Since the summer of 2014, one of America’s most prized battlefield weapons, the M1 Abrams tank, has been used by those it was meant to fight. Captured M1 tanks have fought with ISIS and have recently been used by Iranian-backed Shia militias to put down a Kurdish movement for independence.
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s final days before his hanging on December 30, 2006 were surprisingly whimsical, according to an account from the New York Post. One wild anecdote describes Saddam’s maniacal punishment for his son shooting a bunch of people.
The U.S. military has a history of supplying weapons to its proxies and allies. The U.S. military, and its proxies and allies, have a history of losing those weapons. So with the Trump administration announcing that it would begin arming the Kurdish YPG milita to fight ISIS in Syria, there was a concern that those…
Employees involved in an internal investigation of a U.S. contractor in Iraq found evidence that employees for the company, Sallyport Global, were involved in sex trafficking and “routinely flew in smuggled alcohol” to its base, according to an explosive report from The Associated Press. In one instance, a plane…
The U.S. military has been publishing incomplete data on airstrikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan that may date back to 2001, according to a Military Times investigation. And that means thousands of deadly airstrikes may have gone uncounted.
The anti-ISIS campaign has hit a bit of a snag around Mosul lately, but the allied effort against the jihadist militant group has an even more basic challenge on its hands. We’re bombing ISIS so much that we need a lot more bombs.
Twenty-two months ago, ISIS seized Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, during a blitzkrieg across the region. The militants have held it ever since. At last, an offensive to retake the city has begun. The stakes could not be higher; the operation will biggest test yet for Iraqi forces and Barack Obama’s counter-ISIS…
The existence of a previously unknown Marine fire base in northern Iraq came suddenly to light last weekend after a Marine was killed by an ISIS rocket attack while serving there. This same austere base has reportedly been attacked once again by ISIS, although this time via a squad-sized group of foot-soldiers. The…
On Saturday morning Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, a 27-year old artilleryman, was killed by a ISIS rocket attack on a previously secret forward fire support base in northern Iraq. Eight other marines were wounded by the onslaught. The news comes as the long awaited and extremely high-stakes “Mosul Offensive” is…
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter seems to get the reality that the so-called “coalition” of 66 countries that are supposedly fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria is a sham. Most of these countries are contributing nothing to the fight and many that once did have ceased doing so. This week, he will attempt to do…
When most people think about Desert Storm, they probably imagine Saddam and his forces being contained and battered from the sky before being conquered in a 100 hour ground offensive. Yet the Battle of Khafji was the only instance Iraqi ground forces attempted to land a meaningful blow on the coalition on its own…
The Department of Defense has released video of its strike on an ISIS money storage facility in Mosul and it does not disappoint. In the video you can see the air filled with fluttering cash that was sent flying from the huge blasts.
High above the battleground of Ramadi, Iraq, B-1B Lancer bombers circle like vultures, waiting for targeting information and using their own keen eyes to locate potential enemies to destroy. It is just another reminder of how a bomber that has had a tough time finding its identity has turned into an arsenal ship of…
Late last week, hundreds of Turkish troops and about 20 tanks made their way across the Iraqi border, and south to the town of Bashiqa, located just a dozen or so miles northeast of ISIS-held Mosul. The Iraqi government was caught seemingly totally off guard by this move. As a result the Iraqis have demanded Turkey…
The Pentagon and the Obama Administration announced yesterday that a team of between 100 and 200 special operations forces will be sent to Iraq to hunt down ISIS leadership and key intelligence. While this may sound like a solid move against the terror group, the timing of this deployment is just another symptom of a…
60 Minutes traveled to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar to take a brief look inside the 14 month-old air war against ISIS over Iraq and Syria. While this wasn’t as detailed a report on the campaign as many would have liked, the piece did delve into its growing costs for the United States.
Helmet-cam video has emerged from what is said to have been the raid on an ISIS prison compound south of Kirkuk last Thursday. The operation resulted in some 69 hostages saved and one of America’s finest special forces soldiers killed. This marked the first official combat death of an American soldier in Iraq since…
An Iraqi Air Force F-16D went down near the town of Douglas, along the Arizona-New Mexico border late last night. The jet was reportedly the inaugural F-16 delivered with Iraqi colors and the condition of its pilot, reportedly an Iraqi airman training in the U.S., remains unknown. The crash has sparked a large fire…
