Free Republic

Beijing, Jun 21 (PTI) China has warned its nationals in Afghanistan to leave the war-torn country urgently in view of the raging violence ahead of the withdrawal of the US troops. The warning comes as the fighting between Afghan security forces and the Taliban militants have escalated in recent weeks. The insurgents have captured dozens of new districts in Afghanistan. China’s embassy in Afghanistan has warned Chinese nationals to leave Afghanistan, amid a rapid rise in violence in the country as the Taliban recaptures territories ahead of the complete withdrawal of the US and NATO troops, Hong Kong-based South China...

SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio soldier was killed after a recent attack in Afghanistan, according to U.S. Army officials. Sgt. 1st Class Javier J. Gutierrez, 28, of San Antonio, died Saturday, Feb. 8 from wounds he sustained during a combat mission in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. According to a report from The Associated Press, the U.S. Military said “an individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun. We are still collecting information and the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time." Gutierrez was one of two...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — American and Afghan military personnel were fired on while conducting an operation in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, the U.S. military said Saturday. There were multiple American casualties, but the number and the extent of the injuries were not immediately known, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that has not been officially released. U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a statement that both Afghan and U.S. personnel were ’engaged by direct firing.”p>

America has exhausted all of its military options in Afghanistan and is left with little choice but to forge ahead in peace talks with the Taliban, Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Asad M. Khan said Monday, underscoring the high stakes of grueling negotiations. In an exclusive interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Khan said the two sides have reached a crucial moment — despite continued Taliban attacks and a spike in American strikes against the radical Islamist movement’s top targets — to solidify a cease-fire agreement that could wind down two decades of conflict and bring to a close the...

The Pentagon has denied the Taliban shot down a US military plane over Afghanistan killing everyone on board, despite the terror group claiming responsibility. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the militant group, said that high-ranking American officers were among the dead after the aircraft was brought down in Dih Yak district around 1.10pm local time. US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there were no indications so far that the plane had been brought down by enemy activity. One of the officials said there were believed to be fewer than 10 people on board the small military plane....

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Saturday the death of a North Carolina soldier serving in Syria. Army Spc. Antonio I. Moore, 22, of Wilmington, was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve in Deir ez Zor Province. He died in a rollover accident Friday while conducting route clearing operations. The incident is under investigation. Moore was assigned to 363rd Engineer Battalion, 411th Engineer Brigade in Knightdale, N.C. He enlisted in May 2017, and this was his first deployment. “The 363rd Engineer Battalion is deeply saddened at the loss of Spec. Antonio Moore,” said Lt. Col. Ian Doiron, 363rd Engineer Battalion commander. “Antonio...

A 21-year-old Aurora man has been identified as one of the U.S. soldiers killed Saturday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Miguel Villalon was in a vehicle that was struck by an IED in the Kandahar providence. The City of Aurora said Villalon was an East Aurora High School graduate and proudly served in the U.S. Army. Villalon is the second Chicago area service member to die overseas in the last week. On Sunday, 23-year-old Army Specialist Henry Mayfield Jr. of Hazel Crest was killed during an attack in Kenya. Aurora released the following statement as they mourn the loss...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) talks with CNN's Wolf Blitzer about President Donald Trump's decision to kill Iranian general Qasem Soleimani

Jim Mattis, the former Marine Corps general and Pentagon chief, has lashed 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden for fueling the rise of ISIS by insisting on the total withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq. "You may want a war over. You may declare it over. You may even try to walk away from it. But the bottom line is the enemy gets a vote, as we say in the military, and we simply have got to understand that terrorism is going to be an ambient threat," he said in an NPR interview. As vice president, Biden was tasked by President...

AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said they expelled had Syrian troops that briefly took control of a string of villages in oil rich areas east of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border on Sunday. SDF forces led by the Kurdish YPG militia said they had waged a counter-attack against Syrian troops it said were backed by Russian forces, adding they were driven “far away” from four villages they had seized earlier in the day. “Our forces regained the initiative,” they said in a statement.

Andrew Anglin, 30, the publisher of the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, wouldn’t say where he was. He wouldn’t even say if he was in America. Anglin has gotten a lot of media requests after the Southern Poverty Law Center said Dylann Roof, the man accused of killing nine black parishioners in Charleston, S.C., last week, was possibly a commenter on the Daily Stormer, Anglin said in a Skype audio interview Tuesday. Anglin decided to respond to a Los Angeles Times interview request because -- it’s a small world -- he saw the reporter tweet Monday night about reading “The Forever...