Worldcrunch
Monday, September 8, 2014 RUSSIA THREATENS RETALIATION Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned in an interview that further Western sanctions against Russia will see Moscow “respond asymmetrically.” According to news agency Ria Novosti, Medvedev suggested that Russia could decide to close its air space to Western companies, a move that he believes would lead some […]
Thursday, September 4, 2014 UKRAINE TOPS NATO SUMMIT AGENDA Western and NATO leaders are meeting in Newport, Wales, for what the military alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen described as “one of the most important summits in the history of our alliance” because of Russia’s incursion in Ukraine. Calling on Moscow to “stop the flow […]
Tuesday, September 2, 2014 RUSSIA TO REVIEW MILITARY DOCTRINE AGAINST NATO Moscow will review its military doctrine in the face of NATO expansion to countries that border Russia. Mikhail Popov, a Russian National Security Council official, said the military alliance was “one of the external military threats,” RT reports. This comes after the announcement yesterday […]
Friday, August 29, 2014 UKRAINE PLANS NATO MEMBERSHIP NATO officials are holding an emergency meeting in Brussels this morning after it released satellite imagery showing “well over 1,000” Russian troops in Ukraine, warning that 20,000 more were “amassed at the border,” the Financial Times reports. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, meanwhile, announced that Kiev would […]
Monday, August 25, 2014 ISIS SEIZES SYRIAN ARMY BASE The terrorist group ISIS has gained control of a Syrian army air base near Raqqa, in the country’s north, after days of intense fighting during which at least 346 ISIS fighters and more than 170 Syrian troops were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human […]
Friday, August 22, 2014 PENTAGON CONSIDERS ANTI-ISIS STRATEGY After a week that saw an escalation in the horror from ISIS, Pentagon officials are trying to develop a strategy to contain and defeat what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff described as “an organization that has an apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision.” According to The […]
Thursday, August 21, 2014 WASHINGTON’S FAILED HOSTAGE RESCUE A secret operation involving “several dozen U.S. commandos” failed earlier this summer to rescue photojournalist James Foley and other American hostages held by Islamist terrorists in northern Syria, The Washington Post reports. An article in The New York Times, meanwhile, explains that the infamous ISIS jihadist group […]
Wednesday, August 20, 2014 TERRORISTS CLAIM EXECUTION OF U.S. JOURNALIST The jihadist terror group ISIS has claimed to have killed James Foley, an American journalist captured in Syria two years ago. A video the group posted online, but later removed, purported to show the man being beheaded, The Washington Post reports. U.S. intelligence is said […]
Aug. 19, 2014 ISIS THREATENS AMERICANS In an online video message, ISIS terrorists threaten to attack Americans “in any place” in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes against them in Iraq, The Independent reports. In the gruesome video, a statement reads, “We will drown all of you in blood.” This comes as Kurdish Peshmergas and Iraqi troops […]
Wednesday, August 13, 2014 U.S. SENDS MORE MILITARY ADVISERS TO IRAQ Washington is sending 130 more military advisers to northern Iraq to assist in the evacuation of displaced people trapped on Mount Sinjar, The New York Times reports. The article quotes U.S. officials as saying that a ground presence is needed to secure the evacuation, […]
Friday, August 8, 2014 OBAMA AUTHORIZES IRAQ AIRSTRIKES Marking the most significant intervention in Iraq since American troops were withdrawn in 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama authorized airstrikes against Islamist extremists there and aid to desperate civilians a day after the country’s largest Christian town was seized, forcing thousands to flee. “Earlier this week, one […]
Thursday, August 7, 2014 ISLAMISTS SEIZE IRAQ’S LARGEST CHRISTIAN TOWN Thousands of Iraqi Christians are fleeing Qaraqosh, the minority’s largest town in the country, after the Islamic State (IS) — the militant group previously known as ISIS — seized it early today.This follows the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from the area, the BBC reports. Qaraqosh […]
Wednesday, July 23, 2014 GAZA: WAR CRIME ACCUSATIONS An emergency UN Human Rights Council is being held in Geneva as Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” enters its 16th day, with the death toll in Gaza now standing at least 647, after new attacks this morning. UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay opened the meeting saying that […]
Wednesday, July 9, 2014 AIR ATTACKS INTENSIFY BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMASIsrael carried out dozens of air strikes early Wednesday, with at least 28 people reported killed and more than 100 wounded in Gaza since Monday. Palestinian authorities said two women and five children were among the victims killed in what the Israeli military called “Operation […]
Monday, June 30, 2014 ISIS DECLARES CALIPHATE IN IRAQ AND SYRIA Jihadist group ISIS has renamed itself “Islamic State” and declared the areas it occupies in Syria and the territories conquered in recent weeks in Iraq as an Islamic “Caliphate,” promising “a new era of international jihad.” According to The Independent, the move “has huge […]
Friday, June 27, 2014 UKRAINE SIGNS EU PACT Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko penned this morning an association agreement that includes free-trade and political cooperation with the European Union, the same that former president Viktor Yanukovych had refused to sign months ago, triggering massive protests in Kiev that eventually brought his presidency to an end. “I […]
Tuesday, June 24, 2014 ISIS CLAIMS CAPTURE OF IRAQ OIL REFINERY Jihadist group ISIS has claimed to have taken control of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery in Baiji, after it offered hundreds of Iraqi soldiers safe passage if they laid down their weapons, Al Jazeera reports. But Iraq’s foreign minister rejected the claims, and New York […]
Friday, June 20, 2014 BATTLE RAGES AROUND IRAQ OIL REFINERY The Iraq army is still trying to push back ISIS jihadists, who are surrounding the country’s biggest oil refinery in Baiji. The Iraqi air force, meanwhile, claimed to have killed as many as 70 fighters in air strikes just north of Baghdad to prevent the […]
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 ISIS APPROACHES BAGHDAD Fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant have gained control of parts of Baquba, a town 37 miles north of Baghdad, as they continue their march towards the capital. Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama announced he would send 275 troops “to provide support and security […]
Friday, June 13, 2014 ISIS FIGHTERS GAIN MORE GROUND Islamist group ISIS gained more ground in Iraq overnight with the capture of two more towns east of Baghdad, where the government is reinforcing its defenses, Al-Arabiya reports. Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama suggested that Washington might act. “I don’t rule out anything, because we do […]
Thursday, June 12, 2014 JIHADISTS PUSHING TOWARDS BAGHDAD Jihadist fighters with the Islamic group known as ISIS have continued their offensive in northern and central Iraq and are heading south towards the capital Baghdad, where they have said that the “battle will rage,” Sky News reports. Meanwhile, Kurdish forces claimed to have gained control of […]