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In the wake of yet another foiled ISIS-inspired terrorist plot, this one by a Canada-based Pakistani seeking to kill Jews in New York on the anniversary of last year’s Hamas attack in Israel, everyone is loudly proclaiming: “ISIS is back.”And yet, this analysis is wrong.For someone or something to “be back,” it has to have left in the first place. This return can be surprising or expected, but in the end it is of note. With respect to the ISIS terrorist group, it has not “resurged” because it never went away in the first place.The group has been around since...

The video is as triumphant as it is gruesome. Rebel fighters, rifles slung over their shoulders, step among more than a dozen bodies strewn across the sand and rocks. Off camera, the pop of gunshots can be heard. The scene is from another battle in the vast deserts of northern Mali – except that this time the victims were Russians. At the end of the video, the camera pans to a bearded white man on the ground, apparently begging for mercy. A different video shows several white men, still alive, kneeling amid the wreckage of a vehicle, as guerrilla fighters...

The United States will withdraw its troops from Niger, a source familiar with the matter said late on Friday, adding that an agreement was reached between U.S Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Niger's leadership. As of last year, there were a little more than 1,000 U.S. troops in Niger, where the U.S. military operated out of two bases, including a drone base known as Air Base 201 near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million. Since 2018, the base has been used to target Islamic State militants and Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen,...

To learn more about the French Intervention in Mali in depth, check out this video's next part on Nebula in Modern Conflicts: https://nebula.tv/videos/reallifelore...

The Israeli military launching an operation at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza. The attack apparently launched in order to take over the hospital which was earlier described by US and Israeli sources as a site of Hamas operations based underneath... The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen channel reports an attack on the US military base at the Conoco Natural Gas Field in eastern Syria... In Washington the Democrats providing most of the votes to help Speaker Mike Johnson pass a bill to spend and borrow more money... In Idaho there is an arrest warrant for Ammon Bundy. It's a contempt of court charge...

Before his removal in a military coup, Gabon’s hopelessly corrupt President Ali Bongo was courted by Obama and feted from Washington to Davos. The US war on Libya which destabilized the region may not have succeeded without him. When a military junta arrested President Ali Bongo Ondimba on August 30, Gabon became the ninth African nation to depose its government through a military coup. As citizens of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali did before them, crowds of Gabonese poured into the streets to celebrate the removal of a Western-backed leader whose family flaunted its lavish lifestyle while more than a...

Tuareg rebels in northern Mali have claimed to have seized control of a military camp and posts in the town of Bourem after weeks of fighting against the national army and Wagner mercenaries, threatening to unravel a 2015 peace deal.

A US Appeals Court pausing a lower court order forcing Texas to remove barriers on the Rio Grande River... In the African nation of Mali deadly jihadist attacks... In northern Syria a US drone got dangerously close to a Russian An-30 spy plane... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a phone conversation with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky... Tens of thousands of government supporters rallied outside Israel's Supreme Court tonight... British police opening a probe into infant deaths at a hospital in Nottingham... France's Council of State upholding the ban on abayas... "We value these relations as North Korea is our...

A veteran South African official detailed meeting with an unprepared and “desperate” Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, begging for local help rolling back the popular coup in Niger. The recent BRICS conference might give Nuland even more to fret about. When US Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, traveled to South Africa on July 29, her reputation as a blunt instrument of Washington’s hegemonic interests preceded her. According to a veteran South African official who attended meetings with the senior US diplomat in Pretoria, however, Nuland and her team were demonstrably unprepared to grapple with recent developments...

Despite continued uncertainty about the future of the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, recent satellite imagery indicates that the private military company (PMC) is not only staying in Mali but is actively expanding its base capacity in Bamako and may intend to transfer additional valuable military equipment there in the near future. With Prigozhin’s and Putin’s goals aligned toward maintaining Wagner’s operations in Africa, policymakers seeking to disrupt Wagner’s presence should monitor and publicly highlight more subtle signs of security service disruption or incompetence, rather than waiting for Russia to gut Wagner or for the PMC to implode....

Several Malian soldiers were killed in the jihadist ambush on Thursday of an army convoy heading for Niger, in the Ménaka region (northeast), a military official and a local elected official said on Friday..."We can speak of about twenty people if we count the dead, wounded and missing Malian soldiers" , said the local elected official, stressing that the balance sheet is "not yet very clear".Both spoke on condition of anonymity in the absence of official communication from the authorities.The elected official reported that the Malian army and paramilitaries from the Russian security group Wagner were deployed in the area....

Nigerien Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger is the largest Air Force-led Construction project in recent history. It’s 6000-foot runway will expand the Air Force’s ability to project air power to western Africa to combat growing violent extremists in the region. 600 REDHORSE Airmen spent 1000 days battling environmental and logistical hurdles to build the critical base in the Sahel region.

Nigers coup leaders said they closed die country's airspace shortly before the expiration of a deadline fron¡\the West African bloc ECOWAS for them to hand back power or face possible military intervention.

Breaking news on the crisis in Niger; a PMC Wagner (Russian-language site at link) source has stated: A decision was made to deploy combat troops of the Wagner PMC in & around the capital of Niger, in light of current security situation & foreign threats.PMC Wagner, also known as the Wagner Group, is a Russian state-funded military group controlled by Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, and technically operates outside Russian law, which prohibits private military groups.PMC Wagner is also the group implicated in an aborted coup attempt in Russia last June, which led to the arrest of Russian General Sergei Surovikin....

Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe James Stavridis warned on Sunday that the conflict in Niger amid a looming deadline for coup leaders to cede power could potentially lead to a "full-blown war in Africa." The Sunday deadline established by a coalition of West African nations for Niger to return to democratic rule is set to expire. The demand has been shunned by fellow military-led countries Burkina Faso and Mali, who have jointly warned that any intervention would amount to a declaration of war.

Mohamed Bazoum is the president of the Republic of Niger.I write this as a hostage. Niger is under attack from a military junta that is trying to overthrow our democracy, and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned. This coup, launched against my government by a faction in the military on July 26, has no justification whatsoever. If it succeeds, it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world. Our government came to power through a democratic election in 2021. Any attempt to overthrow a lawful government...

The military governments of Burkina Faso and Mali have warned that any military intervention against last week’s coup leaders in Niger would be considered a “declaration of war” against their nations. Niger’s neighbours issued the warning in joint statements read out on their national broadcasters on Monday, days after West African leaders threatened to use force to reinstate Niger’s deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.

An attempted coup was underway Wednesday in the fragile nation of Niger, where members of the Presidential Guard detained President Mohamed Bazoum, triggering a standoff with the army, sources said. The head of the West African bloc ECOWAS said Benin President Patrice Talon was heading to Niger on a mediation bid after the region was struck by a new bout of turbulence. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union both decried what they called an "attempted coup d'etat," while the UN secretary-general said he had spoken to the apparently-detained leader and offered support.

Access to the residence and offices of Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was blocked off Wednesday by members of the elite Presidential Guard, a source close to Bazoum said, although the reason was unclear. Access to the residence and offices of Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was blocked off Wednesday by members of the elite Presidential Guard. The landlocked West African state is one of the most unstable nations in the world, experiencing four coups since independence from France in 1960 as well as numerous other attempts on power. The country is struggling with two jihadist campaigns -- one in the southwest,...

A group of lawmakers in Niger has backed a motion seeking to criminalise same-sex relationships in the country. The vast majority of Niger’s population is Muslim, but it has a secular government and there is currently no specific law on same-sex relationships. The MPs say same-sex relationships are against the religious and cultural beliefs of the people. The proposal was presented to the Speaker of parliament by Nana Djibou Harouna, a lawmaker from the southern region of Maradi. She told a press conference on Thursday in the capital, Niamey, that the move was meant to protect the “rights and interest...