World News

President Barack Obama was advised by the last American commander in Iraq that 23,000 U.S. troops remain to cement the victory, however no deal was ever reached with Baghdad, and all combat forces went home in 2011.

Iran has deployed two Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq to protect Baghdad, and the holy Shi’ite cities of Karbala and Najaf, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The aircraft carrier USS George W. Bush was ordered by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to move into the Gulf region on Saturday, in the event the White House decides to pursue a military option against the jihadists in Iraq.

When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi walked away from a U.S. detention camp in 2009, the future leader of ISIS issued some chilling final words to reservists from Long Island.
“I’ll see you guys in New York,” stated Baghdadi, Army Col. Kenneth King said.

The Syrian civil war has once more taken a dire turn for the worse. Turkey has altered its strategy against its opponents, the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Instead of simply aiding the Syrian rebels, Turkey is now also killing them with dehydration. The problem is, this brutal act threatens the lives of millions of Syrian and Iraqi citizens.

A Ukrainian military plane was shot down overnight Friday, killing all 49 people on board, a spokesman said. It is likely one of the bloodiest single events in that nation’s current period of turmoil.

If Iraq’s oil supply goes offline, crude prices could hit $150-$200 a barrel, T. Boone Pickens, founder of BP Capital Management, told CNBC on Friday.

The menu of options available to President Barack Obama in Iraq is a familiar one: Share intelligence, give tactical advice, launch airstrikes. But the president’s decision is complicated by the difficult relationship with Baghdad since U.S. troops left, and the amorphous nature of the enemy.

As NATO refocuses on its eastern borders after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the U.S. is quietly deploying more troops to train special forces in former Soviet bloc states anxious about Moscow’s intentions.

Shi’te Muslim Iran is so alarmed by Sunni insurgent gains in Iraq that it may be willing to cooperate with Washington in helping Baghdad fight back, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

Al Qaeda’s ultra-extremist Syrian offshoot known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is stepping up efforts to recruit Americans and other westerners for jihad in Syria and possibly for future domestic terror attacks, according to U.S. officials.

The Islamic extremist group that has captured several Iraqi cities and pushed the country into chaos has now begun issuing a “code of conduct” to all residents living in the seized territories, which are now under strict Islamic control.

Failure to reach a deal on Iran’s nuclear program would force Tehran to resume uranium enrichment activities, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was quoted as saying on Thursday.

The US has resumed its drones program in Pakistan, with two strikes on militant strongholds in the North Waziristan tribal region overnight, the BBC reported.

The Obama administration’s failure to secure a status-of-forces agreement with the government of Iraq, or to take decisive action in Syria to end that civil war, has provided al-Qaida an opportunity to fulfill its dream of creating an new Islamic Caliphate governed under Sharia law — and it is a direct threat to U.S. national security, according to the Daily Caller.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), was released from US custody four years ago, according the UK Telegraph.

The State Department confirmed on Wednesday that Iran has been shipping crude oil to Syria for the past several months, behavior that some experts say is in direct violation of the interim nuclear accord signed last year with the Obama administration.

Ukraine’s interior minister says that three tanks have crossed into Ukrainian territory from Russia and were attacked by his country’s forces.

As the situation in Iraq begins to looks more and more like a complete state meltdown, Russia has stepped in with a familiar refrain: “We told you so.”

First Falluja, then Mosul, and now the oil-refinery town of Bayji. The rapid advance of Al Qaeda-inspired militants across the Sunni heartland of northern and western Iraq has been stunning and relentless—and utterly predictable. Here’s a forecast: the bad news is just beginning.