DefenceTalkThe United States has launched cruise missile strikes on an airbase in Syria, US officials said on Thursday, responding to a deadly poison gas attack that Washington has blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. One of the officials said more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from US Navy destroyers in the eastern […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-launches-cruise-missile-strikes-on-syrian-airbase-69677/

DefenceTalkThe United States has been fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria since 2014, so has amassed a huge military presence and an array of capabilities in the region. If President Donald Trump decides to launch strikes against Syrian regime targets in response to Tuesday’s suspected chemical attack, the Pentagon has many ways […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-has-broad-military-arsenal-available-for-syria-strike-69675/

DefenceTalkThe United States has expanded a runway at a northern Syria air base to accommodate the large C-17 military plane needed to help with logistics for the push to retake the IS stronghold of Raqqa, a US defence official said Tuesday. The huge military air freighter will play an essential role in supplying the Syrian […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-expands-northern-syria-airfield-for-huge-cargo-plane-69665/

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/

DefenceTalkIn a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan today, President Donald J. Trump asked for another $30 billion for the Defense Department in this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, to rebuild the armed forces and accelerate the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The fiscal 2017 budget amendment provides $24.9 […]https://www.defencetalk.com/trump-seeks-30b-more-in-fiscal-2017-to-rebuild-military-fight-isis-69526/

DefenceTalkUp to 1,000 additional US troops could deploy to northern Syria under provisional plans drawn up by the Pentagon, a US defense official said on Wednesday. The plans, which still need to be approved by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, would mark a significant uptick in US boots on the ground in […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-plans-for-syria-include-another-1000-troops-us-official-69500/

DefenceTalkDefense Secretary Jim Mattis will present a preliminary version of the Pentagon’s new plan to rapidly defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria during a meeting of the White House Principals Committee today, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said here this morning. The Cabinet-level senior interagency forum, which usually does not include the president, already […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-spokesman-discusses-isis-preliminary-plan-budget-amendment-69328/

DefenceTalkSyrian troops and allied militia on Sunday chipped away at territory held by Islamic State jihadists on several fronts across the country, state media and a monitoring group said. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have doubled down against IS in Syria’s fractured north, as well as near Damascus and the ancient city of Palmyra. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/syrian-army-chips-away-at-isis-on-several-fronts-69000/

DefenceTalkMore than 80 Islamic State jihadists were killed in a US aerial blitz on training camps in Libya, including fighters involved in plotting attacks in Europe, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday. The Pentagon made the highly unusual decision to conduct the air strikes with a pair of B-2 stealth bombers that flew to North […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-stealth-bombers-kill-more-than-80-is-fighters-in-libya-68859/

DefenceTalkRussia and Turkey on Wednesday staged their first joint air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria, the Russian defence ministry said. Nine Russian and eight Turkish planes took part in the “first joint air operation” in the area around the town of Al-Bab in the Aleppo region, Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoi told […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-turkey-stage-first-joint-air-strikes-against-is-in-syria-68841/