DDN Editor’s Note: As part of some of the changes, a reader brought this to my attention. I have not changed anything from the original article. I added categories and tags, excepts, and a Department of Defense logo and republished this. As readers tell me what’s important to them, I try to make the story more accessible by allowing it to be picked up by searches. — George McGinn
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 27, 2016 — U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of yesterday’s strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
BRUSSELS, May 20, 2015 – Iraqi security forces weren’t “driven from” Ramadi, they “drove out of Ramadi,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today.
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told reporters traveling with him that he has said from the start that the mission against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant would take years to accomplish.
“At the start I said three years,” he said. “That still might be the case, we may be able to achieve our objectives in three years. But I said then, and I reiterate now, that there may be tactical exchanges — some of which go the way of Iraqi security forces and others which go the way of ISIL. But the coalition has all the strategic advantages over time.”
Time will tell, the general said, and time is also a factor because the key to victory is not just military success on the battlefield, but the ability of the Iraqi government to draw the various groups in the country back together. Continue reading →
The Pakistan Daily Security Briefs for May 4, 2015, have been compiled by Iqtidar Kahn, assistant editor of The Bureau of Investigative Reporting. They are made available at 4:00pm local time.
I include them here as this news most-likely will not be reported by US-based media. Information here have been collected by Kahn, including articles that have appeared in foreign press.
Enjoy reading the other side’s perspective, what is important to them, and about conflicts that you just won’t find anywhere else.
Editorial Snapshot
Polio watch: A three day polio campaign will begin in certain sensitive Union Councils (UCs) of Karachi from today. Fingers crossed for no casualties.
Senate, the upper house of parliament, to meet today: The Senate session, which was summoned by the President last Thursday, is going to meet today at 16:00 hours local time.
The following information was collected and compiled by the editors of the Defense and Military Times magazine. Known as the Early Bird Briefs, this was edited by Oriana Pawlyk (opawlyk@militarytimes.com) from The Military Times Magazine. I present it here as it appears from my email.
The editors over at the Military Times compile news by branch of service, by country, by industry contracts, by pending legislation in Congress or the Senate, etc. from many major news outlets, major blogs, and from the Department of Defense and its own publication, Military Times.
Here are the Top 5. Click on “Continue Reading” link will take you to the rest of today’s news.
** Note: The Military Times is not affiliated with any government site. While there might be links to government sites, Military Times is published by Gannett Government Media, which is a subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc.
(Military Times) There are 142 U.S. service members currently involved in earthquake relief efforts in Nepal, according to U.S. Pacific Command. That breaks down to 86 Marines, 38 soldiers and 18 airmen, PACOM spokesman Army Maj. David Eastburn told Military Times on Sunday.
(Los Angeles Times) A shadowy new pro-government force has been deployed in the embattled Yemeni port city of Aden, according to reports Sunday, sparking speculation that ground troops from the Saudi-led coalition may have joined the battle against Houthi rebels and their allies. Saudi Arabia, however, denied that it had sent ground forces to Aden or any other part of Yemen.
(USA Today) Afghan security forces have suffered record casualties this year as they combat Taliban rebels largely without the benefit of U.S. air power and other international military support they had come to rely on in the past, U.S. and Afghan officials said.
(Stars & Stripes) With live explosives, smoke and rocket fire from helicopter gunships, American troops and their international partners are trying to give Iraqi soldiers a realistic idea of what they can expect when they take on Islamic State militants.
(Defense News) Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commandant of the Marine Corps, is at the top of the list to become the next Joint Chiefs chairman, according to several sources.
(Defense News) The Atlantic Council’s Steve Grundman and Capital Alpha Partners’ Byron Callan discuss Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s recently unveiled cyber initiative for the Pentagon.
Trouble in Toronto: A Pakistani man arrested in Toronto, Ontario for his alleged links with a terrorist group was plotting to blow up the US consulate and other buildings in the financial district located in downtown Toronto. The suspect was also in touch with Al-Qaeda leader Anwar Awlaki – who was killed in a drone strike in 2011 – in the past.
Death row controversy: A 23 year old man convicted of murder (of a seven year old boy) when he was 14 is set to get executed on March 19th. The development has stirred controversy about juvenile law in Pakistan, and in a country used to teenage suicide bombers, led to the difficult debate of how young does a person have to be before he/she can be termed a terrorist, legally.
Frankly, my dear Indian foreign ministry, I don’t give a damn: In response to the recent criticism from India about the meeting between the Pakistani envoy to New Delhi Abdul Basit and the hardliner Kashmiri separatist leader, Syed Ali Geelani (which led to a cancellation of talks last summer between India and Pakistan) the Pakistani Foreign Office on Wednesday said that the meeting was a long standing practice and will continue in the future despite India’s objection.
Islamabad supports Rangers raid on MQM: Following the raid of the Rangers in the citadel of Karachi’s largest political party, MQM, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday absolved the paramilitary force of any wrongdoing and instead hailed the act as a “step in the right direction”. The statement was backed by the visit of the area’s top military commander to Rangers headquarters today in a show of solidarity. Meanwhile, no mainstream political party has come to the aid of the MQM since yesterday’s raid, with major players preaching due process for prosecuting the suspects arrested from the party’s offices and buildings.
India’s Unwelcome Daughter: The Delhi High Court has upheld the ban on the ‘rape documentary’, but the court is set to resume hearing about the ban on Wednesday.
Nabbed: Militant responsible for the deaths of several military and paramlitary officials, including a general, has been detained in Pakistan’s northwestern Upper Dir district.
An exclusive look inside newly declassified documents shows how Israel blocked U.S. efforts to uncover its secret nuclear reactor.
By AVNER COHEN and WILLIAM BURR, April 15, 2015
Lead image by Courtesy of National Security Archives.
For decades, the world has known that the massive Israeli facility near Dimona, in the Negev Desert, was the key to its secret nuclear project. Yet, for decades, the world—and Israel—knew that Israel had once misleadingly referred to it as a “textile factory.” Until now, though, we’ve never known how that myth began—and how quickly the United States saw through it. The answers, as it turns out, are part of a fascinating tale that played out in the closing weeks of the Eisenhower administration—a story that begins with the father of Secretary of State John Kerry and a familiar charge that the U.S. intelligence community failed to “connect the dots.
Avner Cohen is a professor of nonproliferation studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and the author ofIsrael and the Bomb.
William Burr is a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, George Washington University, where he directs the Archive’s Nuclear Documentation Project and edits its special Web page, The Nuclear Vault.
Welcome to Defense and Military Times” all new Early Bird Brief, the mos comprehensive roundup of national and international headlines compiled by the world’s largest independent newsroom covering the global defense industry and military affairs. Please share your thoughts direectly with Early Bird Editor Oriana Pawlyk: opawlyk@militarytimes.com.
By Aaron Mehta Defense News (A Gannett Company) 1:48 p.m. EDT April 8, 2015
An MH-60S Seahawk helicopter fires an AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile at simulated enemy personnel during a live-fire, close-air support training at Farallon de Medinilla Target Range, Northern Mariana Islands, Dec 10, 2013. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joseph Karwick)
WASHINGTON — An Egyptian procurement of 356 AGM-114K/R3 Hellfire II missiles has been cleared by the State Department, the first new procurement since the White House lifted a freeze on weapon sales to that nation.
The sale also comes as Egypt takes part in anti-militant operations in Yemen, which the US is indirectly aiding with logistical support.
If the sale is given the OK by Congress and details are worked out between the two governments, it would represent the first sale of the R model of Hellfire to Egypt. Egyptian military forces currently operate the F and K variants.
The sale, with a projected cost of $57 million, would occur under a Foreign Military Sales agreement. Lockheed Martin would be the prime contractor, with work occurring at its Orlando, Florida, facility.
The announcement of the sale, posted on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s website, noted that it would help “improve the security of a friendly country that has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.
“Egypt will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense,” the notice reads.
While the justification statement on weapon sales notifications are usually bland, those two statements are notable, given current events.
This report is from the DoD News, Defense Media Activity for U.S. Department of Defense. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.
SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 7, 2015 – U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, which took place between 8 a.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today, local time, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
The Daily Defense News 