United States

US, Russia Hold Arms Talks With Little Hope of Accord

The United States and Russia held talks in Vienna Monday on their last major nuclear weapons agreement with little prospect of an imminent agreement as tensions and differences mount over whether they see any value in arms control at all.

Read More »

Rockets Hit Baghdad’s Green Zone for the Fifth Time in 10 Days

Rockets hit Baghdad's Green Zone, home to the US embassy, on Thursday, the fifth such attack in 10 days.

Read More »

Drone Strike in Syria Kills Two Jihadist Leaders: Monitor

A drone attack in northwestern Syria killed two commanders of an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group on Sunday, a war monitor said.

Read More »

US to Reduce Troops in Iraq ‘Over Coming Months’

The United States promised Thursday to reduce troops from Iraq over the coming months after talks with Baghdad, where lawmakers have pushed for their withdrawal.

Read More »

US Launches First Taliban Air Strikes Since Afghan Ceasefire End

The US launched its first air strikes against the Taliban since a rare ceasefire between the insurgents and Afghan forces ended more than a week ago.

Read More »

Trump Threatens Military Mobilization Against Violent US Protests

President Donald Trump vowed to order a military crackdown on once-in-a-generation violent protests gripping the United States, saying he was sending thousands of troops onto the streets of the capital and threatening to deploy soldiers to states unable to regain control. The dramatic escalation came a week after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed when a white police officer knelt on his neck, leading to the worst civil unrest in decades in New York, Los Angeles, and dozens of other American cities. In the Midwest, police were early Tuesday trying to bring the city of St Louis under control after a night of looting and violence in which four officers were shot, police chief Colonel John Hayden said, adding their injuries were not life-threatening. “Mr. Floyd was killed somewhere else and they’re tearing up cities all across the country,” a visibly emotional Hayden said. After being criticized for his silence on the worsening crisis, Trump struck a martial tone in a nationwide address Monday from the White House garden, as police fired tear gas on peaceful protesters outside the fence. “I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and …

Read More »

Iran Guards Warn US After Receiving New Combat Vessels

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday warned the United States against its naval presence in the Gulf as they received 110 new combat vessels. The vessels included Ashura-class speedboats, Zolfaghar coastal patrol boats, and Taregh submarines, state television reported. “We announce today that wherever the Americans are, we are right next to them, and they will feel our presence even more in the near future,” the Guards’ navy chief Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said during a ceremony in southern Iran. Iran and the United States have appeared to be on the brink of an all-out confrontation twice in the past year. The latest confrontation between the arch-foes came after the United States accused the Guards of harassing its ships in the Gulf in mid-April. “Advancing while remaining defensive is the nature of our work,” said Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami. “But this does not equal passivity against the enemy,” he added, noting that Iran “will not bow down to any foe.” According to Salami, the Guards’ navy had been instructed to expand Iran’s naval power until it can adequately defend “territorial independence and integrity, protect naval interests and pursue and destroy the enemy.” Decades-old acrimony between the two worsened in 2018 when …

Read More »

US Troop Pullout From Afghanistan Ahead of Schedule

The US military withdrawal from Afghanistan is considerably ahead of schedule, an official told AFP on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump reiterated calls for the Pentagon to bring troops home. The developments came as questions loomed over the next phase of Afghanistan’s long war following a historic, three-day ceasefire that led to a major drop in civilian casualties. The truce, which the Taliban called to mark the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Fitr, ended Tuesday night, leaving Afghans anxious about whether it would be extended, or when the war might come raging back. Violence levels remained low even after the end of the ceasefire, but Afghan security forces conducted airstrikes in the south that killed 18 “militants,” police said. Under a deal the US signed with the Taliban in February, the Pentagon was to bring troop levels down from about 12,000 to 8,600 by mid-July, before withdrawing all forces by May 2021. But a senior US defense official said the troop number was already at approximately 8,500, as commanders accelerate the withdrawal over fears of the coronavirus. “The drawdown was accelerated due to COVID-19 precautions,” the official told AFP, noting that the departure of anyone with health concerns or over a certain age …

Read More »

Trump to Withdraw US From ‘Open Skies’ Treaty

President Donald Trump announced Thursday he plans to withdraw the United States from the Open Skies Treaty with Russia, the third arms control pact Trump has abrogated since coming to office. The U.S. leader said Moscow had not stuck to its commitments under the 18-year-old pact, which was designed to improve military transparency and confidence between the superpowers. “Russia did not adhere to the treaty,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “So until they adhere, we will pull out.” The New York Times reported that Trump plans to inform Moscow of the move on Friday, and that it could be a prelude to Washington also withdrawing from the New START Treaty, which limits the number of nuclear missiles the United States and Russia can deploy. The Open Skies agreement between Russia, the United States, and 32 other countries, mostly members of the NATO alliance, permits one country’s military to conduct a certain number of surveillance flights over another each year on short notice. The aircraft can survey the territory below, collecting information and pictures of military installations and activities. The idea is that the more rival militaries know about each other, the less the chance of conflict between them. But the sides also use the …

Read More »

Texas Navy Base Locked Down in Shooting Incident

A U.S. Navy base in Texas went on lockdown Thursday after shots were fired by an unidentified person, but no injuries were reported, the Navy said. Security forces at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, where both U.S. and foreign military personnel undergo flight training, responded to an “active shooter” at about 6:15 am local time, said Fifi Kieschnick, a spokesperson for the base. “The shooter has been neutralized,” she said. One service member originally reported as injured “is okay,” she said, but the base remained on lockdown two hours after the incident. It came five months after a Saudi air force student with al-Qaeda ties opened fire at a U.S. Navy air base in Florida, killing three U.S. sailors and injuring eight others. On Monday, U.S. law enforcement officials said the Florida shooter had radicalized at least five years ago and planned to undertake an attack before he arrived in the United States for military training. Since then tougher rules have been set to prevent the thousands of foreign military trainees in the United States each year from accessing firearms, and to conduct more thorough background checks on them.

Read More »