When Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced Tuesday that the U.S. would begin “direct action” against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq, it sounded like a new mission for U.S. forces in a country where the president has repeatedly insisted Americans would not be engaged in combat operations.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that the U.S. will begin “direct action on the ground” against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria, aiming to intensify pressure on the militants as progress against them remains elusive.
A U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed close to one of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea on Tuesday, drawing an angry rebuke from Beijing, which said it had tracked and warned the ship and called in the U.S. ambassador to protest.
Russia has confirmed sending special forces troops to Syria over the past few weeks to support its mission backing the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The United States, Britain, France and Germany sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee on Wednesday notifying it of Tehran’s recent missile test and demanded action in response to what they said was a violation.
Iran’s nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said on Monday he expected a deal with six world powers on shrinking Tehran’s atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief to be implemented by year-end.
The U.S. and Russia on Tuesday put into practice new rules designed to minimize the risk of air collisions between military aircraft over Syria, while Iraqi leaders pledged they would not invite Russian airpower over their nation.
EU and US negotiators in Miami on Monday started the 11th round of trade talks seeking to create a trade and investment zone encompassing 800 million people and nearly half of global economic output.
NATO and its allies opened their largest military exercise in more than a decade on Monday, choosing the central Mediterranean to showcase strengths that face threats from Russia’s growing military presence from the Baltics to Syria.
The United States has confirmed that Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, in “clear violation” of a United Nations Security Council ban on ballistic missile tests, a senior US official said on Friday.
The U.S. expects Iran will take months to live up to its end of a seven-nation nuclear pact that could eventually provide the country relief from international sanctions.
In a rare moment of transparency, Iran on Wednesday broadcast pictures of one of its underground missile facilities.
The United States and Russia might be near a deal for air protocol over Syria, an official said.
Two Russian and two U.S. aircraft came within visual range of each other — separated by just 10 to 20 miles — over Syria Saturday, according to the anti-ISIS coalition.
Iran’s parliament on Tuesday approved the nuclear deal the country struck with world powers, and a council of senior clerics will review the accord before its final adoption, Iran’s IRNA news agency said.
The Pentagon acknowledged on Monday that Iraqi forces could have discovered a cache of U.S. weapons and missiles seized by Islamic State (IS) militants operating in the country, according to U.S. officials and regional media reports.
Iran’s recent test firing of a ballistic missile does not violate the recent nuclear deal, Obama administration officials said on Monday. However, nuclear experts disagree and are calling on the administration to hold Iran accountable for violating international agreements barring such action.
The United States has pulled the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier that has been central in the fight against the Islamic State, from the Persian Gulf, military officials said Thursday.
Iran has successfully test-fired a new precision-guided, long-range missile, state-run media reported on Sunday.
Syrian troops and allied militia backed by a fresh wave of Russian air strikes and cruise missiles fired from warships attacked rebel forces on Thursday as the government extended an offensive to recapture territory in the west of the country.