Author: Steven Sahiounie

On May 24 morning, a new rocket attack targeted the US-operated Bagram Airfield in the province of Parwan in Afghanistan’s eastern region. In a statement released by its news agency, Amaq, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorist group said its fighters launched five Katyusha rockets at the airfield. The term “Katyusha” is usually used by the group to refer to 107 mm rockets. Afghan security forces quickly uncovered the improvised multiple rocket launcher used in the attack. The launcher was hidden in the trunk of a civilian car, that was completely destroyed. ISIS used the exact same tactic…

On May 6, Obretix, a Twitter defense blogger, shared satellite images of a Turkish MIM-23 Hawk medium-range air defense system in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib. The system is currently deployed in a military camp in the vicinity of the town of Almastumah in southern Idlib. Three M-192 launchers of the system, each armed with three missiles, can be seen in the images. Almastumah is located less than 12 km from the frontline with Syrian Arab Army (SAA) troops in southern Idlib. From there, the Hawk system, which has a range of up to 45 km, covers most of…

The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced on May 24 that its air-defense units had shot down a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) near the town of Bani Waled, southeast of the capital, Tripoli. Nevertheless, photos of the UCAV wreckage revealed that it was a Chinese-made Wing Loong II. According to available information, this type is being operated in Libya only by the UAE, the main backer of the LNA. A day earlier, the LNA claimed that it shot down a “Turkish” drone near the town of Qaryat. The drone also turned out to be a Wing Loong II. Two…

An Iranian Air Force commander says the country will unveil domestically-produced planes in the near future. Brigadier General Mohammad Zalbeigi, the commander of Shahid Lashgari Airbase in Tehran, says the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) is progressing with the same pace as other countries despite the sanctions. “We have had considerable progress in designing various types of aircraft, thanks to the efforts of the IRIAF personnel and knowledge-based companies,” he said in an interview with Mehr News Agency. “God willing, we will witness the designing and production of aircraft built at the IRIAF in the near future, “…

Egyptian security forces have killed 21 suspected Takfiri terrorists in the restive North Sinai region, part of a terror group that the interior ministry says was planning to carry out attacks during Eid al-Fitr holiday. According to a statement by the Ministry of Interior on Saturday, 14 Takfiri terrorists were killed during a raid on their hideout, located in a farm in the volatile region, earlier in the day. The police forces found 13 automatic rifles, three explosive devices, an explosive belt and a wireless radio in the hideout. It added that based on received intelligence the slain…

The self-styled commander of the rebels in Libya, Khalifa Haftar, has called on his forces to rally against Turkey, which militarily backs the government in the country’s capital, Tripoli. Haftar urged his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) forces in an audio message on Saturday to battle the “colonial” intervention by Turkey, in an allusion to the time Libya was controlled by the former Ottoman Empire. Forces aligned with the Tripoli-based government have made major advances in recent weeks and retaken areas controlled by the rebels, including a key air base on the outskirts of the capital. The rebels, backed by…

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will be sending back its ambassador to Baghdad as Riyadh seeks closer ties with Iraq following the defeat of the Daesh terrorist group. Iraqi officials have frequently accused Riyadh of aiding Daesh. In 2016, Iraq’s former ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Ali al-Hakim, accused Saudi Arabia of financing the Daesh terrorist group. The announcement on Saturday was made by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan after meeting Ali Allawi, Iraq’s deputy premier and acting minister of finance and oil, who was in Riyadh on an official visit, according to the Saudi Gazette newspaper. “This comes in order to…

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has outlined his policies for further boosting his country’s nuclear “deterrence” capabilities amid stalled denuclearization talks with the United States. After a three-week-long absence from public view, the 36-year-old leader made the comments at a meeting of his party’s powerful Central Military Commission, after a previous absence that gave rise to intense global speculation that he might have health issues or even been brain-dead. According to a report by North Korea’s state news agency KCNA on Sunday, the meeting revolved round measures to bolster the peninsular country’s armed forces and “reliably contain the persistent big…

Infighting between rival groups in Syria’s northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib has ended in the killing and injuring of several Turkish-backed Takfiri militants. Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that fierce clashes broke out between militants affiliated to the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front, and terrorists controlling several neighborhoods in Ariha town, located south of Idlib, upon a conflict over influence and sharing properties left by their owners, who fled the area after the Turkish incursion in October The Jabhat Fateh al-Sham outfit later dispatched a convoy of terrorists, armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades…

Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden has blasted President Donald Trump for his decision to play golf during the holiday weekend as the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic continues to rise in the United States. The Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee showed in a 30-second clip accompanying his tweet on Saturday that Trump was playing a round of golf at his club in the US state of Virginia on Memorial Day Weekend. “Nearly 100,000 lives have been lost, and tens of millions are out of work,” the former vice president said in his tweet. “Meanwhile, the president spent his day golfing.” The death toll is…