The United States must ensure that arms sold to its allies aren't used to enable abuses or significant humanitarian harm, says the author of this commentary.
Syrian forces on Wednesday night rolled into the strategic border town of Kobani, blocking one path for the Turkish military to establish a “safe zone” free of Syrian Kurdish fighters along the frontier as part of its week-old offensive.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the campaign, which followed an announcement Sunday by U.S. President Donald Trump that American troops would step aside in a shift in U.S. policy that essentially abandoned the Syrian Kurds. They were longtime U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State group.
About 100 Marines and sailors began working on the island this month under an agreement with the I Marine Expeditionary Force at California’s Camp Pendleton and the Catalina Island Conservancy.
The Taliban has announced that they intend to focus their attacks on Americans and their foreign allies, rather than Afghan government forces, according to an Al Jazeera report.
Air Force A-10 Warthogs are over Farah city, Afghanistan, in an attempt to prevent the city’s fall to Taliban forces during the first major assault against a provincial capital since the Taliban began their annual fighting season.
The Taliban announced their annual spring offensive in Afghanistan on Wednesday, at a time when insurgents are already regularly launching attacks and battling security forces.