Free Republic

Iran has sent 2,000 advance troops to Iraq in the past 48 hours to help tackle a jihadist insurgency, a senior Iraqi official has told the Guardian. The confirmation comes as the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, said Iran was ready to support Iraq from the mortal threat fast spreading through the country, while the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, called on citizens to take up arms in their country's defence. Addressing the country on Saturday, Maliki said rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) had given "an incentive to the army and to Iraqis to act...

The threat of Sunni extremists eclipsing the power of its Shiite-dominated Arab ally presents Iran with the biggest security and strategic challenge it has faced since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. With the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an offshoot of al Qaeda, rapidly gaining territory, Iran deployed Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq, according to Iranian security officials. Iran has invested considerable financial, political and military resources over the past decade to ensure Iraq emerged from U.S. war as a strategic partner for the Islamic Republic and a strong Shiite-led state. The so-called Shiite crescent—stretching from Iran...

A warship and a destroyer belonging to the Iranian naval fleet have berthed at Qatar's Doha port upon an invitation by Qatari Naval officials. Iranian Ambassador to Doha Abdullah Sohrabi and Iran's military attache in Qatar Brigadier-General Mashallah Poursheh conferred with commanders and cadets aboard the Bandar Abbas warship and Naqdi Destroyer. Sohrabi said that the symbolic docking of the Iranian warship and destroyer at the Qatari capital is a step toward the improvement of bilateral defense ties between the two countries. Since Iran and Qatar are neighbors and have common sea borders, issues such as defense cooperation and security...

The impetus underlying China’s manifold interests in the Middle East remains a topic of close scrutiny. The dramatic social and political changes that are taking root in the region portend a vastly different geopolitical cartography in contrast with previous arrangements. These circumstances yield important implications for the people of the Middle East and foreign powers, such as the United States with longstanding strategic interests in the region. Owing to its notable inroads into the Middle East in recent years, China also is watching regional events unfold with great interest. Due to its increasing demand for Middle Eastern oil and natural...

President Barack Obama has announced that the United States launched air strikes on the terrorist organization ISIS to assist Kurdistan. It is likely you have not seen a headline that says, “US Strikes help Kurds retake towns.” That is because it never happened. The air support came from Russian and Iranian planes. The only problem is that’s not entirely true. My contacts in Kurdistan are now saying that many of these attacks are being launched by the Iraqi air force. The only problem is that the US government has not sold airplanes to Iraq, but Russia has armed them with...

Arab states, particularly in the Gulf, are seeking to build up their air power and missile defenses to counter any challenger from Iran. Mostly they're looking to their traditional arms suppliers in the West, the United States, Britain and France, but Russia is pushing hard for a piece of the action. This year's biennial Dubai air show, which opened Sunday in the United Arab Emirates, provided a showcase for the latest technology on offer. Air power has been the deciding factor in most Middle Eastern conflicts since the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, when Israeli warplanes annihilated the air forces of Egypt,...

Washington, Asharq Al-Awsat- The United States will soon provide Israel with some 100 "bunker buster" bombs to kill the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group and destroy its trenches, Informed sources in both Washington and Tel Aviv to Asharq Al-Awsat. The sources also revealed that "bunker buster" bombs, which can penetrate up to 40 meters under ground, will be delivered to Israel from a U.S. military base in Qatar. Israel has been bombarding Lebanon after Hezbollah killed eight and captured two Israeli soldiers, provoking Israel's biggest military campaign against Lebanon in 24 years. The fighting has left hundreds of civilians...

Russian Ka-52K rivals America’s AH-1Z Russia’s latest naval attack helicopter just might be the most fearsome ever. Moscow means to deploy the navalized adaptation of the coaxial-rotor Kamov Ka-52 aboard the Russian navy’s controversial, French-built amphibious assault ships. Without doubt, the current gold standard for maritime attack helps is the U.S. Marine Corps’ Bell AH-1Z Viper, the latest and most capable iteration of the classic HueyCobra—the pioneering gunship that first saw combat during the Vietnam War. Distinguished from its predecessors chiefly by its four-blade main rotor, the Viper gained entered front-line service in February 2011. The Boeing AH-64 Apache is...

The Price of Oil Crushed Russia Once. Is It About to Happen Again? By Aimee Duffy | More Articles | Save For Later August 23, 2014 | Comments (0) Russian oil pump. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/AcoderIn case you hadn't heard, Russia has an oil problem. The country is heavily dependent on oil tax revenue to fill its coffers, and trouble is brewing given today's low price for Russian crude. Consider these recent headlines from Reuters and The Moscow Times:"Russian oil prices fall below $100/barrel, straining budget""Struggling with Sanctions, Russia Faces Oil Price Crash"And if you go all the way back...

Three decades after it was inducted into the Russian Air Force, the Sukhoi-27 remains the ultimate jet fighter with its super-maneuverability, grace, beauty and sheer power. In 1984, after seven years of development and test flights, the Sukhoi-27 (codenamed Flanker by NATO) was inducted into the Soviet Air Force and the Soviet Air Defence Force. It was a defining moment in the history of combat aviation as the Su-27 – and its later iterations – became the jet fighter that would shift air superiority decisively away from western air forces. British fighter pilot John Farlight, who saw Victor Pugachev turn...

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By 207 B.C., Rome and its allies on the Italian peninsula had lost approximately 100,000 soldiers to the invading armies of the great Carthaginian general, Hannibal. To make matters more desperate, the Carthaginians were in the final stages of securing massive reinforcements from Phillip V of Macedon. That year the Roman Senate sent a secret group of provocateurs to Northern Greece who started violent insurrections among PhillipÂ’s disaffected subject peoples to his south. The Macedonian armies never sailed and for next 600 years the course of western civilization would be charted by Rome.Special Forces Will Again Change the WorldAs I...

KYIV, August 23 /Ukrinform/. Russian humanitarian convoy is unloaded in Donbas, and a part of already unloaded trucks returns to the Russian Federation. The TSN informs. "Ukrainian customs workers managed to check and make customs clearance of only 34 trucks of the Russian humanitarian convoy. The rest of over 200 trucks crossed by border absolutely illegally... According to the Ukrainian customs workers, a part of trucks has already headed back. What does this mean, where did they unload, what did they leave on the territory of Ukraine - now there are more questions than answers,” a statement reads.

Russia's decision to send more than 100 aid lorries into war-torn eastern Ukraine without permission has been widely condemned in the West.

Pentagon Press Secretary RADM John Kirby says Russia must remove a convoy from Ukraine immediately. VIDEO

TransNistria will be a part of Russia, but the present situation in Ukraine prevents from doing it now, Putin’s envoy in Crimea Oleg Belaventsev said Aug. 19, Liga.net reports. “I would unite TransNistria today. However, you see what is going on in Ukraine,” the envoy said. “I am convinced that in the final run TransNistria will be a part of Russia,” he said. In early August, Moldova demanded again that Russia withdraw its military from TransNistria. Fearing the likely joining of Romania by Moldova , TransNistria, the base of a large Russian army and the area heavily populated by Russian-speakers,...

NATO Secretary General condemns entry of Russian convoy into Ukraine I condemn the entry of a Russian so-called humanitarian convoy into Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian authorities and without any involvement of the International Committee of the Red Cross. This is a blatant breach of Russia’s international commitments, including those made recently in Berlin and Geneva, and a further violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty by Russia. It can only deepen the crisis in the region, which Russia itself has created and has continued to fuel. The disregard of international humanitarian principles raises further questions about whether the true...

The Russian military has moved artillery units manned by Russian personnel inside Ukrainian territory in recent days and is using them to fire at Ukrainian forces, NATO officials said on Friday. The West has long accused Russia of supporting the separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, but this is the first time it has said it had evidence of the direct involvement of the Russian military.

A pro-Russia separatist guards a checkpoint in the eastern Ukrainian village of Rozsypne on Monday. Reuters DONETSK, Ukraine— Oleg Mamiyev, a Russian citizen with a beard and a lazy eye, descended a crooked flight of stairs into a basement on a rebel base here and unlocked a chain-link trapdoor to show off a prisoner. Sitting on a cot that barely fit into his dark nook, the prisoner, Maxim Kucheryavy, was obviously hungry and in pain. A Ukrainian volunteer who wanted to fight pro-Russian insurgents, Mr. Kucheryavy said he had been shot in both legs at point-blank range while unarmed and...

In the Donbass units of the right sector fight in the army. They are the preferential opponents not less right Russian national unities. BERLIN taz | The threat of Dmitri Jarosch, the boss of the right sector, had worked. Either the government will meet in Kiev the demands of the right sector, according to Jarosch last week, or one will draw off the forces fighting in the Don's bass of the right sector and they allow to march directly to Kiev. Contently Jarosch called off after a little while threatened march to Kiev. The government has followed to his demands...