Israel’s army said it would start drilling to install ground sensors along its border with Lebanon on Sunday, a year after an operation to destroy tunnels dug across the frontier. “We are deploying a defensive system into the ground.. in various locations” along the border, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told journalists. Work would get […]

More than 100 people were killed and dozens wounded in a missile and drone attack blamed on Huthi rebels in central Yemen, officials said Sunday. Saturday’s strike follows months of relative calm in the war between the Iran-backed Huthis and Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition. The Huthis attacked […]

France will deploy its only aircraft carrier to join coalition operations against the Islamic State (IS) terror group, President Emmanuel Macron has announced. “The aircraft carrier will support Chammal operations [in the Middle East] from January to April 2020 before deploying to the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea,” Macron said in a New Year’s […]

The United States on Friday rejected a request by Iraq to start talks on pulling out its 5,200 troops, notching up the discord after Washington killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Angry at an attack seen as violating Iraqi sovereignty and enmeshing the country again in war, Iraq’s caretaker prime minister asked Secretary of […]

France said Thursday it remains “committed” to the 2015 Iran nuclear accord it signed with other world powers, despite Donald Trump urging the Europeans to quit the deal. The US president on Wednesday pulled back from the brink of war with Iran after having ordered the killing of a top Iranian general, to which Tehran […]

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that the US strike that killed a top Iranian general had restored credibility to the US threat to Tehran to restrain itself militarily. “I believe that we’ve restored a level of deterrence with them,” he said. But Washington security analysts say it is far from certain that Tehran […]

The United States continues to deploy and reposition troops throughout the region of Iraq and Iran to bolster U.S. security and force protection and to be prepared for any contingency, Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper said. “Over the last several days, I’ve had many conversations with our partners and allies about the situation in […]

It is all too tempting to focus on the current crisis in Iraq: The Iranian-sponsored attacks by Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces on U.S. forces and facilities, the U.S. retaliatory attacks, and the well-organized demonstrations and attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. At the same time, focusing on the current crisis has led to consistent […]

Two mortar rounds hit the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone on Saturday and two rockets slammed into an airbase housing US troops, security sources said, a day after a deadly American strike. The precision drone strike outside the Baghdad airport on Friday killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, top Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and a […]

The US is deploying up to 3,500 more troops to the Middle East in a show of force, a Pentagon official said Friday, after an American drone killed a top Iranian general. The reinforcements will come from the 82nd Airborne Division’s Global Response Force, which already supplied several hundred extra troops to the region earlier […]