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Jets from the 20th Fighter Wing provided a key role in taking a down corrupt regime during Operation Unified Protector. Their actions in OUP led to the capture of Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator for 42 years, by the Libyan revolutionaries on Oct. 20, 2011. The 20th FW first sent support at the beginning of April to support NATO forces in protecting the Libyan civilians from the dictatorship. "Around the middle of March, when things were starting to heat up in Libya, we were starting to pay attention," said Col. Charlie Moore, 20th FW commander. "It became apparent that we...

While U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, attempt to normalize relations between the countries after the recent American drone strikes in Pakistan, the question has arisen as to how India can become an integral member of the multi-party Afghan equation, where U.S. and NATO stakes are still very high. What does the question entail? he Pakistani transit routes for NATO convoys that supply military cargo to Afghanistan have been closed for two months (after an “erroneous” attack by a NATO aircraft on a Pakistani army checkpoint in the Pakistani-Afghan border region in November...

(Reuters) - France threatened on Friday to pull out early from the NATO-led war in Afghanistan after a rogue Afghan soldier opened fire on French soldiers, killing four and wounding about 15 others. The killings in the Taghab valley of Afghanistan's eastern Kapisa province were the latest in a series of incidents in which Afghan troops have turned on Western allies. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said all French operations on the ground were being suspended and his defence minister was dispatched to Afghanistan to clarify the situation. "If the security conditions are not clearly established then the question of an...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.number10.gov.uk/news/prime-minister-statement-on-alan-mcmenemy/ Prime Minister's statement on Alan McMenemy Friday 20 January 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed the British Embassy in Baghdad have received the body of hostage Alan McMenemy. The Prime Minister said: “It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the British Embassy in Baghdad received a body today that has been identified as Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2007, along with four other men. The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan were returned in 2009. Peter Moore was the only hostage released alive...

Chicago Loop on Lockdown During NATO, G8 SummitsBy Rachel Bogart | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 1 hr 31 mins ago According to the Chicago Sun-Times, during the NATO and G-8 summits this spring, a major security perimeter will take place downtown and prohibit motorist access to certain streets. Both summits will be expecting high-profile leaders, including President Barack Obama, and the lockdown of the downtown area will be led by the U.S. Secret Service. Ultimately, cutting off areas of downtown is a step to boost security, especially since Mayor Rahm Emanuel is estimating that the summits will draw thousands of...

NATO Training Mission Afghanistan Story by Petty Officer 1st Class Chris FaheyS New airframe adds strike capability to Afghan air force AFGHANISTAN - In Afghanistan’s continued effort to independently battle counterinsurgency, a new tool will be added to their arsenal designed to allow versatility, reconnaissance and precision weapons placement to the growing Afghan air force. Announced Dec. 30, the U.S. Air Force has approved a contract worth more than $350 million that will provide the Afghan air force with at least 20 A-29 Super Tucano light air support aircraft, ground training devices and all associated maintenance and support equipment originally...

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force did not disclose the nationalities of the troops, but most of those serving in southern Afghanistan are American or British. The south of Afghanistan includes the volatile provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, the traditional heartland of the Taliban. Four of the eight were killed Friday in a single explosion, military officials said in a statement, and a fifth died as the result of an earlier “insurgent attack,” a phrase often used to characterize a firefight with Taliban militants. Late Thursday, military officials announced that three troops were killed in the south by a makeshift bomb....

Strong exports of German cars are helping drive employment figures The adjusted jobless rate fell to 6.8% from 6.9% in November, the Federal Labour Office said. This marked a new record low since figures for unified Germany were first published. The seasonally-adjusted total for the number of people out of work in Germany fell 22,000 to 2.88 million in December. The agency said the number of people out of work averaged 2.976 million over the course of last year. News of the figures saw the German Dax stock exchange rise almost 1% by noon on Tuesday. This was equal to...

A reliable Pentagon source confirmed that the U.S. is selling a huge $60 billion arms package to Serbia.The source spoke on condition of anonymity because minor details are still being hammered out. Afterwards there will be an official announcement made by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.The Pentagon source said the huge $60 billion arms package sale to Serbia is being made to counter the increasing dangerous militant Islamist threat in the region.The source noted Turkey's shift away from the secularism of Attaturk to fundamentalist Islam reflected by the ascension to power of Erdogan's AKP Islamist party.That is reflected in Turkey's closer ties with the Iranian regime and increasing hostility towards Israel and the West. The...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani Islamist militants on Sunday pledged to cease their four-year insurgency against Pakistani security forces, and join the Taliban's war against NATO troops in Afghanistan. The agreement reunited four major Pakistan-based militant factions under the flag of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban chief, an announcement by the militants said. Security experts in Islamabad said the agreement to end the insurgency with Pakistan was a dual-purpose tactical move by the Taliban. It has lost hundreds of fighters during a two-year surge of U.S. forces in its southern Afghanistan strongholds. The Pakistani militants, too, have been pummelled by security...

Afghan officials say an American reconnaissance drone has crashed in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Paktia, Press TV reports. A Tuesday statement released by NATO confirmed the incident but claimed that the unmanned aircraft made an emergency landing “due to technical malfunction.” According to locals, US-led forces have cordoned off the site of the incident. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid also claimed that members of the militant group shot down the drone in the Ahmadabad district of the province. The Taliban say they have shot down several aircraft and NATO choppers in different parts of Afghanistan over the past few months. Activities...

Ankara accused of ‘abandoning’ Israel and France by Dutch Freedom Party. BERLIN – The Dutch Freedom Party, the Netherlands’s third largest political party, urged the Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministries last week to reconsider Turkey’s continued membership in NATO. Geert Wilders, head of the party, and its Mideast expert, deputy Wim Kortenoeven, accused Turkey of abandoning its allies – Israel earlier this year, and now France. Turkey severed diplomatic and military ties with France last week, over the French parliamentary resolution on the current Turkish government’s reaction to the Ottoman Empire’s massacre of Christian Armenians in 1915. The empire preceded...

From what I've read Mr. Paul would obtain the approval of Congress before sending any troops to fight a war on behalf of the United Nations. I have not heard any of the other candidates make such a promise. We should not be sending our troops to Yugoslavia or Libya because the United Nations has decided that it wants to get rid of a dictator. I'm not too happy with his position of never engaging with foreign countries although I think that that may be an overstatement. The other candidates should make their positions clear on this otherwise I will...

Turkey's foreign minister made a special effort Saturday to reassure Iran that his country will not join any "foreign interference" against the Islamic Republic, according to a report published by the official Iranian news agency IRNA. The NATO defense shield missile radar system placed on Turkish territory in September has been a point of contention with Iran since it was installed. A similar system was also installed in Romania. Speaking in a live Turkish public television political talk show, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that in spite of a number of differences in the viewpoints of the two countries over...

Russia said Thursday it may not be able to complete a new draft resolution on Syria's violent unrest because amendments submitted by Western countries in the UN Security Council contradicted the contents of Russia's original text. Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the 15-nation council in December, was not optimistic when asked whether the Syria draft would be ready for a vote before the holidays. He told reporters that amendments submitted by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal 'crossed out everything we said (in the text), and we cannot discuss to produce a new text.' He said prospects for completing...

A recent multi think-tank publication entitled “Shared Goals, Converging Interests: A Plan for U.S.–Australia–India Cooperation in the Indo–Pacific,” has apparently been the source of an about-face by Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. Co-published by Australia’s Lowy Institute, India’s Observer Research Foundation, and the U.S. Heritage Institute, the authors called for a tripartite defense pact between the United States, Australia, and India in a world where “the rise of China…is posing the first serious challenge to U.S. military preeminence in Asia in half a century.” While there have been no official intergovernmental talks about this particular defense pact, on November 30,...

NATO to stop training Iraq army when U.S. troops leaveBy David Brunnstrom Monday, December 12, 2011 BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO will end its seven-year troop training mission in Iraq at the end of December, the alliance said on Monday, a move that will coincide with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. The decision follows U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement in October that U.S. troops would go home at year-end after talks to keep thousands there as trainers fell apart over Washington's condition that U.S. forces should have immunity from prosecution in local courts. A statement from NATO Secretary-General...

The Syrian regime, which has endured nine months of civil unrest spurred by the Arab Spring as it swept across the Middle East, has armed its medium-range missile arsenal with chemical warheads. According to a report published by the Sabah daily Sunday, Damascus armed 600 one-ton chemical warheads to use in the event of a foreign military intervention. Furthermore, President Bashar al-Assad ordered the deployment of 21 missile launchers along its border with Turkey. Syria’s medium-range missiles that can be equipped with chemical warheads have a range of up to 1,300 kilometers and would include the southern and central provinces...

Army Gen. Martin. E. Dempsey revised his assessment of the relationship between the Pakistani and United States militaries, which he described as "a mess," whereas two weeks ago he said the relationship remained solid despite the recent NATO strike controversy. Dempsey said "U.S.-Pakistani military-to-military relations 'are a mess,'" according to the American Forces Press Service -- an apparent deterioration from late November, when he assured British media that the relationship was still firm. Addressing the recent border incident, Dempsey told an audience at the Atlantic Council that he "can absolutely say that it wasn't something we did intentionally." "Regrettably, the...

Quetta, Pakistan - Assailants torched more than 20 tankers in Pakistan carrying fuel for U.S. and NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan on Thursday, in the first reported attack since Islamabad closed the border to protest coalition airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops last month. Several hundred trucks have been stranded at poorly guarded terminals around the country as they wait for Pakistan to reopen its two border crossings into Afghanistan. Around 40 percent of the non-lethal supplies for U.S.-led troops in landlocked Afghanistan travel across Pakistani soil.

The world court ruled Monday that Greece was wrong to block a bid by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to join NATO in 2008 because of a long-running dispute over the fledgling country's use of the name “Macedonia.” In a 15-1 ruling, the court found that Greece's veto breached a provisional 1995 deal under which Greece had agreed not to block membership of the country in international organizations if it used the name FYROM, while the matter was submitted to further negotiations. More than 15 years later, mediation over the name is still ongoing. The victory is partly...

A suicide bomber attack at the NATO coalition base in Afghan Logar province has injured up to 70 people. The attacker used an explosive-laden truck to set off a powerful explosion just outside the entrance to the base on Friday morning, local authorities reported. The majority of those wounded are civilians, Logar’s health director, Mohammad Zarif Nayebkhail told AFP. Seven of the wounded are Afghan security guards from the base. “The suicide attacker wanted to ram his explosive-laden vehicle into the coalition forces base, but he was stopped at the gate and detonated the truck outside the base,” said local...

Sources said the Army Chief has suspended the chain of command system in order to enable the senior officers on the posts to take appropriate action in case Pakistani forces come under attack. Sources said that decision would however be applicable to eventualities involving Nato troops. Sources said that General Kayani has also ordered the troops to counter any aggression with full force and defend the motherland against any assailant. General Kayani has also said that the Pak Air Force should have taken action while Nato helicopters had violated the Pakistani airspace and attacked the Pakistani posts, sources said. In...

NEW DELHI - At a time when Pakistanis are recovering from the shock of Nato attack on two military posts, thousands of Indian soldiers armed with hundreds of tanks, armoured carriers ,fighter jets,UAV,Gunships and Modern Satellite Imaging are getting ready for manoeuvres in Rajasthan sector along Pakistani border, reported Indian media on Thursday. More than 50,000 Indian troops along with T-90, T-72, Arjun Tanks and BMPs are expected to take part in this gigantic military exercise code-named ‘SUDARSHAN SHAKTI AKA CIRCLET OF GOD '. An Indian defence report says that “This exercise will be a trendsetter for the Integrated Theatre...

Many people have the misconception that sanctions are an effective means to encourage a change of behavior in another country without war. However, imposing sanctions and blockades are not only an act of war according to international law, they are most often the first step toward a real war starting with a bombing campaign. Sanctions were the first step in our wars against Iraq and Libya, and now more sanctions planned against Syria and Iran are leading down the same destructive path. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) latest report, just out this month, there is no evidence...

<p>Serbs opposed to the independence of Kosovo attacked North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeeping troops in the tiny Balkan state Monday with guns and Molotov cocktails, wounding dozens, the alliance said, in an escalation of violence that could set back Belgrade's long-running effort to join the European Union.</p>

<p>MOSCOW—Russia said it may not let NATO use its territory to supply troops in Afghanistan if the alliance doesn't seriously consider its objections to a U.S.-led missile shield for Europe, Russia's ambassador to NATO said Monday.</p> <p>Russia has stepped up its objections to the antimissile system in Europe, threatening last week to deploy its own ballistic missiles on the border of the European Union to counter the move. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization says the shield is meant to thwart an attack from a rogue state such as Iran, that it poses no threat to Russia, and that the alliance will go ahead with the plan despite Moscow's objections.</p>

Afghan officials say NATO and Afghan forces patrolling near the Pakistan border came under fire before they called in the NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Saturday. Sunday's account by unnamed officials contradicts Islamabad's claims that the attack on two Pakistani army bases was unprovoked. NATO and U.S. officials responded quickly to try to minimize the diplomatic repercussions of the attack. NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Sunday promised a full investigation into the "tragic, unintended" deaths.

PESHAWAR: The families of soldiers who were killed when Nato attacked a Pakistani checkpost in the Mohmand Agency on Saturday, buried their loved ones on Sunday. The relatives of Major Mujahid Hussain and Captain Usman Ali said that the soldiers “sacrificed their lives” for the sake of their country, and they were proud of their sacrifices. Major Mujahid Hussain hailed from Larkana, and had joined the Pakistan army nine years ago. His body will be taken to his native village after being honoured at the General Head Quarters and Pannu Aqil cantonment. His family said that they will not “hesitate...

Such is the state of U.S./Pakistan relations that no one seems fully confident this was accidental. Is there another “alliance� in the world of which that could be said — where one country wipes out two dozen troops from the other and it’s not instantly clear it was a terrible miscalculation instead of a response to some shadowy provocation?Is it “friendly fire� if the two sides aren’t really friendly? “It seems quite extraordinary that we’d just nail these posts the way they say we did,” said one senior American official who was in close touch with American and NATO officials...

Within 24 hours of a US attack helicopters strike inside Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of Mohmand that killed more than 20 Pakistani troops, the Pakistan government has ordered the US to vacate a key airbase in Baluchistan and has closed NATO's supply lines through the Khyber Pass. The Defence Committee of the Cabinet, a Pakistani committee chaired by Prime Minister Yousef Gilani, issued a statement calling for US personnel to leave the Shamsi airbase in Baluchistan province and the closure of NATO's supply chain to Afghanistan.

NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing as many as 28 troops and plunging U.S.-Pakistan relations, already deeply frayed, further into crisis. Pakistan retaliated by shutting down vital NATO supply routes into Afghanistan, used for sending in just under a third of the alliance's supplies.

Tensions run high on Serbia's border with northern Kosovo, as neither of the conflicting sides is prepared to rule out a further escalation of violence. ­Local Serbs say NATO forces are to blame, for breaking an agreement by trying to remove a barricade blocking the way to one of a number of disputed checkpoints. The move prompted violent clashes that left dozens injured on both sides. Last night in Northern Kosovo passed without violence though this does not mean that the source of tensions has disappeared. On November 23 the NATO’s KFOR forces attempted to remove a barricade put up...

It is already unambigously confirmed that the Polish government's plane carrying president Lech Kaczynski and other the highest ranking military and state officials did not collided with the birch. It also did not turned upside down due to this collision as the Russian investigators claim. The cause of the TU-154 plane that crashed on April 10, 2010 must be different.

KHAR, Pakistan — Pakistani officials say seven army soldiers were killed when NATO helicopters fired on a checkpoint in the country's northwest near the Afghan border.

Onward Christian soldiers? U.S. troops in Afghanistan furious after cross on chapel is removed for 'breaking Army rules' U.S. soldiers at a remote base in Afghanistan were left outraged after a large cross outside a chapel was taken down because it broke Army rules. Servicemen at Camp Marmal in northern Afghanistan, a German base for NATO forces, said they found the cross ‘inspiring’ and ‘motivating’. But the base chaplain was forced to take it down because his Army manual bans the permanent display of ‘distinctive religious symbols’. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2065918/US-troops-Afghanistan-furious-cross-chapel-removed-breaking-Army-rules.html#ixzz1elWojvUy

Fourteen Nato countries have followed the United States in stopping implementation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), by halting the flow of armament information to Russia, Nato diplomats said Wednesday. The step was aimed at focusing Russia's attention on the long-standing conflict over the treaty, which also limits the numbers of non-nuclear arms that can be deployed, diplomats in Vienna said. The group of Nato countries, which includes Germany, notified the Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) of their decision Tuesday. More members of the 28-member military alliance were planning the same move,...

Free Syrian Army chief Riyadh al-Asaad on Thursday called for foreign air strikes on "strategic targets" in Syria to speed up the fall of the regime, in a telephone interview with AFP. "We are not in favour of the entry of foreign troops as was the case in Iraq but we want the international community to give us logistical support," said FSA chief Colonel Asaad, who is based across the border in Turkey. "We also want international protection, the establishment of a no-fly zone, a buffer zone and strikes on certain strategic targets considered as crucial by the regime," he...

"...a deep and spreading frenzy, particularly among  some of the youth militia and the Islamists..." Vengeance hangs thick in the air of post-Gaddafi Libya, where just about anybody can be cornered and accused by roving bands of witch-huntin' rebels of being a 'former regime loyalist'. This includes much of the nominal NTC leadership, adding to their own individual fears of rebel militias they have little or no control over. Besides 'justice' of the sort spontaneously administered to Muammar Gaddafi, they've shipped-off over 7000 folks they didn't like the looks of to concentration camps and old regime prisons. With no working justice system in place whatsoever, it's difficult...

It is clear that the United States and Russia are on collision course at the shores of Syria. Russian websites (and here)linked to the military intelligence informs that Kremlin decided to confront NATO forces. Three Russian warships had entered territorial waters near Tartus. It was built-in 1971 as an operational support for the Soviet strategic objective in the Southern Theater. It is the only Russian naval military base abroad with probably 50 military personnel. Moreover the Russian military naval base is in Sevastopol was granted from the Ukraine parliament de facto extrateritorial jurisdiction beyond 2017. Russian sources in the Ministry...

Senior European sources said that Arab jet fighters, and possibly Turkish warplanes, backed by American logistic support will implement a no fly zone in Syria's skies, after the Arab League will issue a decision, under its Charter, calling for the protection of Syrian civilians. The sources told Kuwait's al Rai daily that the no fly ban will include a ban on the movement of Syrian military vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers and artillery, adding that this move would aim at curbing the movement of Assad forces, and cripple their ability to bomb cities. The European sources said the no fly...

The euro-zone crisis and the streak of European and global summits over the past month boosted the poll ratings of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who appeared to gain some of the ground he had lost to Socialist challenger Francois Hollande five months ahead of the presidential election next May, when he's expected to seek a second mandate, a poll showed. If the first round of presidential elections had been held Sunday, Sarkozy would have garnered 29% of the votes, trailing Hollande by only 1 percentage point, a LH2-Yahoo! poll published late Sunday showed. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen came third...

Gathered around Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, a small group of unelected EU officials have been assigned the task of governing the eurozone and removing leaders who fail to toe the line, writes the British conservative weekly The Spectator. Fraser Nelson The Old Opera House in Frankfurt – once Germany’s most beautiful postwar ruin and now its most stunning recreation – has become a symbol of European rebirth. And it was here, last month, that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy met the EU’s bureaucratic elite in what would, in another era, be described as a putsch. They had grown tired...

Germany's economy minister renewed his hardline stance towards profligate eurozone nations on Saturday in an attempt to shore up support among his demoralised Free Democrats (FDP), calling for an orderly default for fiscally irresponsible states. Philipp Roesler took a tough line which has proved popular before. "There must be consequences for governments that break budget rules, and these sanctions must be automatic," he told FDP delegates at a party congress in Frankfurt, to strong applause. First, states' funding from Brussels should be cut, he said, then they should be stripped of their voting rights in European Union bodies, then a...

Israel is speeding up on-board missile defense systems for commercial planes in light of fears that Gaza terrorists have obtained anti-aircraft missiles during the recent war in Libya, defense officials told the Associated Press. It is only a matter of months before the laser-based ”C-Music” system will be installed on approximately 100 Israeli passenger planes, officials added. Video .....

Interim government officials struggle to calm tensions amid talk of tribal feuds and diehard support for former leader Gaddafi. Heavy fighting between local armed groups killed several people on the outskirts of Tripoli on Saturday, as interim government officials struggled to calm tensions amid talk of tribal feuds and diehard support for Muammar Gaddafi. On a second day of clashes near a military camp lying among farms and villages between the capital and the port of Zawiyah, some 50 km (30 miles) to the west, anti-Gaddafi fighters from Zawiyah pounded targets with heavy machineguns, anti-aircraft cannon, rocket-propelled grenades and Grad...

The Arab League voted to suspend SyriaÂ’s membership at its meeting on Saturday and said it would impose economic and political sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as call for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus. The Arab foreign ministers meeting at the LeagueÂ’s headquarters in Cairo also called on the Syrian army to cease its involvement in the killing of civilians and invited the Syrian opposition for transition talks. Opponents of Assad were hoping that the Arab League would suspend SyriaÂ’s membership after Assad pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an...

DUBAI: UAE issues shock Eurofighter Typhoon request By: Craig Hoyle Dubai France’s long-running campaign to sell up to 60 Dassault Rafales to the United Arab Emirates faces a shock last-minute challenge, with the Eurofighter consortium having been asked to submit a proposal based on its Typhoon combat aircraft. News of the development broke on the eve of the Dubai air show, where both types are scheduled to take part in the daily flying display. Sources have confirmed that the UK provided a formal briefing about the Typhoon to UAE officials on 17 October, after being asked to explore how it...

BRUSSELS (AP) — Some NATO members are worried that their organization may be investigated by the International Criminal Court after its prosecutor said allegations of crimes committed by NATO in Libya would be examined "impartially and independently," according to diplomats accredited to NATO headquarters. The diplomats said action to pre-empt a war crimes investigation would likely include an immediate internal legal review of all incidents in which NATO bombing or other actions caused civilian casualties. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Currently, nearly 120 states are parties to the ICC. All European NATO...

Germany has put its Air Force Tornado warplanes in intensive training for a possible attack on targets in Iran, after taking part last week in a joint drill with the Israeli Air Force and other NATO members at the Italian Decimomannu air base on Sardinia. Iran, for its part, is gearing up for a gloves-off reprisal against its attackers...