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Operations
Defense Policy / Programs
Defense Industry
Other Conflicts
News Reports

Current Operations

• Tehran denies Taliban being trained in Iran IRNA 04 Jul 2018 -- Iran embassy in Afghanistan in a statement denied the allegations that Taliban forces are trained in Iran.
• Iran rejects accusation of training Taliban militants Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Tehran has vehemently rejected a report by British media, which claimed that members of Afghanistan's Taliban militant group are being trained in Iran, saying such accusations are meant to harm close relations between the two neighbors.
• Drone Strikes Kill Two Key Pakistani Militant Commanders RFE/RL 04 Jul 2018 -- Two Pakistani militant commanders have been killed in separate drone strikes, Pakistani and Afghan officials say.
• US Drone Kills Afghan-Based Pakistani Taliban Commander VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- Officials in Afghanistan confirmed Wednesday an American drone strike has killed a key militant commander wanted in neighboring Pakistan for terrorism.
• IS-Taliban Clashes Displace Hundreds in E. Afghanistan VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- Islamic State militants and Taliban insurgents have been fighting fiercely in eastern Kunar province for the past three days, displacing hundreds of families, Afghan officials told VOA.
• US Increases Push for Negotiated Settlement in Afghanistan VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- The United States is pushing hard to take advantage of the momentum for peace talks generated in Afghanistan due to a brief cease-fire during the Muslim holy festival of Eid last month.

Defense Policy / Programs

• In 'Salute to Service,' Trump Again Touts Space Force VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- President Donald Trump is again pushing his idea to create a "Space Force" as the sixth branch of the U.S. military, stating that "space is becoming very important militarily, as well as other reasons."
• U.S. Ambassador, French Guests Embark Truman NNS 04 Jul 2018 -- The U.S. Ambassador to the French Republic and Principality of Monaco, Jamie D. McCourt, joined senior members of the French military during a visit aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) July 3.
• Trump Repeatedly Suggested Invading Venezuela, New Report Says Sputnik 04 Jul 2018 -- US President Donald Trump repeatedly raised the idea of invading a neighboring South American country last year, despite the objections of his aides, a new report says.
• Trump warns NATO to boost defense spending ahead of summit Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- US President Donald Trump has written to several NATO allies, asking them to increase their share of the costs for defense of the alliance and warning the United States is losing patience.
• China launches next-generation destroyers expected to be armed with electromagnetic railgun Global Times 04 Jul 2018 -- Two of China's newest-generation guided missile destroyers - Type 055 - have been launched in Dalian, a coastal city of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, on Tuesday, marking China's fourth such launch of Type 055 destroyers.
• China's first AIP submarine unit breaks records People's Daily 04 Jul 2018 -- China's first submarine unit using air-independent propulsion (AIP) technology recently broke a number of records set by the Chinese navy, Science and Technology Daily recently reported.
• Not Just About 'Cash:' Germany Fires Back After Trump Slams NATO 'Underspending' Sputnik 04 Jul 2018 -- Ahead of July's NATO summit, the US President fueled the buzz about the row within the bloc over agreed-upon military spending targets, as he sent his letters of discontent to several European leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. In response, Germany's military chief lectured Trump on what alliance means and played down his rebuke.
• Japan to send helicopter carrier to South China Sea Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Japan has decided to send a large helicopter carrier to the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean for a second straight year, sources say, in a move that is likely to anger China.
• Russia receives official request from Serbia for supplies of S-300 complexes - source TASS 04 Jul 2018 -- Russia has received an official request from Serbia for supplies of S-300PMU-2 missile systems in 2021, a well-informed military diplomatic source told TASS.

Defense Industry

Other Conflicts

• Yemeni retaliatory attacks left 38 Saudi soldiers dead in June: Report Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- A recent report has revealed that Yemeni army soldiers and fighters from allied Popular Committees killed and injured dozens of Saudi soldiers in the kingdom's southwestern border regions in June as part of their retaliatory raids against the Riyadh regime's aerial bombardment campaign.
• UN envoy holds 'fruitful' talks with Yemen's Houthi leader Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- The United Nations' envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, says he has held "fruitful" talks with the leader of Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, amid efforts to end fighting in the Red Sea port of Hudaydah.
• Russia says Iran pullout from Syria 'unrealistic' IRNA 04 Jul 2018 -- The Russian foreign minister on Wednesday rejected the calls for withdrawal of Iranian military advisors from Syria and said that Iran's pullout from Syria is unrealistic.
• Russia starts fresh talks with militants to end fighting in southern Syria: Report Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Russia has reportedly started a new round of talks with militants in southern Syria in an effort to make them hand back the areas they control to the Damascus government without fighting as the national army pushes ahead with a liberation operation there.
• Militants Surrender Heavy Weapons in Southern Syria's Bosra - Source Sputnik 04 Jul 2018 -- Members of illegal militant groups in the city of Busra al-Sham (Bosra) in the southern Syrian Daraa province have started surrendering heavy weapons and hardware to the government forces, a military source told Sputnik on Wednesday.
• IS Announces Death of Leader al-Baghdadi's Son VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- The son of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has reportedly died carrying out a suicide bombing against Russian forces in the western Syrian city of Homs.
• Army forces, allies launch operation to capture Daesh militants in central Iraq Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Iraqi government forces, backed by allied voluntary fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, have mounted a large-scale offensive in the central part of the war-ravaged Arab country to hunt down the remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.
• Airstrikes kill 11 PKK terrorists in SE Turkey, northern Iraq Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Turkish military aircraft have killed nearly a dozen members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group when they separately carried out a string of airstrikes against terrorist hideouts in Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region as well as southeastern Turkey.
• UN: 11,432 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar in 2018 Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- At least 11,432 Rohingya Muslims have fled violence and persecution in Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh so far in 2018, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein says.
• Zeid calls for ICC probe into Myanmar Rohingya crisis UN News 04 Jul 2018 -- Myanmar should "have some shame" after attempting to convince the world that it is willing to take back hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled an "ethnic cleansing campaign" last year, given that "not a single" one has returned officially, the United Nations human rights chief warned on Wednesday.
• Thousands of Rohingya Continue to Flee Violence in Myanmar VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein reports thousands of Rohingya refugees continue to flee violence and persecution in Myanmar. Speaking Wednesday before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, he presented a grim assessment of the situation of the Muslim minority in the country's Rakhine state.
• US, Russia 'agree to disagree' on Crimea: White House Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- The US White House has declared that Washington continues to reject the reunification of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea with Russia in a 2014 referendum and will not lift sanctions on Moscow until the decision is reversed.
• Humanitarian convoy attacked in South Sudan, driver killed: UNICEF Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- UNICEF says gunmen have attacked a convoy of humanitarian trucks belonging to a contractor of the United Nations Children's Fund in South Sudan, killing one person.
• Over 800,000 have fled southern Ethiopia due to violence, report says Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- More than 800,000 people have been forced from their homes due to a new wave of inter-ethnic violence that has been in place in southern Ethiopia since June, according to a joint report by the United Nations and the Ethiopian government.
• Mali facing 'alarming' rise in rights violations, warns UN expert UN News 04 Jul 2018 -- In Mali, a senior United Nations rights expert on Wednesday described an "alarming" deterioration of the security, human rights and humanitarian situation in northern and eastern areas of the country.

News Reports

• US Senate Rubber Stamps Intel Report Finding Russia Meddled in 2016 Election Sputnik 04 Jul 2018 -- The US Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that it agrees with the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) from January 2017 that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election and that President Vladimir Putin personally approved the meddling campaign, despite admitting that it didn't have access to the sensitive data underpinning the report.
• Britain Says Two People Found Unconscious Poisoned With Novichok RFE/RL 04 Jul 2018 -- Britain's counterterrorism chief has said that two people who are critically ill in a hospital in Wiltshire, southwestern England, were exposed to the Novichok nerve agent, the same toxin that was used in an attack on Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal.
• UK Counter-Terrorism Chief: 2 People in Amesbury Exposed to Novichok Sputnik 04 Jul 2018 -- According to the statement of UK counter-terrorism chief Neil Basu, two people found unwell at a house in Amesbury on Saturday were contaminated by the Novichok nerve agent, the same toxin that was allegedly used against ex-Russian Intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
• Victims of UK's Wiltshire Alleged Poisoning Incident Remain Critical - Police Sputnik 04 Jul 2018 -- Two victims of an alleged poisoning incident in the Wiltshire area near the UK city of Salisbury remain in critical condition after suspected exposure to an unknown substance, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills of Wiltshire police said on Wednesday.
• Israel to try official accused of spying for Iran Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Former Israeli minister Gonen Segev, who is accused of spying for Iran, is slated to stand trial in Jerusalem al-Quds on Thursday.
• CPJ Blasts Russia's 'Systematic Policy' Of Obstructing Free Flow Of News RFE/RL 04 Jul 2018 -- Russia's moves to label some individual journalists and bloggers as "foreign agents" are the latest step in the authorities' "systematic policy" toward obstructing the free flow of information, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says.
• Iran awaiting EU proposed package to save JCPOA IRNA 04 Jul 2018 -- President Hassan Rouhani hailed JCPOA as the outcome of 12 years of marathon talks which if loses its credibility, diplomacy will also be discredited, saying that Iran is waiting for European states' package of proposal on how to maintain the landmark deal.
• Iran vows commitment to nuke deal in face of U.S. sanction pressures People's Daily 04 Jul 2018 -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that the Islamic republic has been committed to its nuclear deal obligations over the past years and will remain to do so, official IRNA news agency reported.
• Rouhani: US exit from Iran nuclear deal will benefit no one Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has slammed as illegal the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saying Washington's move benefits no one.
• Plot to isolate Iran carries heavy cost for US: President Rouhani Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- President Hassan Rouhani says Washington's fresh attempts to isolate Iran will "carry a heavy cost" for the US, and that the Iranian nation will stand even more resilient in the face of such plots.
• Iran's Rohani: No One Will Benefit From U.S. Nuclear-Deal Withdrawal RFE/RL 04 Jul 2018 -- During a visit to Vienna, Iranian President Hassan Rohani has reiterated that Tehran will remain in the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers as long as its interests are guaranteed by other signatories.
• Iran Launches Secondary Forex Market to Help Ease Dollar Shortage Sputnik 04 Jul 2018 -- The Iranian Central Bank has established the secondary currency market to allow exporters of non-oil goods to sell their foreign currency earnings to importers of consumer products as part of Tehran's strategy to ease conditions amid the resumption of US sanctions.
• Tehran summons French, Belgian, German diplomats over diplomat arrest Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Iran's Foreign Ministry has summoned the French and Belgian ambassadors as well as Germany's chargé d'affaires to protest the arrest of an Iranian diplomat.
• Tehran Lodges Protest With France, Germany Over Detention of Iranian Diplomat Sputnik 04 Jul 2018 -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry has lodged a protest with France and Germany over the detention of its diplomat as part of the Belgian-led investigation into a foiled plot of a terrorist attack in the Paris outskirts of Villepinte, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Wednesday.
• Banned Pakistan Party Plans to Contest Elections VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- As Pakistan prepares for general elections in a few weeks, the Milli Muslim League (MML), a banned militant group-turned-political party, says it will field hundreds of candidates across the country under the umbrella of Allah-O-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), an old Islamist political party.
• Turkey: Decree grants president more power Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Turkey has issued a decree, giving more power to the president as the country moves towards adopting a full-fledged presidential system.
• Turkey's Pro-Kurdish Party Seeks to Redraw Political Borders VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- Emboldened by its success in the June 24 elections, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish HDP Party is looking to broaden its support beyond its traditional ethnic base – a move that could redraw the country's entrenched political borders.
• Malaysia's Razak charged with graft, pleads not guilty Press TV 04 Jul 2018 -- Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak has been officially charged with corruption in connection with money theft from a state fund.
• Ex-Malaysian PM Najib Charged with Corruption, Pleads Not Guilty VOA 04 Jul 2018 -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been formally charged in connection with a multi-billion dollar scandal involving sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
• Serbia, Ukraine Set Aside Differences Over Russia, Vow Cooperation RFE/RL 04 Jul 2018 -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has met with his Serbian counterpart in a bid to repair ties with the Balkan country, a key Russian ally in Europe, as both states seek to join the European Union.
• Moldova's Andrei Nastase: The Man Who Would Be Mayor -- Or More RFE/RL 04 Jul 2018 -- Andrei Nastase, the pro-Western winner of the Moldovan capital's since-invalidated mayoral elections, has evolved from student to prosecutor to businessman to antigraft campaigner and politician -- one able to rally Moldova's divided pro-European opposition behind him through a tireless campaign mainly targeting Moldova's richest and most controversial man.