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U.S. President Donald Trump reshaped U.S. policy in the Middle East by handing Ankara the job of finishing off Islamic State, in Syria in a move that poses both a risk/opportunity for Turkey, Israeli Haaretz newspaper wrote. Trump was expected to warn the Turkish president over his plan to launch a third crossborder attack targeting U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, namely the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northeast Syria, during a phone call 2-weeks ago. However, something unexpected happened, Haaretz said.Trump is reported to have asked if Ankara can ‘’clean up ISIS?’’ if the U.S. withdraws, with Turkey’s strongman responding  Turkish forces were...

President Donald Trump’s announcement he will withdraw U.S. forces from Syria because the Islamic State (ISIS) has largely been defeated accomplishes two things — neither of which is positive. First, it undermines the security of two of our most stalwart Middle East allies, Israel and the Kurds. Second, it rewards our enemies, of which there are more than we openly acknowledge. Clearly, enemies list beneficiaries include the Iran/Syria/Russia alliance and ISIS... Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.), is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the U.S. invasion of Panama and the first Gulf war...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Sunday that "I feel pretty good about where we're headed" in Syria after suggesting that President Trump is "reconsidering" the planned pullout which had drawn bipartisan criticism and forced the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis. Graham emerged from the White House after a two-hour lunch with Trump and said the president "told me some things I didn't know that make me feel a lot better about where we're headed in Syria." "He promised to destroy ISIS. He's going to keep that promise," Graham said of Trump. "We're not there yet. But as I...

US forces are reportedly evacuating their military base near al-Hasakah; The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) still press their operation against ISIS in the Hajin pocket.

(arabic - use google translate) "A security source in Arbil, Kurdistan, the establishment of US forces a new base, is the fifth of its kind in the region........" "In the Shaklawa district northeast of Arbil, within the plan to increase the number of US troops stationed in the northern regions of the country." Local officials in Anbar province, west of Iraq, revealed in previous statements to Al-Maaloumah that American forces had established two new bases in Qaim district adjacent to the Iraqi-Syrian border.

A loud explosion was heard near the pyramids of Giza, as a blast hit tourist bus. Two dead and 12 injured, according to Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

The Department of Defense on Friday tweeted about the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, saying that it's carefully planned and organized. The department described the course of action as being “deliberate, well thought-out, mutually supportive, and controlled,” while also guaranteeing “our troops’ safety and protection.”

President Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments in his first two years are staggering in their success and demonstrate an evolving set of principles upon which the president is acting. From muting the North Korean missile and nuclear threat, to mostly defeating ISIS in Iraq and Syria, to countering Russia by insisting that NATO member nations to pay their fair share to defend themselves, President Trump is hitting on all international relations cylinders. We now have an emerging Trump Doctrine, some of which is captured in his own National Security Strategy. It has the following tenets: 1. America First in everything we...

On December 19, 2018, President Trump declared correctly that “we have won against ISIS,” and announced that the remaining 2,000 American troops in Syria would be withdrawn. The president has made the right decision. Having won the war against ISIS, he does not want to lose the peace by getting into a military conflict with the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s forces, or with the Iranians or the Russians, or even with the Turks for that matter. As the father of an Army officer who is in theater right now, I think I have a right to an opinion. And in...

Two Vietnamese tourists were killed and 10 injured on Friday evening when an improvised explosive device detonated as a bus carrying 14 Vietnamese tourists traveled on El-Maryoutiya Street in Haram district in Giza, a statement by Egypt's Interior Ministry said... The explosion also injured the bus driver and representative of the tourism company, both Egyptians. The security services immediately moved to the site of the explosion to carry out investigations. More to follow

President Trump and First Lady Melania made a surprise visit to Iraq Wednesday after leaving the White House late on Christmas. There, he spoke for nearly 20 minutes to approximately U.S. troops stationed at Al Asad Air Base and met with military leaders. According to the White House pool report, the group was made up "of about 100 mostly U.S. special operations troops engaged in combat operations in Iraq and Syria."During his remarks, the Commander-in-Chief encouraged U.S. service members to keep up the fight and vowed to continue the fight against ISIS from Iraq. "I want to come and pay my respects...

**SNIP** President Donald Trump defended his controversial military draw-down in Syria during a surprise trip to Iraq on Wednesday, telling American soldiers stationed in the war-torn country that the U.S. military is no longer the laughingstock of the world. “We’re no longer the suckers, folks,” Trump told troops at the Al Asad Airbase in western Iraq while gushing about the genius of his military pullout in neighboring Syria. “We’re respected again as a nation.” **SNIP** “I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds,” Trump told soldiers dressed in...

The US will have spent nearly $6 trillion on the war on terror by the end of fiscal year 2019, according to a startling new report. "If the US continues on its current path, war spending will continue to grow," the Costs of War report states. Between 480,000 and 507,000 people have been killed in the United States' post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan - including nearly 7,000 US troops - according to the Costs of War project. America is conducting counterterror operations in 76 countries and US troops are fighting and dying everywhere from Afghanistan to Niger....

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump makes surprise visit to US troops and senior military leadership in IraqPresident Trump and the first lady appeared in Iraq on Wednesday for a surprise visit with troops and senior military leadership at Al Asad Air Base, where he said he has "no plans at all" to remove any of the 5,000 U.S. troops from the country. Trump's visit -- his first as president to a combat zone -- comes on the heels of his announcement about pulling troops out of Syria and the rumored removal of thousands of troops in Afghanistan. Trump's...

**SNIP** Kerry, in a tweet, also said it was "pathetic" and "demoralizing to public servants everywhere," that Trump would, "defame a public servant who joined the Bush Administration and stayed on the last two years to help Iraq & defeat ISIL." Kerry worked with McGurk during his time as secretary of state for the Obama administration. As mentioned by Kerry, McGurk served in the George W. Bush White House and was appointed to his most recent anti-ISIS role in 2015 under Obama. McGurk resigned amid the fallout in Washington from Trump’s recent, abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria...

On September 30th 2016 the New York Times quietly released a leaked audio recording of Secretary John Kerry meeting with multiple factions associated within Syria.The 40-minute discussion took place on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly in New York. The meeting took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on Sept. 22nd 2016: […] Kerry’s off-record conversation was apparently with two dozen ‘Syrian civilians’, all from US backed opposition-linked NGO’s in education and medical groups supposedly working in ‘rebel-held’ (aka terrorist-held) areas in Syria.This opposition conclave also included ‘rescue workers’ which can only be ambassadors from...

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Defense Secretary James Mattis will depart the Pentagon by January 1, a date earlier than anticipated, and will appoint Patrick Shanahan as acting Secretary. The president’s announcement, made via Twitter, comes days after Mattis stunned Washington by announcing his resignation, prompted by what the former marine said were policy differences with Trump. Shanahan is the Pentagon’s number 2 official.

..."Saudi Arabia and the UAE have sent military forces to areas controlled by the Kurdish YPG group in north-east Syria, Turkey’s Yenisafak newspaper reported. The paper said the forces will be stationed with US-led coalition troops and will support its tasks with huge military enforcements as well as heavy and light weapons. Quoting the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the newspaper reported that a convoy of troops belonging to an Arab Gulf state recently arrived in the contact area between the Kurdish PKK/YPG and Daesh in the Deir Ez-Zor countryside. This comes at a time when Ankara is preparing to...

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey is massing troops near a town in northern Syria held by a U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led force, a war monitor and Turkish media said Sunday. The buildup comes even though Turkey said it would delay a promised offensive in eastern Syria in the wake of U.S. decisions to withdraw its troops.

On Saturday, Brett McGurk submitted his resignation and is leaving the Trump administration. McGurk served as the US envoy in a global anti-ISIS coalition and reportedly resigned amid President Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria—a decision which also reportedly led to the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis.