DefenceTalkUS-led warplanes hit a pro-regime convoy in Syria that ignored warning shots, weeks after President Donald Trump’s administration launched America’s first strikes against Damascus forces in the war-torn country. The strike by the coalition fighting the Islamic State group happened on the same day IS jihadists killed more than 50 people in attacks on two […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-led-warplanes-hit-syrian-forces-69987/

DefenceTalkThe Pentagon said Monday it was reviewing more than 700 video feeds of coalition air strikes on west Mosul, Iraq after reports of a large number of civilians killed in bombings. Amid rising concern over a jump in civilian casualties in fighting in Iraq and Syria, Colonel J.T. Thomas, a spokesman for the US Central […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-probes-mosul-bombing-amid-worries-of-rising-civilian-deaths-69613/

DefenceTalkIran poses the most significant threat to U.S. Central Command’s complex area of responsibility, Centcom commander Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel told the Senate Armed Services Committee today. Centcom has dealt with a number of significant challenges over the past 12 months, including in Iraq and Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt and the Sinai, the Bab-el-Mandeb […]https://www.defencetalk.com/iran-poses-threat-to-centcoms-area-of-responsibility-votel-says-69447/

DefenceTalkThe civilian death toll in air strikes thought to have been conducted by a US-led coalition on a jihadist-held Syrian village on Thursday has risen to 23, a monitor said. The Islamic State group is facing simultaneous offensives in northern Syria by government forces, Turkish-backed rebels, and a US-supported alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/suspected-coalition-raids-kill-23-civilians-in-syria-monitor-69442/

DefenceTalkThe Pentagon said Tuesday it was dropping its efforts to recoup recruitment bonuses paid to more than 15,000 California National Guard staff a decade ago to get more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan battlefields. In all, a Pentagon review found that some 17,500 California National Guard soldiers faced potential recoupment of bonuses used as inducements […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-scraps-iraq-afghan-enlistment-bonus-repayments-68747/

DefenceTalkThe US-led international coalition battling to defeat the Islamic State group is not backing a drive by Turkish forces and Syrian rebels to retake a jihadist stronghold in northern Syria, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Their offensive on the city of Al-Bab is not being supported by coalition air strikes because it was “independently” launched by […]https://www.defencetalk.com/coalition-not-backing-turkish-move-on-al-bab-us-68594/

DefenceTalkThe Pentagon said Wednesday that US air strikes in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State group may have killed 119 civilians since 2014, a figure far lower than casualty estimates by monitoring groups. The figures released by Centcom, the US military command in the Middle East, came from a months-long review of reports and […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-strikes-may-have-killed-119-civilians-in-iraq-syria-pentagon-68565/

DefenceTalkThe United States is using Apache helicopters in the battle to retake Iraq’s second city of Mosul after more than two years of Islamic State group rule, the Pentagon said. The US military, backing the ground campaign by Iraqi forces, is directing the attack helicopters against explosives-packed vehicles the jihadist group is employing for suicide […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-using-apache-helicopters-in-the-battle-for-mosul-68553/

DefenceTalkIraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday warned Turkey against provoking a confrontation while saying he does not want war, after Ankara deployed tanks and artillery near the border. Turkey has insisted that it will play a role in the battle to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, but Baghdad has rejected this assertion […]https://www.defencetalk.com/iraq-pm-warns-turkey-as-ankara-deploys-troops-68532/

DefenceTalkThe contributions of coalition partners in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are invaluable, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said today at the opening of the counter-ISIL small group defense ministerial at Hexagone Balard, the new French defense ministry building in Paris. The secretary, in prepared remarks, said the coalition defense […]https://www.defencetalk.com/noose-tightening-around-isil-in-mosul-carter-says-68493/