Seven American soldiers were wounded in the latest major joint operation targeting Islamic State terrorists in western Iraq. More than 100 US troops joined the mission, which spanned “miles of remote terrain” in Iraq’s Anbar province on Thursday, US officials said. Associated Press, NBC NewsAnd the New York Times.
At least 14 alleged ISIS fighters were killed in the early morning attack. According to Iraqi army and at US defense officials Central Command. CENTCOM said in a statement on Friday that the militants were “armed with numerous weapons, grenades and explosive ‘suicide’ belts.”
Five Americans were injured during the attack. A joint US-Iraqi element was hunting militants in a riverbed southwest of Fallujah and two others were injured when they fell, according to US and Iraqi officials.
Five have been returned to duty with minor injuries, while two others were taken to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for follow-on care, Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said. said Tuesday.
Big picture: “ISIS is not the threat it was ten years ago,” Ryder said Tuesday, “But … you still have these challenges in places like Syria, where [there are] 9,000 are in ISIS detention, and should be taken seriously.
Expert Says: “These have long been ISIS safe havens, deep in the Anbar desert, that will continue to be needed [sic] routing, if we want to avoid the potential spread of ISIS from Syria to Iraq,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute. times. “U.S. military analysts on Tuesday were poring over the seized material, which officials said could lead to future raids.” times informed.
New: Department of Justice charge Six senior Hamas leaders with terrorism, On Tuesday, he was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and sanctions-theft for his alleged role in the October attack against Israel. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar tops the list of accusers.
“The Justice Department has indicted Yahya Sinwar and other senior Hamas leaders for financing, directing and overseeing a decades-long campaign to kill American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Video Posted on social media.
“Since its inception, Hamas has aimed to create an Islamic Palestinian state throughout Israel by eliminating the State of Israel through violent holy war or jihad,” The Justice Department explained after unsealing the indictments on Tuesday. “Hamas also promotes attacks against the US and its citizens and, over two decades, Hamas has killed and wounded dozens of Americans as part of its campaign of violence and terror,” the officials said. details, here.
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About half a dozen top Ukrainian officials just resigned Ahead of next week’s annual United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. They include Kiev’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who has been on the job for four and a half years.
Besides Kuleba, “Olga Stefanishina, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs; Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshyn — who has played a leading role in ramping up arms production — Justice Minister Denis Maliuska and Environment Minister Ruslan Strelets have all submitted their resignations,” AP informed Tuesday from the capital.
“Autumn will be extremely important for Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said In his Tuesday evening national address. “And our state institutions must be established in such a way that Ukraine will achieve the results we all need,” he said.
These changes were “months in the making” and as such “not a big surprise,” said Chris Miller No Financial Times. “Some who have resigned will be reappointed with new posts and/or new portfolios,” he said, noting, “There are 5 acting ministers, so [the changes are] The purpose is to create in part [Zelenskyy’s] Cabinet complete.”
DEVELOPING: New Russian missile attack kills at least seven in western city of Lviv, Zelensky said Wednesday. “Normal residential buildings, schools and medical facilities in the city were damaged,” he said separately on social media. More than 50 others have also been injured in the strike.
Update: Zelensky says Ukraine will “hold on” to occupied territory inside Russia With its cross-border offensive in the Kursk region a month ago, and it will try to hold that ground as part of a “victory plan” to end the war, the president told Richard Engle. NBC News on Tuesday.
“For now, we need it,” He spoke of the estimated 770 km of land occupied by Ukrainian forces in Kursk. “We don’t need their land. We don’t want to bring our Ukrainian way of life there,” he said. But he said it could be useful in future negotiations.
NEW: President Biden rejects plan to send F-16 repair crews to Ukraine To help maintain US-made jets relocated to Kyiv over the summer, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. even Defense one Aware, no serious observers were really convinced this would happen, at least in part because an American death inside Ukraine could have unintended political consequences on the state side and torpedo US support for a democracy blocked on the doorstep of autocratic Russia.
Related Reading:
NGA’s massive data-labeling effort. In 2023, the world spent nearly $800 million annotating data to train AI models and machine-learning tools. Now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency plans to spend nearly as much, Defense oneof Audrey Decker informed Tuesday.
Additional Reading:
Finally today: China claims success in autonomous vehicles. “If Chinese companies succeed in consolidating their dominance of the autonomous vehicle and LiDAR markets, the security implications are profound,” write Thomas Corbett of BluePath Labs and Peter Singer of New America. Read the latest edition of Singer’s China Intelligence column, here.
Post D Brief: US Casualties in Iraq; Cabinet changes in Ukraine; Terrorism Charges for Hamas; China’s robotic-vehicle breakthroughs; And a little more. appeared first Defense one.