program to pay asylum applicants in Germany to return to their home countries, often before a decision is made on their status, has begun. The government wants to increase the number of people who choose to leave. The program “StartHilfe Plus,” which loosely translates to “start help plus,” began on Wednesday. Administered by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the initiative aims to financially reward asylum applicants if they are willing to return to their homelands. About €40 million ($43 million) has been set aside for payments. “In...

The US-backed campaign against ISIL is closing in on Raqqa, the Syrian capital of the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate. The offensive is being waged by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who say that under President Donald Trump they have seen signs of increased American support. They aim to fully encircle Raqqa, severing it from ISIL strongholds in Deir al-Zor where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped by the jihadists. Air drops of food by the UN’s World Food Programme, halted in mid January, have resumed, adding to those carried out since last spring. “We have done a total now of...

Sen. McCain has served notice he is the Republican lawmaker most willing to defy the new Republican president. In just over a week’s time, Mr. McCain has called the new Trump ban on immigration from a set of Muslim-majority countries a recruiting boon for Islamic State radicals; threatened to codify Russian economic sanctions into law to prevent Mr. Trump from lifting them; called the president’s decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership “a serious mistake”; and called the idea of imposing a 20% tariff on imports from Mexico to pay for a border wall “insane.” The senator also served noticed...

The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State has boosted support for its Syrian allies since President Donald Trump took office, supplying armoured vehicles for the first time as they prepare to launch a new phase in their campaign for Raqqa, a spokesman for the militia said on Tuesday. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, which is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, is waging a campaign aimed at taking Raqqa city, Islamic State's base of operations in Syria. A Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday the vehicles had been supplied to Arab elements within the SDF "as part of our existing...