DefenceTalkRussia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that the Syrian army resumed its assault in eastern Aleppo after rebels broke a truce intended to allow them to evacuate. The ministry said that its military monitors in Syria had organised the evacuation of fighters from the city by bus following an agreement between rebel leaders and Damascus, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/syria-army-resumed-aleppo-assault-after-rebels-broke-truce-russia-68664/

DefenceTalkWashington will send another 200 troops to Syria to help an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters seize the Islamic State group bastion of Raqa, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said on Saturday. They will join 300 US special forces troops already deployed in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance in the drive on the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-chief-announces-200-more-us-troops-for-syria-68659/

DefenceTalkParis prosecutors have opened a probe into the leaking of a confidential document on planned French air strikes in Syria in 2013, which in the end were never carried out, judicial sources said Monday. The document was obtained by two journalists from the daily Le Monde who recently published a tell-all book based on interviews […]https://www.defencetalk.com/paris-prosecutors-probe-leak-on-french-air-strikes-in-syria-68604/

DefenceTalkUS Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Monday advised NATO countries worried about the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House to talk to the incoming administration to ensure he respects the alliance. During the campaign ultimately won by Trump in a shock victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the Republican billionaire said he might think […]https://www.defencetalk.com/talk-to-team-donald-trump-pentagon-to-nato-68586/

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/

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/

DefenceTalkRussian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone with the leaders of Turkey and Iraq about battle for Mosul, where Iraqi forces are fighting to oust the Islamic State group, the Kremlin said Wednesday. Putin “wished the Iraqi army and its allies complete success in their objectives,” the Kremlin said in a statement on his conversations […]https://www.defencetalk.com/putin-in-talks-on-mosul-with-turkish-iraqi-leaders-kremlin-68432/

DefenceTalkThe Mosul offensive is a critical test for the Pentagon’s strategy against the Islamic State group, which relies on local forces and keeping as many Americans as possible away from combat. After IS overran large parts of Iraq and Syria in early 2014, the United States formed a coalition that launched an air campaign to […]https://www.defencetalk.com/battle-for-mosul-a-key-test-for-us-military-strategy-68408/

DefenceTalkIraqi forces have launched operations to retake Mosul, a city whose capture by the Islamic State group two years ago left the country on the brink of collapse, the prime minister said Monday. The northern city was where IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi publicly proclaimed a “caliphate” straddling Iraq and Syria in June 2014. With […]https://www.defencetalk.com/iraq-forces-launch-operations-to-liberate-mosul-from-is-68402/